Do you ever wonder at the ridiculous variety of personalities and character traits that exist in the world today? I do...fairly often actually. It amazes me that people can be so different, and while sometimes it can be frustrating, other times it is exactly what is needed. Pretty much every analysis of team building exercises (from corporations to baseball teams) will tell you that having three people with different ideas, values and thought processes is better than having five people who are exactly the same. Solutions that one person missed will be caught by another, the different roles in the group will be filled by those who best fit them; the directors, the organizers and so on.
On the other hand I am pretty much positive that no one can look back on their life and say that they don't wish that in some situations everyone thought like them. The wish for that unity under one thought is common to everyone in the world. Ever had an idea that was obviously the best solution to a problem and had someone argue against it because they thought theirs was the best? The time it takes to list all the pros and cons of each idea and then compare them results in a time inefficiency that often makes the goal difficult or impossible to achieve. In that moment I know I wish that everyone had my insight into that particular subject.
But how do two people, at the simplest level, decide on one idea over another? The problem of inefficiency boils down to one of communication. Both sides need to argue-not necessarily in the conventional sense but in the philosophical sense, merely stating points that lead to a conclusion, the more solid the line of reasoning the better the argument-their points and try to convince the other person of the merit of their idea. Without emotions this process might go quicker, but the time it takes would still be fairly high, and with emotions, with attachment and personal connection to ideas, the whole thing can drag out indefinitely.
What would happen if we were all connected? Not in the way some people, such as myself, believe we already are, but in the sense that all ideas, all thoughts were instantly conveyed to everyone else. In this pretend little world when you walked out the door in the morning you could flick and switch in your head and get connected to the world. How much greater would our efficiency be? I don't refer to this as a hive mind idea, rather it would be more like you having a question about something and then getting responses from all the experts in the world, and everyone in your workplace or even the world if we wish to expand the illustration, knew what you were doing and what you were planning on doing so before you started typing that memo to your boss, your secretary would notify you that it had already been done and when you were on your way to deliver a letter to a friend they would meet you halfway for coffee, knowing that you were coming the whole time. Obviously the personal and more secret details would not be broadcast but my question is what would this do for/to us?
My guess is that many people would learn many things, corporations would function more smoothly and war? I don't know about war. On the one hand my example was a willing network, one you could disconnect from, implying that people who didn't agree with the status quo could drop out. On the other hand the system in my mind implies complete transfer of ideas instantly, would this be enough to change the mind of a terrorist? The thoughts of the innocent and the logic of the vast majority of the world? What could you do against a couple billion people unanimously agreeing that murder is wrong? I think it could change some ideals for the good.
On the other other hand, we don't have anything close to this system. We have words and body language to communicate our ideas and our reasons for them. The diversity of our planet results in some lovely clashing, but because we don't know everything teaming up with people who think differently than you is still the best way to get the best solution.
Variety is the spice of life, and if it's a little hot for you, well it's just the price you gotta pay for good food.
Monday, September 1
Sunday, June 8
New Toys
I got a new camera a few days ago and I've been infected with the annoying disease that compels me to bring it everywhere and take pictures of everything, resulting in "that guy" status. I think I'm less infected than some, an example being that I was at a bonfire with my siblings and had the presence of mind to turn the flash off, being far less obtrusive while still allowing me to get my fix. The result was eerie and very entertaining.
I have long been wanting a camera and I finally had a bit of money on the side which allowed me to get a good one after deciding that going all out on a SLR would be a terrible idea. While the cameras I could have gotten were amazing and would have been lovely to play with, I really have no reason to purchase one. The quality is superb but unnecessary for anyone not wanting to go pro, the size is definitely not conducive to portability, or rather portability to the extent which has become the standard in the field of digital cameras. I settled on a lovely 9 MP panasonic ( see title link), which is slightly excessive in terms of pixels but I am extremely pleased with the quality of pictures and the versatility of the camera. This is one of the only things where I will read the entire manual for and I'm about halfway through all the effects and controls.
On one hand I am very happy with my new purchase, but on the other I worry. With pretty much everything in the human world, there's a period of excitement with the new toy, and then it takes it's place with the rest of the old new toys. Will this new thing eventually lose it's shinyness and fall from grace when the next thing I get consumes my attention? We all try to fight it, but in the end everything gets old and less fun. Think about some things you have bought for more than a few bucks. Do you still use them? How often? Was the last time you touched your xbox when you got that new game but haven't played since you started horseback riding lessons? A bit of a stretch yes but the point is there.
Are we programmed to want new things? Are we conditioned? Does the media sculpt us into perfect little consumers who buy things we don't need and never use? Or is it something in our DNA? Some urge of humanity deep set in our caveman roots that drives us to want what we do not have, something we think will make our life easier, better, more fulfilling? Are those goals really so bad? I don't think so. I think it makes perfect sense to try and make something that can be really hard a bit easier for yourself. On the other hand, I also think that trying to make your life more fulfilling by buying things is just silly. Inanimate objects giving you a sense that your life is a good one? Cold steel, plastic and electronic circuits that make your wildest dreams come true? I doubt it.
Think about what makes you happy, really happy not just the "I just got a raise" kind of happy. When was the last time you were content? I know mine. It was today when I went down to the river in my backyard with my brother and two sisters and we hung out on the rocks and went swimming. I was only there for two hours but in those hundred and twenty minutes I had something that can't be bought in any store and something that lasts a lot longer than the the euphoria of a new purchase. Can you really put a price on happiness? My policy is that if it has a tag with numbers on it, there's a very good chance that it's not something that's going to give you satisfaction longer than it takes to lose that new smell.
Be careful where your priorities lie.
I have long been wanting a camera and I finally had a bit of money on the side which allowed me to get a good one after deciding that going all out on a SLR would be a terrible idea. While the cameras I could have gotten were amazing and would have been lovely to play with, I really have no reason to purchase one. The quality is superb but unnecessary for anyone not wanting to go pro, the size is definitely not conducive to portability, or rather portability to the extent which has become the standard in the field of digital cameras. I settled on a lovely 9 MP panasonic ( see title link), which is slightly excessive in terms of pixels but I am extremely pleased with the quality of pictures and the versatility of the camera. This is one of the only things where I will read the entire manual for and I'm about halfway through all the effects and controls.
On one hand I am very happy with my new purchase, but on the other I worry. With pretty much everything in the human world, there's a period of excitement with the new toy, and then it takes it's place with the rest of the old new toys. Will this new thing eventually lose it's shinyness and fall from grace when the next thing I get consumes my attention? We all try to fight it, but in the end everything gets old and less fun. Think about some things you have bought for more than a few bucks. Do you still use them? How often? Was the last time you touched your xbox when you got that new game but haven't played since you started horseback riding lessons? A bit of a stretch yes but the point is there.
Are we programmed to want new things? Are we conditioned? Does the media sculpt us into perfect little consumers who buy things we don't need and never use? Or is it something in our DNA? Some urge of humanity deep set in our caveman roots that drives us to want what we do not have, something we think will make our life easier, better, more fulfilling? Are those goals really so bad? I don't think so. I think it makes perfect sense to try and make something that can be really hard a bit easier for yourself. On the other hand, I also think that trying to make your life more fulfilling by buying things is just silly. Inanimate objects giving you a sense that your life is a good one? Cold steel, plastic and electronic circuits that make your wildest dreams come true? I doubt it.
Think about what makes you happy, really happy not just the "I just got a raise" kind of happy. When was the last time you were content? I know mine. It was today when I went down to the river in my backyard with my brother and two sisters and we hung out on the rocks and went swimming. I was only there for two hours but in those hundred and twenty minutes I had something that can't be bought in any store and something that lasts a lot longer than the the euphoria of a new purchase. Can you really put a price on happiness? My policy is that if it has a tag with numbers on it, there's a very good chance that it's not something that's going to give you satisfaction longer than it takes to lose that new smell.
Be careful where your priorities lie.
Saturday, June 7
The Beginning of a Long and Fruitful Relationship
I've never done this before, and for a long time I didn't think I was going to. A few of my friends got into it and, although I've only read one post of one of those friends, they all expounded on the lovely nature of blogging.
So here I am, at 11:30 at night, when I should be sleeping, preparing for work tomorrow. I am sitting in front of a computer screen after quantitating myself into a few boxes of the books I enjoy and movies I like, the title screen of Dan in Real Life is playing on a loop in the background and, strangely, I don't find it annoying. I didn't really have a goal in mind when I decided to create this site, I sort of just got the idea and it didn't leave. Perhaps it's a subliminal urge for the contact of new people, new faces, places I've never been and experiences that haven't happened to me yet. There are so many things out there that aren't quite yet and a place to process the things that are or have been, before the aren't yets join the have beens, is probably pretty welcome to most people.
I don't know what I'll write about but it'll probably vary quite a bit. In some ways this will probably be a sort of journal, and on other days there might be some creative things that I haven't done in a long time.
I don't think I'm going to tell anyone that I'm doing this, and I wonder if any of my friends will stumble on my page and figure out, without reading my name in the sidebar, that it's me they're reading about. Isn't that the one of the goals of friendship? To have someone know you so well that they can tell your words and thought patterns from a stranger? I suppose that it would be more of a result, the goal being a bond of trust and reliability.
Then again I have friends who I don't trust with some things and others who aren't particularly reliable. They're my friends because when we are around each other we have a good time and we understand each other. I think most of humanity wants to walk into a room and not have to explain ourselves. We want to be accepted and thought of as innocent until proven guilty, to actually be given the benefit of the doubt, in a world where assuming the worst of someone you meet is common practice and perfectly normal.
So I guess my revised definition of friendship is a relationship where you don't have to prove yourself, where you can retreat to at the end of a terrible day where the worst possible things happened and look up through tear filled eyes that say one thing and one thing only; understand me. Friends are people who may or may not be the most reliable individuals, probably have some amazing character flaws and a have few pet peeves that annoy you to no end, but when the chips are down they're the people who you want on your side, the ones who might not agree with you but are there anyway. Friends, real friends, are hard to come by and usually take a lot of work, but life's a lot harder without them.
Welcome to my blog.
So here I am, at 11:30 at night, when I should be sleeping, preparing for work tomorrow. I am sitting in front of a computer screen after quantitating myself into a few boxes of the books I enjoy and movies I like, the title screen of Dan in Real Life is playing on a loop in the background and, strangely, I don't find it annoying. I didn't really have a goal in mind when I decided to create this site, I sort of just got the idea and it didn't leave. Perhaps it's a subliminal urge for the contact of new people, new faces, places I've never been and experiences that haven't happened to me yet. There are so many things out there that aren't quite yet and a place to process the things that are or have been, before the aren't yets join the have beens, is probably pretty welcome to most people.
I don't know what I'll write about but it'll probably vary quite a bit. In some ways this will probably be a sort of journal, and on other days there might be some creative things that I haven't done in a long time.
I don't think I'm going to tell anyone that I'm doing this, and I wonder if any of my friends will stumble on my page and figure out, without reading my name in the sidebar, that it's me they're reading about. Isn't that the one of the goals of friendship? To have someone know you so well that they can tell your words and thought patterns from a stranger? I suppose that it would be more of a result, the goal being a bond of trust and reliability.
Then again I have friends who I don't trust with some things and others who aren't particularly reliable. They're my friends because when we are around each other we have a good time and we understand each other. I think most of humanity wants to walk into a room and not have to explain ourselves. We want to be accepted and thought of as innocent until proven guilty, to actually be given the benefit of the doubt, in a world where assuming the worst of someone you meet is common practice and perfectly normal.
So I guess my revised definition of friendship is a relationship where you don't have to prove yourself, where you can retreat to at the end of a terrible day where the worst possible things happened and look up through tear filled eyes that say one thing and one thing only; understand me. Friends are people who may or may not be the most reliable individuals, probably have some amazing character flaws and a have few pet peeves that annoy you to no end, but when the chips are down they're the people who you want on your side, the ones who might not agree with you but are there anyway. Friends, real friends, are hard to come by and usually take a lot of work, but life's a lot harder without them.
Welcome to my blog.
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