Time, space, distance and our perception

This might sound very complicated but trust me, by the end it won’t be.

It has been raining without stopping past couple of days in Brisbane. When it rains, I don’t like to ride my bike so I took my car instead and went to a morning yoga session. It’s a bit gloomy so I turned on my lights and begin my drive. While approaching the first junction, I stopped behind a car and realised that the closer I got, the more my headlight’s reflection spread and got clearer on the bumper’s car in front of me. This made me realise that distance makes you think of things differently, because you see them clearly when close and merged when distant. Let me illustrate.

I don’t know personally Elon Musk but I do admire him for his inventions, business mind and release of all Tesla patents among others. I think he’s a cool guy. But I’m absolutely certain that the closer I’d get to him, the more I’d find out about him and his other side that every one of us have. The one we don’t display in public. The one we protect. We might seem to others as generous, positive, smiling but those who knows us best (siblings, parents, partners…) know better. They know us as we are. Really are. With our “flaws” and “virtues”.

still human

Time creates similar illusion. That’s why no one has written anything else on others tombstone other than “here lies a good person” which we know statistically is not true. Otherwise there’d be no prison, abused women and children, murders and so on.

Jesus falls into a similar category of time illusions. He could’ve been a weed smoking hippy guy that read too much and hang out with some smart people in his early 20ties, and later started his own little cult. Nothing wrong with it, he was probably cool but his life and legacy got bit distorted, thanks to time and distance. That’s the magic. Now he is flawless, more god than human that walks on water and probably doesn’t even poop because that isn’t very god-like.

Our mind plays trick with us and selectively chooses memories that serve our agenda or feelings so it can fuel them. I’m sure you remember the person you got pissed off at recently because they did something “wrong” or something you perceived as not too “good”. Yes, your mind chooses and prefers those memories but then when you think about it, it was perhaps only one memory and you forgot that they displayed exactly the opposite trait or behaviour as well! How can I be so certain? Because we all have all the traits, whether we like to admit it or not in our own unique form.

Have a look at the video below that talks about a Russian teacher, a Messiah that is here to save us. Or the chosen ones (his followers).

 

 

Funny things is that the guy shows up there for about an hour, says something and off he goes again for another year. Only people who are very close to him and spend 24/7 with him, know him as he is. I used to have a similar teacher that I admired but I also had the opportunity to be with him for over two weeks when travelling in Israel and my illusions were shattered. Even though he taught about not being attached to things, not using the internet, or eat sugar, he did it himself regularly.

Is there someone you admire? What do you think would happen if you have them on camera 24/7? Leave me a comment below.

Why size matters?

Have you seen the world map? I’m sure you have. What if I told you that it’s wrong? What if the size of one country is larger than the other? This is exactly what is happening.

Gall-Peters projection is showing the size of the countries and continents as they are which means that Africa is 14 times larger than Greenland.

What is the practical difference? Social equality – because size matters.

Norm Brodsky – Street Smarts (review)

Norm is pretty sharp guy, no questions. His dad taught him the first lessons of business and despite the fact, that he went to college and came out as a lawyer, he built some great and big businesses.

In first chapter he mentions right away that his business failed by a bad decision – acquiring a business that wasn’t healthy.

From the first chapter we follow an example of a business started by his friends in technology. Salesperson that got fired and wanted to join his wife and her friend that were working together but barely surviving. Norm helped them to get the business off the ground and in almost every chapter showed an example what questions they asked and how he helped them through it.

Firstly they asked him whether the business would work – Norm crunched the numbers and found out that no way for 3 people. Wife’s friend would have to be let go and even then they’d barely survive.

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Fashion Silhouettes

Physical attraction

What makes us attracted to others and what do we find attractive on them? Is it the look, the way they go with their hand through the hair, lean body, nice smile, eyes, clothes, figure..?

Whatever it is, why is it? Why is it that thing? Is it one big thing or couple of smaller ones? Is it because of our parents or immediate family? Something mum/dad did when we were young and we liked it because it was associated with a good feeling or warm meal we enjoyed? Is it just chemicals in our brain taking over and deciding what we like and what we don’t? Do we have a search image in mind from previous relationships that we compared them to without consciously realising it?

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The Black Swan

Nassim Taleb – The Black Swan

What is a black swan? Nothing extra ordinary if you’ve seen one but if you’ve only seen a white one and suddenly you get to see a black one, you’d be surprised.

Black swan is a term for events that we don’t or can’t anticipate but have a big impact on our lives and reality. To explain it – imagine a market that steadily grows 7% a year but suddenly starts growing 20, 30 or even 40% for a couple of years. It almost defies gravity. Then suddenly plummets all the way to the bottom. Massive losses, people jumping out of windows as they lost everything and have half or even less than what they had. No one saw it coming. Black swan. An unexpected event.

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Winning investment habits of Warren Buffett & George Soros

The Winning Investment Habits of Warren Buffett & George Soros

This is a unique look on investment habits of two richest and most successful investors of our time. Both have different and unique approaches however some things have in common. Author mentions 7 investment sins that most investors have and then in subsequent chapters analyses them and compares them with the two successful investors.

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