Lilian and her beautiful mind

There is so much hate and evil in the world that, when we are presented with a truly admirable human being, we must take note.

A few details in this tale have been changed to protect privacy, but the overall account is completely intact.

Lilian was born in El Salvador, nearly forty years ago. She worked on her family’s farm and attended the local school, but only through the sixth grade, the highest offered in her village. There was another school in a town, a middling distance away, offering higher grade instruction, but Lilian’s family was too poor to send her there. So the sixth grade was her zenith, for quite some period of time.

When I first met her, Lilian was living locally, here in Massachusetts. She was married and had several children. She worked hard at an assembly line job, contributing to her family’s needs.

She had taught herself English and was quite proficient. But her goal was to obtain a GED (General Educational Development) certification, and then to improve her employment situation. She wanted for her children what she was unable to have as a child.

We met weekly at The Literacy Center, where I helped her with mathematics. Other tutors worked with her on science, social studies, reading, and writing. But we worked on math.

Initially, Lilian displayed great ease with the basic operations of  addition, subtraction, and multiplication. We had to work a bit on division, but she quickly mastered the concepts. I was beginning to appreciate how sharp she was.

Fractions were a challenge, but we explored how they worked and I made sure that she understood all of the methods, not just memorization. She worked hard, did her homework, and was never pessimistic. A bright, motivated, hardworking student – what more could any tutor ask for?

Unsurprisingly, Lilian mastered fractions. And then geometry. Algebra. Statistics. Probability. Over a period of eighteen months, she became highly proficient in high school math. Then she received a promotion at work. They had noticed that she had a mind for and the ability to understand and manipulate numbers.

Meanwhile, with the help of her other tutors, Lilian sat for the GED exam and aced it.

I feel that I had a small part in her achievement, but it was only in guiding the intelligence that she naturally possessed. I will never forget Lilian and her beautiful mind, the self-discipline, the hard work, her cheerful do-or-die attitude.

Lilian is an immigrant. She is short, a bit round, and not beautiful in the Hollywood sense. But her soul shines out with the light of a thousand suns. God knows, I would welcome a multitude more of her. And be proud to call all of them fellow Americans.

We would all be the better for it.

Our maritime adventure

A friend, following in the fog.

Southeastern Massachusetts, Attleboro included, is deeply influenced by the sea. Our climate is cooler in summer and warmer in winter than mid-state Springfield due to ocean influences. But we are removed enough from salt water that it doesn’t often enter our minds.

Take last Friday, for instance. In Attleboro, the skies were clear with pleasant temperatures in the mid to high seventies. Strollers perambulated in Capron Park and, with the joggers, enjoyed the blue skies and temperate clime.

At the same time, fifty miles to the south in Block Island Sound, the fog enveloped boats and masked the shores, creating a stark, white seascape. The day was murky and sun obscured.  A fleece was recommended attire in the chill, moist breeze.

That was the end of our summer cruise, in the company of several  good friends, with our boats exploring the waters of southern New England. The beginning was more auspicious, with the same good weather that a fortunate Attleboro enjoyed.

Dutch Island, Rhode Island. Located near the island of Jamestown, and influential in World War II as a German prisoner of war camp, and the site of artillery batteries placed to protect the West Passage from U-boat incursions. Sleeping aboard a boat gently rocking in Dutch Harbor after enjoying a fine fish dinner at one of Jamestown’s finest restaurants. This is the stuff of dreams.

Then a long run to Stonington, Connecticut, past the majestic summer home of one Taylor Swift, in Watch Hill, Rhode Island. A fitting monument to an immense talent.

Stonington was settled early, in 1649, and quickly established itself as a coastal trading center. A well protected harbor was a great asset, and as the years passed, railways and steamships traded passengers in her terminals. Whaling was an important industry and created great wealth until Col. Drake discovered oil in Titusville, PA. Since then the village has retrenched to some maritime services, fishing, and tourism. A lovely place: you should visit. (Yes – accessible by road. Sailboat not required).

Then on to Block Island, Rhode Island. This small, pork chop-shaped bit of land was named in 1614 by  Adrian Block, a Dutch explorer. Lying 13 miles off the coast, Block Island is a special place. On the Nature Conservancy’s list of only 12 “Last Great Places” in the western hemisphere, beautiful Block Island is well worth a visit.

 It is unfortunate that most Bay Staters have never heard of the place, and most Rhode Islanders have never visited.  But perhaps the natives prefer it that way.

Hiking, biking, beaching, relaxing, and partaking of terrific restaurants are all wonderful reasons to visit. Again, no sailboat required, frequent ferry service is available from New London, Point Judith, and Newport.

Which brings us to the crossing, the return. Thirteen miles of open water. Except for Block Island itself in the way, you could draw an uninterrupted course to England, Spain, or Africa. This is open water.

Block Island Sound can be treacherous. From the “History of the Town of Stonington,” 1900, a tragic tale.

“Dr. Silas Holmes of Stonington, Conn… lived in what is now Stonington Borough, and had an extensive practice as a physician in all the region round about. [On] Sept. 12 1790, he was summoned to visit a sick man on Block Island, who sent for him in his boat, which took and bore him safely over to the island, and after he had visited his patient and diagnosed his physical condition, he started with the boatman and craft to return to his home in Stonington, but unfortunately a terrible thunderstorm arose with a rushing cyclone of wind, which lashed the ocean into fearful waving foam, which capsized their boat and filled it with water, which, in spite of all the efforts of the doctor and the boatman, sunk, and they were both drowned.”

Our return was not so drastic. But the fog was thick, and many other boats crisscrossed our path, some recklessly. Luckily, the same technology trends which have given you a supercomputer in your pocket have benefited boaters as well. We were able to touch our destination on a map and, voila, the boat took us there. In the fog, other boats were visible on the same chart, illuminated by radar, making necessary diversions easy to see and accomplish.

Then finally home, to our home port, to our home in Attleboro, and our own bed. Travel is exhilarating, wonderful. But home is special.

Home from the sea. 

Jobs and wages

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) gathers wage data from across the nation and categorizes them by occupation. The average annual earnings of each job category is calculated and itemized. There are some really interesting findings.

For instance, the much vilified  Chief Executive Officer (CEO) comes in at number ten in the list of most highly paid occupations. How could that be? We know, for instance, that Larry Ellison, the eccentric head of Oracle, made $41.5 million in 2016. So how could CEOs rank only tenth? It’s because the vast majority of CEOs head up small businesses and make less than impressive incomes. The small jewelry company whose owner makes $55 thousand. Or the landscaping chief who pulls down a cool $40K. They drag the average way, way down.

So while being a CEO might sound like a magnificent occupation the BLS measures the average income at $194K per year. Good but not glorious.

Who  makes up the first nine slots? These are the occupations whose annual income ranges from $200K to $270K. Very well paid indeed.

At the top of the list is anesthesiologists at $270K. Next, surgeons, $253K. (Interesting that, on average, surgeons make less than anesthesiologists. Perhaps some of them are regretting their specialty).

Then there is OB/GYN at $234K, and oral surgeons at $233K.

Orthodontist, $229K.

Physicians, $206K.

Internists, $202K.

Family practitioners, $201K.

Psychiatrists, $200K.

After this is the hated CEO, then six more medical professions before we finally get to number sixteen, the airline pilot, at $152K.

Let’s take a pause here and consider. Of the top fifteen paid professions, all are medical except for one. No wonder health insurance is so pricey!

Now that we are getting out of the stratosphere, we start to see some more expected well-paid jobs. Petroleum engineer, $147K, and computer system manager, $146K. Lawyers are a bit lower on the list at $140K.

The next broad swath, from here down to $100K (an arbitrary boundary), is heavily populated with technical occupations. Marine engineers and technical architects. Software developers. Geoscientists.

To try to put this all in perspective, let’s take a look at the bottom of the BLS statistics and work our way up. Here, the lowest paid occupation is food preparation at $20K. (That’s roughly 10 times less than all the folks we have been talking about up to now).

Cooks, shampooers, dishwashers, cashiers, lifeguards, manicurists, bartenders, meat packers, floral designers, and we’re still not up to $30K. These are the vast foundation of America, laborers extolled by Studs Terkel in his classic book “Working” (1974). The important point that Terkel raised is that these folks are proud of their work and find meaning in what they do. They would rather work than not.

What are we to make of all this?

First of all, there is no shame in honest labor, no matter how little you earn. There is dignity in work, in creating value. Let no one denigrate what you do.

What would we encourage our children to do? While becoming an artistic barista might be rewarding, we might want more for our child. In that case, looking at the top of the BLS occupation list, the only thing which seems most common, most qualifying, is STEM. Science, technology, engineering, math. This will prepare them for the top tier of careers in medicine, engineering, and management.

If you must nudge your kids, encourage them to embrace math. It is the root of human reasoning and will prepare them to excel in science, technology, and engineering.

Anyone can be good at math. It is an innately human ability, to reason. There are only social, cultural and self-confidence barriers, which we must demolish. Race is immaterial, gender irrelevant, and class can be overcome.

The key is love and encouragement. Each child has the raw ability and must only be helped to see what she can achieve.

Belief. What a gift you can bestow.

Yes, girls can do math. And much, much more...

Computing in the twentieth century was dominated by men. Engineers, programmers, and managers were almost entirely male. In the 1970s and 80s, it was not at all unusual to attend a technical training class on operating systems or networking and find oneself in the company of only male students. One could attend a professional conference with thousands of other attendees and see only a paltry handful of women.

These were tough times for women in the computing field.

But one woman stood out.

Jean Sammet, born in 1928 in New York City, had strong math skills. But according to Wikipedia, she was “unable to attend the Bronx High School of Science because it did not accept girls.”

Instead, attending a private high school, she excelled in her math ability and moved on to earn  bachelor’s and master’s degrees by 1949. The first computer she encountered did not impress her. According to reports, she found it to be an obscene beast.

But by the mid-1950s, working for Sperry Gyroscope, she was engaged to use her math and logic skills to program a computer and found that she loved the process.

In those early days, computers demanded that we communicate with them in their own language. Machine language was expressed in binary commands, ones and zeros, sometime grouped into base 16, hexadecimal, where the digits 0-9 and letters A-F expressed binary groupings from 0000 to 1111 (figure 1a). The details are unimportant. What matters is that programs consisting of binary commands and operators and operands were obtuse and difficult to be understood by humans.

Ms. Sammet had an affinity for computer languages and a desire to make them more easy to use. This predilection of hers corresponded with an expanded use of computers from largely engineering and mathematical computation to general business applications – payroll, accounts receivable, tax collection, and the like. She became influential in a group which proposed and designed a new language, COBOL, the Common Business Oriented Language. This language was intended to express computer directions in terms of simple English statements (figure 1b).

The US government, at the time the largest user of computers, supported the project and COBOL was born. Others, such as Admiral Grace Hopper, are often given credit for the birth of the COBOL language. And while never diminishing Admiral Hopper’s support, Ms. Sammet rightfully claimed the central role of designing and actually writing the compiler programs which converted English-like COBOL programs into machine language. (After all, the actual computers, at root, still understood only machine language, a fact which remains true to this day).

Now, nearly sixty years later, billions of lines of COBOL programs still enervate the computers of government and big business. Considered a legacy language, meaning new development is utilizing more modern languages (figure 1c), COBOL is still an active agent in processing your credit card charges, insurance claims, and ATM withdrawals.

In the years that followed, Ms. Sammet roared along in her gender-busting career. In the 1960s, she joined IBM and became a programming language technology manager in the IBM Systems Development Division. She authored a seminal book, “Programming Languages: History and Fundamentals,” which was published by Prentice-Hall and has been described by others as "the standard work on programming languages" and an "instant computer classic." (IEEE Computer Society history).

Her career continued to ascend and by the late 1970s she was elected president of the prestigious Association of Computing Machinery (ACM). Recall that this was a time when women were exceedingly rare in computing. Her successes were astounding and due only to her deep skills and resilient character.

Jean Sammet passed away a few weeks ago on May 20, 2017, at the age of 89. Unremarked and unmourned except by a small society of geeks, she had made her resounding point.

Girls hold no second candle to anyone when it comes to STEM, math, logic, and programming. She was a giant and, unbeknownst to you, bettered your life. God bless you, Jean, and thank you for your work.

Thank you Uber, but I'll take the open road

George Maharis and Martin Milner in "Route 66"

It was summer in farm country. The sun threw shadows across verdant hayfields, waves of grass rippling in the breeze. Corn, approaching knee high, promised the harvest to come. Grapes, robustly leafed out, small, green fruit forming, arranged in tidy rows. Cows grazing in broad pastures, hilly with a number of fresh water ponds for drinking, wading, and cooling. Large tracts of forest interspersed and surrounded the fields, divided by country dirt roads, two-tracks that wound and stretched between fields and over the hills, connecting our farms with each other and nearby towns.

Our nearest chums were a half-mile away, with others quite farther. And the only mode of transportation available to poor farm kids was shanks’ mare – we walked. We walked to perform chores, walked to go camping in the woods, walked to go fishing, walked to visit our friends. The walking was hot, tiring, and seemingly endless.

Then one day, Dad decided that we should have bicycles.

We climbed into the family jalopy and journeyed to a small, outlying farm on a high ridge where the proprietor also ran  a small business repairing and refurbishing bicycles. Imagine “Pee Wee Herman’s Big Adventure” and his heavy, fat-tire, bike. That’s what we ended up with, although certainly with less panache and quite a bit more chipped and rusty. But functional, and worth the five bucks.

The sense of freedom was fabulous!  We struggled, standing on the pedals, up long hills but swooped and soared down the other side, and arrived at our neighbors' farms in minutes, not hours. The mechanical genius of the bicycle was not lost on us.

Tractors were another dream to young kids, big and powerful, moving through the fields and traversing the roads with ease, even in mud season or the deep snow of winter. These machines were the epitome of empowerment. And as we became older, and were permitted to drive them, enhancing our sense of self. Mastering a machine which was capable of turning the earth, hauling huge burdens of crops, or dragging thick, heavy logs from the woods did wonders for the self-esteem of a youngster.

And then our older cousins visited in their automobiles, shiny Detroit muscle machines that shook and  rumbled and promised the wonders of the open road. Freedom. Route 66. Drive-in movies. The desert, mountains, California.  How could we not be compelled by this vision?

So getting a driver’s license, borrowing the family car, and eventually buying one of our own, was the height of achievement, irrespective of the cost. Working on the farm, haying, plowing, mowing, and then in town, at the local McDonald’s, all to earn a few bucks to buy that jalopy. The siren call of the highway was irresistible.

All of that has come to a crashing halt.

Today’s youth are largely urban or suburban. They are transported by their parents, buses or subways, or Uber rides. A recent WallStreet Journal article reveals that between 2000 and 2015, the rate at which young adults (16-34 years) purchased new cars fell by nearly a third. This trend promises to continue.

They no longer dream and strive to possess their own freedom machine, that 1966 Ford Mustang or Chevy Camaro. Now, they simply finger the Uber or Lyft app on their phone and summon up a ride to the mall or party of choice. Long, dusty foot journeys through the countryside are outside of their ken.

While there is some bit of nostalgic loss, this all makes sense. It is far more efficient for shared autonomic vehicles to carry shoppers and partiers to their destinations. It is safer and more ecologically sound.

But somehow, the romance of the open road, Tod and Buz on Route 66 in their vintage Corvette, will be greatly missed.

Thank you Uber, Amazon, Apple, Google, for transforming our lives. But I will cling to my memories. They are comforting, and inspirational.

Sorry chump, your lack of skepticism has now caused a whole bunch of trouble

Skepticism is a highly underappreciated trait.

Some of us have it naturally. Others learn, usually after one or several hard experiences.

Still others of us never acquire the skill, and are repeatedly taken to the cleaners.

To be skeptical is to harbor doubts about the veracity of some proposition, be it political, commercial, or emotional.

The politician offering something for nothing. The telemarketer promising low, low, low rates. The handsome blond hunk professing his love. Seemingly reasonable and attractive propositions to many, but all viewed dispassionately, from a distance, awaiting corroboration, by the practiced skeptic.

The downside of skepticism is that we might miss out on some genuine opportunity. But the upside is that we could sidestep a scam or worse. A friendly-seeming member of an opposing tribe might really be telling us where the deer are gathered, or she could be luring us into a trap. The evolutionary imperative, survival, might well be served by a good dose of skepticism.

Which brings us to the twenty first century.

We are no longer likely to be enticed into a wooded glen there to be trapped and trounced. But it is very probable that some crook, pursuing our money, will entice us into taking an action which reveals our identity or purloins our financial information. Not as mortal, but highly disaffecting and, once realized, very disturbing. We feel as if we had been despoiled; the world is no longer safe.

All of this can be avoided with a healthy sense of skepticism.

Here is an example.  Imagine that you receive an email from a good friend, or a trusted company that you’ve done business with for years. This friend or business presents something of interest, or makes a request, but in some way tries to get you to click on a link in the email.

Your emotional shields are down. After all, this is your colleague Sally, or sister Phyllis, or banking provider Santander, and the request is so simple. Just click on that link!

Sorry, sucker. You just screwed up.

The information identifying the sender of the email can easily be hacked. It was not sent by your colleague, but by an Eastern European hacker. He got your email address by, perhaps, previously hacking a friend of yours.

The link that you clicked will download malware onto your computer. The logon information and passwords of your financial accounts are now transparent to the hacker, as well as your contact list and access to your email and social media accounts. He will now cascade his attack to all of your friends. Sorry chump, your lack of skepticism has now caused a whole bunch of trouble.

Here is a real example. Regard the email shown here. The sender (blanked out) was purportedly a well-known, trusted source. The request, simple – click this link to view “some important documents.” But something doesn’t ring true. Hi to who? There is no salutation. What important documents? Wouldn’t this sender normally have mentioned what it was all about? And the gobbledygook about security reasons? What??

So your intrepid columnist did not click this link and was saved the ignominy of infecting his and his friends computers. The link was, indeed, a phishing attack.

Avoiding this is not brilliance. It is not genius. It just a bit of skepticism.

Skepticism which you should also use when you receive a phone call, or a mail solicitation, or a knock on the door.

Skepticism. A cheap, effective defense against the scammers who surround us. Practice it early and often.

Although, one must say, it is hugely disappointing that so many are striving to take advantage. Do unto others, after all, is still the key human prescription for peaceful coexistence. Perhaps one day we will all treat each other so.

Until then, skepticism.

A celebration of wealth

While it is fun to throw stones at the wealthy, they are generally loaded because they have created value.

Value is created in many ways. Entertainment and sports may be frivolous, but people are willing to pay vast sums in order to be amused or distracted from everyday life. Who in New England can deny that Tom Brady deserves his wealth? And Jeff Bezos, the fabulously wealthy founder of Amazon, pleases us every day when our toiletries and groceries are delivered promptly or we stream “The Man in a High Castle.” Or, by the way, purchase a book.

But it is interesting to note the sources of wealth in our vast country. A study of wealth creation by Arizona State Professor Hendrik Bessembinder, as reported in the Wall Street Journal, gives us a fascinating look into the process. The professor’s analysis shows that only thirty companies created a full third of all the stock market wealth since 1926. And that’s out of 25,782 publicly traded companies.

Who are these engines of prosperity and why do we care?

At the top of the list is Exxon Mobil, the energy behemoth that Attorney General Healey loves to hate. While we can argue anthropomorphic global warming till the cows come home, it is indisputable that the energy economy built up over the last century has enabled the plush lives that we live today. Plush, that is, in comparison to anyone living in an energy vacuum, such as our ancestors or today’s tribesmen.

Next on the list is Apple. Who would have guessed in April of 1976 what Apple would become? The awesome power of networked, interconnected supercomputers in everyone’s pocket has transformed our lives, in some ways even for the better. Apple has become the most valuable company of all time. And the end is nowhere in sight as Apple invests in such things as autonomous cars and augmented reality.

In third place is General Electric. Another energy related company, but focused on the infrastructure to bring usable energy into our homes, offices, and factories. GE was created in 1892 when the Edison Electric Company merged with the Thomson-Houston company (led by Charles A. Coffin, a former shoe producer from Lynn, Massachusetts).

Fourth on the list is Microsoft, founded by Bill Gates in April of 1975. Microsoft is the butt of many jokes, some well-deserved. But it undeniably enabled the personal era of computing, bringing the wonders of Solitaire and the internet into our homes. More seriously, Microsoft created a fabric of servers supporting business functions in thousands of worldwide businesses, and they have established a very credible beachhead in Cloud computing.

In fifth is IBM, the rock-solid purveyor of commercial computing. IBM is synonymous with mainframes, the computers which powered our information economy in the last half of the twentieth century. IBM has fallen on hard times lately, but is gamely fighting back with artificial intelligence (Watson) and Cloud computing.

These five firms, alone, account for over ten percent of the wealth created in the last 90 years. To a materialist, who believes that the universe consists of nothing but information and energy, this is no surprise. All five are either energy or information companies. We need to move a way down the list before we come to a Walmart or a Coca Cola.

Why do we care? Why should we cheer success and great wealth?

The bromides of jobs created and taxes paid by these companies and their stakeholders, while true, seem unconvincing in the face of social justice warriors such as Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. Economics and rationality don’t stand a chance.

But here is why teachers care. And firefighters, police, and an army of government workers. Their pensions are  paid from invested funds, and when the market does poorly, that is, wealth creation falters, there is less in the retirement pot. In a very real example, the Providence Journal recently reported “Rhode Island’s $7.9-billion pension system will expect lower future investment returns and larger taxpayer contributions to pay for public employee retirement benefits.”

It is simple, really. If the stock market can’t fund the retirements of state workers, then taxpayers will shoulder a greater burden or retirees will take a haircut or both.

So while it’s entertaining to stone the wealthy, remember that there are consequences. Wealth creation is good for us all and we should celebrate it.