The ghost of Christmas Future

Sitting at my desk minding my own business my cell phone just rang.  I looked at it to see a random local number on the caller ID.  Normally I would ignore it, but since the number was local I picked up thinking it might be someone I don't know actually trying to get in touch with me.  Imagine my surprise when a preteen voice exclaimed out to me after I said hello, "hi Dad?"  In the nanosecond that followed I saw what could one day be my future and even pondered a number of impolite, snarky, and amusing responses.  Instead I simply responded, "sorry you have the wrong number." 

What is responsibility?

I was listening to a podcast about finding one's purpose in life and I also read a blog post about tipping that led me to this post.  The podcast proposed that the question in my title and wondered about whether responsibility was defined as fulfilling societal obligations or by fulfilling one's desire.  By desire I'm not referring to buying a pair of shoes that you really want, but seeking out your bigger purpose.  The blog post was centered around the common practice of tipping those that regularly aid us in our daily lives (doormen, hair stylists, postal delivery people, garbage workers, etc.).  The poster's argument was framed around doormen in NYC who provide a service and are not paid particularly well for often going beyond the call of duty and helping out residents.  The poster argued that in appreciation for their services doormen should be tipped handsomely at year's end and one commenter argued that the doormen should instead get "a real job".  This brings me back to my original question what constitutes responsibility and similarly what defines a "real job".  

Are we as individuals responsible to the conventions of society?  Am I an irresponsible member of society if I'm 45, renting, single and working as a barista?  I would likely be considered to not have a "real job".  However, what if I was 45, renting, single, a recovering addict, and working as a barista?  In that case I think I would be viewed as someone who was doing a good job to turn their life around and was on the track towards positive change.  Perhaps the question is how long had I been a barista.  Maybe a responsible member of society is one who is paying taxes and law abiding.  However, if they do that, but are not being true to themselves while living a life as a corporate drone then are they sacrificing personal responsibility for societal responsibility?  Does earning a college degree equate to responsibility?  As my coworker asked me this past week, how many engineers can a country really have before it no longer matters?  The Bureau of Labor Statistics says that in 2006 there were 1.6 million EMPLOYED engineers in the US.  So I would estimate the number would be near 2.5 million if you factor in unemployed, engineers that are not working as engineers, and retired engineers.  Maybe the idea of responsibility comes down to my personal definition regardless of what the societal definitions are around me.  A very inspirational family in my life with 6 members has at any given point only 2 or 3 people who are in full time employment.  I consider them to be the benchmark of responsibility and 'real job holders'.  They are all tax paying and law abiding, but they are also holding true to themselves.  There is an adage in engineering that you can only get 2 out of 3 options: good, fast, or cheap.  In my life right now I think there are also 2 out of 3: societally responsible (law abiding), self responsible, and self indulgent.  If I plan to be societally responsible and self responsible then I need to find another career path, which means I cannot indulge in the things that I always want.  If I want to be self indulgent and self responsible then I possibly will not be a good citizen.  If I'm going to be a good citizen and indulge myself then I will not be true to who I am and that is where I am right now.  

Random observations

I had a few thoughts, but none of them will stand on their own in a post so they are just a few random observations.

-I was surprised the amount of Indian influence in South America this time.  I saw Mahindra trucks, a Bajaj shop, and a Bata store (though technically Bata isn't an Indian company, but I associate them with India).  I even saw enclosed three wheel scooters that were nicer versions of the rickshaws that we use. 

-It is interesting to see how small South American people are.  Or perhaps it's us Americans who are raised on a diet of 3 glasses of milk a day that are larger.  I've had the same observation in India, but for some reason it surprised me somewhat in South America.

-The features of Inca descendants are very striking and noticeable.  It is surprisingly easy to tell who comes from a family that was mixed with Spanish blood at some point and who is strongly descended through the Incas. 

-Who knew that there were so many varieties of corn?  As a typical American I'm used to seeing white, yellow, and the few assorted colors during Thanksgiving.  However, for the most part all the kernels are the same size.  In South America the kernels are enormous.  I might have even blogged about this during my previous trip to Peru, but it merits a second mention.

Trip to site

Yesterday I made my first trip to the site of an as yet to be built project.  The project is about 3 years from being a recognizable mine and about 5 years from operation. 

The drive up started at 7am when we went to the project office in town.  If there is one thing that Peruvians love to do it is fill out forms.  I have filled in so many forms with my name and passport number you wouldn't believe it.  So we checked in to announce our intention to go to the site.  Mines are notoriously paranoid about photos and cameras so we had to declare that we had two cameras with us.  Ultimately no one actually checked the camera with the paperwork so we could have gotten away with not saying anything.  However, as my coworker said this is the difference between security and the illusion of security.  Anyways about half way through the drive we departed from the main (paved road) and embarked on the most bone jarring drive I have ever experienced.  I did a drive similar to this earlier this fall, but it was only a 5-6 miles and it was flat.  This was uphill, single lane, and I felt like I was riding a paint shaker.  Yesterday evening my legs ached from having to brace myself so rigidly.  The purpose the seatbelt served during this ride was to make sure I stayed in my seat during each bounce.  Everyone has heard the stories of the precarious drives in South America as they fly around hairpin turns and this would have been like that, but it was physically impossible to do more than about 10mph.  Upon arrival at the site there was more checking in and paperwork.  Then we were finally on the property.

These mine properties are enormous.  To provide some scale the largest ski resort in North America (Whistler Blackcomb) is 32 square kilometers, the city of Oakland is 202 square kilometers (land and water), and this mine's neighbor is 251 square kilometers (it is also the second largest gold mine in the world).  So this conveys how enormous an area we are looking at.  One of my proposed lines will be 2km if it goes the short way and 6 if it goes the long way.  So we spent the day driving around the property and comparing topographical maps to what we could see.  Topos are interesting, because on paper seeing two lines that are close together with 10m increments is one thing, but when you see it in reality you realize that's a cliff. 

I thought the altitude would be hard for me, but other then making it harder to walk from point A to point B it wasn't that bad.  It was incredible to think that we were about 300m shy of the elevation at the peak of Mt Shasta.  Based on this description it might seem as though I was in the Andean peaks, but it didn't look all that different from the hills in the Bay Area. 

Eventually we finished up and began the bone jarring journey home.  I will post a few photos once I get back. 

Infectious laughter

I'm back on the road for a few days visiting a mine site.  In preparation for that I had my physical this morning.  I don't think I have ever received a physical in a foreign language.  It was somewhat difficult, because I know the basic spanish words and I also know engineering words, but not medical terms.  I made it through without any issue.  The funniest part was when I had my first EKG.  I have never had an EKG so I didn't know what to expect.  The two tiny Peruvian women explained that I had to remove any metal from my person or clothing.  Then I had to take my shirt off.  Bear in mind that it's pretty cold (50ish in the morning), the building wasn't heated, and they had doors wide open.  Then they wanted me to lay down on this bed and one lady started smearing the gel on my chest.  Then she took little suction balloons squeezed the air out of them and stuck them to my chest.  Perhaps they don't get very hairy people here, because she was having trouble getting them to stick.  About this time I couldn't take it anymore.  Between the cold temps, the cold gel, the suction things, and them smearing gel where i feel ticklish I just started giggling.  It was very funny.  I held it as long as I could and then I just started laughing.  They laughed also, but I couldn't explain to them why I was laughing.

The evolution of education

Most of my posts are usually rants about something that annoys me.  However, today I'm just blown over inspired by something that I thought I would write about it.  

During my parents generation a basic education could be expected by children at almost any societal level.  However, beyond the basics people started to be filtered out based on income level or societal status.  To me this peaked during with college and regardless of how interested you were if you didn't have the money your accessibility to the information was drastically cut.  The same more or less exists today with people being boxed out of pursuing a college degree by cost or maybe their own academic limitations.  However, there are two new tools that I think are truly changing the face of education.  The first is the Khan Academy.  Started by Salman Khan (not that one), who has had the best quality higher learning possible, he seeks to provide quality education on any topic for free in the form of YouTube videos.  These tutorials extend through just about any topic from basic addition to calculus to chemistry and even history.  There are also lessons for the math topics so that one can test their understanding.    Naturally this isn't meant to replace traditional schooling, but it serves as an amazing supplement, refresher, or substitute (for those that are outside of the school system).  The second is iTunes U.  iTunes U is literally a library of lectures and seminars on anything from the foremost experts and thinkers on the topic.  Do you want to learn about the history of a place you are going to visit?  It's there.  Did you read about a seminar on energy that Stanford was having?  It's there.  Do you want to learn about African American history from top professors around the country?  They are there.  I know I sound like an advertisement, but this is something amazing in my mind.  My iPod has long since fallen into disuse, but this is certainly reason to resurrect it.  As I prepare for a business trip where I will be spending a lot of time traveling I am definitely searching to build my playlist of lectures and podcasts.  

To tie this back to my original point the degreed form of higher education is still not perfectly accessible to everyone.  However, the material that is taught in those institutions is rapidly being made more and more accessible.