I was talking with a friend recently about empathy. I think a lot of people are “naturally” empathic, but I also think it’s a learned response, meaning that it’s a skill one can improve with thought and practice.

Before talking about practice, let me share my theory of how empathy works. Sometimes, clues can be obvious and you can pick up how someone else feels by watching body language, tone of voice, facial expression, etc. But, other times you may not consciously be aware of the clues, and your mind may pick up on them subconsciously anyway. In that case, you may not be aware of *how* the feelings are being “broadcast” at you or around you, but usually you can pick up on them anyway. Continue reading →

Around the first of the year, we had some work done in the kitchen. Now, I have to get a permit from the city to authorize that work. Full story behind the cut

I believe that one of the things that makes the USA great is the Bill of Rights. More to the point, I think the Bill of Rights is one of a very few things that makes the United States *worth* protecting. Freedom from unreasonable search (4th amendment) is one of those rights which I consider important.

I believe that finding and catching terrorists is important, but not as important as preserving the fundamental character of our nation. I agree with Ben Franklin: They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.

Would we seek to root out terrorists at the expense of who we are? I believe that the ends do *not* justify the means. However strong my fear might be, my hope and pride for my nation is greater.

If you share this belief, feel free to copy this, or post something of your own. If you feel strongly about it, call your congressmen and tell them, or send a postcard.

Cool link: “Evolution of Dance”

Yes, it’s a guy dancing for 6 minutes, and it’s very cool :)

As I posted recently, bradhicks has some wonderful, thought-provoking material that makes us think about why we have political disagreements, and why reasonable people can sincerely come to wildly different conclusions and beliefs.

I have a fundamental belief that people are basically good and that people don’t do harm to others on purpose. I’m often proved wrong, but not often enough to make me distrust random strangers that come into my life.

There definitely *are* people out there who intentionally harm others. My mind rationalizes this by labelling those people “non-humans”. I still believe that most of my “opponents” are reasonable people, who have come to different conclusions and different beliefs due to exposure to different subsets of facts and different experiences. But, not all of my opponents can be explained this way.

On and after 9/11/2001, as my mind tried to deal with the scope of the terrorist attacks, a notion crept into my mind. I found myself thinking, what if the attacks of 9/11 were conceived and executed by someone inside our own government, and not Islamic terrorists? Of course, the rational part of my mind immediately dismissed this as too heinous to consider. I could believe that people could be driven by hatred or fear to attack others, but I could not yet believe that anyone could plan to kill neighbors, or anyone that they had so much in common with. I thought about it briefly then dismissed it.

Interestingly, someone else on my friends list posted a link to this video: Loose Change 2nd Edition which makes a pretty good case for the 9/11 attacks being engineered by a select few Americans in government, military, and big business. It is an hour and 20 minutes long, but it’s very very interesting and provocative. I’m not sure I believe the conclusions, but I now have to strongly reconsider who in the US stands to benefit from the attacks of 9/11.

I responded to a question posed by bradhicks in this post: What Do You Think of Your Opponents. I wanted to also record my thoughts here. Some of my friends might be interested in this discussion also…

Question (paraphrased)
On the issue you feel most strongly about, think about those who actively/strongly disagree with your stance. Why do they disagree? Is it a matter of philosophy? Stupidity or non-logical thinking? Ignorance of some facts? Or selfishness/malevolence?

My answer:
I have thought about this before, actually, and I have come to the conclusion that people don’t usually disagree about matters of fact, or logic. Sometimes they disagree about matters of belief that are pretty black-and-white, but this is not often.

I believe that most people disagree on matters of *degree* or *emphasis*. And, most of these are because of scarce resources that can be allocated to one need, or another, but not both.

For example, you’ll find general agreement about statements like “Hard-working poor people who can’t afford health insurance should get assistance for their health care and that of their children,” as well as “Building good schools and hiring good teachers is important.” But you will get deep disagreements when the needs come into conflict and only one can be served. I call that a disagreement over scarce resources, which is sort of a subset of disagreeing over degree or emphasis.

Thoughts? (If you’re interested in this topic, you probably would be interested in bradhicks’ journal too :)

For anyone on my f-list familiar with Boston: I need a description of walking down a cobblestone street of olde Boston at 3 am. What does it look like, what does it smell like, what is open, what is closed, and what shops are closed but obviously have activity inside?

Think you can help? My deadline is Friday :)

I have been adding people to my network using Linked In (http//www.linkedin.com/). But, because of my personal views on privacy, I’m a bit hesitant to give them the email addresses for all of my friends.

If you already use LinkedIn, and you would like to connect with me directly, view my profile and send me an invitation: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nekodojo – if you’re prompted for my email, enter gconnor at nekodojo.org (they already have my email so it’s OK to give it to them again)

If you’re interested in it, go to the above link to check it out :)

So it turns out that my boss is leaving the company to go to Google. He will be managing a team of 8 or 10 sysadmins (that sounds familiar… hmmm). I am not sure if this is on the IT side or the production side…

I really envy the guy and I’m happy for him, but I can’t help but think that working here is going to start to suck. Maybe this is a signal that it’s time to start looking elsewhere. I haven’t decided to leave, actually, but I know that it’s a lot nicer to look for a job when the pressure to survive is not immediate. Better bargaining position too.

I have heard good things about Google but I’m skeptical.. they are growing really really fast and it’s hard to believe that they can keep that up. I have also heard that Google treats their employees well, but their I.T. employees not-so-well. I don’t know how I would deal with the implicit expectation of 10-hour days.

Maybe this would be a good time to think about moving. M and I have toyed with the idea of going to New Hampshire. Might be a good idea to check out Boston’s job market.

What do I want to do? Something that is a combination of unix sysadmin, managing others, and killing spammers.

Now would be a great time to connect with me on Linked In if you use the service. Any and all networking is appreciated.