Is Honesty Bad Business?

I've mentioned NASAWatch before and, though I often find it self-serving and focused on the aspects of NASA that interest me least, it's leader, Keith Cowling, pulls up enough interesting stuff (and key information) to make it a worthwhile daily stop for me. I'm not badmouthing the blog; it's just not focused (generally) on the same things I focus on.

However, NASAWatch often finds things I might not readily find on my own and, for that, I'm grateful. Yesterday, it mentioned a blog I've seen before (thanks also to NASAWatch) that I wanted to bloglist but had forgotten (I have it now). Not a rocket scientist, but someone working with NASA on those same topics I don't find interesting, politics and the like, that are part and parcel of the job anyway. In this case, the topic was "speaking out at NASA."

Beth Beck (and I can't begin to describe how ironic I find it that that's her name) stood up and asked a question at a "town meeting" and her interpretation of the reaction after the fact from other NASA folks was off-putting - disbelief, even resentment from others that she had the nerve to ask the question and hasn't yet been punished for it. That anyone expects that reaction is disheartening (and I think that's the point of the blog post).

What rather surprised me was the first comment on NASAWatch which was an attack on Beth Beck and her questions as well as her characterization of other NASA folks - apparently out of sync with business etiquette. Say what?

First of all, NASA isn't a business. It's a public organization for the good of all America, to spend taxpayer money to further our nation's interests. If middle management can't take tough questions, maybe they should be doing something else (and if that IS the case in the real world, perhaps our business model is even more screwed up than I imagined. As I've never worked in the "real world" so the rest of you will have to tell me, is honesty punished? Good heavens, why?).

Now, I'll have to raise my hand with my own reputation as a troublemaker, of asking tough questions at times some thought were awkward. But, unlike Ms. Beck, in the technical world of NASA, the reaction (among coworkers) has always been admiration that I asked it and support if/when there have been repercussions. The managers I've questioned in the past have generally professed gratitude, but I think I'm right to take that with a grain of salt. That technical folks at NASA aren't comfortable asking challenging questions is a sad fact that desperately needs change. But that anyone thinks that's not the way to do business for an organization that is bound by physical (and pitiless) laws is a travesty.

I'm fortunate that I work in an environment where my honest and forthrightness have not cost me much (if anything) and have, over time, worked to my benefit. However, the perception that honesty is not acceptable is still pervasive in many areas, and it's impossible to tell where the perception might be true and where it isn't. In either case, though, it's possible that things that need to be said/asked are not voiced because of the perception. And that's frightening. The fact that these two views can both come forward at the same time, right here and now, shows we aren't where we need to be at NASA and, perhaps, elsewhere as well.

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Thieving Thursday: Do Your Own Homework

I wrote a comment on a left-leaning blog, First Door on the Left, noting a rather interesting exercise done by the New York Times today regarding the President's speech on healthcare reform last night.

Now, ignoring the subject of the speech or politics in general for a moment - because most of you know how I feel on these subjects any way - but I wanted to stress the significance of the diversity of responses to the speech. All of them seemed to claim they knew what the President was "really" saying, and yet the diversity and diametrically opposed nature of much of what was used to describe his intents were, well, shocking.

My comment ended with: "This article, in my opinion, emphasizes why relying on any opinion giver to give you an objective read on a topic is all but impossible. And why, if you want to make an informed decision, you’re going to have to go to the sources and think for your freaking self."

And that's what I want to talk about.

People can believe and think as they want, but it takes a certain amount of nerve to think you have a better grasp on what someone means or thinks or intends than the speaker himself or herself. Actually, it takes a bit of nerve to give the implication of anything - scientific results, guilt in a criminal case, gossip, etc. without making clear the distinction between the facts in the case and one's opinion. But people do that. What bothers me is that other people will - without listening to the original - take that interpretation of whatever with more trust than the original.

Politics is just one of many venues where this is common, but it happens in many places. People get on a blog and complain that so and so got off in a criminal case. OK, maybe someone did, but I'd be careful about taking that assertion at face value without knowing the facts of the case, and I would remember that the jury got the facts in this case not filtered by the media or anything else. Sometimes, I've agreed with the angry blogger or whatever, but only after I've checked the facts myself (such as the case with OJ Simpson). Many times, I see that much of the cited evidence was spurious or ambiguous or that a heinous crime was crying out for someone to blame. Now, I might have a gut reaction to something, think something was true, might even express my opinion, but I do know there's always a chance that a difference exists between what I thought was true and reality.

It happens in science all the time. Some media mogul (or, at least as often, someone with an agenda) puts a slant on scientific results oftentime completely counter to the actual lessons learned from the research. However, if the scientists who created this research complain or object, they are ignored, dismissed or belittled. Now, I tend to give science credence for several reasons, not the least of which is that I'm one of them and believe most of us take our scientific ethics pretty freaking seriously. But, even if I didn't, I also know that scientists are required to show their work and that, if I have questions, concerns or don't agree, I can check it out myself.

But we can do the same. We can find out information on criminal cases or opinions by qualified experts. We can listen to the actual speeches people make or read the text of the actual reports or bills. And, using that information, we can make up our own minds, decide for our own selves what we believe and what we don't, what is the truth and what is speculative. We can do our own thinking instead of having someone do it for us.

And we can figure out whose opinions we should stop trusting.

I know for a fact, I'm much more likely to take an opinion seriously if they include links to the source. It's one reason I still use Wikipedia routinely. It's one reason why snopes is the first place I check if someone forwards some "shocking" something to me via email. In both cases, I've followed the source material, followed the links and done my own reading (and, usually, they are both in excellent sync with the sources). And, if I find an article or story that's short on sources (or objective sources), I know to take those postings with a grain of salt.

Remember, when trying to learn the truth in any situation, get sources as far up the chain as you can is the best way to obtain corrupted data. And, when evaluating, garbage in, garbage out.

When someone lies to you, shame on them. When you cough up lies, well, you haven't done your homework. And that's your fault.

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Saturday Quotathon: Reality

I was thinking about that driving while texting video, which was apparently put together by a little police department in Wales, because I read this editorial - and because the video really grabbed my attention. Now, first, now that I realize that a police department put this together (along with 26 other minutes of film) for $20K, I'm even more impressed, but I'm disgusted in many ways with some of the reactions to it, at least on this side of the pond.

According to this editorial, many are dismayed at the graphic nature and think kids won't be impressed by that. They suggest humor as a way to keep kids from texting. Yeah, good luck with that. Actually, to be honest, I'm impressed because this film emphasizes what is often lost in many driving videos - you're not just putting yourself at risk. The texting/driving girl is injured and clearly traumatized, but you see the devastation she caused. Her friends in her car are dead or badly injured (one is clearly dead). There are parents that may be dead with a little girl screaming for them in the back seat in another car. There's a baby who will never wake up.

Young people have a tendency to think they're immortal. In my opinion, this video is effective because it reminds us that our own immortality isn't all we have to worry about. And there are some things any reasonable person doesn't want to live with. If a kid doesn't care about anybody, it won't affect them. But it made an impression on my daughter. I think it's brilliant.

On that note, I'm going for quotes in line with what I saw in that video and how I felt about it. The first one I found is ironic.

As a teenager you are in the last stage of life when you will be happy to hear the phone is for you.
--Fran Lebowitz

A tree never hits an automobile except in self-defense.
--Joe Moore

Reality is all that stuff that doesn't care if you believe in it or not.
--Solomon Short

Everyone is entitled to an informed opinion.
-- Harlan Ellison

The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it.
--Albert Einstein

Facts do not cease to exist just because they are ignored.
-Aldous Huxley

Ignorance, allied with power, is the most ferocious enemy justice can have.
–James Baldwin

Truth is incontrovertible; malice may attack it and ignorance may deride it; but, in the end; there it is.
-Winston Churchill

It is a mistake always to contemplate the good and ignore the evil, because by making people neglectful it lets in disaster. There is a dangerous optimism of ignorance and indifference.
-Helen Keller

What if there is no tomorrow? There wasn't one today.
-From Groundhog Day

I'm listening. [Elizabeth holds a gun to his face] I'm listening intently.
-Lord Becket from Pirates of the Carribean: Dead Man’s Chest

Self-realization. I was thinking of the immortal words of Socrates, when he said, "I drank what?"
-Chris Knight from Real Genius

Some forms of reality are so horrible we refuse to face them, unless we are trapped into it by comedy. To label any subject unsuitable for comedy is to admit defeat.
-Peter Sellers [apparently, Peter Sellers did not agree with me]

Before you do anything, think. If you do something to try and impress someone, to be loved, accepted or even to get someone's attention, stop and think. So many people are busy trying to create an image, they die in the process.
-Selma Hayak

Seek counsel of him who makes you weep, and not of him who makes you laugh.
-Arabic Proverb

Half-truth is more dangerous than falsehood.
-Bengali Proverb

In all life one should comfort the afflicted, but verily, also, one should afflict the comfortable, and especially when they are comfortably, contentedly, even happily wrong.
- John Kenneth Galbraith

Man is the only animal that laughs and weeps, for he is the only animal that is struck with the difference between what things are, and what they might have been.
- William Hazlitt

That'll do. Interesting that I always have more pertinent quotes than I think I do.

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Classic M*A*S*H

You know, when people talk to me about influences, I have quite a few. Not news or most commentators out there. I hate the news. I read it but I tend to read through the hype and just get what data out I can. When I listen to "newsmen" I just hear the hype and sensationalism. Too many people out there have such an axe to grind. Admittedly, I often have an axe to grind, but I've never pretended this is an objective blog.

People I've known, of course, have influenced me, but more what I learned about being a parent from my own family. Really, compared to much of my family, I don't think like most of them.

But I can readily trace many of my attitudes and thought processes to books I've read, characters I identified with, movies I loved and a few select TV shows that really shaped my youth and, eventually, my adulthood.

The list of pivotal shows that really affected my outlook is short. Star Trek is one, of course, with it's anti-discrimination attitude and higher purposes. And occasional references to vaguely scientific stuff.

But another that has never lost its luster to me, that still reflects many of my attitudes, is M*A*S*H. I remember watching it as a kid. Remembered watching it again in syndication. Now I own them on DVD. It never gets old.

It's not just that it's funny, though it's frequently hilarious. It's not that it's military. That's very rarely appealing to me. It's not that it's medical. Again, that's rarely something I look for.

It's the humanity, an island of decency, in the midst of a huge atrocity. It was about caring about people, first, foremost, always. Race didn't matter. Language didn't matter. Ideology didn't matter. Politics didn't matter. The only thing that mattered was need. The only thing most of the characters cared about was minimizing the horror, saving lives, preventing pain. Their hatred and anger was reserved for those causing pain, standing in their way. And it was indiscriminate.

When I went to college, Larry Linville came to talk to our class. Admittedly, he didn't play one of the characters I liked, but it was fascinating. He said, when they first started the show, a woman came to talk to the crew who had been a nurse in a MASH unit in Korea. For days, he said, she told story after story about what happened. Dozens. And most of those stories, according to Mr. Linville, became the source for show after show.

So, if you want to know how I became the way I am, you have your culprit. Or, at least, one of them.

I'd go on, but, hey, I have shows to watch.

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