Trust

My last post leads to this one. I was reading a book and the author brought up the issue of trust and how lack of trust increases overhead in both business and social situations. Lack of trust actually hinders the forward progress of human development because when you can't trust anybody there is no sharing of ideas so little or no growth in technology. When you can't trust then stress caused by the difficulties of daily living causes breakdowns in social behavior.

The self centered behavior I mentioned yesterday causes lack of trust. If you borrow your neighbors lawn mower and are indifferent about returning it you probably won't be able to borrow it in the future, with good reason. I am seeing a trend towards self centered behavior and with it a break down in general trust. Relationships are failing because of affairs, which of course is a self centered behavior. Sporting events that were intended to aid in the development of children are failing in their intent because every parent wants their child to be the star.

I am rather disappointed that more people (and businesses) don't understand that breaking a trust is self-defeating. When a business gives it's stockholders a bonus instead of it's employees it gains a short term benefit at the cost of trust with it's employees. When a person cheats on their spouse they lose not only that relationship but will be less trusted by others who hear about their infidelity. The people who cause the loss of trust are affected but the people they cheat are less likely to trust others, which creates issues with society. So everyone loses.

Disappointed

I like to help people. I do it a lot. But lately I have started to rethink this because I don't feel that others appreciate what I do. They say thanks and all but nothing else. There are no offers to help me in return. My good friends help and I appreciate that, and I help them in return. But I am feeling under-appreciated by the the lesser friends, acquaintances, and strangers that I help.

Perhaps I should cut back on how much I help people. I like helping people and have always hoped that the people I helped would in turn help others, but lately people are acting very self centered and I am starting to think all of my help is just being wasted on selfish or self centered people. I really don't want to stop helping, but I also don't want to help people who aren't going to help others in return.

I don't have an answer, just disappointment.

Well that didn't work

I was trying a new method for blogging, actually saving my blogs and reviewing them before I posted them. Unfortunately that led to the entries being edited into oblivion. So now I will go back to stream of consciousness. It won't be perfect but at least it will be.

More on the written language

After thinking about it a bit I have come to the conclusion that the ideal written language should be phonetic instead of pictorial, so we should have something similar to what the written version of English was supposed to be but better. I think the final version of something written that imitates something spoken would look a lot like music in that the sounds would stretch horizontally to indicate the length of time the sound should take and stretch vertically to indicate the pitch. Bolding or underlining would indicate emphasis on the correct syllable.

Do I expect the world to change the way the English language is written? Not really. But that won't stop me from wishing. Just because the world isn't perfect and never will be doesn't mean we shouldn't try to make it so. The effort is worthwhile even if the struggle is in vain.

Thinking about the written language

I have often been annoyed with written English. The fact that two different words can have the same spelling but different pronunciations and meanings is just stupid (ie lead a horse to water and lead sinker). I have been going back and forth on what a proper written language should be like.

One idea is that every possible sound in the language should have a symbol. This was originally the purpose of the alphabet, but new sounds have been included and some have changed. The only way to make this system work is to have a reference that shows the symbol and produces the sound. That would work but with our current technology it requires an electronic recording to make the sound, which wouldn't be ideal for teaching others the language in a non-technology environment.

Another direction is to use symbols that represent whole words. The problem with this is that you end up with a lot of symbols and there would be no way to represent new words (like a new name). It would in some ways be easier to learn, but in others would be totally impractical.

So what would make the ideal written language? Something that is unambiguous and simple to learn. Something that is somewhat flexible so that new words could be added, yet firm enough that you the pronunciation and meaning of a written word wouldn't change over time or vary by geographic area. Any thoughts?

Why don't people learn?

In the last week I have read news accounts of:

• A man killed by his two dogs, which had attacked people before but he was able to convince the courts to let him keep them.
• A woman killed while working with a killer whale that had previously killed two people.
• A man killed by his pet bull (yes, a pet bull) that had broken his ribs the previous year.
• A four year old girl killed by a family dog one week after the other family dog had been taken away for biting an adult.

In the case of the dogs they were breeds known to be aggressive. Bulls are by nature both very large and aggressive. And of course killer whales are both very large and have the word KILLER in their name!

If a person wants to keep a large and dangerous animal as a pet that is certainly their privilege. But often these animals kill or maim others. Certainly it wasn't the four year old girls decision that killed her, it was her parents decision to keep the dog that killed her. The man who was killed by his own dogs went to court and fought to keep them after they had attacked others.

So while it is certainly within the rights of somebody to own a large and dangerous animal it is rarely *wise* to own such an animal, and it is often dangerous to others because the owners do not take proper precautions to ensure that others are not injured.

Every year I see these reports of people's pets attacking others and each year I hope that maybe this year people will figure it out and make wiser decisions. So far I have been disappointed.

The impermanance of the internet

I was organizing my bookmarks today, something I have been meaning to do for some time. The task was somewhat simplified by the fact that about a third of the links no longer worked so could be deleted.

The internet is a wonderful tool to find information. Of course the most up to date information is from people trying to sell you something, but still there is a lot of information out there. It is rather sad to see how many of the pages disappear after only a year or two. Several of the links that no longer exist were to pages that held useful reference information. Information that is just as relevant today as it was a few years ago, but the person maintaining the website has moved on to other things and the information is now lost.

We live in a world of change, and the internet is just as impermanent as the other things in life. I am going to have to keep that in mind and make sure to keep a printed copy of useful information, not just a link to where it can be found.