Theories/Ideas

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Health Update & Religion

October 6, 2012 in CF/Transplant, Silly Observations, The Great Beyond, Theories/Ideas | 2 comments

I’ve been in the middle of a health episode since just before Labor Day and unfortunately the various treatments I’ve been doing haven’t worked. My lung capacity is still down over 10%. So I’m doing another Solumedrol blast this weekend. Hopefully the second time is the charm. I’m calling King Arthur and his knights back out of the castle for another gallop!

Wide awake and jacked up on steroids at 4am, I may as well riff on religion, right? Some friends and I were talking about religion yesterday and one said all religions are crazy fictions, with Mormonism being among the craziest. Here’s what I think:

1. In just the visible universe, what we can see from Earth, we know there are billions of stars in our own galaxy and billions of galaxies. We estimate the entire universe is at least 250 times bigger than the visible universe, or maybe infinite. We are small. We are ignorant. We barely have a grip on what the universe is all about.

2. Here on Earth, we barely have a grip on how our own brains work.

3. When someone dies, something that was there is no longer there. Call that something the soul, life energy, whatever. Where does that go? Does it go somewhere or does it just dissipate into the ether? Nobody knows.

4. In short, we know next to nothing. If you have a religion that helps you deal with these unknowns more power to you. I’m not going to get worked up about your belief system. It would be nice if you didn’t try to ram it down my throat, however, and most people don’t. The ones who do are loud. That’s why fundamentalists and rabid atheists annoy me equally. (Also, I don’t like many of the political stances taken by religious organizations, but I’m not getting into that here.)

5. People are going to find their own belief systems. This cannot be stopped. So why stress over what people believe? (As long as they don’t harm the rest of us with it.)

6. Even people in organized religions rarely believe every tenet of the religion. If you talk to people about what they actually believe, there are as many belief systems as there are people. I think most Westerners and maybe most non-Westerners too, whether they know it or not, live within an eclectic belief system comprised of many tenets of many religions.

7. When it comes to the Universe, death, God and so forth I suspect we are ALL WRONG. The Truth is unknowable for us at the present time. So how can I hold it against someone for coming up with a fiction that works for them? We all live within our own fictions, religious and non-religious.

8. Don’t bother worrying about what is Truth. Believe what you want to believe.

9. I’m about to epublish a novella called “The Forever Library” in which I talk about what I want to believe about life and death. Stay tuned!

10,000 Hours

October 13, 2010 in Theories/Ideas, Writing | No comments

Malcolm Gladwell is a genius. Not because he told us it takes 10,000 hours of practice to become good at something. No, because he invented a number to define what everybody knows.

Everybody knows it takes practice to become good at something. Whether you are pumping gas or running the Oval Office, it takes practice.

But does it take 10,000 hours to become good at pumping gas? Or tying your shoes? Or riding a bicycle? No.

10,000 hours is a year and two months in straight time. But let’s say you work nine hours a day five days a week. You’ll need just over four years to get to 10,000 hours.

You need more than four years to become a good doctor or lawyer, many more. To become a good janitor or bellman? Less than four years. 10,000 hours might be about right for an athlete but it seems like the more important measure is years, years of doing a few hours a day.

In other words, becoming good at anything requires a variable amount of practice time depending on what it is you are trying to become good at. We all know this, but it is a godsend to have a nice round figure to throw around: 10,000 hours. His figure makes it so much more official. More real! It gives us a catchy shorthand.

Malcolm Gladwell wrapped up what we already knew — we need practice and experience to become good at anything — in a neat little (inaccurate) bow for us. Not 8,874 hours. Not 20,188 hours. 10,000 hours. And because it was in a bestselling book it becomes cultural fact and this crock will now be with us forever. A new myth to add to our myth-laden zeitgeist.

If there is anything those with world-class talent have taught us, whether an athlete or lawyer or doctor or artist, it is that no matter how good you are you never stop practicing or learning or perfecting your art, whatever that art is. You don’t stop when you get good or “world-class,” you reach your peak many hours later.

At the same time, you might hit 20,000 hours and still not be world-class. If time was all you needed, there would be many more talented people around. The truth is, for every world-class talent there are 1000 people who put in just as many hours but are not as good.

The real theory should be, if you’ve put in 10,000 hours doing something you are probably competent at it. But that probably won’t sell as many books.

So You Think You Can Host a Reality TV Show

May 30, 2007 in Reviews, Theories/Ideas | 2 comments

I’ve been watching The Lot, a reality TV show about young filmmakers hoping to make it big in Hollywood, and the host leaves something to be desired. Although she is attractive and likeable (two important host qualities), she also frequently fumbles over her lines and seems as nervous about announcing eliminations as the contestants are about being eliminated. In the first episode, comedian Chelsea Handler was the host. She was a perfectly competent host but she was inexplicably dumped for Adrianna Costa. It’s Adrianna who seems not to have mastered the host’s trade.

To be fair to Adrianna, The Lot is a pretty awful show. The short films are great and the contestants are interesting but the rest of the show is almost unbearable. The show’s redundancies and recaps rival even Dateline NBC and the panelists have very little to say. Carrie Fisher has never been less appealing. I challenge them all to refrain from referring to anyone as “a very talented filmmaker” for the rest of the summer. I doubt they could last a week. Most annoyingly, they have taken the Elimination Pause — the beat or two between “the person going home is…” and “Jane Doe” — to previously unmatched levels of ridiculousness and cruelty. They extend the beat or two into a minute and then add a commercial break. Last night was the final straw when poor Adrianna had to say, “I’m sorry Jane…but Bob won’t be around next week because he’s going home!” Oy.

This all got me thinking that with all these reality shows, there is undoubtedly a shortage of available hosts in Hollywood. And that’s why we need a new reality show called, So You Think You Can Host a Reality Show. I know hosting is a difficult job. I’m sure I’d make a poor host. That’s why I have no plans to offer myself up as the host of So You Think You Can Host a Reality Show. But I see twenty or so young men and women being put through the paces in various Master of Ceremonies challenges. The winner gets to host this year’s Oscars.

As for The Lot, thank the sweet Lord for my new DVR. I like these filmmakers and their films but without my DVR it would have been a very long summer.

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