It’s a little-known fact, but I have been known to waste many hours watching movies that I’ve seen many times before. Because, of course, this leads to every man’s second favorite sport: quoting movie lines.
So, last week I was watching “Live Free or Die Hard.” John McClane (Bruce Willis), a cynical attitude, witty one-liners, a really good villain, and completely unbelievable but very entertaining stunts. It has everything I need in a one hour, 30-minute time killer.
But there are some clever parts of this movie. The villain hires a team of brilliant computer guys to invent computer codes which, when put all together, allow him to break into government networks and create all kinds of chaos. Terrorism for a digital age. It’s a brilliant system; and the movie, it turns out, raises a very interesting larger idea.
Systems, it turns out, are kinda difficult. See, systems are made up of lots of little pieces, and you need really smart people with a singular focus to come up with the pieces. Then, you need somebody to design the links and the bridges that allow two pieces to talk to each other in a way that doesn’t screw up the workings of any of the individual pieces. That takes a different sort of specialization, but an equal kind of really smart.
But, for the whole thing to work, somewhere behind the scenes has to be somebody overseeing the whole project, giving it purpose and direction — a Mastermind. The mastermind would have to be smart enough to keep all the little pieces working, but, also, to see the big picture and know how all the little pieces contribute to the whole and what the whole accomplishes.
And, you know what? Systems, it turns out, usually su– . . . stink.
My daughter’s best friend has a horrible blood disorder called idiopathic thrombocytopenia — I.T.P. It’s extremely rare, and each case of it is a little different, so having a doctor who is familiar with the individual patient is very important. This girl has been lucky — she’s had one primary doctor with her for the last 10 years, and it’s been a huge advantage.
The problem is, the doctor is retiring soon, and years before she really needs to. It turns out, the system she works in, the American Health Care System, is so bad, so burdensome, so difficult to navigate that she would rather retire than continue to deal with it. And this is after the grand fix that is the Affordable Care Act.
Actually, according to surveys, the ACA actually made the system vastly worse, causing many doctors to get out before they need to. The little pieces don’t work well, the larger pieces don’t do what they were supposed to, and the grand whole was designed by Congress … not exactly what anybody thinks of as “a Mastermind.” Yeah, sure, it is legal, according to the Supreme Court, and there are some elements of it that are nice. But, the whole of it is still a gargantuan, bureaucratic mess.
But that’s not the only bad system. Every year, thousands of smart, talented, enthusiastic young teachers leave education because the system is so messed up. And, no, I’m not just talking Jeffco under the new school board — 33 percent of new teachers, system-wide, quit before five years. That’s talent, dedication, and great intentions leaving our kids because the system is too much of a burden. And remember the financial system circa 2008?
Systems are hard, maybe too hard for any one person to try to tackle any more. And it doesn’t help that we are becoming a specializing society, from STEM programs as early as sixth grade to year-around sports to magnet schools and the like. We love turning out the cogs, when what we really need are a lot more masterminds.
Or, at least, the wisdom to recognize that we need to exercise a lot more oversight over the systems we foist upon society.