Stability

Firstly I would like to define stability as being ALWAYS able to cover the physiological needs that you, as a human being, need. (See Maslows Hierarchy of Needs)

Looking back now I realise that my childhood had that stability aspect. There was never a time where I ever questioned having a bed to sleep in, nor whether I would have food on the table. These, and a few other things are pretty basic and a child’s need for this certainty is critical to them thinking the world is a good place.

I think that I am pretty good at stabilising any new situation that I come across and live fairly comfortably most of the time. However I see a few people who aren’t so good and volatility occurs frequently in their lives. Most commonly it arises from financially living outside their means, which leads to debt and stress.

Living in a developed western country makes it relatively easy to find work and to find a home. These 2 things pretty much cover every basic need that a human has (Either directly or Indirectly). So there is no excuse for instability here in Australia.

Now many people like to throw back the security and live their life on the edge. This is fine but it is important to remember that instability is only fun temporarily and after a while you need to recharge. This can only be done in a stable situation (AKA heading home to rest); also if you want to focus on higher things such as Self-Actualisation then the basics need to be covered invisibly (E.g. You can’t focus on higher things if you have to worry about the food situation).

I believe that this skill is an important part of growing up and becoming Independent.

2012
04/14
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Success

There are many books that are inspired by Malcolm Gladwell’s book Outliers (The Talent Code is a good one) and it’s easy to see why. Almost immediately after reading it I came to this conclusion; being super successful isn’t decided by a single factor, rather EVERYTHING gets taken into consideration.

Whatever the field, be it multi-billionaires or super athletes or winners of the Nobel Prize, every super successful person was given every advantage possible AND pushed themselves hard and far.

This may seem against the grain because opinions (On success) are normally one way or the other (Either Hard work or Luck).

The best example I can think of would be Bill Gates, his success was brought by incredible luck (Down to being born at the right time), but that luck would have been useless had he not spent his time at college programming 16 hours a day (Read Outliers for more info).

My interpretation is that if you have the opportunity DO NOT MISS IT. But also working super hard towards something is a long shot.

Now this realisation is a little depressing to me as I used to think you could always make a name for yourself by working hard enough but.. it is reassuring that in 30 years time we will all be replaced by robots anyway.

2012
04/10
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Financial
goals
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Quirks of the Brain

Earlier this year all of the residential advisor team had to do a course in mental first aid (Yawn). In this we learned how to react to someone showing signs of mental instability and what steps should be taken to help them. As exciting as this stuff sounds the only thing they can teach is common sense, and sitting through 16 hours of common sense quite hard.

Luckily, the lecturer mentioned she had a patient who would write everything backwards when she was stressed. Naturally I said to myself “I could do that”.

So I spent the rest of the time filling my notepad up with song lyrics written left-handed and backwards (Da Vinci style). But everything I wrote felt uncoordinated, my brain would confuse which direction the pen should go (Trying to write the letters normally). Then about 5 hours in (and 5 full pages) the urge disappeared, the writing still seemed weird because of the weakness of my left hand but what I was writing was flowing.

To this day I practice occasionally (The best time is re-writing textbook pages to memorise the content) and the left-handed weakness is slowly disappearing.

Anyway the weird thing I noticed is both hands have identical handwriting. You hear of people who write with their left hand to obscure their handwriting but the difference is simple neatness.

Anyway this photo shows exactly what I mean. (If you flip the page that backwards writing is on, the writing becomes legible).

Not sure exactly what I expected when I started but this definitely surprised me.

2012
04/09
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philosophy
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I.T. in the Workforce

An interesting thing I read a while ago is that many people go into IT because they have some computer literacy. As a kid they pulled apart things and were pretty good with computers. But then they apply for a programming job and have to compete with all the computer whizzes.

On the other hand, using their computer skills but applying for ANY other job they become really desirable to employers, and are at the top of the applicants. IT skills are extremely valuable in every industry except computing (where its assumed knowledge).

So these people could have done so much better if they had avoided the computer industry simply because then they are  so valuable for business.

 

2012
04/08
CATEGORY
IT
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Australian Prices

Australia has a pretty strong dollar these days, it is up there with the American Dollar. But it is only really recent that this strength has existed, up until the global financial crisis I think we were half the current price. The interesting thing is that we still get paid around the same wages and the cost of living hasn’t changed.

This drives many Australians crazy because they see the price of everything in the US and don’t understand why we pay more. It also is a pain for many internationals because the exchange rate is poor, then the purchasing power sucks.

I like how the Australian economy has turned out. Because its expensive to ship stuff here, we have many home-made products. The staples made here such as beef, chicken, milk, oats are ridiculously cheap for this reason.

And if you can manage yourself to live without extravagance (most of the crap that needs importing) the cost of living is really low.

2012
04/06
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Financial
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Taking the good with the bad

The saying  “To take the good with the bad” is common place, I would probably think everyone has heard it at some stage. But I don’t think many actually apply it. This might be because it is so easy to differentiate the good things and the bad things that it isn’t obvious that they are intimately related.

I think I first noticed it when I got serious about weight lifting. To get any form of gains (The good), you must persevere through a great pains.

Here is an example of good and bad being taken separately.

The university I go to has thousands of students, the people who live near the campus always complain about the students walking by their houses (street parking get filled too). Now this is bad and I feel for these people, it would suck to have to deal with that stuff especially if you have a family and small kids.

But there is always good. The obvious one is the student demand for housing near the university, this demand would push up the value of their homes. But no-one complains that they will make more money when they sell their homes.

Here is where taking the good with the bad is important, because benefits normally outweigh costs. But seeing that is a skill that isn’t overtly beneficial to have.

2012
04/04
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philosophy
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Umwelt

For April fools day XKCD made this comic strip

The caption saying this

“Umwelt is the idea that because their senses pick up on different things, different animals in the same ecosystem actually live in very different worlds. Everything about you shapes the world you inhabit — from your ideology to your glasses prescription to your browser window.”

The joke being that the comic strip was different depending on what browser you used to view the comic strip.

The idea of Umwelt is new to me, however it was one of those things I sorta suspected.

It started with my colourblind friends.

  • While indoor rock climbing, I had to point out the hand holds because my friend couldn’t differentiate the coloured routes.
  • On St Patrick’s day my roommate came out and asked me if the shirt he was holding was green.

These made me think, “green” is just a word I use to describe my interpretation of the visible wavelength of the Electromagnetic spectrum that produces green. Now in a colourblind person the wavelength doesn’t change but their interpretation does.

So would it be likely that everyone’s interpretation of this wavelength is different? Is my interpretation of green different to another (Non colourblind) persons interpretation of green?

And the conclusion I came to is.. More than likely.

Another less dramatic umwelt idea is that previous experience causes people to live in very different worlds, even though they may share the same physical realm. The most contrasting would be the underground life of a drug dealer vs a normal person. A dealer may walk through a nightclub, see many undercover cops and immediately be involved in a battle. The same club however, may seem like the perfect place to relax to a normal person.

My interpretation of this comes with being a residential advisor. We have to check up on the campus twice a night when we are on duty, and the conclusion I come to is it’s always pretty relaxed. However I am aware that I don’t have the skill to notice anything really shady because the “lens” I view the world through isn’t capable of noticing these things.

This is why ex-criminals can become the best detectives. They live in this world that normal detectives do not.

Umwelt makes the world weird. Umwelt causes multiple “truths” to exist at the same time; and for many people it is way too deep.

Note: I think there was a thing in “The Matrix” about this. Something about the taste of chicken maybe.

2012
04/03
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philosophy
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Kindle

The other day my kindle broke. I’m thinking I dropped something onto it but it’s pretty sad. Needless to say I’m close to ordering another already.

Anyway I’ve always been a fan of digital books (digitizing is pretty awesome in general). As much as I love books they have many downfalls that drive me crazy.

Besides the obvious things like bulk and searching ability there are a couple things that I want to note.

Firstly is the globalisation of knowledge. A book is a very good way of communicating ideas that provoke expansion (a mentor is maybe the only think better) but the sheer number of books out there makes searching through the rubbish an immense task. Digital books are accessible everywhere and the metadata is almost as important as the contents. I don’t bother reading a book if Amazon rates it lower than 4 stars, this is simply because my time is too valuable to waste on the badly done stuff.

This is contrasted to back in the day when all you had access to was the local library, it didn’t matter that some other country was stocking the best book ever written on a certain topic. All you had access to was the local garbage, and that is what you had to learn from.

The second thing that I like about digital books is their ability to mess with the textbook publishers monopoly.

At university you get prescribed an essential text, and everyone in the class has to buy this book. But the book will cost you an unreasonable amount. Then they “update” the edition and your book becomes worthless.

Once piracy gets a foot then they wont be able to do this, there will be too big an incentive to download it illegally if it costs too much. This will drive prices down.

Once google wins the fight to have the digitized library online we will see another generation of awesome..

I miss my Kindle

2012
04/02
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Back to the Future

When Europeans first came into contact with the Aborigines of Australia, there were many Aboriginal deaths from the common viruses transmitted by the Europeans. Whenever a historical community that was previously isolated comes into contact with one that isn’t, the isolated community gets incredibly sick because their immune systems are so unprepared.

These days there are talk of superbugs and viruses that have evolved to counteract the best of our antibiotics. If one of those were to come in contact with a primitive individual, that individual would have no chance really.

So you can imagine that in the near future these superbugs probably will have developed further and become commonplace, I.e. the future common cold may need to be combated with an inoculation that does not exist today.

If time travel is theoretically possible (Which I believe it is) then sending someone to the future will expose that individual to the commonplace viruses of the future (Which they have no immune defence to). Similarly, someone that travels back in time to visit us (Say to warn of an imminent global destruction) will expose us to anything that may be lingering around their body. Simply, we are the primitive community that will have no chance.

The moral of the story: We are not prepared for the future.. also don’t travel to the future lol.

Note: I just thought up this, I didn’t copy anyone but I have no doubt that it has been thought up by many other, more intelligent people than I.

2012
04/01
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philosophy
Travel
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Moment of Perfection

I love “Fight Club”.It is my favourite film of all time, and because of this reason I read the novel. I didn’t like it as much as I thought I would but this was probably due to the sheer number of times I have seen the film.

But there was a few amazingly insightful anecdotes I found, including this one on the moment of perfection.

In the novel the first encounter with Tyler is at a beach. He is placing body sized logs vertically in the sand and after a good deal of time he has five of them placed closely together. Then he sits in front of them for a minute before getting up to leave.

When asked about it he reveals that he has created a shadow that looks like a giant hand. But because the sun moves this shadow only maintains its shape for 1 minute.

So for that 1 minute he sat in his perfect hand.

Because that is as long as you can expect perfection to last.

2012
03/31
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books
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