Geek Heresy (22 page)

Taking care of one’s future self is just one level of positive intention, though. Tuggun now fights for the rights of other disabled people in his country. Social causes are better served as individuals with a narrow present-orientation expand to a future-orientation; and as people extend their concern from themselves to others in what philosopher Peter Singer has called “expanding circles.”
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It’s good to care for oneself, better to care for family and community, even better to care for country, and best to care for humanity as a whole.
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The “evil” of tyrants and criminals often lies in their tiny circles of concern – they may have positive intentions for their present selves, and possibly for their future selves, but the concern doesn’t extend to others. At the other extreme, saints have consistent positive intention for a large radius of sentient beings. The rest of us fall somewhere in between.

Changing intentions is hard to do, but it’s the heart of social progress. The world’s most meaningful social shifts – from slavery toward emancipation, from racism toward equality, from routine warfare toward routine peace, and from women-as-property toward gender parity – reflect ongoing mass changes in human intention.

Mind, or Discernment

Another aspect of Tuggun’s rise is a canny
discernment
. Knowledge is one requirement for discernment, and I won’t belabor its value. But discernment also requires the ability to make shrewd judgments about people and opportunities that go beyond bookish erudition.

Tuggun assessed his own situation lucidly, and he made choices that were appropriate for each moment. He realized that a good education had value. “My decision to accept the partial scholarship to study at Ashesi University was the best decision I have ever made,” he said. He could tell which people would help him and which would bring trouble. He also exhibited social skills appropriate for interacting with the urban middle class, a kind of “cultural capital” that he’d picked up in part through observation.
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And even without the rigors of modern psychology, Tuggun intuited that viewing situations as opportunities to learn was more worthwhile than dwelling on outcomes: “Unpleasant and undesirable consequences can be encountered but it is part of learning. Life is continued schooling.”
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Most readers will take such sensibilities for granted, but they aren’t always learned by people raised in less privileged communities, if only because of lack of exposure and practice.
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Of the three pillars, discernment is perhaps the hardest to pin down, because it depends so much on context. We can never know whether a decision is optimal without knowing all of its downstream consequences. Was Tuggun right to have abandoned his college education? It worked out well for him, but it might not for another person in another context. Discernment – or prudence, judgment, practical wisdom, Greek
phronesis
– is not easy to teach or specify, yet we all know people who are sagacious decision-makers.
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Will, or Self-Control

Finally, Tuggun showed an incredible degree of self-control. I thought he was a determined student, but I only learned later just how
determined. Tuggun revealed that he had been homeless while studying at Ashesi. “I slept on a bench under a tent at a public lorry park. The tent was not completely covered. There was no door. I had access to the bench only when the station closed for work at 11:00 p.m.,” he said. “I had my bath at a public bath meant for passengers. I walked most of the time to and from campus, covering a distance of eight kilometers a day, and studying mostly on an empty stomach.” He managed on a very tight budget, and he avoided temptations that could threaten his survival. Doors closed in his face, but he persevered. He worked hard to learn the math in my class, and if his emails over the years are any indication, he has also put effort into his writing. His story is an extended marathon of self-control.

Self-control allows us to follow through on what we intend or what we discern to be the best course of action.
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It’s one thing to yearn for the security of savings; it’s another to muster the will to save. It’s one thing to recognize the need for a vocational skill; it’s another to expend time and effort to obtain it. It’s one thing to know that collective action can overcome repression; it’s another thing to risk imprisonment to organize.

How did Tuggun develop self-control? Commonsense notions about willpower are probably not far off – use it, or lose it; no pain, no gain. Psychologist Roy Baumeister finds self-control to be like a muscle. In the short term, it can be exhausted by intensive use, but with regular exercise, capacity can be increased in the long term. Tuggun might have gained self-control by practicing the childhood habits ingrained in him by his parents, by raising his younger siblings after the death of his parents, by managing the obstacles his physical disability presented him with, and by going through the academic hoops at Ashesi.

Reviving Dead Sages

Combined, the capacity for intention, discernment, and self-control – or again, heart, mind, and will – might be called virtue, character, maturity, emotional intelligence,
sophia
, or wisdom.
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Unfortunately, these
terms are all loaded. They’re fraught with religious, political, and philosophical dogma that fails to distinguish between pure expedience and moral righteousness.

My hope in the rest of the book is to show how heart, mind, and will – not just in individuals, but in societies – are the essence of social change for purely practical reasons that transcend creed, culture, and politics. To do so, I need vocabulary without baggage. At the risk of introducing yet another phrase that time could taint, I’ll use the term
intrinsic growth
to describe progress in intention, discernment, and self-control. These are attributes fostered within a person or a society, in contrast to external, technocratic, packaged interventions. Intrinsic growth is also allied with the notions of intrinsic motivation – the motivation a person feels from within, rather than that inspired by external rewards or punishment – and intrinsic learning, to which we’ll return in the next chapter.

Occasionally, I’ll use the words “wisdom” and “virtue” interchangeably with intrinsic growth, but one reason those words aren’t ideal is that they call to mind either old gray-haired folk or demure young virgins. Intrinsic growth, though, isn’t about age or sex – it’s about improving intention, discernment, and self-control. The point is not to turn individuals into long-bearded gurus, but to nudge everyone toward incrementally greater intrinsic growth.
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In
Part 1
we saw how no amount of educational technology makes up for a lack of focused students, caring parents, good teachers, and capable administrators. So, what is it among the latter that matters? Focused students have the intention to learn; the discernment to listen (selectively?) to supervising adults; and the self-control to study. Caring parents intend to nurture self-sufficient children, recognize good schooling, and intervene just enough to hold educators accountable. Good teachers have their students’ best interests at heart, make hundreds of small judgments every day to enhance learning, and do all this without losing their cool in a potentially adversarial classroom. And capable principals intend, discern, and act to manage schools well.

We also saw in
Part 1
how democracy requires much more than Facebook revolutions and ballot boxes. It demands active citizens, effective bureaucrats, and enlightened leaders.

To take another example, it’s increasingly clear that stabilizing or reversing climate change will require mass intrinsic growth. As individuals, we need the intention to leave a sustainable world for our descendants, the discernment to recognize the urgency of the situation, and the self-control to curb consumption. Our corporations need intention, discernment, and self-control to place long-term value above short-term profit. And our political leaders need the same intention and discernment, as well as the self-control to resist special interests and careerism.

None of this is easy to package, and all of it requires intrinsic growth.

I don’t mean to suggest that intrinsic growth is the entirety of societal progress. Laws, vaccines, schools, laptops, markets, agronomy, manufacturing technology, clean energy, ballot boxes, economic policy, transportation infrastructure, and government institutions are all pieces of the puzzle. These packaged interventions have great positive impact if they are implemented well.

But “implemented well” is the rub. Perhaps the greatest implicit misconception about social causes is that the right cookie cutter is what’s important: If we could just identify the right mold, we could mass-produce it, ship it off, and cut dough wherever cookies are needed. Some cookie cutters might be better than others, but the tools aren’t what make a good cookie. It’s the heart, mind, and will of the chef that matters. Similarly, television can be a part of a good education, but only with wise teachers directing their use.
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Microcredit can alleviate poverty, but only with wise institutions melding efficiency and compassion.
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Elections can yield a responsive government, but only with wise citizens ready to impose checks and balances. When positive social change happens, it is because there is a base of intrinsic growth holding up the endeavor. It’s not that packaged interventions aren’t important, but that intrinsic growth is their ultimate controllable cause. If we focus on intrinsic growth, the rest will take care of itself.

Intrinsic growth is not a new concept; it is old ideas considered in a new light. Every traditional virtue can be described in terms of the three pillars: courage overcomes fear with self-control at well-discerned moments for the sake of someone other than one’s present self; temperance discerns against short-term reward and applies self-control for long-term advantage; justice and compassion are expressions of good intention toward others; prudence is self-control discerningly applied; humility discerns where confidence becomes overconfidence and asserts control over pride. Recently popular virtues such as grit and resilience are similar recombinations of heart, mind, and will. Cross-cultural analyses show that these and other virtues are valued throughout the world, even if their relative emphasis varies.
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When you ask people who they believe to be civilization’s wisest people, they nominate people like Socrates, Mahatma Gandhi, Mother Teresa, Benjamin Franklin, Nelson Mandela, Daw Aung Sang Suu Kyi, and so on.
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Notably, the lists typically exclude the likes of Mozart and Steve Jobs, even if the latter might have been wise in limited domains. Intelligence, talent, and brilliance aren’t the same as heart, mind, and will, although some IQ might be needed for good discernment. Gandhi went on hunger strikes to free India from British rule, and Mandela emerged from twenty-seven years in prison only to seek reconciliation with his captors. More than smarts, what these actions required was saintly intention and extraordinary self-control. Gandhi and Mandela cared for a wide circle of people beyond their familial, ethnic, and national affiliations, and they pushed through granite obstacles with superhuman will.
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Finally, why three pillars, and why these three? It’s because they’re the minimal building blocks for all positive human action.
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The wisdom necessary for long-term health provides an example: For optimal health, it’s necessary to want it (good intention toward your future self), to understand the benefits of nutrition and physical activity (discernment), and then to eat well and exercise (self-control). If you’re missing any one of these three components, better health is less likely to follow. For example, a workaholic nutrition scientist may know what
a good diet is (discernment), and have great willpower (self-control), but still be cavalier about her health, because she’s too focused on her research (bad intention). A superstitious health fanatic may want good health (intention), and spend effort to do what he believes to be healthful (self-control), but be misguided by unsound medical advice (bad discernment). And a smart, well-intentioned couch potato may want health in the abstract (intention), and know well what’s good for her (discernment), but still be too lazy to get off the sofa (bad self-control).
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Group Intrinsic Growth

The lessons of intrinsic growth apply not just to individuals but also to groups. Public health is a good example. More than other social-cause disciplines, it has hosted a vigorous debate about the technology-and-intrinsic-growth balance. Modern health care can be seen as a march of amazing technologies, and we ought to celebrate the parade. But in public health, where the question isn’t just about biology but also the social underpinnings of mass health, many experts emphasize the human institutions that deliver health care – what they call “health systems.”
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As a result, more than in other tech-heavy fields, public-health practitioners make conscious efforts to cultivate intrinsic growth in organizations and societies.

The International Training and Education Center for Health at the University of Washington, or I-TECH, offers an example. It supports “the development of a skilled health work force and well-organized national health delivery systems” around the world.
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Its founding director is a global health professor by the name of Ann Downer, a woman whose sharp, steely temperament resides beneath a warm, motherly glow.

I-TECH was founded in 2002, but Downer credits I-TECH’s rise to funding from PEPFAR, the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. And she credits PEPFAR’s strategy – which came as a pleasant surprise to many in public health – to its founding director, Mark Dybul. Dybul is an infectious disease expert who understood that dumping antiretroviral drugs in countries plagued by AIDS wouldn’t accomplish
much. Health-care capacities in affected countries needed to be built up. PEPFAR intended from the outset to help government health ministries become self-sufficient in combating HIV/AIDS, and I-TECH was funded because it focuses on strengthening health systems.