So Teachers day eh !

[Editors note: The Author is somewhat er um youth challenged and as such all of his memories harken to an era and age prior to the internets and what not , things may have changed somewhat . The author is not optimistic though ]
It's teachers day <traditional assorted salutations and congratulatory observances here>

I have to say during school ( std I - X ) I can count on my fingers the number of teachers who I have any respect for whatsoever .

Most of them sucked ass at their jobs with zero interest in teaching ( the bishops school to this day, on a per capita basis if I may, or the ratio of excellent teachers to not that great , remains leaps and bounds ahead of other institutions I have been in or heard about . It really has been in my own experience the one bright spot. Its position on corporal punishment continues to remain barbaric and outdated but you know nothing is perfect )

College (XI XII and FYBsc) its not fair to judge on my part since I attended a sum total of maybe 8 to ten lectures. Each and every one of those was an hour or so of my life I am never getting back . They all sucked uniformly

The next step in my journey of ha-ha learning was six years in Indore getting an MCA

Barring hmm 3 or four professors (over 11 semesters with six odd papers in each semester) the rest were truly abysmal like so bad that its hard to describe precisely in words how incompetent they were both at teaching and subject matter

I have often wondered how do you fix this . I have no kids so this is unlikely to directly affect me in anyway but lets say for a movement I am thinking about the general good ( yes I know I had to practice twice before I could type it with a straight face )

One obvious issue is that we are clearly ( in the past at least; I have no idea if anything has changed) attracting the wrong kinds of people to teaching .  The biggest difference between good great and lousy teachers has always been to me , very obviously, that the good ones are interested in teaching like genuinely interested they don’t see their job as anything but . Also a deep love of what they are teaching and an ability too impart a little bit of that to their students .
I have no idea what the free market solution to this is .

Currently teacher salaries suck. In general. I am going to assume this is a simple supply and demand problem . Too many teachers . And I am really not sure how you fix that

The other real issue IMO is the paying customer aka the parent has like zero insight into how awesome teachers are especially when the kids are around 13-14. First as a parent the only real metric you have are grades
If student grades were the only way to evaluate teachers it drives terrible incentives ( you teach to the test ) and also when I hit teenage I cannot imagine any scenario where I was discussing my teachers with my parents , like its not even close. No idea if kids have changed that  much today but I mean come on …

So what does the customer do then in this case?

And finally the really tough one… I have been in spite of thinking about this multiple times unable to come up with a  way to decide who good teachers are on a metric based basis.
If was a principal and I had to do performance reviews how do you even start  where teachers are concerned

There are no bottom line metrics you can measure

There are no 360 degree reviews that would make sense and peer reviews are also meaningless since teaching is not a team sport

You could solicit parental feedback but again kind of brain dead

There are no  commitments based ratings that make sense

So we are left with a very very high degree of subjectivity at the hands of the principal.

The one thing I would love to see is schools identifying great teachers and paying them extra to train incoming teachers or current teachers who are not that great but again subjectivity abounds

There is a class of profession where if you get better it means very little to anyone and so getting better will not result in any rewards for you from your customers or your boss

For example a barista who makes better coffee… no one cares Starbucks cannot set pricing around it  or salaries

A server who typically averages 10 to 12 % tips gets twice as good at his / her job sorry you are not going to magically start averaging 25% tips

A personal trainer who suddenly gets much better can raise their rates but its doesn’t line up neatly with their skill level market pressures around a variety of factors will start interfering .

even jobs where you can rewarded more as you get better ( software developer  for example ) start hitting all kinds of barriers no matter how much you keep improving

My biggest fear and sneaking suspicions is that teaching is one of those areas in a very strong way.

Where as long as you are not a total fuck up and sometimes even then , there is zero incentive for you to improve as a teacher especially if you really don’t love or hate the job, its just a job ( and don’t even get me started about teachers unions )
I have no idea how you fix that  so to sum up the kids are all totes screwed but it will probably come out ok in the end ( or not which is always the hallmark of a good drama )

The bigotry of tolerance

One of the more amusing tropes on the right is of course that Barack Obama is a Muslim. You see it all the time on various right wing websites  (which I spend way too much time on alas but that’s a diff blog post )

The left typically responds in two ways on their website either by loudly going on and on about “no way is he  Muslim he is as Christian as they they come “ or they will just link to a  piece of video\audio where a right winger calls Obama a Muslim and then let the viewer draw their conclusions about how awful the right is ( to be fair the right is pretty awful but my bias is showing )

I have always found both responses outstandingly offensive and pointless, the only correct response to “Obama is a Muslim” is of course “And So?”

and now we have something similar in the Garland Geller draw Muhammad shooting case

 

Leaving aside all the stuff about the first amendment and freedom and ISIS etc one common theme I am seeing from the so called tolerant left is the notion that “Pam Gellar has every right to do what she did but why would any decent person do this and why PROVOKE the Muslims”

As an example see this

 

This is someone who works for the NEW YORK TIMES . I honestly don’t even know where to begin when someone starts with “Free speech aside..” How would the NYT respond to the right saying stuff like

• “Rape aside ….”
• “Burglary aside redistribution feels good”
• “Global warming aside petrol is rather awesome”

This whole meme of provocation might sound like all tolerance and hugs but  is actually IMO incredibly bigoted , like very, very  insidious bigotry.

The real question “decent people” should ask is why is it assumed that Muslims will react violently to something some of them might find offensive , while it is assumed that Jews, Christians, Mormons, Hindus,  [insert your non-Muslim group here] will react to outrage by, well, acting civilized about it?

 From what I can tell just about every Muslim group here in the USA has condemned the shooting supported Ms. Gellar’s right to hold such an even and pointed out that  the cuntent ( not a typo) of f  Ms. Gellar's works and events speak for themselves

DO NOT go on and on about how it is wrong to provoke Muslims. You are not being tolerant but being deeply bigoted when you assume that Muslims have no way to react to provocation but with violence. Rejoice instead  in the ability of people to be civilized in the face of provocation .

Einstein , and the annual review

AT MSFT , like most other corporations , they have what they call a level for all employees . It is numerical thing that basically completely defines you and establishes your worth  ( yes sad I know ). Some levels however are quite special viz levels 62 64 and 67.
These are what I call the “Nope no lubricant for you today either” levels . You see 63 is a senior level 65 Principal and 68 be partner laddie.

Clearly these levels must be insanely desirable I can think of no other reason why the ( 62,64,67) folks put up with the insane BS that they have to , to get to the blessed levels .

However what is often lost in all this, is the incredible hardships the managers of the lube free levels have to put up with .
Imagine if you will,  you have a level 64 working for you . You know that   (s)he hates you for no other reason than that fact that nominally at least you are depriving him of getting to blissvana and you have to constantly keep coming with creative reasons why you are not promoting them.( you will find this story works just as well if you have a level 62/67 working for you )
Well be of good cheer manager people I will now tell you an inspirational story , that you may use as you see fit to deal with the employees who are constantly clamouring for recognition and promotions ( sometimes at the same time )

In 1905 Albert Einstein  worked as a technical assistant, level III in the patent office in Berne.
It is not very clear what exactly Einstein achieved at work during that year however in what can be only considered a remarkable achievement by Google’s 20% self improvement principle and Steve Jobs  ( what ! he is responsible for all awesomeness don’t you know ) he did manage to do some useful work outside of his immediate scope and visibility . Amongst other things Einstein authored in that one year( bolding mine )

1. Concerning an Heuristic Point of View Toward the Emission and Transformation of Light
       Explanation of the photoelectric effect with use of the quantum hypothesis of Planck. Light is a flow of corpuscular objects with definite energies - Planck's quanta of energy.
2. On the Movement of Small Particles Suspended in Stationary Liquids Required by the Molecular-Kinetic Theory of Heat.
   explained Brownian motion, the unpredictable movement of tiny particles, as a result of the molecular action hypothesized by atomic theory
3. On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies.
      Invention of the theory of special relativity. Beginnings of the relativistic era in physics.
4. Does the Inertia of a Body Depend upon its Energy Content?     Invention of the theory of special relativity, E = mc2. Beginnings of the relativistic era in physics

This story has a happy ending for you see in 1906 after some sort of review process, Albert Einstein was promoted to  technical assistant, level II in the  patent office . ( In later years of course he was a complete failure at the patent office never reaching level 1 and eventually quitting but why go into all that now )

So when your annoying report keeps pestering you about what they need to do , to get promoted, always remember what Einstein had to do ! ( and and remind them as well otherwise…. )

Whose Rights !!

Consider a banker oh even a florist say
A small business owner you know the kind that Indiana republicans love to worship.

Now it is possible that this business owner has not incorporated in some way ( S corp LLC what have you ) but the chances of that are oh so so rare that we can ignore it for the purposes of this argument .)

The standard right wing (and libertarian trope ) is this bullshit idea that the business owner should have rights to association blah blah blah and should be able at the end of the day to be a bigot and or a racist and refuse to serve anyone

I wholeheartedly agree, the business owner should have that right 100% absolutely

But and this is where I think a lot of arguments miss the point what about the business itself , does it have the rights to be a bigot?

Wait !!! what you say?
Come I will hide nothing from you , follow me if you will…

SCENARIO 1

A customer walks in one day slips on a piece of  a used condom ( well I guess a wet floor would be more likely though ) proceeds to go sailing through the air rather spectacularly lands on his\her ass  and discovers that real life is nothing like a cartoon and  promptly needs surgery

After consulting with a friendly attorney ( better call saul ) this customer sues!

Question : who do you think gets sued , has liability  and has to pay in the event of losing the case. That’s right kids if you guessed the business go to the front of the class

SCNEARIO 2 : The small business owner takes a business loan and then finds out there is no market whatever for naked overweight male housecleaners. Defaults on his\her loan.
This is not problem for the bank because you know they can go after the business owners personal asset\house etc

BZZZZZZ ! GO to Jail DO not pass GO DO not collect 200!!

Turns out that since the business took the loan EVEN THOUGH the small biz owner made all the decisions and boy were they some decisions , the owner has complete limited liability and can the business can ( in many cases should ) promptly declare bankruptcy and get out of the debt with nary a problem

Now to be clear Limited Liability is a very very good thing ( I say this as someone who has been sued ). But lets ask our self what this means, it means if a gay person lends ( you don’t have to be gay for this example to work BTW  ) a baker friend of his money and the baker is like “Well just make out the cheque to OverNighTunaSandwichBakery it just makes the book keeping ally nice and tidy “ , and then it turns out an overnight tuna sandwich place which does not do delivery,  typically goes broke in no time.

Why in that case the gay friend is just plain out of luck . He can keep trying to tell everyone that he lent money to a friend so he should be able to get the money back from his friend but the law will chuckle at his naivety   and refer him to the notion of limited liability

Which brings us back to “Whose rights” are we talking about exactly here

When it suits the business owner apparently its ok to say “Yeah no, I know you spoke to me , and gave me money but I mean if you think about it corporate personhood my dear fellow  so You know I am not really my business you see”

But on the other hand when it comes to not serving someone  “yeah no that’s  all me and I own my business so I damn well get to say who gets in and who gets out”

So I will make a deal with all business owners ( it should be noted that this deal is somewhat limited in scope given the legislative and executive authority I posses but still )

Your business gets to be a bigot ( sorry share in your values )with you if your assets and the business assets also get to have joint liability

As long as you keep claiming those two are separate you have given up on any right to insist your business has the right to discriminate

Its really that simple !!!

Schezwan oops Swan Lake !

The wife( blessed be her name and blessed be her works ) has been through many a subtle and some totally non subtle ways , been pointing out for a few years now that Seattle has quite the decent cultural scene and we really should go watch some ballet or something .

So finally decided, last Saturday  what they hey , you never know , broaden horizons blah blah blah and we decided to catch Swan Lake

To paraphrase Jim Hacker ( if you don’t know who that is well , I mean that is to say hmmm) it was a thoroughly enjoyable evening , great music , people desperately trying to be taller than they were on stage, delightful food , yummy bubbly , all very well dressed folks it was very cool

We did the whole box seats things only to discover that next time stick to the orchestra level . Place was really really packed had no idea this was so popular

 

 

Here are two important fact about the ballet dancers which I picked up all on my own

i) If you are a ballerina you are not allowed to have a pair of boobies. Apparently cup size is something that you don’t mention or bring up at all

ii) If you are a male ballet dancer then it is considered unacceptable to have a gluteus Maximus, instead you are obliged to posses a “GLUTEUS MAXIMUS MAXIMUS”. It is almost impossible to describe the ahem costume( s ) . Yeah no, no pics!

The other like cool thing was every once in a while you would hear something in the music you were you sure you had heard in some popular Hindi song of yesteryear , some of the musical pieces really were quite excellent

I am hesitant to say this in a public forum but yeah we probably have to do this again , had an awesome time !

Why I never! It’s tax day again

A friend of mine ( fine ex boss   ) made a claim around tax day that he thinks of corporate inversion ( a la Apple MSFT GOOG et al …) to be tax evasion

I don’t and furthermore this year really do want to try tax inversion

But leaving that aside I find this whole notion of tax evasion when legal very interesting

Unlike some on the right or the libertarian science fiction dabblers I am not anti tax just because. I am not even anti tax at all lets face it taxes get us lots of awesome things like the internet and 911 both of which have quite literally been life changing for me

However those of us on the left who accept taxes as the um tax you pay for a civil society should also be honest enough to accept that the structural way in which taxes are set up ( if there is one thing I could change it would be tax withholding ) lead to some deep misunderstandings about what we pay for and what we get and pretty much allow govt to get away with a lot of waste

In many ways tax policy is really well um more visible in the states because they cannot run a deficit or print money.Red states like Kansas and Wisconsin are doing every one a great service by providing massive tax cuts to the wealthy and slashing services to make up the deficit. There will come a point when the populace wakes up to the fact that hey what happened to all those nice things the guvmint used to do OR THEY MIGHT NOT which is great too . If a people decide they would rather not pay taxes and have bare bone services that is great too . For example I think in Topeka or Trenton some time ago the cops simply stopped taking on domestic abuse cases and responding to calls unless an eyewitness was present because you know … no money ( that’s right senator sharia law is coming though not quite how you imagined )

But and this is important if you need to raise money through increasing taxes one of the things in theory a legislature should look at is closing loopholes and or special deductions ( yes I know this rarely happens ) . However things get really out of whack if just a few people use a deduction or loophole. That way lies irrational tax policy for these loopholes are on no ones radar neither do they generate any sort of public outrage . The only way a loophole\deduction becomes untenable or worth looking at ( in terms of taking away as opposed to raising taxes on everyone ) is if lots and lots of people use that loophole

The dollar amount of your tax obligation is the end result of a myriad of policy and law. IMO it is everyone’s duty and right to use EVERY legal mean available to them to come up with the LOWEST amount possible to pay. That is one of the few few limited levers  we have as citizens to try and have some say in tax policy . if everyone does this and that means we have fewer services then good legislators will need to look at which loopholes to remove or to raise taxes or something else

Not looking at how to manage your taxes in order to pay anything more than you owe is quite silly to put it mildly!

In which we meet a MSFT Technical Fellow

The other day I was at the MSFT store ( it happens ) and I buying a phone ( see here why this actually was a good idea ).

The salesgirl ( assuming that is still the politically correct term or are we doing “economic stimulus facilitator “ now , who can tell ) was your usual bubbly, fake smile till it hurts , completely technically illiterate person( we’ll just call her Tiffany/Amber or T&A it makes things easier ) but it was’nt that bad, I knew what I wanted and there was very little um scope for her to screw anything up

Regardless T&A somehow managed to get something wrong and next thing I knew she was like “Can you wait for about five minutes,they’re getting the phone out from back”

So we waited chatted and as is often the case ( without sounding like an ass ) I had her laughing out loud ( not the emoticon the real thing) in pretty quick order

The phone arrived and it turned out getting ATT to do the right thing in terms of a discount was somewhat beyond T&A’s training . So naturally Bob or Dick or Jim or some such dude “the one somewhat technically aware fellow” ( oh so that's what Technical fellow at MSFT means eh !) was summoned with batted eyelash and heaving bosom .

Next thing I know the  MSFT technical fellow was battling furiously with the ATT website ( it was like watching gladiator with better lighting and even better music ) while me  and T&A  were still making giggleworthy small talk

At this point enter the white pasty MSFT uber geek from stage right . He walks up to us and well in about a minute establishes himself as a total asshole which really was quite impressive.

During the whole time he would like say something to t&a then look away stare at his phone etc and then he finally bought something . At this point we moved into the truly “can you actually behave like this in public” scenario

The girl asked him a series of questions (annoying ones to be sure like “Do you have an email address with us “ ) to which this guy replies in the most rude way possible without being actually rude BUT the whole fucking time the guy is like glued to his phone and typing away furiously .

Does not even look at her once; like not even close and his answers get shorter and curter till it feels like he is exclusively talking in acronyms only .
I’m watching the whole thing ( while making encouraging noises to the technical fellow)  and the girl is getting redder and redder and more upset by the second while the guy either through sheer cluelessness or pure deutschbaggery continues to treat her like a very boring piece of furniture that should be in a garage sale soon

The idiot leaves. My TF wins the battle with ATT does some sort of victory lap and leaves to fetch my phone

The girl and I are looking at each other and she is clearly so fucking pissed that she is close to tears, undoubtedly she wants to say so much but this is her job I am a total stranger and you know whatever!

I commiserate with her “They can’t be all that bad yeah”

Note to self : always be prepared that people will answer a rhetorical question

She gives me like a half smile and goes “Most are”

“I’m a person you know!  just look at me when you talk to me how hard can that be”

and she ranted for a while, boy did she rant, and it was not angry it was just fucking sad !

I got the phone and left

Like everyone else I am absolutely certain I have been guilty of prioritizing my phone screen over the person I talk to . I’ve tried very hard to be mindful of this since then ( almost definitely like every other resolution to be a better person in my life it won’t last )and have caught myself twice doing this twice since, once at the  gym ( well I was there for the Jacuzzi) with the person checking me in  and once at the bank while depositing a cheque ( in my defense in both cases someone was wrong about something on Face book and it was clearly critical that I respond instantly )

I am not even going to count how people behave around people they know,  with their phones. Its just baffling how insanely rude most of us are about this and how we just accept it . How is that damn screen more important than a real human being trying to interact with you . I am not trying to be all holier than thou here I am as guilty of this (more so probably )as everyone , but if you step back and think about it , it is pretty amazing and not exactly in a good way

Like everything else on this blog there is almost no point to be made here, but I did get to see how someone, who deals with people, who just don't even bother to hide the fact that they ( people) don’t care about said person existing or not ( or at least behave like it ) everyday actually feels about it . WAS NOT PRETTY !

er although if you are reading this on your phone please don’t stop :-)

<insert joke here to end on happy note>