Knowledge management - Chapter 1 - big picture.

It is all about survival - stupid....
The other day I have been discussing with friend how violent humans are. The basis for discussion was the question whether being armed (or possession of the gun)  is good or not, whether right to protect your family can make you to use the gun? This discussion branched to different directions.   As it seems the wars are ongoing reality and as it seems that questioning morality of war depends on which side of the front line you are asking the questions. So I started to play this mind game to actually understand why there is still so much violence and why it will probably not disappear any time soon. Whenever you ask anybody about the war the answer is = war is bad. Well, the same is about the violence. Peacefulness is core of most religions and philosophical  movements. Most of economy scholars agree that in general for society war is having very bad influence on economy. Of course some might dispute the issue, because there is always someone making a lot of money on war, but in general for society it is destruction, lost opportunity and a lot of workforce wasted. If you count how many lives were lost with so many potential Einsteins, how much effort was lost to rebuild the cities, how much money were invested again just to rebuild lost infrastructure, you might get to conclusion that we would have been much further evolved as a mankind if there was no war. If you think about the civilization as a dynamic growing entity, building up the mass and expanding experience = knowledge, then this knowledge should expand in parallel with population growth curve. Well, all wars reflect gained knowledge - the conflicts becoming more and more technologically sophisticated - the fruits of technology evolution in real life test - stronger technology wins*. As it seems looking backwards at human history you can find few arguments suggesting that actually this is natural way of human evolution. In many cases it was the war that triggered technology evolution, it was the ultimate threat of defeat and death that triggered invention. As collateral many other areas of nonmilitary needs were satisfied. My comment will probably upset all rationally thinking pace-loving minds, and I will be accused of macho and testosterone influenced behavior - or maybe fascist.   Nietzsche's wrote: "what doesn't kill you will make you stronger" - he referred more to individual development as I take it, but it will apply to society too.

NASA's NEO statistics. 

Now I refer to subtitle: It is all about survival - stupid... In biology we are taught that life has some properties that differ life from ordinary dead matter. One being propagation and urge to spread and secure new territories. The evolution theory teaches that species most adapted (or adaptable) to environmental conditions survive. In human society it is similar. The brain helps compensate or supplement adaptation ability. First it was small human populations vs. Nature. When there was more of humans that possessed ability to defend themselves against the Nature and Nature was no more threat, they thought other humans - well there was this skill to fight so there was need to utilize it, right? - and there was growing human population, and there was teritorializm. So basically humans follow same urge as primitive bacteria: spread and propagate...
But wait, did I say "Nature" was/is no more threat?


When we look at it even in wider picture I have to show this bar-chart posted on NASA website listing Near Earth Objects (or Asteroids)**. The chart represents quantity (y) of objects of 5 sizes (x) that were spotted near Earth. Summary: 9000 of known, spotted objects, flying in Earths vicinity! Here I will ask myself - Can we extend the term "NATURE" to space? Well I suppose so. Then I would take back statement of Nature being no more threat to Humans. Dinosaurs and perhaps 80 - 90% of species that lived on Earth in past would be witnesses that the Space is quite dangerous place. Well and after this longer (than intended) article I finally come to conclusion what I wanted to say:

People - we should invest more to space research and it is essential to do so - for mankind and for some 9 million animal species and 300.000 plant species - not even counting fungi, bacteria, viruses - simply for life. Philosophically speaking the humans might be just the kind of evolution result which life on earth - Gaia, or how you want to call it- intended, or was in-avoidable in order for life preservation. In the Earth history were 4 mass extinctions so far discovered, the last one labelled K-T extinction 65 million years ago at the end of the Cretaceous period, known for the extinction of Dino's. The next one - there is statistical certainty that there will be next one - time is only factor - so the next one can be even more devastating.

Therefore I urge you throw some diamonds on Moon (The man who sold the Moon (1949)- Robert A. Henlein) and colonize space - there is soo much space out there - So we don't have to suffocate down here....

P.S.: this all was written under influence of first successful private space endeavor by SpaceX company and Dragon spacecraft.

*- I will disagree with this statement in some other post.

**- I would love to come back to this chart in one of my next posts...

Career move.

Today I received daily communication email from Harvard business review with subject: Are you ready for your next career move? Well the timing is incredible - I have been asking the same question for few days if not months. I have discussed this question with few friends employed in human resources in different companies and they have noted after seeing my resume: “wow, you will have many good offers in no time”.  This is what I thought when I expanded my PhD title with MBA almost 2 years ago and, well the reality is not matching my expectations. I really am not complaining about my life at this moment. Until now I had perfect balance between my personal and work life. I just returned from amazing vacation in Slovakia and I am well refreshed, but with my fresh view I looked at my perspective at my current place and I got excited again. Change... Change is in the air. I like change. But.... Well I started to look at opportunities, sent few applications and... No offers yet. I didn't send tons of applications as few career websites suggest (it is a must to beat statistics they say). I did send few and I targeted applications to friends, but... Too many buts. So? What seems to be the problem? I seem to have opened forthcoming personality, I am communicative, knowledgeable in many different fields, interested almost in everything, easily excitable, patient and yet, I am still waiting for "the" opportunity to harness my experience and qualifications and turn it into gold. Well, at least in good feel that I really am doing something what I was built for... Any chaperons or mentors out there? Any job offers?