Weakness of the Light

The other day I was struck by a somewhat strange thought: everyday, and without realising or caring about it, we face situations which could be considered highly dangerous, in the sense that a small deviation from the common behaviour of others' could lead to our death.

Let me explain. Think about everytime we cross a street with a green light. We walk right in front of some cars, waiting patiently for their light to turn green again, and we don't even blink. That doesn't give us any adrenaline, it doesn't feel dangerous at all. But truth is, should one of the driver decide to use the accelerator we'd be hit by a vehicle weighting hundreds of Kg and moving at a few dozens of Km/h, more than enough to put us out for good. And even we happily walk by a police officier and greet him with a smile, we never consider that he could kill us in a split second by drawing his gun and taking a shot. When we take a plane, some of us fear it might crash to some malfunctioning or due to bad weather, but who among us have ever worried about the pilot simply deciding to crash it? Those of you who've seen the movie The Happening surely remember how easy it is for one to take his own life, if you're willing and have the guts for it. Now imagine how much easier it is to take someone else's life.

This behaviour is both needed and usually logic. It is needed because we can't live in a steady state of stress. I mean, we couldn't take an exam worrying about whether or not the person next to us will suddenly bring up his pen and stab us in the eye. It is (usually) logic for two distinct motives: those kind of things usually do not happen, and there is no apparent reason for others to behave that way. Let's not linger on the first, since it only has to do with the frequency of uncommon events. The second one is the key assumption behind our behaviour; when it fails, everything stops making sense. This is way modern society is so vulnerable to acts of terrorism, be it a plane crashing on a building or some crazy shooter in a public facility. It's not that we aren't prepared for them, it's that we cannot be prepared for them. Why? Let's discuss it in detail.

There are two mechanisms that supposably prevent others from harming us. First is human empathy, the fact that (in theory) no human being would want to harm another one just for the sake it. The second one is the law, in particular the punishment that comes to those who disrespect it. Now, the first mechanism can be overcome either by sadicism or some twisted perspective of purpose. Although we would not kill for money, some people would. And in fact they do, everyday. And while we see no point in the murder of thousand innocent bystanders through a terrorist attack some believe that a holy crusade is reason enough. And it should be noted that our ancestors also did think that way, a few centuries ago. The problem with the second is that it works a posteriori; the punishment only comes after the act. This means that, should the perpetrator believe that he can get away with it or find the benefits worth the punishment (thus acting like some kind of martyr) he will go through with it.

To exemplify our vulnerability, let's consider that, for some reason, we fear that someone might enter a hospital and stab the secretary, or a doctor. What can you do about it? Well, you can put some extra security at the entrance. But their purpose will solely to be to arrest anyone who actually draws a knife, and it's not likely they'll be able to do it before the assassin makes a kill. Their main purpose is to disuade, but that is not enough against those who don't care about the consequences of their acts. The solution? Perhaps strip-searching everyone who wants to come in, and shooting down those who don't co-operate. Obviously this is not feasible/desirable in a free country, and that's the point precisely. The bad guys will always have the upper hand, since they play by different rules: they are far more unconstrained.

It is interesting that this fact is well known and visited in children's or otherwise considered "simple" movies and stories. Think about a classic good vs evil, light vs darkness kind of stories. One recurrent aspect is that the evil gang is stronger due to the use of forbidden techniques, or playing dirty. In Star Wars, the Sith can use the Dark Side of the Force. In Harry Potter stories the dressed-in-black bad guys (I can't recall their name?) use forbidden magic. In various children stories the evil characters take advantage of the good ones' empathy and/or sense of honour, for example by taking hostages and making demands.

This is why some stories include an unconstrained yet good character, a light-bringer who uses everything at his disposal to fight the darkness. In order to drive way from children stories I'll give Jack Bauer from 24 as an example. These characters are often rogue fighters, misunderstood or despised by the ones they fight for due to their methods. And they should, otherwise we'd fall in the fight fire with fire problem. Hopefully one day we'll see a world where good no longer means weak.

Waste

With Christmas drawing near,we all spare a thought for those less fortunate than us. Although the reasons behind difference in income can be quite complex and diverseit is undeniable that the world would be a much better place, with far less misery, were we not to waste so much.

Not wanting to linger on this thought too deep or for too long let me just give one simple and concrete example. Every running competition I've been to supplies the runners with water every 5/10 Km, usually in bottles of 25 or 33cl. Thing is, the ammount is totally out of sync; I, for instance, only take 2 or 3 sips at a time, thus wasting around 15cl of water per bottle. To realize the impact of such a waste, take a look at the Lisbon Half-Marathon and do some simple math.There were 4 support set-points, which leads to 4 x 15 = 60cl of wasted water per athlete. It means that all the 7000 athletes running that day, together, led to a waste of 4200 liters of water, which for sure could have found better use.

Although certainly not the best example since it is not highly scalable (also certainly not the most striking one) it gives us a hint of the impact of some of the daily routines in our lifestyle. If you're still not convinced, just think about the ammount of (drinkable) water wasted during a shower, or while washing your teeth. Now multiply that by the number inhabitants in your city. Or in your country. Notice that by wasted I don't mean used, rather just the ammount that could have been saved by using a different method/procedure/technique. Point is, even if we are not able or willing to give up on our lifestyles there are some improvements which can be made in terms of efficiency, with huge impact when aggregated.

Indesejados

As sucessivas greves de metro obrigam muitos Lisboetas a procurar, ainda que temporariamente, alternativas de transporte para os seus locais de trabalho. No meu caso, e dado que nunca fui grande fã de autocarros, essa alternativa é a bicicleta. Seria de esperar que, após um tão grande investimento em ciclovias, os ciclistas se sentissem mais que à vontade a deambular pela cidade. Infelizmente tal (ainda não) acontece.

Na estrada somos, salvo o eufemismo, odiados. Não são raras as buzinadelas por "empatarmos" o trânsito e ainda menos os olhares desconfiados e furibundos, principalmente quando a nossa incapacidade para acelerar para 60Km/h quando o semáforo passa a amarelo leva a que algum automobilista tenha que esperar pelo próximo verde. Facilitar as mudanças de faixa é algo impensável, ainda para mais quando a maior parte dos condutores aparenta ignorar ou desprezar os sinais gestuais.

Tudo isto nos poderia levar a optar pelas passadeiras, mas também aí somos considerados um estorvo, desta feita pelos pedestres. E têm razão, já que de factor não pertencemos a esse lugar. Ainda assim poderia haver mais boa vontade quando não estamos, de todo a incomodar ninguém.

E chegamos assim, finalmente, à ciclovia: esse meio próprio a essa detestável criatura que é o ciclista. Mas até aí ele se sente um proscrito, já que a ciclovia se encontra repleta de pedestres a passear em todos os sentidos (directo, inverso) e direcções (longitudinal, perpendicular, aleatória), muitas vezes acompanhados do omnipresente carrinho de bébé. E não é que até aqui fazem má cara quando lhes passamos ao lado, tendo sido obrigados a abandonar a nossa gloriosa via porque não se quiseram dar ao trabalho de se desviar.

Por essas e por outras (eg: as 7 colinas) não me parece que Lisboa seja por enquanto uma cidade muito apetecível para os ciclistas. Mas talvez estejamos no bom caminho.


Filipe Baptista de Morais

42

42 is an interesting number, which can refer to many things: just google it or check it on wikipedia. Among other (more or less interesting) stuff, 42 Km is the length of a Marathon (actually it's a few meters short).

Being a long-distance runner is a tough hobby for one who's never run a full marathon. You can have a plethora of 10Km races and Half-Marathons in your "career". but when you tell someone about your hobby they'll undoubtly reply "Ah, so you run marathons?". The marathon has that distinct and powerful appeal; compared to it all other races seem child's play. No wonder after my explaining that I run not-so-long-distances people sighed disappointed bit "Oh....". Furthermore, when speaking about me, nobody would actually say I'm a long-distance runner. They'd simply say I run marathons, a lie I would later on have to undo. But not anymore.

For me, the marathon now had a much stronger importance: it was the only sports activity which had defeated me. Sure, I've lost plenty of football and tennis matches, but in that situation you lose to the other player/team and you can attribute it to their skills. It's totally different from giving up on a match, that I never did (actually I'm quite sure my account of saved match-points is much impressive than the % of matches won). And I'd never given up on an athletics competition either until (nor did I do it again afterwards) my first Marathon attempt in Faro, last October. It's a really sad situation, since you know the failure is yours and yours alone. It really hurts somewhere deep inside, leaving some ugly dent in your self-esteem. Until, that is, you prove yourself that you can overcome it.

Despite the importance this race had to me, I almost missed it. A huge workload from my studies prevented me from having the preparation I wanted (and needed) and a slight cold stuck me on the day before, making me wonder if it really was worth the try. I guess it was the bitter taste of defeat still lingering from last year's race that got me up to run this morning.

One of the things I really believe helped through this race was my Ipod, which I was not allowed to use the previous time. For that reason, I'll go through some of the songs I've listened to throughout the race, describing what I remember from when it was played. Since I was expecting a really long workout (my playlist had over 5h of music) I didn't really take the time to sort them; I just programmed the Ipod to play them randomly, with the exception of the first (chosen) and the powersong, which would only play when I ordered it.

Name of the Race: Lisbon-Marathon
Length: 42.195Km
Date: 9th December 2012 

Minimum goals: Finish It

Personal challenge: None
Best time in other races of same length: NA

Let's Get It Started (Black Eyed Peas) - Start. What could be more appropriate? The starting area was not that crowded (not as much as other competitions at least), mostly due to the fact that all the races taking part today had different time departures. Nicely done organization comitee! That allowed me to uneffortly keep track of my teammate Graça Roldão from "Os Tugas", our unofficial running team. Due to her large experience and good results in marathons I decided to try and stick with her for this one and we ended up crossing the finishing line together. Looking back, I'm not sure if I could've done if I were alone. But at this point the race was just starting, the Ipod kept shouting "and the base keeps running, running, and running, running..." and although I'm no base I did keep running. Determined, yet not confident.

Born To Run (Bruce Springsteen) ~ 5Km. Although the meaning of the song is totally different, I love listening to Born To Run when running. It's one of those songs that really seem to empower me; I started to set my fears aside and enjoying the race completely. Although we were still in the urban area of Lisbon, the city and its surroundings are quite beautiful making running in it a real pleasure. When though it's known as "city of the seven hills". Yes, obvious reasons.

Hearts On Fire (Cut Copy) ~ 10Km. Almost certainly the most repetitive song I like, it did its job without further ado. At this point we were descending quite a lot, which made me worry about the return. And with good reason as I came to learn. On the 10th kilometer mark the chronometer marked 50m32s.

Emerald Sword (Rhapsody Of Fire) ~15Km. Recommended by a friend of mine, I really came to like this song, among other of the same band. Certainly a nice tune for running.

Give It All (Rise Against) ~21Km. One of my favourite running songs, somewhat was ted so early in the race since I believe it could bring the back from the dead. Or from being lay down on the concrete. Not a good call auto-play, not at all. I crossed the Half-Marathon finishing line, this time without the naive thought of being halfway there. Every runner who's been through it knows the 21st Km is not the middle of the marathon, that lies somewhere close to the 30th maybe. The chronometer marked 1h45m, but I didn't let get over my head. I knew I still had a lot to overcome.

Cat People (David Bowie) ~25Km. Lovely song, also present in one of my favourite movies. It made me smile and, as you all know, sound mind leads to a sound body.

Through The Fire And Flames (DragonForce) ~28Km. One of the most powerful songs in  my collection, with strongly motivational lyrics. I couldn't help but remember the numerous times where I struggled with its notes in Guitar Hero. Still, its tempo is perhaps too fast for a Marathon; I had to resist the urge of speeding up my pace.

Startfire (DragonForce) - 30Km. I chose this moment to play my chosen powersong for the first time. A really unsual slow song by DragonForce (it starts with a beautiful sound of a piano with a cascade on background) it seemed appropriate to the slow pace I knew I would need to keep to finish the Marathon. The lyrics are motivation enough.

Points Of Authority (Linkin Park) ~35Km. "You can't run the race/ the pace is too fast/ you just won't last". What the hell? You're supposed to help Mr. Ipod... I cursed the random music player and skipped to the next song.


Startfire (DragonForce) - 37Km. Why oh why did our ancestor build our city on these accursed hills? We were finally going up the hill to the finish line, but my legs' cry for mercy made me reward them with the powerwong again. I didn't stop running though (the whole time). The chronometer marked 3h14m38s.

Best Of You (Foo Fighters) ~38Km. Yep, there were many people getting the best of me (I was barely moving). But I was also getting the best of lots of people (perhaps mostly the same people, as everyone kept accelerating/decelarating). The Portuguese minister of Education, Nuno Crato, once wrote a mathematical proof showing that, in a traffic jam with multiple lines, everyone spends more time being passed by other cars than passing by them. Perhaps the same could be applied in this situation.

Go For The Goal (Pop) ~40Km. Although I usually play the music in the beginning of a race, I must say it fits beautifully in the end as well. Five points for Ipod auto-play.

Minority (Green Day) ~ 40Km. True, I really did want to belong to the minority of people who've crossed that finish line.At this point my mind wasn't really capable of much more elaborated thinking, so there's not much to say.

Original Prankster (The Offspring) ~41Km. "You can do it". Indeed; after crossing the 41st Km mark I finally allowed myself to acknowledge I'd really finish it:  I'd crawl my way to the finish line if I had to.

I finally finished the race with the official time of 3h 52m 33s. It was an amazing experience, leading to a sort of cathartic feeling. I congratulate the organization both for the event itself (there were plenty of support areas with adequate drinks/food) and the souvenirs (2 T-shirts plus the medal). For now, I think I'll go back to running half-marathons (I've met my challenge), but I'll certainly go back to the "real deal" later on.


Filipe Baptista de Morais

Portuguese Sayings

There is a facebook group, going by the name "Portuguese Sayings", which is growing quite popular as of late. It is simply a collection of traditional Portuguese Sayings translated (close to literally) to English.

It is quite funny to see how most of them make no sense at all when not in their original language, leading us to wonder about their origins. Even for non-native Portuguese speakers some of them might be puzzling, such as (probably) Estou-me nas tintas / I'm on the inks, which means that we don't really care (at all).
Through sharing part of this "knowledge" I came to know that some sayings we Portuguese believe to be National are in fact used in other countries as well. For instance I've learned that Don't check the tooth of a given horse is actually also said in Czech. It's always interesting to find things that can be so amusing and culturally interesting at the same time.


Filipe Baptista de Morais

Irrational

Last Summer I had the privilege of reading, among other masterpieces, Thinking, Fast and Slow. The authoer, Daniel Kahneman, is a psychologist who was awarded the Nobel prize in Economics over his work around the psychology of judgement and decision making.

The book compiles a huge list of behavioural and decision biases, illustrating their effect through conducted experiments. These include, but are not limited to, the (amazing) anchoring effect, availability heuristic, base rate neglect, confirmation bias, decoy effect, duration neglect, expectation bias, framing effect, gambler's fallacy, illusion of control, insentivity to sample size, irrational escalation, just-world hypothesis, less-is-better effect, loss aversion, negativity bias, normalcy bias, omission bias (what we see is what we believe), optimistm bias, outcome bias, zero-risk bias. While it would take way too much time and paper (yes I still use it) to go through all of them here I urge you to look them up or, even better, read the book! Of course you can also just ask me, and settle for an ignorant's response.

The author tries to find a raison d'étre for these odd behaviours, ending up with the theory of the 2 systems. Basically he believes we're equipped with two different thinking mechanisms (without trying to make any physical/biological association). The first one is fast, emotional and hugely biased and heuristic based, thus irrational. The second is rational, though slow, and it's basicly how we think of ourselves in terms of reasoning. Unfortunately we're wrong, terribly wrong. Seems like system 1 is the one pulling the string as default, and system 2 is only called upon through conscious and effortful focusing. The conclusion is simples: we're not rational.

That statement, although seemingly inoquous and theoretical, has a huge practical impact in many different areas. Enough to be acknowledged with a Nobel prize in Economics. The reason is trivial: the entire Economy system is based on the premise that we are (or at least resemble greatly) rational agents. The same happens in other important areas, such as the political systems. When you drop that single premise it's as if we're solving a Maths problem with the wrong equations. The numbers add up, but the solution doesn't hold. And that really is a problem; we're agents alright, but hardly rational. After reading this book, I'm inclined to think that Dilbert (from The Dilbert Principle) was actually closer to the truth: people are idiots. Not my beloved readers, of course.

Of course politicians and people from marketing are aware of some of these 'glitches' in human reasoning, exploiting them to sell an item or an idea. It is not rare at all to listen to people complaining that they are manipulating us. However, from what I've read, I'm afraid this might be just the beginning. Sadly, being aware of our flaws is only helpful to some extent, given that our attention span is quite limited and therefore we'll quickly rever to our irrational form.