Theories.

So lately… Ok well lately there’s been some crazy shinanigans going on, and when I say shinanigans, I mean serious shinanigans. I might actually be making a post about what’s been going on, as opposed to just talking about topics. But I bring it up now because earlier today I went for bike ride, maybe for an hour or so just to think about things. Was thinking about a trip to winters but I was down for more like a 12 mile circuit rather than the winters 24. So I ended up riding around west Davis, and there’s some pretty random things there: 

Also recently I’ve watched a few Derren Brown’s “The experiments” and I have to say, that’s some pretty…. crazy stuff to say the least. In particular, the episode The guilt trip (which is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-P2vYIgPdKg). Now I don’t know how much of it I believe (like the scene at 27:22) but the idea is there, and it’s based off of stuff anyone knows from psych 1, or conditioning. 

I guess what I never really thought of before was that we could create our own triggers to produce positive effects in our life. A lot of people already kind of do this; when they’re sad they listen to music (or eat I guess) or go on a walk or something. But one of the triggers used in this video was very short and easy to use. It makes me think that it’s possible to add in things to our de-stressing routines to make them stronger. By conditioning ourselves with added triggers, on top of the things we already do, we can create ways to de-stress ourselves without all the pieces there. For example if you were to create 5 de-stressing triggers, bound from 1 starting trigger, then you can multiply the effect of de-stressing by using all of the triggers. Maybe? 

I’m not fully convinced that self conditioning works so well, being fully knowledgeable about possible psychological effects you’re trying to impose on yourself may not work out so well. Kind of interesting to think about though.

Maybe this can be seen as sort of a Optimism Part 2. To put it into a question, something I’ve always wondered was:

Do those who seek, find?

The question the frequently came up after I reasoned with myself was, How much failure am I willing to give up to obtain it? 

Lets take love and relationships. Lets just plug it in and roll with it.

And first, with chick flicks. There’s a problem with them (although we all know they’re still pretty awesome). The problem is that they paint perfection (how things should go/how we would like them to go), with imperfect premises (there’s always a problem with one of the main characters). This cleverly masks the ideal world and so many people buy into them, sometimes fully knowledgeable that the world DOESN’T work like that. But I think the main issue is the idea that in chick flicks, the message of not giving up is pounded into the mind the wholeee time. This doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t give our all in relationships, but quite simply, some things just does not work out. So then what happens?

Here’s my take on it. Our head sorts through the processes. Try to make it work? Yes. Work? No. Try again? Yes. Work yet? No. How about now? No. Eventually our head essentially runs out of options. What’s left is this feeling of “well shit that didn’t work and it was horrible, better not do that again”. What translates substantively is the trust issues that people are plagued with. No one wants to open up out of fear of being “hurt”. It seems better to opt for the “If it happens, good for me, but I’m not putting my heart on the line anymore”. 

So what’s the problem? If we’re playing to win in this love game, we have to try more than once. We have to try more than twice. Maybe more. How much? Well that goes back to the original question doesn’t it? How much pain, how much failure, is worth succeeding in the end? How many failed relationships are worth enduring to find the one that works?

“There are those that play to win, and there are those who play to not lose.”

I’ve come to be a realllly big believer of the human mind. Perception changes everything. I read this quote recently in a book my roommate gave me, which is roughly about ambition and success, and what sets the millionaires apart from the middle class. I really liked it. It says:

“What’s inside of you, a belief you can do it or a fear that you can’t?”

So really, are we self encouraging or self defeating? Are we optimistic or pessimistic?

On that note, I have a side story/rant/tangent. Do you, the dear reader, see the glass as half full or half empty?..

Those words, tied with the half empty half full scenario have been really pulled from their roots, and no one gives a “standard” answer anymore. Did you? The glass is half full right? Is that because you’re truly an optimist, or rather, maybe cynical me thinks, it’s because you just want to been seen as optimist. Pessimists are the bad guys right? Who wants to be the negative fun killer?

If you didn’t say the glass was half full, you probably said neither; trick question. Maybe it depends on how it got there. Maybe it’s both. Maybe you gave a different troll answer. Well, not as many people even view themselves as optimists anymore either; they prefer to be viewed as realists. Because funnily enough, optimists don’t seem to be much better. They’re not really the bad guys,  but they might as well be. They’re the hopefuls, or in other words, the helpless. 

Yet at the end of these little games and riddles, I believe we’re almost all on one side or the other. I’ve been told I’m quite the logic thinker and realist, but even I don’t think it’s fair to place “realism” on a different spectrum; it’s more of the easy way out. There’s just a spectrum, and we lie somewhere on it. Sometimes we lean, but we’re somewhere on there.

So then which is it? Are we “hoping for the best but expecting/prepared for the worst?” “guilty until proven innocent?” I see those a lot lately and no, they’re not realist assumptions, they’re pessimistic. 

Think, in real life situations, which word do we say more; sorry or thanks? Sorry I messed up? Or thank you for being so understanding? Does life present challenges or just screw us over? Are things framed in a positive or negative manner? It’s simple. And after all, that’s at the heart of the optimism/pessimism debate isn’t it?

Every lesson we learn has a price. Sometimes we get it free from our common sense. Sometimes it costs us time. Sometimes it costs us money. Sometimes it costs stress. Some less, some more. Sometimes we pay too much, sometimes we get a deal.

Gaming analogies help, but this is really about real life: if we can mess up, learn a lesson, and never make that mistake again, we’d be so much farther ahead than we tend to be, in whatever field we pursue. The problem is that most of us pay the fee for learning the lesson but then we don’t apply it to our lives. We store that lesson somewhere, forget about it perhaps and then we pay it again. So dumb!

Take the consequences of life, both good and bad, to be lessons. Learn from them. Isn’t that what maturity is? 

Not fully related, but as Kant says in his “what is enlightenment” essay:

“Enlightenment is man’s emergence from his self-imposed immaturity. Immaturity is the inability to use one’s understanding without guidance from another. This immaturity is self-imposed when its cause lies not in lack of understanding, but in lack of resolve and courage to use it without guidance from another. Sapere Aude! [dare to know] “Have courage to use your own understanding!”—that is the motto of enlightenment.”

Blogging while studying, awwww yeah.

I figure since I’m graduating and what not, now would be a good time to do my “college reflections”, if I choose to do them. These (all of them) aren’t really meant to be coherent and outlined “essays” but more like random thoughts I’ve had on the subjects. That being said….

1. Aristotle said that a true friend is someone who helps you and pushes you to be a better you. “exercising virtues”, the “excellences” of life. Honesty, ambition, leadership. Someone who you strive to be more like, not jealous of. I kind of liked that idea. The difference between someone you’re proud of versus someone you’re jealous of. Of course people should strive to not be jealous of anyone anyway, but it’s easy to be envious of people who are more “virtuous” than we are. This isn’t about people who have more money, or are naturally gifted, but more like people who are more honest, more self confident, more happy. 

2. I never liked the idea of networking. The pitch seemed to be, meet a lot of people, talk to them, get to know them, and after a while, you’ll get to use them. They’ll help you land a job, get you in touch with other people who want the same thing you want, power. But when you need them, really need them, they’ll redirect you. Hell they might not even be there. See because just because the favor is there doesn’t mean you can force it out. Friends over acquaintances. I’d rather be alone half the time and with my friends the other half of the time, than to always be with people I’m only kind of friends with.

3.You can’t force people to care. Ever. Not just about friendship, but one of the lessons of life really, is that the best and perhaps the only way to get someone to do something, anything, is through their own accord. 

4. People make time for the things that matter to them. It’s simple. I’ve learned this through both my music blog and now my trading blog; If I tell myself that I need to do something, I’ll do it. There have been so many times I’ve sat and spent 30-40 minutes looking for a song that wasn’t awful to put on my blog. I’ve pored over 40+ charts looking for a specific pattern to match the one on my blog. It’s not about difficulty, it’s not about time commitment, it’s about how much it means. Because of this, to me, there’s just never a good excuse for not keeping in touch. Being “busy” is both the worst and most common answer. I think taking 7 upper div classes should count as a “busy” schedule, yet there was never a time I struggled to find time to talk to my friends. 

5. I’ve spent a lot of time arguing about who’s “fault” it is for not keeping in contact. I’ve realized that at the end of it, it’s not so much about who’s responsible about taking initiative, but more about who makes themselves more available. Busier people should take more initiative when they’re less busy, sounds pretty simple and intuitive to me.

7 days, 10749 words, 31 pages, 5 different papers. DONEEEEEE. 16 days, 16 hours, and 58 minutes until I’m done for eva. Victory is near.

In other news, I learned the propaganda is still pretty effective. 

A talk about the advancements in 3d printing. 3D. NOT 2D. 3D. Holy.

http://www.ted.com/talks/lisa_harouni_a_primer_on_3d_printing.html

3 day weekend every weekend. Mmmmmmm.