Book Review: Graeme Simsion's The Rosie Project

Most people have never met anyone autistic. Their perception of autism is usually from Dustin Hoffman's Rain Man (1988), 

Sheldon Cooper in The Big Bang Theory, or my favorite, Abed from the Community series. (South Korea's Marathon (2005) and Britain's A Brilliant Young Mind aka X + Y (2015) are also excellent, with the female lead in A Brilliant Young Mind perfectly written.) 

Given the popularity of some autistic characters, as well as greater interest into autism by neuroscientists, numerous fiction books now involve autistic protagonists. Sadly, all their authors have failed to present works both respectful and interesting, except two: Graeme Simsion and Helen Hoang. 

At first glance, techie-turned-author Graeme Simsion looks exactly like a stereotypical mad scientist. If a gargoyle could turn human, or if Moe Szyslak had a Ph.D. in data modeling and an ever-present smile, Graeme would be the result. 

Graeme knows autism well--he jokes his thirty years in information technology provided him ample research--and he's conformed his behavior to the autistic world, a welcome form of empathy. For example, many autistic people are paradoxes in that they adore unusual behavior (that increases efficiency) and despise rules, but once a logical rule is presented, they demand strict adherence. At 7:29pm, Graeme looked at his watch and did not stop looking at it until 7:30pm, when he promptly started. (Logical rules followed? Check.) Before his presentation, he disregarded the standard procedure of making people wait in line to get their books signed and went around the room, multiple pens available, to sign anyone's book upon request. (Noncomformist? Check.) 

Graeme and I discussed the book, which I had just finished, for a minute. I found the ending confusing, but he said the identity of the father "was meant to be clear." In retrospect, it probably should have been clear, but I was not prepared for deception from Don Tillman, the protagonist, which threw me off. (A recent Star Trek movie with Spock featured the same trick.) 

The Rosie Project is not an entirely original idea. Johannes Kepler, a gifted astronomer, approached finding a wife in almost exactly the same way, generating a mathematical answer to "The Marriage Problem." (His answer worked for him, surely creating bias.) Though most of us would sneer at Kepler's or Tillman's methods--Rosie, at one point, accuses Don of objectifying women--an approximate 50% divorce rate in most Western countries indicates the usual procedures aren't working well. 

My chief complaint about Graeme's book is although the first half is written like a novel, the second half panders excessively to Hollywood--even including the cliché of all clichés, a Disneyland trip. Nevertheless, I was sufficiently amused in the first half to keep reading, and the book is good. Not great, but few of us can claim to have written great books. Indeed, Graeme admitted he wrote the book as a screenplay and is hoping for a movie. His first two books are bestsellers, and "studios use [bestselling] books for adaptations because sales are established," so there's a better-than-average chance you'll see him on a red carpet someday. 

To explain some of Don's nontraditional behavior, especially in the second half of the book, Graeme delivered a profound observation: 

In romantic comedies and in real life, people do crazy things when they're in love, and the only unrealistic part is the "happily ever after." 

Other Graeme Simsion highlights: 

1. Autism is "not a disability, it's a difference." 

2. When you get to the end of the book, what do you think about Don? The "comedy doesn't detract from Don's good character," so we're not laughing at him. 

3. There's a "difference between empathy and not reading [social] signals." 

4. On the writing process: I won't stop until I've done 1,000 words, which I review first thing in the morning. (Sometimes it takes longer to write the 1,000 words, so I don't know what time I will finish.) I repeat the process for 90 days, after which I have the first draft of a book/screenplay. Then, I ask friends "to mark any passages they'd be tempted to skip," which I consider for deletion. 

5. After publication, I consider "what worked, what didn't work, and what to do differently next time." 

All in all, it's hard not to wish Graeme well. He has the advantage of being Australian, which makes his behavior easier for foreigners to handle--they can't tell if he's a bit off or just acting like an Aussie. Me, I can see his behavior is deliberately tailored to make autistic people or Aspies more comfortable, and it's nice to know at least one person gets it, even if everyone else doesn't. 

© Matthew Rafat (2019)

Bonus, on the dangers of generalizing: "If you've met one autistic person, you've met... one... autistic... person." 

Bonus II: Rosie was not written with Rosie McGowan in mind. In the original draft, Rosie was "Klara," a Hungarian physicist. 

Bonus III: if you like Simsion's character, you may also like the nonfiction book Look Me in the Eye: My Life with Asperger's (2008) by John Elder Robison. 

Facebook Shareholder Meeting (2019): Begging for Regulation

Facebook held its annual meeting today in trendy Menlo Park-based Hotel Nia. 

Hotel Nia is behind the angry emoji balloon

Shareholders were treated to Clover yoghurt, pastries (mostly croissants), tea, coffee, and a granola mix.

Zuckerberg entered with the board of directors, smiling. An employee introduced the shareholder proposals and their advocates. After one advocate spoke about a shooting at her religious institution, which she believes was fueled by Facebook's failure to adequately police "hate speech," the emcee immediately acknowledged the horrific event and "evil" acts of extremism. He vowed Facebook would not allow people to attack others based on religious, ethnic, racial, or other legally-protected classes. 

No photos allowed.
I don't know exactly how this photo was taken.

Zuckerberg's speech was the highlight. He said 2019 was a busier year than usual, with the company (unwantedly) being at the center of social issues. Though he didn't mention that Facebook removed 2.2 billion (fake) accounts this year, the company's worldwide reach is still potent: 2.7 billion people use Facebook once a month, and over 1 billion people use it daily. 

Zuckerberg said the company was focusing on four areas: 

1. Progress on social issues. (e.g., content and safety, election interference, privacy controls, data portability)

2. Qualitative new experiences. (e.g., new platforms, new ways of communicating) 

3. Serving small businesses around the world. (90 million small businesses worldwide now use Facebook's marketing tools for free.) 

If Facebook deserves kudos in any area, it's this one. I've seen numerous small businesses, especially restaurants and cafes, advertising to English-speaking tourists with both the Twitter and Facebook logos, no small feat given the translation and mapping issues inherent in international advertising. 

4. Be more transparent. (Give people a voice but keep people safe.) 

Executive bonuses will be tied to performance in the above four areas, but it's common for compensation committees everywhere to create key performance indicators (KPIs). 

Zuckerberg's most poignant comment related to the current state of social media: 

If the rules for the internet were getting re-written from scratch today, I don’t think that most people would want private companies to be making so many decisions by themselves about what constitutes acceptable speech.

Following this welcome admission, Zuckerberg practically begged governments worldwide to create regulatory frameworks, later mentioning he'd discussed these issues in Paris with France's Emmanuel Macron. 

Moving forward, Facebook's vision is to build a privacy-focused social platform over the next five to ten years, adding the digital equivalent of a "living room." Whereas Facebook and Instagram have been akin to a "town square" (at one point Zuckerberg misspoke, using "Times Square," an interesting slip given the massive advertising in that particular NYC area), the goal is to provide users with a more private setting should they want one. 

While earnest, Zuckerberg has not proposed a dramatic change. Years ago, users could create private groups within Facebook and restrict posts based on self-made filters, but it was time-consuming and non-intuitive. Furthermore, creating a separate, more private space with "different controls" within Facebook and Instagram seems contrary to Facebook's stated aim of gathering all posted data to assist it in selling ads and exposure. Even so, Zuckerberg consistently promoted the creation of "private platforms as developed and rich as public ones today," giving users the "ability to interact with people privately." 

Interestingly, in a speech transmitted from Russia into Canada today, Edward Snowden had this to say: "Everyone thinks Facebook is spying on them... they're absolutely right, but so is Amazon [and everyone else online]. But now we are aware of the problem." 

Snowden didn't stop there: "Facebook is in flagrant violation of [the EU's privacy law of] GDPR, [they] haven't made their site compliant because they know they [their lawyers] can drag it out for 10 years, after which the laws will have changed." 

The Q&A session was limited, and Facebook cut off about six people who wanted to speak. Troublingly, the rules only allowed each shareholder one minute to ask one question, far below the usual two to three minutes given to shareholders, as well as a more liberal stance on follow-up questions. 

Sheryl Sandberg, one of the most insipid executives in American history, commenced her usual strategy of avoiding questions and giving as bland or broad a response as possible. In response to one shareholder, she said, we "don't allow hate in any form," not bothering to address how Facebook would avoid being arbitrary or overbroad in the application of such a general policy. 

In contrast, Zuckerberg was measured and nuanced, openly asking, "What is the right framework..." "that will enable us to solve this issue?" He seemed to answer his own question when he mentioned an independent tribunal that would issue binding decisions (without appeal), taking the matter out of Facebook's purview. 

A shareholder asked about voice-based applications, prompting Zuckerberg to say voice will be more important over the years, but he had "nothing specific today" [to showcase].  

I pointed out that Facebook's Board of Directors had no one with experience in journalism, ethics, or books--all dying fields, in no small part because of Facebook. 

Out of the seven directors not named Sandberg or Zuckerberg, three (Marc Andreessen, Kenneth Chenault, and Peggy Alford) had finance or VC backgrounds, while the others worked in philanthropy (Susan Desmond-Hellmann), surveillance (Peter Thiel, Palantir), and politics (Jeffrey Zients). I said it wasn't Zuckerberg's fault that Facebook--despite its funding by In-Q-Tel to advance facial recognition technology--had reduced privacy. Issues had begun with the Church Committee investigations in the 1970s, but it was indeed his fault that Facebook had destroyed journalism, and I asked what he planned on doing about it. After a second, Zuckerberg threw up his hands, a signal for Sandberg to get involved, and she delivered an asinine answer about the "internet" making journalism's business model more difficult. (Sandberg might want to talk to Marc Andreessen, who nurtured internet consumer use, about journalism from 1995-2010, when the internet brought readers new websites like Salon.com.) 

I had slipped in a question about spinning off WhatsApp into a separate, independent company, and Sandberg brushed off this question, too, referring me to Facebook's previous statements on the matter.

Overall, it was an interesting shareholder meeting, though too short, and not as nuanced as it should have been. Given its selection of directors, it seems likely Facebook will be moving aggressively into digital payments and financial platforms, leaving ethics and journalism behind. If I'm right, expect more of the same in 2020 as in 2016. In the meantime, I'll be over on Twitter, where CEO Jack Dorsey has more effectively upheld user privacy while railing against government surveillance. 

Disclosures: I own an insignificant number of Twitter (TWTR) and Facebook (FB) shares. Nothing herein constitutes investment advice. As of the date of publication (May 30, 2019), I was not paid for this post by anyone, nor did I receive or anticipate receiving advertising dollars for it. 

© Matthew Rafat (2019) 

Bonus: "What Facebook has become is the press's assignment editor, its distribution network, its great antagonist, devourer of its ad revenue, and, through corporate secrecy, a massive block to journalism's core mission of democratic accountability." -- Jacob Silverman (2020)

Bonus, from New York Times' 2018 annual report, pp. 26. 

Current Mood

M&M's, owned by a private American company, were invented in 1941. To date, they are one of the most successful examples of creative marketing. While Las Vegas is known for gambling, buffets, and the mob, I always thought its M&M's World store was a must-see. Meanwhile, the London store is set up to mimic famous scenes from British icons, including James Bond and the Beatles.

Beatlemania or M&Mmania?

Pico Iyer in Menlo Park, CA

Oxford-born travel writer and Kyoto then Nara, Japan transplant Pico Iyer was at Kepler's Books in Menlo Park, California tonight. 

Two quotes stood out: 1) There are "72 seasons in Japan and religion in Japan is the seasons, a religion without dogma." 2) "California is about possibility, Japan is about reality."

Iyer lit up when discussing his wife, clearly still in love after decades together. (In the book, he describes her voice as "made for singing" on the very first page.) Why did he settle down after so many years single? A seminal moment occurred when Hiroko explained he's impossible, so she just had to adapt to him. This non-Western philosophy of dating--accepting a person "as is" instead of forcing change--softened Iyer, causing him to adapt to his wife in turn. Out of this dance of reciprocity, and despite his limited Japanese and her average English, came relationship success, travels together, and a daughter. (I'm reminded of Pablo Neruda's lines in Love Sonnet 17: "I love you as one loves certain obscure things, secretly, between the shadow and the soul... I love you directly without problems or pride.")

Interestingly, before discussing his relationship with Hiroko, Iyer discussed playing ping pong at a community center, where everyone tries as hard as possible--but not to win. The idea is to challenge each other and oneself, to adapt to each other's styles, and to be joyful. It's difficult not to draw parallels between Iyer's description of dating and a ping pong match between two equals, playing as hard as they can, never wanting the game to end. If you are a fan of travel and/or Japan, you may enjoy one of Pico Iyer's books. I just bought The Lady and the Monk (1991) and hope to read it before his latest work. 

© Matthew Rafat (2019)

Bonus I: many people outside of Japan are confused by the country. Japan is difficult to understand because outside perspectives differ based on whether one is discussing corporate Japan--an unforgiving, monolithic entity--or familial Japan--its patient, considerate side. 

Familial Japan is like this quote from Yoshimoto Mahoko (aka Banana Yoshimoto): "Quality is always more important than quantity. This is true for everything. Even if you write only one line in your life, if it stays in someone’s mind forever, it is satisfactory."

Corporate Japan is the drunk group of men at the local bar, unnecessarily loud and rigidly opposed to substantive changes. (It's true the Toyota Production System (TPS) is renowned worldwide, but its changes typically modify existing processes, and employee promotions seem based on factors other than merit.) 

Bonus II: an interview with Pico Iyer is HERE, but no transcript posted. 

X-Men Day

Growing up, X-Men, Batman, and the Amazing Spiderman were my favorite comic book series. Today, X-Men is my clear favorite, and I have yet to read all of the new Jean Grey novels by Dennis Hopeless. 

From 1988

What If?

Francis Schoenberger: "How is it when you walk around in NY? I guess, you are not walking around with a bodyguard like a lot of other people?" 

John Lennon: "Are you kidding? It’s not 1965, it’s ’75. People just see me... I’m not in the prime of my career, or whatever they call it. I am not Elton [John]. He can get around, but it’s pretty hard."

Lennon was murdered in 1980. 

Kwame Anthony Appiah at Berkeley Book Festival

I was very happy to meet Kwame Anthony Appiah at Berkeley's Bay Book Fest yesterday. Appiah, who prefers Anthony rather than Kwame, strikes a tall, formidable presence, especially among smaller literary figures (both figuratively and literally). Realizing his calm, British-educated poise might be considered standoffish by Americans, he will politely nod in agreement with his colleagues during conversations. 

If you haven't read Appiah, I suggest you start with either The Lies that Bind (2019) or Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers (2006). If you are a philosophy student or professor, you may enjoy As If (2017).