What was to be transparent

There is something to be said for transparency as an impetus for healthy growth and change.  Currently I'm about 35 pounds heavier than I would need to be to get my doctor to be proud of me and be in the shape I need to be to compete in the UFC.  The problem with those motivations is that I can put off the doctor visit almost indefinitely as (other than a burning sensation on my thigh where the laptop has been laying too long) I feel perfectly fine.  Also I don't like being punched, so I am in no hurry to get back into fighting shape. 

But if social norms changed so that I walked around work bare chested, my motivation to get in shape in a hurry would drastically increase.  Not only that, but I believe my coworkers would provide a great deal of moral support, urging me to go to the gym, and my boss would probably have our meetings over jogging sessions.

As this is not the norm, I get to find nice shirts that look professional and mask my tummy.  And tonight on my way home from my parents' house where I publicly declined all manner of treats and extra food, I got to buy six liters of soda, a pint of ice cream, and a large pizza to keep me company while I watch missed Charlie Rose episodes and write this post.

Here is the problem with transparency though, people are unforgiving and don't believe that other people can change.  We give lots of advice to young people to be careful about what they write and post on social networks as these things can follow them forever.  This is not bad advice, but if I am an employer and I am researching two 25 year-old candidates, one of whom has no online presence and the other has a picture of them flipping off a nun when he was 15, should that have any bearing at all on my decision?  "Well, self, the other guy has less experience in this industry but this guy clearly hates Catholics, women, and penguins, and that is not the sort of man we want working at Italian Women Against Global Warming."

In most states you have probably noticed a lot of Auto Insurance companies in recent years advertising "first accident forgiveness" after your first accident your rates do not increase.  This is not because these companies feel bad and want to cut you a break, but because the data shows that in most states, people who have caused an accident are only marginally more likely to cause a second one in the next three years than someone who has not had an accident.  To illustrate (with fake numbers), they looked at the data and saw 2 million accidents in 2009 from drivers who had never had an accident before (G1) and 2 million drivers who had never had an accident(G2).  Over the next three years 12% of the drivers in G1 had another accident and 11% of the drivers in G2 had an accident. 

This is because most people change after they make mistakes that hurt them, or they mature over time.  We all have the capacity for self destruction and embarrassment, and I don't believe that this capacity and probability are predicted by what we posted about our moms when we were angry teenagers.  (For the record though, as a teenager on geocities I posted that my mother is beautiful and loving).