Journals of Doc Surge

Sep 28

Beyond Left & Right Politics

September 28, 2008 by Chris Billows in Political Ponderings 0 comments tags: Change of Mind, Political Opinion

When I was part of the Green Party, we kept telling ourselves that we were beyond Left & Right politics. In fact we said, we are neither Left or Right but out in front. We told everyone that we were thinking forward. In its own way, it made sense. The Greens have helped expand the political debate which has illustrated the inadequacy of the Right vs Left dichotomy. I believe that the entire Right vs Left political spectrum is so archaic it should be completely thrown away. Its history stretches all the way back to the 18th Century which may indicate why it no longer is relevant to modern times. The Right vs Left spectrum was born during the French Revolutionary era, where the Right and Left political positions refers to the seating arrangements in the various legislative bodies of France. At that time, the aristocracy sat on the right of the Speaker while the commoners sat on the left. “The Right” was made up aristocratic or royal interests, including the church, while “the Left” was represented mainly the interests of the bourgeoisie and early capitalists. At that time, support for free market capitalism were issues promoted by the Left […]

Sep 12

A Thousand Dollars for Getting the 2012 Prophecy Correct

September 12, 2008 by Chris Billows in Mental Mischief 0 comments tags: Defining Life, Foolishness, Human Condition

There are a bunch of books and videos talking about the impending end of the world in 2012 as predicted by the Mayans. The Mayans are a long dead culture who appeared to have died themselves. You would think that given their perceived aptitude to prophecy, they could have avoided their own fate. Anyways, supposedly we have only four pieces of what were thousands of ‘books’ that talk about the cosmological system. It is like guessing the end of a book with only the first few pages. How can we be sure? Well, I guess pretending to be sure that the world will end in 2012 helps to sell lots of books To demonstrate the absurdity about predicting the end of the world, I pledge to give $1,000 Canadian to the author/blogger who is closest to correctly predicting the end of the earth in 2012. After the world ends, and your date is the closest to the date the world ends, you can contact me and I will Paypal you the money. No gimmicks or trickery here. Not only will you have the money but the personal satisfaction in being right.

Sep 05

Keep Asking Until You Get The Answer You Want

September 05, 2008 by Chris Billows in Business Beller 0 comments tags: Customer Service, Defining Life, Human Condition

I just dealt with a situation where my financial institution originally said no to me when I tried open up a new business savings account. I expressed my frustration, then went ahead and asked another branch manager to do the same thing – he said yes. It just proves to me that people are more important than institutions. One person interprets rules one way, the other a different way. The thing to remember is not to ask for something that is unreasonable or illegal. In my case it was about the interpretation about a specific banking package. I explained to both how both the documentation and the staff below them interpreted the account the same way I did. That reasoning did not work with the person who said no, but thankfully worked with the person who said yes. Of course, I am more interested in bringing my personal business to the reasonable branch manager. Giving the answer the customer expects is easily the simplest way to retain them.

Aug 28

The Game of Monopoly: A Lesson in Boring Game Design

August 28, 2008 by Chris Billows in Hobby Heedings 2 comments tags: Games Analysis

I personally don’t understand why Monopoly is liked as much as it is. Its immense popularity is demonstrated by estimates that over 750 million people have played the game. That is sad to me because while the game idea is intriguing (acquiring properties and become a business monopoly), the implementation is boring. Two of the critical aspects of a good game is being presented meaningful choices and keeping the outcome interesting, both which Monopoly lacks. The lack of interesting choices is the first problem. You move around the board and purchase properties. Yes, there is some strategy to that, but generally there are more desirable properties that everyone wants. Once the best properties are bought, your chance of getting any of them is very remote. Trading is something you have control over but again that is pretty set since most people will not trade Park Place for Mediterranean Avenue. The choices that Monopoly presents to the player are just not interesting enough. The second problem with Monopoly then rears its ugly head. Once you are behind, there is very little chance of catching up. When a person has control of most of the board, your chance of actually defeating him […]

Aug 25

An Ecology of Taxpayers

August 25, 2008 by Chris Billows in Spirit Speculations 0 comments tags: Comprehensive Analysis, Human Condition, Political Opinion

In Canada and other western nations, government provides allot of services to its citizens. All of this is funded by taxpayers. The biggest problem is that governments and its agencies spend the taxpayers’ money in ways that ends up creating further obligations on the taxpayer. The Canadian Taxpayers Association tirelessly works to make government more accountable and while they can be too ideological and short sighted in their criticism of all taxes, I do agree with their general view that governments are bigger than they should be. Taxpayers are the source for all government income yet not all taxpayers are created equal and like any ecological system, some species are more critical than others. I see there being four different kinds of taxpayers, each distinguished by their importance to the healthy functioning of the tax and government systems. Essential Taxpayers – Individuals and corporations that work in private industry. In addition to consumption taxes, they also pay high personal income taxes. These guys are the main funders of the tax system and without them no system is sustainable. Productivity Taxpayers – Individuals and corporations that work in the private industry but do not earn much money or profit. Instead their […]

Aug 23

Equating Fame with Talent is like Telling Time with a Thermostat

August 23, 2008 by Chris Billows in Spirit Speculations 2 comments tags: Comprehensive Analysis, Foolishness

I was at a concert where I and a friend watched Tinsley Ellis perform. Tinsley is a a great blues musician and while we both agreed that we got our entertainment dollar’s worth with his performance, we disagreed about the quality of the opening act. The band that opened was named Deano and the Funky Bunnies, a local band that made a spirited effort to bring their cover tunes alive. My friend said that he was not surprised that they were confined to obscurity since they were not as talented and famous as Tinsley. I challenged him to define what talent is. Is it the ability to play the same music as well as Tinsley? Is it the ability to write your own music? Is it something else like fame? His ill-defined notion of talent is just a sneaky way of pretending that one particular artist is better than another. If talent means playing a blues song as well as Tinsley, then I am convinced that most reasonably capable musicians would be able to play something just as well as him. It would take time, some more than others to learn the piece, but they would all be be able […]

Home

Beyond Left & Right Politics

A Thousand Dollars for Getting the 2012 Prophecy Correct

Keep Asking Until You Get The Answer You Want

The Game of Monopoly: A Lesson in Boring Game Design

An Ecology of Taxpayers

Equating Fame with Talent is like Telling Time with a Thermostat

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