Being nice - or not

Please, Don't Be So Nice. Thank You! Rita J. King on LinkedIn

... Green groups yes their way through a meeting because they're too nice to shut something down because it might hurt someone's feelings or cause an uncomfortable moment. When it comes time to take action, those same people who said yes passively avoid doing anything, because they know the plan isn't a winner.
Passive resistance when you should speak up in a productive, constructive manner is a form of aggression. It can contribute to a decline in the health of your company culture and business, not to mention yourself. ...


OK, Rita, let me be red to you.

You call yourself futurist, but I checked some of your work and to me you look like a nice marketing agent. You admire the openness of children and wait solutions from them, but hey! we have a very hard deadline, counted in years, to solve problems like Fukushima, global warming, pollution, etc. Your beloved children will have no chance if WE don't start doing our urgent tasks. Now. No time to finish your lunch and chit-chatting with nice children and clueless dreamers.

How to start? Please check some books from real futurists. Fred Hoyle. Stanislaw Lem. Isaac Asimov. They were tough guys, and knew the science required for building structures (not just painting it).

Was it red enough? :-)


Rita: Hi Lorand Kedves.

I'm not sure which work of mine you're referencing, specifically, as I spent four years as a reporter focused on issues including climate change and the nuclear industry. In fact, in the aftermath of Fukushima, I consulted with many major media and myself appeared repeatedly on the news to explain the crisis and how, in part, a solution for similar issues might be approached. Here's a piece I wrote for Scientific American: http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/2011/03/12/failure-of-imagination-can-be-deadly-fukushima-is-a-warning/.

LinkedIn is a professional network, so the writing I do for this community is centered on work skills. However, it is my work on issues such as Fukushima that led to me to become a professional futurist, since in many cases my work was years ahead of public awareness. 

Just as with green, red has a dark side. The good side of red is the ability to deliver. The dark side of red is aggressiveness with no particular purpose, and no larger constructive meaning. I will leave it to others to decide which side of the red spectrum your comment falls within.

Quick amendment to my last comment to make sure it's clear that what I mean by "public awareness" is widespread public awareness. There are always people out there who are ahead of the curve.


Dear Rita,

I have checked the "Imagination Age", some of your lectures, the Science House. I like your directions in general, but felt that "greenish aura" around it. You are so smart and charming person with a peaceful mood, imagining and talking about a nice future - while I am a pissed off bastard who is sure that this leads to nowhere. What we need is really different approach, otherwise we ultimately fail. I don't say that I know the truth, but ask far better questions. Sorry for repetition: http://hajnalvilag.blogspot.hu/2014/05/a-question-for-7-billion.html

Looking at Fukushima, you collected some data and presented it in a nice article. I see that today we can be more thankful to the Yakuza than the Japanese government that we still have chance to fix that disaster. With all our knowledge. In decades. No more masturbation in LHC, or travelling to Mars, please. This is the future. Insane hard work on a gigantic pile of garbage that we have created. Fukushima is just one of the thousand.

Sorry, you asked for not to be nice, I just tested if you 1: answer at all, and 2: deal with my statements or your emotions? I leave to you to decide if my "redness" has a purpose, and constructive content. I have a vision of the future, and I am working on my part in it. I don't measure myself to the public, but to the top - unfortunately those guys are all dead... Looking at the current urgent tasks, I am not "years ahead", but behind schedule, and that makes me frustrated.

OK, enough of me, thanks for the answer, red out. Peace and good luck! :-)

[the next day, checking LinkedIn for response, I had to realize that this comment was removed]

Moderation? OK, got it, I shut up. Make the world look nicer without conflicting opinions. See also: freedom of speech :-)


Maria: The futurists are inspiring, but they are just that - futurists. Successful change is usually gradual. You want people who have never recycled in their life to start? Make it easy so that they do it and so do their children. Another sidenote: Nobody likes a smug environmentalist, in their face shaming them. Encouraging positive action in realistic ways is more important than showing the world how right you are - even if it's true.

Just noticed your comment below, and I wanted to add that there's nothing more irritating than someone who is obviously working against their own cause without even realizing it.

Maria, I see a contradiction in your statement (gradual change / recycle to start), and see no other option but recycle to start, on civilization level.
I do try to be positive - unless I am ASKED to not to do it (PLEASE read the article to which I answered in the recommended red style). At least I got answer - unfortunately the detailed explanation was not accepted, in a hard way.

But I can test you as well. Please read this article, and disprove my statement about money (you should be the professional) http://hajnalvilag.blogspot.hu/2014/05/a-question-for-7-billion.html

This is what I think we MUST start the discussion with, if we want to have future at all. Whatever nowadays futurists dream about MY profession (20 years working in IT, thinking about its connection/effects on human civilization). Without even knowing what the (to me: real, hard core scientific, not "salesperson") futurists envisioned around 1960.


Maria: Also, your reference to yourself as a "hardcore futurist" who is far superior to a mere salesperson is downright hilarious. Please take a moment to look at what you wrote and consider how effective you will be at recruiting people to your cause with that.


Maria, you still don't get it. This was a successful scientific experiment and demonstration of a theory on my side.

Rita wrote an article with the title (please, please try to understand, not only read): "Please, Don't Be So Nice. Thank You!" In this article she asked for "red" communication, but did not mention what you GET for being red. So I compiled a red statement and turned it to her, and here the show started.

Got emotional response. Got referring to the public opinion and popularity. Even got a "defender" in you, pointing out how ridiculous I am.
Is there anything I did not get? Yes. A single response on the content of my statement... (at least I got my moderated response back, thank you!)

I think in this way I was able to complete the original article, demonstrating the world of being red - to a green person who wrote an article requesting red people to appear. Sorry. Being red is much harder than being green...

[Sorry for the "moderation" stuff... now I see that LinkedIn has a content filter and holds back content because of non-PC wording. As a programmer, I assumed a warning mail, this is why I thought it was intentional. I apologize.]

Why I do this?

There is a fundamental problem here. OF COURSE I myself would vote to Rita's world against mine. I would love to! The problem is that I think predicting and working for the future requires a scientific approach (no, I don't mean Discovery Channel or the Big Bang Theory sitcom). I spent literally a decade (not just a moment) to realize that being honest on my level and 'recruiting people' does not go together. And chose honesty.

We all get the call that the building is on fire. I am the one who wants to keep the sane mind and find a solution. I am the one whom it is so easy to dislike (almost wrote 'hate'), because I can prove to the daydreamers that they close their eyes; and to the 'armageddon preppers' that they can, but does not worth to survive. And to anyone that it is his/her shallow thinking that causes the fire. I am the one who runs out to do something against it, while you look up from your (more important and much nicer) conversation, and say: 'what an -beep- -beep-'. Yep. And a hopeless believer. In you.

Peace. Red out.