I like this idea – try to do good for good’s sake.
Non-practice
Cătălin Zaharia: If you don’t do a thing you wish to do for a change, it’s just information
I did some coaching training, years ago, with dr. Cătălin Zaharia, PhD.
Years passed, and at some point I told him I had realized something – „Look, I understood X”.
His reply was nice (approximate quote):
„If you don’t do a thing you wish to do for a change, it’s just information.”
Implementation is everything; you have to apply what you said is important to you.
Not enough boring posts
At some various times in life, I was told I say boring, simple, obvious things. This happened both offline and online.
Of course, most people would likely be boring at some point, while at other times less so.
Another „of course”, sometimes I would actually say something boring, not a clever idea, just some form of a thing which, although true, everyone knows already.
I recently read that online people tend to go to extremes. They pick a point of view, while others take an opposite one, and what’s lacking is the middle point, the crossroad of various opinions, the melting point of opposing thoughts.
Online, people tend to be either A or non-A, but not in the middle of those views.
In this case, perhaps the observation I got, „you’re boring!” might not be so disheartening.
This isn’t a way to start saying boring and simple things.
There is a case, though of saying something less obvious, but not in extremes.
Năvodari III
Năvodari expanded in the previous years. Houses got built. I got to walk through its streets and found some disturbing facts: the houses’ gardens are small (1), the roads are not wide enough for my taste (2), there is little emphasis put on parks (3), everything is crowded (4), there seems to be no general design rules in architecture – everyone builds their house however they see fit (5).
At one point, there was a piece of news stating that some fire trucks couldn’t enter some streets due to not following street width requirements.
Suppose you think of a communist-era neighborhood block of flats, things like „crowded” come to mind. But at least they followed a few principles and rules.
There is a game called Caesar III. In the game, you could expand a city. If you did so, people would move into a specific neighborhood.
There was a catch, though – you needed to keep the people happy. It was not enough to just build some houses; you had to think about things like entertainment, safety, public health – things like that. If there were a larger area without any means of amusement, people would become unhappy and move out of the buildings.
It keeps surprising me – who would want to move to a neighborhood that is crowded, has no entertainment, each house looks different than the other, and there is a general little emphasis on the Quality of Life?
Loving others vs. loving myself
What would you do if you met a person you fell in love with, but there’s a catch – the person doesn’t love you back?
There’s a saying that:
„All is fair in love and war” – John Lyly’s Euphues: The Anatomy of Wit
If you insist, you would say something like „Oh, but you are wrong, you didn’t get the situation properly, let me explain things to you”.
I prefer a different approach – consider that the person thinks properly, there is no fault in the person’s logic, and do not insist. Avoid insisting, pushing things, and trying to make things work. Get the message and put the other person, like you say you already do, on the first rank. Adjust the situation to her perspective, don’t force your view on the world.
Full-time dedication
I recently took part in an event about start-ups.
One of the mentors told me one thing that stuck with me – it’s important to dedicate full-time to a project.
It’s not easy to create something big without a full-time dedication.
Milton Friedman: Human wants and needs are infinite, which means there is always more to do. – Calum Chace, The Economic Singularity: Artificial intelligence and the death of capitalism
Milton Friedman — Human wants and needs are infinite, which means there is always more to do.” ― Calum Chace, The Economic Singularity: Artificial intelligence and the death of capitalism
People asking for things
Some people ask for lots of things. They want this, and that, and then put some conditions, oh, and don’t forget about this, how about that, and so on.
I’ve found that if I ask for something simple in return, suddenly the criteria change. Why do I ask for this? Why do I need this? OK, but it will be done very late. I don’t have time.
I once organized a series of meetings in Bucharest. At the second meeting, we were supposed to have both a meeting at a coffee shop and some PowerPoint slides, but there was a logistical misunderstanding, and I couldn’t use a digital projector to show the PowerPoint. One person was very upset. I told her I would hold the presentation just for her, and do a one-to-one meeting on the spot, just for her, basically having all the advantages of a previous meeting, not to mention having the presentation just for her. She was upset and didn’t take my suggestion well. She left the meeting, although we could have stayed around the coffee table.
I then changed the format of the meeting just for that person and switched to a PowerPoint-only series of meetings.
We held the events for years, but the person never came.
Years later, the person came back. During that day, she saw a PowerPoint presentation, and then some more.
At the end of the meeting, she came to me, and said – „Look, all these PowerPoint meetings are fine, but could you organize some meetings around a coffee table?”.
There’s a saying in economics:
Milton Friedman — Human wants and needs are infinite, which means there is always more to do.” ― Calum Chace, The Economic Singularity: Artificial intelligence and the death of capitalism
Delia Orman
Când mă gândesc la Delia, îmi vin în minte două cuvinte – grație și firesc.
Chiar și când râdea, Delia râdea cu aceste două atribute.
Monahul Nicolae Steinhardt vedea raiul în mai multe trepte, din ce în ce mai înalte. Treapta cea mai înaltă:
„Pe măsură ce urcăm scara cerurilor, priveliștile sunt mai neașteptate. Printre constelații și roiuri de galaxii, stele novae, pitice și albe, uitând de predici mânioase, volume de teologie și argumente apologetice, depășind izvoare veșnice de hidrogen — reglate de spiritul profesorului Hoyle -, lăsând în urmă judecători, constructori, socotitori, profeți, gravi filozofi și geometri neeuclidieni. Sufletul urcă mereu mai sus, curățându-se, până la stația terminus: locul de lumină și verdeață, pajiștea înflorată, mișunând de căței mici și dolofani și de pisicuțe albe cu fundă, acolo unde răsună acordurile divertismentelor lui Mozart și se ostenesc îngerii cu aripi ai lui Liliom să ofere necontenit dulcețuri și șerbet, acolo unde se află Dumnezeul cel adevărat, al pruncilor lăsați — în sfârșit — să vină, oricât de bătrâni de ani sau de împovărați de grele amintiri, să vadă pe Tatăl cu barba albă, la mijloc, pe Hristos purtător de stigmate și cruce în dreapta, pe Duhul curățitor și alinător în stânga.”
Mi-o imaginez pe Delia cu pisicuțe albe cu fundă, așa cum se cade unei persoane cu grație și firesc.
Dumnezeu să te odihnească și să te ierte!
Why low-quality health news?
I like to read low-quality health news websites.
I won’t mention which they are.
The reason? They tend to obsessively repeat the basic stuff.
„Drink water. Eat vegetables and fruits. Avoid ultra-processed food. Create a ritual in eating with others.”
Lots of very fancy websites focus so much on the new that they forget that the novelty in health is rare.
Sure, I do read health websites focused on new occurrences in the health market, there are studies and research.
But the basics tend to matter more than the new stuff.
For this, reading a low-quality health news website might be a better solution than reading the latest research.
You (or at least, I) need repetition of the old principles.