Movement is not necessarily progress (though it feels like it)

I've often written that humans are prone to act without a legitimate plan because it seems like Motion is Progress. No one will accuse you of failing to do something if you are doing, literally, something, even if your are acting in ways that are nonsensical, harmful, counterproductive. Motion is Progress is a fallacy. Doing something is often a bad idea. This "syndrome" is explored here by Farnam Street.

Movement offers shelter from failure. When you’re in motion, you feel like you’re doing something. We convince ourselves that as long as we’re in motion, we can’t fail. As long as we’re doing something, anything, failure can’t really find us. Movement feeds our ego. Our evolutionary programming craves the validation of others. In a world that values action and short soundbites, nuanced conversations are hard. Others don’t have time to really listen to your nuanced story as they run to their next meeting. And telling people that you’re doing nothing results in disapproving looks. Movement offers the drug of validation to the outside world. It is far easier to tell others that we’re doing something than doing nothing. And so we do.

Continue ReadingMovement is not necessarily progress (though it feels like it)

Drivers of expensive cars tend to drive their privilege

My gut feeling borne out . . . Drivers of expensive cars are more likely to drive like jerks. These studies explore driver behavior in four-way intersections.

A research team including Berkeley psychologists Paul Piff and Dacher Keltner have been examining the way social status and wealth affects morality. Their findings — which are getting a lot of media attention — broadly show that wealthier, higher-status individuals are, essentially, more likely to cheat.
I've explored this topic previously here. John Nichols and William McChesney gathered enough evidence on this topic of wealth privilege to fill an entire book: Dollarocracy: How the Money and Media Election Complex is Destroying America. Also, check out the new podcast of Michael Lewis, Against the Rules. I've only heard the intro podcast so far ("Ref, You Suck"), but this is podcasting at its best.

The study at the top, involving an simple traffic intersection with simple well-known rules, seemed like an especially good illustration that a disproportionate number of wealthy people feel and act out their privilege, even out in the open.

Continue ReadingDrivers of expensive cars tend to drive their privilege

Matt Taibbi discusses the “Rot of American Journalism” with Chris Hedges

Chris Hedges and Matt Taibbi discuss many of the ways in which "the news" has changed for the worse over the past few decades.   This is the type of discussion you don't see on most news outlets--news media fail to cover problems with news media.

Continue ReadingMatt Taibbi discusses the “Rot of American Journalism” with Chris Hedges

Erich Vieth Photography Website Upgrade

I'm about to hear a ratchet click of yet another year of age. Time is truly flying by! One way I try to keep track of things is by taking photos. It started as a hobby, then grew into a business about eight years ago. And it is also therapy. Photography helps me to stay in the moment. Photography is also exciting, and post-production is as exciting as capturing images.

I have accumulated an unwieldy number of photos over the past eight years. Given that I'm about to be a year older, I decided to steer away from any existential funk by going through my favorite images from home and abroad. It then occurred to me that I really ought to share these by making them accessible in a website. Over the past two days I have designed my official photography website. I invite you to take a look at some (or many) of the hundreds of images you can find in the seven Galleries.

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The Dialogue Continues . . .

Today I decided to play the album Chicago V while working.  That album includes a two-part song called "Dialogue."  I remember this song well, including all the lyrics.  That's because I sing one of the lead voices of this song (along with Charles Glenn) with a band I formed with Charles Glenn back in the late 1970's. We were an 7-piece jazz-rock band that performed many types of music, including the music of Chicago, including "Dialogue."

"Ego" in 1975.: Tom O'Brien (bass), Tom Atkinson (woodwinds), Erich Vieth (guitar), Mike L'Ecuyer (keyboards), Sharon Schutte (vocalist), Charles Glenn (percussion and vocalist), Mark Harmon (trumpet), Ron Weaver (trumpet) and Mike Harty (trombone).

---- As I heard this tune today, it very much brought me back to the happy times of playing with such an extraordinary group of good friends.  It also struck me how little things have changed.  It also haunts me that the vocal part of the song that I sang in our performances (sung by Terri Kath on the album) is an extraordinary challenge.  I very much meant those opening words as an 18-year old young man and they resonate with me today. 

Continue ReadingThe Dialogue Continues . . .