Ken's Blog

On this day of the year, in 1446, the Hongul alphabet was published. That alphabet, commissioned by King Sejong the Great of Korea, was arguably the single most influential act by a government to level the playing field for its nation.

The consequences were rapid, far reaching and quite permanent. The Hongul alphabet led quickly to near universal literacy and more.

Korea had been a highly stratified society, with the aristocracy and priesthood on the top and everyone else — the peasants — far below. But once everyone could read and write, a thriving middle class quickly formed.

Ordinary people could now form their own businesses, buy and sell property, participate in education and government, even sue their aristocratic countrymen in court. It was perhaps the most successful act of universal enfranchisement in history.

During our own sad time, when the executive branch of the U.S. is trying its darnedest to disenfranchise its citizenry — and terrorize us all in the process — it is good to remember a moment in history when a government actually did something good for ordinary people.

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and Illinois Governor JB Pritzker just received the highest honor that any American can receive in 2025. Specifically, the felon in the White House just said that they should both be thrown in jail.

In these perilous times, we need heroes. When an entire branch of your government has been highjacked by bumbling autocratic idiots, being trolled by the biggest idiot of them all is a badge of honor.

Johnson and Pritzker may have just been given the greatest gift that any American patriot can receive — they have been singled out as defenders of our Constitution by the Criminal in Chief himself. There can now be no doubt that they are both true American heroes.

We were having lunch today at Peacefood at 41 E 11th St (just East of University Place). It is one of the best eateries in NYC, and arguably one of the best eateries anywhere in the world.

Do yourself a favor and check it out. If you truly love yourself, you will order the Spicy Szechuan Wontons. You can thank me later.

We asked about the nachos. The waitress said that they were great, while noting that some consider the olives to be controversial.

Considering everything going on in the world right now, I was so happy to be in a place where the most controversial issue is adding olives to nachos. When the waitress came around later, I told her that.

She agreed wholeheartedly. I think she knew exactly what I meant.

Visions of the future often seem to go to one of two extremes. Either the future is a bleak and nightmarish dystopia (eg: Orwell’s 1984), or it is more of a utopia, better in many ways than our own reality (eg: the original Star Trek).

Of course even a utopia can have a dark underbelly. The seeming perfection of a future world, with all of its lovely techno-polish, can mask various sorts of deficiencies.

For example, a world that is perfectly devoid of crime might be the result of some extreme form of law enforcement. Similarly, a world without health problems might be the result of forced eugenics.

This kind of deceptive vision of a more perfect future might be termed a “futopia”. At first glance a futopia looks like a utopia, but that extra letter “f” signifies futility — the futility of trying to achieve perfection when dealing with something as messy and complicated as the human condition.

What do you do when the executive branch of your federal government is doing everything it can to manufacture the appearance of violence and chaos in your nation’s cities, just so that they can declare martial law and thereby avoid holding a midterm election?

Maybe you just have to hope that they are stupid enough to pick on an extremely peaceful city like Portland Oregon, so that everyone will understand that they have no idea what they are doing.

Sutton’s Law states that you should spend your resources focusing on the most likely solution, rather than spending time and money looking into every possibility. It comes out of an apocryphal story that the bank robber Willie Sutton was asked why by a reporter he robbed banks, and he replied “Because that’s where the money is.”

Interestingly, Sutton claims that the reporter made that story up, and that he never said any such thing. Which leads to an interesting question: How many well-known laws or principles are based on a story about something that actually never happened?

As Yogi Berra once said “I really didn’t say everything I said.” By the way, Berra really did say that.

Recently I was at a workshop in another country. Over dinner one of my colleagues, a scientist, told me that he had made the difficult decision not to attend an upcoming international conference in the U.S.

He was worried that the current political environment in America might be too unfriendly to researchers from other countries. His exact words were “I feel uncomfortable going to the U.S.”

“I know what you mean,” I replied. “Even I feel uncomfortable going to the U.S. I can only imagine how you feel.”

This past week the U.S. administration flew in all of the top U.S. military brass from where they were stationed around the world — most likely at great expense. And then proceeded to bore them with several hours of bizarre and rambling talks about nothing.

Somebody told me that the entire episode seemed very embarrassing and dysfunctional. I pointed out that there is always a silver lining, and that this farce has actually served a practical purpose.

The administration is actually doing our nation a favor by making sure the military knows that they are complete idiots. This will hopefully increase the chances that we can trust the military to act responsibly if these wiseguys attempt a coup.

The shutdown of the U.S. government is going to cause a lot of pain for a lot of people. I would like to think that we didn’t need to end up here, but maybe it was inevitable.

Since the start of his current term, the president has seemed interested in nothing more than “slash and burn”. Rather than actually govern, he has focused on gunning for anyone in the U.S. whom he sees as vulnerable. And the more vulnerable the target, the better.

Now those shenanigans have succeeded in bringing the U.S. government itself to an ignominious grinding halt. Sadly, it all seems like the logical conclusion of the policies of the current administration.

There is no one correct way to give a talk. But there are many wrong ways.

The most important thing is to engage your audience in a compelling story. The story can be about pretty much anything, from particle physics to relationship advice. But there needs to be a story.

Too many people get up in front of a group of people and just recite something to the effect that “I did this.” Then they wonder why everyone in the audience is staring at their phone.

It’s your responsibility as a speaker to set up a problem that catches the audience’s attention, and then proceed to work through that problem with them, engaging their minds with the search for possible solutions. They need to feel involve in that process.

This is true whether you are discussing particle physics or relationship advice. Especially if you are discussing particle physics or relationship advice.