Henry Phish

I read an article on Yahoo the other day about a man in Japan who died of overwork. The official cause of death was ischemic heart disease, which is essentially a heart attack. I’d never actually thought about it before, but it kind of makes sense that one could die from working too hard. In this case, the man had been working 80 hour weeks for over two months while under severe pressure as the head engineer developing the Toyota Camry Hybrid. This isn’t exactly the Dickensonian era, most of us aren’t working in sweat shops, but putting in 70-80 hours a week takes it toll after a while.

Having put in a few 70 hour shifts myself in the last few years, I can tell you it isn’t for the feint of heart. As one friend of mine commented, “You could never get an American worker to put in that kind of overtime. The unions would have a field day.”

The sad thing about all of this is that this event is so common in Japan that it actually has a name, karoshi; literally translated as “death from overwork.”

Japanese Man, 45, Died of Overwork

CBS News Video

So now we have a problem. Who are all these people?

Every day you interact with people. Over the phone, on television, email, and in person. Ideas, thoughts, philosophes, and problems are everywhere. There is so much information, and so many people telling it to you that it becomes impossible to make sense of it all.

As Ashton Kutcher is so fond of depicting in his socially provocative show “Beauty and the Geek,” peoples views of social hierarchy are often ruled more by their perception than any actual physical limitations.

So what are our perceptions?

The truth is, that this is a very large topic…much larger than I want to cover here…but on the whole, perceptions of sexuality, intelligence, cultural upbringing, and religion all carry with them a certain amount of archetypal belief model that is easily passed between people.

Everyone knows what a Catholic is, or a black person, or a gay person, or a geek, or a Mormon. Some of these archetypes are considered social norm, while others are considered social fringe. These belief systems can change from culture to culture and people group to people group, but within any given society there tends to be a social norm that most people can agree on.

So now, with the death of tech, we’ve had a fundamental change in the fabric of this social norm. Where once the term geek symbolized a social dysfunction, post tech boom, the geek lifestyle, as shown by its rise in popular culture: movies, literature, and television, has become the social norm.

So how does that change our perceptions?

The term geek affectively becomes meaningless.

This is a bit of a misnomer, since our definition hasn’t fundamentally changed, but the scope of how it is viewed by the general population has. If the term only covered five people with distinguishing characteristics before, it now covers fifty with several other, less definable characteristics. Effectively, we’ve watered down the terminology to fit a larger group of people.

So what does this mean?

People have become more aware of their environment and the people around them. Though with a less defined view of those they encounter on a daily basis. It makes the question, “Who are these people?” more difficult to answer, since the basis of our conclusions has taken on a more abstract context. In simplest terms, just because someone wears glasses doesn’t mean that he or she is a nerd… However, cause and effect relationships have become more important as our context broadens, since without our standard definitions to fall back on, people are forced to deal with their current situation as opposed to relying on preconceived notions. For instance, if I hurt someone physically or emotionally, how does that affect them? How does that effect me in return?

So what is the ultimate result of this shift in the world view?

Social affectedness.

I’ve had a lot of contact over the years with children and adults with Asperger’s Syndrome. Talking with them, I’ve always wondered what this disease was all about, but I’ve never really taken the time to ask questions. When I stumbled across this documentary about David Jordan, it was interesting to see his perspective on the illness. People with the disease are generally mildly autistic. They have difficulty interpreting emotions like normal people do, which affects how they socialize.

Anyway, David’s take on the illness deserves a spot on the blog. Check it out:

If there is anything the nonconformist hates worse than a conformist, it’s another nonconformist who doesn’t conform to the prevailing standard of nonconformity.

Bill Vaughan

How true. One of those quotes that makes you think.

Yeah, I stole that line from Damon Wayans, but it’s oh so very true. 

This guy is amazing.  It never even occurred to me that someone could use a wheelchair like a skateboard, but after seeing this guy I’m totally without words.  A couple of the falls are pretty painful to watch, but he really gets going toward the end.

Check it out!

A Hawaiian court has found that you are not responsible for hitting another golfer with your ball. This is a good thing for all of us bad golfers.

The ruling specifically says that duffers who intentionally hit a ball to inflict injury, or recklessly hit the ball, aren’t exempt from liability. As for shouting “Fore!” the court said that’s simply proper golf etiquette, not a legal requirement.

Via - Law Blog

So I participated in this event over the weekend called A Night On The Street. Basically, about 200 to 300 teens and their adult leaders spend the night sleeping in boxes to raise homelessness awareness. It’s a pretty cool event, if you ever get the chance to attend.

They have speakers talk to you about what it is like on the street; some of whom have personal experiences that you wouldn’t even believe. It’s the kind of stories that you see in the movies, but you never quite identify with them. Seeing a person that has actually gone through one of those situations and has come out the other side, it really sells the point home.

Homelessness is a real problem in America, and real people suffer from it; people whom you may even know. It was interesting to hear that a lot of homeless teens actually go to school. They try to blend in, they wear cloths like everybody else, they try to learn, because they see education as a way out of their problem. But then there’s the flip side of life on the street; for chronic homeless cases, in order to survive you have to learn to shut yourself off from people. Fighting and yelling are protection mechanisms, as are smelling bad and looking filthy. Unfortunately, these protection mechanisms make it difficult for people to move back into society once they have been trapped on the outside.

In the last 35 years problem has increased dramatically as low income housing is replaced with expensive condos, homes, and apartments. In the 1960’s, homelessness was hardly even even apparent, but with the rise of the middle-upper class in America, these people have been left high and dry.

Anyway, the Plymouth Church Foundation supports several low income communities around the twin cities. Check out their web page if you get the chance. They except donations here.

Also, visit A Night on the Street for more information on upcoming events.

Okay, who wrote this stupid article and left out the answer to the most obvious question: who are all these people? Is this 35% of single people, married people, both, neither. I mean if only 35% of single people are lonely, then that is probably a pretty good number…and if 35% of married people are lonely, then that doesn’t say much for marriage in Austrailia…and if 35% of a random selection of married and single people are lonely then that could mean just about anything…so I have to ask the question again…who are all these people?

It just goes to show that statistics mean nothing when taken out of context.
All the Lonely People