It is January 28, 1986, the day of the long awaited liftoff of the challenger. Ten years ago NASA unveiled the world's first reusable aircraft, the space shuttle. Five years ago the shuttle flights started with Columbia on its 54 hour endeavor manned craft. Three years ago the first untethered moon walk ever occurred. All three gigantic monuments that were recording breaking unlike anything else witnessed. All three set the stage for future ventures. All three rolled the pavement for this, the second space shuttle with a twist, one of the members was a regular citizen, a teacher from a small town in New Hampshire to teach kids about space aboard her trip. So with the entire country watching the crew waved and boarded the spacecraft. Adults, teens, kids gleeful about the broad world, all saw in awe as the space shuttle rose in the sky, out of the atmosphere... and disintegrated.
The mission was delayed for six days due to weather and technical problems with the morning of the launch being unusually cold. The engineers warned their superiors that there were some things that could prove to be dangerous due to the circumstances such as the rubber O-rings sealing the rocket boosters which were vulnerable to failure at low temperatures. But as always in these types of situations the warnings were ignored. As challenger lifted off the astronauts, NASA, and all who watched stared in the disbelief as the space craft burst into a fog of smoke and fire, and within a few moments the entire spacecraft fell apart and dove into the ocean, killing the whole crew, traumatizing the entire U.S. and pushing NASA's shuttle program off a cliff of cascading failures.
The cause of all this? Well the shuttle exploded because the external fuel tank burst. The fuel tank burst because the right rocket booster came undone and ruptured it. The rocket booster came undone because gasses leaked out of them burning a hole into the fuel tank and the piece that held the boosters in place. The gas leaked because the seal around the O-ring failed. Why did that fail? By now you should be able to piece it all together, the O-ring seal wasn't able to withstand the cold temperatures of the day, which the engineers had already complained about. Because of the O-ring failure the entire nation was thrown into turmoil. How big was the O-ring? Not even half an inch.
My birthday is in the beginning of the school year, at a time where everyone is getting stuff organized, figuring out their classes, and starting homework after a long break. So when it was my birthday I didn't expect anyone to remember as there was no indication for it. I chose to wear casual clothes, I didn't write my birthday on any social media, nothing at all to remind anyone that it was my birthday. But when I walked into school some person who I recognized a bit from middle school but apart from than that I hadn't talked to at all wished me happy birthday just brightened my day. The fact that they remember that thing that I could only have mentioned once came to them to wish me.
That was when the fact struck me, small things really do matter. Whether it is a small sealant that could have prevented a national catastrophe or someone remembering your birthday they can make a monumental difference. Small matches create huge forest fires, small words make huge actions, and small things make huge differences.
I would always keep this in mind in everything I did since my childhood, in essays I would pay attention to the fonts and what message they would give, in sports when I played football and learning how to tackle and catch properly I would pay heed to even the angle of where everything faced, and when talking to friends telling a story or something I would always keep the word choice in the back of my mind. This started early in my childhood from something implanted into my brain even back then because someone put it in there. Not a friend, not my teachers, not even my parents. On Winnie the Pooh, one of the shows that I adored as a child Winnie said something that changed my perception forever,"Sometimes the smallest things take up the most room in our hearts."
The small things, from a screw, to a birthday wish, to a match really do.
A Jack Story
A traveling salesmen is traveling through the desert one night, coming back from a meeting with a big client from another city when one of his tires unexpectedly blows. He pulls over and gets out of the car, surveying the damage. He remembers that he has a spare tire in the back so he gets it out, but then realizes that he lacks a jack. He tried to use his phone to call someone but before he could look at is contacts to decide who to call his phone abruptly lost battery. Defeated, he slumps down onto the ground on the side of the road, waiting in the empty highway for a car, any car to pass by, but that too soon proved to be fruitless. In a sudden flashback he recalled a lonely farmhouse, five miles back from his present location.
He gets up and begins the long walk towards his last string of hope, and as he walks he talks to himself. After the first few minutes he murmurs to himself, having a bright view of the destination,
"I hope they have a jack. The farmer will probably lend it to me, maybe even give me a ride back."
As he gets closer and closer to the farmhouse he starts to become more and more pessimistic,
"I wonder how much they'll force me to pay for using the jack. Maybe three dollars, or even four. If they're anything like the bastards I work with they'll recognize there is no other place I can go for this and knowing they've cornered me in the market drive the price even higher, which is gonna be ten more dollars. But it is also the dead of the night, that will cost me even more. They'll be pissed that I woke them up and just for the sake of my sanity drive the price up to a total of twenty dollars!"
At the sight of the barn his usual present demeanor contorted into an all killing all consuming manner. His nostrils had flared beyond recognition, his eyes flashing a soul retching pose, and his mouth quivered and drooled from an explosion of obscenities he was prepared to say. He jolted up to the house door and slammed his fist red into the pane door.
The farmer comes out, and despite the salesman's distressing attitude he calmly asked what was wrong. Too bad that the saleman would have none of it.
"You got the nerve to talk to robber. You can just forget it. Keep your goddamn jack to yourself.:
And then he walks back. The whole five miles that he just came from. Without a jack.
Don't build a jack story. There are many different versions of this story but they all lead to the same end: assuming things too quickly, and ruining relations because of it.
There are many things you face in your life that you can turn into this story. What if my friends won't like me if I am not funny. What if my teacher gives me bad grades because she hates me. What if the barista messed up my order because I have a weird accent.
Obsessing on the worst things that can happen cloud your judgement from the best things. Pessimism doesn't pay well, and sometimes optimism is hard. But in the end, just remember, to do whatever you can, to ensure that you don't make a jack story.
"I hope they have a jack. The farmer will probably lend it to me, maybe even give me a ride back."
As he gets closer and closer to the farmhouse he starts to become more and more pessimistic,
"I wonder how much they'll force me to pay for using the jack. Maybe three dollars, or even four. If they're anything like the bastards I work with they'll recognize there is no other place I can go for this and knowing they've cornered me in the market drive the price even higher, which is gonna be ten more dollars. But it is also the dead of the night, that will cost me even more. They'll be pissed that I woke them up and just for the sake of my sanity drive the price up to a total of twenty dollars!"
At the sight of the barn his usual present demeanor contorted into an all killing all consuming manner. His nostrils had flared beyond recognition, his eyes flashing a soul retching pose, and his mouth quivered and drooled from an explosion of obscenities he was prepared to say. He jolted up to the house door and slammed his fist red into the pane door.
The farmer comes out, and despite the salesman's distressing attitude he calmly asked what was wrong. Too bad that the saleman would have none of it.
"You got the nerve to talk to robber. You can just forget it. Keep your goddamn jack to yourself.:
And then he walks back. The whole five miles that he just came from. Without a jack.
Don't build a jack story. There are many different versions of this story but they all lead to the same end: assuming things too quickly, and ruining relations because of it.
There are many things you face in your life that you can turn into this story. What if my friends won't like me if I am not funny. What if my teacher gives me bad grades because she hates me. What if the barista messed up my order because I have a weird accent.
Obsessing on the worst things that can happen cloud your judgement from the best things. Pessimism doesn't pay well, and sometimes optimism is hard. But in the end, just remember, to do whatever you can, to ensure that you don't make a jack story.
The Man who Broke the Bank of England
I like my hair a specific way. The top has to be able to be flown to the right, the sides have to be a only a bit shorter, and my sideburns need to be clear cut. This isn't untrue of other guys, a lot of boys I know need their hair to be a specific way, or order is lost. But what also isn't untrue about us is that when we go to the barber, they sometimes mess it up. They might not trim the top enough, cut the sides to short, or make really high sideburns. But when they do, no matter how disordered it causes them to be, they act like it's good. They either don't like having to confront the barber, or see no point to it. No matter if its a bad barber, and they don't know how to cut hair right at all, you still wouldn't dare confront them. But what if the ordeal was bigger than that? Bigger than just person, what if it was an entire entity? What if you were up against an entire country? Your own country?
After World War 2 Europe wanted to unify their countries through a currency exchange. But this came with a downfall, to stop depreciation countries had to follow what the others did, and judging on the varying personalities of country's this could have been, and proved to be a treacherous downfall. Inflation was high in Germany, due to their raising debts so they raised their prime rate, with others following them. This was especially dangerous for England because their pound was already way overvalued at that point, but they were forced to raise it. This was referred, to as "Keeping up with the Joneses", trying to keep up financially and socially with neighboring countries. Faking anything to keep up with your neighbors is never a good idea, especially if you're a country.
George Soros was heading the Quantum Fund at that point, focusing on macroeconomic trends, so at this point he already had a hefty sum under his belt. He saw that England was under a massive amount of pressure. They only had two options, leave the currency clique they had only just joined, or make a huge devaluation of their own currency, throwing off their own country, and all other country they contracted with out of balance. To add to this the British budget was already in a bad state, suffering from a massive global recession and facing a peak in unemployment rates. To top it all off inflation was high, productivity was low, and exports were uncompetitive; no one believed the government was capable of fixing any of these atrocities. This was a cascading failure, with all the dominoes stacked in a neat row. All it needed was someone to give it a little tap.
Seizing the opportunity, Soros shorted the stock. All this means is that he used the money he had to sell the stock when it was high, then using those profits to buy even more stocks as the price goes lower and repeating that, backing it up with more money, until he made humongous profits. So if you sold something for $10 and it became $9 and you bought it, then you would get $1 increase. Now if the prices skyrocketed to $100 then you would get into huge debt, so if you short, you need to be absolutely sure you're right, or else you're screwed. So in terms of British currency, if the pound devalues you make money, but if it appreciates?
Therein lies the reason why George Soros is so acclaimed he is today. If it devalued then it would him billions but it had no chance of raising in value. In fact, it was only holding up by a thin string the government had thrown out in a desperate attempt to keep it just afloat. It was like a game show minus the bowl of piranhas in door 3, if it stayed the same, George would only lose a bit in interest, but if it lowered, as it inevitably would, he would get billions in profit. So what happened? Well that single day was immortalized in history as "Black Wednesday" and George Soros was named "The Man who Broke the Bank of England."
So really, he didn't stop the bad barber by taking away his license or what not. The barber himself took away his own license, George Soros just dialed up the authorities for him.
After World War 2 Europe wanted to unify their countries through a currency exchange. But this came with a downfall, to stop depreciation countries had to follow what the others did, and judging on the varying personalities of country's this could have been, and proved to be a treacherous downfall. Inflation was high in Germany, due to their raising debts so they raised their prime rate, with others following them. This was especially dangerous for England because their pound was already way overvalued at that point, but they were forced to raise it. This was referred, to as "Keeping up with the Joneses", trying to keep up financially and socially with neighboring countries. Faking anything to keep up with your neighbors is never a good idea, especially if you're a country.
George Soros was heading the Quantum Fund at that point, focusing on macroeconomic trends, so at this point he already had a hefty sum under his belt. He saw that England was under a massive amount of pressure. They only had two options, leave the currency clique they had only just joined, or make a huge devaluation of their own currency, throwing off their own country, and all other country they contracted with out of balance. To add to this the British budget was already in a bad state, suffering from a massive global recession and facing a peak in unemployment rates. To top it all off inflation was high, productivity was low, and exports were uncompetitive; no one believed the government was capable of fixing any of these atrocities. This was a cascading failure, with all the dominoes stacked in a neat row. All it needed was someone to give it a little tap.
Seizing the opportunity, Soros shorted the stock. All this means is that he used the money he had to sell the stock when it was high, then using those profits to buy even more stocks as the price goes lower and repeating that, backing it up with more money, until he made humongous profits. So if you sold something for $10 and it became $9 and you bought it, then you would get $1 increase. Now if the prices skyrocketed to $100 then you would get into huge debt, so if you short, you need to be absolutely sure you're right, or else you're screwed. So in terms of British currency, if the pound devalues you make money, but if it appreciates?
Therein lies the reason why George Soros is so acclaimed he is today. If it devalued then it would him billions but it had no chance of raising in value. In fact, it was only holding up by a thin string the government had thrown out in a desperate attempt to keep it just afloat. It was like a game show minus the bowl of piranhas in door 3, if it stayed the same, George would only lose a bit in interest, but if it lowered, as it inevitably would, he would get billions in profit. So what happened? Well that single day was immortalized in history as "Black Wednesday" and George Soros was named "The Man who Broke the Bank of England."
So really, he didn't stop the bad barber by taking away his license or what not. The barber himself took away his own license, George Soros just dialed up the authorities for him.
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