Theories of Competence - a (literally) sophomoric exercise
Go back with me to the thrilling days of yesteryear, as I try to recapture the kind of thinking I used to exercise around the time I was a sophomore in college...
Some Candidates for a Valid Theory of Competence:
1) There is a constant quantity of competence to spread around, no matter what the population. When the population increases, per capita competence tends to decrease.
2) The bell curve applies, no matter how big the population. This means that there are more competent and incompetent people now than ever before. More huge and tiny people than ever before, more kind and vicious people, etc.
3) There is a roughly fixed number of people with an abundance of any given quality, no matter what the population is. So we have a greater shortage of competent people than ever before, and the problem gets worse as the population increases.
4) The amount of competence (and other qualities) rises and falls in some cyclical pattern, like sunspots, so maybe it looks something like a sine wave.
Now back to the thrilling days of today. Does any of this explain FEMA? Or should I have taken more Political Science after Poli Sci 101b?
p.s. I just rediscovered Andy Borowitz; e.g.:
http://www.borowitzreport.com/archive_rpt.asp?rec=1225
Some Candidates for a Valid Theory of Competence:
1) There is a constant quantity of competence to spread around, no matter what the population. When the population increases, per capita competence tends to decrease.
2) The bell curve applies, no matter how big the population. This means that there are more competent and incompetent people now than ever before. More huge and tiny people than ever before, more kind and vicious people, etc.
3) There is a roughly fixed number of people with an abundance of any given quality, no matter what the population is. So we have a greater shortage of competent people than ever before, and the problem gets worse as the population increases.
4) The amount of competence (and other qualities) rises and falls in some cyclical pattern, like sunspots, so maybe it looks something like a sine wave.
Now back to the thrilling days of today. Does any of this explain FEMA? Or should I have taken more Political Science after Poli Sci 101b?
p.s. I just rediscovered Andy Borowitz; e.g.:
http://www.borowitzreport.com/archive_rpt.asp?rec=1225