A silly thing to get upset about

Posted by on

There is a Christian liberal arts college in Illinois called Wheaton College. One of the teachers there, professor of science Larycia Hawkins, an African American, mentioned on her Facebook page that Christians and Moslems worship the same god, and undertook to wear the hijab during Advent in solidarity with American moslems. The last time I looked mainline Christians and Moslems worship the same god. Indeed, they share the same prophets.

She was told by the head of the college that her comments “raised significant theological questions” and that she should provide a theological statement to explain her position. Hawkins refused and she was placed on administrative leave. She has since resigned, saying that she didn’t want to be subjected to “a theological inquisition”. To be fair, Hawkins received stout support from her fellow faculty members, but the incident illustrates both the feeling against moslems in some parts of America and highlights the fact that America evangelicals, who believe in a Trinitarian God, reject the beliefs in god shared by Judaism and Islam. Theologians apparently can’t agree whether Christians and Muslims understand God in the same way, nor do they define “worship” similarly.

As an Epicurean this is a storm in a teacup and would be funny if these people were not so vocal, political and powerful. Apparently, it is not only the students who are becoming intolerant of other people’s views. Epicurus would probably exhort them to drop the intolerance and treat their fellow men with respect.

The peril of knowing no history, and misunderstanding what little you do know

Posted by on

“Conquests and wars of choice always bring unexpected consequences and never bring happiness. The seeking for security with massive armies is an illusion. While you are fighting to be secure, matters at home all too often deteriorate, especially if only a small part of the population benefits from the profits.” (Montaigne)

Tell this to the people who are claiming that America armed forces have been allowed to decline; that as President, they will boost expenditure on them, and that we should still be occupying Iraq, Afghanistan, sorting out Syria and Libya, punishing North Korea, confronting Cuba and generally policing the world. Oh, and reducing the national debt simultaneously. Perpetual war equals perpetual decline. Montaigne was smart enough to spot this centuries ago; our politicians and special interests have yet to absorb the lessons of history.

The dark side of techie paradise

Posted by on

Tech start-ups are supposedly a paradise for “talent”, with their “nap pods”, Cordon Bleu chefs and yoga classes. But not everyone benefits from the “pay-and-perks arms race” under way in Silicon Valley. Indeed, last year a survey of 5,000 tech workers found that many feel “alienated, trapped, underappreciated and otherwise discombobulated”: only 19% said they felt happy in their jobs. Lavish perks tend to disguise the fact that the tech economy is “a ruthless meritocracy”. While the most talented workers can command “princes’ ransoms”, the merely good are “expendable”. Attracted by the promise of share options, “they work like dogs” in the hopes of making a fortune when the firm goes public – but tech firms often use multiple classes of shares to ensure that the biggest gains are preserved for “insiders”, while ordinary employees get “common stock” that can easily lose value. And with many so-called “unicorns” – tech outfits valued above $1bn – turning out to be “subprime”, a lot of middle-rankers are facing disappointment. “If there is another tech bust, it will be the employees who will be hurt most.” (Schumpeter,The Economist)

What people forget is that they, like the rest of us, grow old and older. The tech industry is a young man’s world. By the time you are 40 (maybe 35?) you are too old – young whizz kids are more up-to-date and are snapping at your heels. You have other responsibilities, and your energy is less. So what do you do when they “let you go” in the disagreeable American phrase? New jobs get more and more difficult to find, and that figure of age on your CV is a killer. Moral: loyalty in places like Silicon Valley may not be rewarded. Give it ten years and get out. Companies have no longer any loyalty to you.

Epicureanism opposes profit at any cost and dumping employees, often at a time when older employees have the burden of education costs. There are rewards for companies who look after staff with experience and greater wisdom. They don’t at the moment get the point.

The damaging ubiquity of consultants

Posted by on

The “incestuous relationship” between business schools and management consultancies is nothing new, but it seems to have stepped up a gear. Placement statistics published by the Financial Times suggest consultancies are now luring the majority of MBA graduates, offering salaries of up to $145,000 a year. Meanwhile, growing numbers of senior management consultants are teaching or becoming heads of business schools. In short, we have a system in which both MBA students, and the institutions that teach them, are increasingly detached from the real world of business; a kind of “Ponzi scheme of inexperience”. Perhaps this wouldn’t matter if consultants weren’t so influential. But, despite their lack of direct business know-how, they end up advising institutions everywhere – and often running them. McKinsey alumni alone have taken senior positions at Google, Sears, AT&T, Citicorp and Merrill Lynch. In his 2013 book on McKinsey, “The Firm”, Duff McDonald argued that the consultancy “has done nothing less than set the course of American capitalism”. No wonder things are such a mess. (Sathnam Sanghera, The Times, London)

All too often answers are staring management in the face. Consultants are called in because the managers themselves lack the courage to make tricky decisions, and find it politically convenient to have outsiders to blame if change goes wrong. If they quietly asked their staff, the most knowledgable people, for suggestions, they could get good ideas without calling in people who have absolutely no knowledge of the industry, and who will only ask the employees their opinions anyway. But CEOs, paid more and more outrageously, spend shareholder’s money to get recommendations that they could arrive at quite simply using common sense. The only exception to the above is the consultant with a genuine knowledge of a technical speciality, such a computing. Leadership is not a virtue found copiously in modern business.

Is there a happiness gene?

Posted by on

It seems there is a specific gene variant – an “allele” – that regulates sensory pleasure and pain reduction; and the more of it found in a population, the happier that population tends to be. Researchers from Bulgaria and Hong Kong discovered that Ghana, Mexico and Nigeria all had populations with a high incidence of this particular allele, and all came high on the happiness scale. The appearance of the genetic feature was least common in the people of Jordan, Iraq, Hong Kong, China, Thailand and Taiwan, and they were the ones least likely to rate themselves as very happy. The same analogy held within Europe: people in the UK, Sweden and other northern nations were found to have a much higher prevalence of the allele, and to feature higher on the happiness spectrum, than their cousins in Italy and elsewhere in the South. However, the researchers acknowledge that the prevalence of the allele isn’t always the determining factor. There is a relatively high incidence of it in Russia, yet its people are not very happy; this may perhaps be explained by its political and economic situation. Happiness levels have also recently fallen in Egypt; probably, as the scientists surmise, due to the political upheavals.

This seems a stretch. Why don’t I believe it? If a bunch of violent drug hoodlums can over-ride this newfound allele (see Mexico) it can’t be very robust. If you have been mis-governed for centuries (see Iraq and China) the same can be said. My personal observation, for what it’s worth, is that, next to the Italians, Greeks and other South Europeans (who know how to live) the North Europeans are comparatively dour and sad (see Finland). No, I think happiness is a matter of individual circumstances and early environment. Maybe future research will prove me wrong, but someone wrote a while ago in the New Scientist that too much can be made of genetics and not enough of “stuff happening”.