Archives 2021

The 3 realms

1: The inner world: You owe only to yourself.

2: The social reality: You try to be in a certain position in relation to others.

3: The spiritual sphere: You are part of all and you should try to do your part.

Master the first one and the second one will be less determinant.

Self discipline and commitment. Introspection and self respect. That’s for the inner world.

The second one depends deeply on your wants and goals.

It might work or it might fail. Be empathetic to understand what is needed to be able to produce something worthy for someone else.

The third realm is still a mystery for most of us. For me is yet to be discovered how will I fit in all that there is.

Damaging love

It is ironic but it does exist.

People that truly, really love you, they don’t want to see you hurt.

And they, unaware of the second order damage, try to convince you that you should not risk yourself to failure and shame.

And out of love you listen to them.

“Yeah, probably you are right. I could get burned.” And you put your wings away.

It takes a lot of effort and candor to be able to tell those you love and love you most: “Thanks, and because I honor your love, I have to do this”.

Comply to obsolete

Compliance was designed into our society because it made sense.

It made sense 100 years ago.

When only a few were educated and could understand a system enough to organize those uneducated inside the system, just as if they were cogs.

Today, anyone trying to make someone else comply, or trying to comply themselves, is completely wrong because the industrial and social systems have changed.

It is a matter of survival.

If you are in school and that is the way they are teaching you, you won’t make it out there. The world will eat you alive.

And if you are in a job and they try to force you to comply, run as fast as you can, that company might as well call itself the titanic, it won’t survive.

If you are the founder and you are trying to make people follow your orders blindly, well, now you understand why people just can’t be loyal to you.

Now you should rebel against that kind of compliance, not because it is unfair (and it is), but because it is in your best interest not to behave that way.

The promise

Is all you have and all you’ll ever have.

Fill with hard work your days to fulfill the promise you made to yourself.

That is the formula.

And it is not about senseless hustle. It is about meaningful work. All day, everyday.

It means caring enough to devote yourself to keep showing up to that own assumed responsibility.

Fulfill that promise you made to yourself.

And if you haven’t promised yourself anything yet, well, there you go.

Silly pricing

When I see a 90% discount on anything I immediately assume the real price is the 10%.

Two things happen when this kind of pricing is used:

  1. The perceived value of the item is deroded automatically.
  2. If you try to charge anything superior to 10% the client will get mad, storm out of the door (or webpage) and accuse you of trying to rip her off.

So be cautious. There is no turning back once you start using the huge bargain tactic.

You accept

And then you commit yourself to live with your choice.

Then choice-supportive bias will kick in.

It will drive you to think that your choice is the best choice you could have ever taken. But deep inside of you, you know you just blew it, didn’t you?

And still you won’t change your choice. Even further, now you like it.

It is OK when we talk about an ice cream flavor, or the color of the shirt you are wearing today. But when we talk, for example, about your career or your spouse, things are more serious.

Also consider this: whenever we decide not to act upon anything we should, we are accepting it.

Being too attached

It will leave you standing in a lonely reality.

If you develop a very deep attachment to anything (an opinion, a field of study, a credo, a politic view, a sports team…etcetera) you will find, eventually, that no one seems to really understand you.

Since our brains filter most of the data received, any piece of information that contradicts your belief will be left out. Even if it is true.

Then your brain will create your reality with the minuscule percentage of data that made it through, reinforcing that narrative.

That will deepen the gap between you and the actual world.

If you were driving a car, would you like to actually see the road or would you rather look at a beautiful painting in the windshield, blocking your view?

All skills

Whenever we have a recurrent choice and we can label the outcome as being better or worse, we are talking about skills.

You can eat garbage, or you can eat nurturing food. Eating is a skill.

You can get up and exercise, or you can binge watch series the next 3 hours. Being fit is a skill.

You can remain an average performer, or you can learn, practice and improve your results. Being better at being better is a skill.

Are we cells?

What drives evolution and/or complexity? Our genes or our cells disposition?

Since we share almost 100% of our DNA with several species not as developed as ourselves, then it appears to be that the answer to our evolution and complexity is the result of our cells disposition.

But we can’t evolve any more since the size of our brains is limited by the birth canal. So unless we start growing all of our descendants in vitro, we would stagnate in evolutive terms.

As our cells determine our evolution, we as individuals, are part of a bigger organism: society. Civilizations behave like living organisms and it is more accurate for us to think about our society as an arrangement of cells.

We are one, together, we are all connected. But we are a huge mess.

Now, the question is: how do 500 trillion cells live in harmony in our bodies?

Nature is the model. Let us watch and learn.

Entertainment vs information

In today’s world, if you have a question, you can ask anything and get an answer in an instant. For free.

You can also have at your disposal any song, movie, book, tutorial, for no money or almost no money at all.

What will you do with all that power?

You could become the most acknowledged person as far as series and celebrities is concerned. Or you could acquire a cluster of critical skills to perform at your area of expertise.

That kind of power is something unimaginable for people just 20 years ago.

And now, almost anybody have access to the power that comes with free education, free resources, free communications.

Those who harness that power are the ones shaping the future.