I have become fascinated with the concept of strange loops,
Implicit in the concept of Strange Loops is the concept of infinity and I fascinated by the ideas of fugue and canon within a narrative structure. Think of the drawings by Escher. "The "Strange Loop" phenomenon occurs whenever, by moving upwards (or downwards) through the levels of some hierarchical system, we unexpectedly find ourselves right back where we started. (Here, the system is that of musical keys.) Sometimes I use the term Tangled Hierarchy to describe a system in which a Strange Loop occurs. As we go on, the theme of Strange Loops will recur again and again. Sometimes it will be hidden, other times it will be out in the open; sometimes it will be right side up, other times it will be upside down, or backwards. "Quaerendo invenietis" is my advice to the reader." - Godel, Escher, and Bach. I don't remember where I got the quote below, but it fascinates me. The question arises, "Can a brain be understood, in some objective sense, by an outsider?" Minds and Thoughts. The preceding poems bring up in a forceful way the question of whether languages, or indeed minds, can be "mapped" onto each other. How is communication possible between two separate physical brains: What do all human brains have in common? A geographical analogy is used to suggest an answer. The question arises, "Can a brain be understood, in some objective sense, by an outsider?" D “You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you.” ― Ray Bradbury, Zen in the Art of Writing From my adventures in the subculture of addiction recovery, I’d learned that the trajectory of one’s life often boils down to a few identifiable moments—decisions that change everything. I knew all too well that moments like these were not to be squandered. Rather, they were to be respected and seized at all costs, for they just didn’t come around that often, if ever. Even if you experienced only one powerful moment like this one, you were lucky. Blink or look away for even an instant and the door didn’t just close, it literally vanished. In my case, this was the second time I’d been blessed with such an opportunity, the first being that precious moment of clarity that precipitated my sobriety in rehab. Looking into the mirror that night, I could feel that portal opening again. I needed to act. But how?
In truth, I needed an entirely new lifestyle. Finding Ultra: Rejecting Middle Age, Becoming One of the World's Fittest Men, and Discovering Myself by Rich Roll What is this blog about?
Looking at the many varied posts; I can see that I have been thinking about time, and how it functions and we function within it. . I have thought hard about the brain, how it is a very unique tool, and how to improve all it's functions to make my work better. I have learned it is plastic and changeable. We can change, we do change. I have read and used and experimented with many aspects of health, fitness and nutrition. I have tried many things and tried to distill all the conflicting information to have a simple concise plan. I want to create and build and that is all about endurance. I love authors and writing and creativity. I love creativity and believe it matters and it makes everything you do better. I write and I am trying to learn, and want to see what others are doing. I went to college on an art scholarship, studied literature, computers, and business The more eyes and minds on a problem, the more efficient the solution. You are your network. You become what your network is. Good business is creative, I find business creative and interesting and when business is done well , it is a powerful force to make the world around it better and when done badly it is one of the most destructive. I also believe firmly that specialization is for insects. Great minds are many things, and can do many things, can be many things, and can makes many things better for them simply taking an interest in it. Creative people matter, look at some figures in history, Richard Feynman, Voltaire, Da Vinci, the list is long but these are all people who saw new potential in the everyday world. Someone the other day was making fun of liberal arts majors. I promise you, you give me a team of ten liberal arts majors and pit them against ten MBA's, the liberal art's team will stand a chance of creating something new, because the world is full of people with tools and nothing to say and no original thoughts in their head. I could create a world with liberal art's majors. With MBA's I can refine a price point or talk at great length about Operations strategies but they, as a whole, do not create, they refine. Keep in mind I am a liberal arts major and an MBA. I find the world fascinating and people's reactions even more so, and believe that mental systems like Buddhism have tools and ways of life that are compelling and ways of living that work and have worked for thousands of years. All these topics fascinate me and I it think shows in the posts on this blog. What seems like a lack of focus is actually me finding ways to function in the world, trying to be creative in a world that up until recently valued only obedience and specialization. I remember reading somewhere, I believe it was Plato, about the concept of Philosopher King, and since we are the Rulers of our lives and the CEO's of our finances self business, it is a good model to imulate, taking control of our lives, living our creative lives, with balance. I am all about finding the balance. And since the world changes constantly, balance matters and is also dynamic. That is what this blog is about, is finding the tools to create the balance you need to create. No matter who the artist, there needs to be a pocket of tools in hand to keep you functioning. D MURAKAMI
I’m a hard worker. I concentrate on my work very hard. So, you know, it’s easy. And I don’t do anything but write my fiction when I write. INTERVIEWER How is your typical workday structured? MURAKAMI When I’m in writing mode for a novel, I get up at four a.m. and work for five to six hours. In the afternoon, I run for ten kilometers or swim for fifteen hundred meters (or do both), then I read a bit and listen to some music. I go to bed at nine p.m. I keep to this routine every day without variation. The repetition itself becomes the important thing; it’s a form of mesmerism. I mesmerize myself to reach a deeper state of mind. But to hold to such repetition for so long—six months to a year—requires a good amount of mental and physical strength. In that sense, writing a long novel is like survival training. Physical strength is as necessary as artistic sensitivity. Haruki Murakami Interview - Paris Review Hustle matters – Grit matters. Ideas are cheap.
You will have a million ideas, and they will happen constantly, and they will all seem great at the time, and you usually won’t do anything about them. Ideas are constant and cheap. Ideas are not the key to your success. The only thing that matters is what you take action on and the results you get. What you do matters, not what you think. Take action. I don’t listen to what people say, I watch what they do. What the say tells you who they want to be or who they think they are, what they do tells you who they are. As you start toact, and things start to happen, other opportunities will come up, other possibilities will come your way. Action equals success. Ideas equal wishes. D The Book Willpower has quickly become one of my favorite reads, and I have literally slowed down reading it to one section a week to make it last longer and to give me time to think about what I read. It is worth owning. A WRITER CHALLENGES THE VOICE OF SELF-CRITICISM Excerpt form The Willpower Instinct: How Self-Control Works, Why It Matters, and What You Can Do To Get More of It Ben, a twenty-four-year-old middle-school social studies teacher with literary aspirations, had set the goal to finish writing his novel by the end of summer vacation. This deadline required him to write ten pages a day, every day. In reality, he would write two to three pages one day, then feel so overwhelmed by how far behind he was that he skipped the next day completely. Realizing that he wasn’t going to finish the book by the start of the school year, he felt like a fraud. If he couldn’t make the effort now, when he had so much free time, how was he going to make any progress when he had homework to grade and lessons to plan? Ben started to doubt whether he should even bother with the goal, since he wasn’t making the progress he thought he should be. “A real writer would be able to churn those pages out,” he told himself. “A real writer would never play computer games instead of writing.” In this state of mind, he turned a critical eye to his writing and convinced himself it was garbage. Ben had actually abandoned his goal when he found himself in my class that fall. He had enrolled in the class to learn how to motivate his students, but he recognized himself in the discussion about self-criticism. When he did the self-forgiveness exercise for his abandoned novel, the first thing he noticed was the fear and self-doubt behind his giving up. Not meeting his small goal to write ten pages a day made him afraid that he did not have the talent or dedication to realize his big goal of becoming a novelist. He took comfort in the idea that his setbacks were just part of being human, and not proof that he would never succeed. He remembered stories he had read about other writers who had struggled early in their careers. To find a more compassionate response to himself, he imagined how he would mentor a student who wanted to give up on a goal. Ben realized he would encourage the student to keep going if the goal was important. He would say that any effort made now would take the student closer to the goal. He certainly would not say to the student, “Who are you kidding? Your work is garbage.” From this exercise, Ben found renewed energy for writing and returned to his work-in-progress. He made a commitment to write once a week, a more reasonable goal for the school year, and one he felt comfortable holding himself accountable to. Exercise: Below is an exercise that psychologists use to help people find a more self-compassionate response to failure. Research shows that taking this point of view reduces guilt but increases personal accountability—the perfect combination to get you back on track with your willpower challenge. 1. What are you feeling? As you think about this failure, take a moment to notice and describe how you are feeling. What emotions are present? What are you are feeling in your body? Can you remember how you felt immediately after the failure? How would you describe that? 2. You’re only human. Everyone struggles with willpower challenges and everyone sometimes loses control. This is just a part of the human condition, and your setback does not mean there is something wrong with you. Consider the truth of these statements. 3. What would you say to a friend? Consider how you would comfort a close friend who experienced the same setback. What words of support would you offer? The Willpower Instinct: How Self-Control Works, Why It Matters, and What You Can Do To Get More of It by Ph.D., Kelly McGonigal “I like grit, I like love and death, I'm tired of irony. ... A lot of good fiction is sentimental. ... The novelist who refuses sentiment refuses the full spectrum of human behavior, and then he just dries up. ... I would rather give full vent to all human loves and disappointments, and take a chance on being corny, than die a smartass.”
“Dad said I would always be "high minded and low waged" from reading too much Ralph Waldo Emerson. Maybe he was right.” “Every day I wonder how many things I am dead wrong about.” ― Jim Harrison FAQ ME by James Altucher Sometimes things get worse and worse. The important thing is that right around the middle of all of this, I started planting seeds. The abominable pressure of being forced to live, forced me to plant tiny seeds. Life goes on, the future is a joke, but we can never forget it exists and its hungry and it’s waiting to eat and destroy us so we must have food to give it. I was planting a garden. You pull up weeds. You dig out the dirt. You put seeds in, you lay excrement over it. Some plants get eaten up by ravenous birds. But some seeds are left alone and, if cared for, are allowed to blossom. That’s why I’m still alive. Because of the seeds planted. In retrospect I wish I had planted more of them but it’s ok. I planted new seeds every day. I still do. Maybe I can also lie to myself and say I am a better person for having been through things. Maybe I came through the other side and there was more light on this side than the side I started on. I don’t know. I hope so. Some seeds I planted ten years ago are still growing. Still need to be harvested. The key is to plant the seeds. And never stop, even if weather, even if animals, even if mutations, look as if they are going to damage the garden and destroy it. Seeds take time to grow. A long time. And they need to be loved with patience, just like children. And there are seeds designed for every season. The key is to go out there, dig up dirt, and plant. Every day. FAQ ME - James Altucher The secret of life, though, is to fall seven times and to get up eight times― Paulo Coelho2/15/2012
“Everything tells me that I am about to make a wrong decision, but making mistakes is just part of life. What does the world want of me? Does it want me to take no risks, to go back to where I came from because I didn't have the courage to say "yes" to life?”
“The secret of life, though, is to fall seven times and to get up eight times.” “When we least expect it, life sets us a challenge to test our courage and willingness to change; at such a moment, there is no point in pretending that nothing has happened or in saying that we are not yet ready. The challenge will not wait. Life does not look back. A week is more than enough time for us to decide whether or not to accept our destiny.” “There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure.” ― Paulo Coelho |
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