Comments on: Coping with Limits to Control in Politics, Life, and Bridge http://www.pkhope.com/coping-with-limits-to-control-in-politics-life-and-bridge/ A Candid Blog Fri, 10 Feb 2012 17:41:32 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.7 hourly 1 By: Dr Razahaider http://www.pkhope.com/coping-with-limits-to-control-in-politics-life-and-bridge/comment-page-1/#comment-86197 Dr Razahaider Tue, 26 Aug 2008 20:54:02 +0000 http://www.pakspectator.com/coping-with-limits-to-control-in-politics-life-and-bridge/#comment-86197 Saleem, ,,,,,,,,,,,,classical summarization Saleem, ,,,,,,,,,,,,classical summarization

]]> By: Saba Ali http://www.pkhope.com/coping-with-limits-to-control-in-politics-life-and-bridge/comment-page-1/#comment-86016 Saba Ali Tue, 26 Aug 2008 17:23:34 +0000 http://www.pakspectator.com/coping-with-limits-to-control-in-politics-life-and-bridge/#comment-86016 Interesting analogy Interesting analogy

]]> By: Saleem Khan http://www.pkhope.com/coping-with-limits-to-control-in-politics-life-and-bridge/comment-page-1/#comment-85712 Saleem Khan Tue, 26 Aug 2008 07:05:50 +0000 http://www.pakspectator.com/coping-with-limits-to-control-in-politics-life-and-bridge/#comment-85712 Lets summarize, what writer said: We have very limited control over most of the factors of success. Anger only gets in the way of intelligent play. Even with very limited control, we can still achieve useful objectives. Our own lack of control is shared by all the other players. The rules of life and politics are extremely open-ended. The “game” of politics and life never ends. You can walk away from playing bridge, or any other game, but you can’t walk away from life and politics. The “playing field” in life and politics is huge, and we can choose what part to focus on. Regards, Lets summarize, what writer said:

We have very limited control over most of the factors of success.

Anger only gets in the way of intelligent play.

Even with very limited control, we can still achieve useful objectives.

Our own lack of control is shared by all the other players.

The rules of life and politics are extremely open-ended.

The “game” of politics and life never ends.

You can walk away from playing bridge, or any other game, but you can’t walk away from life and politics.

The “playing field” in life and politics is huge, and we can choose what part to focus on.

Regards,

]]> By: dr Razahaider http://www.pkhope.com/coping-with-limits-to-control-in-politics-life-and-bridge/comment-page-1/#comment-85666 dr Razahaider Tue, 26 Aug 2008 06:21:31 +0000 http://www.pakspectator.com/coping-with-limits-to-control-in-politics-life-and-bridge/#comment-85666 I dont know how to play bridge I dont know how to play bridge

]]> By: Johann http://www.pkhope.com/coping-with-limits-to-control-in-politics-life-and-bridge/comment-page-1/#comment-85665 Johann Tue, 26 Aug 2008 06:00:56 +0000 http://www.pakspectator.com/coping-with-limits-to-control-in-politics-life-and-bridge/#comment-85665 Hi Dan, You may be dealt a hand by which you can make four spades while your opponent can have a clean 6 clubs. The trick is not to allow your opponet to bid 6 clubs or if he bids bid a 6 spades and go two down instead of allowing that chap to get a little slam. That is why the legendary Italian blue team or even Pakistan bridge team performed well in international tournaments. President Bush may not be popular in pakistan or palestine but he has ensured that his mainland America was not attcked after 9/11 by pseudo SaAUDIES the alueada. Can pakistan or India or Afghanistan leadership say that? UAE and Saudie princes regularly dine in Bush's ranch in Texas and drive in his golfcart but have u seen single attack in Dubai,sharjah,riyadh but the foolish pakistani Taliban or even Jehadies CANNOT UNDERSTAND THIS. They are just sacrificng their lives and innocents in our south asian countries so that these black goggled Princes can marry american wives and drive golfcart in texas ranch of Bush. Hi Dan,
You may be dealt a hand by which you can make four spades while your opponent can have a clean 6 clubs. The trick is not to allow your opponet to bid 6 clubs or if he bids bid a 6 spades and go two down instead of allowing that chap to get a little slam.
That is why the legendary Italian blue team or even Pakistan bridge team performed well in international tournaments.
President Bush may not be popular in pakistan or palestine but he has ensured that his mainland America was not attcked after 9/11 by pseudo SaAUDIES the alueada. Can pakistan or India or Afghanistan leadership say that?
UAE and Saudie princes regularly dine in Bush’s ranch in Texas and drive in his golfcart but have u seen single attack in Dubai,sharjah,riyadh but the foolish pakistani Taliban or even Jehadies CANNOT UNDERSTAND THIS. They are just sacrificng their lives and innocents in our south asian countries so that these black goggled Princes can marry american wives and drive golfcart in texas ranch of Bush.

]]> By: Dan Tow http://www.pkhope.com/coping-with-limits-to-control-in-politics-life-and-bridge/comment-page-1/#comment-85636 Dan Tow Tue, 26 Aug 2008 05:35:47 +0000 http://www.pakspectator.com/coping-with-limits-to-control-in-politics-life-and-bridge/#comment-85636 Maybe I can add one more small point about the effect of passion on making the best choices - it is a long-held belief among doctors that they should not do life-or-death work on their own loved ones, because their love prevents the coolly rational choices that they are carefully trained to make about the health of comparative strangers - they are super-motivated to help their loved ones, but their passion prevents them from doing their job as well as they can do it working on perfect strangers. Lawyers, too, are trained that it is a mistake for them to represent themselves, or their loved ones, for the same reasons. Maybe I can add one more small point about the effect of passion on making the best choices - it is a long-held belief among doctors that they should not do life-or-death work on their own loved ones, because their love prevents the coolly rational choices that they are carefully trained to make about the health of comparative strangers - they are super-motivated to help their loved ones, but their passion prevents them from doing their job as well as they can do it working on perfect strangers. Lawyers, too, are trained that it is a mistake for them to represent themselves, or their loved ones, for the same reasons.

]]> By: Dan Tow http://www.pkhope.com/coping-with-limits-to-control-in-politics-life-and-bridge/comment-page-1/#comment-85634 Dan Tow Tue, 26 Aug 2008 05:26:04 +0000 http://www.pakspectator.com/coping-with-limits-to-control-in-politics-life-and-bridge/#comment-85634 Prof. Khan, you make a fine point. Passionate feelings can be very useful motivators to overcome the usual human resistance to taking action, and even to motivate sacrifice, where sacrifice (at least a sacrifice of time, or money) is called for. Anger is one sort of passionate feeling (but not the only sort!) that can be useful in this way. My problem with anger, specifically, is that it is all too likely to lead people to not just sacrifice *themselves*, as any sort of passionate feeling might lead them to do, but to sacrifice someone *else*, specifically someone whom they hate, someone belonging to the group that has excited their anger, and sacrificing someone *else*, even killing someone else, out of anger, is all too easy and common, and I’d like it to be *hard*. Passion, without anger, is personally just as motivating, but less likely to lead us to sacrificing the *other* guy! As a motivator, passion is great, but then also there is the question of what to *do* with all that motivation, once we are moved to action, and all sorts of passion (even passion without anger), I fear, can make cool, correct reasoning more difficult, making it too likely that we choose the *wrong* action. I think there are actually two sorts of people, people who reason best when thinking dispassionately, and people who can somehow channel passion into effective decision making. I, personally, think best when I can turn off the passion, or at least bury it temporarily, so however important the matter, however passionate I feel about a question, and however much I was motivated to act by passionate feelings, I try to bury my feelings when actually reasoning out the best action. So, for me, burying my anger, or fear, or other passionate feelings once I am motivated to act, is important to making my best choices – I try to put on my “engineer’s hat,” and engineering problems are best done dispassionately, for me. It’s a two-step process for me – use the passion to motivate a desire and willingness to act, even at a high price, then bury the passion to choose the right specific action. (Then maybe bring the passion back, so I don’t fail to act on that reasoned choice, a third step, perhaps.) I have known rare people, though, who appear to be able to think clearly without burying their passionate feelings, so, for them, it seems, it is a one-step process, with no “turning off” of the passion while rationally choosing their actions. I have known of far more people, however, who do not turn off their passions when thinking and who appear to have their thinking very badly clouded as a result, people who have all the right *intentions*, driven by well-justified passions, but who make poor choices with their thinking clouded by those same passions. Prof. Khan, you make a fine point. Passionate feelings can be very useful motivators to overcome the usual human resistance to taking action, and even to motivate sacrifice, where sacrifice (at least a sacrifice of time, or money) is called for. Anger is one sort of passionate feeling (but not the only sort!) that can be useful in this way. My problem with anger, specifically, is that it is all too likely to lead people to not just sacrifice *themselves*, as any sort of passionate feeling might lead them to do, but to sacrifice someone *else*, specifically someone whom they hate, someone belonging to the group that has excited their anger, and sacrificing someone *else*, even killing someone else, out of anger, is all too easy and common, and I’d like it to be *hard*. Passion, without anger, is personally just as motivating, but less likely to lead us to sacrificing the *other* guy! As a motivator, passion is great, but then also there is the question of what to *do* with all that motivation, once we are moved to action, and all sorts of passion (even passion without anger), I fear, can make cool, correct reasoning more difficult, making it too likely that we choose the *wrong* action.

I think there are actually two sorts of people, people who reason best when thinking dispassionately, and people who can somehow channel passion into effective decision making. I, personally, think best when I can turn off the passion, or at least bury it temporarily, so however important the matter, however passionate I feel about a question, and however much I was motivated to act by passionate feelings, I try to bury my feelings when actually reasoning out the best action. So, for me, burying my anger, or fear, or other passionate feelings once I am motivated to act, is important to making my best choices – I try to put on my “engineer’s hat,” and engineering problems are best done dispassionately, for me. It’s a two-step process for me – use the passion to motivate a desire and willingness to act, even at a high price, then bury the passion to choose the right specific action. (Then maybe bring the passion back, so I don’t fail to act on that reasoned choice, a third step, perhaps.)

I have known rare people, though, who appear to be able to think clearly without burying their passionate feelings, so, for them, it seems, it is a one-step process, with no “turning off” of the passion while rationally choosing their actions. I have known of far more people, however, who do not turn off their passions when thinking and who appear to have their thinking very badly clouded as a result, people who have all the right *intentions*, driven by well-justified passions, but who make poor choices with their thinking clouded by those same passions.

]]> By: Shaista Ikram http://www.pkhope.com/coping-with-limits-to-control-in-politics-life-and-bridge/comment-page-1/#comment-85632 Shaista Ikram Tue, 26 Aug 2008 05:14:59 +0000 http://www.pakspectator.com/coping-with-limits-to-control-in-politics-life-and-bridge/#comment-85632 Fleeting, disjointed, skewed and commercialized view of the politics has made it a fun rather than some serious entity which is amied at shaping up the lives of the people. In Pakistan, the media has played the role of effecting the politics in commercialized way, and people now always on the look for thrill. Stability is inverse of thrill and that is one thing pakistani media doesnt want in politcs. We should first make ourselves cold and rational and we have to adopt the citizen journalism to look beyond other media. Fleeting, disjointed, skewed and commercialized view of the politics has made it a fun rather than some serious entity which is amied at shaping up the lives of the people. In Pakistan, the media has played the role of effecting the politics in commercialized way, and people now always on the look for thrill. Stability is inverse of thrill and that is one thing pakistani media doesnt want in politcs. We should first make ourselves cold and rational and we have to adopt the citizen journalism to look beyond other media.

]]> By: Qaiser Kamran http://www.pkhope.com/coping-with-limits-to-control-in-politics-life-and-bridge/comment-page-1/#comment-85557 Qaiser Kamran Tue, 26 Aug 2008 01:49:09 +0000 http://www.pakspectator.com/coping-with-limits-to-control-in-politics-life-and-bridge/#comment-85557 TPS and the likewise sites (if there are any) are the best free open media to contribute for the Pakistani people. They must come forward and they must act now and play their role. They must tell world that they are not going to let any Taliban or US control, dictate or subjugate them. They need to foster harmony and tolerance and it is us who has to start. Let's start from here. TPS and the likewise sites (if there are any) are the best free open media to contribute for the Pakistani people. They must come forward and they must act now and play their role. They must tell world that they are not going to let any Taliban or US control, dictate or subjugate them. They need to foster harmony and tolerance and it is us who has to start. Let’s start from here.

]]> By: Abbass http://www.pkhope.com/coping-with-limits-to-control-in-politics-life-and-bridge/comment-page-1/#comment-85555 Abbass Tue, 26 Aug 2008 01:46:36 +0000 http://www.pakspectator.com/coping-with-limits-to-control-in-politics-life-and-bridge/#comment-85555 If you ask Asif Ali Zardari, then he would laugh at your face as he doesn't believe in rules or principles and for him they are not extremely open ended, for him they are without ends devoid of any rule or principle. If you ask Asif Ali Zardari, then he would laugh at your face as he doesn’t believe in rules or principles and for him they are not extremely open ended, for him they are without ends devoid of any rule or principle.

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