This blog is just a grab bag of thoughts and useful links. However, as the name suggests it may be interpreted by some as a wee bit challenging, if not, activist. Hence the use of the term "Left" in the title.
The views expressed are strictly my own. The mention of any software or service is not to be taken as an endorsement or criticism.
Wow, here we are at the end of 2023 and boy has it been busy. This explains why I haven't been posting much lately just a sheer lack of time and/or occasionally energy.
However, I have plans for the new year and one of them is an article on how the concept of knowledge is about to change because of the advent of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Much has been said about it in general but one of the things humanity will be facing is the knowledge that one cannot possibly keep up with the sheer volume of information an AI can process. One uncorroborated statement I heard said that Google's new system can digest over 100,000 documents in one hour. That means that if the system were to come up with a solution to any given problem and let us suppose that it worked. They would simply be no way for mere mortals to fact check and perhaps truly understand the procedures involved.
That means that our relationship to knowledge itself is going to change, so stay tuned as I develop the article and do the necessary fact checking. My goal is to get it out late in January with an accompanying video of course.
For now however I just want to wish everyone a great new year. Taken account of your successes and challenges. They frequently come together. And let's see what's on the other side of January 2024.
Ever notice that some people have an ability to get something positive out of almost any situation? These people also are fountains of ideas. They don't get stuck very often on a problem and when they do, even if they are unsuccessful, they will tell you most sincerely that they received some benefit from it.
I consider myself one of these people. As a matter of fact my whole family has at their core the "problem solving gene". What is it that gives some people this outlook on life?.
Creative, Positive, Actions:
There are several factors I believe but for most I think the nurturing of curiosity is the thing that enables everything else. I fondly remember sitting on the floor of my parent's bedroom with my sister watching my father build a simple electromagnet out of some wire, I nail, and a battery. While he was obviously trying to inspire us and we couldn't have been more than four or five years old respectively. Was how happy he was to be building something simple having fun and see his children get inspired. I think dad knew, that his lesson was so important and he was overjoyed that his children were getting it.
The other big factor which became obvious when we were teenagers was to appreciate and enjoy hard work. It always feels wonderful when you have put effort and focus into something. As long as you can understand the reasons behind the difficulties you will gain something. Life was meant to be understood so that you can see your way through the challenges.
The third lesson in fostering a positive outlook is to be responsible for undertaking actions. In other words, don't look for someone else to do the work. Whenever possible do it your self. This will build up so much not only in self-esteem but it will strengthen your entire sense of being.
And now here is the companion video to this short article:(Updated: Oct 9, 2023)
This is a little addendum:
As I was reciting the video for this article I ended up really inspiring myself and came up with a plethora of ideas. This proves to me that encouraging the creative and curious spirit is one of the major aspects of developing a positive outlook. Also very important is the willingness to understand that when life is working correctly, you are for ever changing. Don't hold onto who you are, I think you'll find that impossible to do anyway.
It is also far better to try something and fail at it if need be, and yet pull something useful out of the experience. This may be the real lesson here: "Find the Silver Lining" in any experience. It always exists. Even in the most difficult of situations. Sometimes what you learn now may not be immediately apparent and may not be useful for years but I'm willing to bet my very life that down the road somewhere some little bit of knowledge will put you and an advantage. Giving you just a little bit more insight than if you had not had all the experiences you've had thus far.
The inspiration just keeps on going…
As mentioned in the video, I accidentally came up with a bit of spontaneous artwork which started as a simple sunburst. Below are the full size still images.
To save an image, first click on it so that it enlarges. Then right click and choose "save image as" or "save link as". The terminology varies a little bit between different devices. If you have any trouble, leave a comment. Or use the feedback box available on most devices. On some smaller phones and tablets this feedback box is not available. But it is clearly visible when using a laptop on every page.
I hereby place following images in this post in the public domain. No attribution required.
The still photographs.
As usual, clicking on any image, then right clicking will allow you to download it.
The stills, were done using "Particle Shop" for the starburst, and Paintshoppro Ultimate for the kaleidoscopic effect.
The animated versions will follow shortly, in a day or two. (The animations are now posted below. Keep scrolling you will see them at the end of the post.)They pose a small problem because they are so short which makes them unsuitable for posting to YouTube. So the best idea is to convert them to GIF, but I have to keep the size small as not to overload mobile devices.
The Animations
The animations are now on a separate page. Click here to access it. Be aware these are large files. While most phones and other mobile devices can handle them they will take some time to load.
This is why they have been moved to a separate page.
As always feel free to leave comments or suggestions. Take care Patrick
"You can't have motivation without the effort of thought."
At first, I thought it was such an oddthought: "What if some people actually don't like to think." Well, the more I thought about it, the more I began to consider the idea seriously. 40 years ago it would've been truly preposterous. If you wanted to know something you had to put effort into either finding the information and then drawing conclusions from it based on whatever criteria you had in mind.
But consider for a moment how easy it is now days to find out something almost immediately, and based on previous activity on the Internet it is likely to be tailored to their viewpoint., Literally, "No Thinking Required." They receive a minor endorphin it from the brain and then move on to the next stimulating thumbnail on YouTube. I know people like this, quite a few and across a wide range of ages. Not only do they usually have difficulty in going outside of their mental comfort zone to solve a problem, they usually have no idea how to start. This topic has come up several times on this blog, and I think it's because of at least two reasons:
I find the idea of not liking the effort involved in thinking and considering something very foreign. It is almost confusing to me.
I always feel a great sense of achievement when I come to the solution or the conclusion. Especially if it's been a truly challenging one. (Right now I have such a case. Implementing voice dictation on a raspberry pi in such a way that it will be useful to a blind person. In other words I have to make it straightforward to turn off and on. So far I have spent several weeks at this endeavour but I know I will get it solved. Progress is slowly revealing itself.)
Yet many people really do dislike the effort of figuring something out. This is a very dangerous way to go through life from my perspective.--- I mean, what is life without understanding? Not to mention you miss a great deal of the whole point of being alive, because the joy and growth are found in the details of something. Society itself is built on the idea of details. An understanding that the community has agreed on something and the knowledge of why that brings you together. This all takes effort and indeed a fair bit of thought.
Maybe that's why I find people losing their social skills. People that are focused on just a very narrow outlook and stay within their comfort zone can possibly really socialize and make those marvellous connections. Not to mention the insights that come from working with society.
Yet I think it's very easy to turn this situation around; it entails however slowing down and breaking away from the perceived need to move from one thing to another quickly. In other words no marathon surfing on your device. That is a good starting point. The other of course is turning off the autopilots in your behaviours and being present in the moment. Start to notice things around you. Indeed pay attention to how you feel at any given moment you choose.
At first, I'm sure it will feel uncomfortable. This is understandable because your reawakening skills. At first they will be cumbersome and you will be overly aware of them. But within a few days I am sure you will see the benefits. This does not mean you have to swear off technology or routines that give you pleasure. Just become more aware of who and where you are. Add that dimension back into your life.
Then you will find with the human race has globally known for a long time: "Fulfilment, Awareness, Thinking and Effort are key ingredients to a great life."
Take care and as always feel free to leave comments. I will most likely at a short video to this article within the next week or so. Stay tuned 😀
Is your physical health at least partially determined by your attitude towards your situation in life?
If we assume the answer to that question is: "Yes" then we must consider the degree to which that is true, and I believe that the influence one can exert on one's body is far more nuanced and adaptable then maybe many people consider.
I'm not talking about your mood here, I am talking about your expectations of health. To present a real life example, right now I'm 64 years old and when I grew up everyone assumed that at that age it was the beginning of the decline in life. No one ever stated it specifically but it was definitely implied. So with that pre-programming I find personally that there is a physical adaption going on to bring those perceptions and reality. How do I know that I am in control of this to some degree? The subtle symptoms tend to appear after a thought and not before. It really makes you wonder "How You Are Driving Your Own Bus And Where You Are Driving It to." This, indeed is one of those topics that is so subtle in some regards and so hard to convey. (I feel a video coming on and it will be linked below).
It really makes one consider what our expectations are of society and roles and how far we may go to bring ourselves into accordance with those accepted outlooks. This is definitely one of those discussions you could have with a group of people and the answers would be diverse indeed. Right now I would love nothing better than to get together with friends to really hash this out.The abilities of the human mind and body continually astounds me. But an included instruction manual would've been nice. To put it more directly, "There Is More to Being Human, then we first thought."
Indeed, I think that in modern society anyway, one's emotions are more in control of the body then the intellect is. I suspect this is due partially because we are just not taught too much about the emotional side of being human. If you start to explore this question for yourself it can be a double edged sword because as you get in touch with your emotional side you can both positively and negatively have an effect. Depending on what your core beliefs are deep down. This can make things much more complicated and I can say personally I have been there and done that. In the video I touch on this but not to the extent I now think it deserves. So there may be a part two in the works at some point. That has to do with feedback and how much time I can allot to the project.
There are many aspects to a blog and a video which take big chunks of time and considerable research even if the video ends up looking a little unprofessional still. I am on a learning curve and in dealing with hardware that wasn't quite designed for this purpose. Anyway let's get back on track…
Actually now that I consider it I think if one were fully "synchronized" with the conscious and emotional sides, share would pretty much disappear. At least as far as predicting the future of one's own life. You would be okay with the person you are because you would have explored a great deal throughout your life.
... And I bet there would be health benefits. As a matter fact I'm sure of this and I usually don't come out this forcefully without considering a great deal of detail about what I'm talking about. I think it could be said that the exploration of one's emotions as it relates to one's physical life is indeed the process of writing one's own instruction manual.
The video on this post goes into more depth on the topic.
What do you think? Let me know by leaving a comment. Take care and have a great day. Patrick
** NOTE: Some of pictures in this article were generated by Ideogram AI. As a layperson, I have read their relevant "terms of service"
and determined, to the best of my ability, that the image may be viewed
by the public. However before any reuse, please review fully their
terms and if necessary contact the company for more information.
The use of said image does not imply any affiliation or endorsement.
Before I moved in to my current supported living residence, which is actually great in terms of the physical and emotional supports, I took something for granted. When I was living on my own I didn't acknowledge or really appreciate what a grand gift large blocks of uninterrupted time were. Enough time and quiet environment to fully indulge in whatever activity the creative mind was drawn to.
Now my day is segmented into relatively short blocks, at the most three hours long. What a difference those divisions make especially when you're researching something or problem-solving. Which is in my book the number one thing that can get in the way of productive use of your time. So if you have such an asset, don't squander it. Rather appreciate just how powerful such a serene environment can be. Every once in a while, usually by accident I get a larger than normal block of time and it definitely brings back memories of sitting at my desk building a project at four in the morning. I may have started it in the early evening but I knew then that I could just go fulltilt at whatever my goal was. That knowledge was liberating.
The second thing that can get in your way is having too much on your mind. To be truly creative and "in the zone" one has to be able to let go of the other aspects of their life for a while. As much as I would love to be able to do 10 things at once, in order to be effective and produce quality results I must not try to do everything. So number three on the list is that you have to choose your goals and commitments carefully. If you try to do everything, nothing will get done, and most definitely not to a good standard even if you manage to succeed in all your undertakings. This is probably going to be a new lesson for the next generation as well. Nothing can replace the investment of time, mind and energy. So recognizing that fact, in itself, can free up more of your creative mind.
As one gets older, you realize that your time is not infinite so that anything you apply time and investment to needs to be of real value, either to you or the society at large. You must get something out of it. I watched a brief video in which Neil DeGrasse Tyson was being interviewed about his early educational experiences and although some might consider him a polymath it was very clear that he made choices and considered the weight of each with respect to his ultimate goals.
This does not mean you have to miss an opportunity. But what it does indicate is that you must have each opportunity in acceptable proportions in your life. You can't do it all, but you can definitely sample and decide how much of your finite energy and effort you want to apply to that particular aspect of experience.
Getting to know a little bit about your own personal psychology is also very useful. Many people never take the time to really look at their own personality and the way they actually deal with themselves. In North America, at least the society tends to be very reactive or very introspective. The extreme in either direction is not useful ultimately, you need both to anchor each other. One of the best things I ever did was take a year-long cognitive therapy course in which the group met once a week. Just learning to pay attention to oneself and what is going on within you and the external environment. Taking that perspective and bouncing it off others tends to give one a far greater understanding of society and humanity in general. This cannot be overstated and developing this awareness is one of the most powerful and rewarding tools you can ever undertake to learn.
I find it rather amazing that the educational system does not have this built into every child's curriculum at some point. If you take one thing away from this short article this last paragraph about cognitive therapy, outward and inward perspectives is the most important in making an efficient use of your time and life. Because it will allow you to identify ultimately the inefficiencies and things in your way which you might not have otherwise understood or seen.
Right now, on this very day, it's Labor Day 2023 in Canada... How will we use and relate to technology in 10 years, 2034 (it's in the latter half of 2023, so for the sake of discussion will just call it 10 years ahead.)?
This question has been asked in various forms throughout the years but this time around both technology and the society are evolving extremely rapidly. Knowledge itself has changed fundamentally. It used to be you would learn of fact, some tidbit of information and that data was considered for the most part permanent and useful for a long time. Now the platforms and ways of doing things are completely in flux. You may learn something on Tuesday and a month down the road an update to some system you use has completely changed and made that knowledge you gained previously completely moot.
This must drive those in charge of archiving material completely nuts. I mean do you store the data on? What do you know for certain will be around in 10 years. If you store it in the cloud will that service be around. Will the protocols that run the Internet changes vastly. I believe this was one of the problems NASA faced with the Voyager 1 spacecraft years later. They were faced with the old age in computer system which he coded the data and no one knew how to repair it or the language it used was no longer taught. In this situation they had a machine out there in space which was sending information which soon could not be decoded. They were losing their Rosetta Stone. Ultimately I think and I'll put a link to a Wikipedia or NASA article right here for more up-to-date information, they just decided to turn the spacecraft off.
Indeed I have seen the "Compact Disc" be developed, hit the market, and it disappear in about 20 years. Pretty much in 1/5 of a lifetime something existing and then it did not. So how "permanent" will permanent be. Events like this redefine what we society perceived as a long time. Of course I rambled up a video. People seem to like them. Here you go:
I am most interested in how people will change. We have seen remarkable adjustments and also to aspects of what we collectively call "being human". I don't think I'm overstating this, these are fundamental changes and change the very fabric of the individual, especially when you look at it from a societal point of view. My hope is that ultimately when we've gotten over the technology and begin to use it as a tool we will begin to see just how interconnected things are over the long run. Maybe then societies will start to drop the artificial boundaries the human race has erected over centuries and intermingled their creativity and knowledge. It would be a society most foreign to you and I because hopefully they will find this part of human history a bit of an enigma. Considering people of the time creating most of their own problems because we had a mistaken belief in the power of division.
I wonder how intelligent life on other planets has dealt with these issues. As we explore space we are continually surprised by discoveries we never thought of. It shows that the human mind has a lot to expand for and that we are still for the most part wearing blinkers.
Anyway the adventure continues. Let's see if we can make it work shall we? :-)
People today seem so sensitive. Everything is taken personally. I find myself wondering if there needs to be a course taught in school on interpersonal social skills. We have lost a great many of the activities in our educational systems that used to be the bedrock of the skills. I think there was also a greater sense of not only community, but an awareness of other communities. Regardless of any particular groups outlook about the other communities, there was really acknowledgement that any particular section of society was not alone.
In contrast, today it seems everyone is hyper focused. Even when you see groups of people and children walking down the street they are all engaging mainly with their devices and it seems to me what they do talk it is not an inclusive event, but more of broadcasting one's own opinion.
As you'll see in the video below, I went for a walk as I pondered this state of social affairs and ended up in a small local forest. That's where these above thoughts really began to hit home, and I found myself feeling a little sad for the younger generation. These interpersonal skills are so important in fulfilling one's life both physically and emotionally. Is it not time we bring attention to these critical skills and honestly start teaching them in school or bringing about some activity that allows people to bond and grow?
In this short video I ponder this thought. Let me know in the comments below if you have any ideas or feedback.
Take care Patrick
PS: The more I consider this question of teaching interpersonal social skills in school, the more I look around me and become increasingly convinced this is the way we must move forward as a society. The impact of not doing so would mean the unraveling of so many fundamental aspects of being human.
Remember when you used go into a coffee shop and everybody would be chattering and discussing a wide variety of things? Even though at times this public discussion would seem loud and overwhelming, ideas were flowing through the air and people were connecting on a very fundamental level. Now if you get on public transit or walk into a Starbucks, it is pretty much totally quiet and the minute someone sits down they are colluding to their laptop and likely plugged in to a local wall socket to recharge their beleaguered and overused battery.
I think this topic may become a series on the blog because as I look at the articles on this site there is a common theme: Humanity and Psychology. Stay tuned and will see what happens. Continue to have a great day.
What if the very way a person perceives their existence varies far more than we ever considered?
By that, somewhat convoluted, question I need to ask if you could talk to someone's mind and experience their thought processes, might they vastly different than yours? I have been thinking about this for a long time as I find myself considering why people behave the way they do. Especially when they are unhappy and yet refuse to change their ways even when given explicit information and avenues out of their situation. I've met people with such vastly different perceptions of the world and ways of going about their daily lives, that I'm beginning to read the question the the supposed "shared human experience"great it might go a long way to explaining the vast differences between people. I'm considering this way down at the fundamentals of the thought process.
If those fundamental building blocks of our reality are in themselves remarkably diverse and unique to each person, then indeed we are all aliens and only normal in the truest sense in relation to our own perceptions.
It is a very intriguing question, and I suspect one that we will ultimately have the answer to. The way technology is evolving I am sure that we will get to a stage where we can begin to decode the millions of impulses of the brain and really look at the fundamental inner workings. I hope to be around to see that, indeed to experience it. Imagine being able to "plug-ins your best friends head". Could you comprehend what you found there? With the way of processing experience be so different, or would it be something familiar.
I hope the technologies which are developed in this regard don't do too much translation, I think there's a lot to be learned from the raw experience. The very things that make us different may indeed be the best teachers.
For those of you that like things in video format. Here's me talking about this very issue. Although things have occurred to me well up in writing this text and things occurred to me while I was doing the video. So like the article each has its own point of view, for lack of a better phrase. Enjoy the differences
Whenever you hear a discussion about someone's mood, or indeed, the topic of being "moody" it is always in the present tense or very recent past. People say things like "Why are they so moody?" and "Their moods are unpredictable." More often than not there is an implied negative connotation along with these statements. Like the mood itself is a bad thing.
Well, let's take the longer approach and include the present and the past. There probably is a message here. Something these repeating moods are trying to tell the person. Looking at "moods" in this kind of light can give one far greater perspective. First off to consider the long term aspect means that you have to pause and consider things. That in itself can be very beneficial. Breaking up automatic routines which in the modern world we all fall into. If when you stop and take notice, the mood itself begins to change, then perhaps your mood is trying to say "This routine is not doing you any good." However up until you stopped and took notice, you were in a foul mood. I mean what better way to stop someone from doing something they truly don't want to do then to put them in a bad mood. However people are also expert at ignoring the signs and moods which are intended to get them to change their behaviours. This is particularly true in the modern world where automatic nonthinking behaviours are encouraged..
I really think "a mood" is often nature's way of getting you to change something you need to change in order to grow. What society and people individually have to do is make time in their day to break automatic routines and check-in with their moods and other signals their body may have. To literally get a dialogue going. I am now convinced that far too many individuals put themselves on a one-way track to all sorts of problems because they are not used to dealing with change.
Instead of dealing with the issue which created the mood, they medicate. This produces a spiral which is going in the outer wrong direction. If you can deal with small issues before they become big then you grow, almost by default.
Then there's the other side of this issue: When people find themselves in a good mood, they happily go along for the ride, but they don't consider do any major degree why they are in a good mood. You could think of the situation like a shopper who doesn't look at their credit card or the receipt when they buy something. They just indulge blindly. This good mood could have tons of positive information contained within. Don't miss this opportunity. There could be all sorts of things that could be later used to help one avoid slipping into a bad mood. Or at the very least, minimize the impact of such a mood shift.
So the message here is pay attention to your moods. They are one of the gateways to understanding oneself.
For those of you that appreciate or like this in a video format. Here it is.
Take care Patrick, and as always leave comments or questions.
(This article is long. Consisting of 41 photos and text. If it is not displaying fully click the article title or click here.)
Note: In order to incorporate all the photographic information, some of the behind-the-scenes code needed to be edited directly. In other words a human was involved in the formatting of this post, namely myself and there may be errors.
If you find any, please report them via the "Contact Us" form on every page.
When I came up with this idea a few weeks ago, it sounded so straightforward; find some of my favourite pictures from the last 10 or 11 years and created a slideshow. Sounds simple right? Well the devil's in the details and it's a good thing I love details 😀. Because then I thought, "Why not allow everyone to download the original photographs.", and that thought led to, "I wonder if there's a way to export all the photo information?"
Well, the answer to all of the above was "Yes". The only question was how much time I had to put in to this little endeavour. But it was too late, I had started a plan and 41 photographs later, combined with some old-school trickery to extract the information from the JPEG files, I had the beginnings.
The video had its own ups and downs. I of course decided to do the whole thing in 4K. Meaning the 13 minute video took over 2 hours to render. and I had to do it several times for various technical reasons.
All in all, it's about 35 hours worth of work. But it was worth it. I will add some comments to the photographs I remember details. Some are in the lower mainland of BC and others are taken from a trip to Trail British Columbia in about 2012. While others come from roaming around Vancouver and Surrey.
Better pictures for you...
"Blogger", the website host, tends to re-compresses any photo uploaded to it and there is a loss of quality, you will note that each picture has a filename below. Clicking on the file name will download the highest resolution photograph I have on my Google Drive. You are welcome to use them in whatever way you wish with no attribution necessary. I hereby place all of the photos in this post in the public domain.
I have adjusted some of the photos in the video version to make it work visually better. The downloaded versions are untouched and were created using the two cameras from Canon. Namely the Canon PowerShot G7 X Mark III for the newer photographs and the Canon PowerShot SX120 IS for the older images. (These links will lead you to the "Canon camera Museum")
The Video: Summer Photos from 2012 to 2023
So first, here is the 13 minute video which is basically a slideshow. and again it is yours to do with as you wish with no strings attached.
You can watch it below, or you can download the file directly from hereto have your own copy, but be aware of a few things if choosing to download the file itself:
This is the original large video source file. It is 2.73 GB in size, meaning that it will take a while to download.
Unlike playing in through the YouTube window below, which automatically adjusts, to your devices capabilities this is a 4K video. Meaning that it may not play on all devices.
It may be necessary on some devices to right click, or tap and hold, the above download link in order to actually get the file to download rather than play.
For many years, and in hundreds of books there have been countless words written about "Perception" and how it is all important especially with regard to you and the rest of the world. To put it simply it is, how you see things. But there is very little consideration on what you consider perception itself to be and to what degree you can mould the construct of perception itself.
I first this may seem like cyclical thinking because, is not perception the very act of perceiving? Yes it is but like everything else under your control. It can be moulded, adjusted if you like, and it just knowing this that allows you to consider it on a much deeper level. What is perception to you? And just how often in your daily routine are you aware of perceiving something? If you are aware of the process as it actually unfolds you can begin to really zoom in on the origins of some of your emotions as well as physical factors you are experiencing.--- Are you aware of the experience right this moment as you read this article?
Most people in North America look forward to their morning coffee. Some may even smell the aroma as they think about what coffee is to them. The very fact that they can do that is due to their perception of what the perception of coffee is. Now you can start to take this apart and look at the various stages you go through as you think of something equally wonderful. What I'm really talking about here is developing the ability to take any experience and subdivided down to smaller levels, smaller degrees and in that process consider your relationship to the event by looking at pieces of the experience. This can give one the ability to really focus in and slow things down so that what was once invisible now begins to show itself. Whether your reaction is positive or negative this way of looking at things can allow you to really take the various stages of a reaction apart and by doing so alter future reactions.
Of course you can go overboard on this and start literally "splitting hairs" going down to finer and finer details well beyond the point of being useful. Don't get that distracted by this idea. Use it only to the point where you are getting some insights out of any given experience. It might be a good idea to write or record your thoughts as you consider some aspect of perception. Then revisited a few hours later or sometime down the road. Because then I enough will happen to you in the intervening time that you are perception will be different.
This short article is only the results of myself a few days ago while waking up realizing that my perception is my own making and that like a fractal image there is infinite detail and I can take it apart as long as I find the results useful. I wish I had been recording at the time this thought occurred to me because here I am five days later and I can remember the idea for this short article but not what I was considering a moment earlier which brought the to the idea of Perceiving One's Own Perception.
Hopefully this has made some sense, and cause you to pause and reflect on something. Have a great day. If video is your preferred format, then here you go. I expand on this topic a little more. As always please leave comments or ideas below or on YouTube.
This morning I read a quote from Dostoyevsky which fits in very nicely with this topic:
"To be a human being among people and to remain one forever, no matter in what circumstances, not to grow despondent and not to lose heart — that’s what life is all about, that’s its task."
Believe it or not everyone has a built in evolutionary based "Cognitive Negative Bias". That is, your mind, if left to its own behaviours always assumes the worst. This was right for the early human species as it saved them from becoming a predator's midday snack. However this negative bias over time became generalized and now in the modern world, it not only does it not serve us well, it actually gets in the way of physiological growth.
It is not necessary to go into examples of negative bias, they are all too prevalent. Rather this article is meant to give you some of my own personal tools to encourage seeing a "Positive Bias" whenever possible. These are things I have learned throughout my life.
To sum them up, they are:
Personal Awareness
Recognizing Habitual Behaviour
Enjoying Effort (literally relishing in the fact that something might be hard to do.)
Every time engage in one of these behaviors, you always learn something.
1. Most of us, including myself, spend a good chunk of our days somewhere between autopilot and grounded awareness. This is the modern survival skill, because frequently you are moving at a rapid pace juggling many things. The problem is that, it has become, for many people, a natural default state; they are slowly lose touch with themselves. In some situations even with their very character. Who they may become over time it's not quite the personality they assume. Everything can change and that includes the very essence of you.
Getting to know various aspects of yourself is critical, because it is the bedrock upon which everything else is built. No one can know everything about themselves because we are always changing, but we can definitely alter the larger and more profound aspects. So, the next time you turn on the TV, YouTube, or other entertainment media especially if it's something you do often, ask yourself to just pay attention to you to the situation you are in. What are you looking forward to? If it is a routine ask yourself what you get out of the routine? Start to take apart the situation in whatever way you want and notice the different aspects. There is so much to discover in personal awareness and it is in these moments that you can find a great many surprises. Encourage yourself to be curious. You are psychologically getting something out of every situation. Start to explore what that might be. Even negative things. What you might call a bad habit has a payoff for some part of your psychology.
2. This leads right into the next item on the list, recognizing habitual behaviours. Again you are getting something out of it. Often can be a way to avoid being aware of yourself. The problem is that habitual behaviours that don't do you any good and can waste a great deal of time getting you nowhere. So you don't benefit from the experience either positively or negatively. --- In sort they keep you stuck. So next time you're eating that big bag of potato chips and you're chewing through them at breakneck speed. Ask yourself what's going on.
3. Just today I was working with someone who was terrified of effort. That is to say, the minute something got difficult for them, he immediately put up mental roadblocks, essentially guaranteeing that they would fail. I have seen this several times now in various people who will always say they want to learn and succeed. My belief is that it is the fear of change ultimately that is stopping them. Everything you've ever done in your life even the most automatic and unconscious things was at the very beginning, difficult. You had to learn how to gain a new skill. But somewhere along the way these people learned or told themselves that everything must conform to their way of existence or seeing the world if you prefer. If it didn't fit their model then it was by definitions "difficult" and doomed to failure. To guarantee this outcome they began to build up all sorts of behaviours to distract themselves while at the same time frustrating themselves. A guarantee the way not to benefit from learning.
Well, in order to learn you must be prepared to change and what you need to learn is that change is a good thing in this context and if something is difficult that is also a good thing. It means you're being stretched and exercised and ultimately growing. So learn to accept difficulty as a positive indicator. If the "wall" is too high, take your time and appreciate the small steps. If you are observant of your accomplishments and your setbacks you will reach the top. You will however not be quite the same person you are at the beginning of the undertaking. It is necessary to let go of the "you" you knew. It may be a very difficult thing at first and it may remain difficult. That is okay. Take the time to understand why. If it is not in your power to see why it is difficult then see if you can come to terms with the difficulty. It will be up to you whether to proceed and integrate it into the situation or to go down another route.
Don't Resist Change, Embrace It.
There seems to be a tendency for people now to insist on having the world presented to them in a way they are already comfortable with and that can lead to a lot of the above difficulty. You may have to change your behaviour. If you really want to achieve a specific goal. That means taking a look at your negative bias and indeed taking a look at the individual you have knowen for all these years who just happens to be your self.
A practical example of people resisting change while insisting they want the benefits of change without the work involved would be the following:
This happened several times every year. Either in my volunteer work or when assisting someone in my building with new equipment or purchases. They get the latest phone with all the bells and whistles. After they've had it for a few days they come to me and they ask can you make this do what I saw in the commercial? It doesn't matter what the undertaking is what the person is often really asking is "You do the work so I can have all the benefits without having to think about it.". And of course things never really work out for them because they do not understand the very future they are attracted to. Even if everything does work after it is been set up they are still somewhat frustrated because they intuitively know that they don't know what's going on. And in order to benefit from an experience you have to understand that experience. Just buying a good camera will not make you a good photographer. You must undertake learning how it works. There is no getting around this if you really want to grow.
So there we have it. The key points of my philosophy in regards to negative bias. My advice throw the negative out and do the work to get the positive in.
I have made a companion video for this article. It covers the same points and also addresses a few other aspects. If you are more comfortable learning it through multimedia then this is for you. It is about 10 minutes long.
In my volunteer work we occasionally run across people who simply seemingly can't resist adjusting everything in sight. Regardless of whatever it is, a cell phone, computer, smart device etc. they seem to have an inbuilt compulsion to adjust things. Even if no adjustment is necessary. This frequently breaks the item and they usually have adjusted more items on the device before we hear about it.
These issues can be really challenging to solve because frequently the person doesn't remember all the things they've changed. So the usual scenario is we fix up the device and the person is happy but I also know that they will be back. This happens frequently enough that it is got me thinking what is going on with these people. Why are they making their lives more complicated. My philosophy is so much simpler… "If the thing works, leave it alone."
Sometimes I think it's a need to control their environment however that is not always the case because if you do manage to get them to leave something alone then there's a good chance they will leave it alone permanently, ignoring all the signals when they should be taking action. Their behaviour is very much like a switch it's either all on or it's completely off and ignored.
Now to be honest and clear I am somewhat the same I can get trapped in a downward rabbit hole of adjusting something until it is perfect, or I frustrated the heck out of myself, which ever comes first. But I am aware of what I'm doing and why. So the rabbit hole adventure doesn't happen too often... Except it just did. If you look at the graphic at the top of this post you'll notice an odd background. I was playing around with my graphics tablet when I accidentally created this. And of course I spent a ridiculous amount of time tweaking everything about it. Now that I think back on and it's kind of frustrating because I know darn well that displays very greatly. What looks fantastic on my desktop monitor may look very poor on the template. Or at least very different. You would think knowing that for certain would mean that I would opt for the safe and reasonable. But no… We can't do that can wait :-).
Tell me your stories in the comments down below so that at the very least we can come to know this interesting behaviour and maybe make it our own and start a new trend in social media.
I wonder if this tinkering and for ever adjusting is more like an addiction for some people? They do tend to go a little odd if you manage to get in the way of their regular routine of for ever twiddling the knobs. I recently worked on an old computer running Windows 7 and the person that owned it had put in everything and it was the ultimate version of everything. As a result this little old computer came to a grinding halt. I cleaned it up for them and told them to be kind to the old machine and consider it more of an heirloom than anything useful. But within a day I heard back from them that the machine was overheating. Upon a little more investigation they admitted they put everything back and perhaps even more. I wasn't mad when I heard this. I think more astonished would be my state of mind.
Around and around these odd behaviours go. The universe really should have provided an instruction booklet for the human race. Not one about culture, but one that deals with getting to know your self.
Do you know people like this, have you worked with them? Even better have you got any insight? Leave your comments below.
Poster announcing free adult education classes and encouraging adults to return to school. Date stamped on verso: Dec 4 1937. LOC's Public Domain Archive
Boy, if that isn't a" sleeper" of a question. At first it seems so innocent. Bordering on simple. One would need only reply with the yes or no answer. But I think the question belies something much deeper and critical. I think the roof question is "Is the Internet getting in your way?" This is something we could debate and feel free to put your comments down below but speaking personally I would answer "Yes" for myself.
The Internet and indeed our entire way of communicating currently seems to be getting in the way of efficiently or at least uniformly going through one's day. People have not yet learned how to deal with this much information and the mechanisms we have in place frequently get in the way of useful delivery. Ever notice how many pop-ups you get when you turn your phone on? And let's not even go down the rabbit hole of email. I would read more of it if we had a more useful way to structure and present the data/information. And the sites that purport to give you a "snippet" view of the information I just find it annoying because I really do want to know in detail about whatever I am pursuing.
It is going to be interesting to see what things are like in 100 years although I don't think it'll take nearly that long, for something utterly new to replace our way of approaching information. This has nothing to do with the amount of information a person can digest in a given period of time it has much more to do with the quality of the knowledge gained. Let me know what you think.
Have a good evening everyone out there on good old planet Earth. More in the coming days. This has been just a quick entry for today. But a question like this might even turn into a video over the weekend. Keep your eyes on this page.
Yep, this post is going to be photos that I have taken recently in parks and all around wherever I have found myself lately. There is absolutely no rhyme or reason to it. All photography there part of this particular blog post in the public domain.
I started this last night on a whim so I have no idea what I would've put here but I will make sure that every single photo can be downloaded in full resolution, so all links lead to the full resolution photo sitting on my Google Drive.Standby and will see what happens.😀
All shots taken with a Canon G7 market 3
There are more photos to see on an earlier post I made. Not necessarily from the same camera. This older post is a bit of a time warp. You can find them in the article: Yahoo, it's the beloved weekend! (Free Photos)
I do have a few photographs for purchase up on Displate.
If you've never heard of this company they print artwork on metal with
the result being that the posters are held on the wall by simple
magnets. They ship all over the world.
And Just for the Heck of It…
Here is a variation on on the BEE photo. A lightened up, with saturated colour poster, suitable for printing on 8.5 x 11 paper. "IT BEE SUMMER!" indeed 😎 .
Patrick
PS: If anyone would like the RAW image versions of these shots please let me know. These are in Canon's CR3 format are unedited and of much higher quality. Note however that not all devices can display them. There is also no lens correction. However if you have an idea what I'm talking about they are worth the extra effort.😀
It's the 21st century and people are beginning to take recycling and conservation very seriously. So why do we allow and indeed participate in the throwaway mentality of current smart phones?
They should be built to last not expire in two or three years. People behave like they're involved in an arms race; constantly upgrading for the latest and best technology. Think about the number of resources that go into the short life cycle of a phone. Rare materials many of which are toxic and some almost impossible to recycle.
So what's going on here and why are people buying into this? My phone is barely 3 years old and has begun to fall apart. I investigated and found that the entire phone is glued together. I don't think there's a screw or a clip in the whole thing. $600 is what it cost me when it was new because I bought it out right, wanting to avoid getting locked into a plan because one never knows what my income is going to be in the years moving forward. In other words I was looking to keep my life simple.
My needs in regards to this technology are very straightforward:
A clean un-bloated operating system android like operating system.
I'm willing to pay extra for good hardware as I do use quite a few apps for work.
I couldn't care less about the camera as long as it is sufficient to grab the occasional QR code.
Sounds like a pretty simple shopping list doesn't? Yet the way phones are marketed makes finding out that information rather challenging. As a matter of fact the last online at will I checked out for a phone spoke about everything except those basic points. The entire 10 page manual was more of an advertisement and the last thing we talked about was the actual phone functionality. In other words it was a camera first and the phone was almost an afterthought.
The other issue that really gets me going is updates to the software, or lack thereof, two years in and you're pretty much out of luck as far as patches go from some suppliers. Can we at least begin to turn this around by insisting that the batteries are replaceable and recyclable?
TVs are now beginning to go this way as well. My first Smart TV it took two years to get all the bugs out of the OS and then the manufacturer started shutting features down. Boy I was not impressed.
The thinking should be the other way around and go something like this:
If the hardware and software are capable of keeping the device secure and safe, then in order to maximize its useful life manufacturers must maintain it. They can offer new products but the consumer must be able to use their device to the fullest extent. This keeps things out of the recycling and saves the new amount in energy and resources.
The idea of building something to last is a concept that I think many people would welcome back. True there would be a reeducation going on because many people have never thought in that way.
This would have the effect of freeing people up to choose when to upgrade.
If the consumer new that the device was created to last and be serviceable in its lifetime then it is likely they would see the price as an investment. This would build loyalty which is something that every manufacturer needs.
Okay gang that's the end of my rant. What do you think. Let me know in the comments or by sending a note.
At least in the industrialized developed parts of the world, the modern human experience it's a funny thing.
We are all so busy filling our lives with everything. Even when we take time off there is a tendency to fill those days up with an official activity or vacation and we plan these events out. It is my impression that more and more people are effectively rushing through their days. By doing so I think a major point of existence is being missed and that is taking the time to appreciate all of the unique and wonderful things as well as some of the more complex or not so wonderful things.
To do this effectively one must learn to Stop. Put down the plan. Take some time to let go of the technology or other distractions and deliberately do without for a while. You will be amazed at what you're missing and that tends to be your very life in its finer points. The realization may hit you that life is not infinite so why are you rushing it? Every one of us will reach the inevitable and and regardless of what you believe it will be the end of what you know as existence now. You may live forever perhaps but it will be in a different form and in a different way. The point is that you cannot come back to the way you are now. So appreciate things by getting out of the routine and occasionally deliberately stopping for a day or two if you can.
Every second that passes you by cannot be renewed or redone. Stopping every once in a while will increase your appreciation of your very existence and those around you. It will definitely deepen your appreciation of everything, so when you do go back to your full speed you may see things differently and really understand the tremendous uniqueness of where you are at.
It's pretty straightforward stuff and yet so profound.
PS: The photo of the roses at the top of this page I hereby place in the public domain. The full-size image has been uploaded simply click on the picture.
If you have difficulty downloading picture click on this link to open the image in an alternate way which will give some browsers the ability to save the file. If that still does not work for you please send me a note via the contact us form.
But I don't think many of us realize just how "abridged" our reality and sensations are. Think about it, if once reality and sense of their surroundings were indeed accurate would it be so easy to change one's perspective on any given situation? And indeed how easily we accommodate any new perspective.
Ever had one of those mornings when you wake up and you are just in a grumpy or slow frame of mind? Thoughts meander through your head that are the most optimistic… Then you have a good strong cup of coffee and within a few minutes have all but forgotten the beginnings of your day. You feel engaged and ready to take on the world. How could your perception change that much if they weren't a construct of your own making in the first place? It really is a powerful question because it means you can adjust a great many things related to not only perception but your own internal processes of thought.
The scenario I just described above is almost my daily ritual in the last few years, and conversely at the end of the day I don't want to stop doing whatever I'm doing. Especially if I'm in a project state of mind where I'm either building something, writing code or creating artwork. I always think of " If onlyI had another hour…" Each morning though I have to go through the process of getting the lead out of my mind. Slowly but surely I have come to the conclusion that I will not worry about the mornings state of affairs. If my brain insists on being a crocodile and having to warm up in the sun, so be it.
Many people tell me that as they age their mind slows down and their world becomes smaller. For me the opposite seems to be true. I am gearing up and if I have any regrets it is only that I didn't understand all of this stuff when I was 25. It had to wait until now at almost 64 years of age. The malleability of one's mind is tremendous, but that same malleability characteristic can also mean that we accept our mental states without critiquing them. We just kind of go along with the flow. This is most likely a bad habit brought on by not enough time to pay attention to one's inner world. I recently reacquainted myself with an excellent book.
Using Your Brain--For a Change: Neuro-Linguistic Programming By Richard Bandler
Publisher: Real People Press Year : 1985 ISBN numbers: 9780911226263, 9780911226270, 0911226265, 0911226273
Don't let the title of the book scare you off, the term "programming" only refers to changing your reactions to a memory, image or state of mind. In other words, this book is all about paying attention to your own program. The routines you have built up and automatic reactions to them. Then it goes into ways you can alter that behaviour. The book is written in a very lighthearted and playful manner and is a quick read. You will however return to it many times as it is one of those good books whose insights may not immediately be totally apparent. As far as I know the book itself is been out of print for many years and it was a friend of mine who founded through AbeBooks.
As I progress through life, it is become very apparent to me that most people do not pay attention to their own inner workings either physically or mentally. As a result they tend to become their own "victims", for lack of a better word. There is a real tendency to only take action once a situation has escalated to the point where they have too, and I can't help wondering: If they had been more self-aware and more involved with their own will being would they have reached the same state they are in now? Which from my perspective frequently is a negative situation. Whereas, here I am almost 64 years of age I don't do drugs except for the occasional glass of wine and mentally and physically am in pretty good shape. Indeed I think my physical disability Cerebral Palsy has been a benefit because at a young age it forced me to pay attention to my own inner workings, and later on seek input from counsellors and other people with different perspectives. It wasn't exactly a smooth trip through adolescence but at the end of the day I think it was necessary one.
Reality 101: The Course
We do indeed live in our own abridged reality and that means get to
construct it, piece by piece and rearrange it in whatever way we see
appropriate. I have reached the point where I think these kind of insights mentioned in the above book and the practice of being aware of what motivates an individual should be taught in school. We should not just take our own mental states and react to them after the fact. We should to gain the most benefit of our existence be the architect of our reality in the first place. How else can one discover, truly, their talents, and by the same token, know the things they are not well suited to. You want to take deliberate action to know your self and construct whatever reality you want. There is great freedom in this because it places you firmly in the conductor's seat.
People seem to like these kind of ideas presented in a visual format. So I put together a short eight minute video. The key thing to remember is that no matter what you are always the orchestrator of your reality.
Even if your hands are tied up and you cannot move you would still be able to interpret that situation. You might find yourself saying: "I can't move and so I might as well will relax… Why waste energy." By the same token if you become aware of your habitual habits, you can alter them. The change does not need to be you, and as a matter of fact, that's one of the keys to success. Make small doable changes. Just realizing that the change can be made is often in itself very liberating.
If for some reason you find that you are stuck in a certain frame of mind then realize that it will change and then you might be able to revisit the issue.
Your life is the orchestra and it is you who ultimately create the music. Even more so, you get to pick the instruments which ultimately make up the entire piece! Think of the freedom in that.
You could call this "article" a live post. Over the last few weeks I have had challenges in keeping the blog as up-to-date as I've wanted to do. Time has not been a friend of late with so much to do. So today's post is literally going to be done on the run. Not on any particular topic but compiled from my adventures as I zip around in my electric wheelchair from one part of the lower mainland of British Columbia to the other. I'm referring to the greater Vancouver area.
Yesterday we accidentally made it all the way to downtown Vancouver and around the Stanley Park seawall and back to Surrey. I say accidentally because I had planned any of it.
I am also compiling a short about 10 minutes video a montage of sorts containing some of the scenes and places I arrived back. Today it's up to the Oakridge Park area. A section of the city that I hear is going through a great change and from the developers website it sounds like they want to be a new city centre. We shall see...
It's now almost a week later, but I finally compiled a short three minute video containing springtime/summertime photos and video clips. This is only a little over three minutes long but I think captures the real spirit of the season and truly becoming aware of the awesomeness around us. I know that sounds trite, but it really is true. So without further ado, here is "Springtime Swing": (If it is not available yet come back in about an hour, I just uploaded it and it is in 4K.)
I do plan to go out again tomorrow, Saturday, May 27, and it looks like the weather is going to be beautiful. So I'll be posting an article or adding to this one hopefully sometime over the weekend. Take care
