Signal achievements

Let’s all hang out on Signal
I hear it’s quite the hoot
Where you meet the finest people
And journalists to boot

You can plan attacks on Yemen
And share that with your bros
And with everybody else, in fact
‘Cause that’s the way it goes

When a very stable genius
Picked you to head armed forces
‘Cause he likes your pretty TV hair
So critics, hold your horses


For at least one person’s happy
I can tell as sure as shootin’
See, what’s happened to our country is
The greatest gift to Putin

DEI, part 4

This is the point in the discussion where honesty requires taking the gloves off. Our president is not merely a racist and white supremacist. He is a proud and determined racist and white supremacist.

He made a point of firing general Charles Q. Brown precisely because of Brown’s superior capability and merit. Brown is a black man who, by any objective measure, is vastly more competent and intelligent and accomplished than either the president or his motley crew of yes-men.

And that means that Brown must be disappeared. In addition, there needs to be an insidious smear campaign suggesting, against all evidence, that this highly decorated fighter pilot and accomplished military officer was hired only because of his skin color.

To put it plainly, the president — who hangs out with people like Nick Fuentes and places his government in the hands of people who give Nazi salutes — is clearly terrified of people who are not white and who are more intelligent and capable than he is. Because the entire premise of racism is to fight against merit.

Once you start to acknowledge that some of the most talented, capable and hard working people are not white, you can no longer maintain the illusion of white superiority. So the fact that a child born into a family that is not white might actually be the smartest kid in the room can never be spoken of.

DEI, when properly implemented, is the most powerful way for a society to economically reward itself. The society that is able to promote those who are most objectively talented and capable, regardless of their background, is a society that will enjoy the greatest prosperity for all.

So if you’re a racist, you need to mislabel DEI as a hand-out to the undeserving. And just to be safe, you also need to implement destructive economic policies that make it difficult or impossible for people to succeed economically on the basis of their own merit.

Which, you will note, is exactly what our current administration is doing. Because actual merit based success is that very last thing a racist will ever tolerate.

DEI, part 3

In other words, when DEI is implemented properly, it is the best way that a society can marshal its human resources for the benefit of all. The society that is most successful at finding and nurturing the potential talent in each new generation will reap the rewards.

That society will end up getting the best scientists, engineers, artists, writers, surgeons, economists and architects. Wealth will increase all around, and everybody wins.

Yet the U.S. is now in an era when the people in power are telling everyone that DEI is bad. So what is going on?

More tomorrow.

DEI, part 2

It can certainly be argued that the implementation of DEI programs in the U.S. has been flawed. But the concept of DEI is not.

There are two key points here that need to be unpacked: (1) DEI is, in essence, a way to focus on merit, and (2) the most valuable asset within every nation state is its human capital.

The talent, ambition and hard work of people is what makes everything happen in the world. So one of the primary goals of a society, and therefore of its government, should be to optimize the use of this asset, to the benefit of everyone in that society.

In an ideal world, everyone would start out with equal opportunity, and there would be no need for DEI. But as we all know, we do not live in an ideal world.

A child born into a poor family in certain regions of this country is at a vast disadvantage in terms of educational and economic opportunities. If your school district cannot even afford textbooks, it will be difficult for your child to reach their full potential.

And it is very much in the interest of any society to ensure that as many children in that society reach their full potential. Those children are the society’s store of human capital — its greatest asset.

More tomorrow.

DEI, part 1

I’ve been thinking a lot about DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion), ever since it became a primary target of attack by our current president. And the more I think about the issue, the more I think that the argument being made against DEI is not only wrong, but absurd.

But maybe that’s exactly the point. Perhaps the reason this administration is focusing so many attacks on DEI is that it is a convenient way to hide another truth that it would rather people not think about.

More tomorrow.

Step, test, retreat

I’ve been working on a fairly tricky patch of code, and I am starting to see a pattern in my strategy. Because this part of the program is so delicate, anything I do might break it.

So my general strategy has been to make one small change, test it immediately, and see whether things blow up. If it all still looks good, then I can start from there and make another small change.

But if anything has gone wrong, I undo whatever was the last thing I did. And then I try something else.

It feels kind of like hopping from stone to stone to cross a pond. You slowy proceed across by putting one foot down to test whether there is something solid there.

If the stone supports your weight, you shift to that stone and keep going. Otherwise, you pick up your foot and try another stone.

I suspect that a lot of the progress we make in life actually follows this pattern: step, test, retreat. And then step again.

AI, XR and furniture

Sometime soon, you won’t need to go out and buy furniture. You will just describe any piece of furniture that you want in your house, and a virtual representation of it will appear, thanks to artificial intelligence (AI) and wearable blended reality (XR).

As soon as you start your design process, you will be able to see the furniture sitting in your house or apartment, as long as you are wearing your future XR glasses. As you speak, or gesture with your hands, your AI will respond by evolving the color, shape and materials of your future piece of furniture.

You will be able to see your virtual furniture at any time of day, from all different points of view. So this will be a far more informative experience than today’s nearest equivalent — looking at a virtual chair or couch or table through the little screen of a Smartphone.

When you are finally satisfied with your design, your custom furniture will be shipped to you, to take its place in your abode. It will look just the same to you as it did the day before, except now you will be able to touch it.

This process will be empowering for you, because you will get exactly the furniture that you want. But I wonder what impact it will have on the furniture industry.

That industry will clearly not be going away. After all, we will always need furniture.

But the value proposition, and therefore the economics of the process, will be radically different. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

What happens if

Here are some questions that I have been nervously asking myself. And I suspect I am not alone:
What happens if the executive branch of our government simply ignores the rulings of judges?
In the constitutional crisis that follows, will we still have a democracy?