Happy Halloween Everyone!

Oh shit. I've just been asked to give a speech tonight at an anniversary party. I don't know enough to say anything meaningful.

And I need to be in a costume.

We still have brains that are structured to live 100,000 years ago. Anecdotes were all we had to make judgements with. It made sense back then.
Now we have abstractions. Data. Trends. Concepts. Complexity.
Some of us know how to use abstractions in our thought process.
Many still do not and so they revert to the transactions.
That is at the core of many failed political arguments.

When we can't comprehend the concepts, we revert to the transactions and the anecdotes.
"A car got broken into in my neighborhood. Crime is clearly going up!"
"But the data says car break-ins are declining."
The concept is "data" and "trends".
The transaction is the tangible incident you saw.
We too often argue using the transactions.
And the news amplifies the anecdotes.

@MrGoat
Did you know that there is a comedic record of a fart competition. I had it in the late 70's. Lemme know if you want me to track down the details. Very funny.

@Museek
Fun!
Tomorrow the 14 adult friends of mine are dressing up as Dorothy of the Wizard of Oz (ladies) and other characters. I'll be the Cowardly Lion. Then we go out and search for homes serving alcohol. San Francisco is a nutty town!

New insight: When we don't think using abstractions like "people" and "geographies" and instead think using tangibles like "women" or "Puerto Rico" we are using faulty concepts in our thought process.

Using People as our thought-object enables us to add in attributes like "man", "tall", "brown" and still retain their primary definition as "Human" or "Person".

When we start with "man", "negro", "Mexican", or "immigrant", we allow our logic to ignore the characteristics of "person".

New insight: "Family" is an abstract concept. It's not tangible. While we use the term in conversation we use it differently in our minds.

Family is reinforced by the parents or through explicit effort by siblings and relatives. If no effort, no "family". This is different from the legal construct. That happens via birthright. But the emotional connection called "family" must be built and maintained or else it decays back to a mere legal label.

When someone says, "my black friend" they are, without exception, a racist.

If they are not racist they would say "my friend".

The "My black friend" is a black 'object' that is your friend.

I have a dog that is a friend. It's not a person.

@EvilBunny

So, about 27% have been cast already unless turnout is even higher than 2020.

Total ballots cast for each of the past 8 US presidential elections:
2020: 158,481,688
2016: 136,787,187
2012: 129,139,997
2008: 131,406,895
2004: 122,349,480
2000: 105,594,024
1996: 96,389,818
1992: 104,600,366

If you look at a woman and think "woman" and not "person", you might be sexist.
If you look at a black man and think "black-man" (or something worse) and not "person" you ARE racist.

"Person" is the abstraction.
"Woman" is the tangible.

When you don't or can't consider the abstraction you devolve into bigotry, ignorance, ideology and, ultimately, authoritarianism.

You would be categorized as a person with the attribute "sucker".

@S_r_stone
It will certainly cause some reassessment of the role of traditional media in our political landscape.
They could have made this decision months ago with 1/100 the consequence.

@EileenKCarpenter
Fun read.
Wish it wasn't necessary.

@MookyTroubadour
At least it didn't transcribe "honeybuns".

Funny thing about AI:

I just finished interviewing a group from my client. I'm using a transcription tool built into MS Teams. I'm watching the transcription.
I say, "Thank you Ellie."
It transcribes "Thank you, darling."

Yikes!

Wow.
Looks like I wasn't the only one:

Over 200,000 subscribers flee 'Washington Post' after Bezos blocks Harris endorsement

https://www.npr.org/2024/10/28/nx-s1-5168416/washington-post-bezos-endorsement-president-cancellations-resignations

The wife has COVID.
I may have had it, but never tested positive.
Could be that we have 2 viruses eating away at us.
Glad I got the vaccine. She didn't.

New view of my project.

Fuck.
This is how I feel, too.

A friend of mine just shared this pix over San Francisco today.