Thoughts
What makes me tick
Human life is blessed and cursed with five senses - sight, hearing, taste, smell and touch. It is the very basis of everything we know and understand. When you’re learning something specific, you often have to put aside your naturally stronger senses to acquire competence in another. You’re often told as a child to “find what you like”. What it really means is understanding your strengths so that you fit into certain roles better. But society rewards people with certain abilities more than others. You must at some point have felt that its unfair that you are what you are, and that you have to force yourself to work extra hard to adapt.
And that is where the beauty lies.
In this day and age, people are not only looking for natural talent, they are also looking for people who can put in the time and effort to make up for their natural short-comings. And believe me, there are a fair share of talented people who have never worked on them, because they received rewards for their natural talents. Its never sunshine and roses even for those who seem to be successful.
Now I get that its harsh that all juveniles are expected to grasp things as fast as, or faster than others in school. But you need to think from a “long game” perspective. Success that comes very quickly, also fades away very quickly. So it doesn’t matter if you’re slow, behind everyone else and struggling to get where everyone else is. As long as you’re putting in the effort, you’re better than a majority who don’t.
The bottom line? A little discipline, persistence and a strong will will always triumph, regardless of where you ideally fit or what your pitfalls are.
Environment
When we talk about wildlife and its extinction, it’s generally the lack of a habitable place for those poor animals to live in, in which they have been thriving, which has been the main reason for their existence. Some intelligent creatures learn to adapt, finding their way to co-exist with a slightly unfavorable surrounding. But the more “wild” ones struggle, and often perish.
The same can be said for a human being. Fortunately, we are intelligent enough to survive even in the most sickening places. We are given the tools to make our own tools to make our lives easier and less painful. Our greatest, yet underrated tool, is communication.
Unfortunately, when we speak any language, there’s a second, abstract language that we also convey simultaneously. Some perceive it well, some don’t see the point of it, and some don’t see it at all. This disparity can lead to a lot of misunderstandings, and therefore catastrophic mishappenings, which could indirectly result in an unfair, unfavorable environment for all.
Picture a skilled knight with his sword and armor in a village full of harmless traders, a genius in a room full of imposters and liars, a lion among a group of hyenas… What is common in them? They are all alone and wasted potential.
What does man feel when he is wasted potential?
Concerts and performances
“Music is the arrangement of sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm, or otherwise expressive content. Music is generally agreed to be a cultural universal that is present in all human societies.”
Lets talk about society.
When was the last time your actions weren’t for the benefit of someone else?
- Can you buy a house in this day and age for yourself? No, but someone can.
- Do you always get the credit you deserve? No, someone else does.
- You benefit only when it benefits someone else too? Conveniently.
- Autonomy is perceived as rebellion? Yes, that would mean someone can’t benefit from you.
If someone “plays the wrong note”, they’re frowned upon for ruining harmony. But if you don’t dance to the tunes regardless, you’re out of the act.
We put our headphones to listen to music we like, but what we really are just trying to do is shut off the “music” that seeks to dictate our actions. Maybe we are tired of “helping” the collective in exchange for a currency that also benefits someone else whilst eroding the self.
Even a lot of us in our professions are given the illusion that we are making a difference. But that is just another symphony that will quickly die out with a wake-up call.
What your life really is is just a show, a musical. Carry on, keep dancing :)
Reflections of your influence
We often find it hard to preserve things in the ever changing landscape of life. New people, new places, new everything.
Even you’re not the same person you were yesterday. Do you need to be a different person? Well, yes and no.
Yes, because if you don’t, you can’t expect to learn anything beyond what you know, or think beyond what you already can. There is growth in change, expansion of your comfort zone, greater tolerance to information you can process, and explore new limitations to test. Your survival does rely on this factor.
No, because your integrity dies by a thousand cuts everyday, if you have any. If you’re a person who is easily influenced by something or someone, you often pick up their neurolinguistics and traits, become like them, then attract the same kind of circumstances as them. You inherit what they’re feeling, their likes and dislikes and so many other things that just aren’t you. Everyday you sleep, you wake up to become more and more like this person who you probably look up to. But this isn’t necessarily always a bad thing.
Your folks always warn you about who you hang out with, and it is for this reason. But ultimately, you hangout with what you think should be your life; you don’t ever fully lead your own life.
On the flip side, beware of people who look up to you. They have the potential to hamper your growth, they are more and more becoming the old you, and they can’t keep up. Most will parrot you until they find someone else, or when they find their own voice. Do not be heartbroken when they do.
Weaponizing the conscience
Blood, sweat and tears
4 billion years ago, asteroids collided with the Earth’s surface which resulted in about 1 million tons of gold just on the top kilometer of the Earth’s surface. Imagine the sheer amount beneath it that is untouched by human hands. We pull out our shovels and start digging to find this priceless element, capitalize it. Why? Its just a shiny metal with no major use (other than perhaps building essential components for computers on a mass scale, but what if we never got to the point of using computers so widely?). It symbolifies “permanence”, like an unbroken promise.
But would it ever have any value if it was easily available like water? (Which is also quite priceless, especially for the survival of life). The answer is no. It would have been taken for granted.
The only thing that has any solid value is something that doesn’t come easily. It only has value when something is sacrificed.
Someday, the air that you breathe and the water you drink could become the next gold. Wars will be fought, blood will be spilled, tears will be shed just for those ounces. But this is a dystopian future that still has time to reach us.
What about our current lives? Are we sacrificing several things for something that doesn’t come easy? Or are we looking for quick success and reward with little to no effort?
Are we objectively looking at ourselves and accepting the truth or are we just turning our sails based off the whims of the world? Are we so insecure about ourselves that we choose to become like everybody else because its validated? Is our self-esteem so low that we don’t think we can be something more?
The first step to evolve is to have the will to sacrifice. The will to fight comfort. Is there any will left?
The will, is gold.
Truths, Ideals, Standards and Accuracy
In these times of information overload, it is often difficult to deduce or differentiate fact from fiction and truths from lies. We may also face a wavering conscience. But there is one thing that is indeed true… The more you know, the more you know you don’t know.
In the field of computer science, when we talk about truths, the concept of a “truth table” comes to our minds. A function or an operation that has a fixed result based on one or more inputs.
The human mind could arguably be considered a large truth table with an infinite amount of outputs based on an infinite amount of inputs. But what is it’s significance? It is output formed from years of experiencing things, the experience being input parameters. Obviously, it’s not as simple as a 3 row 3 column truth table, and neither are the inputs just 1s and 0s. But a person without his own table has no identity or personality.
It is also fact that between the outcome and the input lies a mathematical operation. But sadly, this is abstract without a bit of “soul searching”. And we all live our lives trying to map out our truth tables, in an attempt to define ourselves at every moment, as it is essential for our survival. But never do we figure out the math behind it, only a table that defines what you give and take… Similar to what we call a reputation.
And it is because of these shortcomings that we look for specific entries in someone’s table and deduce whether they (an instruction) fit well in society (a system).
A phenomenon beyond our understanding has given us a chance, and free will, to set our truth tables and understand ourselves better. This is also important to form a better society. Let’s not throw it away while we’re at it.