Ideas are important. Ideas shape culture and life. I had recently decided to improve my life I would work, in some fashion, to spread good ideas. So over the past month, along with diligent philosophical study, I have been trying to promote good ideas when possible.

I have submitted two LTEs, one to USA Today and one to the Philadelphia Inquirer. They were both rejected but there was a brief moment of excitement when an editor at USA Today emailed me to confirm some information and tell me my letter was being considered for publication. I plan to continue trying to get LTEs published, but in the mean time I have posted a handful of comments on philly.com.

I have also worked to improve my business life. I have been classified as a “pusher” by some for my efforts to promote David Allen’s GTD. But I am having some impact, three of my coworkers have purchased Getting Things Done, and to the extent any of his advice is incorporated into their daily routine it will benefit me greatly.

There is a need for good ideas in our culture. It is this intellectual vacuum that allows bad ideas to become so prevalent so quickly. So my advice is to know reality as well as possible and then be vocal in your judgment of the works and ideas of man. “Judge, and prepare to be judged.“

I happened across something written by Gus Van Horn. And it helped me to finally conceptualize a problem I had long been struggling to grasp about politics, voting and political support.

Problem

There is limited political choice and each of the candidates has a platform of values they claim to uphold. People will select a candidate by finding the one that defends at least one value that they hold [^1] or at least do not actively work against. Upon making this selection they then join the fan club and defend[^2] or attempt to ignore all of the bad points to the candidate. I will try and make this clear with the following example.

A person believes in the 2nd amendment right to own a gun. When it comes time to vote they look myopically at their most important concrete value, the right to gun ownership. They then not only vote for the person or party that is for protecting this right, but speak out in favor of them, defend or ignore their wrong ideas, and drop any contradictions. They actively, and often rightly, attack the other parties candidate all the while ignoring the flaws in their own choice. They latch on to their candidate and argue with others with the zealous devotion an Eagles fan describing all the failings of the Cowboys or Giants to one of their faithful.

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This is about my oldest daughter’s first trip to the movies. When she was born we had decided, based on what a friend of mine had done with his son, that we wanted to wait to take her to a movie theater. Aside from the obvious insanity of taking an infant or a very young toddler to a place where they are expected to stay still and quiet for 90 minutes or more, I wanted the experience to be something that was memorable, special, something that we could look back on together with fondness.

We chose to see WALL•E, the Pixar movie, about a robot and what happens when he develops a consciousness, chooses a goal, and goes after it. What follows is my analysis of the movie and of my attempt to write this review. I will probably include spoilers of all sorts, so if you don’t want to know any of the plot then move along.

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This site has languished because there was absolutely no purpose or reason for it. I have spent some time and decided a few reasons for continuing it, and have thus renewed my interest in maintaining and updating it. The below reasons are published here and on the site’s colophon for newcomers to understand the purpose.

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I am planning on resurrecting this site and posting regularly. I have recently been made explicitly aware of the cognitive benefits of writing. So in writing down my thoughts, especially if I intend to stand behind them and have them represent who I am, I am forced to clarify and organize the process behind my thinking.

I have decided that this practice will primarily help me to integrate new ideas. Secondary benefits include improving my ability to communicate and will allow me to have more interesting interactions because it could be based on information I have already thought through.

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Kevin McAllister
Sent from mobile

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Kevin McAllister
Sent from mobile