Have you ever watched star trek? You know, that sci-fi story where the crew encounters strange aliens and, in the process, sticky situations? Of course, the hallmark of the show is its spaceships.
I used to wonder how in the world could the world in which star trek is living in can afford the gigantic ships it builds. What kind of an economy can support such design and build. Then, I saw this particular episode (donkey years ago) where it was actually explained… this is the best I can recall from the conversation between the past human and future trekker who had travelled back in time:
Human (Past): But how do you afford such ships? Where do you get the money?
Human (Trekker): In the future, economies break down. We don’t serve for money. We serve for a higher cause.
Now, utopian as this might sound, it is slowly becoming into reality. Bill Gates once said that open source software, software developed for free by the community for the community, will not catch on in terms of innovation and performance because money is an incentive for such qualities.
This, sounds logical. But sit back, and look at these two trends….
One of the weird bugs that prevents us from improving ourselves is the lack of understanding between “learning” versus “depending”. Here’s my own mini-test for you, to see if you know the difference.
For every statement that you’ve recalled youself saying, give yourself a point.
“I want to learn from you.”
”Wow that’s good. How I wish I could do that like you.”
“I have no time. Can you teach me?”
“If I had photographic memory I could learn all these fast.”
How much did you score? Check your scores against the guide below:
0 points: Good stuff.
1-4 points: You’re one of those who think success is a given, not a result of hardwork. You love shortcuts and rarely look at success as the process itself. When people tell you to try find the information you seek on your own, you use time and skills (lacking of) as reasons (excuses). You depend on your environment to succeed, not your own doing. Worse of all… you think you’re being independent.
Here’s what the above may sound like, if you want to learn, and be independent:
“How do I start?”
“Your model looks good. I’ll try it out.”
“Let’s see how I can schedule my timetable.”
“It’s not about speed, it’s about learning it properly.”
In essence, it’s all about taking control of what you should. I think you should. It’s after all, your life.
Here’s a neat tool you can use for search statistics comparison. It’s called Google Trends . Type it your list of comparison and watch it wheel (with its usual mysterious methods) some fun search statistics.
Note however that the basis of comparison should be the first word, followed by your other subject. So for example if you type A vs B, you would be presented with a list of countries that search A the most, in order, and then how many of those listed countries search for B. What the heck am I talking about? Check it out.
Today during seminar, there was the usual discussion session. My class is made up of a spectrum of people, some wearing slippers and shorts to some wearing savvy ties and suits. However during discussion time, I noticed something weird. It wasn’t your usual suspects (business dressed people) who gave good insights, but the ones that were dressed lightly.
That, of course, is okay. But some of those savvy dressed ones, time and time again, kept repeating issues that had been raised by some previous fellow classmates, sometimes almost to a point of repeating and concluding the same thing. Really. There were even times when I was thinking “What in the world is going on? Didn’t she just say that?”
What clowns. Sometimes I do it too, and maybe you as well. It’s really important to learn to listen, not say for the sake of saying. Parrots are alright, they’re cute. Bozos aren’t.
Here’s a list of IT related stuff that I find ridiculous:
Windows “Start”: In the new Windows Vista, the start button no longer has the word “start”, and this is good, because it certainly did not make sense to “shut down” the computer by first clicking “start”.
Software “Academic” prices: Some good softwares out there really cost a bomb. Now then, they’ve identified this, and lo and behold! A much more economically student friendly, academic version! How much? $150… how affordable for the student. And they’re still complaning on piracy? …
The Qwerty keyboard. What the heck.
The way some software companies name their products. Thank goodness “Longhorn” didn’t catch on.
The fact that you’re “still alive” (blogs, email accounts, friendster, etc) even though you may be dead. And who the heck is going to delete those accounts when you’ve passed on, when they need your log-in and passwords?
Well, there’s also that issue of activating task manager using ctrl-alt-delete (what kind of a finger friendly “shortcut” is that) . Soon you’ll be using shortcuts that look something like “Tab+caps+space+enter+mouse(shake).”
Today I decided to have a Ramly Burger for lunch in school. The stall serving was a small make shift one, one of those temporary food vendors. However the queue was something to behold: The line was about 15 persons long, made up by all kinds of characters (I personally knew some). But again, there they were, all lining up patiently, almost 30 minutes, to get a burger being prepared, cooked and served by two men.
Here’s the lo-down, courtesy of Ramly Burger:
Food trumps impatience.
Branding matters. I doubt many of the patties used here are really Ramly patties. But some posters here and there, and hey! It’s Ramly!
You do not need booksmarts to be successful. Those dudes serving us certainly knew things like operations management and marketing instinctively.
It does however take some booksmarts to sustain a success. The fact that there isn’t any Ramly Restaurant yet speaks.
It’s all about specialization. Find something you can do, and do it well. The people whom you think are smart, are just specializing. Ask a professor to cook a Ramly burger, and you’d probably have to call the firemen 5 minutes later (maybe 2 minutes…).
Just like Alex Ferguson was advised to step down from manchester utd following its treble win (and his alternative which was to stay, followed by the many bloopers…), so too have I discovered when it comes to conversations.
In fact, this is really something I kept stumbling on that I thought should not be ignored. I found that in many occasions, when I had proven my point across, there was always this moment, a sudden bridge in the flow of my talking, in which I wanted to add more, but it did not feel natural. It’s not a case of talking and building, but stopping and considering if I should add more. However, because everything seemed to be going my way, I added on with whatever point I wanted to bring across… and time and again, the strength of my points, would be diluted, just by that one extra point.
So that’s why I think we should try our best to practice restraint, when we’re seemingly winning, and leave it there… no matter how strong the urge is, to continue babbling away.
Someone once said that wealth is not measured in terms of units, like dollars or goods. Wealth is a state of mind. Unfortunately many today measure their wealth in terms of how much money they have. Wealth myopia, a term I use to describe this state, is sad. It leads to an ideology based on consumerism, which gives short run benefits. Once finished, you seek more, and something better than your previous experience.
Driven by desire, not by peace. Break this cycle. It is okay to be successful material wise, cause you can certainly help more with more money. But such utopian attitudes cannot exist later in the roads of success without the seeds of a proper state of mind to begin with.
Question your definition of wealth. Yes, wealth is a state of mind. It’s all in the mind… a guided mind.
Having served as a policeman for my national service, I can tell you first hand the reality that is power dressing. In our t-shirts and sandals we were alright, but once we dawned the police uniform, we were different. In fact, an interesting control for those who think this is all fluff was how we felt and responded to crimes when undercover (in plainclothes) vs in uniform. Power was in the latter.
But why do layers of cloth affect your self-esteem? My take on this is that it enables us to hide ourselves, our deepest secrets, our greatest fears, under the cover of shining armour. It’s more than just looking presentable, it’s about feeling invincible. You’ve affectedly anchored yourself using cloth.
What does this is all mean? Well, find clothes that lift you up, and consider them as your “Feel good wadrobe”. Ultimately, understand at the end of it all the ability that your mind has to generate positive images, and negative ones too. Control the latter. You say you can’t, but your mind certainly can.
We do it all the time. As you are reading this article, you have done a prioritization exercise, choosing to spend your quality time on this site on top of any other thing you could be doing now. While I am thankful for such a move, my question to you is what was your prioritization driver? What was that basis of you choosing this over, let’s say, watching television? No, the tv which is switched on does not count… and neither is multitasking, cause yes, you can “do” a few things at once, but your attention, is, ultimately, here. A more important question:
Was your prioritization driver the right one?
How do we choose what we choose? Least money, most revenue, least time, most time, most pretty, least filthy? My take is that we have different ones, for different things. And this is a concept worth noting, cause some drivers, given the same choice, produce different levels of satisfaction.
Whilst at most times you choose according to some subconscious mode, it is worth an exercise asking yourself ”what’s going on”, cause there will be times when you need to make that important choice. Of course, autopilots can do nothing in emergencies.
“How do I start?”
Today during seminar, there was the usual discussion session. My class is made up of a spectrum of people, some wearing slippers and shorts to some wearing savvy ties and suits. However during discussion time, I noticed something weird. It wasn’t your usual suspects (business dressed people) who gave good insights, but the ones that were dressed lightly.
Today I decided to have a 
Just like Alex Ferguson was advised to step down from manchester utd following its treble win (and his alternative which was to stay, followed by the many bloopers…), so too have I discovered when it comes to conversations.
