We want our children to live in a happier world. But, happiness cannot be wished into existence in a petri dish. Happiness must be a consequence of the conditions that we create. How can we create such conditions? In light of the tragedies we are seeing, how do we take meaningful actions?
We must examine our past mistakes.
In my Operations class, I sometimes show the above quote from technologist and thinker Paul Saffo. Forecasting is often thought of as divination. We mistake confidence for wisdom. We find folly in doubt. Firms invest in toolkits, buy software, and hire sales personnel for forecasting. But, forecasting is about actions to create a better future.
The future will not be a replay of the past. It does not mean that we ignore the past. David Frum, a former presidential speechwriter, has often tweeted, “History never repeats itself. It only appears to do so to those who do not pay attention to the details”. We cannot improve if we continue on the same path as before. To meet the new future, we should truly learn from our errors in the past. Our mistakes are like echoes from the past. They are foghorns that pierce through the mist of uncertainty.
Choose Character over Credentials.
First, we should start with ourselves. Heraclitus said Character is Destiny. We should strive to be citizens worthy of a better world. These ideals are not a pipe dream. They can come true even though we are often imperfect. In 1909, Tolstoy praised a Christ-like man …
“ you have not told us a syllable about the greatest general and greatest ruler of the world. We want to know something about him. He was a hero. He spoke with a voice of thunder; he laughed like the sunrise and his deeds were strong as the rock and as sweet as the fragrance of roses. […] He was so great that he even forgave the crimes of his greatest enemies and shook brotherly hands with those who had plotted against his life. His name was Lincoln and the country in which he lived is called America, which is so far away that if a youth should journey to reach it he would be an old man when he arrived.”
These ideals appear far and distant only because of our laziness and turpitude. Like the drivers that have perfected the art of rolling on without stopping at the stop signs, we have been lulled into a careless abandon. We rank our comfort over safety and fairness.
Dignity and discipline need constant cultivation. Equality needs tirelessness. Otherwise, these ideals will survive only in our language.
The tenets of democracy require that everyone can choose, but the ideals of democracy require that not anyone is chosen. It is important, even more than before, that men and women of impeccable character should be leading us.
End Finite Games.
Religious Studies scholar James Carse writes that there are two ways to live our life: as a series of finite games, valuing achievements, or a long infinite game, valuing morals.
Our insouciance is reflected in our diminished ambitions nowadays. Our professional successes are now points scored in arcane Rube-Goldberg life contraptions. No more pinnacles, but there are many mini-peaks.
We see finite games everywhere we care to look: academic achievements, boardrooms, tenure, successful venture exits, TV appearances, job promotions, home renovations, and even in august court appointments.
Our ambitions must be an infinite game, demanding a deep reservoir of introspection. If all it takes to succeed is tactics, our education would be bereft of learning. Our purpose is neither the journey nor the destination. Instead, it is the fastest time taken to reach the next rest stop. Our private zeniths are encomiums from our chosen peers in hyper-curated social and professional circles. How facetious is our moment of acclaim?
In software development, there is a concept called “walled gardens”. A walled garden is an eco-system (often owned by a firm) that keeps its technology and information to itself. Societally, we are trapped in a gigantic maze interlocking many walled gardens. Citizens of walled gardens don’t (want to) share anything. We rejoice in our finite achievements pleased by the ephemeral likes from people in our circle.
We have stacked our institutions, governments, and firms with prodigies who excel in the finite games in a walled garden. They take pride in their past achievements, display their status and power. During the senate trial, the fan gallery went gaga over the erudite usage of “pettifogging”. We cheered the cleverness and then went back to our walled gardens to watch our next binge-worthy streaming show recommended by an engine. Pettifogging indeed. We were busy chastising deviations from decorum during the slow-motion robbery of a nation’s morals.
A finite game was being won, while an infinite game was being lost.
Listen to the Young.
The Internet and social media for all its faults can make us better people. It did not get us flying cars. Instead, it has blown a hole in our walled gardens exposing the barrenness of our actions. It did not take 280 characters to reveal the lack of our character. The good denizens in the walled gardens are shocked — shocked — to discover the world is not the same as they always saw it.
From every poll that I have seen, there has been a sea-change of opinions. I could quote the statistics. But data alone isn’t our savior. We who look over data, should not overlook morals. This is a just cause.
All the data in the world do not translate the starkness between depravity and destitution in a single death. What we know now sickens us. The flashes of weapons and the crookedness of the evil weighing down as the lights in the eyes flicker out. It hurts that iniquity has been repeatedly, overwhelmingly, and casually doled out to black citizens. Black Lives Matter.
We dishonor everything that we hold sacred when citizens are persecuted everywhere based on their skin. We can no longer continue to couch our ignorance as stoicism.
We should thank the young. There are thousands of people — young people of all colors — marching in the streets for the weakest and the voiceless, in the middle of a pandemic. As sure as the night follows daylight, some will fall sick and may even die. They have put their lives where their heart is.
We face a moral duty to live up to their idealism. It is an honor and once-in-a-generation opportunity. We should exit our walled gardens and strive for equality.
A nation rests not on the finiteness of its past achievements, but in the infiniteness of its aspiration for its citizens.