Day 330: Handwriting

When I'm in meetings at work I still write things down in my notebook with a pen which seems normal but will probably be considered quaint in 10 or 15 years.  We all have phones and computers so why are we still writing things down on paper?  If you write (or record) everything on a laptop or phone you know you won't lose it.  It will become instantaneously available on all your devices and most of your spelling mistakes will be corrected.  Finally if you're left handed like me you'll have the novel experience of actually being able to read your own notes.  (I'm also pretty sure an electronic page has less environmental impact than a paper and ink page).  I wonder if I should try to wean myself off all forms of paper based writing?  Actually I rarely re-read my notes anyway, its more that the act of writing which helps me to remember things.  I either need to stop using notebooks or start planting trees.  (let me write that down!)

Day 329: Poll

The European Commission has launched on an opinion poll on whether we should maintain summer/winter time.  I have already spoken on this subject in my blog #149. In order to ensure we finally get rid of this pointless exercise in bureaucracy I urge you all to fill in the EU's questionnaire which can be found at this address:

https://questionnaire.assemblee-nationale.fr/785621?lang=fr

In order to assist you  I urge you to answer : 

1. That your experience of time change is very negative
2. That time change should be forbidden
3. Its very important that the EU decides to stop the time change
4. We should chose Winter time as the permanent time
5. France's Time Zone should be UTC+1 (Like Germany, Italy and Spain)

We have until March 3rd to fill in the questionnaire please encourage everyone you know to fill it in!

Lets help the European Commission do something visible, practical and popular.

Day 328: Vow

When Fianna and I exchanged vows in 2012 our most important vow was that we would never let the sun go down on an argument. So far we have managed to keep that vow for 2,530 Nights (there was 1 minor exception).  I actually believe that it should be a mandatory for all weddings to replace all that guff about "honour and obey" or "in sickness and in health" with our vow (copyright to be discussed).  When couples have arguments there are three possible outcomes:

1. One or both parties stays angry and sullen which usually brings about increased grievance
2. One or the other decides to ignore the issue. Somebody just pretends the argument didn't happen, which usually means the other  party will feel frustrated
3. Both parties continue to discuss the issues and make their points until the both feel they have been heard.  The issue may not have been resolved but both people can move on without feeling frustrated or angry.

I assume everybody has guessed which is the preferred solution in order to maintain a healthy marriage?  When you write it down it seems obvious but often its feels nearly impossible to get to that 3rd option.  I do feel blessed that I have a wife who is as committed as I am to that vow.  Thanks you for your understanding Fianna.

Day 327: Prize

Yesterday was the Oscars.  All sorts of prizes were awarded to a variety of people for being best "something in cinema".  I can't help wondering what the point of these prizes are ?  What is the validity of the process?  Why do we need someone to be named best actor of best director every year, especially as the winners are always controversial.  I have the same question around other prizes do we need a Nobel Prize, a Pulitzer or a Prix Goncourt ?  The people who win these prizes are usually well recognized in their field so why do they need further prizes ?  I don't believe these prizes serve a particular purpose or encourage particular behaviour (other than self promotion which I don't think is the point).  Let's leave prizes to sport and agree that other forms of human activity don't necessarily need to be competitions.

Day 326: Exchange

I recently wrote about the pointlessness of Fashion and today I read on article on the environmental impact of the clothing industry. (It creates 10% of all greenhouse gas emissions and 120 Million trees are cut down every year to make clothing).  I wonder if it would be possible to set up clothing exchanges (ClothEx).  You would be able to take any surplus clothing as long as it was clean and still in good condition to your local ClothEx and you would then have the right to pick an equivalent amount of clothing then or later. If the ClothEx concept went international you could also use it to travel light.  Drop off some clothes in Paris and you would be allowed to pick up clothes in Los Angeles. And vice versa. The shops and personnel could be financed by either a subscription fee or some kind of sponsoring.  We need to reduce greenhouse gases by 50% by 2030 in order to limit global warming to 1.5°C.  If ClothEx halved the clothing industry that would be 10% of our goal. 

Day 325: Big Data

Today I went to play squash with my friend Guy and then we enjoyed the sunshine by strolling down the Boulevard St Germain and having a coffee on a terrace.  I was telling him about Louis' interest in doing the Ecole 42 and we started talking about which are the most interesting parts of the IT domain.  We both agreed that Big Data is the area with the most potential in the future.  As the amount of available information grows exponentially there will be increasing requirement for people who can not only extract and store all this information technically but who can also use the right tools to make sense of it.  The companies and organisation who understand this and invest in Data solutions early will have big advantages in developing their products, understanding how they work and constantly improving them. This will be true in all economic sectors.  Data mining will be the Gold mining of the future.

Day 324: Saturday

Tomorrow is Saturday and although most of us get to sleep in, Theo has to go to School as many French teenagers.  Of all the things wrong with the French education system this is probably one of the most annoying, least useful and easiest to fix.  In New Zealand a company has tested the 4 day work week which resulted in a boost in productivity and happier employees.  In Seattle they moved the start of the school day from 7:45 to 8:45 AM (keeping the same number of hours at school overall) teenagers got 35 minutes extra sleep and overall grades improved.  It is scientific fact that teenagers who go through a lot of biological change between 13 and 18 tend to stay up late and therefore would benefit from a later start.  So what do we do in France ?  We have a 6 day week and school starts at 8AM!  If we need proof of the insanity of administrative thinking this is it.  Nobody has ever come up with a rational explanation as to why school should start at 8 or how Saturday morning classes make any sense.

Day 323: Bath

Mistakenly, some of us, thought it would be a good idea to have an actual bath in the children's bathroom.  Now that they have both grown so much they can barely sit in it let alone have a proper bath.  Before they further outgrow the tub we have decided to replace it with a large shower.  I really don't understand why baths are still legal.  Baths need around 100 l of water whereas a 5 min shower (which is more than enough - especially if its cold) uses around 50 l.  On average in the world people take around 2 baths per week.  If we all switched to showers  we would save 18.2 Trilllion litres of water per year  which is the equivalent to 1 day of water flow from the Amazon.  

Day 322: Assessment

Many organisations private or public feel they need to have Formal Employee Assessment Systems.  I mention this because my company recently decided to introduce such a system.  I have worked for many different types of organisations in my life and I have never come across a HR evaluation system which  added any value.  The idea people can be assessed through forms, formal interviews and self criticisms is totally bonkers (to use a technical term).  In most cases these assessments start with a self analysis each employee is expected to come up with their strength and weaknesses, things they could improve upon, training needs etc.  In general this is an exercise in how creative you can be in showcasing your achievements and inventing weaknesses that are actually hidden strengths.  I cannot imagine that these forms and processes are used in any useful way.  Promotions and salary rises are always based on "management discussions".  In these discussions nobody ever looks at the forms what you have is people who are in favour, people who are against and some who are uncommitted at the end of the day the manager who is most convinced carries the day.  If we want to increase productivity at work: Stop measuring it!

Day 321: Fashion

Karl Lagerfeld the man behind Chanel for close to 40 years died today.  I mention it because it is in all the newspapers much to my chagrin.  I cannot understand the point of fashion.  Why would we need to change our perfectly good clothes every year irrespective of the state they are in?  Why are bell bottom jeans out (or a better question why were they ever in?)  Fashion is a direct assault on the environment.  It creates a requirement to buy unnecessary items (and throw away  perfectly good ones) for no rational reason.  According to McKinsey the Fashion Industry represents 2.4 Trillion $ and none of it is environmentally friendly.  I guess on the positive side the more global warming we have the smaller the Fashion Industry will get as we will all be walking around in T-shirts, Shorts and Flip Flops.

Day 320: Parties

7 MPs have decided to quit the Labour Party to form an independent grouping (not a new party).  They seem to be a disparate bunch united mainly by their pro European stance and their exasperation with the present Labour leadership.   Although there seems to be little belief that they will manage to change the political system they made me realise that part of the problem is the existence of political parties. If there were no political parties people would have to actually pay attention to what their local candidates were saying.  You couldn't just vote for a party for tribal reasons you would have to decide whether you agreed with a candidate's views rather than his parties views. Also no parties means no party discipline so candidates would vote according to their conscience rather than according to party leadership.  Isn't the whole point of representative democracy to have a wide variety of opinions expressed in Parliament?

Day 319: AI

Last night we watched ex machina an interesting slightly disturbing film about the creation of an "intelligent" robot which can pass for human.  The Turing test is a well known AI test which is based on interacting with a computer on a screen and not being able to tell whether it is a human or a computer.  Of course as this is a Holywood film the robot has a female form. What I found interesting was that during the film we start to root for the robot as "she" is effectively a prisoner in the testing facility. But in my view the only reason we identify with it is because the machine has been given a human form. If the robot was just a square metal box or an insect like form I'm not sure we would have the same sympathy whatever the quality of its dialogue.  I'm not sure how far AI will go in being able to develop "artificial humans" but I think we should avoid giving them human form.  In the long term it is probably healthier if machines are always recognizable for what they are.

Day 318: Smart

Cars should be purely utilitirian pieces of equipment. They are there to transport you from A to B efficiently and yet there is an inate pleasure to be had from driving certain cars. Recently electric Smarts have appeared in the streets of Paris and I do find them cool, especially the convertible ones.  In principle I have limited interest in cars but for some reason electric cars have changed my perspective.  I feel the sense of freedom that we get from driving our cars is magnified by the silence, it's like having a magic carpet. 

Day 317 : Strike

While Trump breaks rules to get a pointless wall and Mrs May procrastinates endlessly on Brexit, Greta Thunberg, a Swedish 16 year old has started a mass movement of young people going on strike from School. Is it possible for adults to follow in her footsteps?  Historically strikes have always been about improving working conditions (pay, hours, holidays, firings, security, jobs) isn't the state of the planet the ultimate "work benefit" ?  If there was a call for a general strike in favour improved climate conditions I would be prepared to participate in an organised labour movement for the first time in my life.  Maybe environmental issues are not to meant to be political as they cross all party lines. If saving the plant is to become the central issue of our lives that it should be we need to follow Greta in developing other forms of mass demonstrations.

Day 316: Mule

In a recent blog my Dad mentioned Clint Eastwood's latest film The Mule.  The film is quite slow and is based on the true story of the oldest drug mule that was ever caught in the United States.  It's a nice film partly because not much happens, but the reason I mention it is that I find it highlights the absurdity of the War on Drugs.  The Clint Eastwood character makes huge amounts of money by transporting hundreds of kilos of Cocaine in his pick-up truck from the South to the North of the USA.  At the same time DEA agents spend even more money tracking down an old man in a van.  The illegal drug trade in the United States is estimated to be around $100 Billion at the same time State and Federal Drug related law enforcement costs the United States around $30 Billion per year.  If all drugs were legalised (but controlled) the impact would be :

1. Save $30 Billion 
2. Taxing the now legal drug trade would probably raise another $20 Billion
3. Legal drugs could be checked so that consumers would know what they are taking and sold in specific shops with specific conditions like guns, tobacco and alcohol.
4. Reduction in drug related deaths
5. Huge loss of revenue for criminals
6. Big boost to the poor farmers in drug producing countries who would now get a fair wage for their work

.  

Day 315: 42

Calories: 589

Louis is considering going to do a course at the École 42.  This is the programming school which was founded by Xavier Niel in 2013 and which is completely different to traditional universities. The key principles are as follows:

-  its free

-  you don't get a degree

-  you decide how long it will take

-  there are no pre-requirements (other than being 18)

-  the test to get in is based on motivation and logic

-  there are no teachers: learning is project based and assessed by students

-  there are no exams

I find it interesting that the school is all about self learning, collaboration and creativity even though it is a coding school. 

Although it was developed for programming I don't see why the same principle couldn't be used successfully for other disciplines such as Medicine, Economics, Psychology, History or Philosophy. It actually sounds a lot like the university version of the school my Dad is involved with in Luxembourg. 

Day 314: Billboards

In this age where most of people's information on current events is obtained through Facebook, Instagram or Twitter, I find the recent British Anti-Brexit  billboard campaign most refreshing.  A small group of friends have organised a billboard campaign where they just post actual quotes from key brexit politicians.  Examples have included :

• Therese May:  I believe it is clearly in our national interest to remain a member of the European Union

• Michael Gove: The day after we vote to leave, we hold all the cards and we can choose the path we want.

• Nigel Farage: In a 52-48 referendum this would be unfinished business by a long way.

• David Davis: If a democracy cannot change its mind, it ceases to be a democracy.

The campaigners call themselves #LedByDonkeys and I strongly urge you to follow them on twitter and to contribute to their funding.

I would love to see similar campaigns developed in other countries holding politicians to account for the things they have said.  In this age where we are bombarded with online information simple quotes on large billboards have a lot more credibility and impact than never ending tweets and likes.

Day 313: Guest

Calories: 597

This evening Theo asked me to read and correct an essay he had to hand in at school the next day.  I told him that I could only do that if he wrote my blog.  So today's blog is courtesy of a guest speaker: Theo.

At dinner tonight, Louis asked “What is the point of life?”. No one had a satisfying answer, at least in my eyes. However, I believe, my 16 years on this planet, allow me to contribute an answer.

Some might say society provides purpose by making our lives seemingly more interesting through objectives such as earning money, going to work, acquiring objects… However what would be left of our societies in the advent of a “natural” catastrophe (such as global warming) what would be the point of our lives then ?

In the old ages people relied on religion to give meaning to their life. But now (except in Trump's America) science has replaced it. So how about science? Science is based on testable and justifiable explanations of how the universe works. In a way it is there to find an explanation to everything. Yet how many of us can really feel the effect of quarks or electrons on our day to day lives.

So if society, religion and science are all illusions I ask once again: What is the point of life ?
As I will learn next year in Philosophy, Descartes said “I think therefore I am”. The fact that we can ask ourselves this question is what makes us different. And the fact that we can articulate that thought allows us to also consider that possibly there is no point to life. This might seem a depressing answer however I find it quite beautiful. Because if there is no point to life that means we can choose our own “point” whether it be to help future generations be born in a beautiful world, to make people smile, to have fun or to work incessantly.   If there was a point to our lives we would be governed by an ordained objective with no hand in our own fate. We would be just like a tree growing fruits year in, year out with no choice in the matter. So in the end the answer to the question is that each of us can choose our own!

Thanks Theo. 

Those of you who wish to appear as guest speakers can send your contributions to my regular e-mail.

Day 312: 12 Years

According to the IPCC we have 12 years left to limit global warming to 1.5° C and then reverse it.  The consequences of not meeting those targets would be quite catastrophic.  Despite the consistent and wide spread warnings of scientists  from varying disciplines there does not seem to be any sense of urgency.  Its as if the world was in a car speeding towards the edge of a cliff and the people are debating whether we should go from 5th to 4th gear rather then hitting the brakes as hard as they can.  Everywhere around the world awareness of the issues around climate change is rising and yet that does not seem to be translating itself into significant concrete action.  Green parties may be winning the argument but they are not capitalising on these concerns at the ballot box.  If we take the upcoming European elections the Green's are expected to get around 7-8% of the vote, and yet this should be an ideal forum for Green issues.  Environmental issues are by definition trans-national and European elections are seen as an occasion to express one's actual preferences rather than having to take into account political expediency.  I believe the Green parties need to focus and simplify their message.  They need to propose a limited number of clear policies which would have a significant impact on global warming (also they probably need to change their name, Green parties stand for too many different things).

Day 311: Tattoo

I was reading an article in the guardian about a british photographer who takes photos of naked men or women (usually focused on the genitals).  I read the article because the photo illustrating it showed a thigh with a discreet tattoo which I thought was interesting.  Usually I don't have much time for tattoos, I don't really understand how people can assume that they will like their tattoos for the rest of their lives.  Also why would one's younger self  impose things on one's older self without their consent.  I guess it's a bit like drinking or smoking is it really fair to do things in your youth that can cause damage that your future self will have to deal with ? 

Day 310 : Euro

For no particular reason I'm going to talk about the Euro today.  As a firm believer in the European project and more widely in Internalism I was greatly in favour of the creation of the Euro and I would actually go further and suggest that a single world wide currency would be even better.  I have never understood the political or economic arguments in favour of having separate currencies.   If a single currency can accommodate California and Alabama or Moscow and Kamchatka then why couldn't it accomodate Luxembourg and Haiti?  The main purpose of money is to serve as a medium of exchange.  It's easier to have a common currency than to have to barter goods and services for every transaction.  If one of the purposes of money is to facilitate transactions between people then  I don't see how having different currencies makes things easier.  The average daily trade in foreign exchange is over $5 Trillion per day which if we assume a very low cost of 0.01% (1 cent per 100$) represents $650 Billion  per year. That would be enough to cancel the foreign debt of the 83 poorest countries in the world. 

Day 309: 20%

Earlier this year I mentioned some resolutions that I wished I had taken.  Amongst those resolutions was going to a new country.  As I was thinking that I might be able to manage that one, I found an interactive world map which allows me to log all the places I have been to so far (big countries are broken up into states or regions so its harder to cover everywhere).  As of today I have visited or lived in areas or countries representing 20.52% of the surface of the globe which I find disappointing.  I need to start adding more new places (preferably big places) so that I can reach at least 50%.  I need to visit my daughter in Brazil and next time we go to California we should use a car (or train if I want to be green) that should add a few percentage points to my score.

Day 308: Racism

Calories : 596

Recently Liam Neeson (the famous actor) has been making headlines because he admitted that twenty years ago he wanted to beat-up or even kill any random black man in revenge for the fact that a friend of his had been raped by a black man.  To be fair he was telling this story to show how bad the idea of revenge is and he was not proud of it.  The story has sparked outrage on social (and traditional) media, principally because Liam Neeson is deemed to be a racist for thinking and saying these things.  The actor has defended himself by claiming that he is not a racist and that he understood that he was wrong. 

We can all agree that Liam Neeson's reaction 20 years ago was wrong, but a more interesting question is whether he was right to make public his darkest thoughts or should he have kept them to himself ? 

On balance I believe that he was right to talk about this to help show that bad instincts happen and the question becomes what do you do about them? Do you let them overtake you or do you control and suppress them when you recognise them as wrong? 

Where I do object to Liam Neeson's confession is when he says he is not a racist.  I am perfectly prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt in that he does not consider himself a racist now but what he did decades ago was definitely racist whether conscious or not. (Just the fact that he asked his friend what colour the rapist was, shows racism. How is that a relevant question!)

We all have unconscious bias to a greater or lesser extent its better to admit it and then let our rationality compensate.

Day 307 : Probability

Dinner Menu:

• Coucou de Rennes au vin blanc à la Romertopf
• Gratin dauphinois
• Yaourt de brebis avec banane et myrtilles

My friend Shane who is slowly recovering from some pretty major medical procedures asked me today to help him develop an excel model to beat the Casino at roulette.  He gave me the principles, I just had to translate into an Excel model.  I'm counting on my share of the winnings to retire early! In reality lotteries and other games of chance are just an unfair tax on the poor, the odds of winning are usually 50 Million to 1.  We should make them illegal and replace them with more interesting lotteries:

1. Democracy lottery: At each election a random voter would receive 10 Million € (This would be a big incentive to get people voting)
2. Traffic Ticket Lottery: Every month one person who had payed his traffic fine on time would receive a brand new (electric) car
3. Education Lottery: Every Term one school child from each year who had not missed any classes would be picked to receive a full 4 year full scholarship to university
4. Income tax lottery: Every year one randomly picked tax payer would get a "tax free card" exempting them from income tax for the rest of their life
5. Immigrant lottery: 1 (participating) foreigner from each country in the world would receive a French Passport.  

I'm sure we could think of more, and it would be a more interesting TV show than just watching some numbers pop up.

Day 306 : Licence

I happy to report that Louis passed his driving licence last week.  He had to go back to Canada to take the test as taking it in France would have meant re starting the whole process which would have taken at least 3-4 months for a probable cost of 1,000€.  I find it quite nonsensical that there is a requirement to have taken a certain number of lessons to be able to apply for a driving test.  Surely it should be either one or the other?  If you can pass the test then that should be it.  Similarly, why do taxis have a licence?  It used to be that they had passed a difficult exam testing their knowledge of their city but nowadays taxis just follow their GPS so what is the exam and licence for ?  Similarly we could definitely get rid of the licencing requirements for Estate agents, Lawyers, Chimney sweeps, Grave diggers, Butchers, Opticians and Hairdressers to name just a few.

Day 305 : Opinion

A few days ago I was reading the Opinion page of the Financial Times and I noticed on the right hand side a column entitled "Want to write a piece for the Financial Times op-ed page?".  There were 5 key recommendations to have a chance of being accepted:

1. Think about our readers
2. Write what you know
3. Write clearly and accessibly
4. Use specific examples
5. Be pithy and sharp

Having read the FT's advice it occured to me that I have occasionally expressed opinions in my blog and that I might be able to share them with a wider audience.  The FT expects an opinion piece to be around 800 words and my posts are around 200 words on average so it shouldn't be too difficult to develop one of the ideas I have posted over the last 10 months.  Here is a chance for some of you to get back into the competition.  I will award 1 point for those of you who send me your choice of which one of my previous posts you feel could be developed and 5 points if I decide to pick that one.

Day 304 : Papa

Today was my Dad's birthday.  As he happens to be in Paris he and Isabel are coming round to the house tomorrow for a birthday lunch, also with Ruben.   My Dad was a key figure in building my intellectual curiosity and self esteem.   Irrespective of my grades, occasional laziness and utter failure at French grammar I never felt anything but complete confidence in my capabilities and total support for anything I wanted to do in life (as long as it was becoming a Historian of Science - Sorry Dad).  My Parents were quite young when I was born so by the time I was 5 they were still Students intent on remaking the world.  I remember learning at an early age that if I stayed quiet I could stay up late at the dinner table and listen to my Dad and his friends have long discussions into the night about politics and society.  Later when we were living in England every evening after dinner my Dad and I would have wide ranging conversations as he would wash-up and I would dry the dishes.  Later when I was a teenager I remember my Dad coming home to dinner and talking about his research (he was writing his second doctoral thesis at the time) discussing his latest discoveries and thoughts.  As I grew older, in my late teens and early twenties I appreciated how non judgemental he was, especially when I started bringing girls home.  I never felt that my Dad disapproved of my friends or girlfriends whatever he may have thought of them.  I hope that some of that has rubbed off on me.

So thanks Dad for having given me the self-confidence that comes of being unique and the humility to realise that everyone is unique.

PS: Also "Thanks" for introducing me to cold showers.

Day 303: Anarchist

Dinner Menu:

• Verre de whisky Kavalan
• Tartare de saumon
• Filets de carrelets au four
• Risotto au poireaux et safran
• Tomates cerises au four
• Fromages
• Tarte aux pommes et poires

We had some good friends over for dinner tonight and after a  heated debate about police violence I was called out as an anarchist.  I said yes at the time but in reality although I am sympathetic to the anarchist concept I' m not sure how it could work in practise in view of the society we live in.  Large organisations underpin our way of life in many areas such as infrastructure, hospitals and education, and its difficult how that would work in a stateless society.  The state's job (however well it performs it) is to protect the weak from exploitation and bullying.  If the state is not there to protect the weaker members of society there are only two options left:

1. You accept that many people may be taken advantage of with impunity
2. You hope that the removal of state violence will ultimately result in a fairer, kinder society where all people are equal

What would you choose?