Grantcoulson's Blog

     The Toronto Transit Commission employee’s union, in response to several embarrassing situations recorded by the public and mentioned earlier in this blog, are striking back in classical fashion. They believe that the miscreants, caught by camera sleeping during duty, or neglecting their jobs, are the victims, not the perpetrators, in the story of wasting public money. They will wax indignant and pretend injury when they are the injurers. One wonders what the real price of a subway fare is, once all the costs are added in. We’ll never know, but the spin machine will keep insisting it’s a bargain. Once again, say “public good”, but mean, “Keep the subsidies coming.”

    Here are some facts

     “The Heritage Foundation says, "There isn’t a single light rail transit system in America in which fares paid by the passengers cover the cost of their own rides." Heritage cites the Minneapolis "Hiawatha" light rail line, soon to be completed with $107 million from the transportation bill. Heritage estimates that the total expense for each ride on the Hiawatha will be $19. Commuting to work will cost $8,550 a year. If the commuter is earning minimum wage, this leaves about $1,000 a year for food, shelter and clothing. Or, if the city picks up the tab, it could have leased a BMW X-5 SUV for the commuter at about the same price.”

    Only a third of the operating budget is covered by fares. The supposed benefits are conferred by paying for the construction costs and continuing subsidies. Imagine a business which got its infrastructure and equipment free and still lost money.

Cheerio and ttfn,
Grant Coulson
Cui Bono–Cherchez les Contingencies

     This is a comment about David Miller, the current left-leaning Toronto mayor. Mr. Miller, who gives in to every union demand and never met a “spend more money to fix the world” proposal he didn’t like, presided over a strike by garbage workers where he misstated a city liability of several hundred million dollars. His excuse, “Close enough for government work.” didn’t obfuscate the issue enough so he decided not to run again. His legacy is a city losing businesses because of high taxes and excess regulation following the noble example of New York City.

       The comment is from a columnist about Miller, but could apply to any politician. The politician has never worked for us, we have always worked for him. Know your place and your spirit will be satisfied. 

    “The mantras of Mr. Miller’s government go roughly like this: Let us fix what is not broken and ruin what is working well; let us contrive to create a crisis where none exists; let us engage in a bogus "consultation" process when the fix is in; let us decry a lack of transparency in the enemy while working behind the scenes ourselves and, above all, let us give nary a thought to the poor, beleaguered taxpayer.” Christie Blatchford–Globe and Mail.

    These are, of course, the mantras of every government.

    Every Canadian politician, except the smart one, who lives under an assumed name (I may be unfair and perhaps there is more than one), holds up several cardboard cutouts of reality to ward off evil spirits. One of the foremost is the “world class” nature of our national health plan. The current Premier of Newfoundland and Labrador is heading south–to the U.S.–for heart surgery. He’s probably taking the Canadian surgical team with him so all can vacation and operate at the same time.

    Many of the people who can’t be bothered about data such as Michael Moore and David Suzuki, hold up Cuba as the epitome of socialist heaven. Except for the repressive regime, low standard of living and sense of hopelessness, it is.

    Humberto Fontova outlines 38 things you can’t do under this fine regime including economic and ideological activity of every kind. Che Guevera for everyone.

    What does this have to do with psychology? When a profession operates largely under government control and sponsorship it catches the government disease–inability, a plummy sense of righteousness and a hushed sense of moral superiority.

Cheerio and ttfn,
Grant Coulson
Cui Bono–Cherchez les Contingencies

   There is a deluge of things to report on today, but I’ll confine myself to this one with the others to follow.

    The link is here and titled “Seven Huge Flaws in the Way Liberals Think”. I would substitute socialists for liberals and believe for think and hundreds of for seven.

     1) Liberals believe they can change human nature.

    Utopia will occur with the correct amount of political correctness pounded into the souls of the sinners.

     2) Liberals believe we can talk everything out with our enemies.

    That’s always worked.

      3) Liberals don’t have enough respect for our culture and traditions

    If you don’t hate everything about the proles who support you, you don’t get to join the club. On the other hand, they want to control you. In the movie Counterattack, Paul Muni’s character is chatting with a Nazi who refers to him as a goat. Muni–”You call me a goat, yet you want the goat to call you “sir”.“ ( not an exact quote)

      4) Liberalism is a fundamentally immoral political philosophy.

    If your whole philosophy centers on coercive control, it probably is.

      5) Liberals believe merely being liberal makes them good people.

    When you’re perfect, intention is everything.

      6) Liberals have too much faith in government.

    In spite of all the disappointments, but at least the failures cost lots of money which doesn’t really count, because it’s borrowed.

      7) Liberals have minimal interest in whether the programs they support  work or not.

    Few true believers ever look at data and, if they do, become frightened if the data look back. INTENTION is all that ever matters.

Cheerio and ttfn,
Grant Coulson
Cui Bono–Cherchez les Contingencies

      Osama bin Laden has blamed the U.S. for…….Global Warming…….If anyone needed any more evidence of ideology long past reason–past the 72 virgins–Alas, it’s one 72 year old virgin–beyond the random killing of innocents–beyond the axiom that one not sharing the belief is an Untermensch and deserving of death–we have the most irrational of all–Global Warming. I’ll bet a lot of the GW crazies are just delighted with OBL as a new ally in the fight against consumerism, corporate greed and environmental destruction. This new coalition can look down upon the rest of us as misguided fools in need of the kind of guidance only provided by the enlightened and, if we don’t believe them, they’ll kill us.

    A couple of weeks ago, a couple brought in their daughter to be assessed. The mother asked if I’d heard of “Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons”, the program she used to teach her child to read after “official” agencies had failed. I told mom that the “100 Lessons Book” was the super-fast program derived from Direct Instruction. The dad then told me that he had taught the daughter to tell time using the methods described in Connecting Math Concepts, another Direct Instruction program. He was unaware of the methods before he formulated his. I told them that, between them, they had more educational expertise than entire faculties of education and school districts. In itself, that is not difficult, but their accomplishment was impressive because the programs worked so well.

    Finishing up the Characteristics of a Successful Program

from the book: Shadow Dancing on the Grave of Hope:

16. The Skill Set Analysis Should Be Complete

    This is one of the most difficult steps of all. What looks like a skill may be a complex composite and\or have many prerequisites which are not apparent. The only way around this is time-consuming analysis with real people. Logical analysis is only the start.

    There are many ways to ensure that programmers carry out these effort-intense steps. Having only your hands on the economic lever is essential. How to persuade staff?  "Do what I say or get out."  Martin Kozloff,  is the best. That does not mean that the workplace is aversive. It means that there is an understanding that there is a person  who has authority over hiring and firing. It’s quite amusing to watch civil servants talk about “getting staff on board”, “gaining commitment”, “getting consensus” and all the silly things they do instead of being able to require compliance.  This searching for consensus and commitment means that there is no requirement to do effective programs and that effectiveness will  occur sporadically, unreliably and only by certain people.

    Now, Dear Reader, if you found reading this list exhausting, imagine how effortful designing an effective program would be. Then, of course, the program has to be tested and revised, usually several times. The great effort required to apply an effective program properly can only be sustained by someone who benefits from successful application.

    “The real and effectual discipline which is exercised over a workman is … that of his customers. It is the fear of losing their employment which restrains his frauds and corrects his negligence.” Adam Smith

Cheerio and ttfn,
Grant Coulson
Cui Bono–Cherchez les Contingencies   

      The U.S. elected a political hack from one of the most politicized and corrupt regions of the country. He promised, and enacted, economic policies which have never worked. How did it all go wrong?

    “There are some ideas so wrong that only a very intelligent person could believe in them.” George Orwell.

         “The government will make all your dreams come true, including your nightmares.”  

 
    More about the criteria for effective programs.

from the book: Shadow Dancing on the Grave of Hope:

    8. Rationale for Client Selection

    In criminal rehabilitation, only high-need, high-risk clients benefit from rehabilitation programs. In general, the program should be tuned to the needs of the clients. Choosing clients who don’t need a program and then attributing their success to the program is one way to appear successful. Boot camp programs in criminal rehabilitation are good example of this legerdemain.

    9. Is integrated inside and outside the program

    Program components should complement rather than contradict each other. Similarly, components should be related directly to the world outside the teaching situation.

    10. Contains techniques for Transfer

    Knowledge gained in educational programs are easily transferable. Two plus two equals four is true in many environments. Transfer in other programs such as criminal rehabilitation and drug and alcohol rehabilitation, is more difficult to get and needs to be built into programs.

    11. Deals directly with the problem

    Many programs try to deal with problems indirectly. For example, a drug or alcohol rehabilitation program may try to deal with “personality issues”. These programs always fail.

    12. Agility

    A program needs to be able to be guided by daily results. Parts of a program may be more difficult for a client than others. The program must be structured so that extra practice may be directed to those parts for certain clients.

    13. Follows the Principles of Learning

    Learning principles such as simple to complex, cumulative review, sufficient repetition, feedback, and making the material consistent with the beginning skill set of the client, will ensure acquisition and maintenance of the program material.

    14. Program Integrity by Staff Compliance

    This is a fancy way of saying that the program is carried out the way it is described. The best way to guarantee integrity if to make economic well-being dependent upon it. The other requirement is a systematic method of monitoring the programmer’s behavior.

    15. Powerful Results

    “Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.” John Adams

    The results must indicate substantial change rather than statistical significance. Powerful results will always be statistically significant, but the reverse is rarely true.

Cheerio and ttfn,
Grant Coulson
Cui Bono–Cherchez les Contingencies

     “We all in the same boat brother. You rock it too far to the right you fall in the waddah, rock it too far to the left you fall in the same waddah, and ‘s just as wet on both sides.” Huddie Ledbetter, folk singer.

    There is a conference in Canada about “rebuilding” Haiti. This is a great opportunity to spend my money doing things which won’t work. Among the early ones is “wind generation”, an idea which isn’t really good for anyone, even destroyed countries. The social engineers are salivating at the idea of economy restructuring and nation building where they can apply their pet theories and other people’s money. Watch the enterprise  fail in a welter of corruption and accusations.

    Watching politicians legislate is like driving behind a car with “I brake for illusions.” or “I brake for delusions.” Politicians should come with a label “I legislate for delusions.” In order to do this one must be ignorant of history and easily swayed by current consensus. For example, the current “warming trend” must be regarded as unique. Then, blame must be attached to negatives such as greed or conspicuous consumption such as driving expensive vehicles. Once the terror and perpetrators are identified, everything is possible. A socialist will allow you complete freedom so long as everything not banned is compulsory.

from the book: Shadow Dancing

on the Grave of Hope:

    Continued outline for real programs.

1. Use of Positive Reinforcement

    Motivating and supporting the many hours of participation required by a successful program compels  the astute use of many sources of positive reinforcement. Clients need to be told they are doing well, only when they are doing well, of course, and see that they are doing well in all the components of a program.

    2. Time efficient (Dense)

    Efficiency, in this sense, refers to the amount of behavior change per unit time. This means that exercises are presented as quickly as possible and the circumstances are set up so that clients respond quickly. Something useful should always be happening.

    3. Scripted

    A scripted program describes in great detail what the program provider should be doing and what the client should be learning. Scripting ensures that essential elements are covered in the correct order. A scripted manual guarantees that all providers present the program as designed and don’t leave out the requisite positive reinforcers.

    One curious objection to the use of scripting is that it limits “spontaneity” and “creativity”, exactly the kinds of activity which must be limited in program providers. A surgeon’s pirouette during an operation might show delightful spontaneity and creativity, but is not recommended for patient well-being. Irrelevant behavior is distracting and time-wasting.

Cheerio and ttfn,
Grant Coulson
Cui Bono–Cherchez les Contingencies   

from the book: Shadow Dancing on the Grave of Hope:

    In summary, a psychologist, or anyone in the social services, must avoid the siren songs of employers, laymen, other psychologists and the media. These sources will always lead astray and ensure that programs are polgrams, trendy and useless.

Characteristics of a Successful Program

Points for something which works:

2). Failure results in program revision, not client excoriation.

3). The program is evaluated constantly, not after several years.

4). The program is tested constantly, the clients are tested once.

5). The program is scrapped if it doesn’t produce results based on the DIW criteria.

    Sports commentators are always reminding us that successful athletes and teams “do the little things right.” The things are little only because they make up a small part of the whole. Without all of the “little things”, nothing exists.

    We have seen that the misapplication of social sciences can produce "positive harm", an oxymoron, such as the case of false accusations based on repressed memories and non-occurring sexual abuse. The only positive aspect is in the intention  of the program. An ounce of result is worth the world’s weight in intention. Proper application also produces non-results when programs are ineffective.

Cheerio and ttfn,
Grant Coulson
Cui Bono–Cherchez les Contingencies

from the book: Shadow Dancing on the Grave of Hope:

What’s a Psychologist to do: Avoiding Insidious Influences

    An insidious influence is any reinforcer source which  turns one in the direction of doing things which are useless or harmful or doesn’t turn one in the direction of doing things which are useful. One source is the people who pay the wages of a psychologist. I call this, "Hiring an expert and then telling how to do their jobs." When working for a government agency, I was asked many times to do psychodynamic, one-to-one counselling, presumably because the talk shows, soap operas and movies-of-the-week told laymen that this was what needed doing.

    Another deadly influence is laymen who are very willing to listen to you tell them what they think they know. The media are especially dangerous because they will provide a voice to anyone who has something dramatic and heart-rending to report or lie about. In education, rapt attention will be paid if you talk about student deficiencies such as victimhood from social injustice, dyslexia, dyscalculia, broken homes, lack of discipline, the latest funding cut and etc; everything, in sum, except how to teach students better. In correctional rehabilitation, people like to hear about the importance of abuse, the breakdown of society, poverty and discrimination as the basis of criminal behavior. They also listen if you talk about how terrible criminals are and how depth psychotherapy fixes them because it gets to the "real" reasons. In short, you must entertain and/or blame. Start to talk about effective rehabilitation and audience eyes begin to glaze. They will listen to certain things, dispute others and get genuinely nasty about others. Laymen must be ignored. One of the most difficult things about being a psychologist is that everybody is one.        

    No one who has read this far will be surprised that other psychologists are a particularly malignant source of misdirection, because the majority of psychologists do not have to produce results. Most of the misguided have never been influenced by any DIW aggravations. Psychology conferences are famous for the tedium of their secret language and statistics, but they really are places where people get together and talk at great length and detail about very little. If a particular personality test is popular, there will be many workshops on it but little or nothing on how to change people’s behavior. If something makes the movie-of-the-week, be assured that it will make the psychology-meeting-of-the year. Repressed memories, abuse and multiple personalities have all run their nonsensical course. When someone asks me, after I’ve attended one of these presentations, purely for comedic value, what I thought about it, I reply, "Who cares how many angels can dance on the head of a pin, what’s really important is how many can dance on the point." This usually sends them mumbling away, leaving me in enchanted peace. If you care, four angels can dance on the point of a pin. It has to do with the magical number related to the ethnically  sensitive four directions in the full circle of Life (just kidding). I personally do not attend gatherings of psychologists lest I become infected by “consensus disease”. Consensus disease occurs when one believes he knows and can do something important because he agrees with the majority.

Cheerio and ttfn,
Grant Coulson
Cui Bono–Cherchez les Contingencies

     About the icon, Che Guevera. What Fontova doesn’t mention is the execution by sledgehammer or starving to death in a locked cell. “Of course we execute.” There is no end to cruelty justified by “knowing” you’re right on the way to Nirvana.

      “According to the “Black Book of Communism,” those firing-squad executions had reached 14,000 by the end of the ’60s, the equivalent, given the relative populations, of more than 3 million executions in the U.S. “I don’t need proof to execute a man,” snapped Che to a judicial toady in 1959. “I only need proof that it’s necessary to execute him! … Judicial evidence is an archaic bourgeois detail. We execute from revolutionary conviction.”

       Upon arriving in Havana in January 1959 after an utterly bogus guerrilla war (The New York Times breathlessly reported of “thousands dead in single battles!” The official tally compiled by the U.S. embassy after two years of ferocious “civil war” was 184 dead on both sides, half New Orleans’ annual murder tally.), Che Guevara immediately recognized the moat around Havana’s old Spanish fortress La Cabana as a handy-dandy, ready-made execution pit. So he promptly put his firing squads to work in triple shifts.

     Edwin Tetlow, Havana correspondent for London’s Daily Telegraph, reported on a mass “trial” orchestrated by Che Guevara in February 1959, where Tetlow noticed the death sentences posted on a board before the trial had started.” Humberto Fontova.

    “Ontario’s Green Energy Act, said the Premier, is the “best of its kind, best in class, in North America.” By that he means, it offers the biggest giveaways, the fattest subsidies and the most generous guarantees. To hell with good economics, open markets and competition. Using dictatorship-style powers, the McGuinty government can order its subsidiary agencies — power authorities, distribution companies and regulators — to set rates and build power lines. All the Samsungs of the world have to do is show up and receive Ontario’s Feed-in Tariffs — guaranteed above-market power rates of 13.5¢ a kilowatt hour for wind and 44.3¢ for solar power.” Terence Corcoran–National Post–January 22. 2010. As Ontario tries to outdo California to be the trendiest–that is, the most mistaken jurisdiction in the world. Being world-class is nice, but leading in stupidity is not a proud boast.

from the book: Shadow Dancing on the Grave of Hope:

      There are  no organized constituencies demanding change in the social sciences, but there are large, powerful and well organized constituencies such as unions and professional organizations lobbying vigorously, and viciously, for the status quo and more "professional" control. These organized constituencies must concentrate on the producer and not the consumer. This keeps ineffectiveness alive and stifles innovation. When an industry or a union  is protected against competition, the rest of us are protected against efficiency and improvement.

    There are very negative effects of implementing nonsense. This has been shown with Whole Language, repressed memory and facilitated communication, multiple personalities, talking "depth" therapies, manipulatives and "whole mathematics" teaching, invented spelling and various kinds of ineffective programming in all areas. The negative effects fall on the clients while practitioners get status and money. No teacher, principal or educational administrator has ever lost a penny of pay for failure to teach any of the thousands of students I have seen in 37 years. The public education system is no more capable of producing effective education than the Soviet economy was of making reliable cars or useful toilet paper.

Cheerio and ttfn,
Grant Coulson
Cui Bono–Cherchez les Contingencies

     “Sometimes it doesn’t matter that you have a better product, if your competitors have better salesmen.” Thomas Sowell.  All Intend no Does.

    Obama’s “stimulus” package has produced “national” jobs, but not “local” jobs. Or “The results are poor, but the statistics are favorable.” If you can accept this, you’re a politician with no shame and/or logical sense.

    Today’s quote is from Ogden Lindsley, a psychologist who  recognized the importance of results. If everyone had such assumptions, psychology’s spokesman would not be Dr. Phil. In my humble opinion, this is one of the best passages in psychology.

from the book: Shadow Dancing on the Grave of Hope:

      Lindsley outlines how effectiveness can be mandated in a university psychology class where the payoff was grades, not money. "Only 30 percent of my class successfully modified a child’s behavior when I begged them to do it. These are what I call the "stimulus responders." The rest of them only talked good Behavior Modification–they didn’t do any (emphasis added). The glib failures–the "talkers" included my own doctoral candidates; they gave me beautiful excuses in operant terminology…Three or 4 weeks through the Spring semester, it dawned on me that I wasn’t taking my own medicine. I wasn’t using any consequences. My successful students weren’t being treated any differently from the glib failures…from now on, if you fail to improve a child’s behavior beyond the .001 level of confidence, you will receive a grade of ‘incomplete,’ for ‘incomplete modification.’…p. 224. "This procedural change brought about fantastic results: 228 percent successful modification projects because 54 percent of the students turned in more than two projects…With that success, I later increased the requirement to three cases a semester…who knows what the upper limit might be." The largest majority of university courses stress knowing over doing and the two are not highly correlated. Most university courses turn out "glib failures" because the students are not required to succeed in anything except glibly expressing hypothetical knowledge. Of course, this is good training for government service which consists of little but glibly expressing politically-conditioned hypothetical knowledge.

Cheerio and ttfn,
Grant Coulson
Cui Bono–Cherchez les Contingencies

Lindsley, O. R. (1970). Procedures in common described by a common language. In C. Neuringer & J.L. Michael (eds.) Behavior modification in clinical psychology. New York:Appleton-Century-Crofts, pp. 221-236.