DrContrarian

  There is meme floating around social media that goes something like this: Think of how dumb the average guy is. Then realise that half the population is dumber than that. Whilst there is a level of smug superiority in that, there is also an element of truth. An IQ of 100 isn’t much intellectual horsepower. Not that great thinking is a prerequisite to all that matters, but by the same token the invention of mathematics, technological advancement and great art was probably not produced by the bottom half of the bell curve. Averages being what they are; gets us cultural norms that are, well, mediocre. And such is life. The people who created Facebook as a technological platform undoubtedly had well above average IQs. The platform has the potential to be and do amazing things, some of which we have experienced. But consider the average (normal) Facebook post and social experience. It’s about screaming goats on the one hand or people gloating about their breakfast o...

(Or, other people’s money...) Over the years business organisations have been eaten away slowly from the inside by social justice warriors. How this happened, requires us to go back a few years and in the evolution of the business organisation. Business organisations used to have a simple, clear objective: to make a commercial return to their shareholders. To do this, they innovated, developed products and served the needs of the people in a market place where those solutions are traded for cash – at a profit. The business wins and the consumer wins. The thin edge of the wedge has been sustainability, introduced some two decades ago, by the proponents of sustainability who proffered a solution to a problem that did not exist. They suggested that organisations should broaden their focus to include an emphasis on environment and on community. Broadening the focus automatically and explicitly also equates to a dilution of focus – that stands to reason. That is the guarante...

I attended the ‘Presentation Day’ at my son’s primary school today. As a matter of principle I put all my children through the public school system (as opposed to private schools). There are probably 300 or so kids in the school and has reasonable ethnic diversity. It was the principal’s last presentation day – not sure where he is going but he is leaving. The cadre of female teachers appeared scarily close to 5 years from retirement. It was my first presentation day – you should know that too. I have successfully avoided any involvement with the school (from parents’ nights to fundraising events to presentation days) for the better part of 14 years now. My deal with the school is that I will educate my children (including a solid set of values) and the school can provide the schooling: call me if you have a problem, otherwise we leave each other well alone. This is not as weird as it sounds at first; but as an educator myself I feel that riding shotgun for my child while the teachers ...

Blogging is as hard as I thought: When it is time to pack up and go to bed... the duty of the blog calls. It is particularly hard when nobody reads the blog - as I have only told 3 people and I have done zero linking/marketing/ etc. But I would like to have a bit of content before directing visitors to the site. The problem is that I have been indecisive about how I wanted to position the blog. What would make it different enough to attract a few visitors, yet mainstream enough to be relevant to a significant market? Then there is the challenge of having content worth blogging about, but not going off the edge and when business associates and clients read it, think I am as mad as a hatter. (And of course doing all of that whilst remaining truthful and not pretending...) Today I decided what my particular soapbox was going to be, and it is ... bullshitting. There is so much of it around (i.e. a huge market) and I think cutting through the crap, being ruthless about the truth and being h...