LieSpotting

I recently watched a most popular TED talk with the same title as this post.  Roughly the first half was about how often people lie, while the last half was about how to spot those lies.

I was more interested in the first half, because it verified my somewhat cynical belief that most people lie, and lie often, when they talk to you about something.  Many of these are of the 'little white lie' variety, the kind you tell to make someone else feel better, or to maintain a social grace.

However, a lot of these lies are exaggerations, to make the liar look better than he or she really is.  Some of these are couples/relationship type of lies, but the ones I'm referring to come from the stories that others tell about something they did.  You know the ones -- so-and-so did something crazy, or saw something crazy, and the story gets crazier (and a little bit different) every time you hear it.

Of course, this type of lying is common among pre-teens and teens, where it's almost a rite of passage.  In the past I've suggested you should only believe 75% of half of what they say!

But I feel like it happens more often these days with adults.  It's as if baby-boomers are in a contest among themselves to better whatever another person says.  Like the Dilbert character Topper, except not always in an office environment.

In this context, I suppose it's harmless.  It's isn't like I'm going going to make a bad decision based on this inaccurate information.  It just isn't good form.

Terrorists Still > VEISHEA

The past  week / weekend should have been a fun time on the campus of Iowa State University.  It should have been the 90-something-th edition of VEISHEA.  But that was postponed last year, indirectly due to a riot, but directly due to an out-of touch university president.

Last summer that president, Steven Leath, put a permanent end to VEISHEA   Of course, he did this after getting that recommendation from his hand-picked task force.  An absolute joke.

What was this task force going to do, make a recommendation contrary to what the president and his cronies wanted?  Leath had already played judge and jury to cancel last year's VEISHEA shortly after the riot, but well before enough time had passed to collect the facts about what happened.

He acted impulsively and dictatorially, claiming student safety was at risk, and ruining work and plans that were many months in the making.  He isn't going to admit now that he was wrong about his actions.

But in truth, those actions haven't made Iowa State students, or Ames, Iowa, a safer place.  Suppressing the organized fun and freedom of people doesn't engender trust and safety -- it makes those people bitter and angry, and makes them dislike you.  Worst case scenario, it manifests into something chaotic and violent.

Fortunately for ISU / Ames, that manifestation didn't happen this year, and maybe it won't ever.  Unfortunately for Leath, the same can't be said for how much he's disliked on campus.

It's Not A Choice

Last week, the latest social culture conflict hit the Catholic high school my kids attended.  Specifically, a gay teacher/coach was fired when the school poo-bahs suddenly(?) discovered that he lived an "openly" gay lifestyle.

This firing is legal for private institutions in Iowa.  Which is beside the point.  The point is, somehow our society still tolerates discrimination based on sexual orientation.

It took a very long time, but America finally figured out that it was wrong to discriminate based on gender and race.  Of course, it still occurs, but it isn't socially acceptable.  And as we go through future generations, that discrimination will occur less and less.

While great strides have been made to stop discrimination against gays, there is a very long way to go.  This is evidenced not only by this high school's action, but by some of the support they got for it.  I consider some of these supporters to be level-headed people.  What do I see that they don't?

Here it is:  They, like so many others, do not understand or accept that being gay is not a choice.  That's really all there is to it.  If you accept that people's sexual orientation is who they are, in the same way that gender or race are a given, then the discrimination becomes obvious -- and embarrassing, and infuriating, etc.

One day soon, society will not tolerate what went on at this high school and elsewhere.  We won't consider protections for sexual orientation to be 'special rights' or otherwise.  We'll look back and ask how any of this could have happened as late as 2015.

In the meantime, let's hope people figure out that it's wrong to be unfair to others who are born a certain way.

More April Fools

It's April Fools' Day again today, another chance to expand on last year's list of facts that should be followed by the phrase, "April Fools!" if only they weren't true:

* The state of Indiana thought it could allow businesses to discriminate against gays without anyone noticing.

* Stories about suffering pets commonly air before stories about suffering people on broadcast news.

* Ted Cruz thinks he is a viable presidential candidate.

* You can stockpile and use guns and alcohol, but will be thrown in jail for owning an ounce of cannabis.

* The NCAA makes billions of dollars annually on the backs of its institutions' revenue-producing athletes, but opposes sharing any of that revenue with those athletes.

* Farm Bureau believes farmers will sufficiently police themselves to keep ground water clean.

* Most people base their current moral beliefs on undocumented, male-only writings from thousands of years ago.

Read More Dave Barry

I don't read as many books as I should, but when I do, I stick with non-fiction things related to history or finance or humor.  In the latter category, my favorite humorist has always been Dave Barry.  In the 80s and 90s, Barry wrote a hilarious, weekly syndicated column for the Miami Herald, which I always read because it was printed by the Des Moines Register.  At the same time, he authored many humor books that I read, some original and some a collection of his Miami Herald columns or essays.

Unfortunately, Barry dropped off my map in the late 90s when he gave up his weekly column, at which time he continued to write a variety of fictional books.  In the past several years, he's been using social media more, and gone back to writing more non-fiction again.  He's published a new humor book in each of the past two years.

With that as background, I recently took his newer books with me on a trip, and it was just like old times.  It is very, very hard to write in a way that's laugh-out-loud funny, but Barry and his books will do it.  It's impossible to fully describe his observational writing style, but he gets help from his "many alert readers" who send him crazy newspaper stories.  Among his favorite topics are exploding or flaming items (including cows, toilets, Pop-Tarts, and Barbie dolls), and the emotional differences between men and women.

He also has a few common sayings.  For example, when distinguishing fact from hyperbole, Barry frequently asserts, "I am not making this up."  Also, "would be a good name for a rock band" is a statement Barry often applies to certain phrases.  (This reminds me of a softball team I once coached, where the first name had to be a color and the nickname was an action.  Our team drew the name 'Purple Riot' which I immediately said would be a good name for a rock band.)

If you have a chance, and you want a good laugh, read more Dave Barry!

No Thanks Necessary

Your investments had a great 2014, or so it appears.  Your portfolio went up over 15%, and now you want to go out of your way to thank your investment advisor.

Instead, you ought to be looking for a new advisor.  If your portfolio went up that much last year, it means virtually all of your money was invested in U.S. stocks.  In turn, that means your advisor did not focus on something that should have been of equal concern: Risk.

No doubt, U.S. stocks performed well last year -- but what if they hadn't?  History has taught us that no one can accurately predict the short-term direction of the investment marketplace.  No one, investment advisors included, knows exactly when the market will go up or down, or when to jump in or out.

So managed properly, your investment portfolio would include more than just U.S. equities.  It would include other asset classes whose returns don't always move in the same direction, nor with the same volatility, as the overall domestic stock market.  These risk-diversifying assets would include things like corporate bonds, international stocks, government bonds, and real estate.

Last year, most of these 'non-correlated' asset classes did not perform as well as the U.S. stock market, and if you had them in your portfolio, they reduced your overall return.  However, those assets also substantially reduced your risk of having a horrible year, from which it could take many years to recover.

If your investment advisor had focused on risk as well as performance, then it was mathematically improbable to generate a 15% return in 2014.  They deserve no thanks.

Good investment advisors, and you, should focus instead on risk-adjusted return.  You may not have huge shorter-term investment gains, but more importantly, you'll likely avoid huge losses.

Life After High School Sports

We are right in the middle of the most recent edition of the girls and boys high school state basketball championships in Des Moines.  As it's been the past several years, there are a number of players with whom we are acquainted as the children of friends or relatives.

Along with just about every sport these days, lots of these kids play basketball on a year-round basis, thanks to competitive (typically AAU) programs.  The real thanks actually goes to their parents, who have made a great sacrifice of both time and money to allow it to happen.

The question is, what is the real benefit, and is it worth the price?  In this case, the price isn't just monetary, it's also the price paid in missed events with family, and all of the missed school time.

If you make it to the state tournament, and even win a state title, does that once-in-a-lifetime memory make it worth spending the thousands of hours and dollars, also resulting in other missed memories?  Maybe, maybe not.

What about getting a college athletic scholarship?  Most would answer yes to that, including me.  Still, that's a crapshoot, and regardless, how much of that success can be directly correlated to the extra effort?

In the end, the 'cost' of a kid playing competitive sports throughout the year probably can't be determined until five or so years after high school.  From my perspective, it's all about what kind of person the kid turns out to be when high school and college years are over.

Assuming they aren't one of the less than 1% that becomes a professional in their chosen sport, it depends on whether the kid becomes a productive member of society.  If they did, it doesn't mean the extra athletic time helped them, but at least it didn't hurt them.