John R. Brandt's Blog

States of mind, etc.

At 49, Jamie Moyer will start for the Rockies tonight, with a chance to become the oldest pitcher to win a game in the Major Leagues. At 52, Fred Couples is co-leader of The Masters after 36 holes.

What was it that you were too old to do today?

What does your Filter Bubble look like?

Incredibly important article by Eli Pariser in The Observer — "How the net traps us all in our own little bubbles" — about how personalization of the web by Google, Facebook and others now limits the the variety of information we can find. Increasingly, search engines only feed us stuff that looks, sounds, and reads like stuff we've seen, heard or read before — reducing our chances of bumping into something new or surprising or uncomfortable, all of which are required to spur growth or change. Favorite two paragraphs:

"We are predisposed to respond to a pretty narrow set of stimuli – if a piece of news is about sex, power, gossip, violence, celebrity or humour, we are likely to read it first. This is the content that most easily makes it into the filter bubble. It's easy to push "Like" and increase the visibility of a friend's post about finishing a marathon or an instructional article about how to make onion soup. It's harder to push the "Like" button on an article titled "Darfur sees bloodiest month in two years". In a personalised world, important but complex or unpleasant issues – the rising prison population, for example, or homelessness – are less likely to come to our attention at all.

"As a consumer, it's hard to argue with blotting out the irrelevant and unlikable. But what is good for consumers is not necessarily good for citizens. What I seem to like may not be what I actually want, let alone what I need to know to be an informed member of my community or country. 'It's a civic virtue to be exposed to things that appear to be outside your interest,' technology journalist Clive Thompson told me. Cultural critic Lee Siegel puts it a different way: 'Customers are always right, but people aren't.'"

What does your filter bubble keep you from learning (or caring) about?

More to Worry About

It turns out that bacteria — tiny creatures without a brain or moral code — can still communicate with each other, according to "Deep Inside Bacteria, a Germ of Human Personality" in the Wall Street Journal. The eyeless little buggers use a chemical language — quorum sensing — by releasing a specific molecule that allows each to determine the presence of others. This allows some strains of bacteria to delay an attack on a host (i.e., you or me) until there are enough little bad guys to overwhelm your immune defenses (i.e., they stuff the infectious meeting room with smelly buddies until they have a quorum and can vote you down). Says one scientist: "Really, they're just stripped-down versions of us."

That's what I'm worried about.

And Speaking of "That's Our Policy..."

...the first line of this article says it all: A Florida man born without arms says a Tampa bank would not let him cash a check because he couldn't provide a thumbprint.

It would be funny, except that it isn't.

(with thanks to Dave S.)

Economics on the Fly

Another leading economic indicator is looking up, according to a brief item in the Washington Post: Men's underwear sales are recovering after a year-long decline. During an economic slump, men apparently keep their underwear longer — a phenomenon unfortunately described by an analyst quoted in the article as being "like trying to drive your car an extra 10,000 miles." (Note: The analyst clearly never tested this analogy on a 12-year-old boy, or anyone who has ever been or known a 12-year-old boy, or else said analyst would know there are 10,000+ jokes associated with said analogy (and, yes, if you have to ask, you don't want to know)). The good news is that America's men, after a depressing 12 months of sagging confidence and cramped ambitions, are once again looking hopefully toward a bolder, roomier, more attractive future.

And that's all the news that fits, to print.

Newsflash: Cranky Middle-Aged White Guys Have Trouble Finding New Jobs During Deep Recession, Government Reports

Just when you think that studies or data or news reports can't get any dumber — What? Tanning beds cause skin cancer? Really? Who coulda guessed that? — comes this shocking news: During the deepest economic downturn of our lifetimes, older white males without easily transferable skills are having a tough time finding new jobs at the same pay levels. Even more astounding, these guys don't like it!

OK, pick yourself up off the floor and get back in your chair.

Buried in the media coverage, however, is that inconvenient fact that other ethnic groups — older black males, black females, hispanics, etc. — are having an even tougher time finding new jobs. The only difference during this recession is that older white males don't have quite as much of an advantage over others in getting re-hired as they did in decades past. Some people — while sympathetic to the loss of any job by anyone — might even call this new trend progress.

Then again, that isn't quite as catchy, at least as a headline.

I Love the Markets (2)...

Big, Big, BIG — I mean, calamitously enormous — Q1 losses reported today by Key Bank  ($488 million) and Zions Bankcorp ($832 million) but the Dow Jones went up 127 points after yesterday's 290-point freefall inspired by, of course, actual bank profits.

Argh (2).

I Love the Markets...

...Where bad news can be good (as long as it's not as bad as traders and investors feared) and good news can be bad (Bank of America posted a $4.2 billion profit in the first quarter, but saw its stock hammered by 24% as investors worried: What if BofA can't maintain this pace?). Honestly, the market is like every crazy girlfriend I ever had (I know you've been  [Insert one: nice, considerate, faithful] so far, but what if you stop?]

Argh.

The Greatest Debt Repayment Incentive Ever...

...has been the U.S. Government's insistence that any financial institution receiving assistance must limit executive compensation. In the last week banks have been lining up to pay back the TARP funds they received just last fall or even this winter.... amazing how differently the leaders of these firms feel about their institutions' solvency, once the beach house or the yacht gets threatened....

New Math

Trying to keep this straight in my head.... the global economy has plunged into recession because of the financial industry's disastrous risk management over the last few years.... We taxpayers then committed hundreds of billions of dollars in TARP funds to save these financial firms.... and three months later many of them are reporting excellent (J. P. Morgan Chase or Goldman Sachs) or record (Wells Fargo) profits.... while unemployment rises and other businesses report falling profits.

Don't get me wrong: I'm happy to see the financial sector improve. And I'm guessing that these banks' profits, like the little crocuses poking through the ground in my garden, are the harbingers of broader recovery and renewal. But as one friend asked: How much better would your business be doing right now if taxpayers had given you billions of dollars in low-interest loans?