Argument

If you are equals, the ask questions until you can state their position clearly, in language which they can agree to. Only then will you understand enough to make a claim about their position.

Frustration

Why live in a world of pretty things which you cannot have?

Perspective

When you step back far enough, you cannot be angry.

Norms

It's late, and all those things you're told to care about just don't matter any more...

Knowledge Work

Thinking about the similarities in what every knowledge worker does, it seems that we all do the same things, just in different realms. We all think, create, examine, refine, over and over. How does one, then, break into a different application area? How is managing the state of world politics any different than writing good software? Good software is robust in a changing environment, considers a functional set of requirements, delivers demonstrable value to the stake-holders. Are these not all qualities of a foreign affairs official, a sociologist modeling the world, a medical researcher, etc?

Tell me anything and I'll believe it

Perhaps the "tell me anything and I'll believe it" facial expression of Barbi was a means to break down the "barrier to entry" between men and women. That is, if the woman is brainless, then there is no competition between male and female: the male is obviously the dominant one.

Male dominance has been perpetuated in our society, certainly, by many things. Perhaps the doll contributed to it in this and other subtle ways.

When to rewrite

Analyze complexity of working with existing code. If you can write a simpler solution in less time than you can debug the problem, do so.