Something hit me the other day when a friend of mine sent me an article about the way Japan’s economic situation in reality is better than people feel. The article in question was more of an economics one and uses numbers to paint a rosy picture. However, the article itself is flawed in its approach by using data and looking at long term projections rather than anecdotal aspects. As a result, I feel that this type of thinking, viewing “big picture” elements is actually hurting the world and people. This is why I believe we need to move from the “big picture” thinking, or macro elements, to micro elements, which is geared towards individuals and very concrete depictions of reality.
My belief is that the world and humans are by nature fascinated more with macro or large scale as opposed to the micro elements. Macro implies epic, vastness, empires, massive progress. However, I believe that such lofty thinking puts too much emphasis at such a level of abstraction that it ignores the tiny cracks that slowly whittle away at this superstructure notion of thought.
Going back to the article on Japan’s economics, I feel that based on conversations with numerous friends that there’s still quite a bit of problems that can subvert empirical models. For instance, many foreigners that I know are trying to leave Japan. The work environment, high layoffs, job moves, language barrier and radiation especially are all elements that are making Japan an extremely unattractive place to be. Once the foreigner workforce leaves Japan, other markets will begin to prosper and make Japan even more unattractive for the short term investor.
Another example is corporate structures and “too big to fail” systems like banks. Having worked at Citigroup in the past, I came to realize that companies like that end up having problems of progress because of all the regulations and internal bureaucracy. Citigroup’s original vision was akin to the portal concepts of the late 1990’s internet like Yahoo. The problems in attempting to grow to a monolithic structure is that Citigroup faced all the regulations from each business unit. So the banking aspect would be forced to be compliant equal to their equities side as a result of their Solomon Smith Barney acquisition. The net effect was the sheer tar pit engendered, unending levels of paper trails, nightmarish audits and a general lack of transparency at all levels. While the vision was ideal, in practice it was a disaster.
Next we come to countries like the US which is facing turmoil on numerous fronts. The biggest two issues are economics and ideologies. Within the US, there is an even greater fracturing as states themselves like California find unenviable problems attempting to govern their own budgets. Yet when you drill down to some of the lowest levels like handling someone with disability like my mom, the government demonstrates that it’s out of touch because people like my mom become just a number to them.
Yet we face this as individuals too. I’m certain many people out there prefer to look at life from the 10000 perch from an ivory tower. We like to plan long term, believing that some day we too will be the traditional rock star on stage with our babes, fancy cars, heroin parties and Walk of Fame moments. Of course, reality is that most of us never will accomplish any of that (although most probably will attempt to live like that and end up broke, dead or in jail).
This is why as a species we must move away from this train of thought. It’s deadly and impractical. We need to look at things in front of us, deal with those problems immediately and concentrate on what’s around us. If we don’t, we end up crashing into a bus that blindsides us from out of nowhere. I think Yoda said it wisest when he warned Luke Skywalker about his little futile expedition in trying to save his friends; more specifically how Luke needed to worry about everything right now and what’s in front of him rather than looking to the future. Of course, Luke got his hand cut off from being impulsive so Yoda was right after all.
But like what Yoda was saying, we need to look at things right here in front of us. Focus on smaller things with more details to really figure out better solutions. I’m a huge fan of Jean-Jaques Rousseau on his view of socialism. His belief was to focus on smaller communities as the intimacy between people would prevent hostility and create understanding. Large systems lack transparency because of the numerous levels of elements that clutter things. In turn, people quickly become confused or overwhelmed (this is why divide-and-conquer solutions are popular in programming)
I think if society starts focusing on the concrete problems in people’s daily lives as opposed to get rich pyramid schemes, which seem all too common, things will gradually improve. We need a stable system in place before we can start worrying about the future.