FOR MY 55TH COLLEGE REUNION BOOK

In recent years I've often pondered what nuggets of wisdom I wish I had known as a freshman in September of 1961.   The following come to mind which we should take every opportunity to teach to the young. (I do.)

(1) Figures with authority, status or charisma deserve respect but, lacking evidence, modest credence.  I spent the summer of 1962 in the basement of Widener Library reading every page of the New York Times from 1928 to 1939.  Takeaway: no one knew anything; the same is true now. This "ultimate de-authorizing experience" permitted me significant accomplishments later in life. 

(2) Sturgeon's Law is an underestimate.

(3) As a general rule old ways which have gradually evolved are less harmful than new and untested initiatives.  Change is not bad per se, but don't go for change without clearly thinking through as many foreseeable consequences as you can and then slowly testing and perfecting the proposed change until you know from evidence that it does what you want without adverse unforeseen effects.

(4) Clearly and precisely specify every problem or issue you need to deal with, change or fix.  If you can't do that with sufficient precision either to measure or at least to order alternatives, you're not ready to deal with it. 

(5) Deprecate borrowing money, whether in business or personally. You can generally work on cash and savings if you watch your pennies and live modestly.  I've lived my life and built several businesses in this way.   I've slept well through financial crashes in two countries and prospered when I had cash and others didn't--including many institutional leaders much much more highly paid than I.

(6) Be humble and flexible but always follow your principles.  Failing to do so will eventually produce bad consequences and perhaps lifelong regret. (Out of kindness or perhaps personal weakness I once gave someone a pass on a serious legal violation; it was a big mistake.)

(7) The rule about trusting authority figures applies equally to medicine.  Much of the medical advice we receive is harmful.   I know this to be true from having a daughter in medical school, and from my own experience as an induced diabetic due to the compelling need for 18 months of auto-immune disorder steroid treatment.   My daughter warned me that the protocol recommending statin therapy was defective, and my own research showed that the protocol recommending metformin for pre-diabetic obesity was also defective. I researched the issues carefully, ignored the statin/metformin prescriptions and instead dropped certain foods almost completely (toxic but in everyone's diet in America since part of the official dietary recommendations).  My vital numbers normalized to the joy of my endocrinologist at my next routine appointment.  She complimented me, prepared to write a new metformin prescription, and was shocked when I told her I had ceased taking metformin.  Until the day he retired the PCP who prescribed statins never reconciled himself to my non-compliance.

(8) The rule of behavioral influence is it starts with charismatic figures or those superior in status and then becomes reinforced and compulsory from peer pressure.   Fixing the toxic diet and toxic lifestyle of Americans has to start with that rule in mind.  We'll know America is serious about fixing its health problems when the president, cabinet, medical body leaders, senators, heads of important companies, movie stars, and sports figures all go on television and social media and repeat again and again and again (and prominently live by) these rules:

 * Abstain from sugar or any food adulterated with added sugar.

 * Abstain from all fizzy drinks except plain carbonated water.

 * Minimize consumption of corn, wheat, potatoes and rice. Substitute beans, lentils and chickpeas.

 * Minimize consumption of red meats.

 * Mostly prepare your own food.

 * Weigh yourself daily.   If your weight is above optimal, stop eating until it normalizes.

 * Sleep without an alarm clock.   Bed down timely to wake naturally.

 * Vigorously exercise an average of 30 minutes per day.

 * Abstain from viewing computer/phone screens except as needed for work.  Instead read mostly non-fiction books, magazines and articles.

 * Avoid thinking about bad things you can personally do nothing about.

 * Refuse to engage in activities with others which will damage the purity, cleanliness and tranquillity of your mind and body.

These work, are doable, and many (now healthy) people live by these rules.

(9) Always keep in mind that old-time advice "If you can't say something nice, say nothing."   Contemporary custom to vilify others with ad hominem scolding for personal or political disagreements is destroying our society.   Just don't do it.   With careful forethought and kindness in your heart you can always respond in a constructive and analytical way to a difference of opinion, focussing on the issue, not the person.  

(10) Don't be afraid to withdraw politely from toxic or negative activities, even if the overwhelming majority of people think they're normal.  Think ad hominem name-calling, watching TV, mainstream investment advice, and carrying a so-called smart phone around--actually a de-skilling instrument.   Hardly anyone except military people and former Boy Scouts now knows how to read a map.   Most people will now be desperate upon (inevitably) losing their de-skilling handset.   Much more important: the medium degrades the message.   The codex replaced the scroll because it better conveys its content to the reader.     At least a scroll had large-format pages and could display extensive text in one view.   So-called smart phones take us back somewhere between stone tablets and First Century scrolls.   They compound the stupidification of society in a variety of ways.  They also violate a basic principle of reliability engineering by introducing a Single Point of Failure into several mission-critical paths.

(11) Hardly anyone knows anything these days about important things in life (history, civics, languages, mathematics. psychology and human relations).  Invest serious time (hours daily) in reading very broadly.  You will come to understand how the world works, see connections others miss, become a resource to others and the kind of person others will want to talk to or to put in charge of things.   Use devices with screens almost exclusively for work.   An occasional movie (2-3 times a week) can supplement the education from books, magazines and journals, for example documentaries or dramatizations of important fiction (the Russian version of War and Peace) or non-fiction (The Big Short).  Absolutely skip trash (most things on screens these days) created only to divert you from the important things in life.

(12) If you're distressed, figure out why and stop the distressing activity. This may mean changing your job, your career, or the city in which you live.  You'll live a longer and happier life.

(13) Don't lead your life as a succession of meaningless sensory gratifications (trips, meals at noted restaurants, see-and-be-seen events). Lead a life of purpose.  It could be anything.  In the old days many lived for the greater glory of God.   Other worthy possibilities exist, say besting some record, helping some group of meaningful people, creating some work of art or literature or preserving objects from the past. (I restore antique telephones.)  A life defined by the kinds of end-to-end sensory gratifications one sees in advertising not only lacks meaning but also degrades us to the level of beasts.

(14) Be very good in at least two professional skills or activities; it's doable, makes life interesting, and may save you financially.   (It saved me.)

(15) Always seek out the bigger questions and the greater context of an issue. Think big and for the long term.  We are surrounded by low-quality, short-term thinking and low-quality engineering in this age of supposed technological wonders.  Cambridge's Longfellow Bridge lasted twice as long as New York's Tappan Zee Bridge but still had to be rebuilt after a century.  Contemplate the Ponte Vecchio which has endured for almost a millenium, or the Roman Pantheon still standing after two.   My cellular phone provider has forced me to stop using an excellent and perfectly functional fifteen year old handset with the argument "You can't expect a phone to last more than 4 or 5 years." In fact in my (carefully preserved Victorian) home I have in daily use telephone instruments more than a century old, with only modest changes in circuitry to accommodate new interfaces.  They lasted and are things of uplifting beauty because engineering and artistic principles differed in former times.  Think like Roman engineers!  Junk consumption and junk engineering are gravely damaging our planet.

(16) Not just engineering principles are in decline: it's education in general, which we see clearly in the fallen rank of American students compared to those in many other countries which formerly trailed us.  The principles and practices to produce an educated person and an educated populace are well known and eminently doable; those responsible choose not to do them but to do something else.  Insist in every way you can to adopt these principles and practices for the coming generation.   Every adult and every child should view Stand and Deliver.

   [archived as <http://www.jeffreyrace.com/nugget/h65a.rtf>] 				12-20-19    h65a.rtf