Thanksgiving

Daniel Patrick Moynihan once said: "Everyone is entitled to their own opinions, but they are not entitled to their own facts." I came across this quotation when reading an article from a British politician talking about the survival of humanity being at stake as it relates to global warming. Interesting perspective... it seems as if politicians in the UK are as apt as those in the US to disregard... and when disregarding doesn't work, to ignore... facts about climate change. It really is too bad.

I've noticed something in my class of late that may be a small example of what's going on in the world. As a class, we have a broad range of knowledge with experts from many different areas. And yet somehow, as a group, we aren't all that productive... we certainly don't act as an intelligent group when it comes to getting things accomplished. It's a bit frustrating and very ironic considering that the first week of lectures emphasized the need for groups of people to have a framework -- for a way to frame our thoughts -- so that the group isn't stupid, but rather can draw upon each individual's wisdom to enhance the group.

Instead of realizing this, however, we use 20 of our 30 minutes set aside for a class meeting to debate the merits of having a world map on our classroom wall... and after figuring out that no one is really against such a map, though only a few people are strongly in favor of one... we launch into a discussion about whether to buy the map or rely on the talents of those in the class to draw a map.

Alas, much like the world today is drowning in facts about climate change... not to mention war, terrorism, and avian flu... our class debate about the world map ended with no clear conclusion, though I think we did delegate to a few people who were most interested in putting up a map.

So what's my point? I'm not even sure... it got lost somewhere along the way. But the next time you're working on something as part of a large group, take time to observe what's happening -- whether the group on a whole acts smarter or dumber than the individuals in the group. Chances are... that unless there is a framework -- a shared way of thinking about the topic at hand... the group will be dumb.

All was not lost during that class meeting, however... because I've walked away with one particularly interesting factoid: during the week leading up to the US's Thanksgiving holiday 45,000,000 turkeys were prepared to serve as dinner. That's one for (about) every 6.5 people in the US. Speaking of Thanksgiving, turkeys are apparently hard to come by here in Sweden... so we ate chicken... on Saturday (we were in class all day on Thursday).

Tonight our class is putting on a dinner: "World On A Plate" -- we will have representatives from 16 countries preparing dishes that are representative of their country, and then are selling tickets to other students across campus to come and receive a small portion from each of the countries. It will be interesting to see how many people come -- we'll have food for about 200, so hopefully it will be close to that!