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Russell Festivus Grievances

The Airing of Grievances is a key part of the traditional Festivus celebration.

My public grievances are with systems rather than organizations. Part of that is that I don’t know that I know where exactly the blame lies or who has the power to correct it. Talking about any particular organization might be a distraction. There might be a legitimate argument, but more importantly, as Upton Sinclair wrote, “It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.”

It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it. — Upton Sinclair

I am aggrieved by systems and incentives that encourage us to profit personally while harming others.

I am aggrieved by systems and incentives that encourage us to put our efforts into transferring wealth to ourselves rather than to creating more wealth.

I am aggrieved by systems and incentives that focus on solving problems rather than preventing them.

I am even more aggrieved by systems and incentives that encourage us to ignore, hide or profit from problems rather than solving them or preventing them.

I applaud the work of 80,000 hours.

I am aggrieved by systems and incentives that encourage us to devote our lives to trivia rather than making things better. I applaud the work of 80,000 hours in combatting this.

I am aggrieved by systems and incentives that reward amplifying divisiveness and mistruth. I mourn the unnecessary deaths and suffering that this has brought our country and our world.

I am aggrieved by systems and incentives that discourage solid useful ideas because they won’t lead to exit-focused hypergrowth.

Most of all I am aggrieved by my own compliancy and in this case, I know who to blame and who should do something about it.

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Written by Russell Brand

Russell has started three successful companies, one of which helped agencies of the federal government become very early adopters of open source software, long before that term was coined. His first project saved The American taxpayer 250 million dollars. In his work within federal agency, he was often called, “the arbiter of truth,” facilitating historically hostile groups and factions to effectively work together towards common goals

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Blessed are the peace makers

 

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