Steal Eleven Days From People and Watch What Happens

And this is a great day to do it because, well, you know how we like to look back and see what happened this day in history? You know how we like to find those quaint little stories that lead to anything from lighthearted chuckles to profound sighs, anywhere from fleeting entertainment to meaningful inspiration.

Well, today I've got one that could be either or both, depending on how you look at it. Today we'll take a quick look at what critical thinking looks like when put into action by one of history's most original critical thinkers, Benjamin Franklin.

So here we go.

Let's see what happened on his very day, September 3rd in 1752.

Do you know what happened on September 3rd, 1752?

Nothing. That's what happened on September 3rd, 1752, 274 years ago today.

Nothing.

Why, then, you must be asking, is Eli here interrupting my day when he has nothing better to do? Well, as it turns out, no, I don't have anything better to do, at least not today.

Today's a great day in history when nothing happened.

That date and year is when the Gregorian calendar replaced the Julian calendar by an act of British Parliament.

The difference between the Julian calendar of 46 BC and the Gregorian calendar was 11 days.

So Parliament decreed that Wednesday, December 2nd will be followed by Thursday, September 14th.

The Gregorian calendar had been adopted by Pope Gregory XIII it would make sense that Gregorian calendar was adopted by Gregory and that took place in most European countries but leave it to the British to take another 170 years to do it as this change came into being most everyone just lost their minds.

I mean, flipped out, went bonkers, off the rails, nuts.

People generally lost it.

Bill collectors and debtors became confused, some unscrupulously.

Rumors spread that employees would lose 11 days pay, birthdays and anniversaries vanished, business schedules were totally blown, Ocean navigation, especially to and from the American colonies Was set out to sea, so to speak And scammers were everywhere Or at least the 18th century version of scammers In the ensuing chaos Londoners rioted in the streets You can picture that, right?

And demanded, get this now give us our 11 days back.

Yeah, sure. We'll get right on it.

Meanwhile, on this side of the ocean, in the colonies, Ben Franklin put the whole thing in perspective when he declared, it is pleasant for an old man to be able to go to bed on September 2nd and not have to get up until September 14th. Now, how about that for keeping a cool head when all about you or not?

Which kind of brings us to the point.

Not an executive I know, nor military officer, politician, or crisis manager would disagree with the it'll look better in the morning approach to this part of their jobs.

Colin Powell was famous for.

Just for the record, there are still five countries that partially or fully use a calendar other than the Gregorian.

Afghanistan and Iran use the Sola Hijri calendar, Ethiopia uses its 13-month calendar, Nepal uses the Samvat calendar. And Thailand uses the Gregorian for daily life, but counts the years using the Buddhist era, 543 years difference from the Gregorian.

Now, none of this seems to bother anyone like it did back in 1752.

So you know what? I wish them well.

But before we get off the subject, let's talk about Franklin's remark about him being an old man.

This occurred in 1752 when Franklin was, yep, 46 years old.

I'll bet you the demographics Will tell us That the majority of people listening to this podcast Are 46 or older And Ben Franklin himself lived to 84 So what's the old man routine? Well, it's a couple of things Number one, in the 18th century 46 was not the young man he is now especially in the agrarian South where everyone worked with either their backs or their hands or both. 98 % of the people in the South did work manually.

And so the life expectancy was far lower than it is now.

And number two, Ben Franklin had quite a reputation for being a wise old man, a funny old man, a witty old man, and he loved playing on that. Now, let's stop for a second, because despite the fact that he was 46 at the time, what we know him for is his work during the Revolutionary War and his heroism in getting France to line up with us.

But by that time he was 70, and he was an old man, and that's the image we have of him. But in 1752, he was not an old man.

But he had the reputation of Sartre, and he was, after all, the lead advisor on the committee to whom Thomas Jefferson submitted the draft of the Declaration of Independence 24 years later.

That's a story for another day.

And I won't give away most of it. I'll get back to you on that. So old man or not, to the day he died, Benjamin Franklin was young at heart and truly an American original, an American treasure.

And he had the courage to say, if we're losing September 3rd, what's the problem with that? There really is no problem.

We're losing September 4th, 13th. So what's the problem?

And if you were to ask the rioting colonists, what's the problem today?

They couldn't tell you. Huge story.

True story.

So, number one, what happened on September 3rd, 1752, nothing until you start thinking through it. Great story.

Which brings us to a relevant what-if scenario.

And the question is, what if Ben Franklin never lived in Philadelphia? for you. We're going to take a break right now to hear from our sponsors.

We'll be back very shortly, and I'll give you that question again, and we'll take a look at it. We'll be right back. Before we move on, one more thought follows straight out of 1752 about what happens to the rest of us when the rules change overnight. You would never lose 11 days at single task like they did back in 1752. Mike Kramos and his AI-powered team give you that time back. So you can be more efficient and do the kind of work that actually matters. That is critical thinking in action, the same kind of thinking we talk about on this show every day.

The AI work he builds into your process is exactly the kind of critical thinking this show is about. And that is exactly why he is the producer and sponsor of this show. Okay, just like I threatened, I'm back.

Here's the question in an expanded version.

Ben Franklin, most closely associated with the city of Philadelphia, was actually born He was born in Boston in 1706.

His father apprenticed him to a print shop for a seven-year apprenticeship, extendable to 14 years, so it says in the history books. Well, Ben didn't like that.

He had too much going on, and he decided to leave Boston.

That cast a very, doubtable light on his father, who apparently couldn't come through with the apprenticeship that he promised the printer. Little did Ben care about that. he left Boston in his early teens headed for Philadelphia he managed to work his way down the coast of New England in the northeast United States and into New York where he hung out for a while and from New York down through New Jersey into Philadelphia. The rest is a very rich history. The history of the United States is not complete without Ben Franklin.

The history of Philadelphia is not complete without Ben Franklin. And the history of basically everything he touched was not complete without him.

So what if Ben Franklin weren't rebellious and stayed in Boston? What if it was okay for him to stay as an apprentice, in Boston.

He spent the rest of his life as a printer. He identified himself as a printer, but now he was not an apprentice. He was busy printing things like revolutionary pamphlets, like Poor Richard's Almanac.

He became the voice of America. it's safe to say that had he not struck out on his own and created his own identity and created his own force of nature if you will that a lot of this may not have happened it's easy to understand when you realize Thomas Jefferson for instance was the fourth youngest member of the Constitutional Congress.

Benjamin Franklin was one of the four oldest.

That's the image we have of him, and that's how much things would have changed had he not decided to move from Boston to Philadelphia.

And in the great minds department, it's a very short quip, but a good one, and it's well known.

Ben Franklin spent four years or so as the American envoy to Paris up to and through 1776 when he requested permission to come home and resume his life in Philadelphia.

His permission was granted, of course, because anywhere that Franklin wanted to be they wanted to have him so the colonies replaced Franklin with another darling Thomas Jefferson when Jefferson arrived in Paris he presented his credentials to his counterpart who said to him Mr. Jefferson, you are replacing Dr. Franklin.

And Jefferson is said to have replied, I succeed him. No one could replace him. And that coming from Thomas Jefferson, it becomes very easy to agree with that. I count myself as one student of history who said that Jefferson got it right.

I'm going to take a break now. We'll take another break, and I'll be back after this word from our sponsors. Vantage Point is brought to you by Bergen Volunteers.

Since 1966, they have been quietly at work in Bergen County, neighbors helping neighbors across 70 towns. They mentor kids who need someone in their corner, and they help seniors stay independent at home. and through Bergen Leeds they have trained hundreds of people to lead in their own communities. Nobody there waits for the perfect plan. They see what a town needs and they go and do it. That is critical thinking with the sleeves rolled up as they call it and that is exactly right. To everyone at Bergen Volunteers, thank you for supporting this show and thank you for the work you do.

You can learn more about them online. That's bergenvolunteers.org and since with talking about the people who back this show, Vantage Point, is still looking for a few more sponsors to join Bergen Volunteers. We came out of nowhere in June with no advanced advertising. By our first week, we were already in the top half of five million podcasts worldwide.

By week eight, we were in the top quarter. If your organization wants a personal connection with a thoughtful, engaged audience while it's still early, I'd love to talk.

Sponsorships are limited so if you're interested i'd love to hear from you can find me at ellie amdor it's dot com back for our last little ditty my aphorisms i've got three for you to consider which wouldn't take you much of a stretch to say yeah franklin would have said or agreed with that especially in the 21st century aphorism number one is a definition of the internet now a place where many people who have nothing to say say it aphorism number two most of history is airbrushed some is painted in bold strokes but very little is realism.

And to sign off with you tonight, aphorism number three, which could very well have been written by Benjamin Franklin.

We fail only because we allow ourselves to fail.

That does it for me now on this, the first of our Thursday episodes. interludes, if you will. It occurred to me that the adoption of the Gregorian calendar in 1752 jumped everyone from September 3rd to September 14th. First, let me reassure you that we're not going to lose our podcast episodes between the 3rd and the 14th. We will be here each Monday, the second Monday of which, from right now, happens to be the 14th, when the Gregorian calendar picked up in 1752, and is actually episode 14.

How about that?

I'm going to try to jump in with these Thursday episodes from here on. I'm not sure I'm going to do it every Thursday, But we're going to try to get there But at least for now You can count on two Monday episodes And a Thursday episode Before we get to the 14th How's that for coincidence?

But for the time being Thanks for listening again And thanks for being part of a growing community Of critical thinkers Who are unified together through Vantage Until then, keep questioning, keep learning, and keep thinking critically.