Philosophy: Consistency versus Variation

TORONTO, ONTARIO - In my essay earlier on the death of Ted Kennedy, I avoided the issues surrounding Kennedy's character flaws and checkered early personal history. A common theme to the response to these discussions, which have dominated conservative blogs and radio talk shows in the past week, is that greatness in any area is usually linked with great flaws. Apparently, at one point Kennedy himself was asked if about whether he knew any great people with great flaws, and he asked, "Is there any other kind of greatness?"

As a general principle in the universe, I'm not certain that greatness has to be linked with great flaws. In the realm of radio programs, for example, few would argue that This American Life or the original broadcast version of Open Source were not consistently great, without terrible, flawed shows mixed in. On the other hand, some shows do have a great deal of variation, On Point and LeShow are classic examples of shows that can be simply brilliant and inspiring or downright unlistenable depending on the hour.

One of the biggest such arguments I was ever associated with was in the sport of unlimited hydroplane racing. In 1995, the sport was using a starting procedure for its races called the flag start. All the boats had to be lined up properly, next to one another, or the green flag would not be displayed and the race would not begin. Lane assignment procedures varied somewhat, but were generally a function of qualifying speed and earned points at that race site. This starting procedure essentially guaranteed that fans were treated to at least a half-lap or so of side-by-side racing, if not even longer.

Purists, who favored the traditional clock start in which all drivers coordinated their watches to an official clock before the start of the specific heat race and tried to be at the starting line right at the official starting time (but not early, since that effectively meant a one-lap penalty), would point to specific past examples of "great" races. One that resonated especially well with me was the 1986 Evansville, Indiana final heat, in which the "Joe Ricci Spirit of Detroit" boat, driven by Tom D'Eath and powered by a World War II aircraft engine, made a perfect start and managed to hold off three turbine-powered boats for four of five laps before running out of nitrous oxide and slipping to third place at the finish, still ahead of that year's ultimate national champion. There's no way that could have happened with a flag start, as the turbines would have been side-by-side with D'Eath at the start and likely would have out-accelerated him to the first turn. Driver skill--both in timing the start and in knowing how to take advantage of a good start--was made less important by the flag start.

I responded to the purists by pointing out some decidedly awful races caused by the clock start. In the 1987 race in Seattle, Washington, driver Jim Kropfeld of the "Miss Budweiser" made a perfect start in the outside line and had such a superior boat that he could move to the inside lane by the first turn. The race was already over, assuming he did not run into mechanical troubles (which he did not). It was a boring ending to what hadn't been a terribly exiting day to that point. That could not have happened with a flag start, as the other boats would have been side-by-side with the "Budweiser" at the start and probably one may have been able to keep up with him for at least half a lap of moderate excitement before it pulled away for victory.

Basically, the choice in that sport was between consistently decent racing, and the possibility of a great race every once in awhile with a terrible race equally likely. For the sake of casual fans, people like then-Commissioner Bill Doner, then-Director of Communications J Michael Kenyon, and me argued vociferously for the flag start and a consistent product. We knew it would prevent greatness, but the casual fan was far more turned off by the bad races than excited by the great ones, so from a marketing perspective it was clearly the right choice. (Never mind that the major factor in preserving the flag start procedure in that era was the lack of availability of an adequate starting clock.) When the owners took firm control of the sport a few years later after all three of us had moved on, the traditional clock start returned.

Such is the typical choice--allowing variation (such as driver skill in racing or risk-taking in a radio show) can lead to both occasional greatness and occasional low quality. Suppressing it leads to more uniform performance, but also prevents greatness. That the same thing also occurs in humans, specifically politicians as embodied by Ted Kennedy, should not be surprising.