Recently in phi·los·o·phy Category

A friend of mine used to drive a right hand drive Alfa Spider. It was a ridiculously impractical car, with all the niggles of old Italian engineering. He had to put his work access card on a stick and lean across the passenger seat to get into the office.

But he loved it. Where others saw niggles, he saw character. Where others saw ridiculous impracticality, he saw the coolest car on the planet. Or at lest that he ever owned.

Which is why I have always said “Buy the car you want, not the one that looks good on paper” †. The problem when you buy a car that ticks all the boxes the decision is too logical. So the pleasure or enjoyment you get out of it is minimised but all the quirks still remain. And those quirks can drive you nutty. But when you buy a car for emotional reasons (which can vary from “It’s red” to “It’s a sexy fast convertible”) you overlook those quirks or rationalise them in character, or simply don’t care.

Ever wonder why most car adverts try engage with people on an emotional rather than practical level? No one really cares about how many cup holders a car has. Note also the shift to things like fuel economy and safety as those issues have become socially and hence emotionally relevant over the recent few years.

Which brings me to Apple. Since the return of Jobs (and doesn’t that sound like biblical passage) Apple has more been engaging with people emotionally. From a design level, from a usability point of view, and from inserting itself into the social zeitgeist. Note the passion of Apple converts. It may be written off in the media as fanboys or fanatics or what not, but it’s a sign of a company building products that engage emotionally, and I can bet that Microsoft or Sony would sacrifice virgin coders to the dark forces if they could get it. Or get it back in Sony’s case. Nintendo has managed this too with the wii.

Of course their are cases where this passion can be counter productive. Some people hate a winner. Starbucks suffer from this a lot in the UK (perhaps elsewhere too). Apple gets a lot of people who resent the ‘hype’ (whatever that is) and don’t like apples products regardless of any logical reasoning. Seen often Daring Fileball as a jackass or being taken down by The Macalope

I had an argument with a friend this week on the iPhone. He “doesn’t buy into Apples hype”. Although he did go through 3 Sony MP3 players before now buying a series of iPods and an iPhone. But because he got the iPhone for logical reasons (best phone on the market) the quirks annoy him. And yeah the iPhone has it’s quirks, and bugs. But no more so than any other phone.

However because he has no emotional attachment to the iPhone (because he doesn’t like the ‘hype’), where he sees an issues with ringtones it’s Apple being crap, and not noticed that it’s the record companies or the fact he had the exact problem with every other phone. Where he sees it as annoying their is no drafts folder for texts, I see the fact that I have email that finally works, where he sees no 3G, I see the best mobile browser on the market.

We both have the same phone. But because I ‘like’ the phone and he doesn’t he sees the problems the phone has and I ignore them. I see the features the phone has, the design, and the general increase in use I have had over all my other phones. He never should have got an iPhone and I advised against it. Because it just frustrates him.

I always think you should buy products that you like.

I always think you should build products that people like. That people emotionally engage with. That people are passionate about. All the best websites do. If you want to be the best make sure you people who are passionate about what you do. If you want people to be passionate about what you do, you better be too.

† This may not be true for all people, or people who could car less about the car, as the fact it’s 4 wheels and box to get you from A to B. However most people I have found who own a car have some degree of passion for it, from Ford Fiestas to hand build Caterham Sevens. People who don’t own cars at all (and/or can’t drive) however often don’t get the car thing at all.

When I am grand dictator of all (pending) the following people go on my list of "amongst the first with their backs to the wall"

People who quip up with "Oh did you **actually** play the game" in response to "we won" when talking about a sport.

We is a perfectly acceptable associative reference to a team. Or electoral party. Or family. Or any group.

So we meaning, "South Africans" or "Liverpool Football Club Supporters" or "Labour Voters" doesn't mean you need to be the chap on the field to speak about having won. The players in the team represent something more than the 15 on the field. Ever wonder what the "shirt" or the "badge" is when players talk about playing for the shirt. It's the connectivity that teams have with their history and their fans. It's the "we".

So next time someone quips up "What do you mean _we_ did you actually play the game" just remember ... backs first to the wall when I'm grand lord dictator of all.

That is all.

I was installing a 3G data card and my computer said “Can’t read disk” to which I repeated out aloud to myself. The girl I work with then passed me the install CD it came with. I started explaining how the error message had nothing to do with this CD to which she cut me off and explained how she had no interest and didn’t care.

Which is fair enough …

But …

I don’t understand it. It’s beyond my comprehension how you might not want to know how something works. I just can’t fathom why anyone would not want to know how anything works. Whether it’s the 3G modem, or the social anthropology of why people use facebook or why you can’t pour concrete too quickly.

Life to me, without understanding what’s beyond the veil, what the depth is, they why and the “no really why, I mean exactly why and how and what’s the bit do here” is just grey and bland and dull.

I thought the same thing listening to Mark Kermodes podcast on Attonement and was thinking how interesting it is to know why he think the movies fails and what the director was doing wrong from a film making perspective. The movie might still be perfectly passable, enjoyable and good, but that doesn’t mean one cannot learn by looking at what the flaws might be.

Yet so many people want to, and in fact choose to live a life where they purposely avoid knowing why something fails, why it doesn’t work, what’s beyond the veil. I cannot understand why someone would be happy flicking a light switch and never knowing how it comes about that the room is illuminated.

Life might seem quite magical, but it’s all a lie. I’d rather know the truth of life, and believe a magical lie. In fact the truth of life is far more fantastical anyway.

This is why I call myself an Engineer (occasionally scientist), even though I practise neither. It’s because of how I think, and I how I perceive the world, rather than the particulars of the day to day job I might I have.

I is Engineer. And mighty proud of it too.

I want thinking individuals, parents, who say: "Why am I doing this?" If the answer is 'cultural imperative', I want them to think twice about what they're doing. - Dan

I think after 3 essays and countless comments longer than all three essays, as well as quite intense and emotional debate, I cannot be accused of not thinking about what I am doing nor not explaining myself.

I appreciate that many people disagree with me. I appreciate that many people would not make these choices.

I would hope that people would understand where I am coming from even if it is not a place they would come from.

I would hope that those people who are my friends would still attend the bris of any son I had.

I would hope that those people who are my friends would refrain from calling me, and my father, and my fathers father, child abusers. Because I would hope my friends would see that that is hurtful and not the same as trying to make them think

This is who I am. Being Jewish is part of that. You cannot have me as a friend but not the Jewish part. Even if you disagree philosophically or morally with circumcision, you cannot have me as a friend but consider my a child abuser. If that is the choice you are going to make, well then I will have to live with the consequences. However if I am choosing where the greater harm might be, for me, loosing a friend vs. giving my son the best chance at a good life I think I can give him, well I'll side with my son.

I'm glad I have engaged in this debate, as it has made me think. And that is good.

However it has also been physically and emotionally draining for me. So hopefully we can move on from this, as I believe all sides have made good and thought provoking points. Well that is till Google brings in the raving anti-semties and other nutters.

Hopefully now I can move on and start discussion other important things like "do I keep my photoalbum or move to flickr" (and God please lets not get into that debate here)

Curiously I finished this on Christmas eve. I wonder if Jesus was circumcised. He should have been, being Jewish. Anyway I know most people wont read this, but to anyone who does

Have a Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, Hanukkah, Festive Period, Winteval, and any other denominational or non denominational, religious or secular day. Whether you have a foreskin or not.

May all the best come to you and your friends and your loved ones in the New Year.

I once was talking to a colleague who was saying the best way to bring up children was with no religious upbringing whatsoever and when they get to an appropriate age, they could make the decision as to what was their value set and what religion if any they wished to follow.

I said that if I ever had children I would want to bring them up in the same way as my parents brought me up. Experiencing a Jewish upbringing so that when they got to an appropriate age they could make a real decision knowing what it was they were deciding on.

He countered with you could educate your child about all the religions and this way they would know what they were deciding on.

Education isn't the same as experiencing however. There is a vast difference between knowing something and experiencing something. It's a bit like sex, you can talk about sex all you want, but until you actually have done it, it's not quite the same. It's just knowledge. You get a certain something extra from experiencing things that you don't get from learning about them.