Non-practice

There’s a bit of debate in Romania whether people should contribute to the finances of a school.

We have a thing in Romania called  „fondul clasei” (classroom fund), which is funded by parent’s money and helps with minor improvements in education.

There are two big arguments:

• This money should be permitted, as some people want to help the school.
• This money should not be allowed, as it forces poor students to contribute, and, when they can’t do so, bad things happen.

My view on this is that the first argument is a false one – you don’t need everyone in a classroom to contribute with money. If you are doing OK with money, and wish that your child has a good education, no one stops you from writing a check which would help.

On another hand, poor students might have issues with paying for school. Do this in the long run with big numbers, and some pupils will leave school due to this reason, or, much more likely, they’ll have a poor experience in school.

In my opinion, if education should be universal, then, in that case, you shouldn’t force people to pay for it.

There are lots of dilemmas like „Is the current school education system the best one?” or „Should school be mandatory and free?”, but they’re for another talk.

For the current talk, I think that people shouldn’t be forced to pay for school education.

I have some memories from my own education with such contributions, and none of them are nice. I would prefer they wouldn’t exist.

The question has a wrong answer – „people want to help the school!”. Well, nobody stops you. On another hand, paying for school makes some people skip education, and I don’t think that’s right.

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I think the biggest growth moments in my life came after realizing a hard, harsh, annoying, tough truth.

It’s not pleasant to see the naked emperor, to face your ugly fears, to fight your inner demons, to pick up the sword.

Yet, this is where growth comes from.

To keep ruminating things, to relive bad moments, to look at you in a mirror which doesn’t hide faults – now, that’s difficult.

But after the darkness, there’s light.

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I have a great deal of respect towards dr. Alexandru Pesamosca (deceased) and dr. Niculina Bratu (see this, in Romanian »).

Both of these people pretty much sacrificed their lives to the well of others.

It reminds of a scene in Schindler’s list (1993):

– I didn’t do enough!

– You did so much!

Think of it – there are/were people in this world who lived, mostly, for others’ good. That’s impressive!

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„I think a lot of people dream. And while they are busy dreaming, the really happy people, the really successful people, the really interesting, engaged, powerful people, are busy doing.” – Shonda Rhimes, Dartmouth 2014 (via – Sahil Bloom on Twitter)

Doing things helps with gaining knowledge. Sure, you can read about things, you can be prepared, but in the end, one needs to act.

It’s not an easy life. When I think of workers who work long hours, sometimes even on the weekends, just work, no fun, that’s not easy.

I also think that most people need some time off, it’s a necessity.

But if I have to choose between two extremes – work or read and think, I’d consider working. (sure, unless you consider reading to be working, such as for a book critic)

I like this quote and I wanted to share it with others. Now, for some other quotes.

What do people do after they retire?

#1 Read

The founder of ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, Zang Yiming has announced that he will be stepping down. […] Yiming he would like to start reading more books and daydream a little more too. (via »)

#2 Spend more time with family:

Nick Maroutsos, head of global bonds at Janus Henderson Investors, is set to retire in October to take more road trips with his kids, after the pandemic caused him to reevaluate his „goals in life,” he told Bloomberg. (via »)

But how do rich people get rich? Some of them by reading books:

Mark Cuban is an avid reader (as are his fellow billionaires Bill Gates and Warren Buffett). […]

But Cuban said one book in particular stands out as helping him to stay focused on his money goals early in his career: “Cashing in on the American Dream: How to Retire at 35.” (via »)

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Once, at my grandparents’ house in Buzău, I was sent into the village. I came back running, to overhear a conversation between my grandfather and my grandmother: „Olivian is a hardworking person. Wherever you send him, he goes.”

My grandfather didn’t use to say too many good things to my face. But when he made that confession to my grandmother, I knew he meant it.

Another memory is with a rather critical teacher from the 8^th grade, who, at least for a moment, I managed to impress.

I think people should say more good things one to another.

The only exception I can think of are monks, who prefer not to be praised.

Praising makes the world better, in my opinion.

I still think of moments when someone told something good about me, it feeds me, it’s a validation I need. I’m trying not to depend on this, but it happens naturally.

Also, don’t fake it. If you don’t mean praising, I wouldn’t do it. Say the truth, don’t just say things.

But if you focus on „What could I say good about this person?”, most likely you’ll come up with something.

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There is some hardware, like a nice keyboard or an ergonomic chair, which you can hardly test.

Sure, you can go into a store and see if you like it or not, start typing on the keyboard or lean back on the chair.

But how will you feel one week after using it? 3 months? One year?

I don’t think that first impressions are the best in these situations.

As I see it, you can only test if you don’t like some things like that – if you really hate the chair, if the keyboard annoys you a lot.

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Some consider that Shrek wasn’t a success:

„The fairytale comedy was a hit with critics and audiences but its toilet humour, glibness and shoddy animation mark it out as a misfire”. (Shrek at 20: an unfunny and overrated low for blockbuster animation | Animation in film | The Guardian)

When you compare Shrek with the dream-like princesses, to me some things are worth mentioning:

• Shrek didn’t do much self-improvement. Sure, as in any movie, the main hero wants to improve on a specific thing. But, all-in-all, Shrek was happy with not succeeding. Not great, but happy.
• On another hand, most of Disney princesses focus on being almost perfect, like a dream. They focus on self-improvement a bit too much. Great, but, perhaps, less happy.
• What’s the solution? Get the best out of both worlds. You do need to become better, you can’t just be happy with your state. On another hand, you can accept some things are they are and fully enjoy life.

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I think that in order to be a good professional, you might need to know some things outside of your area.

Leonardo da Vinci knew a lot of things.

Nicolae Steinhardt, if I’m not mistaken, recommends monks to know some other things, not necessarily focus 100% on Theology.

Andrei Pleșu: „Dar cine îşi imaginează că a nu citi, a nu cădea niciodată pe gînduri, a te purta birjăreşte, a te ocupa numai de şmecherii şi aranjamente adaugă ceva calităţii tale umane e la fel de smintit ca cel care crede că a fi frecventat bibliotecile e a fi deja cu sufletul în rai şi a avea un ascendent inatacabil asupra oricui.”

There was a quote that when you need to choose between two professionals if they’re of generally equal value it might be a better idea to choose the one with a greater culture.

Even if you work with numbers and information bits (0s and 1s), you might still need some theater, some literature.

You do need logic, demonstration and technical parts.

But if you want to be a good professional it might be wiser to have a balanced formation, not just technical, but also art-related, not only art-related but also technical.

A quote:

Andrei Pleșu discută cu Sever Voinescu, redactor-șef al Dilemei vechi, despre cultură și tinerii de azi. „A venit un om la mine, un inginer, și mi-a spus: După ce am citit Jurnalul de la Păltiniș, am devenit un mai bun inginer“. (Andrei Pleșu despre ce poate stîrni cultura în oameni – Dilema veche)

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