Saturday, July 16, 2005

Calculate Your Ethical Quotient

This just in from my partner and Harvard Business School Professor Felda Hardymon...

This test only has one question, but it's a very important one. By giving an honest answer, you will discover where you stand morally. The test features an unlikely, completely fictional situation in which you will have to make a decision. Remember that your answer needs to be honest, yet spontaneous. Please scroll down slowly and give due consideration to each line...


You are in Florida, Miami to be specific. There is chaos all around you caused by a hurricane with severe flooding. This is a flood of biblical proportions. You are a photojournalist working for a major newspaper, and you're caught in the middle of this epic disaster, The situation is nearly hopeless. You're trying to shoot career-making photos. There are houses and people swirling around you, some disappearing under the water. Nature is unleashing all of its destructive fury. Suddenly you see a man floundering in the water. He is fighting for his life, trying not to be taken down with the debris. You move closer . . . somehow the man looks familiar. You suddenly realize who it is. It's George W. Bush! At the same time you notice that the raging waters are about to take him under...forever. You have two options--you can save the life of G.W. Bush or you can shoot a dramatic Pulitzer Prize winning photo, documenting the death of one of the world's most powerful men. So here's the question, and please give an honest answer: Would you select high contrast color film, or would you go with the classic simplicity of black and white?

8 comments:

  1. Anonymous3:48 PM

    Trick question. Vampires do not appear when photographed.

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  2. Anonymous7:19 PM

    This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  3. In the age of digital photography and Photoshop, this ending makes no sense. The updated dilemma is: do you use a RAW format (highest quality) or JPEG (several shots). But wait a second, can I make more money selling a picture of the drowning prez or the book rights for how I saved him?!

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  4. lol - still grinning.

    Killer question. It would be a hell of a photo but on the flip side you could leverage the lifesaving to get a meeting with Colin Powell and a job at K-P... Tough one.

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  5. Anonymous8:49 AM

    Film ?

    Hang on a sec ....
    > date
    Tue Jul 19 10:40:48 CDT 2005


    Perhaps the "joke" (or the "joke" author) was actually part of an elaborate quantum teleportation experiment ....

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  6. Anonymous1:08 PM

    I don't think it's a question of ethics since there's no choice involved. You'er constrained by the film that is already loaded in the camera. A more telling question is: "do you go for a candid shot, or do you try to get his attention before taking the picture?"

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  7. Anonymous6:10 PM

    I'd moblog/videoblog the event with one hand and grab George W'yah wit the other. Simple really.

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  8. The question and subsequent comments are hilarious! The question wouldn't be so amusing had the flailing, drowning subject not been the POTUS. Being Canadian, I'll leave my opinions of the American President to the Americans. :)

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