Hi @mirren :) I've been spending hours this long weekend...

Hi @mirren

I've been spending hours this long weekend listening to talks by a Canadian guy called Malcolm Gladwell. Discovered him by accident - will be seeking out his various books. An interesting ideas-type of person. Someone who can tell stories and thinks outside the box.

Which has nothing really to do with famous people at all
Seems like we lost quite a few in 2016: Ali, Prince, Cohen, Bowie, Rickman, Wilder, Williams etc.
It is interesting for me to realize that I care less and less about the celebrity deaths. Ali was one of my boyhood heroes. Eventhough I couldn't have been further from Ali's day-to-day reality as a black man living in the US in the 1960s etc., there was something about his attitude especially which really excited me. He was the first black man I ever saw (on TV, of course, I didn't know any black people living in Australia in the 1960s/70s) who stood up tall and proud and stuck it to the Whities. I followed his journey from Clay to Ali, from Christian to Muslim, from hero to outcast to hero again, with fascination. The guy had more layers than an onion.

It might be a bit dangerous to believe in heroes? Steve Jobs, from what I've read, seemed like a real bastard. I understand that having heroes/heroines is important - exemplars etc - but I look forward to the day (will never happen) when we slowly realize that the real heroes are not the overpaid actors/TV stars/comedians etc but the ordinary people who live quiet lives and do decent deeds every day in their own homes. People who look after their family members; who aren't afraid to help others, including total strangers, when needed; who have a strong moral code which guides their day-to-day lives.

I do have some heroes, but not many. I consider my own personal challenge to be to deal with/come to terms with/accept/try to nurture etc the man in the mirror that I see every day in the mornings when I have a shave. This will be a never-ending process, I suspect. I find it hard to do, but I have to do it. The more of my own shit I can sort out, the better a human being I should become. That is a difficult and worthy battle, in my opinion.

A billionaire who treats family/friends/colleagues like crap is just a loser with a lot of money. I wouldn't trade any one of my neighbours for ten people like that.

Not sure what you mean about the "live" thing and the market. I have no doubt at all that there will be more market crashes - how can there not be? Perhaps if the algorithms wind up doing 100% of the trading, then all human emotion will be removed from the market - no more fear or greed, just logic and binary outcomes? I'm waiting for companies to start making that argument - can't be far away. Technology seems to increasingly be making the argument that humans are the weak link. If that is so, I wonder who this brave new world which we are plummeting towards is being made for? Maybe just for First World people who have PhDs in Maths? If middle class Westerners are feeling angry/fearful, then we all better watch out if/when the rest of the world starts feeling the same way.

I'm starting to ramble again... Probably too many videos