Last night, I had to sit through "The Social Network". It was on TV, so it wasn't as bad as having had to watch it in a cinema. But it was dire, all the same. Apparently, it won dozens of Oscars. I steer well clear of any films that have won Oscars. These usually have someone talking incessantly through the film, or someone looking intensely into the camera, or doing both, at intervals. That's pretty much it. And the ability to do either is considered "good acting", apparently. The rest of the movie is incidental.
Anyway, to get back to "The Social Network". For those thankfully not in the know, the movie's about how Facebook came into being. How boring can you get? Couldn't the makers of the movie have found a patch of growing grass to film instead? Sure, I think Facebook's great, lets me catch up with old pals and announce to the world that I've sneezed thrice in a row, but come on...a movie about it? Have moviemakers run out of ideas, or do people actually like to watch this nonsense? This should've been a documentary on the Weird Crap channel or something. Basically, all that happened in the movie (and in reality) was someone set up a website in his college to get even with a girl, and the it got popular, and took off. Just like Google. Or ebay. Or a dozen others. And Facebook isn't even that revolutionary - lots of people had the same idea, long before them - Orkut, anybody? If you want to watch a movie where a bunch of geeks come out on top after being persecuted, try "Revenge of the Nerds". At least it's funny.
What happened to movies where people actually did things, went places, diced with death and managed not to come over all emotional? They seem to be going the way of the dodo. To be honest, there are some movies that came along once in a while that make me think there is some hope, but they're far overshadowed by tripe like "Social Network". Where are the Indiana Joneses, the spaghetti westerns, the Star Wars? I'll tell you what it is. We've just grown fond of gazing deeply into our own navels. Nothing to do with the outside, pioneers or action interests us as much as a depressed retard playing the piano (I made that up, but I'm sure there's a movie like that - if not, I'm claiming royalties from any producer reading this). Where once men were men, and women were beautiful, now you can't tell the difference. Or they're all geeks, which amounts to the same thing. No wonder this generation actually want to be accountants and computer weirdos.
It's not just movies, either. I'm a bit of a science fiction buff - I head straight for the sci-fi shelves whenever I see a bookshop - and this penchant for navel-gazing is apparent even in the sci-fi world. Where once the likes of Clarke and Asimov dominated, with their huge panoramas of Galactic Empire and the colonization of space, now it's mostly about individuals dealing with their angst in dystopic futures (or something equally pathetic). Pathetic is the word, actually. We're turning into a race of pathetic little people preoccupied with our pathetic little problems. The whole human race (the current generation, at least) needs a kick up the backside and a few weeks at boot camp.
Hell, who cares!
PS: Regarding my opinion of Oscar-winning movies, there's one honourably excepted category - Oscars for Special Effects. More movies like Jurassic Park, please!
Tuesday 22 March 2011
Monday 14 March 2011
Decisions, Decisions...
You can't get away from them, can you? Like deciding to write this post, for example. You make decisions every moment of every day, some consciously, others unconsciously. Even a decision to not decide is still a decision. I can't speak for everybody, but I am not fond of decisions - and I suspect quite a lot of us think the world would be a better place without the need for them (According to my extremely limited understanding of quantum physics, the world wouldn't exist without decisions being made - but that's another story).
These days, the amount of information we have, literally, at our fingertips is incredible, courtesy Google and its lesser brethren. You'd think with all that easily accessible data, making a decision would be a cinch. Think again. Earlier today, I decided I needed a simple article - a clear hard sheet of plastic. The obvious place to look was on the Internet, on ebay and Amazon. The moment I typed in my requirement, I was faced with page after page of results. All with slightly different specifications, and remarkably different prices. While the decision on what to pay was easy (my dad used to decide what to eat at a restaurant by looking at the right-hand side of the menu - you get the picture), I spent almost half an hour trying to picture the difference between a thickness of 2mm and one of 3mm, converting inches into centimetres and vice versa, and researching whether "perspex" was clear enough, hard enough or good enough for me.
The point is, there was a time (yes, I'm old enough to remember thepre-internet world) when all that information wasn't available. Decisions had to be made using whatever limited information there was - and made right. And guess what - I made the right decisions at least as often as I do now.
So - does more data necessarily mean better decisions? Logic would say so. And so would pretty much everybody tasked with making a decision. However, I suspect the one misleads and the other shirks. Think about it this way - for millions of years, before the light of intelligence dawned on us, our ancestors basically had one of two decisions to make - fight or flight. And those weren't decisions that could be made while scratching your head thoughtfully. Even afterwards, for most of our existence as humans, our lives usually depended on swift decisions using the evidence of our eyes and our intuitions. And given that we are the most successful species ever, that worked for us. In other words, we've evolved to make quick decisions based on limited data, and not conclusions based on lengthy logical analyses.
That isn't to say that there are no cases where decisions shouldn't be made painstakingly. After all, nuclear physics and libel laws didn't exist for most of mankind's history. But for everyday, non-life-or-death decisions, we're probably better off trusting our intuitive reactions to things, compounded perhaps with a little common sense. You'll know what I mean if you've ever bought a house or a car. Both are important decisions, among the most important you'll ever make. But no matter how much you list the pros and cons, research the neighbourhood or look on vehicle owner forums, you only really make the decision when you've set foot in the house and decided "it feels right" or taken that test drive and thrilled to that deep-throated growl when you floor the accelerator.
Have no doubt, you will regret some decisions. But you're as likely to regret an over-analysed decision as a rash one - so think about what you're about to do - but only a little. You're meant to spend your life benefiting from the decisions you made, not making them. And remember - some decisions only look bad when you compare them to those made by others - they may be the right decision on their own merit. It isn't about keeping up with the Joneses - it's about your own satisfaction.
These days, the amount of information we have, literally, at our fingertips is incredible, courtesy Google and its lesser brethren. You'd think with all that easily accessible data, making a decision would be a cinch. Think again. Earlier today, I decided I needed a simple article - a clear hard sheet of plastic. The obvious place to look was on the Internet, on ebay and Amazon. The moment I typed in my requirement, I was faced with page after page of results. All with slightly different specifications, and remarkably different prices. While the decision on what to pay was easy (my dad used to decide what to eat at a restaurant by looking at the right-hand side of the menu - you get the picture), I spent almost half an hour trying to picture the difference between a thickness of 2mm and one of 3mm, converting inches into centimetres and vice versa, and researching whether "perspex" was clear enough, hard enough or good enough for me.
The point is, there was a time (yes, I'm old enough to remember thepre-internet world) when all that information wasn't available. Decisions had to be made using whatever limited information there was - and made right. And guess what - I made the right decisions at least as often as I do now.
So - does more data necessarily mean better decisions? Logic would say so. And so would pretty much everybody tasked with making a decision. However, I suspect the one misleads and the other shirks. Think about it this way - for millions of years, before the light of intelligence dawned on us, our ancestors basically had one of two decisions to make - fight or flight. And those weren't decisions that could be made while scratching your head thoughtfully. Even afterwards, for most of our existence as humans, our lives usually depended on swift decisions using the evidence of our eyes and our intuitions. And given that we are the most successful species ever, that worked for us. In other words, we've evolved to make quick decisions based on limited data, and not conclusions based on lengthy logical analyses.
That isn't to say that there are no cases where decisions shouldn't be made painstakingly. After all, nuclear physics and libel laws didn't exist for most of mankind's history. But for everyday, non-life-or-death decisions, we're probably better off trusting our intuitive reactions to things, compounded perhaps with a little common sense. You'll know what I mean if you've ever bought a house or a car. Both are important decisions, among the most important you'll ever make. But no matter how much you list the pros and cons, research the neighbourhood or look on vehicle owner forums, you only really make the decision when you've set foot in the house and decided "it feels right" or taken that test drive and thrilled to that deep-throated growl when you floor the accelerator.
Have no doubt, you will regret some decisions. But you're as likely to regret an over-analysed decision as a rash one - so think about what you're about to do - but only a little. You're meant to spend your life benefiting from the decisions you made, not making them. And remember - some decisions only look bad when you compare them to those made by others - they may be the right decision on their own merit. It isn't about keeping up with the Joneses - it's about your own satisfaction.
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