Status Anxiety

The famous philosopher and essayist Alain de Botton shows us in this book one of the main sources of unhappiness in society: 'status anxiety'. He explains the origins of the phenomenon, the main values of the leading classes throughout history, the evolution to meritocracy, the dependency on the opinions of others and the tendency to cultivate high expectations in life.

The author also points to 'solutions' that may not resolve but at least reduce the phenomenon: philosophy, art (including tragedy and comedy), politics, christianity and bohemianism. He shows how society has always found 'alternative' ways of defining or interpreting success in the course of the past centuries. He uses many facts and figures from 18th and 19th century society life.

I also believe status anxiety and distrust have now become the key drivers of what I called 'hyperactivity' in society. (See my blog in dutch.) Hyperactivity is the source of the seven plagues that affect society today: overconsumption, traffic jams, stress, depressions, air pollution, family disintegration and social injustice.

Zurich and public transportation

Zurich is a city that knows how to organise public transportation. There are still many traffic jams, but at least much more people use the public transport means, subway, tram, bus or trolleybus. Public transportation is not just for those who can't afford a car. It runs like a swiss clockwork. It is easy, self-explaining, clean, fast and timely. You arrive in Zurich as a total stranger and you are capable of taking the tramway to the place you need to be. Try the same in many other countries.

The Swiss show that it is possible to do better. Why can't we go there and learn from them? It would be an investment with excellent return.

Generosity: the ultimate cure for a sick economy

Today, we read in the newspaper that fourty billionaires are following their colleagues Bill Gates and Warren Buffet in donating half of their fortune to charity. Good news and a good catalyst to write this blog about the role of generosity in economy. On the other hand, I want to extend this role of generosity a little...In the example above, generosity is typically associated with charity, and is only the result of economic activity. I state in the blog below that generosity is actually the best lubricant in the economic engine and it is even an essential fuel in the case of the innovative economy. "Generosity" needs a little realignment in our list of human virtues. Giving away money or time without expecting anything in return is simply not done in economy. "There is no such a thing as a free lunch". The tendency of employees to perform unpaid overtime for their employer does not classify as generosity, but rather as economic pressure, lack of realism in expectations, neurotic behaviour or modern slavery. MBA programs do not even mention the word generosity. They teach, on the contrary, how to squeeze out the very last drop from an already squeezed out lemon. Even in the world of charity, real generosity is often mixed with other motivations like the concern for a good image or release of feelings of guilt, but let us now accept this for inevitable.

The opposite of generosity is greed. If greed brought us into this economic crisis, generosity should get us out. If we all agree that the new economy shall be based on innovation, we need people to take risks and invest in new initiatives. Venture capitalists stress the importance of sound business plans. But in today's economy, this leads to a dead end. First, business plans can always be questioned; a minimum of belief is needed. But what if there is no place for belief, what if the risk averse behaviour always seems more rewarding than the risk prone behaviour, like today? Secondly, if if an investment takes place, the pressure for quick results (greed) often kills the early growth of the vulnerable initiative. What we need are 'stupid' people who would spend their money anyhow, either because they have no alternative 'secure' job, because they detest the safe-secure status quo or because they don't want to live on society's back. This 'entrepreneurial spirit' has something to do with pride. These people exist, but society's pressure on these people is so huge now that they risk to become an extinct species. If it continues like this, the crisis will have a permanent effect on our economy. Let us pray for more generosity and entrepreneurship.

Raising kids in the 21st century

Raising kids is not easy they say. According to the french adagium it is: "donner des racines et des ailes", to give roots and wings to children. Roots to make them aware where they come from and wings to make them willing to go somewhere else. I sometimes refer to education as: "shooting at a moving target", because of the speed of my kids' growth process.

On television and elsewhere, I discover a lot of uncertainty with parents concerning the best way to raise kids. There are two major causes. One cause is the deep social gap between those who raise their kids in the best possible way and those who basically... don't. At school, these kids are mixed and this creates obviously a lot of problems.

Another cause is the paradigm shift with respect to previous generations. Education is no longer based on authority and obedience but on persuasion and interaction. Most people, even the older generations, see this as a positive evolution. And most agree that this is more demanding on the parents' side. Perhaps it is also more demanding on the children in the sense that they have to make choices and decisions much earlier, sometimes too early, in life.

In comparison to earlier generations, parents tend to be less demanding in terms of attitude. What strikes me, is how demanding they have become in terms of performance... Children are expected to be perfect in about everything nowadays, from ordinary school to dancing classes, horse riding, music school, school theatre and whatever you like. Of course, there is a positive aspect on all that. But if I look at the agenda of some kids, it looks like all these activities serve yet another purpose: prepare the kids for the toughest of all rat races and in the mean time: let dad/mum do their own thing. Anyway, this child rat race is not nice for the less talented and it will not lead us to paradise.

Picture: Ambrosius Francken, Christ blesses the children, Bonnefantenmuseum Maastricht

Satellite navigation and communication

The European Commission supports through R&D programmes, the development of applications and services based on GNSS, the global navigation satellite system, a system that will be completed with Galileo in some years time (2013).

Potential applications and services exist in many areas ranging from road traffic to air traffic and from people finding to commercial location based publicity. An example is the Liveline project. A problem that is often neglected is the fact that these applications often require, next to a good position determination, a wireless communication path that connects a mobile unit to an application server. This wireless communication path is supposed to exist. For short range data communication, one can use a WLAN communication system. For long range data communication, the mobile telecommunication operators are supposed to deliver the solution.

But is this really true? There are still many issues. First, in the countryside, you still have ordinary 2nd generation GPRS communication. Basically, the best communication speed you can achieve is 56 kbit/s, the speed of a classical telephone line. The new generation data communication systems take much more time than anticipated 10 years ago. Secondly, data communication abroad still costs a fortune. The roaming charges for data communication are still too high for many applications to be economically viable. I also refer to a previous blog about internet access.

To summarise, the GNSS applications and services require a more holistic approach. Moreover, the mobile telecommunication operators need to become more involved with the Space - GNSS community of service providers. Today, they are either not interested in this emerging market, or they go their own way. S-band hybrid terrestrial - satellite communication could offer an alternative solution in some years time, but not tomorrow.

Sclerosis in the space sector?

I'm now 45 years old. Considering that my career started around 25 years and expecting that it could end at 65 years, if life permits, I should be half-way. Remarkable is that when it comes to project work, I'm often the oldest one in the team. On the other hand, in high-level conferences and networking events, I'm often among the youngest.

There is a specific problem with the space sector. The space sector lived its 'boom' in the later eighties, early nineties, before I started. In the bigger space companies, a hierarchical pyramid was built up, a large base of design and development people, a number of project managers and middle managers and a narrow top of company managers. Roughly 20 years later, this entire pyramid has grown older. At the base, new designers and developers have been recruited, but not proportional to the pyramid that was already there, the base is relatively too weak to support the heavy top. The top of the pyramid counts too much people and costs too much money. Many have to leave the larger companies and do something else, perhaps start their own company.

This is not so bad in itself. Experienced people from the space sector should be able to start space downstream service companies or they could cross-fertilise other sectors of economy. Their knowledge and skills should be fruitful in many sectors of economic life. In the current state of the economy however, many of these people are forced to stay in space business. The public hand somehow protects them, as it still spends a lot of money on space, but only few companies can really make a sound living from it. In space companies, revenues stagnate and salary costs increase continuously. As a result, the space sector suffers from decreasing profit margins. I am generalising a little bit, and I admit that the findings above are applicable to other sectors of economy as well, but a certain sclerosis of the space sector can't be denied.

Heat (Hitte)

Science related to climate change is not easy. The scientific findings often depend on who ordered the study. I can't judge who is wrong or who is right. Perhaps temperature and gas composition will get out of control in a few years and we're gone. Perhaps, on the contrary, our great grandchildren will consider climate change as the madness of the century, just like we laugh now with the witch executions in the 16th-17th century.

George Monbiot, the author of 'Heat', may be considered as a typical 'enfant terrible' by political and industrial leaders but his concern for the climate change is genuine and authentic. He describes how we don't seem to be able to change our daily behaviour.

In case of scientific uncertainty, the principle of precaution should prevail. Compare with the eruption of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano in Iceland. We knew a plane could crash from the ash clouds, we were not sure about it but we decided to stop flying as a precaution, although we desperately need to fly. Obviously and fortunately, the measure was temporary.

Suppose you ignore the principle of precaution. In the case of the ash clouds, one could then have to sacrifice a few planes and passengers, but humanity would fly and still survive (I'm cynical). In the case we continue ignoring the precaution principle in climate change, we could face an uncontrollable destabilisation of the temperature and gas composition on earth. Then don't forget: we don't have an emergency exit here. Nobody escapes. Nothing can save us, no Swiss bunkers, no Biosphere II, no undersea glass domes, no moon base, nor Star Trek space ships to protect us. But perhaps it is a chance for another species to take over the management of the Earth.