Aleppo and how to hold on in an uncertain world.

With the terrible events happening in Aleppo many people are voicing opinions about why it happened and what should happen now.

Socio-political events like this are seen by many in a "good guy" vs "bad guy" scenario.
"We must defeat the bad guys no matter what" and of course "we are the good guys so whatever we do is for the greater good."

It is not always easy to understand what is really happening in the world as the information we get is often skewed one way or another to fit somebodies agenda.

Even the mainstream media agencies are having difficulties and are more and more just reporting what is happening without trying to explain the "why" or "how".

When a group of experts was asked to make predictions about the future they were not more right than a bunch of monkeys with buttons.

It seems like we vastly underestimate our capabilities to predict the future.
It also seems that the larger a group the easier it gets to predict the behavior of that group but the behavior of individuals in a certain group are highly unpredictable.

So how do we get a grip on what is happening in the world?

I thank Nassim Nicolas Taleb, to help me with this. The trick is to become more and more anti-fragile. Fragile is what loses from volatility, robust is what neither gains or loses from volatility and  Anti-fragility is what gains from volatility.
(For more research in anti-fragility: https://youtu.be/iEnmjMgP_Jo)

A second way is what Nassim calls a Position of Fuck You, from The Gambler Movie.

The third thing is to know who pays for the news, who sponsors the news and to diversify your news sources. Remember that experts can be especially prone to blind spots and hindsight. 

As mentioned in the previous blog post, using E-prime language seems to help with putting things in perspective.

Another way of protecting ourselves from misinformation is to admit that we sometimes don't have all the information. We are often pushed to have an opinion on something and people who are slow in coming to a conclusion are seen by some as dumb but they are wrong.

Holding back coming to conclusions and judgment is a very smart move.
Scientists use sentences like: "evidence seems to suggest", "The evidence seems to point to the direction of.....", "further research will have to make out..." ext...

It's ok to say that you don't know.

I personally make it a sport for myself to try to catch myself on a bias so that I can put that to consideration when I want to make up my mind about something.

Although criticism is used by many people as a hype, in order to criticize others, the skill of self-examination and inviting constructive criticism seems to be lost. It seems to be more like a sport to some people to break others down instead of using it to help somebody get better.

One other way is to dispense your belief in your intuition for a moment and just look up the data.
Intuition is great f it comes to social situation but is far less great when it comes to juggling big numbers.

These tips will at least guide and help you towards a sustainable future in an unpredictable world.

Feel free to ask questions or raise concerns you have in the comments.
I help people to find, follow and fulfill their purpose in life.
Have a great day and see you next time.

How boundaries can make you stronger.

There is a book that has no letter E in it. The most used letter in the English language not used at all. Gadsby. Not to be confused with The Great Gatsby.

There is a language that leaves out all forms of the verb "to be" , eliminating all certainty or so it seems to be. E-prime. Using E-prime for a while to made me better in making my communication more scientific and correct because it challenged me to look if something is just my perspective or not.

You see, in all martial art training there are  boundaries and restrictions placed upon the trainee, some physical other mentally. 

Restrictions and limitations challenge our creativity and ingenuity. It challenges us to think differently and to challenge those boundaries. 

When the boundaries disappear you seem to have much more options and freedom than you thought you had. 

As a student with learning difficulties, I had to learn to find new ways of learning and understanding. This helped me to think more diverse later on and be more understanding of people who also have challenges. There are i.o.w wanted difficulties that will make you even greater than that you already are now.

Maybe your challenges will make you even better in ways you can't foresee and I would love to see how being open to those learnings in life will open up more possibilities for you. 

The might of the mashup culture.

For content creators in what ever medium they are it can sometimes be a challenge to come with something original and authentic that also pleases the audience.

Some say that originality is overrated and that a good copy is better than a bad original.

" True originality consists not in a new manner but in a new vision. " - Edith Wharton

You see what I did there? I am using a quote. I am reusing something from somebody else. I don't even need to know who said it most of the time. 

Of course, context matters but how many people will take time to find out what the context of a quote is?

We can also mix two different messages together and create a new context or meaning.

Isn't that motivating? 

This can be done in every medium from written medium to movies.
The internet has brought us many wonderful and strange opportunities to mix and mash.
Memes are the most strong example of that. 

Let's turn around and look at less recent ways of mixing: Vaporwave. 

Vaporwave (British English: vapourwave) is an electronic music subgenre that originated during the early 2010s and spread over the next half of the decade among various Internet communities.

(Thank you wikipedia). 

It is a form of musical meme. Instead of being the counter movement to consumerism it embraced it.

It was a form of self awareness and making it a joke. Vaporwave artists took music that was already there and slowed it down. (Check out the great explanation by Adam Neely: https://youtu.be/QdVEez20X_s)

These mixes also create nostalgia by putting new messages together with old messages. 

It seems like nostalgia is connected with the remix culture in some way. 

Studies show that it is easier to convince somebody to do something new when you can show that that person already did something similar before or that other people in that persons respected circle and peers already do it. If you can show that it was already done before by that person in some way or by other people it is easier to convince them. 

Self awareness and humor seems to be key to the remix culture.
That also makes it prone to normalisation of things that we should not tolerate. 

It seems to fit in with the post modernistic and cynicism that rises more and more out of the learned helplessness that politics over the years instilled in many people.  

Oh dear. 

Not to say that all memes are messages of surrender to helplessness but rather that it also got in the mix. 

Mashups are another way of mixing messages done by mixing two (or more) songs together.
(For more info check out another great explanation by Adam Neely: https://youtu.be/gzZkqD-lRtc )

As stated above, remixing can also be used to critique or ridicule something.
This here is one of my favorite political mashups:

It is as powerful as it can be dangerous because the message is so simplified. 

Yet simplification is often a part of design, art, language and culture.

When a tool reaches a equilibrium of maximum simplicity and efficiency it tends to stay in that form. Look at all the technology around you and then at your fork and knifes. 

The longer a language exists the simpeler it becomes. Every language tends towards simplicity over time. That shouldn't surprise us because our brains are always working towards the most energy efficient way to achieve things. In other words, these neural pathways that are the shortest and the most used tend to be reused. Just like the first car that rides in new sand or snow has it difficult but creates more harder ground to ride on for the next car, creates a way that becomes more and more easier to ride on. Unless we challenge ourselves to diversify and reflect we tend to get stuck in the same routines and habits. 

Reusing content can also be used in content marketing by, as Gary Vaynerchuk says it: Giving your 2 cents about content. This is the way Twitter quotes works. You choose a message and repost it with your 2 cents worth of commentary. 

Have fun mashing and mixing and remember....

 Whatever you say, whatever you meme or mix, you are sending a message. What meaning do you want to give? 

Youtube drama and future proving yourself.

You might have noticed that the creator of the biggest youtube channel, PewdiePie, is complaining (again) about how youtube is changing. Youtube can change it's algorithms whenever it want's and that can effect all the video creators on youtube.

The first thing to do when you are dependent on one media outlet is to diversify your media outlets.
If you are dependent on one thing in your life and you have no control over it changes you might want to change that. Diversify.

Another great youtube creator with a big following is Casey Neistat. He was doing one of the most popular vlogs on youtube and now has stopped it because it wasn't a challenge anymore and is looking to challenge himself to become better as a content creator.

Yes, you need to keep challenging yourself to improve and find new challenges in order to keep on growing.

Still, no matter what you do when you look at everything at a micro level you will see ups and downs and when you keep focussing on the when things go down you can become frustrated or feel like giving up.

I am focussed here on the long game in this article. If you want to have a sustainable lifestyle you need to take a step back sometimes and let small things that can change all the time be and focus on the big picture. Maybe you will find that most things you were worried about don't matter at all. It is easy to get lost in unnecessary details. Focus on the long game if you want sustainability.

Challenging yourself means that you are taking risks. When you keep taking small risks that put you to the test you will be ready when big changes come and need to take bigger risks.

You will need to reinvent yourself from time to time, not only when things seem to go drastically bad and need drastic change but also when you don't feel challenged anymore. When things get too comfortable it can reduce the passion you put into your work.

When changes can come at any moment it is important that you keep an eye out always at the horizon and scan for trends. Some will seem important but will turn out not to be and some can start small but grow fast. Watch for patterns instead of single big issues that seem to blow up. Get multiple opinions and viewpoints before you consider changing things because of it.
The most emotional stories are not always the most accurate stories as you know.


These are the 4 things that will future proof you for changes in your life:

1. Keep an eye on the horizon.
2. Don't judge incoming info on face value.
3. Challenge yourself.
4. Reinvent yourself from time to time.

Be the best you every day! Have a great day.

Christmas in the 1920s

It's so funny to look at footage of Christmas in the 1920s.

 

We often forget how fast things change.When we look back we easily got nostalgic. 

The same is true about technology. We look at older people that don't want to learn the technology or think that technology goes too fast as a bit silly but we all have the tendency to believe that technology will slow down as we get older. 

This is what a 5MB hard drive looked like in 1956. (retronaut.com)

We all feel that music of our time was the best music sometimes.

Looking back can be positive or negative. It depends on what you are focussing on and how long you stay focused on it. Don't get stuck there.

 Enjoy the broad range of music and movies we have now thanks to the internet. We can watch old and new movies and listen to old and new songs. That opportunity is reasonably and pretty amazing, if you ask me. 

Let's enjoy the new possibilities that we can get from looking back and looking to the future.  

The game of life.

Sometimes I wished life was more gamified but then again getting rewards for doing meaningless stuff doesn't seem like a practical thing to do.

Gamification does help with being motivated to continue the grind but if you aren' motivated to keep improving and grinding in what you are doing maybe you shouldn't do it in the first place.

I am just rampaging about gamification because I am watching Final Fantasy XV gameplay and it's looking great. I love RPG's.

Video games are a great medium for telling stories. Role-playing video games let you level up the skills you practise over time while you follow a story. In real life you almost never get clear indications how good you are doing when you set long-term goals unless you have the kind of task that can be tracked with statistics.

Soft skills are not that easy to gauge process on unless you learn how to calibrate people state of mind. We all have a level of empathy and when we cultivate that and take feedback that we get from interacting with people over time we can gauge others state if being.

That demands a holistic and abundance mindset. It's not about trying to get people to do things against their will. God, those youtube videos of people who just try to exploit other people get so many likes and for what? What do you get from it in the long run. Those people seem to get all the good stuff but you don't see how they are living the rest of their life.

Even "success" is something that is different for everybody. The parameters for success are different for everybody. We have other criteria for success and happiness so defining it for other people and judging them on our own criteria of success and happiness can do some serious damage to a relationship.

Overall playing it nice and being great at playing along with other people that have the best interest in you with get you on new levels of opportunities and even bigger games to win.

Let's play.