Two short trips this month, neither of which I'm going to write up. One was Up North to the area of Sleeping Bear Dunes National Park where it rained every day and high temps barely touched 60. The other was to Texas hill country between San Antonio and Austin where it rained every day and nightly lows temps rarely dipped below 80. Both trips were delightful in spite of the weather.
I've been spending a lot of time in fitness activities, which as you know I try not to write about, but I might for next month as they dovetail with some other topics of interest.
I am close to starting on the revision of my manuscript. It is mostly out of my head now, so I hope to see with fresh eyes for the horrible thing that it is.
[Rant] What am I Missing?
[Rant, Sports] Fakery for No Fun and No Profit
[Cars] Meet George Jetson
Friday, July 12, 2019
[Rant] What am I Missing?
I stumbled on this old article from Scott Alexander about how unexpectedly common it is to be completely oblivious to normal experiences and emotions without even realizing it. Though we all acknowledge we don't understand much of the world, we at least think we see the objective aspects of it clearly. That is certainly untrue. Although we have common views of the majority of experiences, obviously, for large swaths of population there are a significant number of aspects of the world that they unknowingly don't comprehend. The article discusses people who do not have a sense of smell. They often don't realize it until late in life. They have learned how to use the language of the scent of smell -- flowers smell nice, dog poo not so much -- but they are empty words to them. Suddenly someone asks them what something smells like for which they don;t have a frame of reference and they realize there is an entire sense they don't have. They simply knew the appropriate words to say about smell, they had no conception of the actual sensation.
It is not just in the physical realm like a lack of a sense. Psychotic individuals do not have the ability to empathize. Like the folks who can't smell, they learn the social cues and comforting words to fit in, but they really have no sense for what anyone else might be feeling.
This works in the other direction, too. Sometimes it's the minority of people who sense something most don't. In that case it's the folks with the superior capability who are the weird ones. This is a recording of Free Jazz by Ornette Coleman. It is considered a seminal work of art by a jazz master. It was produced by the amazing Tom Dowd. Indisputably great jazz artists such as John Coltrane followed suit to the sound. Critics admired it then and still do to this day.
To me, it barely sounds like music. And I am not alone in this. A sample of comments from that YouTube: "...a chicken got killed..." "...this is the music I suggest at a party in order to be kicked out immediately" "...they call it free jazz because nobody will pay you to play like that" "sounds like before a concert when everybody is warming up". These comments are not just saying it's not to their taste, they are questioning whether it is music or just random noise. My initial reaction is to agree with them. I don't hear music. I hear occasional sonorous combinations of notes, but not music.
But others do. Tom Dowd, John Coltrane, and other seriously musical people do. It's a temptation to say they are just posing and being elitist. I don't think so. They have no motivation to seem cool or superior. They do hear music -- beautiful, inspiring music -- and that makes me sad. There are sounds out there that deeply move people but, like a man without a sense of smell, I cannot experience it. My brain is simply not wired in a way to comprehend it.
I have two takeaways from this. 1) The shibboleth that we are all the same under the skin is wrong. Individuals have very fundamental differences and that does not bode well for the idea of a common human bond. And 2) It makes one's BS detector more problematic. How do you differentiate your sense of BS from a shortfall in your own mind?
I have no answers, I merely highlight this as another example of how little we truly understand about ourselves. The set of objective knowns is beginning to seem like it might end up being just a very trivial set facts and observations. As I have pointed out before, my tendencies skew to rationalism and objectivity as being of the greatest value. The longer I live, the further I think we (including me) are from realizing that value or whether it even exists.
It is not just in the physical realm like a lack of a sense. Psychotic individuals do not have the ability to empathize. Like the folks who can't smell, they learn the social cues and comforting words to fit in, but they really have no sense for what anyone else might be feeling.
This works in the other direction, too. Sometimes it's the minority of people who sense something most don't. In that case it's the folks with the superior capability who are the weird ones. This is a recording of Free Jazz by Ornette Coleman. It is considered a seminal work of art by a jazz master. It was produced by the amazing Tom Dowd. Indisputably great jazz artists such as John Coltrane followed suit to the sound. Critics admired it then and still do to this day.
To me, it barely sounds like music. And I am not alone in this. A sample of comments from that YouTube: "...a chicken got killed..." "...this is the music I suggest at a party in order to be kicked out immediately" "...they call it free jazz because nobody will pay you to play like that" "sounds like before a concert when everybody is warming up". These comments are not just saying it's not to their taste, they are questioning whether it is music or just random noise. My initial reaction is to agree with them. I don't hear music. I hear occasional sonorous combinations of notes, but not music.
But others do. Tom Dowd, John Coltrane, and other seriously musical people do. It's a temptation to say they are just posing and being elitist. I don't think so. They have no motivation to seem cool or superior. They do hear music -- beautiful, inspiring music -- and that makes me sad. There are sounds out there that deeply move people but, like a man without a sense of smell, I cannot experience it. My brain is simply not wired in a way to comprehend it.
I have two takeaways from this. 1) The shibboleth that we are all the same under the skin is wrong. Individuals have very fundamental differences and that does not bode well for the idea of a common human bond. And 2) It makes one's BS detector more problematic. How do you differentiate your sense of BS from a shortfall in your own mind?
I have no answers, I merely highlight this as another example of how little we truly understand about ourselves. The set of objective knowns is beginning to seem like it might end up being just a very trivial set facts and observations. As I have pointed out before, my tendencies skew to rationalism and objectivity as being of the greatest value. The longer I live, the further I think we (including me) are from realizing that value or whether it even exists.
[Rant, Sports] Fakery for No Fun and No Profit
You probably know I have done a lot of running races - 5ks, half-marathons, etc. Most of these are local in origin. I've done some big ones, but even those are not particularly noteworthy to anyone except people running in them, or perhaps the drivers who have their commutes interrupted by road closures. So it astonishes me that people work hard to cheat at them. Honestly, what does that get you?
We usually do dishonest things for the sake of either money or status, and believe me, short of being Olympic-level elite, there is no money in running. Or at least it seems there is no money without cheating. Evidently a while back there was a trainer with a history of doping his near-elite runners. Said runners would then enter mid-level races -- too small for elites, but locally popular enough to have $500-$1000 victory prizes. These doped high-end runners, often Kenyans, would dominate the locals and disappear with their prize money before anyone thought to check on their history. Do this for 5 or so races a month and you can make a passable income or, if you live cheaply, a healthy amount of money to send back to your relatives in Kenya. Be a trainer with a stable of runners doing this and your cut could amount to real money. Here's the original story.
A couple of years ago a popular local race called the Dexter-Ann Arbor run had a scare along these lines, when a Kenyan runner won the half-marathon and started immediately demanding his prize money right away. Everybody got suspicious and there was a multi-week delay as the race authorities looked into it. Eventually the runner was found to be legit and got his money.
But most cheating is not that nefarious. The latest scandal concerned Dr. Frank Meza who seemed to set the over-70 marathon record in LA, then got suspected of cheating; basically taking shortcuts to skip sections of the course. Though he denied everything, evidence mounted. It makes sense that he's old since you would have to be from a different era to expect you can do anything in public with there being photographic evidence. In the end he was disqualified. This wasn't the first time he had been accused of cheating. He was disqualified twice from the Sacramento marathon for the same reason. Then things took a tragic turn three days later when he was found dead, cause ruled to be suicide.
Again, why cheat? This is a fully-mature, 70-year-old man; a retired physician. What on earth is he getting out of this? What is the obsession that would make him do such a thing? Is it a blow against mortality? As long as he keeps running faster he's not dying. Irrational or not, conscious or not, there must be some motivating force. What is it? I guess we'll never know.
Other cheating is more prosaic, like bib stealing. What a crook can do is steal a bib (a paid participants number that gets attached to your shirt to validate your entry) and sell it online. Some very popular races cost into the hundreds, so selling a handful of stolen bibs can be a nice quick piece of cash. It is reprehensible, but at least I understand it. Like most thievery, it's done for the money.
It's also astoundingly stupid. Racers are photographer throughout the course by companies hoping to sell them commemorative photos. All the victim has to do is find a picture of you after the race, go on social media to locate you, then call the police. They can then charge you and whoever you bought it from online. Frankly, short of trying to rob a police station, I can't think of a stupider crime. But it happens. My rule for life: Never do anything in public you would not want to see on YouTube.
Here's an interesting scam. This woman hangs out on Instagram and looks for folks who post pictures of their race bibs before the race. She then makes copies of them, essentially racing for free. In these instances, money is not the motivation. What could it be? Health? No. Certainly there is a health benefit to being able to run a 5k or something, but it doesn't come from the medal or the t-shirt. You get the same benefit from running around your neighborhood. Most of the positive motivations like love or altruism don't come into play. So what's left?
Why, our old friend Status, of course. Not in a straightforward sense -- trust me, no cares that you ran the Princess 10k at Disney in any important way. It's the Facebook photo. The image of being one of those fit people, but without actually making the sacrifice. It's your public brand. Look at the photo on the top of this page. Five girls, one bib number. You can't tell me this wasn't all for the purposes of Facebook/Instagram personality positioning. They desperately want to portray themselves as fun and fit and vibrant and gain all the Likes. To that end, they probably all pitched in for one bib then photocopied it. Scroll down on this page and look at the social media exchange at the bottom. Astonishing. If you want to understand better the interaction of status and social media, read Eugene Wei on status as a service.
This is entertaining in the same way watching a bungling incompetent is. Let's face it, when the stakes are so low, it's hard to get righteously indignant. But people who set up and work the races work hard, usually for a higher cause. Look at it this way, you wouldn't ignore someone who was shoplifting a $50 watch, so why would you turn a blind eye to someone copying a bib for a $50 race? (Broken windows, maybe?)
That said, you also have to admit that the profound level of stupidity involved does make it outright comical.
And yet, as with all fun and games, at some point something bad happens. Frank Meza almost certainly cheated, for reasons we will never truly know. He almost certainly deserved the minor shame that was cast on him. He also almost certainly didn't deserve to die.
Perhaps the common thread in all of this is an absence of perspective.
We usually do dishonest things for the sake of either money or status, and believe me, short of being Olympic-level elite, there is no money in running. Or at least it seems there is no money without cheating. Evidently a while back there was a trainer with a history of doping his near-elite runners. Said runners would then enter mid-level races -- too small for elites, but locally popular enough to have $500-$1000 victory prizes. These doped high-end runners, often Kenyans, would dominate the locals and disappear with their prize money before anyone thought to check on their history. Do this for 5 or so races a month and you can make a passable income or, if you live cheaply, a healthy amount of money to send back to your relatives in Kenya. Be a trainer with a stable of runners doing this and your cut could amount to real money. Here's the original story.
A couple of years ago a popular local race called the Dexter-Ann Arbor run had a scare along these lines, when a Kenyan runner won the half-marathon and started immediately demanding his prize money right away. Everybody got suspicious and there was a multi-week delay as the race authorities looked into it. Eventually the runner was found to be legit and got his money.
But most cheating is not that nefarious. The latest scandal concerned Dr. Frank Meza who seemed to set the over-70 marathon record in LA, then got suspected of cheating; basically taking shortcuts to skip sections of the course. Though he denied everything, evidence mounted. It makes sense that he's old since you would have to be from a different era to expect you can do anything in public with there being photographic evidence. In the end he was disqualified. This wasn't the first time he had been accused of cheating. He was disqualified twice from the Sacramento marathon for the same reason. Then things took a tragic turn three days later when he was found dead, cause ruled to be suicide.
Again, why cheat? This is a fully-mature, 70-year-old man; a retired physician. What on earth is he getting out of this? What is the obsession that would make him do such a thing? Is it a blow against mortality? As long as he keeps running faster he's not dying. Irrational or not, conscious or not, there must be some motivating force. What is it? I guess we'll never know.
Other cheating is more prosaic, like bib stealing. What a crook can do is steal a bib (a paid participants number that gets attached to your shirt to validate your entry) and sell it online. Some very popular races cost into the hundreds, so selling a handful of stolen bibs can be a nice quick piece of cash. It is reprehensible, but at least I understand it. Like most thievery, it's done for the money.
It's also astoundingly stupid. Racers are photographer throughout the course by companies hoping to sell them commemorative photos. All the victim has to do is find a picture of you after the race, go on social media to locate you, then call the police. They can then charge you and whoever you bought it from online. Frankly, short of trying to rob a police station, I can't think of a stupider crime. But it happens. My rule for life: Never do anything in public you would not want to see on YouTube.
Here's an interesting scam. This woman hangs out on Instagram and looks for folks who post pictures of their race bibs before the race. She then makes copies of them, essentially racing for free. In these instances, money is not the motivation. What could it be? Health? No. Certainly there is a health benefit to being able to run a 5k or something, but it doesn't come from the medal or the t-shirt. You get the same benefit from running around your neighborhood. Most of the positive motivations like love or altruism don't come into play. So what's left?
Why, our old friend Status, of course. Not in a straightforward sense -- trust me, no cares that you ran the Princess 10k at Disney in any important way. It's the Facebook photo. The image of being one of those fit people, but without actually making the sacrifice. It's your public brand. Look at the photo on the top of this page. Five girls, one bib number. You can't tell me this wasn't all for the purposes of Facebook/Instagram personality positioning. They desperately want to portray themselves as fun and fit and vibrant and gain all the Likes. To that end, they probably all pitched in for one bib then photocopied it. Scroll down on this page and look at the social media exchange at the bottom. Astonishing. If you want to understand better the interaction of status and social media, read Eugene Wei on status as a service.
This is entertaining in the same way watching a bungling incompetent is. Let's face it, when the stakes are so low, it's hard to get righteously indignant. But people who set up and work the races work hard, usually for a higher cause. Look at it this way, you wouldn't ignore someone who was shoplifting a $50 watch, so why would you turn a blind eye to someone copying a bib for a $50 race? (Broken windows, maybe?)
That said, you also have to admit that the profound level of stupidity involved does make it outright comical.
And yet, as with all fun and games, at some point something bad happens. Frank Meza almost certainly cheated, for reasons we will never truly know. He almost certainly deserved the minor shame that was cast on him. He also almost certainly didn't deserve to die.
Perhaps the common thread in all of this is an absence of perspective.
[Cars] Meet George Jetson
I drove a Tesla. Just briefly. I was a fascinating experience. Like all electric vehicles, it launches off the line without hesitation. Honest neck snap, like it was a Corvette with a huge V8.
A Tesla would take some getting used to. First, as far as I could tell, it cannot coast. As soon as you lift off the accelerator it is braking. If you ever drove a manual transmission, you know that lurching slow down that happens when you downshift into a lower gear at speed (called engine braking)? That what's driving a Tesla is like all the time. It would take me some getting used to to say the least, but Tesla drivers seem to like it. It affords them the ability to do "one-foot driving," rarely touching the brake pedal at all.
The other strange thing is that the dashboard is empty of any controls. Instead there is a huge iPad like device in the center of the console and literally everything is controlled from there. It is you speedometer and stereo and gas gauge and map navigation and any other function you think you need. It tells you everything you need to know, including how much charge is left and where the nearest charging station is. It also has hidden Easter eggs, like the ability to make fart noises. (Oh Elon, you madman!)
A Tesla, or at least an electric car of some sort, would make sense for me to use as a commuter. I could go for two or three days worth of back and forth to work and around town, then recharge overnight in my garage. But the range on these things still precludes any extended journeys. Teslas range from approximately 250 to 350 miles. The only one I could possibly afford is 250. If I think about my long drives -- usually up to Mackinac, occasionally Chicago -- I'm looking at at least 250-300 miles. To be on the safe side I would have to charge on the way. To Chicago there are superchargers outside Battle Creek or near St. Joseph. To Mackinac I would have one chance to recharge in Bay City. It takes a little over an hour to charge to 100%, which I would want to do because I have to have enough juice to get back to the same supercharger on the way home. Usually superchargers are near shopping centers and such, so I could probably have no problem killing an hour while I wait. But it would be an annoying hour during which I would be staring with envy at the folks filling up in minutes at the gas station. But even more worrisome is that if for some reason the supercharger was not working, I would be dead in the water -- I would have to nurse my car on reserve power somewhere, or possibly get towed, where I could find a regular outlet to use. I would not begin to know how to do that.
No I'm sorry. Electric cars will be for commuting only until superchargers are at every gas station. And for commuting a Tesla is overkill. Any one of a number of little electric versions of regular cars would be a cheaper choice.
So let's say I dropped 30k on a little electric car. I would have two choices. Either a) buy a second car for road trips and other purposes, or b) just rent a car when I needed it for a non-commuting purpose.
Having a second car around would be nice. Probably an mid-size SUV or a four door pickup. Something that would be comfortable for long road trips, and could haul mulch and bicycles and such. It wouldn't have to be new, something like a Ford Explorer with 50k mile on it would suffice. It wouldn't put massive stop and go miles on it. I'd probably just buy whatever model has the fastest depreciation so as to get the best deal. That's a solid plan A.
Plan B would be to just rent whatever vehicle I needed when the e-car wouldn't do. That would certainly be cheaper. But it suffers from not having something at the ready for non-electric duty. Renting a pick up from u-Haul or a sedan from Enterprise is a chore and requires planning. That turns me off, although I'm probably overstating the spontaneity of my life. It would likely be thousands if not tens of thousands cheaper over the course of a few years. It may be a mental hurdle I should work to get over.
In any case, a new vehicle for me is still 2-5 years off. Since I finally got the Acura sorted, it is running spectacularly. Unfailingly reliable, still tight as a drum at almost 100k, and I must admit I've gotten use to that sweet Honda 6-cylinder that is perfectly refined yet responds like a Formula 1 engine when asked.
But my short drive in the Tesla was enough to convince me that electric cars are what's next. And it might be kinda nice.
A Tesla would take some getting used to. First, as far as I could tell, it cannot coast. As soon as you lift off the accelerator it is braking. If you ever drove a manual transmission, you know that lurching slow down that happens when you downshift into a lower gear at speed (called engine braking)? That what's driving a Tesla is like all the time. It would take me some getting used to to say the least, but Tesla drivers seem to like it. It affords them the ability to do "one-foot driving," rarely touching the brake pedal at all.
The other strange thing is that the dashboard is empty of any controls. Instead there is a huge iPad like device in the center of the console and literally everything is controlled from there. It is you speedometer and stereo and gas gauge and map navigation and any other function you think you need. It tells you everything you need to know, including how much charge is left and where the nearest charging station is. It also has hidden Easter eggs, like the ability to make fart noises. (Oh Elon, you madman!)
A Tesla, or at least an electric car of some sort, would make sense for me to use as a commuter. I could go for two or three days worth of back and forth to work and around town, then recharge overnight in my garage. But the range on these things still precludes any extended journeys. Teslas range from approximately 250 to 350 miles. The only one I could possibly afford is 250. If I think about my long drives -- usually up to Mackinac, occasionally Chicago -- I'm looking at at least 250-300 miles. To be on the safe side I would have to charge on the way. To Chicago there are superchargers outside Battle Creek or near St. Joseph. To Mackinac I would have one chance to recharge in Bay City. It takes a little over an hour to charge to 100%, which I would want to do because I have to have enough juice to get back to the same supercharger on the way home. Usually superchargers are near shopping centers and such, so I could probably have no problem killing an hour while I wait. But it would be an annoying hour during which I would be staring with envy at the folks filling up in minutes at the gas station. But even more worrisome is that if for some reason the supercharger was not working, I would be dead in the water -- I would have to nurse my car on reserve power somewhere, or possibly get towed, where I could find a regular outlet to use. I would not begin to know how to do that.
No I'm sorry. Electric cars will be for commuting only until superchargers are at every gas station. And for commuting a Tesla is overkill. Any one of a number of little electric versions of regular cars would be a cheaper choice.
So let's say I dropped 30k on a little electric car. I would have two choices. Either a) buy a second car for road trips and other purposes, or b) just rent a car when I needed it for a non-commuting purpose.
Having a second car around would be nice. Probably an mid-size SUV or a four door pickup. Something that would be comfortable for long road trips, and could haul mulch and bicycles and such. It wouldn't have to be new, something like a Ford Explorer with 50k mile on it would suffice. It wouldn't put massive stop and go miles on it. I'd probably just buy whatever model has the fastest depreciation so as to get the best deal. That's a solid plan A.
Plan B would be to just rent whatever vehicle I needed when the e-car wouldn't do. That would certainly be cheaper. But it suffers from not having something at the ready for non-electric duty. Renting a pick up from u-Haul or a sedan from Enterprise is a chore and requires planning. That turns me off, although I'm probably overstating the spontaneity of my life. It would likely be thousands if not tens of thousands cheaper over the course of a few years. It may be a mental hurdle I should work to get over.
In any case, a new vehicle for me is still 2-5 years off. Since I finally got the Acura sorted, it is running spectacularly. Unfailingly reliable, still tight as a drum at almost 100k, and I must admit I've gotten use to that sweet Honda 6-cylinder that is perfectly refined yet responds like a Formula 1 engine when asked.
But my short drive in the Tesla was enough to convince me that electric cars are what's next. And it might be kinda nice.
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