T-M-I from T-I-M

Notes on Dave Eggers Interview with Michael Lewis

I went to a FABULOUS event last night where authors Dave Eggers (A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, A Hologram for a King) interviewed Michael Lewis (Moneyball, Liar's Poker, Big Short).

They are both Bay Area authors and clearly good friends with different mindsets but similar heart's desire to see our world improve.

I've read books by both of them. It's interesting because Eggers writes like I think, which is both comforting and confronting somehow.

Lewis writes from the byproduct of how my mind seeks things out and I learned more why that's true in the convo.

A few fabulous nuggets from last night:

Lewis said you don't know what book you wrote until people start reading it. He also mentioned how people can come up with two completely different, opposing opinions by reading his books.

They both agree that if we could create ways and encourage younger people from all parts of life to meet it would help us out of the division many of us sense.

Lewis, who is mostly liberal, said he has plenty of Trump friends in his world and he judges people for who they show themselves to be not who they vote for.

He also is launching what sounds like an AMAZING show on Apple TV about Cuban baseball players.

I learned that what makes Michael Lewis so successful is he has a seemingly unquenchable curiosity for stories, often from people we've never heard about.

He told an absolutely HILARIOUS story about how he learned to act like royalty in New Orleans as a kid and it randomly came in handy when he met Princess Diana. OMG it was spectacular.

They discussed the benefit of writing a book and handing it off to a movie maker because they worry less about the movie knowing the book has its own identity.

Lewis said that there are subject matter experts all over the world who have one trait in common: Many of them have no idea how to market themselves so they go unrecognized.

He told a story from his podcast (which is excellent) about Arthur Allen who created a life saving way to look at drift when people are lost at sea that's saved lives but he doesn't think to promote it. (It relates to a post I did on the Sammy awards for the government)

He talked about his book that was on the pandemic but not really about the pandemic.  It's a fascinating story of how a gigantic part of our government is run in about as inefficient and ineffective way.

And somehow certain people in the system make it work in some cases.  He told a story about a meningitis outbreak where a bold female doctor made an individual decision in spite of a misguided organizational edict to the contrary that saved lives.  

Finally Lewis mentioned that he has an idea for a TV show on an all woman's hedge fund that thrives basically on the shortcomings and idiocy of men....fascinating.

Of course I asked a question in Q&A, I always try to at these events, what a great opportunity to interact with thought leaders.

They discussed early on how the US is better than any other nation in the world at expanding our knowledge base and somehow that's dividing us more.

Arthur Allen who created the software (with a team) that helped with drift to save lives did so because he was crushed when a he learned a mom and daughter died at sea because they couldn't find them.

The mom was his wife's age, the daughter was his daughter's age at the time.

So my question was if love and compassion can fuel the expansion of knowledge like this why can't the expansion of knowledge then fuel back into love, compassion and feelings?

They were both intrigued but fairly flat footed about the question. In fact Lewis passed it to Eggers saying "this isn't my expertise". It was such a wonderful moment.

Eventually they both got tot he point mentioned above that the solution begins with younger teenagers, not our generation which I 100% agree with.

And it's perfectly put in their hands because they comparatively value inclusion more than our generation does.

These SF City Arts Lectures are superb. So glad I went.

Some random thoughts on the Buffalo Murders

A few random thoughts on the Buffalo shooting.

I'm sure I'll upset people on all sides of this but so be it.

Summary of points I considered:

Violent speech/postings should be sensibly criminalized
A saltwater analogy to racism
Why Republicans and Democrats don't really care this time
This mass murder has come and gone....anyone surprised?

My thoughts:

I don’t know how to implement it but I think there needs to be some kind of punishment or forced rehabilitation for the kinds of hateful messages that people put online.

I realize that it’s tricky because free speech is a foundation of our nation.

This to me is different than someone who has a different perspective on capital punishment or homelessness or even abortion or discrimination.

There’s a concept called “fitting” an equation. It basically means take an outcome and look at the data to see if there’s a relationship.

And the number of these shootings which have at some point a person posting in parts of the internet Facebook or 4chan is breathtaking.

I’ve read stories where individuals have been charged and they claim “I was not serious” and it’s irrelevant. The person needs to be held to some kind of account.

Is it possible that this shooter in Buffalo has mental illness? Maybe.
And the truth is from the snippets I’ve seen of what he wrote if he is mentally ill, he needs help with that.

If he’s clear minded and not mentally ill the writing is deserving of some kind of consequence.

Two separate women who texted their boyfriends to commit suicide ended up serving time in prison. (Remember the Netflix series on Michelle Carter?)

It’s not exactly the same but it’s similar. Someone’s words should make them accountable.

Admittedly, I’m practically numb to these shootings. Even when a shooting came way to close to my daughter who left a scene a few hours before a shooting in Sacramento still doesn’t seem real.

Sandy Hook forever changed me. I knew when nothing happened then as a nation to re-think how we do things it’s either never going to happen or happen after I’m long gone.

There were I think 3 separate shootings that I saw covered that weekend where multiple people died. And yes I believe that gun violence in all contexts is a nearly incomprehensible problem.

The gun violence in the name of drugs or gangs is seemingly a matter of economic disparity at a minimum. So the solution seems like it’s a different path, but I don’t fully know.

And "innocent" in those situations is at times dubious unless it's a child or other person not involved in any way with the game.

What I’m not numb to is the certainty that there are notable parts of our society that are racist.

And I personally believe if notable parts of our society are racist the case can be reasonably made that we have a racist society.

If I have a glass of pure water and put a pinch of salt in it, it’s now salt water. It doesn’t require a heaping scoop to be salt water.

I have a fairly cynical view that’s going to be kind of controversial.

Democrats haven’t taken up the cause on this one in a overt way.

Republicans have not come out and condemned this act.

In both cases I think they’ve taken that stance because it’s not politically advantageous. And btw, solving gun violence in the inner cities is also not politically advantageous.

You can draw whatever conclusion you want, but to me I think it means that the people who died aren’t as important.

Ever noticed how absolutely silent it is when Boko Haram kidnaps yet another group of young school girls in Africa? Almost nobody cares.

There’s even limited outrage of any kind about Britney Griner.

I’d humbly submit that these are demonstrations that prove that there is more than a pinch of salt in the glass of water.

The man who murdered attendees at a Taiwanese church gathering in some ways is similar. I could write a whole separate post on that.

And for my money, if that guy was posting hateful stuff online about Taiwanese citizens I’d consider consequences for that too.

If gun control is just not possible, is it possible that a thoughtful more stringent approach to personal accountability to the speech possible?

Honestly I'm undecided on the impact of words/speech by media personalities and politicians. Blaming them in some ways eliminates personal accountability which I'm not in favor of.

But to think it has no impact is too simple (note the "pouring in" words the Buffalo murderer/terrorist used).

Yes, I used the word terrorist which means someone who attacks civilian for a political purpose and I believe blatant racism has at least some political purpose, even though he professed that he disagreed with people on all sides it seems.

I was encouraged when the parents of that school shooter were charged. Remember that mass murder?

It was the one before the other 5 that came before the next 10.

School shootings are like Starbucks, there are so many of them that you forget which is which.

Finally this murder spree has more or less come and gone. The commentary on it was practically non existent (vs other police shootings or even mass shootings) in my social graph. And most people have moved on.

While not surprising, it’s unfortunate. It’s a data point on a downward slope of likelihood that things will change.

Martial Arts meets kindness: Everything Everywhere All at Once

 

I saw Everything Everywhere All at Once with my daughter Zoe on Saturday and it’s almost hard to put into words how powerful it is.

 

In an odd way it’s a perfect Mother’s Day movie.

 

The only thing I knew going into it was that a lot of people I respect loved it. And I’m glad I followed my intuition to see it and I loved it.

 

It was an exercise in trust putting my heart and attention into the hands of the creators and performers, the trust was well rewarded.

 

Basically, the script focuses on an essentially lost woman who is unhappy in her marriage, scared of her father and has a fractured relationship with her daughter.

 

AND from the starting point of a dingy laundromat they own, her and her family are involved in a CRAZY set of amazing martial art battles across a series of concurrent realities called the multiverse to find her "it".

 

The entire story revolves around the realization that she has made small choices throughout her life creating her current reality. And the concurrent universes show her what her life “could have been” like.

 

It’s really hard to explain this story, no matter how good I am at writing.

 

It’s part Matrix, part Euphoria, part Arrival, part Parenthood, part Ted Lasso part Monsters Inc (yes!) and so much more.

 

Yet, it's kinda stunning or mind blowing that a film could pick amongst so many story telling and filmmaking devices that are familiar and STILL be totally original.

 

I’ve been saying this the last couple years, we are in the golden age of entertainment. The films, TV shows, music speak to issues in creative and powerful and compelling ways that I’ve never experienced.

 

The film takes on subjects like how living in the past damages our children, how living in fear with people we love damages possibilities to connect, how hard it can be to be a young person today, how choosing kindness and love can be fierce and so many other topics.

 

So much of it has to do with seeing, accepting and loving (no matter HOW flawed that love is) people for who they are.

 

There are some parts that are just WEIRD yet there is a point. At one point the characters have “hot dog fingers” that aren’t usable and they adjust. It’s the PERFECT way to describe how we find ways to share what we have even when we have shortcomings.

 

How the movie also picks from the "unchosen" lives from the Multiverse to unlock the mom's potential in the present "chosen" life is a fascinating plot device.

 

The heartbreaking way the movie depicts how the daughter moves through the world when there is SO much to take in simultaneously that she has vision into all of it without a way to really talk about it with her mom in particular.

 

I can tell you (without spoiling it) the last scene with the mother and the daughter is cinema at the highest level. It is deeply, deeply moving to feel the moment when judgment and separation melts away through courage and honesty.

 

I so appreciate coming out of the film how small choices get us to where we are and so small choices can get us to where we'd like to go regardless of where we are.

 

One seemingly small aspect of the film that feels innovative is that I loved is how it’s a true hybrid Chinese/English speaking film. I have never seen that before. It FEELS like being in a multi-generational Chinese household which I think is a great device I’d like to see more to see more cultures on film.

 

The cast is both nostalgic and talented:

 

I didn’t know until the end that the lead female actor was Michelle Yeoh who is a martial arts goddess.

 

Her husband was the young Asian kid in the lousy Temple of Doom Indiana Jones movie but his voice sounded SO familiar throughout and does a GREAT job portraying a guy who wants to have fun in life.

 

The father is David Lo Pan from Big Trouble in Little China (omg old school!).

 

Jamie Lee Curtis is OUTSTANDING as a crazy IRS agent villain.

 

And the daughter named Stephanie Hsu who I’ve never seen before was so lovely as the daughter portraying the difficulty, confusion and near despair of being a young woman balanced with the full hearted desire to be what she wanted to be in the world.

 

Zoe and I both laughed out loud during it, both wondered WTF during it and both cried at the end (although I cried several other times during it).

 

It’s a movie that can be quite understood and decided on based on a review, it can only be experienced and I’m glad I did.