Why I hate being called sir

I hate being called sir. The term sir and other honorifics are leftovers from a class stratified society. A society where an accident of birth could make you forever rich or forever poor. A society where many talents are lost because of an accident of birth.

I believe very strongly that while not all people are created equal they are all *people* and each person has the same inherent value as another. Some people have more skills in one area than another, some are more clever than others, but that in no way makes them better than a person with lesser skills or is less clever. Each person has unique potential and gifts, and we should respect them for their potential and gifts - but that does not make them better or worse than a person with a different set of unique potential and gifts.

Unfortunately for us some people's talents are truly antisocial (a gifted serial killer is still a serial killer). I have no problems with removing these people from society as long as we review the individual cases and decide on the merits of the individual.

With the exception of destructive individuals everyone has equal merit. A janitor is just as likely to have a good idea as the president of a company. More likely if the problem falls into his area of experience. Similarly the president of a company is just as likely to have a bad idea as a janitor, particularly if the issue is outside of his scope of experience.

I do not like the way corporations have stratified their employees into classes, with the inherent belief that the farther up the structure the person is the more likely they are to be right. This is nonsense. Being the president of a beer company does not automatically make that person an expert in all facets of the company. It is possible that they are, having risen through the ranks, but it is more likely that they are not. If the president is wise he will stick to what he knows and let others worry about the details of running the company. If he is like most presidents of modern corporations he will assume he knows more than anyone else in the company and stick his nose into areas he has no knowledge of, interfering with the people who are truly doing the work.

So to get back to where I started. I hate being called sir because that assumes I am better than the person calling me that and it isn't true. I am not better than them, just skilled in different things. Similarly I refuse to call others sir, because I do not believe that they are better than I am - simply skilled in different things. I respect each individual for their individual talents, but I withhold judgment until I have seen those talents. Titles don't mean much to me, the individual does.

My views on NASA

In my last post (which I finished about 1 minute before beginning this one) I spoke of the lack of innovation in the U.S. That leads me to a rant about NASA. Once, NASA was an organization full of innovators that put men on the moon. Now NASA is an organization lacking in leadership and innovation.

The space shuttle, while technically reusable, failed to meet any of its other design criteria. It wasn't supposed to need two huge booster rockets to get it off the ground, it was supposed to lift itself off the ground. It was supposed to be able to quickly get into space again, but even under the best of conditions the shuttles take months to get a shuttle back into space again. They also weren't supposed to blow up because they launched on a cold morning or a piece of foam fell off.

NASA's satellite launch record is so bad U.S. companies and military depend on other countries to put our satellites into orbit. When your own military goes to another country to get its secret spy satellites into orbit instead of using the government agency designed to do just that you know you have a problem. That alone is an indication on how unreliable NASA's technology and decision making process has gotten.

So what has gone wrong? Have rocket scientists gotten so stupid they can't even duplicate technology we had 40 years ago? Or has NASA management gotten so stupid they can't make the right decisions? I seriously doubt the scientists have suddenly gotten stupid, and internal audits point to NASA management being the problem.

In my opinion the only hope the U.S. has to regain our space technology edge is to fire every NASA employee over the level of supervisor, pick one of the supervisors to lead and start entirely over. We need a space agency that is led by competent people, people who are technically competent and not just professional managers or political appointees.

There is something wrong with the type of society that looks upon the new as suspect

The title of this blog is a minor line from a book I am reading, but it ties in with what I have been seeing for some time. Stagnation. Businesses don't want to hear new ideas, they only want to hear variations on old ideas. The movie industry is remaking movies instead of trying new ideas. The cars on the street look so much alike I can't tell them apart, the houses being built even more so.

The reasons for this are many. One reason is that something new might fail, doing a variation on something or a direct copy of something that is working has less risk. Also people tend to be afraid of new things, something that inherited from our ancient ancestors when trying a new food might kill you. But I think the main reason is that doing something new (and doing it right) require you to think. And not just the person who came up with the idea, it requires everyone involved to think. A new idea for a clay pot only requires one person to think, a new idea for a house requires twenty or so workers to think, a new idea for a car requires hundreds and perhaps thousands to think. And people, for whatever reason, don't want to think.

A hundred years ago the U.S. was full of new ideas and people willing to try them. Now other countries have taken over the role of innovator and we are making movies based on comic books. It is incredibly sad. And pointless. There are a lot of bright people in the U.S. and many of them have ideas or could have ideas if they tried. If the social and business environment would allow them to try. But for some reason we have moved from a nation of risk takers to a nation of apathetic drones.

Who's fault is it? The government? Big business? Hardening of the attitudes? I don't know. I do know we need to turn it around somehow.

More on individuality

There are consequences and costs to recognizing workers as individuals. There are many benefits too.

One of the things that bother me is that people who are outside the norm get treated so badly. I read an article today that a man who was 6' 7" was buried with his legs cut off so he could fit into a standard size coffin. As a fairly large person I can personally attest to the cost of large clothing. Tall, large, or small people have a great deal of trouble even getting around in the world, let alone working in it. All because we design for the average and ignore the individuals.

Along a different track, bathrooms are set up for men and women. Not because the plumbing is that different but because of sexual attraction and most people are heterosexual. The whole concept denies the very existence of gay men and lesbian women. Or hermaphrodites for that matter. Again, we have designed for the average and ignored the individuals.

The cost of building to accommodate people of all shapes, sizes, attitudes, physical abilities, phobias, and orientations would be high. But it is a cost that society should bear to gain the benefits of the individual.

Many of our greatest achievers have been outside the norm. The people who are most likely to think outside the box are also the most likely to live outside the box. Great minds can be trapped in destroyed bodies. If that great mind can't get to work because the office building doesn't accommodate wheelchairs society will lose the work of a genius over the cost of a ramp. If that great mind can't find work because people without social skills can't get past the interview stage then society will lose the work of a genius over a flawed screening process.

I have worked with a quite a few people over the last 30 years, and have worked on a lot of projects. When it comes down to getting things done I would much rather work with a team of people that have any sort of "unusual" trait you can think of but get things done than a team of people that get along well together but are clueless on how to solve a problem they haven't encountered before.

Too much to learn in one lifetime

Today I saw some people making arrow heads from flint, glass, and agate. There was also a man making a bow, starting with a piece of wood. Like everything I see I want to immediately jump in and try it, but my garage and basement already have many things that I am trying to learn. There just isn't enough time in one lifetime to learn all of the cool things that people do. I want to learn metal working, welding, flint knapping, bow making, fire works making (cool but dangerous), electronics, and many many other things. But we have so little time in life to learn.

I have spent my life learning how to design software and databases, and I don't regret it. I have made a lot of people happy with my designs and in return have made a good living. But I do regret not having the time to learn so many other things.