Rocket Scientist

Anyone else ever see the movie Creator with a 900 year old (but still charming) Peter O’Toole when he was teaching his graduate student 6 hours of “The Big Picture”?  Sometimes I think there are a number of people who could use a healthy dose of the big picture.  I mentioned yesterday that I would say what I thought about the Author’s Guild getting worked up over Amazon.com ’s used bookselling methods.  Admittedly this is nearly seven years ago so the concept is hardly topical and, in fact, I can no longer find the original position of the Author’s Guild directly.  I did find two sympathetic references here and here and one that disagreed (and also “printed” Amazon.com’s response).

So, after acknowledging this ship has sailed, let me tell you why I’m bringing it up again.  Inspired by yesterday’s “Kindle Swindle” reference, I got to thinking how people seem to have a hard time understanding the overall benefits of a situation because they are focusing on a teeny tiny aspect of it.  Like yesterday, getting outraged over having a book read something out loud without realizing they have the potential to be purchased and enjoyed by a whole spectrum of readers who might otherwise never be exposed, either because audio books are not available or because they are prohibitively expensive.  For no extra outlay, the author gets an audience they might not otherwise have had.

I felt the same way on the used book snitfit.  Now, I’m the sort of reader who, when I discover an author I really like, buys everything I can by that author.  Used bookstores are a boon, of course, but I love Amazon.com.  So far from dissuading me to read new books, falling well and truly in love with an author may mean I’m buying more and more new books.  AND I can collect my beloved but hard to find out of print books from my favorites (like Georgette Heyer, and such resources have provided me new and used hardbacks of over half her full complement of books).

But that’s only half of it.  Lots of people you think would know better are always working to their own detriment.  Banks that happily accepted a taxpayer handout are still foreclosing right and left, like this it’s to their benefit to sell a house for pennies on the dollar to a depressed market where no one is buying rather than trying to work with people who want to buy it, but are struggling.  How is that a smart move?  Or auto makers accepting billions to prevent an employee hemorrhage then rewarding that thinking with massive layoffs while still spending billions—on what exactly?  I mean, for a few billion dollars, couldn’t you have put on a good show at least?

There’s a line of reasoning that the only way to get ahead is to wring every tiny groat from the consumer until they’re limp and lifeless.  Great idea unless someone else with something better cheaper (like, say, Walmart) comes along or unless the consumer is no longer able to purchase anything.  Then what?

In biology, parasites that kill their hosts are generally considered failures.  Some of those screw-the-little-guy types might want to give that some thought.  Credit card companies are sending out notices (in our environment of lowest interest rates ever), doubling and tripling the interest rates because they know credit’s tight, not thinking that taking people for that extra bit now can readily backfire.

In the big picture, we all depend on one another and screwing over one group for the benefit of the other is short-sighted for a number of reasons, not the least of which is people won’t take it indefinitely.   Exacting a pound of flesh is a good way to run out of customers when a tiny bite here and there will improve their chances of survival and secure your own future.

I’m not advocating running out and holding everyone’s hand singing “Kumbaya” any more than I’d advocate everyone becoming an engineer.    I’m just saying not to get bogged down with trivialities, petty differences, little bits and pieces that, in the big picture, come out in the wash (aagh, there was apparently a sale on cliches!) or even make your own life a little brighter if you look with the right perspective.  If waiting two weeks gets you a happy customer and doesn’t mean your family starves, wait two weeks.  A little kindness and understanding, a little time in someone else’s shoes, a little breather here and there to watch a sunset - these are all good things.  A little less of “but-what-about-me” and a little more big picture might do us all a world of good.

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