Chamath Palihapitiya, false logic, and the world view problem.

If you have ever wondered why air hostesses are so nice to everybody, here’s your answer.

Hello guys,

Hope you are doing well. I’m okay, Alhamdulillah.

Two and a half weeks ago, our little community finally crossed 1000 subscribers! It was a goal I had initially set for December 31st, but good news is always good news. 😀

Thank you so much for sticking with me, it really does mean a lot. Pliss don't forget to share as well, that's the only way to keep this growing.

I watched a Bloomberg interview of Chamath Palihapitiya this morning and it was something I really enjoyed. Chamath is such an interesting guy. One random thing I try to do is to learn from everyone, whether I agree with them or not. So more times than not, I keep my eyes open and pay attention when people who have something worth saying are speaking.

An American-Canadian billionaire tech executive and venture capitalist originally from Sri-Lanka, Chamath always has a lot to say. Whether it is his meteoric rise to becoming the youngest VP at AOL to being largely responsible for driving Facebook's growth in its early years, he has always been super hands-on and highly visible.

Image from CNBC

But when the interviewer asked him what his investment philosophy was, he said ‘When I think about whether to invest in a company, the first thing that comes to mind is how does this fit into my world view?’

I found this response a little bit surprising.

Why?

If you spend a little bit of time observing (especially pseudo-successful) computer geeks, software engineers, or even business people, there’s usually a hint of arrogance in their why. You might get the impression that everything they do is entirely logical, and they are devoid of the biases, misinformation, and emotional rollercoasters the rest of us go through in our search for the truth.

In truth, very very very few people take a decision because it is the most logical (or even data-backed) thing to do. We each have a unique worldview, and every action we take in the world is dependent on those rose-tinted glasses that color our vision. This is true for you and me, whether we like it or not.

On social media, we filter who to follow by who is in some level of agreement with our current world view. We typically choose who to marry based on who appears to see the world wearing the same type of colored glasses we use. If you happened to scroll through your Facebook/Twitter and saw two news articles on the Nigerian government - one strongly endorsing a new economic policy and the other criticizing the government’s incompetence, it is extremely unlikely that you would share both to your timeline.

It is much more likely that you only retweet/repost only one of them depending on your current alignment. Or you might ignore both of them if your worldview is to be apolitical (maybe you're Shell or MTN and need to play safe and appease everyone regardless of who is in power). Either way, you’re making a decision based on what your bias is.

I liked Chamath’s comment because it was an acknowledgment of what we all know to be true.

Humans are not wired to be entirely logical, we just pretend to be.

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A few days ago, I saw something interesting on JS’s Wazzap. It was something along the lines of ‘How do you define a good or a bad person?’

Do you take an average of all a person’s good and bad actions (even this depends on your world view and is super subjective) over a lifetime and then categorize them into ‘good’ or ‘bad’?

Or does someone only need to do one really bad action to become ‘evil’?

While we as individuals continually err and it might be unfair to label people as one thing or the other based on one action, our justice system x the court of public opinion are not so forgiving.

You only need to kill one person to become a murderer. You only need to rape one child to become a child sex offender. You only need to be caught stealing one item to become a thief.

And on and on it goes. On the other hand, you only need to save one drowning man to be called a hero. You only need to help a Yoruba Aunty carry a bag one time to be seen as ‘respectful’.

Perception of goodness or evil is rarely objective, but my personal takeaway is this.

It is very important to take care of the little things.

On a tangent, let’s take a look at the airline industry.

** side note: This is of course a very simplistic analysis, as an airline might make the bulk of its money from cargo flights or premium tickets or something else entirely. Also, the loss in profitability would be for the future and not the current flight. You should review what is below just for illustration purposes.

According to The Economist, airlines in 2012 made an average profit of $4 for each passenger carried. So I looked up some numbers.

The average airplane has 138 seats.

The average ticket price in 2012 was $378.

So for an average airline on an average flight, the profit was $4 x 138 seats = $552.

So if you were an air hostess, your margin of error is $552 profit / $378 ticket = 1.46 passengers.

I fear I have lost you, so let's go again.

As an air hostess in 2012, you only needed to offend 2 (actually 1.46) passengers to make your route unprofitable. If 2 passengers on your route did not like the quality of service and decided to switch to another airline in the future, you have single-handedly made that flight unprofitable for the company.

If you have ever wondered why airline employees are so nice to everybody, here’s your answer. They literally need you happy to stay in the sky!

As you begin your new week, I hope you remember to take care of the little things. They really do make all the difference.

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If you found this newsletter useful, please share it with your friends. Have them read it and subscribe. I like to share personal stories and life lessons as I learn. They will be super random, but common themes will include business, personal development, human relationships, and Islam.

Gracias, and see you around.

Hameed

** Jara content (in the theme of little things):

Abu Dharr reported: The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said, “Do not belittle any good deed, even meeting your brother with a cheerful face.”

عَنْ أَبِي ذَرٍّ قَالَ قَالَ لِيَ النَّبِيُّ صلى الله عليه وسلم لاَ تَحْقِرَنَّ مِنَ الْمَعْرُوفِ شَيْئًا وَلَوْ أَنْ تَلْقَى أَخَاكَ بِوَجْهٍ طَلْقٍ

Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 2626