We are at 200 signatures! Welcome new Escapaders!
It is also Labor Day! Happy Labor Day, Escapaders!
So, in honor of our number being at Two.Oh.Oh., and Labor Day, let me share two stories about the paragon of labor animals – the ox!
The first story is from the work of Francis Galton. Actually, this story constitutes the only thing I know about Galton, but it is important and interesting. In 1906, Galton discovered what is now called “The Wisdom of Crowds.” He went to a farmers’ fair in Plymouth and observed a weight-guessing contest. A man presented a living ox to the attenders of the fair, and asked them to guess the weight of the ox - not as the ox was (which would have been difficult to determine), but as the ox would be when it was butchered and dressed. The contest was similar to the “guess how many jelly beans are in this jar” contests that we see today. Around 800 people submitted their guesses, each hoping to be closest to the actual weight. Galton acquired the tickets the 800 had submitted as their guesses, and calculated what the average guess was. His results were surprising. The average guess of all the 800 guesses was remarkably close to the correct answer. When Galton calculated the average, the result was 1,197 pounds. When the ox was actually butchered and dressed, it weighed 1,198 pounds. We might say that the crowd’s collective guess was only off by one pound.
Galton’s spontaneous experiment seems to show that a large group of people, concentrating on finding a certain measurement, even if they are “just guessing,” seems to yield an answer that is pretty close to the correct answer. Thus, to be blunt, crowds are not as stupid as they are often depicted. There is such a thing as the “Wisdom of the Crowd.”
When I first had the idea that Buffalo could have housing renewal to anticipate the coming eclipse, as a way of being hospitable to our eclipse-interest guests, and as a way to make our city more resplendent, I strained my brain to try to come up with a kind of procedure. The procedure I conceived, so I thought, would be a means by which the endeavor could be successful, a procedure that would garner the necessary investment and everything else. The procedure I mentally constructed would require different entities in Buffalo to work in sync with each other. I still think it would have worked, and maybe in some way that I don’t know about, it IS working – and no one has informed me about it. Anyway, to my knowledge, I have not been able to create the coalition that could have enacted the Eclipse Escapade.
However, as I have been writing these updates, I have discovered and shared the phrase “The Might of Many Minds Mustered Towards the Magnification of our Municipality.” What I mean by all these M words is that my own, private mind can’t come up with a way for the Eclipse Escapade endeavor to actually happen. But maybe all of your minds, concentrating on this endeavor, can come up with something that actually works. Maybe the Eclipse-Escapader “Crowd” can come up with an answer that is as right as it needs to be. Let the eclipse anticipatory concentration began.
My second ox story is actually about an oxcart. It is a story about Alexander the Great from Ancient Greece. The story speaks of a legend about an ox-cart tied to a post with an incredibly intricate knot, the so-called “Gordian Knot.” The knot seemed to be impossible to untie, but the legend held that anyone who could unravel it would become the ruler of all of Asia. When Alexander the Great encountered the knot, he tried to untie it with his hands, but was unable to do so. He thought about the problem a while, then drew his sword, and sliced the knot in two, thus embracing his destiny to conquer Asia.
The phrase “Gordian Knot” has come to symbolize a complex problem that seems impossible to solve due to the complexity. As I have contacted stakeholder after interested stakeholder in an attempt to find an entity that might initiate the Eclipse Escapade, I have heard a consistent refrain. There is too much red tape. Western New York seems to be like that oxcart tied to a post and immobilized by a Gordian Knot of red tape.
But maybe the Might of Many Minds Mustered towards the Magnification of our Municipality can find a way to cut through the red tape. Furthermore, even if the Eclipse Escapade is not to come to pass, maybe we can make a few nicks in the Gordian Knot of red tape.