Systems of Survival

Jane Jacobs is better know by her book "The Death and Life of Great American Cities" but Systems of Survival is her masterpiece on morality. 

Different from her previous work Systems of Survival is written as a dialogue which is interesting in itself. Each character represent a different point of view and together they develop, through a series of socratic dialogues and research, a moral system that answers the initial quest of a systemic thinking about morality in practical working life. 

Jacobs calls these frameworks syndrome not as a type of illness but "it comes from the Greek, meaning 'things that run together'. We customarily use it to mean a group of symptoms that characterize a given condition." In other words these systems represent a whole set of precepts to address how people solve their living problems.

"My hypothesis is that we have two contradictory ways of getting a living; therefore we have two contradictory moral syndromes, one to suit each way and its derivatives."

"I've come to think of the two moral syndromes as survival systems, worked out by long experience of with trading, on the one hand, and taking on the other"

These syndromes are the Guardian and the Commercial

Moral Precepts
Guardian Syndrome	Commercial Syndrome
Shun trading Exert prowess Be obedient and disciplined Adhere to tradition Respect hierarchy Be loyal Take vengeance Deceive for the sake of the task Make rich use of leisure Be ostentatious Dispense largesse Be exclusive Show fortitude Be fatalistic Treasure honor	Shun force Compete Be efficient Be open to inventiveness and novelty Use initiative and enterprise Come to voluntary agreements Respect contracts Dissent for the sake of the task Be industrious Be thrifty Invest for productive purposes Collaborate easily with strangers and aliens Promote comfort and convenience Be optimistic Be honest

For Jacobs both systems or syndromes are natural and needed. However they can be corrupted by crossing the boundaries that separate them. Through a historic analysis the characters uncover these two syndromes, how the corruption made them fail and how has societies kept them separated.  Historically, to keep the two syndromes confined and moral integrity, we either use a cast regime or a rational moral flexibility. The group lean for an imperfect moral flexibility over the cast system.

"If it is true we're the only creatures with two fundamentally different ways of getting a living, it follows that to be as fully human as we can be, we should all be capable of using our two syndromes well. They belong to all of us because we are human, no other reason." 

"Every normal person the world over is inherently capable of both trading and taking..... But knowing when it's appropriate to use the one or the other approach, trading or taking, and how to do it properly - those things are culturally learned, mostly by imitation and practice."

Jane Jacobs' conclusions of Systems of Survival is that "the guardian-commercial symbiosis that combats force, fraud, and unconscionable greed in commerce life - and simultaneously impels guardians to respect private plans, private property, and personal rights. ... Perhaps we have a useful definition of civilization: reasonably workable guardian-commercial symbiosis"

Progress

Johan Norberg offers a recount of how the world is much better today than anytime in history. Progress covers different facets of human life. 

• Food 
• Sanitation
• Life expectancy
• Poverty
• Violence
• Environment
• Literacy
• Equality
• Childhood (Next generation)

In all of these Norberg lays out evidence on how, thanks to values of the Enlightenment and their implementation in capitalism and liberalism, life has dramatically improved. Only this system allowed amazing progress  while sustained a huge population growth.

"Between 1950 and 2011 world population grew from 2.5 to seven billion. This did not happen because people in poor countries started breeding like rabbits, as people sometimes assumed; it happened because they stopped dying like flies. But it did not take long until families started adapting. As parents came to realize that their children were less likely to die young, they stopped having as many babies."

There are still battles to win but instead of turning our backs to the causes of progress we should defend and embrace them.

Progress is a book about optimism, its Johan Norberg's invitation to move forward instead of sit to complaint and cry.

Permanent Record

Permanent Record by Edward Snowden

"The closest thing to science fiction I've ever seen in science fact" - Edward Snowden

The Future of Humanity

Michio Kaku is a physicist better know as a popularizer of science after his multiple TV shows, digital media presence and nine books. The Future of Humanity is his latest work (2018) and is a futuristic effort placed way ahead in the future.

With such long time frame, Kaku can speculate anything, but he cleverly connects it with the ideas of the present. This is the main take away from the book.

On one side The Future of Humanity is about unthinkable dreams, on the other the challenges that the laws of physics impose. "there is one thing that even alien civilizations will have to obey, and that is the laws of physics." 

With these yes-but and what-if games Kaku takes the reader to the farthest spots in the universe while explaining why leaving Earth is not as easy as Hollywood makes it seem.

The starting point of The Future of Humanity is that our species "sooner or later will face global crises that threaten our very existence", and hence we have the incentives to migrate to outer worlds. Despite the hazards that we may face, Kaku consideres the drive to adventure and exploration part of the human nature. Is it? maybe not but we can't ignore that we don't need the whole species to agree. with just a few entrepreneurs (i.e. Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Richard Branson) suffice. How difficult interplanetary transportation really is? How soon will it occur? How can it be, physically or just pure information? It is almost impossible to speculate about these questions without entering into more philosophical questions like what is consciousness  "Consciousness, I claim, is the process of creating a model of yourself using multiple feedback loops—for example, in space, in society, or in time—in order to carry out a goal."

For Kaku the Future of Humanity depends on our own civilization evolution. Unless we reach at least a Type I Kardashev civilization level intergalactic travel is only a dream. A Type I civilization will require new organizational rules. Our current models are incapable of such challenges. Kaku concurs with Elon Musk when he said:

"Elon Musk has speculated that, as civilizations master advanced technology, they develop the power to destroy themselves and that the biggest threat facing a Type I civilization may be a self-inflicted one."

The Future of Humanity has an optimistic tone. The broad range of innovations in healthcare, communications, energy, etc. that we see today are the seeds of a future that is still only possible in the minds of these futurists and entrepreneurs. Are we going beyond the limite of how much resources we can dedicate to a single quest? Kaku doesn't answer key questions like who will coordinate the necessary efforts? A global government? Who will pay of it? Not even the ultrarich have enough, is tax-payers money involved? What about other day to day priorities like deseases, poverty, etc. Who is going and who is staying? Who is up to decide? Is it wise to spend huge amounts of resources and energy in these endeavors?

Is The Future of Humanity to please the masses or is it a book to take seriously? Time will tell. 

Tiempos Recios

Tiempos Recios es una novela histórica ubicada en Guatemala del principio de la segunda mitad del siglo XX. La proximidad histórica, geográfica y personal a los hechos que dan marco a la novela sumado a la reconocida calidad de Mario Vargas Llosa la hace interesante de entrada. 

Literariamente, Vargas Llosa cuenta una historia rica en personajes, detalles, con movimientos bruscos de tiempo que a veces confunden al lector, pero no tanto como para asustarlo mas para mantenerlo conectado. Sobresale el esfuerzo del autor peruano por usar modismos chapines lo que hace que la historia sea aún más sensacional.

Tiempos Recios es más la historia de Martita Borrero la Miss Guatemala que nunca fue y del dominicano Johnny Abbes, operador del dictador Trujillo. Dos vidas complicadas que se cruzan con un interés común. La historia del Coronel Jacobo Arbenz, de la mal llamada Primavera Democrática, del movimiento de Liberación Nacional y el Coronel Carlos Castillo Armas, y la United Fruit Company van construyendo el laberinto por donde se desenvuelven las vidas de los personajes.

Si bien es cierto que Vargas Llosa hizo su tarea por entender los hechos de la época, él mismo aclara que no es su intensión narrar la historia como hechos verídicos. Es así que Tiempos Recios no es una respuesta al debate de lo que realmente ocurrió en Guatemala en aquellos años. No se puede negar la situación general del juego geopolítico de la época. Siendo una historia bien hilvanada y en un contexto próximo es fácil caer en la tentación de creer todo lo que dice. Según se sabe lo que entusiasmó a Vargas Llosa con la historia de la Guatemala del medio siglo XX fue su conexión con Trujillo y la posibilidad de hacer una especie de secuela de La Fiesta Del Chivo. Es comprensible que prefiera las teorías que refuerzan esta conexión. Para más información ver  Vida y magnicidio de Carlos Castillo Armas de Rolando Girón Romero.

Tiempos Recios nos recuerda lo complejo que fueron aquellos años, pero no por ello debemos olvidar que es una novela y por lo mismo Mario Vargas Llosa tiene licencia para llenar con creatividad los vacíos históricos, de elegir las interpretaciones que más ayuden a la trama e incluso a cambiar los hechos para mantener al lector pegado al libro. 

Humanomics

Vernon Smith, Nobel prize winner 2002, and Bart Wilson are renowned experimental economists. They faced an apparent contradiction when neoclassical utility maximization or Max-U model, that explained perfectly well supply-and-demand market experiments, failed in two-person games. Behavioral and experimental economists explained the differences ex-post as "social preferences".

Humanomics is a neologism in reference to the study of the human problem as both personal social and impersonal economic.

Morality is an emergent order based on the will of the people to seek praise and praiseworthiness and avoid blame and blameworthiness. "In Adam Smith's model of human social conduct, actions are governed by context-dependent rules based on experience and human capacity for mutual sympathetic fellow-feeling". In other words, humans have the capacity to extract the accepted rules by observing and feeling others around.

None of the authors, including Adam Smith, are experts on play but it is striking how they recognize and fit the role of play in children to understand the moral rule set.

"The child naturally wishes to gain their favour, and to avoid their hatred or contempt... and it soon finds that it can do so in no other way than by moderating, not only its anger, but all its other passions, to the degree which its play-fellows and companions are likely to be pleased with."

The capacity to understand the moral rules is context free but the rules in themselves are context relevant. Societies flourish when that mutual support is provided in the reciprocity of gratitud and friendship bound together in good offices of affection and esteem". Societies thrive when their rules promote cooperation, exchange and mutual respect.

One key takeaway from Humanomics is that human behavior follows some general rules on how rules are set, yet the specific rules are different based on time and context. Therefore, we can't use the same rule set to evaluate two different results. But we can identify some common denominators in functional system vs dysfunctional ones.

"When dealing with human beings, we must get comfortable with the imprecision of our humanity"

Smith and Wilson coded Adam Smith's ideas in a series of Axioms and Principles, summarized by Leonel Morales, "One aim in restating Smith's propositions as we do is to spell out the simplicity and universality with which he can be read".

Smith and Wilson proceed to analyze some classical games and see how these axioms and principles can explain the results, opposite to the failure of Max-U and behavioral economics. Finally they use Adam Smith's theory to predict the outcome of a new set of games. 

For the authors Adam Smith Theory of Moral Sentiments is a better model to explain how people interact. The analysis also closes the apparent gap between the Theory of Moral Sentiments and the Wealth of Nations. 

"His project in Sentiments is to address how moral conduct emerges out of human interactive experience to form a system of general rules that wisely order society. In Wealth he extends that system to markets and national economy to enable a better understanding of the sources and evolution of the economic order."

The Relationship Economy

The Relationship Economy is an interesting book, nonetheless a mix of Customer Service ideas and DiJulius Group advertising. 

DiJulius highlights the importance of customer relationship in all facets of business; customers, employees, leadership,  human interaction in general.

Some ideas worth highlighting are the importance of service as a true differentiation factor. Most vendors of any product or service meet pretty well the requirements of the market, hence what becomes the true loyalty driver is service. 

"Customer Loyalty is a result of the multiple micro-experiences a person has with a brand. It reflects the fact that not only is that business consistently brilliant a the basics, but also that it has taught all its employees to be present in the moment at each of its touch points." 

Another one is the FORD (Family, Occupation, Recreation, Dreams) technique as a tool to foster relationships.  "FORD represents people's hot buttons, what each individual cares about the most. FORD is what they are passionate about. It is the topics that make them light up."

A corollary of the FORD technique is accepting Kalina Silverman   invitation to skip the Small Talk for the Big Talk to connect with anyone. 

Some closing remarks worth sharing: "World-class service is not something you do or deliver; it is something that is in you, in all areas of your life".

Unschooled

Reading Kerry McDonald's Unschooled reminded me my early years as a parent. Despite not being satisfied with the educational system, we accepted with resignation that we had no option for our kids. We tried to choose the "best" school, however mostly the differences were the quality of the people leading the schools and their teachers. Even a friend tried to convince us to home-school our kids but we felt it was the same (school at home) minus the "socialization". Years later we were invited by another friend to join an alternative school, an off-the-system project. It was a challenge because people around us opposed and voiced their opinions with comments like "you are going to ruin your kids lives", and so. The project was worth, not because of pure opposition to the mainstream, but being off-the-system allowed them to offer a truly student center project with mixed ages, learners community, no-grades, no-homework, etc.

All this process was scary because we had no reference beyond the myth of schooling, the same myth we grew up with and we have survived!!! Was this our tantrum against the system and our kids were going to pay the price? The problems with the traditional schooling and the benefits of these new projects are well supported by theory and scholars yet little evidence was available to confirm that it works in practice. And this is where Unschooled fills the void. Using Kerry's own words 

"Schooling has become so engrained in our culture and conversation that disentangling it from learning takes time and though. Not only do we need to unschool our own thinking but also we need to help others do the same."

Unschooled is McDonald's "personal views and experiences related to unscholling and self-directed education" nonetheless it is very well documented. From John Locke to Peter Gray the breadth of references is a proof of the seriousness of her work. Along the theoretical references Unschooled offers a mosaic of real people's experiences doing what they believe is best for the kids. Unschooling is a movement that has its roots in the progressive reforms of the 1960's, it has reborn with a core difference "one refreshing change with today's unschooling movement is that it is being driven not by philosophers but by parents"

The book covers the history of unschooling, gives a definition and contrast it with schooling, and tackles some myths like; the curriculum, freedom is not license, appropriate ages to learn math or reading, and more. Also the book has a good diagnosis of the problems of the mainstream system and how it has worsen over the years despite efforts to fix it. Kerry McDonald is straight and honest in this respect "what we need conventional public schools to become if they are to truly move from a schooling paradigm to a learning one. They need to be built entirely from scratch."

In a later part of Unschooled, is a section with resources for unschoolers. From technology, resource centers, fab labs, maker spaces, libraries, revolutionary schools, apprenticeships, adventure playgrounds, and more. In summary this section is a window of options and an invitation to join and start a resource for our own communities. 

The last chapter is an outlook of the future of unschooling, which can be summarized in Kerry's call to action: 

"It all comes down to parents. It will be parents who decide whether or not we move toward an unschooled future. It will be parents who determine whether or not to reclaim their child's education."

The only subject I think the Unschooled is missing is the labor markets. As long as companies keep hiring by degree (the sheepskin effect that Brian Caplan describes in his book The Case Against Education) the unschooled future is riskier, specially for lower income families who can't rely on friends, connections, or family safety nets. There is some hope in this regard after some tech giants are dropping the diploma from their hiring process, but it is far from generalized practice. 

If you want to learn more about Kerry McDonald check her blog Whole family learning

Play to Live

Play to Live is a book for those who still haven't buy the importance of play for children and adults alike. If you know someone who still believes that play is a childish waste of time, give Brian VanDongen's book. 

"Play is not just important to education; play is education.  Play is not just important to a healthy lifestyle; play is a healthy lifestyle. Play is not just important to life skills; play is a life skill."

Without going into the depth of research on play this is a convincing invitation. Invitations to allow more play time to children and also to permit ourselves, as adults, to play.

"You have my permission: Be playful."

Children and Play in the Holocaust

Children and Play in the Holocaust is a emotionally hard to read essay by George Eisen. With a long list of references Eisen presents the experience of children in ghettos, detention centers and concentration camps during the Nazi occupation. These stories challenge the classical theory of play but also reinforce how play is so encoded in our genes that is almost unavoidable. 

"Play burst forth spontaneously and uncontrollably without regard of the external situation."

The sociological, psychological, physiological and even political aspects of life during the Holocaust are visited under the lens of children, and adult, play.

"Their play, just like all human experiences, was reflective of and governed by societal, psychological, and economic conditions of the society in which they took place."

For the people in the play field the book can be used as a catalog of play experiences to be classified under the 16 play types by Bob Hughes; to identify the play cycle and the role of adults in free play.

A River in Darkness

A River in Darkness is a surreal story of a man struggle to survive in North Korea. Half Japanese and half Korean, Masaji Ishikawa migrated to North Korea after his father got enticed by the lies of Kim Il-sung. For 36 years he struggle to survive to care for his family and see them die of starvation and abuse. He finally made it back to Japan just to find indifference and hostility. 

Among the lessons in the book is the eyewitness testimony of the failure of central planning (core of Socialism and Communism)

But that’s the thing. People in North Korea spend so much time in study meetings and calculating the number of hours they’ve worked that there’s no time to do the actual work. The result? Raw materials don’t arrive in factories, the electricity doesn’t work, and farms are overrun with weeds. But as long as people can get their food rations, they don’t care.

The black market was also thriving. It seemed the more messed up a country became, the more the black market prospered.

A River in Darkness is strikingly crude in the recollections of Ishikawa memories but also in the blind eye of other governments that wanted to avoid conflicts with North Korea, specially China and Japan itself. 

I often think about what would have become of me if I’d stayed in North Korea. I would probably have starved too. But at least I’d have died in someone’s arms with my family gathered around me. We’d have said our goodbyes. What chance of that now?

Ishikawa disappeared, don't know if publishing the book helped him in anyway. Don't even know if Masaji Ishikawa is his real name or a pen name. We just can hope he found peace.

Exponential Organizations

In 1982 Tom Peters and Robert Waterman published In Search of Excellence, in 1994 Jim Collins and Jerry Porras published Built to Last, and in 2014 Salim Ismail, Mike Malone, Yuri van Geest came up with Exponential Organizations. What do these have in common? They are examples of what Jeff Sandefer call "Business Pornography". Or what Phil Rosenzweig in The Halo Effect calls Delusion of Rigorous Research.

Books that sold by the millions pleasing the ears of people looking for instant success stories.

Exponential Organizations (ExO) makes some good diagnostics of the differences in pace and dynamics in the market. However the book is about Unicorns a fact that the authors acknowledge "Most of Lee's unicorns score well above the ExO threshold score." 

A principle in finance is that the higher the risk the higher the returns, thus an ExO has very high returns because they have very high risks.The book misses the mark by oversimplifies the market, it doesn't say anything about the thousands who die trying to be unicorns, it has no recognition to elements of luck and opportunity. Somehow Ismail et. al. despise the old fashion business model of bootstrapping and hard-work is still valid.

In the end they come with the idea of an ExO mindset which should yield into a ExO company and X10 returns. Economically if this were true the market would be dominated by very few companies, all ExOs, or the market would be so huge that I doubt it would be sustainable. 

Near the end of the book Ismail et. al. quote economist Brian Arthur: "Complexity economics is a different way of thinking about the economy. It sees the economy not as a system in equilibrium but as one in motion, perpetually 'computing' itself - perpetually constructing itself anew. Where equilibrium economics emphasize order, determinacy, deduction and stasis, this new framework emphasizes contingency, indeterminacy, sense-making and openness to change. Until now, economics has been a noun-based rather than verb-based science." What Arthur call the old economics is what Economist like Pete Boetke call "Mainstream economics" that oversimplified an emergent process, in opposition to "Mainsteet economics" that has always been dynamic. Maybe the velocity has change but markets were never static. Therefore, Ismail's ideas are not that original, successful entrepreneurs and business-people have succeeded because they understood the dynamics of their time.

Wise Guy

Guy Kawasaki returns with a book about life lessons that is entertaining, fun and yes, wise.

Wise Guy is a very personal book since he uses personal stories to give context to his pearls of wisdom. From the beginning Kawasaki clearly states:

"Before you ask, or wonder, this is not my autobiography or memoir. It is a compilation of the most enlightening stories of my life. Think personal lessons, not personal history."

Wise Guy is a collection of life lessons. We can learn from our own experience or vicariously from other people's experiences and this is what Guy has to offer: "my goal is to educate, not to awe you".

I'm not sure the order the author followed to write the book. He could have thought about a lesson to share and search for an anecdote to enhance or he could have remind a life event and search for lessons in it. Either way Wise Guy is a book loaded with nuggets of wisdom.

Some of the favorites ones are:

"Be a  hard-ass if you are a teacher, manager, coach, or someone who influences people. You’re not doing anyone a favor by lowering your standards and expectations in an effort to be kind, gentle, or popular. The future cost of  short-term kindness is great."

The world is full of PC-ness and being blunt and clear can be a risk worth taking. None wins from  hypocrisy. 

"Don’t consider yourself a victim... If you believe you’re a victim, you’ll truly become one.Take responsibility for your fate. You still may not succeed, but at least you’ll try."

This is a nugget consistent with other authors like Fred Kofman, Joseph Campbell and others. The victim has the benefit of not having to take responsibility but at a great cost, impotence and lack of freedom.

"Make your personal interests known. This provides “hooks” to develop additional and deeper relationships.  These relationships have led to friendships, adventures, and financial rewards. My life would have been a lot less interesting if I had not “opened the kimono” and unveiled my personal interests."

"Cultivate relationships with people you would run to see. Anyone who doesn’t pass the Shopping Center Test may waste your time, and life is too short. Second, be the person other people run to see. This is a useful test for how you treat others."

Living in a connected world is an opportunity to expand and grow. People are more than their jobs and sharing what you love can be a glue to support more and better relationships. But also the myriad of relationships can be overwhelming, Guy's advice is prioritize and spend your time wisely.

"If you provide value, you can ask  for—  and  receive— reciprocation. This is the glue that holds society together. You may not care about reciprocation, but the important concept is to help people so much that they would gladly reciprocate."

Adam Smith (and others before him) stressed the value of social cooperation. The division of labor works only in a cooperative environment. It is a mistake to think that competition is the opposite of cooperation, competition is the freedom to provide more value than others.You can't get value from society if you don't provide value, unless you are a parasite.

"Smile. The more you smile and laugh, the more you will smile and laugh. The more you smile and laugh, the easier life gets. You can never go wrong being nice, and there’s no such thing as being too nice."

This is one of the best ones. People live such dull lives that being playful seems as a sin or a crime (as Bernie DeKoven used to say). Believe in humanity and enjoy life more.

I found one of the last chapters, Ohana, quite special. Guy was humble and brave enough to ask his family and close acquaintances to share a pearl of wisdom they acquire from interacting with him. They share nice personal stories and what they learned form them.

Everybody should take the time to do what Kawasaki did with Wise Guy. Reflect on your life and what you learned, thank the people who touch your life and gave you a lesson, and ask those around you how you have made their lives better.