About the wisdom of crowds...

Oddly enough, I have been so predisposed to the concept of individualism in a sea of conformity as positive, it had never occurred to me that there could be a beneficial aspect of appealing to groups on any scale. The analogy of the 'waggle dance' and ox-weighing experiment actually changed my mind in regards to relying on group dynamic for analysis; then I remembered how some families have those black boxes that monitor what they watch on television 24/7 and are sent readouts of what these families purchase as a result of the commercials they see on television. I'd like to think that there's some benevolent and people-powered positivity in the wisdom of crowds, but in our hyper-mass marketed country, I can't help but feel that an individual with well-rounded skill sets stands a better chance of figuring something out. after further review I may feel different.

In.Fluence vrs.2

I got that - Knowledge of Self Scientific/
The worth of my wealth? Prolific/
Sitting of the shelf? Forget it/
See...we know what Nas Is Like, I know what I was like/
Impatient, rebellious - counting down the hours like/
One Day It'll All Make Sense; something my elders and I have in Common/
This a tape deck grenade, you can call it a 'SoundBombing'/
My bad, too soon? They like, "You a jerk!"/
I'm like, "Nah, I'm an Architect - I'm a Kool Herc"/
While these mooks do dirt, I build new work/
Inside a Razorblade Suitcase with brand new locks/
Sitting in D-Block, waiting for some brand new Lox/
Arrested in Fort Minor - for trying to steal Instrumentals from a Box/
Whole thing was a Fiasco/
Should've known the block was bottled heat like Tobasco/
But that's how that go/

In.Fluence vrs.1

Way before me, way before pistols, way before Cristal, way before crystal/
There was just Kris...Parker/
Not Peter, a Criminal Minded leader/
Whose lyrical rhyming meter was fluid in measured liters/
Absorbed by these Roots, at the Tipping Point/
Before Things Fall Apart, with the Blackest of Thoughts, I spit the joint/
Make 'em dance, a pimp with the providence, champion of chance/
Raw with the Dice - Dave Chappelle, Leonard Washington/
They say he M.Illitant, but he just dilligent/
The say sky's the limit, so I'm hanging with the ceiling fan/
Biohazardous, stay spitting sicker than/
Your lyric slinging coughing guy/
Marching with the Pharoahe - spit the glyphs off sarcophagi/
Simon Says see The Light - The Truth, y'all be walking by/
I been spitting that Panthro - waving red and blue nunchucks/
Way ahead of you numb nuts, educating the young ones/
Rebounding redundants/

Net Neutraility

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWt0XUocViE

The internet under fire..

Week In Review

They think we're savages, like, "Do they even bleed?"/
When's the last time you'd though you'd seen/
People treated like they were not allowed to dream?/
Was it the scene, where Martin Luther King got shot/
Was it not that far back, but somewhere that you've been?/
Like kids acting grown at the age of nineteen/
With their eyes wide shut and their minds wiped clean/

Because, they think we're blind, like, "Do they even see?"/
Past the here and now, how short-sighted can we be?/
We spit, sunflower seeds in the street/
Many minds can't fly cuz they high on trees/
I try to make smart moves like wise guys on skis/
A chess prodigy with his eyes on a queen/
Or Prince Akeem with his eye on Queens/

Knowledge must be power..
'Cuz they think we dumb, "Do they even perceive?"/
The alliance between our oppression and compliance/
The way we mix the sex with the violence/
Or maybe that too is just a dream/
Where in the end we don't have to justify what it means/
Just put the parts together like A-D-D/
Watch the minutes roll over like A-T-T/
Cuz 'get rich or die trying' you will not see me/
Maybe 'get free first' like Ayiti/

The Tipping Point (also an amazing album by The Roots!)

I am amazed to read this 'biography of an idea', simply because about a year ago I was mouthing off to everyone that I had this new epiphany around understanding trends (only to find that this book was written; and reaffirm that there is nothing 'new'). No matter how far I read, I was forced to return to the introduction over and over for the lens with which to ascertain all the ideas Gladwell brings into the light throughout the book. His 'yawning as a trend' example was a brilliant understanding of the way ideas move as contagions, and should be studied in the same manner as epidemics. Perhaps, even with the same seriousness if we're to prevent more violent and earth-shattering ideas from becoming commonplace.

Myself, I'd like to say I try really hard as a reader to never judge the author as someone writing to convert minds to their way of thinking, but as someone sharing their deepest secret: how they see the world. If not for that distinct difference in critique, I would easily surmise that Gladwell is an egocentric know-it-all with plans for world domination. However, upon reading the introduction a second time(which I'll outright suggest we all do for this book), I almost know that Gladwell's work is already on the desk of some out of control corporate despot CEO as their marketing version of 'the anarchist's cookbook'. Gladwell's examples of the idea spreading as a virus might be the most sound since 1+1=2. I wonder if he means to say, "People are not stupid, just malleable as all get out. Look what I've made you into."

This book is indeed at the core of True Villainy, and one person's villain is always someone else's hero.