It occurred to me recently that many of the ads that I see on television these days talk about something great that can happen to you if only you will buy their product or service. The ads show people who have lost huge amounts of weight, made thousands of dollars, or accomplished other amazing feats*. Everyone is smiling and talking about how great life is now that they are thin, rich, or otherwise so much better off since they used the product or service*.
Images are flashing across the screen with subtle, and not so subtle, almost promises that if only you're fat, poor, or otherwise impoverished self would invest your money, that you, too, could have all of this!* It always amazes me that some movie star, with whom we have nothing in common when it comes to life style, can somehow entice us to spend our hard-earned money on a chance. This is especially funny when we see a star, who has been overweight more times than we can count, telling us how great this diet program is. Doesn't anyone stop to wonder about the fact that he or she is being paid huge amounts of money and is receiving huge amounts of support in order to recover his or her sveltness?
Someone else (a regular guy) is sitting in his Mercedes convertible telling you how is just started his business four months ago and he is already collecting $10,000 each month working only 9 hours per week.* Other testimonials reel across the screen including Mr. and Mrs. Ordinaire smiling as they stand in front of their new mansion that they bought with their first year's profits.*
Case after case in commercial after commercial entices us to follow these success stories with our investment. All the while the little asterisk at the bottom of the screen is telling us the truth - results are not typical. Does anyone stop to wonder about what typical means? The American Heritage dictionary defines typical as "exhibiting the qualities, traits, or characteristics that identify a kind, class, group, or category: a typical suburban community."
Consider the Pareto Principle (the 80/20 rule): 80% of the work will be done by 20% of the people; 80% of the alcohol in any given bar will be drunk by 20% of those present. Or, 80% of the wonderfulness of product being advertised will be experienced by only 20% of the people who buy it; and that is probably stretching things a lot.
Another way to look at this is that the little asterisk is screaming, "THIS WILL NOT BE YOU!!!"
If there is anything that is typical, it is the fact that the results are not typical. In the face of being virtually promised that we will not experience these results, we continue to take the chance. Perhaps the lottery has reinforced this for us. In America, we have an entreprenuerial spirit. We take chances. We love to have our dream machines polished and running. Someone eventually wins the $160,000,000 jackpot; and someone's life might be changed by reading this blog, but...*
*Results are not typical
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Saturday, April 21, 2007
Help! Tech Support
A friend told me this story just the other day. It is something that I had heard in a joke at one time with only minor changes in the details. As a joke it is funny. As a real story, it is a sad commentary on how people treat one another.
Tech Support for a high-tech company gets a call from one of the muckity-mucks who has somehow dropped his cell phone in the toilet of the men's room at work. (I know what you are thinking, "how is that a tech support problem?" My question exactly!) When the Tech Support guy arrives, the muckity-muck tells the tech guy to get the phone out of the toilet. Somehow, reaching into a toilet is easier for the techy? I don't think so.
Well, the Tech Support guy was no dummy. He got a plastic bag, pulled it over his arm, reached into the toilet and grabbed the phone. No muss - no fuss. Now, a question: who should be making the bigger bucks, the guy who doesn't have the balls, or the brains, to do the job for himself, or the Tech Support guy who got the job done? Perhaps an even bigger question: what does this say about the muckity-muck's attitude toward others?
Each day we are each faced with the same choice: accept responsibility for our actions or not. Many times those choices are known only to us. Selfish choices often go unnoticed by others. If we are really well-practiced, those choices might even go unnoticed by us. Then, putting "me first" becomes our autopilot. Rationalizations abound; we hear them all the time, "Well, it's his job. It is certainly not mine!" In the end, however, we each know the truth. It only takes some reflection, and the willingness to accept what we see.
Much like the adage that "to have love, one must first let it go," real power in our lives emerges only after we let go of the power to coerce or reward that often comes with position. It is the person known for integrity, and the willingness to step into the fire, who is surrounded by others more than willing to stand in the person's place in the face of challenge.
Tech Support for a high-tech company gets a call from one of the muckity-mucks who has somehow dropped his cell phone in the toilet of the men's room at work. (I know what you are thinking, "how is that a tech support problem?" My question exactly!) When the Tech Support guy arrives, the muckity-muck tells the tech guy to get the phone out of the toilet. Somehow, reaching into a toilet is easier for the techy? I don't think so.
Well, the Tech Support guy was no dummy. He got a plastic bag, pulled it over his arm, reached into the toilet and grabbed the phone. No muss - no fuss. Now, a question: who should be making the bigger bucks, the guy who doesn't have the balls, or the brains, to do the job for himself, or the Tech Support guy who got the job done? Perhaps an even bigger question: what does this say about the muckity-muck's attitude toward others?
Each day we are each faced with the same choice: accept responsibility for our actions or not. Many times those choices are known only to us. Selfish choices often go unnoticed by others. If we are really well-practiced, those choices might even go unnoticed by us. Then, putting "me first" becomes our autopilot. Rationalizations abound; we hear them all the time, "Well, it's his job. It is certainly not mine!" In the end, however, we each know the truth. It only takes some reflection, and the willingness to accept what we see.
Much like the adage that "to have love, one must first let it go," real power in our lives emerges only after we let go of the power to coerce or reward that often comes with position. It is the person known for integrity, and the willingness to step into the fire, who is surrounded by others more than willing to stand in the person's place in the face of challenge.
Sunday, April 1, 2007
Outerspace man
One day I was sitting in a class on the peripheral nervous system. It was one of the driest courses I ever took. It wasn't the material that was dry. The instructor was notorious for his monotone lectures and curt answers to questions from class members. Your took your life in your hands if you asked a question. The old adage that there are no dumb questions did not apply in that class. The assumption that exuded from the podium was that any question indicated a lack of preparation prior to taking the course, a failure to study during the course, that you're an idiot, or that it's a dumb question.
This was another humdrum day in class. Everyone was assembled when Dr. X appeared. There were over 150 people in the class. Most people had a set of printed notes that had been transcribed from a recorded lecture four years earlier. It was uncanny how the lectures, now four years later, corresponded to the notes. For example, the notes from four years ago might say, "Last time we met, we discussed the otic ganglion." When Dr. X began his lecture this day, he would say, "Last time we met, we discussed the otic ganglion." And that was the way each day of the course proceeded.
One day we're all sitting there as Dr. X droned on and on. A student raises his hand to ask a question. Dr. X eventually recognizes the student who then asks, "Dr. X, are you aware of literature that suggests that deep sulci in the cortex are related to increased intelligence?" (Sulci, the plural of 'sulcus', are the little valleys, or grooves, in the gray matter that makes up the outer part of the brain.)
Dr. X looks up over the top of his glasses and surveys the room. There is what seems to be a long pause. Then, Dr. X begins his response, "well, smooth brain,..." That was all anyone heard as the classroom erupted in laughter. It would not, however, be the last time this particular student asked a question out of nowhere.
On another occasion in the following term during renal-pulmonary physiology class, this same student again raised his hand. The instructor was from India and was difficult to understand as a result of her accent. Students had to concentrate to get anything out of the lecture. In the middle of class a hand goes up; it's him (Outerspace man again). The lecturer recognizes the student, who proceeds to ask, "Dr. Y, where do you buy your Indian condiments." She was talking about partial oxygen levels in the blood; and he wants to know about her cooking!
All heads turn in the direction of the questioner as Dr. Y is looking at him with that "What the @%$#?" look on her face. The class is waiting for her answer. We have a standard that was set a quarter ago by Dr. X; Dr. Y must say something good. She must do something like getting angry or something! Instead, she deflects the question as one would a four-year-old whose attention has wandered at a preschool...what a let down.
It is interesting to think about the variety of ways people think and live out their lives. To us, some of the things they say sounds nuts, but their lives seem to be working for them.
Outerspace man lived to see another day. This, however, was not his last performance. There was this question about mitochondria from outer space...
This was another humdrum day in class. Everyone was assembled when Dr. X appeared. There were over 150 people in the class. Most people had a set of printed notes that had been transcribed from a recorded lecture four years earlier. It was uncanny how the lectures, now four years later, corresponded to the notes. For example, the notes from four years ago might say, "Last time we met, we discussed the otic ganglion." When Dr. X began his lecture this day, he would say, "Last time we met, we discussed the otic ganglion." And that was the way each day of the course proceeded.
One day we're all sitting there as Dr. X droned on and on. A student raises his hand to ask a question. Dr. X eventually recognizes the student who then asks, "Dr. X, are you aware of literature that suggests that deep sulci in the cortex are related to increased intelligence?" (Sulci, the plural of 'sulcus', are the little valleys, or grooves, in the gray matter that makes up the outer part of the brain.)
Dr. X looks up over the top of his glasses and surveys the room. There is what seems to be a long pause. Then, Dr. X begins his response, "well, smooth brain,..." That was all anyone heard as the classroom erupted in laughter. It would not, however, be the last time this particular student asked a question out of nowhere.
On another occasion in the following term during renal-pulmonary physiology class, this same student again raised his hand. The instructor was from India and was difficult to understand as a result of her accent. Students had to concentrate to get anything out of the lecture. In the middle of class a hand goes up; it's him (Outerspace man again). The lecturer recognizes the student, who proceeds to ask, "Dr. Y, where do you buy your Indian condiments." She was talking about partial oxygen levels in the blood; and he wants to know about her cooking!
All heads turn in the direction of the questioner as Dr. Y is looking at him with that "What the @%$#?" look on her face. The class is waiting for her answer. We have a standard that was set a quarter ago by Dr. X; Dr. Y must say something good. She must do something like getting angry or something! Instead, she deflects the question as one would a four-year-old whose attention has wandered at a preschool...what a let down.
It is interesting to think about the variety of ways people think and live out their lives. To us, some of the things they say sounds nuts, but their lives seem to be working for them.
Outerspace man lived to see another day. This, however, was not his last performance. There was this question about mitochondria from outer space...
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