Q and A: June 2013

Is life a game?

There are many facets to this game, and many rules, but there is no doubt that life is one huge game. Here are a few rules/realities which determine who get ahead in this game called life. 

• Rule number 1: good-looking people have an advantage

• Rule number 2: if you're not good-looking you can still earn an advantage if you're smart/ambitious.

• Rule number 3: if you're neither good-looking nor smart/ambitious there is still a place for you in life. You can be a pawn or a statistic.A pawn is basically a filler piece, we need people to work as cashiers at gas stations or McDonald's or the supermarket. A statistic is a piece which fills a necessary and inevitable percentage of the population which will "fail". These people are on welfare, food stamps, or other government funded assistance which good-looking and smart/ambitious people provide through paying taxes.

• Rule number 4: it's not what you know, it's who you know. People who succeed know other people who succeed. They also use these connections to achieve their goals. It's very similar to picking up coins in a video games. The player with the most coins/connections is the player who wins/gets that coveted promotion.

• Rule number 5: life does not hand you opportunities. You have to chase, hunt, kill, and bag these opportunities. In other words, if you want that promotion, instead of trying to silently make yourself shine, you need to ask for the promotion and clearly state why you deserve it. Repeat as needed.

• Rule number 6: manipulators are not evil, manipulators are winners. Which brand name will you choose when you go shoe shopping? Whichever brand was successful in imprinting their brand name on your brain in the most discreet yet effective way possible. So what is the brand name in this scenario? The brand name is you, and the brain is other people. Human beings are the keys and obstacles in life. The most successful players are the ones which can most effectively turn the keys and move the obstacles.

• Rule number 7: worrying will not make you safer. A certain percentage of people will die because of fluke accidents. Worrying about this percentage will not make you safer or happier. You are not special, entitled to safe passage throughlife, or even less-likely to die because an airplane fell on your car. You are simply a member of a population. You are exposed to the same risks, and you are just as likely to become a statistic as everyone else. The sooner you stop spending energy on useless worrying, the sooner you can be using that energy on other facets of the game.

• Rule number 8: preparing for retirement when you're twenty will be less painful and more successful than preparing for retirement when you're 50.

• Rule number 9: becoming wealthy is easy. Time and the guts to loose are the only requirements. You don't have to know everything about investing, you don't have to be risky to invest, you don't even have to have a lot of money to begin investing, you only have to start early. 

• Rule number 10: successful people learn from successful people. If you want to learn about success, the most effective way is to hear a lot of advice from a lot of people who have succeeded already.

• Rule number 11: time is your only enemy. The only way you can fail is if you never begin. If you want to do something, do it now! Don't waste your time.

There are many more facets to life, but these are a few of the more significant things I've learned so far in reference to winning at life.

Tech Madness

Want to know how to drive an obsessive-compulsive perfectionist technology nerd crazy?

 Release a new version of software, and then create a dumbed-down tutorial which doesn't explain all the new features.

Sometimes iTunes can be so infuriating! Today I spent several hours trying to figure out how to drag and drop a playlist from my iTunes library into my iPod. Yea, I know this makes me sound like an idiot, but Apple's newest version of iTunes, 11.0.1.12, is significantly different from their older versions. iTunes is extremely simple if you just choose to let iTunes auto-fill your device, but if you like to do things manually, things get a little more complicated. I like to do things manually because I would prefer if all the music from my iPod wasn't deleted by accident. Auto-fill runs this risk. I would rather watch and control the process so that I know everything is going where it is supposed to go.

Technical know-how is something which comes easily for me. In many ways, technology is a lot like science. All the pieces are complex, and everything fits together to form a complete, well-functioning whole. It is interesting, engaging, limitless, and I love everything about it. This is why this problem with iTunes bothered me so much. I think the reason I was so obsessed with it for the most part was because iTunes is so simple. 

If you encounter a problem involving theoretical physics which you don't understand, you will likely just walk away. But if you encounter a problem involving simple elementary concepts which is baffling you, it is going to drive you crazy! This is the same thing I was experiencing. 

I have the utmost respect and confidence in the technical developers at Apple. After all, they have consistently created hardware and software which is useful, cutting-edge, and functional. Because of this, when I found a popular feature missing from the newest version of iTunes, I assumed that it was still present, and I just needed to find it. 

Finally, after hours of tinkering and surfing through forums I stumbled onto the answer. That moment when you have conquered a problem which has been plaguing you is one of the most rewarding moments known to man. I smiled, and everything was better. Poof! The problem was gone! (Just as a side note, here is a link to the forum post where I described the problem and then later posted the solution: link)

I then went back to posts of other people who had the same problem and told them the solution. I could imagine others finding the solution which I labored over for hours and feeling that same joy. What a wonderful way to spread joy! 

I suppose maybe my obsessive need to find solutions could be considered unhealthy to some. After all, I shunned everything else I had planned to do today in order to find an answer to my problem. But the way I see it, doesn't every advancement in society, every improvement in human culture require someone with an unhealthy obsession to find the answer? Ingenuity comes out of necessity, and every great success has beneath it a mountain of backbreaking work, and a circle of people who were just obsessively determined enough to keep working where no one else would. 

I propose that obsession is not a problem that should be cured, but instead, it is a tool which must be controlled and shaped. 

Dealing with Uncertainty

Today I found myself in a dump of self-doubt. And I say that I found myself there, because it was a sudden realization.
I've made a lot of mistakes in life, and one the sad consequences of this reality is that even the most stoic individual in the world isn't going to keep putting faith in something that has been letting him or her down. There are people who are doubting my ability to succeed.

Doubt is very contagious. Hence, today's slump on self confidence. Also add in the fact that there have been some instances involving risk. Risk + total lack of confidence = Cocktail of poison.

I had to do something to break the cycle! Like in many cases where I need advice, I consulted the all knowing.....Google. Lame? Maybe.
I found a specific thread where a young man was asking for advice about his girlfriend's lack of self-confidence, and although HE didn't seem willing to listen to any advice, I benefited greatly.

(Link: Advice URL)

Reading through the posts I felt my resolve strengthening. I came to the conclusion that I can't let anyone's doubt or confidence that i'll succeed effect whether or not I actually do. I compiled some of the replies that stuck out to me, and I printed them out. Maybe this isn't the most accredited method for dealing with self doubt, but for me, all I needed was some reminders of who I'm REALLY succeeding for. Not for them, it's for me...