I feel that since I'll be using the "five points about this and that" format frequently, I should occasionally revise them. For this post, I'll try to go more in-depth about the creation of such lists and their similarity to physics. You see, what happens in physics is that some measurements can be made impossible due to measurement errors.
In a straightforward example: consider measuring the length of an A4 paper, with a typical ruler used in math classes in high school. It would be tedious and bit annoying to measure a straight line, yet still doable. Consider now, using the same ruler, to measure the exact height of the same A4 paper. Now that's a task impossible to achieve with what you have at hand, because at best, you're limited to the scale that the ruler uses. Even adding a few A4 papers on top of each other will still make it for a pile smaller than 1 millimeter and therefore not measurable exactly with the given tool.
And even if you have the possibility of more precise measurements, you always have to consider if it makes sense to do so. For example, if you're summing up two quantities, one being the height of a chair (let's say around 1 meter for the sake of it) and the other an A4 paper poised on top of it (let's say it's 0,1 mm for the sake of the argument). It doesn't make much sense to include the A4 in your measurements at all. In fact, the chair is 10.000 times higher than the piece of paper and therefore it's perfectly ok to measure only the height of the chair and forget the paper altogether - the 0.01% of paper added value that you discard is very likely smaller than the measurement error you have.
There's a hidden question here: When are approximations good and when not? The answer is far from being simple as it depends on specific cases (what do we want to measure and how) and most of all, to answer it properly, you need a detailed study of statistics and data analysis, which is beyond the current scope of this writing. What I'd like to talk about, instead, is how this (in my opinion) applies to the style of writing a list of five.
The first aspect of writing such a list is thinking about the topic I'd like to write about. Depending on how scattered my thoughts are, I can already know what I'll be writing about, or figure it out as I write. There are plenty of topics that I can talk about, both something I didn't yet cover, as well as revisions of my past ideas.
By choosing 5 points for each topic, I acknowledge that they're more important then the rest - I approximate the whole topic with the select choice of 5. This doesn't mean that other points don't exist or are useless, mind you! It's just that in my opinion, they don't measure up to the five I've chosen. Currently, I don't think I'll be able to give a determined quantity of what was left out. I'm not able to say, e.g. "these following five points cover 90% of the important matters of this topic". And neither am I be able to give a measurement error for them.
Even without measurements, the "lists of 5" can have, between them, a huge difference in the importance of the points they cover. It should be evident (I try to make it evident) by reading them. What this means is that there will be cases where every point on the list is equally important, as well as cases where only one point (or a few) are relevant and the rest is interesting, but not of crucial importance. This is a downside of the lists of 5 - you have to read them through in order to understand what's truly important and what is, perhaps, only a point to illustrate other points better.
In these cases, I could as well decide to keep the list flexible and sometimes give 3, other times 8 points. For the time being, I prefer the number 5. I think it's a really nice number to convey a lot of information and yet not too much and it makes me think really hard in order to prepare it properly.
I'll keep thinking about how to improve this format, and if I can come up with an effective measure of something - anything - about this writing, you can be damn sure I'll use it here. Setting things straight is important in today's world, as far too many people get lost and wind up depressed. I want to be exact, so that people can then either correct me when I'm wrong, or I myself realize what I've failed to properly describe and give it another try.
torek, 2. februar 2016
ponedeljek, 1. februar 2016
5 differences to be aware of in Love and Relationships
Beginning of the week, resuming of the blog. I needed time off for the weekend to vent. Without further ado, let's begin...
Let's face it: most people have emotions and therefore fall in love, cry about it or rage, get over it or get doomed by it. Sometimes, people stay together without realizing they're destroying themselves and their kids. Because of love even wars have been started in the past. I think that it's time to openly talk about it.
I'm starting this off on the basis of a bold claim: that there is a difference between loving someone (irrational thinking) and a romantic relationship with someone (rational thinking). In fact, I believe, like Schopenhauer did , that love is something purely biological and it's our bodies telling us who we're biologically compatible with - whose genes will give us good offspring.
What this means, in other words is that in order to have an epic love story, you have to find (or be found by) someone who attracts you both biologically, as well as on a more rational level, to form a couple who's strengthening each other and giving positive effects to other people as well, rather than some destructive family tragedy.
I'll try to prove this by listing 5 things that a lot of people get confused about in romance & love.
(side note: after I'm done working on myself with the help of REBT, I plan on reading a CBT book about relationships. Perhaps then I'll revise what I wrote here).
We get brainwashed by our favorite love stories as kids and during adolescence (perhaps even after?), forming certain ideas about what love is and what is not. How should two people behave and meet each other. There are of course some excellent, unpretentious movies and books that talk about the diversity of life and love. Yet sadly in most works love gets simplified, to the point of it being a complete waste of paper it's printed on, like those glittering sad excuses for vampires and teddy bears playing werewolves wannabe. It's not even worth mentioning the name of the book or author.
More to the point - love gets glorified and yet made incredibly dumb and completely unrealistic. And of course, most of us aren't prepared to face situations we have unrealistic expectations about. Now if someone is young, it's completely understandable that they experience it firsthand. Problem is, when this false pretense for love makes people do irrational decisions that have heavy consequences, like marrying or having kids too soon, or, on the other hand, resolving to a lifelong regretting and still not letting go. Because it gets harder and harder to admit to yourself that you're in a relationship with someone who your body tells you're compatible and the brain cannot accept it - even more so if the "teachings" of the aforementioned books get rooted deep inside into our way of thinking.
5.2 Romantic Relationship - can you even tell me what it would be for you?
When was the last time you read a book or watched a movie where they took enough time to develop characters properly and to actually see how a good romantic relationship works? When I talk about a romantic relationship I don't mean that there can't be a place for foolish actions - because of the aspect of love as I discussed above. We are only human after all and as such we make mistakes and are irrational at times. What is, however, the key difference here, is that relationships require a lot of talking, honesty and sincerity. In order for that to work, first and foremost, you have to be honest with yourself and understand what person you are.
Let's consider now a case when a couple do manage to have an incredible romantic relationship. What happens next is that it's always talked about as "a great love story". Nobody talks about how that romantic relationship was a really successful one, because of reasons... And therefore, we can be easily lured into thinking we're living a fantastic love story purely based on biological attraction, perhaps topped off with some common interests. The more two people who love each other have in common, the harder it is to realize if they are really compatible deep down inside. For that to happen, you need time, different experiences to live through and talking. Lots and lots of talking.
Love is very frequently talked about in pop culture, art and even news stories. Did you know, however, that most philosophers avoid speaking about love altogether? It's a difficult subject to talk about properly and not be hated by people. It doesn't make sense that thinkers avoid this topic and common people throw themselves at it as if there was no tomorrow, don't you think? Everyone has, I think, their own idea or vision of their possible love story and as I mentioned in the previous point, it's likely an exaggerated version of the reality. Love is so omnipresent in our lives, that on many occasions (birthdays, new years, etc...) we wish each other good luck and lots of love!
Love everywhere and yet statistics being brutally clear: there's an alarming large rate of divorces and problematic families, as well as problematic individuals. Perhaps it's time that most people shut up on this subject, and that it gets properly handled by philosophers, neuroscientists and biologists (I'll briefly elaborate this further in point 3).
4.2 Romantic Relationship - Only experts talk about it
There are even counselors specialized in therapy sessions for couples or families - that's how well this topic is researched. And yet, as I mentioned before, nobody seems to attribute an awesome romantic relationship to what it is: lots of talking and understanding. Nobody talks about this.
In fact even couples, who are in an awesome romantic relationships probably won't speak about it unless questioned. And their well-being together would be seen outside as a sign of love.
Truth is, scientists have yet to give a definitive answer as to what love is exactly. There have been some studies showing that being in love actually has a physical effect on the body. Having said that, we still don't know exactly all the details and this is the reason why I, at least for the time being, completely agree with Schopenhauer. We love because that's what human's brain does to the animal instinct of finding the right mate.
3.2 Romantic Relationship - Should be perfectly known by now
Emphasis on should. While some people do understand this, most don't - because as in the second point, it's not discussed enough among general population. Most are unaware that they're blinding themselves in a doomed love story instead of a functional relationship. You know why I think so? Because if people were mature about this, if everyone knew themselves and what kind of person they'd be prepared to share their lives with, then inevitably we wouldn't have so many abuses at homes and problematic grownups who had a horrible childhood.
Think about it: with a newborn, all knowledge starts with the parents. And if these are not fit to be together, let alone be parents, then that's a serious problem. Especially if their son / daughter has the potential of becoming a powerful person.
Also some people get burned once and learn, while others prefer to keep burning and take it with philosophy (Aristotle:"My advice to you is to get married. If you marry well, you'll be happy. If not, you'll become a philosopher.").
This point right here is to further underline how we shouldn't rely too much on love. It's beautiful to love and be loved, but it isn't the end of the world if a love story goes wrong. So far in my life I went by what could have been several love stories and I got hot headed too many times, ending up disappointed and depressed.
Love is something we can't control as it's influenced by biology and therefore it can happen as well as it cannot. Most people (depending on how emotional you are), will fall in love plenty of times during their lives and that's perfectly fine. We're not made to love an exact specific human being. I mean, how much would it suck if everyone had merely one soul-mate and that person died early on?
2.2 Romantic Relationship - Rational
Relationships are something that we can control. We decide who we hang up with (if they want to do the same of course) and who is better left unfriended. Same with Romantic Relationships - we can understand if another person would help in making us better or not.
Also, if you're already in a successful romantic relationship, then at every moment in time, you're perfectly able to tell why you're with someone, without resorting to "but-s" , "however-s" and other excuses. In the ideal scenario, you understand yourself and the other person and therefore, also the relationship between is second nature to you.
Because of the love's inherent irrational nature, people's over-idolization of love and too little understanding of themselves, romantic triangles and affairs pose, in my opinion, a big problem to the civilization as a whole.By now you've seen that all 5 of the points I write about here are connected. The only reason I emphasized one after another is to give them extra importance. Especially this last point, which is, most critical of them all.
How many friends have you lost because of the other sex? How many disputes, arguments and problems because of two friends liking the same person? In our society it's perfectly normal to "win a girl over" and that creates competition for no reason at all!! I never understood this idea that you'd have to "win" somebody - like a jackpot or something. Only when talking about love can you even consider talking about winning and inevitably, there will be some losers as well.
1.2 Romantic Relationship - Builds love and reinforces relationships
On the other hand, in a romantic relationship you don't "win" another. You choose each other and both are aware of the choice that they made.
And if two people are in a great romantic relationship, they reinforce each other, know how to properly convey good ideas to their kids and even connect to more people and help them out. In fact, if a relationship is perfectly functional, than the pair in it will be happy in helping others as well instead of dealing with their own problems and spreading them onto others.
All of this to say one simple thing: please, be extremely careful in choosing a lifelong companion. That's a choice that can have an impact beyond your wildest imagination. Think. Talk. Make the choice a good one.
Let's face it: most people have emotions and therefore fall in love, cry about it or rage, get over it or get doomed by it. Sometimes, people stay together without realizing they're destroying themselves and their kids. Because of love even wars have been started in the past. I think that it's time to openly talk about it.
I'm starting this off on the basis of a bold claim: that there is a difference between loving someone (irrational thinking) and a romantic relationship with someone (rational thinking). In fact, I believe, like Schopenhauer did , that love is something purely biological and it's our bodies telling us who we're biologically compatible with - whose genes will give us good offspring.
What this means, in other words is that in order to have an epic love story, you have to find (or be found by) someone who attracts you both biologically, as well as on a more rational level, to form a couple who's strengthening each other and giving positive effects to other people as well, rather than some destructive family tragedy.
I'll try to prove this by listing 5 things that a lot of people get confused about in romance & love.
(side note: after I'm done working on myself with the help of REBT, I plan on reading a CBT book about relationships. Perhaps then I'll revise what I wrote here).
5. Thinking
5.1 Love - propaganda driven surreal expectationsWe get brainwashed by our favorite love stories as kids and during adolescence (perhaps even after?), forming certain ideas about what love is and what is not. How should two people behave and meet each other. There are of course some excellent, unpretentious movies and books that talk about the diversity of life and love. Yet sadly in most works love gets simplified, to the point of it being a complete waste of paper it's printed on, like those glittering sad excuses for vampires and teddy bears playing werewolves wannabe. It's not even worth mentioning the name of the book or author.
More to the point - love gets glorified and yet made incredibly dumb and completely unrealistic. And of course, most of us aren't prepared to face situations we have unrealistic expectations about. Now if someone is young, it's completely understandable that they experience it firsthand. Problem is, when this false pretense for love makes people do irrational decisions that have heavy consequences, like marrying or having kids too soon, or, on the other hand, resolving to a lifelong regretting and still not letting go. Because it gets harder and harder to admit to yourself that you're in a relationship with someone who your body tells you're compatible and the brain cannot accept it - even more so if the "teachings" of the aforementioned books get rooted deep inside into our way of thinking.
5.2 Romantic Relationship - can you even tell me what it would be for you?
When was the last time you read a book or watched a movie where they took enough time to develop characters properly and to actually see how a good romantic relationship works? When I talk about a romantic relationship I don't mean that there can't be a place for foolish actions - because of the aspect of love as I discussed above. We are only human after all and as such we make mistakes and are irrational at times. What is, however, the key difference here, is that relationships require a lot of talking, honesty and sincerity. In order for that to work, first and foremost, you have to be honest with yourself and understand what person you are.
Let's consider now a case when a couple do manage to have an incredible romantic relationship. What happens next is that it's always talked about as "a great love story". Nobody talks about how that romantic relationship was a really successful one, because of reasons... And therefore, we can be easily lured into thinking we're living a fantastic love story purely based on biological attraction, perhaps topped off with some common interests. The more two people who love each other have in common, the harder it is to realize if they are really compatible deep down inside. For that to happen, you need time, different experiences to live through and talking. Lots and lots of talking.
4. Frequency
4.1 Love - We hear about it / see it all the timeLove is very frequently talked about in pop culture, art and even news stories. Did you know, however, that most philosophers avoid speaking about love altogether? It's a difficult subject to talk about properly and not be hated by people. It doesn't make sense that thinkers avoid this topic and common people throw themselves at it as if there was no tomorrow, don't you think? Everyone has, I think, their own idea or vision of their possible love story and as I mentioned in the previous point, it's likely an exaggerated version of the reality. Love is so omnipresent in our lives, that on many occasions (birthdays, new years, etc...) we wish each other good luck and lots of love!
Love everywhere and yet statistics being brutally clear: there's an alarming large rate of divorces and problematic families, as well as problematic individuals. Perhaps it's time that most people shut up on this subject, and that it gets properly handled by philosophers, neuroscientists and biologists (I'll briefly elaborate this further in point 3).
4.2 Romantic Relationship - Only experts talk about it
There are even counselors specialized in therapy sessions for couples or families - that's how well this topic is researched. And yet, as I mentioned before, nobody seems to attribute an awesome romantic relationship to what it is: lots of talking and understanding. Nobody talks about this.
In fact even couples, who are in an awesome romantic relationships probably won't speak about it unless questioned. And their well-being together would be seen outside as a sign of love.
3. Knowledge
3.1 Love - A lot of unexplored territoryTruth is, scientists have yet to give a definitive answer as to what love is exactly. There have been some studies showing that being in love actually has a physical effect on the body. Having said that, we still don't know exactly all the details and this is the reason why I, at least for the time being, completely agree with Schopenhauer. We love because that's what human's brain does to the animal instinct of finding the right mate.
3.2 Romantic Relationship - Should be perfectly known by now
Emphasis on should. While some people do understand this, most don't - because as in the second point, it's not discussed enough among general population. Most are unaware that they're blinding themselves in a doomed love story instead of a functional relationship. You know why I think so? Because if people were mature about this, if everyone knew themselves and what kind of person they'd be prepared to share their lives with, then inevitably we wouldn't have so many abuses at homes and problematic grownups who had a horrible childhood.
Think about it: with a newborn, all knowledge starts with the parents. And if these are not fit to be together, let alone be parents, then that's a serious problem. Especially if their son / daughter has the potential of becoming a powerful person.
Also some people get burned once and learn, while others prefer to keep burning and take it with philosophy (Aristotle:"My advice to you is to get married. If you marry well, you'll be happy. If not, you'll become a philosopher.").
2. The key difference
2.1 Love - IrrationalThis point right here is to further underline how we shouldn't rely too much on love. It's beautiful to love and be loved, but it isn't the end of the world if a love story goes wrong. So far in my life I went by what could have been several love stories and I got hot headed too many times, ending up disappointed and depressed.
Love is something we can't control as it's influenced by biology and therefore it can happen as well as it cannot. Most people (depending on how emotional you are), will fall in love plenty of times during their lives and that's perfectly fine. We're not made to love an exact specific human being. I mean, how much would it suck if everyone had merely one soul-mate and that person died early on?
2.2 Romantic Relationship - Rational
Relationships are something that we can control. We decide who we hang up with (if they want to do the same of course) and who is better left unfriended. Same with Romantic Relationships - we can understand if another person would help in making us better or not.
Also, if you're already in a successful romantic relationship, then at every moment in time, you're perfectly able to tell why you're with someone, without resorting to "but-s" , "however-s" and other excuses. In the ideal scenario, you understand yourself and the other person and therefore, also the relationship between is second nature to you.
1. The Irony
1.1 Love - destroys relationships and (potential) romantic relationshipsBecause of the love's inherent irrational nature, people's over-idolization of love and too little understanding of themselves, romantic triangles and affairs pose, in my opinion, a big problem to the civilization as a whole.By now you've seen that all 5 of the points I write about here are connected. The only reason I emphasized one after another is to give them extra importance. Especially this last point, which is, most critical of them all.
How many friends have you lost because of the other sex? How many disputes, arguments and problems because of two friends liking the same person? In our society it's perfectly normal to "win a girl over" and that creates competition for no reason at all!! I never understood this idea that you'd have to "win" somebody - like a jackpot or something. Only when talking about love can you even consider talking about winning and inevitably, there will be some losers as well.
1.2 Romantic Relationship - Builds love and reinforces relationships
On the other hand, in a romantic relationship you don't "win" another. You choose each other and both are aware of the choice that they made.
And if two people are in a great romantic relationship, they reinforce each other, know how to properly convey good ideas to their kids and even connect to more people and help them out. In fact, if a relationship is perfectly functional, than the pair in it will be happy in helping others as well instead of dealing with their own problems and spreading them onto others.
All of this to say one simple thing: please, be extremely careful in choosing a lifelong companion. That's a choice that can have an impact beyond your wildest imagination. Think. Talk. Make the choice a good one.
petek, 29. januar 2016
The five fold stupidity of the human race
There are so many things that I could be talking about, so what do I chose as the first list of 5? Well, something provocative of course! There's a reason for it, as I'll try to explain in the following.
Let's start with a fact: Did you know that the world's richest 1% have the same amount of wealth as the poorest 50%? In the USA, and plenty other states dominated by capitalism, the top 10% own 90% of the wealth and the other 90% of people own the remaining 10%. And these people in charge are not doing a good job in preserving the Earth, as I will elaborate in the following 5 points and we're stupid for letting them.
While reading the 5 points, ask yourselves: why not reach out to as many people as possible, stand together as the human race, and avoid destroying ourselves?
5. Exponential stupidity (Historical and evolution's views)
- The structure of our brains hasn't changed (didn't evolve) in the past 50.000 years
- The agricultural revolution is dated around 8000-5000 BCE
- The first settlements that evolved into civilizations began around 4000 - 3000 BCE
- After the humble beginnings, the civilizations grew and expanded more and more
- This trend has been especially pronounced after the second world war (in other words, the past 60 years no less), the population exploded upwards, over the billion and almost reaching up to 8 now
I could go on with writing other significant events, exponentially more frequent with the passing of time, but I don't plan spending all night finding out exact dates. The best way to really understand the exponential quality of our history is to go play Sid Meier's Civilization series if you haven't already. From the first settlements to flourishing empires, or usually monarchies in single-player games, the Civ saga strives to convey what it means to control the fate of a civilization through the passing of time.
If you're not keen on games, you can look at how all the sciences developed for example. Physics derives, quite directly, from the teachings of Plato (5th or 4th century BCE) - with his idea that there is a world out there (math, abstract) of which we perceive only the shadows (physics, real world), and don't realize it. The first to formulate the idea of a controlled measurement in physics was Galileo Galilei almost 2 millenia after (1564-1642) and look at where physics and science has brought us since, especially with the invention of the computer and the internet!
I daresay we've come to a point where we almost surpassed the evolution, and will begin to enhance our brains beyond control. Even science should have a temporary limit, as if to say: "Nope, sadly humanity isn't ready for this technology. Go play with it in your garage and don't harm anyone." I know it's not possible to limit certain things and on most we shouldn't put limits anyway. Having said that, I think it's problematic when we start to tackle technologies we don't fully comprehend - I can easily envision a future where people will start meddling with our brains in a direct way, before we fully understand all of the intricate details. And those same details will be our downfall.
You know why I think so? Because we clearly haven't understood anything if, after 50.000 years of same brain capabilities, we still wage war and destroy each other. Competition is good, but not in the sense of harming each other or even killing over it. And with the number of people in the world ever growing, more people today are dying of abuse, starvation, depression and other similar cases, than they ever did during an "epic" history battle.
4. Sociopaths stupidity (psychological / sociological / neuroscience view)
These people need to be identified and dealt with. I'm not saying they're bad people, or that they're subhuman or whatever - that would be simply ignorant. My point is that they are undeniably different from the rest and don't realize that bringing pain to others is what the vast majority of people don't consider pleasant. These people need to be set limits in order to understand how to function with everybody else.
If not, if these people remain unattended, then several other people, perhaps even thousands or millions depending on the influence of the sociopath individual, suffer. Sometimes for no reason other than it was more convenient this way. Imagine a typical job office example, depicted comically on various internet sites, where the boss exploits the workers and doesn't give a damn about the workers personal needs. Another example would be where an attention-seeking sociopath plays around with various insecure people, exploiting their weakness and then discarding them like thrash when uninterested.
Morals, codes, ethics and such are there for a reason. No matter how you turn it, for most humans violence isn't the answer, because it brings only negative feelings, post-traumatic stress disorder in case of killing and other negative consequences. We, as a society, are somehow prepared to dealing with obvious psychopaths, but what about this other category of people, these sociopaths, devoid of emotions? Why do we let them thrive and put others through hell? Because we are - you guessed it - collectively stupid.
3. Destructive stupidity (anthropological and physics views)
My answer to that is:"Because anthropology tells us that the Western civilization is nearing its end if nothing changes. And we're following the exact steps of the Romans, the Aztecs and other great Civilizations that have long fallen."
We've proven throughout history that we're extremely good at destroying everything and trying anew, new civilizations, new customs, new culture. And every time we're following patterns, which have emerged during anthropological studies (although, common sense and strategy games should have told you that already). Now imagine for a second that I am right, even if you personally don't believe that everything will collapse in the near future (5-10 years). If I am indeed right, what will happen next? What are our options?
A violent transition is never a good one, and yet there will be no other choice, because we're destroying the Earth we live on. So even in the unlikely scenario that the downfall of the Western civilization will come to peacefully, there's still Nature to be taken into account. Action-reaction principle, right? We fuck with nature (truly, there are no "nicer" words to describe our impact on the Earth) and the nature fucks with us back. And that's because our bodies are made (or rather, evolved) specifically to fit the Earth's living conditions. If we keep changing the Earth, who knows if we'll be able to stay alive and not forced to flee? Stephen Hawking says we should leave Earth as soon as possible, because the leading elite is going to destroy it. Are we, the humanity as a whole, really so stupid to allow it?
There's another point to be aware of: the exponential advances in technology made us obtain incredible power. Power that no single person, or even all of us together could obtain by natural means. Which has the unfortunate consequence that even a single crazy individual could, with enough money, instantly decide to destroy a certain portion of the population or the Earth. We have too much power for our own good.
2. Communication stupidity (linguistics / politics / personal views)
Taking this to a much higher level, in terms of politics and our leaders, or rather, our representatives can't seem to be able to talk to each other and solve everything out merely by talking. With all the different means of translation, we don't have any excuse for not understanding or misinterpreting things. These morons are paid large sums of money to stand there as a cover for the people who truly hold the power - those with money. If the politicians talked to each other with the intent to understand, they could have settled all the matters already. I do realize that with too much corruption it's hard to do anything by yourself - having said that, there are quite some people in every country (a lot more than one person for sure), paid to sit on their assess and pretend like they're discussing for hours while at the same time concluding exactly nothing.
I don't like politics exactly because of this reason. Because everywhere I go people tell me that if I become politically active, I'll be eaten alive by the shit that politics has become. So instead, I share my opinions online. They might not get a whole lot of attention for the moment, but we'll see. I say what I have to say in hopes that people will talk about this, discuss it and that everyone will come to realize that there's a solution for everyone to be happy.
In fact, most people don't desire riches over imagination. I personally hope for a home as close to the sea as possible and a boat. After that I'd only need enough to live a decent lifestyle where I'll be able to support artists and products that I do enjoy. And I, as I think many others, would gladly let someone else have extra money if they deserve it and perhaps even need it for whatever reason. You know, all the problems should be solved by discussing. That would be a perfect victory that Sun Tzu himself would be proud of if still alive.
1. Timeless stupidity (philosophical / mindfulness / rational view)
There will never be a better moment than the present one. That's the whole point, the mortality of people, the beauty of every living moment regardless of how long or short a life is. So take action now, this very second, tell me why I'm wrong or agree with me and explain to others that we need to change everything. Want more proof? The global warming everyone seems to be so keen on talking now: It's been floating around for quite a few years already, yet not enough people took it seriously until there was solid evidence from NASA. And now we have it. Simulations and data analysis: we're going to fuck up Earth properly and there's even a CHANCE WE'RE ALREADY TOO LATE.
So there really isn't any more time to lose and wait it out. We have to radically and non violently change things, such as the 64% of world CO2 emission by USA and China, the wealth distribution and so on and so forth. There's a few of really big issues that need instant attention and quite a lot of lesser ones that should be changed in the following years.
Don't believe me it's possible? Science shows that it's enough for an idea to reach about 2% of the population in order to spread to the whole. This means that simply by reading this, and perhaps talking to others about it, you're already helping spread the idea that we have to change things and do it now, regardless of our laws, traditions, convictions or other useless crap that might blind us in face of really important dangers that humanity as a whole is facing.
The alternative is to think that we won't be able to change anything. Well, in that case, if the vast majority of people can't unite and change the fate of our world, then we are done for. And we'll prove, once and for all, that humanity has been, for the duration of its existence, timelessly stupid.
četrtek, 28. januar 2016
Here I am again
Well, since I've quit using Facebook, with my account being permanently deleted after February the 10th (although they will still retain my data, for another 2 years as it's stated in their terms of use), I decided that I'm going to (again) try to keep this blog updated on a daily basis. I think the most common type of post will be a list of 5, because I really like being concise, to the point and organized.
Of course trying to sum up everything on a given topic with 5 mere points can come across as simplifying too much. However, if you think about it, it's the same with the world we live in: the more you try to get to the building blocks of nature as we understand them today (particle physics, maybe string theory or something else in the future), the simpler and more trivial they are. What is quantum mechanics in its extreme if not the flip of a coin? One quantum state or another. As a side remark, this doesn't make it easy - Studying it from a mathematical perspective is both interesting to me and difficult (impossible?) to fully understand.
And if you turn the process around - from micro to macro, it all makes sense. Flipping six coins, where you sum only the heads (or only tails), will give you the equivalent of a 6-sided die roll. Take an infinite number of coins and you've got the randomness of the universe. Or, as it is suggested in Bioshock Infinite, take an extreme theoretical version of quantum mechanics and you've got an infinite number of universes at your hands. Will it be heads or tails? The bird or the cage?
Before I get too philosophical, I'd like to say that I've given precedence to this writing instead of the book, because I started reading "Be your own CBT Therapist" by Windy Dryden (google if interested, I'll speak more about it shortly). It was out of sheer curiosity I bought this book and I didn't think I'd really need it, as I've sorted everything out in my head. And then, the reality struck me as there is, in Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT), a great difference between intellectual and emotive understanding. In practice, the difference between knowing what I want to do (I do know how I should live on a daily basis to enjoy the most out of every moment), and actually "feeling" that I know it, or rather, converting it into actions. I know I have OVER 9000 (8000 in manga) excuses I'm able to give myself and I need to challenge my understanding on a deeper level in order to go past them.
By analyzing situations in which I could've acted differently from a standpoint of rational behavior, I'll first deal with implementing everything I want to do in a single day and start living and acting in accordance to what's already stored somewhere in my brains. This is exactly the kind of book I needed in order to fully embrace my adulthood.
I still haven't posted the 4th and 5th chapter of the book, because I don't feel like they're ready to be posted online. And thanks to the beginning few chapters of Windy's book I've finally realized why, as the author puts it:"Thus, if a person is faced with a general dissatisfying life experience which cannot be compartmentalized and also wants to explore his writing ambitions, he should address the former first - unless this life dissatisfaction will help him write a better book!"
In my own words it would be: "I don't think that by feeling down I'll write properly. I need to get a hold of my emotions."
So yeah, my book likely won't be finished by March as I wanted to, although I'm fairly optimistic that I'll finish it by the end of 2016 (btw it's a wonderful year for people loving mathematics as the number 2016 has quite a few interesting properties). In the meantime, I'll write posts like this one, or a list of 5 things as mentioned in the beginning, or the most striking thought of a day and I'll always prepare it a day in advance. If you, my dear reader, have any suggestions as to what I could be writing about, I'd gladly accept them. Same goes for criticism of what I write and suggestions on what to change, you can write any of these things in the comments section below (or write me an email or something).
In essence: I can write short posts without problems, because they can be unrelated, while I want to write a book that's deeply intertwined. And for that, I need focus and therefore I need to analyze myself thoroughly with the help of the aforementioned book "Be your own CBT Therapist". An alternative to this would be finding the right girl to share my life story with. In that case I'm pretty confident she'd help me solve my issues, as I would help her solve hers and finally my burning love wouldn't go wasted, or turned into a self-deprecating emotion.
Since, however, I have no idea when (and even if) I'll meet such a companion and I'm currently working a 40-hour workweek, it's hard to find the time to do a whole lot, and therefore my first priority is self-improvement. In the meantime I'll keep my writing skills sharpened with these posts. I hope you enjoy reading these as much as I do writing them! Cheers!
-Tomo Umer
Of course trying to sum up everything on a given topic with 5 mere points can come across as simplifying too much. However, if you think about it, it's the same with the world we live in: the more you try to get to the building blocks of nature as we understand them today (particle physics, maybe string theory or something else in the future), the simpler and more trivial they are. What is quantum mechanics in its extreme if not the flip of a coin? One quantum state or another. As a side remark, this doesn't make it easy - Studying it from a mathematical perspective is both interesting to me and difficult (impossible?) to fully understand.
And if you turn the process around - from micro to macro, it all makes sense. Flipping six coins, where you sum only the heads (or only tails), will give you the equivalent of a 6-sided die roll. Take an infinite number of coins and you've got the randomness of the universe. Or, as it is suggested in Bioshock Infinite, take an extreme theoretical version of quantum mechanics and you've got an infinite number of universes at your hands. Will it be heads or tails? The bird or the cage?
Before I get too philosophical, I'd like to say that I've given precedence to this writing instead of the book, because I started reading "Be your own CBT Therapist" by Windy Dryden (google if interested, I'll speak more about it shortly). It was out of sheer curiosity I bought this book and I didn't think I'd really need it, as I've sorted everything out in my head. And then, the reality struck me as there is, in Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT), a great difference between intellectual and emotive understanding. In practice, the difference between knowing what I want to do (I do know how I should live on a daily basis to enjoy the most out of every moment), and actually "feeling" that I know it, or rather, converting it into actions. I know I have OVER 9000 (8000 in manga) excuses I'm able to give myself and I need to challenge my understanding on a deeper level in order to go past them.
By analyzing situations in which I could've acted differently from a standpoint of rational behavior, I'll first deal with implementing everything I want to do in a single day and start living and acting in accordance to what's already stored somewhere in my brains. This is exactly the kind of book I needed in order to fully embrace my adulthood.
I still haven't posted the 4th and 5th chapter of the book, because I don't feel like they're ready to be posted online. And thanks to the beginning few chapters of Windy's book I've finally realized why, as the author puts it:"Thus, if a person is faced with a general dissatisfying life experience which cannot be compartmentalized and also wants to explore his writing ambitions, he should address the former first - unless this life dissatisfaction will help him write a better book!"
In my own words it would be: "I don't think that by feeling down I'll write properly. I need to get a hold of my emotions."
So yeah, my book likely won't be finished by March as I wanted to, although I'm fairly optimistic that I'll finish it by the end of 2016 (btw it's a wonderful year for people loving mathematics as the number 2016 has quite a few interesting properties). In the meantime, I'll write posts like this one, or a list of 5 things as mentioned in the beginning, or the most striking thought of a day and I'll always prepare it a day in advance. If you, my dear reader, have any suggestions as to what I could be writing about, I'd gladly accept them. Same goes for criticism of what I write and suggestions on what to change, you can write any of these things in the comments section below (or write me an email or something).
In essence: I can write short posts without problems, because they can be unrelated, while I want to write a book that's deeply intertwined. And for that, I need focus and therefore I need to analyze myself thoroughly with the help of the aforementioned book "Be your own CBT Therapist". An alternative to this would be finding the right girl to share my life story with. In that case I'm pretty confident she'd help me solve my issues, as I would help her solve hers and finally my burning love wouldn't go wasted, or turned into a self-deprecating emotion.
Since, however, I have no idea when (and even if) I'll meet such a companion and I'm currently working a 40-hour workweek, it's hard to find the time to do a whole lot, and therefore my first priority is self-improvement. In the meantime I'll keep my writing skills sharpened with these posts. I hope you enjoy reading these as much as I do writing them! Cheers!
-Tomo Umer
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