Picto Diary - 08 to 11 July 2024 - Road Notes and Hoover Notes
Above: Maverick, West Wendover, NV. 08 July 2024.
Out and about on the 'Wing (2021 Honda Gold Wing motorcycle). Direction Winnemucca, NV overnight and Menlo Park, CA the next day 09 July 2024.
150-mile segment from Park City, UT on I-80 began at 82 degrees and ended here in West Wendover, NV at 94 degrees.
Riding reflections. I thought to myself as the 'Wing six droned on at 85 mph and 4000 rpm, westbound, on the I-80 slab across the blinding white, desiccated Great Salt Lake Desert, how my recent reading of the first one hundred pages of Isaacson's biography of Elon Musk had brought forward some thoughts I have mulled around for some time.
In his book, "Elon Musk," Isaacson discussed Musk's "maniacal" pursuit of excellence. Musk would set task expectations that his employees felt were impossible to fulfill. They could do 100%, his people told him, but not the 150% Musk was asking for. The employee pushback was met by Musk with some form of "well, if you can't do it, I'll find someone who can." When the employees came back with 125%, they learned that they could achieve more than they first believed they could, and Musk, pleased, accepted the result. I was lucky to have a couple of bosses who managed me much in the same way. Out of fear, I put in the effort and accomplished beyond my own expectations of my abilities. Both of the bosses laid the money on me, also in amounts beyond my expectations, when I delivered the results. I experienced a heady level of self-esteem and self confidence in addition to the financial reward as a result of my achievements. I applied this management principle with success in my own varied managerial roles. Not all employees will respond successfully to this type of pressure. Some employees will not make the cut and have to be let go or be reassigned. I learned that true accomplishment doesn't occur without experiencing some form of pain.
I have come to believe, even before hearing about Elon Musk, that it is likely that earth is the only place where life exists in the universe. I won't go into here why I believe this is true. That earth is alone as having life in the universe is, of course, very much a contrarian view. Mormon theology is congruent with the conventional wisdom. I grew up learning Mormon theology about the universe and the nature of God. Mormons teach that as man is now, God once was, and that man today can progress to become like God and rule over worlds of his own. Mormon theology implies an infinite number of Gods and worlds in a limitless universe. Conventional wisdom about life in the universe is also bolstered by the Drake equation. Motorcycling on a Triumph Rocket III near Tucson some years ago I stopped to visit the US National Observatory. There I learned about the Drake equation, a probabilistic argument used to estimate the number of active communicative, extraterrestrial civilizations in the Milky Way galaxy. In contradistinction to the Mormon theological multi world view and the Drake hypothesis, Musk cites the Fermi Paradox which is the discrepancy between the lack of conclusive evidence of advanced extraterrestrial life and the apparently high likelihood of its existence. Musk says, "if life is so easy, someone from somewhere must have come calling by now." Musk's passion to colonize Mars and beyond derives from his belief that "we're it," and therefore there is an imperative, or destiny, for mankind to hedge its survival bets by populating other planets. Interestingly, Stephen Hawking also held this view...along with Mwah (sic) heh heh.
I loved the account from Isaacson's book on how Musk would sit down with his rocket experts to name the SpaceX rockets. Musk didn't want any jargony (sic), numerical/alphabet names for his rockets. In naming the rockets, Musk and his rocket team took inspiration from Star War's Millennium Falcon space craft and came up with names like, Falcon, Draco, Merlin, Kestrel and Raptor. Issacson describes the passionate, joyful engagement of Musk and his rocketeers as they selected names for the SpaceX rockets. Moral? You can, and should have, fun as you create.
Musk saw himself as somewhat of a social misfit. He'd go to parties with his brother and friends, but he'd end up as more of an observer than a full party participant. I've considered myself socially tainted ever since I didn't get invited to Irene Greene's dance party when I was in the fifth grade. Since then, I've shied away from cozying up to the cool kids, or the insiders. I was "star" center on the high school basketball team, and I, along with best friend, "star" guard Hippo, while staying, mostly, but not always, outside of the cool kids orbit, had considerable status in the school, having positive relations with the broad majority of the students, whom many of the cool kids ignored. I didn't build rockets as an antidote to self-perceived social awkwardness. But I had some success in managing financial services business turnarounds. In life I have cast a wide net to develop social relationships. As a boss, my ability to discern the difference between underlying talent and con artists derived from my early skepticism about the cool kids. Reality check. I don't mean to arbitrarily conflate cool kids with phoniness. I have learned over the course of my life that being "cool" is not mutually exclusive from being talented, high in character, and empathetic. I've been fortunate to number many cool kids as friends and acquaintances.
Ten years ago, while in San Francisco, I attended a limited partners private equity fund annual meeting where Elon Musk was the speaker. The fund where I was invested had considerable SpaceX holdings. The Q and A was boring with a lot of tedious financial discussion. Even Musk seemed bored. I got ahold of the Q and A mike and asked Musk if he had seen the movie, "The Martian," and if he had seen it, what he thought of it. Elon responded to my question with zeal and enthusiasm saying he had seen the movie and that movies like "The Martian," helped condition the population to accepting the imperative of space travel. In answering the question, Musk showed the same enthusiasm as was described in Issacson's account of Musk and his rocket experts naming their rockets.
Above: Terribles Chevron, Carlin, NV. 08 July 2024.
Out and about on the 'Wing.
140 mile I-80 segment from West Wendover, NV to Carlin, NV. Oh oh. Now 100 degrees. I've allowed myself to get dehydrated on high temperature motorcycle rides before. One time, ten or so years ago, riding a motorcycle from Palm Desert, CA, I rode into Lake Havasu, AZ, at 10:00 PM, at 110 degrees. On alighting the motorcycle at a gas pump, I nearly collapsed from dehydration and heat exhaustion. I struggled into the convenience store and purchased a couple of Gator Aides. Fifteen minutes after drinking the two Gator Aides, I was feeling fit again. While I felt OK here at Terribles in Carlin, remembering Lake Havasu, and realizing that I would ride the next one-hundred-mile segment to Winnemucca in over one-hundred-degree temperatures, I consumed two bottles of ICE brand sugar free, flavored drink as insurance.
Above: Chevron, Winnemucca, NV. 08 July 2024.
Out and about on the 'Wing.
100-mile segment from Carlin, NV to Winnemucca, NV. Over 100 degrees for the full ride. I was glad to get checked in at the Best Western, Gold Country Inn, where I showered and changed, before walking to the Winnemucca Inn for a favorite meal of ribeye and loaded baked potato. After eating, foolishly, I abandoned my "system" at the Wheel of Fortune slot machine. I built my $100 stake to $110 at which point I should have, according to my system, quit. Greedily, I played on until I lost the whole $100 stake.
Above: 7/11 West McCarran, Blvd. Reno, NV. 09 July 2024.
Out and about on the 'Wing.
140-mile segment from Winnemucca, NV to Reno, NV. Started riding am temperature at 77 degrees, rising to 96 degrees by Reno. The 7/11 has a code to get into the men's room. I had an urgent need to see a man about a dog, but I couldn't find an employee to get the code. The clerk appeared just in time to pass along the code enabling a successful appointment.
Above: Shell, Auburn, CA. 09 July 2024.
Out and about on the 'Wing.
Obligatory In and Out burger. I've stopped for an In and Out burger in Auburn so many times that I fear I would jinx the ride should I bypass it now. 100-mile segment from Reno, NV to Auburn, CA via I-80. Temp was down to 84 degrees atop Donner Pass, but rose to 102 degrees at Colfax, only 10 miles from Auburn. I was worried. The San Fernando Valley, through Sacramento and on to Vacaville, was 1500 feet lower in elevation than Colfax. I'd ridden that segment at plus 100-degree temps before. Near Donner Pass there were some ruts in the right lane concrete road surface. Motorcycles and ruts don't go together when riding at speed. Accordingly, I rode in the left lane and was generally going fast enough - five over is my default speed when riding like this - that few vehicles came up from behind. On the infrequent occasion when they did, I'd move over to the rut side and try to stay out of the rut. My thoughts went to David McCollough's book, "The Path Between the Seas," where McCollough noted how the concrete of the original 1914 Panama Canal locks was holding fast, even today, where the concrete from the new locks built in the last 20 years was slowly deteriorating. Isn't there a road building technology today which insures against big truck traffic making ruts in the concrete road surface? The concrete conundrum raises the question of what other technologies we might be losing. We have no idea, for example, how Cheops built the great pyramid. I heard someone authoritative recently decry the fact that if the US had to build a nuclear weapon today, it couldn't. We'd have to subcontract Pakistan to do the work for us the authoritative friend said.
Above: Vacaville, CA. 09 July 2024. (file image).
Out and about on the 'Wing.
70-mile segment. Temp was 92 degrees, not nearly as bad as I had expected. 70 miles from here to Menlo Park following I-80 to I-880, then crossing the Dumbarton Bridge. Temps dipped into the mid 70's beyond Vacaville as I-80 descended into the Bay Area. I don't usually stop between Auburn and Menlo Park. However, I didn't want to risk dehydration. I filled up at a Shell station off the freeway and drank two more Ices.
Above: Mike Gallagher. Former Wisconsin congressman (2017 to 2024. 09 July 2024. File image
Dinner speaker Hoover Institution Overseers Meeting, Palo Alto, CA.
Gallagher was a decisive vote against the impeachment of Homeland Security secretary in February 2024, resulting in outrage directed against him from some members of the Republican party. Days later, Gallagher announced he would not run for a fifth term in Congress. Tonight, he talked about military readiness and confronting China. While serving in congress Gallagher was the chairman of the House Select committee on Competition with the Chinese Communist Party. Gallagher delayed his departure from congress to vote favor for aid to Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan.
My principal takeaway from Gallagher's talk was what he called a "weird throwaway," comment in his introductory remarks on why he resigned from Congress earlier in the year. He stated to the effect that he and his wife were forming a family and he wanted to make sure his kids got on a track to living a successful Christian life. Gallagher noted that his work as a congressman, oft times sleeping in his office, kept him away from his family, whose successful progression through life was his number one priority. I did not interpret this as the oft times cynically described, "he left to spend more time with his family," code for being fired or being a quitter. He seemed sincere in his hope for raising a successful family. Asked about future plans, he demurred, but interviewer Condoleezza Rice, Hoover's Executive Director, predicted we'd be seeing more of Gallagher on the public service state.
Coincident with his participation at Hoover today, 09 July 2024, was the publication of a WSJ piece Gallagher coauthored with former US defense secretary, Leon Panetta calling for accelerated Defense Department development and adoption of commercial technologies.
Above: Jared Cohen, President of global affairs and cohead of applied innovation at Goldman Sachs. 10 July 2024. File image.
Dinner speaker Hoover Institution Overseers Meeting, Palo Alto, CA.
Interviewed by Hoover Overseer and host of PBS's reboot of series, "Firing Line," Margaret Hoover. Cohen talked about his latest book, "Life After Power," which chronicled seven presidents' search for purpose in their post presidential lives: Thomas Jefferson, John Quincy Adams, Grover Cleveland, William Howard Taft, Herbert Hoover, Jimmy Carter, and George W. Bush. The book received strong endorsements from Walter Isaacson, Condoleezza Rice, Reid Hoffman, Adam Grant, Marc Andreesen, Fareed Zakaria and Mike Pompeo. Cohen's spiel on how he wrote the book was excellent. Given the gaps in my historical knowledge on many of his subject presidents, I look forward to filling those gaps by reading this book.
Above: H. R. McMaster. Retired Lt. General and former national security advisor to President Donald Trump. Current Senior Fellow at The Hoover Institution. 11 July 2024. File image.
Speaker, Hoover Institution Overseers Meeting, 11 July 2024, Palo Alto, CA.
Memorable takeaway: Ukraine war may be a stalemate but more support from US can tip the balance in Ukraine's favor. WWI was a stalemated war which was nudged into an allied victory with US support. Me: No talk of US boots on the ground... but, what will it take to push Russia out of Ukraine? I'm not sanguine about US/Nato prevailing in its Ukraine proxy war with Russia.