Lessons from Yoda on Construction Management

In my day job, as a civil engineer, I fill the role of a Construction Manager.  It occurred to me that many of the lessons in Star Wars regarding the nature of the light and dark side of the Force actually makes a pretty powerful metaphor for how a Construction Contract is used to guide a Project to successful completion.

So, I took a few scenes from The Empire Strikes Back with the most appropriate of Yoda's wisdom about The Force and applied it loosely to The Contract.

Lessons from Yoda on Engineering

In my day job, I am an engineer.  (Wow...a Star Wars fan that is an engineer, you say?  No!!)  

It occurred to me that many of the lessons in Star Wars regarding the nature of the light and dark side of the Force actually makes a pretty powerful metaphor for how an Engineer uses the Design as a guide a to envisioning, developing and implementing a project to successful completion.

So, I took a few scenes from The Empire Strikes Back with the most appropriate of Yoda's wisdom about The Force and applied it loosely to The Design.  Sure, some of it's a stretch, but does present a true sentiment...from a certain point of view.

If you haven't memorized the Star Wars movies, as I have here is the scene for reference:

Check it out:

Scene 1: (Is he ready to begin his journey?)

A few inspirational movie moments...

Don't worry...I'll add more later,
so, in no particular order:

Bluto: Was it over when the Germans bombed Peal Harbor? Hell no!

Boone: Germans? Otter: Forget it...he's rolling.

Bluto: And it ain't over now!

Bluto and Otter, Animal House (1978)

The President's Speech

Independence Day (1996)

"I!!  AM!!!  TALKING!!!

Doctor Who's Pandorica Speech

Doctor Who, 11th Doctor (2010)

And while we're at it...how about Sylvester McCoy doing the same speech?

Do...or do not.  There is no try.

Yoda, The Empire Strikes Back (1980)

Size matters not.

Yoda, The Empire Strikes Back (1980)

You've failed your highness.  I'm a Jedi, like my father.

Luke, Return of the Jedi (1983)

The end of the Great Dictator

Charlie Chaplin, The Great Dictator (1940)

Called the most honest 3 1/2 minutes of television

Jeff Daniels, The Newsroom (2012)

(A side note:  I never saw the show.  

However, I've seen this clip MANY times.

What I only saw recently is that in the scene that follows,

Jeff Daniels' character says that he doesn't remember what he said 

because his character was on strong cold medication.

Not sure if this is really part of the story or if it is his character backpeddling.

Either way...it's interesting.)

And Mathew Belinke at www.overthinkingit.com

put this 2 minute montage together.

Truth is Beautiful

Radiolab posted a podcast called "Black Box" on Friday, December 17, 2013.  In it they had stories about mysterious events where an an unexpected outcome occurs because of a hidden process...as if inside a black box.  It is scientific experimentation that reveals the inner workings of these black boxes.

The full podcast can be found here at http://www.radiolab.org/story/black-box/.

The final story was a tale about a married couple, Sydney and Lesley Piddington from Australia.  They were so-called "mind-readers" in the 1950s with an enormously popular radio series where each episode the wife would read the husband's mind via a series his reading of seemingly random selected texts.  The theatricality of the program was clear, and their presentation was delightful and charming.  She would end each broadcast with the simple, mysterious sign-off:  "You Are The Judge."


The Radiolab podcast explored some thoughts on how the trick was done.  Penn Jillette was consulted, but he described his thoughts on how the trick was done as being an "ugly truth".  Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich, the hosts, concurred that the truth was ugly.  They even went so far to separate the ugly explanation so as to not ruin the trick.  Great emphasis was placed on the fact that discovery of the truth would somehow diminish the pleasure of the experience of listening to the magic show.

The separate podcast segment can be found here: http://www.radiolab.org/theuglytruthyouwerewarned/

But I took some exception to their treatment of the investigation of the trick. In the pursuit of science, there is no such thing as an "ugly truth".  They were defining an "ugly truth" as a truth might be simpler than the expected complicated explanation.  But I say that it is still the truth.  And the truth is always a thing of beauty.

Here are the comments I posted in response to the piece:
******************************************************************

Science is the pursuit of truth through objective observation and logical deduction based on those observations of the real world.

Magic and the supernatural are not bound by objective observation, but depend on trickery to force a subjective, controlled observation.  It is similar to the concept of a Potemkin village.  If you walk down the street, you see buildings.  But the second you walk through a door and explore deeper, you see that it is only a facade.

The entertainment of performance magic is an unstated agreement between the performer and the audience that a lie, within the proscenium, is not only allowable, but is, in fact, expected...anticipated.

I have been a fan of Penn and Teller since their TV special, "Penn and Teller Go Public" aired on PBS in 1985.  (Wow...nearly 30 years!)  They did a great piece in the show about how to light a cigarette in a completely fake way with a combination of coordinated misdirections.  It involved tricks like dropping props into pockets, planting objects hidden in the palm of the hand, using noises and motion to move the viewers eye and attention from one spot to a selected other.  Each act was real, but they appeared to be different than they really were, not because they weren't happening, but because the performer used other actions to prevent the audience from making an accurate observation. 

One of the other things Penn did on the show was to a fire breathing act.  He talked about side shows, sword swallowing and other carnival attractions.  It still sticks with me to this day...but before he did the trick, he pointed out that these things did not involve the same type of trick as the others.  They did not involve misdirection...just perseverance and skill.  He hauntingly pointed out that sword swallowers gag a little bit and sometimes get nicked, and that fire breathers sometimes singed their lips and got sick from swallowing lighter fluid. 

This is the second segment from the show.  It starts with the end of the cigarette lighting/misdirection piece.  The fire eating segment starts at Time 5:38.  You''l have to scroll to it...blogger won't let me cue to the second. (Or at least I haven't figured out how).

I have learned over the years not to trust, Penn Jillette, (in a good way).  So I know even this claim that the sideshow arts are real may have been part of the act with more hidden secrets and misdirection.  But regardless, the point he ended his introduction with before he finally performed the feat of breathing fire was that it we shouldn't only think about HOW the trick was done...but instead, we, as the audience, should wonder about the far more interesting question: "WHY?".

And that is why there was nothing ugly about Penn's explanation.  Even he indicated that he could not know for certain...but he had a good guess.  A speech that Douglas Adams once gave described the following thought exercise.  If you have one witness who sees someone in London at noon and then another witness who sees that same person in Los Angeles at midnight...you can reasonably say that the person took an airplane, but you would be hard pressed to be certain to identify which flight.  You would not attribute it to magic or mystery...but you would still, not know all the details.

Had the story of Sydney and Lesley Piddington been presented on any other forum, none of this would matter.  But this is Radio Lab.  Shows like yours and Sci Friday are an inspiration to the raw power of observation of the real world we all inhabit and the truths revealeda through the scientific method.  And there is even the power of the mysteries that remain even in the midst of the truths discovered.

So, please...do not think that anything is lost or ugly from discovering that a truth that we cling to depends on a certain point of view.  It is the constant pursuit of truth, beauty, freedom and above all else, love that drives us as we, and everyone that has ever been and ever will be share this pale blue dot. 

I am repeatedly drawn back to and humbled by this quote from Carl Sagan’s Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space: “Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there--on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.”

So, no truth is ugly.  Truth rises above such concepts. The ugly is only where worth and understanding remains undiscovered.  And it is up to science to never give up the pursuit of truth.  For once the truth is discovered, we receive the gift of beauty, freedom and love.

You are the judge.

Opening Crawls (Quick Commentary)

The opening crawls.  A throw-back narrative technique to set the tone of a story and to allow the action to begin from the first frame.  It should be a bold call to action but still be a slow ascent to build the tension in preparation for a wild ride, just like the slow climb pulled by the chain at a rickety wooden roller-coaster with the riders locked in and quivering with anticipation.

I'll explain my reasons below, but here is what the opening crawl to Star Wars: Episode 1: The Phantom Menace should have been.  It is an alternative that could have set the tone right for the opening episode of a saga that would follow generations of heroes and villains and their impact on a bright, exciting open Galaxy:

STAR WARS

Episode I

THE PHANTOM MENACE

It is a period of fragile peace.

The dreaded Sith Empire has lay dormant

for over a thousand years,

since they were vanquished

by the brave and wise JEDI KNIGHTS,

defenders of  the Light,

and champions of The Old Republic.

But corruption grows within the Galactic Senate

and the Republic's influence

is spread thin in the outlying regions,

now fertile ground for darkness to foment. 

Unleashing his sinister agents, Darth Sidious,

DARK LORD OF THE SITH, orchestrates from the shadows, the vessel for ancient plans

that can consolidate his power

and restore the might and glory of the ruthless Sith Empire

on an unsuspecting galaxy...

But that is NOT what we read on May 19, 1999 when theatres around the world went dark and a new chapter of the Star Wars galaxy was born.

Don't get me wrong.  There were many things done well in 1999 with Star Wars: Episode 1: The Phantom Menace.  The teaser trailer STILL gives me chills.  Seriously...I just watched it again and it captured all of the mystery, excitement, pathos and history that the sage deserved.  If you don't remember how good it was, just click here:   I dare you not to get goose bumps.

And the second trailer just continued to get better...

After waiting in line for hours, the movie sold out at the Uptown Theatre in Washington, DC within about 45 minutes.  We all have our own thoughts on what could or should have been different, and what they did right.  I actually thought that Qui Gonn using the lightsaber in the beginning to burn a molten hole in the control room door was a palpable, visceral image that showed the full power of a creative, improvisational Jedi in full harmony with his powers and his determination to not be stopped by any obstacle.

To see Jedi venturing out into the universe, just doing their job...protecting the innocent while being guided by the Force was delightful.

But looking back to 1999, from the very iconic opening crawl gave us pause.  There was no grandeur, no zing.  This was not the opening to a story with the DNA of Flash Gordon or Buck Rodgers.  This set the tone for an opening of a dry History Channel or PBS documentary.  And while, the History Channel can do wonderful things...setting up a roller-coaster Saturday Morning serial adventure is not one of them.

The danger signs for what we would discover was an overall cluttered mess were there from the moment the lights dimmed and the curtain opened.  There was just something wrong with the opening crawl.

Here is what actually said:

STAR WARS

EPISODE I

THE PHANTOM MENACE

Turmoil has engulfed the

Galactic Republic. The taxation

of trade routes to outlying star

systems is in dispute.

Hoping to resolve the matter

with a blockade of deadly

battleships, the greedy Trade

Federation has stopped all

shipping to the small planet

of Naboo.

While the congress of the

Republic endlessly debates

this alarming chain of events,

the Supreme Chancellor has

secretly dispatched two Jedi

Knights, the guardians of

peace and justice in the

galaxy, to settle the conflict...

Huh?  A dispute over taxation?  Endless congressional debates? How do these elevate to a Galaxy engulfed in Turmoil!!!!?  We, as an audience, already knew the battles between the Rebels and the Empire.  But in order to move the story forward, to an epic climax, the camera needed to be pulled back to the larger themes.  We wanted good versus evil.  We wanted an escalation of the scope of the stories.  We did not want a treatise on fiscal policy.

Sure, once the story started, there would have been nothing wrong with using the machinations of the Senate and the Trade Federation as the kernel of the conflict.   Elements of diplomacy, trade and politics are weaved through all three original films.  Leia's diplomatic mission to Alderaan.  Han's smuggling ways and the underground culture left to thrive with a Galaxy under the thumb of tyrannical oppression.  Lando's city in the clouds staying beneath radar of outside influence forced to betray his oldest friend.  The original trilogy did not shy away from what could have been dry or convoluted, but the details were used to create a realistic setting where the actions of the characters were influenced by the events and times they lived in, while just as much influencing those very events and times.

But by starting with such a narrow, dry conflict, it was unclear from the start what the stakes were and why we should care.

All of this, with the style and tone of 1977 original crawl from a film then just called STAR WARS was used for me to create the opening crawl that began this piece.  But to remember where it all started and how, here is how it all began:

STAR WARS

 EPISODE IV

 A NEW HOPE

It is a period of civil war. Rebel

spaceships, striking from a hidden

base, have won their first victory

against the evil Galactic Empire.

 During the battle, Rebel spies managed

to steal secret plans to the Empire's

ultimate weapon, the Death Star, an

armored space station with enough

power to destroy an entire planet.

 Pursued by the Empire's sinister agents,

Princess Leia races home aboard her

starship, custodian of the stolen plans

that can save her people and restore

freedom to the galaxy...

So, Schrodinger and Heisenberg are driving in a car. 

They're speeding.

A cop pulls them over and ask Heisenberg, "Sir, do you know how fast you were going?" 

Heisenberg replies, "No, but I can tell you exactly where I was." 

Thinking this was a weird response, the cop decided to check the vehicle. 

He comes back up to Schrodinger and asks, "Sir, did you know you had a dead cat in your trunk?" 

Schrodinger replies, "I do now." 

Shatner in Star Trek (2009)?

A scene was written (and scrapped)  for Star Trek (2009) that would have included Shatner, in addition to the cameos for Nimoy.   http://www.blastr.com/2011/05/revealed_why_shatners_sce.php It would have been a recording of Shatner as Kirk singing Happy Birthday in a holo-message (I guess like Tasha Yar's last message).  Nimoy would have given the device with the message to Quinto and Quinto would have played it after Nimoy walked away.  When I started reading the article, this sounded dumb.  Quinto would have no connection to Shatner Kirk, so it would have made no sense to give him the message.

But once I read what they came up with, it actually sounds like it could have worked just fine, with this little tweak.

Here is what the message would have been:

KIRK/SHATNER:

Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you...
(stops, grins)
I know I know, it's illogical to celebrate something you had nothing to do with, but I haven't had the chance to congratulate you on your appointment to the ambassadorship so I thought I'd seize the occasion... Bravo, Spock -- they tell me your first mission may take you away for awhile, so I'll be the first to wish you luck... and to say...
(beat, emotional)
I miss you, old friend.

What I had in mind would be to have Nimoy/Spock to have watched it alone, perhaps after he had his conversation with Quinto/Spock.  That scene could have been set outside the balcony of the chambers at the end where Kirk gets the medal and the command.  After the Nimoy/Quinto scene, Quinto could have walked down the steps to the ground level of the chamber and once he was gone down the steps, the camera could have followed Nimoy to the balcony.

Then, as Nimoy neared the edge, he would look down on Pine/Kirk as Quinto arrives at his side among his crew mates.  Then, Nimoy could pull the message from his pocket, watch it, say quietly to himself, "And I am pleased to see you again, old friend" as he looks down on the stage as Quinto arrives at Pine/Kirk's side.  (Of course, this sentiment is purely illogical, but Spock is half-human, after all, plus we all know how much his character grew over the years and how much his friendship with Kirk molded and improved him.)

Anyways, then the camera would shift down to the ground level vantage of the scene, and it would play as written.  The scene would end with a perspective shot of Quinto looking up and seeing Nimoy nod and turn and walk away, disappearing onto the balcony and presumably out of the room.

Then the scene on the bridge of the Enterprise could play as written, as well.

Roll credits and play some music inspired by the original theme!