Escape From Pianosa

This post by Don Boudreaux over at Cafe Hayek echoes my own thoughts on the post office. I can’t imagine why on Earth we still have this waste of an agency. What exactly about delivering little pieces of paper is too delicate to leave to the private sector?

One thing that I hated about living in Baltimore was that you couldn’t get packages delivered to your door. You had to go to the post office to pick them up, because the neighborhood ne’er-do-wells would inevitably scavenge anything of value lying on your doorstop. That’s city life and you get over it, but I never got over having to go to the Post Office to get my damn packages.

The word Kafkaesque comes to mind. Dingy atmosphere. Hot. Long lines that seemed to drag on forever. Often there was only one person at the counter, while you could see and hear several people chatting away in the back room. I always felt bad for the people working there; it felt like such an utterly hopeless existence, even though as far as jobs go, it probably wasn’t so bad. I mean, why does something as simple as picking up a package have to take so damn long!?

So it’s kinda ironic that most people find my site in search of ways become more extroverted. Ironic because I am most definitely an introvert, although I should point out that being an introvert doesn’t mean you’re shy or nervous around other people. This I learned while reading The Introvert Advantage by Marti Olsen Laney.

Yes, it turns out that you can be a very outgoing introvert, although the behavior we associate with extroverts–going to parties, social events, and big gatherings–really sucks the energy out of introverts like myself. Hence the fact that I tend to disappear socially every once in a while when I run out of steam. In fact, before reading this book, I thought there was something wrong with me. I really love parties and meeting new people and yet I often feel like I need to be alone.

The inverse is also true; extroverts can be shy. Imagine needing lots of social interaction to feel good about yourself and yet being too shy to meet new people. A deadly combination.

I suspect that the people who come to this blog looking for advice on how to extrovert themselves are shy people who want to be more outgoing and socially comfortable. I’ve mentioned ways to do that in previous entries and it mostly involves putting yourself out there and practicing “outgoingness.” There are no easy fixes. That being said..if you’re an introvert, then you should learn about your strengths and play up to them. Living in an extrovert world is tough, but very manageable.

What!? People would rather be blind than fat!?

Apparently, shockingly, most people would rather be blind. “When you’re blind, people want to help you. No one wants to help you when you’re fat,” one respondent (of the 89% who’d lose their sight over slimness) explained.

I’ve never had a whole lot of pity for overweight folks, mainly because there’s something you can do about being overweight. It may not be simple and it may not be easy, but losing weight is at least possible, whereas curing blindness… well there’s not much you can do except live your life and hope that medical technology finds a cure before you die.

This sounds suspiciously like the oft-quoted “fact” that most people are more afraid of public speaking than they are of dying. Which explains why so many commit suicide just before going on stage. Or not.

Of course, the article that Ben links to floats the idea that losing weight is “impossible”:

But it seems less so by the end of “Rethinking Thin,” a new book about obesity by Gina Kolata, a science reporter for The New York Times. Kolata argues that being fat is not something people have much control over. Most people who are overweight struggle to change their shape throughout their lives, but remain stuck within a relatively narrow weight range set by their genes.

So if your weight is mostly genetic, you have almost no control and what you eat or how you behave doesn’t matter. I don’t think anyone seriously believes this. And if weight is purely genetic, then why has obesity increased so dramatically in recent years? Are fat people having more kids? Did something happen to change our genes only recently?

I strongly encourage anyone trying to lose weight to check out Evolutionary Fitness at ArthurDevany.com. Art believes that the way you eat and exercise actually has a profound effect on how your genes express themselves. I’ve been eating “the EF” way for 5 months now and I can definitely say that it works (really really well), even if I don’t entirely understand why. Try it out before you give up.

I was browsing quotations from Joseph Heller’s Catch-22, in search of a byline for this blog. I came across this little gem from the scene in Rome where Nately, the Amerian optimist and patriot finds himself arguing with the Old Man in Rome. What fascinates me is how the old man’s arguments strike me as being both utterly absurd, yet profoundly true.

America,” [the Old Man] said, “will lose the war. And Italy will win it.”

America is the stongest and most prosperous nation on earth,” Nately informed him with lofty fervor and dignity. “And the American fighting man is second to none.”

“Exactly,” agreed the old man pleasantly, with a hint of taunting amusement. Italy, on the other hand, is one of the least prosperous nations on earth. And the Italian fighting man is probably second to all. And that’s exactly why my country is doing so well in this war while your country is doing so poorly.”

“I’m sorry I laughed at you. But Italy was occupied by the Germans and is now being occupied by us. You don’t call that doing very well, do you?”

“But of course I do,” exclaimed the old man cheerfully. “The Germans are being driven out, and we’re still here. In a few years, you will be gone, too, and we will still be here. You see, Italy is really a very poor and weak country, and that’s what makes us so strong. Italian soldiers are not dying anymore. But American and German soldiers are. I call that doing extremely well. Yes, I’m quite certain Italy will survive this war and still be in existence long after your own country has been destroyed” …

….”I don’t believe anything you tell me,” Nately replied… “The only thing I do believe is that America is going to win the war.”

“You put so much stock in winning wars. The real trick lies in losing wars, in knowing which wars can be lost. Italy has been losing wars for centuries, and just see how splendidly we’ve done nonetheless. France wins wars and is in a continual state of crisis. Germany loses and prospers. Look at our own recent history. Italy won a war in Ethiopia and promptly stumbled into serious trouble. Victory gave us such insane delusions of grandeur that we helped start a world war we hadn’t a chance of winning. But now that we’re losing again, everything has taken a turn for the better, and we will certainly come out on top again if we succeed in being defeated.”

It’s easy to play the game and substitute ‘Iraq’ for ‘Italy,’ but I think that’s too simplistic. Iraq is not doing so well, and may be far worse after the U.S. leaves. Still, there are some parallels to be drawn. Americans are dying every day and some day we will look back and wonder how the greatest army in the world lost to a fighting force “second to all.”

I keep getting these forwards from people, exhorting me to not fill up on gas on May 15th, in an attempt to strike a fatal deathblow to all Middle Eastern oil producers, by making them… slightly… less… profitable… for one day.

Anyway, the email doesn’t give me any guidance as to how I get my car moving that day. I only fill up once a week, but that gas takes me places for an entire week. Should we all forgo cars and trucks for an entire week? Why don’t we all walk or ride bikes to work? Sounds like a “green” idea to be sure, but a tremendous waste of time and energy.

We may inflict a few billion in lost profit on the Arabs, but what about the damage here? What about the billions and billions of lost productivity and profits for American companies, employees, and consumers? Or the billions of people around the world that consume the goods and services we produce?

So tell me… is this email a product of economic ignorance or a clever stratagem to bring down the U.S. economy as we know it? You decide.

Brian Doherty’s book, Radicals for Capitalism, was an utter joy to read–all 619 pages. In fact, I would’ve enjoyed a few hundred more of his “freewheeling history” of the libertarian movement in the U.S. This masterpiece gives a great deal of context and history to everything I’ve been reading about for the past few years.

Doherty’s well-crafted narrative navigates the thoughts, ideas, conflicts, and lives of the five figures central to the libertarian movement in the 20th century: Ludwig von Mises, Murray Rothbard, Ayn Rand, Milton Friedman, and Frederich Hayek, while saying a great deal about the myriad other characters (and some were really characters) that have played a role in the advancement of liberty in the United States.

I particularly enjoyed this quote from the epilogue because I think (or hope?) that it sums up the general spirit of liberty that will be so prevalent among members of my generation.:

“Look at it this way: You’re young, you’re intelligent, you have a rough sense that people ought to be free to do whatever the hell they want, mostly, as long as they aren’t hurting anyone else-a simple, honest, live-and-let-live moral sense…You have a basic appreciation for free markets, an idea associated win American politics with the GOP.
“But you are young, and you don’t want to order people around regarding things you know are their business, and theirs alone. You certainly don’t want to be on any team that’s obsessed with locking people up for what they smoke, or treating people differently under the law because they’re gay…
So what are you? You might start thinking of yourself as libertarian.”

The folks at The Distributed Republic (formerly Catallarchy) have posted this year’s version of their always excellent May Day series, in remembrance of the atrocities of Communism.

Sadly, my advanced improv class with the Baltimore Improv group is over. The advanced class was much more challenging than the beginner and the teachers really pushed us to develop new characters.

If you’re in the Baltimore area, I strongly recommend taking one of BIG’s classes; I’ve never had so much fun in my life. If you don’t live in Baltimore, then most major cities have places where you can take classes; if you’re looking to laugh a lot, meet new people, and push your comfort level, then it’s a great experience. On the other hand, if you want to be alone, not laugh, and be comfortable, I suggest skipping the improv and staying home.

So what now? I’ve been reading up on improv here and here (I took a class with Mike, who is now blogging on improv and obscure computer topics in computer programming), I’m going to try out for some improv troupes, and a few of my classmates might be starting up a group of our own.

I just finished The Alchemist by Paul Coelho, which I enjoyed. This was my favorite passage:

“Why do you tend a flock of sheep?”

“Because I like to travel.”

The old man pointed to a baker standing in his shop window at one corner of the plaza. “When he was a child, that man wanted to travel, too. But he decided first to buy his bakery and put some money aside. When he’s an old man, he’s going to spend a month in Africa. He never realized that people are capable, at any time in their lives, of doing what they dream of.”

“He should have decided to become a shepherd,” the boy said.

“Well, he thought about that, ” the old man said. “But bakers are more important people than shepherds. Bakers have homes, while shepherds sleep out in the open. Parents would rather see their children marry bakers than shepherds.”

Many people seem incredulous when I tell them about the “rubber rooms” that the NYC public school system has set up for its incompetent, dangerous, and sexually predatory teachers that cannot be fired because of the powerful teachers’ union and the onerous firing process. It’s so hard to fire a teacher there that it’s easier to just pay them their salary to sit and do nothing, away from students. Well I shouldn’t say nothing… Labor Pains reports that one of the teachers has been secretly filming a documentary of what goes on:

Garrett’s documentary is called “The Rubber Room”, and its website advertises that “sleeping in a sleeping bag,” “practicing karate on file cabinets,” and “running a small business” all occur within the rubber room’s confines. I’m sure the movie will be both hilarious and depressing.

That sounds nothing like what went on at my government job, although I don’t remember needing a special room. Guess our union wasn’t up to snuff.