Actually, I didn’t read the whole thing, I only read half. Although, since half of the last half of the book was acknowledgments, a glossary, footnotes and appendices, it turns out that I read three-quarters. However, I am fairly certain I got the drift of the story. It goes something like this:
“I’ve read a lot of philosophy, and most of it is rubbish. Especially Plato, although I am not really going to bother constructing an argument as to why he is rubbish. Instead I am going to coin a neologism, ‘Platonified,’ to refer to all nerds, i.e. academics with their theories and models that have no relevance to the reality that a hard-nosed banker such as myself deals in. The only decent philosophers are the ones who happen to support my big idea, and the best of them are ones you have probably never heard of. I won’t bother going into too much depth on their ideas – though I will talk about them more in Chapter ??; instead I will regale you with anecdotes about their lives, to demonstrate their humanity, because that is a much more valid way of certifying their ideas are to be trusted. What is my big idea? It is that we are very bad at predicting, and we don’t know how bad we are at predicting, and that anomalous events can have a disproportionately large impact. I’d go into more depth on the subject, but I’d rather spend my time regaling you with tangentially relevant, semi-disguised semi-autobiographical parables that demonstrate my wit and character.”
I’m sure the guy talks a good game at cocktail parties and on the speaking circuit, but in print the whole exercise comes off as presumptuous. And his overwhelming arrogance is just a little repellent.
It occurred to me at the start of the new year that I should try to infuse a bit more mental landscape into this blog. Mental landscape referring to the random half-thoughts that occur to me throughout the day. For years I’ve buried these things in journal-sketchbooks, but I thought a sprinkling of these might provide a diverting respite from the endless stream of Lonely Planet alternative material and familial bliss. Not to say the heavy doses of those topics will go away. Simply that I’m keen to try something a bit new.
Stay tuned…
Filed under: Dining, Hawaii, North Shore | Tags: coffee gallery, haleiwa, watery
A few weeks ago found us in Haleiwa – which deserves a post of its own, but I have no photographic evidence to speak of – the day was cloudy and I was not in a photographic mood. Late in the afternoon in Haleiwa I found myself craving a caffeine kick, and the family needed a break from trolling the boutiques. I asked a surf shop owner where one might procure a cup of the black stuff, and he pointed us toward Coffee Gallery.
Entry to the shop was full of promise, a blast of fresh roasted beans hitting me in the face like an angry woman. I immediately launched into a diatribe about how one of the ways in which Starbucks lost its way was by automating everything, which caused the aroma to vanish from the customer experience. But here, here was authenticity! A raw, handmade, organic, lived-in environment. I was so excited I decided to buy a mug.
Then I tasted the coffee.
Colossal letdown. A thin, watery, weak brew. It was like opening a bottle of red with a luscious bouquet that belies a bitter taste. At least it is comforting to know that I don’t have to drive all the way to Haleiwa for the best coffee on the island. So far, Coffee Talk, which I wrote about before, wins my prize for the best local cup.
Unfortunately, I am stuck with the mug.
Filed under: Events, Hawaii, Honolulu | Tags: fireworks, new years, war zone
When my coworkers tried to ’splain me what a New Years celebration in Honolulu entails – the city transformed into an allout war zone – I was like, Yeah, yeah, I was here for the Fourth of July, I’ve seen it already.
I hadn’t seen nothin yet.
We spent most of the evening with some local friends in Kaimuki, who had collectively spent close to $5000 on a personal stash of fireworks and gotten permits from the city to detonate in the street in front of their home. On their street alone there were perhaps two or three more displays of the same caliber. Multiply this across the entire city and you have a nonstop communal citywide eruption starting at sunset and extending to the early hours of the morning.
Forget the “official” midnight Waikiki/Aloha Tower Marketplace shows. That’s for tourists. From our lanai looking to mauka we had a pristine view of fireworks exploding all across the city. That’s the way they do it here. Celebration is not a passive activity. Hawaiians take pyromania into their own hands. The way it should be.
Filed under: Events, Hawaii, Honolulu, Kids | Tags: box of death, city lights, Honolulu
The day after Christmas we decided to go check out the light display at city hall. As we were leaving our building, the island-wide blackout hit, trapping us in the elevator between the 16th and 17th floors. Since our building has no back-up generator, we immediately found ourselves enveloped in hot darkness, sealed off from the outside world. You can sense the Hollywood potential already. Although it took us about half an hour to reach the elevator company’s emergency service line, we were able to reach the building manager fairly early on. If he didn’t know exactly how to handle the situation, at least he was nice enough to go floor by floor until he found us. Luckily in the course of our circular discussions, the woman who lives in the corner unit on the 16th floor came out and joined the conversation. It turns out she had been trapped in the elevator a couple years back, and told us to slide the door open from the inside and pop the lock on the outer door. Which we did, with surprising ease, jumping down to safety, and eluding an 18-hour stay in the box of death.
After the intensity of our first attempt at viewing the city lights, our second, successful attempt the following night was a little anticlimactic, but certainly more enjoyable. Highlights included the giant Hawaiian-style Santa (above), a Christmas tree and wreath exhibition inside the hall itself and an overpriced Christmas train ride. All in all, a good evening of family fun. Beats getting stuck in an elevator any given night.
