Tangibles

How much money you make, which car you drive, where you live, the clothes that you wear, the food that you eat, the places you visit. If you summed the financial value of all the tangible things in your possession, you would get a “number”, which would tell you how much you are “worth.” This is why rich people are considered more important in society – or at least looked up to, and why a homeless person may feel miserable for not having any stuff.

The problem with measuring yourself in this way is that there’s so much tangibles can do for your sense of fulfillment. If we were to think of a scale from 1 to 10, with 1 being absolutely miserable, and 10 feeling very valuable, even if you are the richest man in the world, you would only get to 3 or 4 just with tangibles.

Intangibles

How famous you are, how powerful you are, the amount of relationships you have, how many people are you in charge of, how successful you are with the opposite sex.These intangibles that society considers high-status define how valuable we think we are.

With a decent and balanced number of material possessions and experiences, a good rating of intangibles gives a person a high degree of value. For example, if you have enough stuff to live well, time for your hobbies, a good number of strong friendships, a loving partner and are respected looked up to by your peers, chances are you consider yourself a valuable person.

The Conflict

My point behind this predictable analysis: intangibles get in the way of people understanding each other.

If you became an 8 because you are a womanizer, you’ll consider yourself as important and worthy of people’s respect as an 8 who got there by being a famous rock star, or a respected scientist. When the ways to measure ourselves are so many, a unified way of valuation becomes impossible.

This is why people will call others arrogant, jerk, incompetent, lazy and nerd. Because the areas that they consider interesting and respectful are the ones where they themselves are considered interesting and respected.

This does not mean that we don’t see value in others. It just means that it’s hard for a regular lawyer to consider a regular doctor as valuable and interesting as him.

It means that most groups of people think they are better than others (even though some may be right).

It means that we are clueless when judging someone’s value.

But most of all, it means that you have to ignore anyone that defines your worth because they have no idea what they are talking about.

Reading a book has never hurt me in any way.

True, reading another book or another post can’t hurt.

But it can stall.

The question is simple: are you motivated?

If not, then you can read yet another self-help book that echoes the same message over and over.

If yes, then stop reading. You’ve read it all before, and you know it.

Save some time and money and go do something.

How will some of us be the world changers that we dream of being, if we are going to silently accept everything everyone does?

It’s one thing to let everyone enjoy their time here the way they want to, but it’s a whole different story to let everyone dictate the rules the way they want to. The fact that you enjoy surfing or hiking does not affect the world. The fact that you are a democrat or republican does.

How long would you shut up and let others tell you what you should do? After all, Hitler was trying to do his own thing convinced that it was the best path for the world.

Look, if you think something’s wrong, you try to fix it. Why should other people’s actions and opinions be any different?

Yes, conflict will arise. The moment we start avoiding it, we become average. No significant event throughout history would have occurred if it weren’t for conflict. Caesar, Alexander, Gandhi, Obama. They didn’t let others call the shots. They did it themselves. To have any sort of impact during your time here, you have to be confident enough to “destroy” other people’s visions of what should be done.

Every time the world has had a problem, we have had conflict. Not with the problem, but between ourselves. It has always been a matter of one vision trumping the rest. Conflict is what brings a solution.

The problem is that nowadays we all want to “get along.” That sounds beautiful, but it’s impossible. Democracy is expanding throughout the world, so it’s only logical to have MORE conflict now that individuals have been empowered, not less. This democratic way of solving conflict has caused a very harmful effect: ignorance now has a voice.

Ignorance now can decide.

This is why marketing is so important, and also why our world is not the best possible version of itself (and never will be). Because for your solution to prevail you have to communicate it better than anyone else, not have the best one.

In the end, I need to trust my vision, and you should trust yours. We need to clash, someone should triumph and the other one should keep his own thing to himself. Otherwise the most mediocre and damaging ideas will also become real. I won’t let that happen.

People, if we can’t accept this, if we are going to keep trying to avoid conflict and get along, then we have become too weak to see any real change happen.

It’s not the time to be soft, it’s time for civilized conflict.

Fight for any idea that you believe in, even if that hurts someone else’s, and let the best one win.

“You can’t connect the dots looking forward. You can only connect them looking backwards.” – Steve Jobs

Here’s the best reason to do whatever you feel you have to do in today‘s world, without worrying about the consequences: today’s dots are infinite.

Fifty years ago, one of the strongest arguments to keep people on the safe path was predictability. It wasn’t that hard to foresee how many possibilities a person would have depending on what they studied, where they lived and which people they knew. This happened because the variables that influenced someone’s future (let’s call them “dots”) were very few. Money, heritage, and geography mattered. You could still challenge traditional paths, but the tools and reach were limited. Changing the world fifty years ago was harder than it is today, simple as that.

If you looked back and tried to connect the dots back then, the unpredictable ones were fewer. A linear path was easy to walk.

Now, the world is flat, globalization is happening and the internet is shortening the distance between each other. When the world truly is your oyster, every aspect of your life will get affected (and probably improved) if you decide to step out of your traditional boundaries. Thanks to today’s connectivity and the increasingly popular “world citizenship” mentality, the magnetism of people’s desires can bring them together fast and easy.

The process of dot connecting does not have to be hard, but it has to be consistent. With every little challenging step that you take now, you are opening the door to countless new opportunities. There are enough dots for everyone to reach an interesting life, but you have to keep opening doors.

You need to be strong, independent, and aware that you can’t know how things will work out. If you can see the outcome clearly, rest assured that you’re going after a boring and mediocre lifestyle. If you are trying to “make sense”, then you are going after other people’s definition of “sense.”

Lives full of exciting dots don’t make sense.

Sparked by Colin Wright

Our culture is seeing an explosion of social studies in the work environment, mainly focused on our irrationality and incapability to see the best logical response. We have been victims of our mind’s flaws since the beginning of time, but we are now fascinated to point out to everyone just how “crazy” we are.

Studies prove that tall people get further in the corporate ladder, women earn less, black people get interviewed for worse jobs, and many other harsh realities. I say realities, because they are true. They happen.

And they are completely irrelevant.

Just because they happen, does not mean they have to happen to you.

We are not getting smarter or hacking the system by knowing about these studies, we are just finding more ways to rationalize our fears and failures. Failing and blaming it on our physique is the ultimate excuse.

I remember when Ben and I were talking about IQ tests. I had just taken one, and after seeing my results (which I’m keeping to myself), I asked his opinion about IQ tests in general. This is what he told me (sort of, it was a long time ago):

“They are pointless. If you are dumb, you’ll only feel bad about yourself. And if you’re smart, what is it going to do for you to know that? It may even be get you to be complacent. We should ignore those things about us that we can’t change, and just work hard and believe in ourselves.”

Same goes for all these studies. Why does it help you to know these facts? The only positive effect that I could see is to motivate those that are on the losing side (and I’m skeptical about that). Feeling good about being a tall white man can’t help your attitude in any way.

There’s a bigger problem with these trends: they are statistics. Majorities. Generalizations. I’m between 5′7″ and 5′8″. Clearly not tall enough to succeed, maybe I should just kill myself. But until I hear of a study that says that 100% of a specific group of people suffers a certain negative effect, I won’t care about them. I just assume I am the exception.

Just believe you are that short, fat, ugly and lucky bastard that will power through.

Really, is there any other way?

Two notepads filled with post and book ideas.

Many favorite tweets worth expanding on.

A Google Docs file with many guest posts on the working.

And the energy to constantly keep looking for something new to write about.

But I won’t talk about any of that today.

I want to disrupt your expectations, I want to prove something to you:

No job, no project, no professional choice, nothing that we have been forced to believe that should rule our actions and schedules, is to be taken too seriously.

It’s ok not to blog.

It’s ok not to love your job.

It’s ok not to know what you want to “do”, as if it were a separate part of life.

In the end, it’s ok to be lost because that’s as human as it gets.

Sparked by Holly Hoffman

The part that still doesn’t work, that’s not as good as the previous situation. Yet.

They do that, because if they have any chance of stopping you, they have to cut you off at that moment.

Adjusting means usually ending up in a better situation. Maybe you are changing job, girlfriend, or moving to a different country. Whatever it is you are doing, it’s because you consider it the right move.

Cowards see it too, and therefore they acknowledge the little window opportunity that they have to make you stay as one of them. They need the company.

You have two choices: either don’t show them the adjusting part, or realize that most criticism comes at the point where they can still be skeptical.

Adjust accordingly to ignore them.

What’s more important to understand, to really comprehend, than things like death, friendship, ambition, intelligence, society, love, frustrations, popularity, feelings, money, family, fear, mediocrity, humanity, will and religion, to name a few?

The problem with these topics is that they all think they get it. Everyone has opinions on the previously mentioned topics. We have been forced to believe that we are all equal, that everyone knows what they are doing in life.

But most people’s opinions are weak. It would be ridiculous to me to consider Montaigne’s or Schopenhauer’s idea of the world as firm and as mine. We need to practice to get good at these topics, same as with any other skill.

This is why you see rich people committing suicide. Because they haven’t taken the long time needed to understand themselves and the world.

What worries me is not only how clueless some people are when it comes to the things that matter, but also how much time of their lives they spend debating other clearly less important things. Sometimes, things they have debated over and over before.

Face death, and then tell me if you prefer to “get social media” rather than your own mind and spirituality.

The interesting part is once you get the things that matter, the rest becomes obvious and simple.

People have the motivation, they are just focusing on the wrong side.

Sadly, philosophy has bad press. It’s not as “cool” as marketing or PR.

Makes sense: if this were a truly thoughtful world, people would live better. But it wouldn’t make as much money.

…is the acknowledgment of the context. It’s accepting the limits of our individuality.

…is the end of pretty lies, it’s realism at its finest.

…does not mean not fighting. It means taking your fight where you can win it.

…is not for those full of pride or fear. Those who do it are humble and secure.

…means trusting in your own definition of success, and going towards it.

…stops where persistence can produce results.

…is a learning prerequisite. Growth loves the new and hates the routine.

…is the constant choice for the less known mediocrity.

Running away is, in the end, just a bad choice of words.

Sparked by Matt

But there should be.

The way to eliminate part of the echo (and its negative consequences) of individual bloggers trying to improve their “personal brand” and to show their “ideas”, is having a healthy, positive and HONEST content philosophy.

Some already share this philosophy (very few though). Those who don’t think this way, should. It would help us all.

The Owl’s Content Philosophy:

“I don’t plan on saying something that someone hasn’t previously thought at some point in history. That may be impossible. But I’ll only say what I come up with on my own. If I read the it somewhere else, then I’m not paraphrasing it.”

There you go.

Less noise, echo and status quo.

More original ideas, confidence and passion.

Of course, you can avoid the challenge, keep saying “there are no rules” and embrace mediocrity.