Dinhternet

I had read about War­ren Buffett’s “Ovar­ian Lot­tery” before, but a reminder always helps.

Here’s the meat of it, for those of you who don’t want to click on the link -

It’s 24 hours before your birth, and a genie appears to you. He tells you that you can set the rules for the world you’re about to enter — eco­nomic, social, polit­i­cal — the whole enchi­lada. Sounds great, right? What’s the catch?

Before you enter the world, you will pick one ball from a bar­rel of 6.8 bil­lion (the num­ber of peo­ple on the planet). That ball will deter­mine your gen­der, race, nation­al­ity, nat­ural abil­i­ties, and health — whether you are born rich or poor, sick or able-bodied, bril­liant or below aver­age, Amer­i­can or Zimbabwean.

This is what Buf­fett calls the ovar­ian lot­tery. As he explained to a group of Uni­ver­sity of Florida stu­dents, “You’re going to get one ball out of there, and that is the most impor­tant thing that’s ever going to hap­pen to you in your life.”

Accord­ing to the world’s third-richest man, that’s a good per­spec­tive to have when set­ting the rules for our world. We should be design­ing a soci­ety that, as Buf­fett says, “doesn’t leave behind some­one who acci­den­tally got the wrong ball and is not well-wired for this par­tic­u­lar sys­tem.” He points out that he is designed for the Amer­i­can sys­tem — and he was lucky to be born into it. He can allo­cate cap­i­tal, and he lives in a place and at a time when those skills are well rewarded. (His pal Bill Gates is quick to point out that if Buf­fett had been born in an ear­lier time, he’d be some animal’s lunch because the Ora­cle of Omaha can’t run fast or climb trees.)

When Buf­fett talks about this lot­tery, he often con­cludes by asking:

If you could put your ball back, and they took out, at ran­dom, a hun­dred other balls, and you had to pick one of those, would you put your ball back in? Now, of those hun­dred balls … roughly five of them will be Amer­i­can. … Half of them are going to be below-average intel­li­gence, half will be above. Do you want to put your ball back? Most of you, I think, will not. … What you’re say­ing is, “I’m in the luck­i­est 1% of the world right now.”

Everything’s about per­spec­tive. When­ever I think I have it rough, I think about if I would trade it for one of those hun­dred other balls, and things don’t look so bad. Espe­cially today, Black April. It’s the anniver­sary of the Fall of Saigon, when Amer­ica pulled out of the Viet­nam War, a defin­ing moment for three gen­er­a­tions of my fam­ily. I think of all that my par­ents and grand­par­ents did to give me a bet­ter pick in the lot­tery than what they had drawn, and I won­der if I’ll be able to do the same for the next generation.

50–1 shot shocks favorites at Derby — Atlanta Jour­nal Con­sti­tu­tion

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05.09.2009

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Dinh I’ve been a lot hun­grier since I gave blood last week. Won­der how much of that is psy­cho­log­i­cal.

I’ve been a lot hun­grier since I gave blood last week. Won­der how much of that is psy­cho­log­i­cal.

@pegsie Did you find it after you went to the gro­cery store?

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@ptprinze I don’t under­stand your heat and phở thing. You know how hot it gets in Viet Nam?

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@stephliu Hahaha, you, too, Steph? @pegsie and @thu­pac were all over this yes­ter­day.

Dinh At work. (G&P Sac).

At work. (G&P Sac)

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@pegsie @thu­pac He was sup­posed to be a throw-away vil­lain in the first sea­son, but was kept on for the fan draw.

@thu­pac @pegsie Not Heroes fans?

@thu­pac I’m not a hard­core fan. Watched ran­dom episodes, but didn’t fol­low any of the series.

@pegsie You didn’t miss much. Explo­sions and happy times.

@pegsie Hahaha. I’m sure Leonard Nimoy appre­ci­ates your sen­ti­ments.

@thu­pac Over­all, I liked it. With­out spoil­ing too much, I like how non-canon mate­r­ial is explained. I don’t like the lamp­shaded end­ing.

Dinh At home. (Elk Grove).

At home. (Elk Grove)

I just crossed #66 off my bucket list. Well, I didn’t call it that at the time, but I sup­pose that it is the accepted nomen­cla­ture now, so that’s what I’ll use. Just in case you are too lazy to click through or have trou­bled with num­bered lists, #66 was a hot air bal­loon ride. Since my dad’s, Dong Ha’s, and my birth­days are bunched up together near Mother’s Day, we usu­ally do some­thing nice together as a fam­ily. (And jok­ingly call it the “Every­one But Gio Linh Party.”)

Since my par­ents will be mov­ing away this sum­mer and I’m not sure we’ll be able to do this in the future, I wanted to do some­thing spe­cial this time; prefer­ably some­thing high­light­ing Cal­i­for­nia awe­some­ness for them to remem­ber when they are in Min­nesota. At first, my sis­ters and I planned on a wine tour in Napa, since the scenery is awe­some and my par­ents enjoy wine. We checked out reviews on the best vine­yards to visit and pho­tog­ra­phers in the area who do out­door por­traits. Also looked into the Wine Train, since dad does love trains.

But then I found some­thing even bet­ter… a deal on a hot air bal­loon ride over Napa Val­ley! At first, both sis­ters were appre­hen­sive. (I did not real­ize Dong Ha has a fear of heights!) But I bit the bul­let and booked us any­way, since it would be a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

Man, was I right to do so! The flight was awe­some. And that’s despite hav­ing to wake up at 3 to get to Napa slightly before dawn. Our pilot was really funny and enter­tain­ing, and our bal­loon was first up and (almost) last down. The scenery was amaz­ing! And we had quite an adven­ture at the end as we almost landed on a church and then almost some trees as we were try­ing to land.

After­wards, Dad said he loved it and com­pared it to rid­ing a motor­cy­cle in the sky. I men­tioned that I was excited that I could cross some­thing off my bucket list now, and Dong Ha said it was on hers, too. (Gio Linh says she hasn’t made a bucket list yet, but I’m sure it would have been on there for her to cross off now.) Mommy didn’t know what a bucket list was, but basi­cally described the same thing in Viet, so con­sider it crossed off her list, too. Score! The post title may be a bit eerie or mor­bid, but it is quite fitting.

I highly rec­om­mend the expe­ri­ence to every­one. And if you are scared, don’t be. Dong Ha said she was scared of falling, but the bas­ket is four feet high, so you’d have to be actively try­ing to fall over­board. There is absolutely no risk if you are just stand­ing around. Also, there was no motion-sickness, either. The bas­kets do not sway in the wind at all, and the sen­sa­tion of going up and down is lighter than it is in an elevator.