Monthly Archives: April 2018

If you have a very important event happening the next morning, it is much better to do everything earlier in that morning. Sometimes I have the tendency to do things the night before so that I feel like I can wake up at the last minute. But that is usually not much different if not worse to waking up a little earlier. The time spent is the same so the amount of sleep you get will be similar.

More importantly the mind is extremely fresh in the morning if sleep is adequate. This means that you would be more unlikely to miss something. It is also much easier to guarantee waking up earlier than being able to sleep in till later.

There seems to be many iconic people getting bashed online these days. In fact it has probably been happening for much longer but I have been refusing to partake in following social trends too closely.

Now for some reason when someone is online and does something different, it seems to be free for anyone to criticise openly. The type of criticism you won’t hear of face to face. You know for some reason it’s as if typing gives you immunity. It’s even worse when there is anonymity but it happens to people with faces as well.

I have been guilty of this in the past, but I have always come on as a contrarian. This means I focus on mainstream thinking and highlight what I think does not make sense. Now I don’t even do this anymore. I feel silenced and actually a little scared.

It is no wonder young people are suicidal these days. The premise is free speech but the reality is just free judgement. There is a proven method to fast popularity, don’t be too original. Follow the trends of the time.

Yet the trends are not the truth. Do we not care about the truth any more? Or are we all too scared to speak up our own thoughts?

There is a sign on nature parks that says “Keeping wildlife wild”. The idea is that we do not feed the animals so they don’t depend on us. Yet why are we as humans going the other way around?

A long time ago we had to learn to cope. If you felt bored on the train you might try to talk with someone next to you or perhaps bring a book out to read. If you were not heterosexual, you would find another means to express yourself like great artwork or acting. We have now lost this need to fight or cope. We are pretty much just getting ourselves more dependent on other things and other people. Moreso other things.

Is it wrong to be wild? Are we just dooming ourselves to fail eventually? The truth is it won’t take much to take most of the human race out as an alien species. Just permanently cut power supply grids, the internet and GPS. Isn’t allowing them to be wild how we preserve the strength of the animal ecosystem?

I look for something and it’s not there. I get frustrated and I continue to wait. Wait for a bus that doesn’t arrive. Yet many cars come by offering me a lift. Why don’t I jump on?

The drums call me and I can’t resist it. It beckons for a strong longing that can’t be fulfilled by other thrills. Are these mistakes I will regret later on?

The masquerade continues but how long can I hold on to the mask…

When you start to learn something on your own, you will most likely come across very difficult terms and concepts. Trying to learn these concepts turns out even more unknown terms and concepts and it almost doesn’t seem to end. Don’t give up yet!

Try to get the minimum out of the way before going into the full detail. You need to first start with a working solution you can implement and get the basics of it. Once things are working, then these basics can carry you forward.

Don’t be fooled that the basics are everything though. These basics are only a precursor for further questions down the line. However if you gave up even understanding the basics you will never progress to the next step.

At the beginning, you will start thinking how you know a lot until you realize otherwise. Go along with this long enough and you will reach a point you really do know a lot. Don’t forget to try to help others along the way.

You should never try to teach someone a big lesson without a chance for closure. Usually when we want to make a big effect we dramatize beyond our normal selves. This disorientates the person you are trying to teach and also tends to give a negative association with the experience. Unless the person desired to really learn something in the first place, this negative experience will leave a scarring effect and learning is sabotaged.

This is why it is good to find a good mentor or teacher when trying to learn difficult things by experience. The teacher can impart difficult lessons and still be there to pick you up when you feel like giving up. A passing stranger will make you feel you probably just have to avoid a certain situation.

The early worm catches the fish. Yet the fish you catch is not of the same quality. There is always an amount of time where it makes more sense to be early rather than be on time. Everybody aims to be on time, so that has the least benefit.

If you are making a big effort to be on time, then most likely it is much more worth to be extra early. And don’t forget, it also makes sense to be late at times.

A truly new industry starts unregulated. Sometimes a disrupted industry is also deregulated. This is supposed to bring stability and safety to the market place. While this is often true, the reason for the regulation is often because of a very imbalanced beginning, favouring an elite few early adopters.

Once regulations kick in, one of two things usually happen. Either the original early adopters get to keep a significant advantage or they try and level the playing field for everyone and restart the circuit. More often than not it will be the latter.

What this means is if entering or creating in a brand new industry, it is always important to remember that any outstanding first mover benefits will not last long. It is best to adjust expectations and prepare for a downturn caused by regulation much earlier.

A critical part of a good plan is a good fallback. When things are not going well there is a sense of certainty knowing that there is an alternative plan in place to take over. However this fallback is often the reason for long term systemic failure.

The reason for that is people start becoming complacent when they know that there is a backup. At first nobody wants to use it. But over time this becomes more than just crutches, but a means in itself integrated into the master plan. Yet most fallbacks were not designed that way.

We must constantly evaluate whether the fallbacks we set in place are truly hampering real progress. If they are, it is best to label them as critical emergencies instead.

When an indirect service is bad and we complain about it, most often we don’t truly understand what the issue is caused by. What I mean by indirect service is a service that is beyond the experience of the person delivering it. Large companies call this customer service. I refer to the real product or service behind this customer service.

There are a lot of times when spending the effort to find out the reasons for this issue will satisfy some of your gripes. This is because when we complain we have an expectation, and sometimes this expectation cannot be met because of something we cannot see. If this expectation can and should be met, it instead gives us a more precise means to resolve the complaint and direct it to the correct entity. Either way it will become a more positive and constructive experience.

It is okay to complain about things. Just when you do, it will be even better to really listen to the other side before coming to conclusions.