Why smart people defend bad ideas

This was an interesting essay written by Scott Berkun. Well...he had plenty to write, few obvious things and many insightful comments.

The obvious - "The problem with smart people is that they like to be right and sometimes will defend ideas to the death rather than admit they’re wrong."

The insightful - "The primary point is that no amount of intelligence can help an individual who is diligently working at the wrong level of the problem. Someone with wisdom has to tap them on the shoulder and say, “Um, hey. The hole you’re digging is very nice, and it is the right size. But you’re in the wrong yard.”"

Overkill of an analogy, but still-
"I was never very good at pool, but this one guy there was, and whenever we’d play, he’d watch me miss easy shots because I tried to force them in with authority. I chose speed and power over control, and I usually lost. So like pool, when it comes to defusing smart people who are defending bad ideas, you have to find ways to slow things down."

And he says-"If you want your smart people to be as smart as possible, seek a diversity of ideas. Find people with different experiences, opinions, backgrounds, weights, heights, races, facial hair styles, colors, past-times, favorite items of clothing, philosophies, and beliefs. Unify them around the results you want, not the means or approaches they are expected to use."

Something about Scott- "He left his comfortable industry job to go after a life goal: filling the bookshelf near his desk with books he's written". I'm impressed.

huh

There is something very human about "sarcasm", which perhaps, the machine could never ever imitate. huhcorp has plenty of devilishly satirical site content and the dead-serious Google ads. btw, that huh chick is looking amazing.

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I have quite a backlog, as to what to read, and watch. The wishlist is growing large. I would like to read "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" sometime. I am not hooked to the Star Wars series, but would like to watch Revenge of the Sith anyway, for the sake of completion of the series perhaps. Want to read something literary too, but there is a right time for everything..and I ain't in a hurry.

Cool Hand Luke

Paul Graham is one essayist I respect, not only because he says the things I'm most likely to agree to, but also because he says them with lot of conviction. Hell, I want to be able to write like him.
That apart, his latest essay is about hiring being obsolete. The Point being, "The three big powers on the Internet now are Yahoo, Google, and Microsoft. Average age of their founders: 24. So it is pretty well established now that grad students can start successful companies. And if grad students can do it, why not undergrads?", even though he accepts that "The 1/10 success rate for startups is a bit of an urban legend. It's suspiciously neat. My guess is the odds are slightly worse."

Well, someone(anonymity intentional) wrote me this-

"So, I hear you're starting your own business?

Welcome, welcome.

Welcome to 16 hour days, and your employees earning more than you. Welcome to heartache and racking your brains for something to give you an edge, calling on experience you don't have yet. Welcome to doing boring and tedious tasks that if you fail, can land you in prison, like accounting and keeping receipts. Welcome to trying to protect your ideas from much larger and more powerful companies who will take and exploit them in a heartbeat.

Welcome to getting your first solicitor. Welcome to earning far less than minimum wage for months on end, and lets not forget that you may never get anything back. Welcome to friends and family slowly becoming more distant as you have no time to devote to them, welcome to becoming a fanatical zealot, welcome, oh yes, welcome to compromising most of your ideals just to stay afloat.

Welcome to management - you're the boss now! Welcome to having to see both sides of the story, welcome to slow or non paying customers, welcome to learning how to manipulate your fellow man to achieve your ends, welcome to grey hair and addiction to mild stimulants.

Welcome, welcome, one and all. Do stay a while.

And that light at the end of the tunnel you are striving for?Well I'm not sure what it is, exactly, are you?"

well, every word above said is true, 100% of it, but remember the goal is to kick ass. Yes, indeed.

Of five points and bad karma

Recently, I got moderator access on slashdot for three days, which meant I had five points to mod up or down any post. I have been active on the forum, as a result my karma level has been fluctuating lately.
Slashdot is an interesting concept, that too a pretty successful one..a perfect example of self-sustained organically growing entity. Other examples, I can think of are wikipedia and experts-exchange... orkut had shown some promise and grown pretty quickly in its early days..but somewhere it lost track. This is not to say that I am comparing orkut with slashdot. Of course, there can't be any comparision. orkut has almost five times more users than slashdot, orkut is just one year old, while slashdot is around for 8 years ,yet, the level of participation on slashdot is much larger and much more intriguing.

Side note: New blog

I've added a new blog. I've certain plans with both the blogs. I hope to see myself more consistent with blogging.

Why Ronin : this is what dictionary has to say about "Ronin"

"In Japan, under the feudal system, a samurai who had renounced his clan or who had been discharged or ostracized and had become a wanderer without a lord; an outcast; an outlaw"

Well...I feel being pretty close to this word.