The Brotherhood of Morons

I dunno, maybe there is some wisdom I missed because I didn't finish it.

I worked in Harvard Square for 5 years (dead center, across the street from Curious George, between the Greenhouse and the Coop), and it was always my assertion that Harvard is full of Well-Educated Idiots.

> The first type, my favourite commenters, whose grim-faced no-nonsense corporate visages grace standups across the world. Thanks to their fearless leadership and keen business sense, I have it on good authority that all projects are scheduled to move from red status to green status despite all those risks unfortunately materializing, which is no one's fault in particular. Despite the various challenges we have faced over the years and lack of forward progress, I think this retro is the one where things are going to change.

I have someone like this on my team, and let me tell you, I _adore_ this person. He is not an idiot. We tell him the unvarnished truth about what is going on, and he massages it into something that is closer to what upper management wants to hear. It actually takes a lot of intelligence to do this in such a way that it isn't blatantly dishonest and also doesn't get your project cancelled. Being brutally honest with upper management about the status of your project is a sure fire way to _lose your job_ at many companies. And by the way, the people he's reporting to are _also_ not idiots and realize that the message is being massaged and have to read between the lines and so on up the chain.

I'm going to close with this quote:

> But most days, if you’re aware enough to give yourself a choice, you can choose to look differently at this fat, dead-eyed, over-made-up lady who just screamed at her kid in the checkout line. Maybe she’s not usually like this. Maybe she’s been up three straight nights holding the hand of a husband who is dying of bone cancer. Or maybe this very lady is the low-wage clerk at the motor vehicle department, who just yesterday helped your spouse resolve a horrific, infuriating, red-tape problem through some small act of bureaucratic kindness. Of course, none of this is likely, but it’s also not impossible. It just depends what you want to consider. If you’re automatically sure that you know what reality is, and you are operating on your default setting, then you, like me, probably won’t consider possibilities that aren’t annoying and miserable. But if you really learn how to pay attention, then you will know there are other options. It will actually be within your power to experience a crowded, hot, slow, consumer-hell type situation as not only meaningful, but sacred, on fire with the same force that made the stars: love, fellowship, the mystical oneness of all things deep down.

> Not that that mystical stuff is necessarily true. The only thing that’s capital-T True is that you get to decide how you’re gonna try to see it.

-- David Foster Wallace