Fuel costs and the cost of inaction

I read a provocative article on Slate entitled 'Four-dollar-per-gallon gas is cheap!'. The key argument is that the price of gas at the pump today is not exceedingly high compared to where it was on a inflation-adjusted basis decades ago, when it fact a finite supply and ever increasing demand should have pushed it higher already.

I think the argument that inflation-adjusted price should have gone up is overlooking the fact that many things we buy today have benefited from improvements in technology, productivity, distribution, etc... But I do find his comparison of fuel cost as a declining % of total cost of car ownership a good one.

Ross Perot many years ago had argued for a $0.50 per gallon gas tax. Unfortunately I am afraid not enough people in Washington would have the courage to see something like this through. But imagine if such a measure earmarked all its funds to modernize public transport systems and infrastructures nationwide: Urban light-rail, high-speed intercity trains, electric bus fleets...

It is often said that Americans are addicted to cheap oil. Very much like many Europeans are addicted to overly generous - and costly - social entitlements. In both cases, the question is who bears more responsibility: The addict, or the 'dealers' who created and are since feeding the addiction?

These 'dealers' oversaw decades of lack of urban planning, resulting in suburban sprawl, with no viable public transit options in most cases. Decades of subsidizing cheap gas while failing to challenge automakers to higher fuel efficiency (A Land-Rover Discovery in the US has a 4.4L V8 engine, the same car in Europe has a 2.7L V6 -- why not offer that in US?). And so on...

Whatever way forward is not simple or short-term. We need leaders with the integrity, conviction and resolve not to settle for less. And in the meantime many working class families, pushed to the outer edges of suburbia by high real-estate costs (we see this in Dublin as well), will bear the most pain as they see their disposable income significantly impacted by rising prices at the pump...

Watered down Eurovision

We watched the Eurovision song contest last night. An American colleague of mine who recently moved to Europe explained it to friends back in the US as a cross between Miss Universe, American Idol and the Olympics. Pretty accurate actually!

We were quite disappointed to see how many countries chose to sing in English. Eurovision is about showcasing your country and your culture, and it is really neat to hear how so many languages sound quite good when sung. But these were exceptions last night. Finland's metal act was great, Spain's quirky 'Baila Chiqui Chiqui' was among my favourites.

Even more disappointing frankly was to see larger countries sing in English, like France, Germany, Greece, Ukraine, Russia (the winner). The Greek singer (she was quite good) actually lives in New York! As my wife Beth pointed out, these acts are looking beyond the Eurovision and aiming to reach a broader commercial audience. And I'll concede that the best way to make money in the music business is not to sing in German or Russian or French.

So be it... It was a good time nonetheless, with the inevitable weird acts (Latvia's pirates, Azerbaijan's Devil and Angels) and downright freaky (what was up with the Swedish singer? Obvious case of plastic surgery gone awefully wrong, she should sue!).

On to next year in Moscow, for the first time in Eurovision's 56 year history.

Is what is taught in schools useful?

I'll start by saying it upfront, I am biased on this topic. Much of what has made me successful in my life, professionally and personally, I did not learn in an educational institution. I wonder if this is the case for most people.

In the great movie 'The Gods must be crazy', there's a fantastic line near the beginning of the movie when the narrator paints the contrast between the simple life of Bushmen in the Kalahari and 'civilized' people in the modern world. This is not literal, but the line goes something like: Men have made their modern lives so complex, their children need to spend the first 20 years of their lives learning how to survive in it.


What strikes me is that with all the time we invest in education, from primary school to secondary school to university and sometimes master's degrees and beyond, there's an awful lot of pretty important stuff we are clueless about when we start our adult lives.

I'm not talking meaning of life here, or even how to solve world hunger. I'm talking about much more practical things, like how to shop for insurance... or how a mortgage works and what different types exist... the risk and return of various ways to save for the future... why even save for the future, and when to start... How about the hows and whys of sustainable development, free trade and fair trade, corporate social responsibility and why seek to work for an employer who is serious about it... Also, what good employers really value and look for when hiring. Things like problem-solving abilities, self-reliance, creative thinking, ability to deal with ambiguity, and so on.

When I think back to my schooling, including my university studies (marketing major), much of the stuff I was taught was very academic, theoretical, conceptual. I've worked in marketing for the past 10+ years, and I can't recall even one instance when I thought: 'I learned this in college'.

I'm not saying kids shouldn't go to college. If they (or their parents) can pay for it, absolutely. It's a great buffer before having to go into the real world, and many employers will look for it on paper even if they don't necessarily expect a lot from it.

I've been volunteering an hour a week for the past few weeks in a class of 11 year-olds as part of Junior Achievement. I'm teaching a program called Our World, which is aimed at introducing under-privileged kids to the concepts of international business, how countries trade and why, etc... Very good program... Made me realize my kids don't know most of this stuff either. When I see how engaged these 11 year-olds get, how they quickly can relate the subject to events in their own lives, I wonder if we are making the best use of kids time when they're in school.

Maybe we should spend less time on ancient languages, or centuries-old literature, or science that will get covered in later years anyway, and spend more time better preparing the next generations. Preparing them to survive yes, but also to care, to want to make a difference. Teaching them not to accept the legacy of past generations (careless spending, budget deficits, bankrupt social systems, environment, inequality, poverty, ...) as a burden, but as a challenge that is theirs to solve.

Our future is truly in their hands. Their habits as consumers, their decisions as leaders, their choices with regards to fellow humans across the world, will have tremendous impact on the quality of life of future generations. Our world - their world - has changed enormously in the last 20 years. Educational systems and curiculums haven't. We must adapt what we teach and how we teach it to the world our children will live and evolve in. Are we ready to do that?

Growing up in today's connected era

Yesterday, I was reading the blog that my 15 year-old niece is writing while volunteering in poor communities in South Africa for a couple of weeks. The funny thing is, this doesn't even sound so strange in our connected era. Half a generation ago, we might have gotten one postcard of her stay, and it probably would have arrived after she was already back home. The fact that she can write a daily summary of her activities down there and post it seamlessly to the Web is remarkable - especially from a place where she writes of extreme poverty and lack of basic public infrastructure.

Later in the day I was playing Mario Kart racing on our Nintendo Wii console with my daughter, and next thing you know we are entering a race with other Wii players from the UK, Canada, the US, Mexico, etc... The Wii is WiFi enabled and makes it completely seamless to play in real-time with others around the world. My daughter downplayed my excitement by reminding me she could already do that on her little hand-held 2 year-old Nintendo DS.

Still a bit later, I spent some relaxing time on Facebook, making a few moves for Scrabulous games I'm playing with friends in California, Pennsylvania, London and Dublin. Then I played a few hands of Texas Hold'Em poker with table partners from all over the place, including Turkey, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Lebannon, UK, Norway etc... My younger daughter reminded me she plays online games on sites like Webkinz or Club Penguin with kids from all over as well.

It is just amazing how connected we are - but also how amazing it is to see that kids take this so completely for granted. We talk about Web 2.0 as a revolution, for them there is no other Web. Everything is or should be digital, virtual, networked... Why wouldn't it be?

When I marvel at new digital camera storage cards (hardly bigger than a postage stamp) that are now WiFi enabled and allow you to post pictures to the Web pretty much as you take them, or at phones like the Nokia N95 that allows you to capture DVD-quality video and stream it to the Web in real-time, my kids think that's cool but not surprising at all.

My hope is that this ubiquity about networking and virtual community engagement will lead to a generation of adults for whom geographical boundaries - and somewhat artificial territorial borders - are less dominant in their thinking and decision making. The true promise of globalization, trade equalization, environmental protection, and yes - world peace - lies in their hands. It's time to get past the protectionist and sectarian thinking of past generations.

In the meantime, I will continue to enjoy testing new ways to connect to the rest of the world, and enjoy watching my kids embrace them much faster than I ever could :-)

On opportunity and selflessness

Some things never cease to amaze me. One of them is even if all the bad things in this world tend to monopolize the news, there is still plenty of good to be found. One of these things is the willingness of some people to help others. Whether in all types of volunteer organizations, community projects, etc...

The Web has also enabled this to happen in more subtle and somewhat anonymous ways. As our lives get busier and the devices we use get more complex, the level of service provided by resellers and manufacturers continue to deteriorate. Tech support and customer service phone numbers are typically worthless at getting any real problems solved. And out of this 'opportunity', the online community steps in. There are countless individuals, experts in their own right, who are out there, posting answers in online forums, investing their own time in the service of others, with really nothing to gain in return. In my experience these are always the best sources for accurate and detailed information on how to solve a problem or answer a question. When I upgraded from XP to Vista and ran into some snags, all my answers came from users out there sharing their experience. When the MacBook Air was released by Apple and it came to light that - like the iPod - the battery was not replaceable, many people found that to be a big turnoff (rightfully so). Within days, online community members were providing step by step instructions on how you could in fact replace it if needed. The eBay seller community is also known to be very helpful in this way, with more experienced members helping newer ones. Actually this was a key to success in the early years because they were growing so fast there was no way eBay could actually hire fast enough to support their own members.

Technical problems? Automotive questions, want to know how not to mess up a recipe, or pretty much anything else? If you have a problem to solve, type it in your search engine and you're bound to find someone who has contributed some valuable insight to helping you address it. To all these anonymous helpers, thank you!

First blog post by email

Looks like this system was designed to help people like me, who can benefit from the convenience and mobility of email. I can send an email to a specific address – which I’m doing right now – and it automatically gets converted to a post on my blog. Apparently I can even include photos (testing sending one with this email). Pretty cool!

This means I can be out and about, maybe stuck on the tarmac waiting to take off, or in the dentist’s waiting room, and post to my blog from my Blackberry. Talk about connected!

At the end of the day, most people probably are too busy with their lives to care about how mine unfolds, but for now I’m going to do this just to develop a routine and see where it leads. And if you read this far then stay tuned, there’s more to come.

Getting in shape with WiiFit

Just paid €100 for the new Wii Fit. Comes with the game and an exercise board. The board is connected wirelessly to the Wii console, and gives you a guided and monitored way to do exercises and get in shape. It's quite clever.

Now... why not just go to the gym and exercise? I've been paying for a health club membership that I don't use. I was playing tennis once or twice a week but between work and home demands I've hardly played in the last year. Membership expires in June I think, I won't be renewing it.

So... why not just go for walks, or shoot some hoops in the front yard? Probably should do that too, no doubt. Probably won't do much more than I do now though...

What I like about something like Wii Fit is that it is engaging... it makes exercise playful. It keeps track of your progress, allows you to set goals, challenges you to come back, gives you a hard time if you don't...

Nintendo had been written off for a while, they went through a rut with the Game Cube while Sony dominated with the Playstation, then Microsoft surprised most of us with the Xbox when they really gave Sony a run for their money. But between the Nintendo DS and now the Wii, Nintendo is kicking butt again.

Maybe I'm just a geek and get too excited about new technology... in this case, I hope I manage to get back in shape in the process :-)

Welcome to 2008... in May :-)

I think I'm going to try writing something at least weekly... not sure about what, although I am usually not short on opinion, thoughts and other musings... Also not sure if what I have to say is of interest to anyone else, but for now I'm OK suspending that question.
So here I go, hoping to learn about the writing process and how blogging helps (or not) in crystallizing one's own thoughts... Guess I'll find out.