The River of Life

So I was clicking through my daily six sites (http://www.webuser.co.uk/news/81267.html?aff) and stumbled upon a post from Larry Osterman's blog.

It can be found here: http://blogs.msdn.com/larryosterman/archive/2004/08/31/223355.aspx

In it, Larry discusses the following parable:

Once upon a time there was a town that was built just beyond the bend of a large river. One day some of the children from the town were playing beside the river when they noticed three bodies floating in the water. They ran for help and the townsfolk quickly pulled the bodies out of the river.

One body was dead so they buried it. One was alive, but quite ill, so they put that person into the hospital. The third turned out to be a healthy child, who then they placed with a family who cared for it and who took it to school.

From that day on, every day a number of bodies came floating down the river and, every day, the good people of the town would pull them out and tend to them - taking the sick to hospitals, placing the children with families, and burying those who were dead.

This went on for years; each day brought its quota of bodies, and the townsfolk not only came to expect a number of bodies each day but also worked at developing more elaborate systems for picking them out of the river and tending to them. Some of the townsfolk became quite generous in tending to these bodies and a few extraordinary ones even gave up their jobs so that they could tend to this concern full-time. And the town itself felt a certain healthy pride in its generosity.

However, during all these years and despite all that generosity and effort, nobody thought to go up the river, beyond the bend that hid from their sight what was above them, and find out why, daily, those bodies came floating down the river.

It seems today that...umm...all you see is violence in movies and sex on tv... I just had to keep the lyric going..

...but seriously, it seems today that the average member of society tends to focus their efforts on solutions to effects, not causes.

As an engineer, it's my job to look for solutions to problems. Even my "role" in society accepts this somewhat flawed idea of looking for solutions to effects. That's because it's often way easier, and more practical in the short term. Also, dealing with effects is way more profitable...if solutions aren't found, then the effects will continue to be felt, and the money will keep flowing.

Engineering, medicine, our personal lives, etc. Examples are everywhere. Take tylenol...the ultimate symptom masker. Why can't I just fix the cause of my headache instead of hiding the symptom? Answer: Because most of the time, there are way too many things that could be wrong, and narrowing down the cause would take way more effort than allowing nature to just run its course. So while nature is doing its thing, I might as well make things a little bit more bareable by popping a pill or two.

Exhausted at work? Got get a coffee.

Cut yourself? Get a band-aid.

Bad day? Write a blog post.