Teamwork

Teamwork

You're so capable our company needs more people like you dude. Come could you help me with one more favor?

I'm pretty packed.

Look at this chart - it's not adding up when I look at the data. You like challenges like this don't you?

I could look at it but I wouldn't be able to do analysis for another three weeks.

I'd really do it myself but you know I've got family commitment and my wife will kill me if I'm not home early to take care of the older boy.

I've had enough. Get it done yourself. Screw your family. Screw your children. Just because you made the lifestyle choice to have family doesn't give you the moral right to push your work to me. When the ladies have kids they take a pay cut to make time - what makes you think you can get away with keeping your salary and getting someone else to do your job? Don't try to push your supposed "family values" on me I don't buy it.

Calm down man all I'm asking for is a little of your expertise! I understand you're stressed alright I'll take it off your hands and not burden you. Sorry if I pushed you man - can I get you coffee as an apology?

Leave. Me. Alone.

Alright I'll leave I'll leave! Just tell me if there's anything I can do for you -

...

What got into you man. We're such a great team.

Low Hanging Fruit

Low Hanging Fruit

Great master, teach us moral rules so we can be high up in the clouds like you.

My friend, do you know why clouds are so high?

No teacher. Why?

Because they have little substance. You are always the intelligent one do you know what that means?

Teacher are you saying you are so wise because you are foolish? How can someone so high be so low?

Have you seen the tree outside?

Yes teacher. The fruit is delicious!

Did you climb up the tree to pick the fruits high up?

No, teacher I went for the low hanging fruit.

Yes, all living things will find the Way that requires the least effort in the end. What if all the low hanging fruit is gone?

Then I will climb the tree.

Yes. The tree is wise to bear both low and high hanging fruit.

Why would the tree do that it would get eaten!

Getting eaten is why the tree bears fruit at all. Zen is in eating the fruits low down, Zen is in eating the fruits high up, and Zen is in getting all fruits eaten.

So everything is Zen!

Yes. Both the moral and the immoral are Zen. Both the wise and the foolish are Zen. But the moment you are conscious of Zen, Zen is no longer there.

But teacher if that is so how can we ever be wise?

Go on eating the low hanging fruit. When the fruit is gone, the tree will teach you what you need to learn.

What is coding?

What is coding?

Programming languages are fictional universes described by some of the brightest minds of our times. These universes come with their own rules and conventions, cultures and demographics. Just as authors use books to help you interact with their universes, you interact with programming language universes by casting spells that do everything from displaying a picture of a cat on the screen to obtaining classified military information through the Internet. We call these spells code.

Code is the essence of programs just as spells are the essence of magic. Just as magic is the whole process and experience from creating the spell to saving the world, it's hard to pinpoint what a program really is. Is it a program just because cannot or does not perform anything meaningful? Is it a program just because it's written on sand? Is it a program if nobody knows how to cast it anymore? These are questions we don't try to answer. The experience of coding is magical enough.

If you are familiar with casting spells, you will know that actually creating spells is no small feat. Spells work within specific realities, and code allow you to see the world through specific lenses.

Back in the old days these lenses tend to be centered around a computer - which is, for those of you who are old enough to remember, the equivalent of using magic wand gestures back in the days when magic wands were necessary for magic to happen. Nowadays, these lenses really depend on your context. Someone who casts code in the clouds would see the world very differently than someone diving into the mysterious intelligence of the Deep Blue. Pretty much like how young people nowadays cast spells with their toes or by blinking, whichever is currently fashionable. I still don't understand what is so sexy about casting spells with their toes.

How does one code? Same as casting spells. You need to know the basic invocation techniques, the actual words to use, be in the correct mental frame when performing the spell, and understand how spells interact with the other spells your peers or enemies may cast. You need to voice each spell with perfect accuracy - computers, just like magic, have no tolerance for incompetence. Spell casting is a performance art in itself.

Having said that, I'm sure the more experienced wizards are starting to ask, isn't coding, unlike magic, merely a matter of technical competency? That's where it starts getting exciting.

You see, unlike magic, where wizards rarely create new spells, in the coding world, each invocation of a spell is in itself a new spell. And just as it takes decades to learn how to create a good spell, it's the same for code. Good code is like good magic - it hints at you what it was created for and what it is capable of, while at the same time foresees how you may use it in an entirely different situation. It does not judge you, but when you invoke it, you judge yourself through its invocation.

Bad code is like a bad spell - ambiguous what it is supposed to achieve, and falls apart when you try casting it a second time. Certainly there are those who master bad magic so far that it becomes black magic - these are the masters we rarely get to know about.

So how does this code magic actually work? That would be another lesson.

Hi. I've heard much about this education thing. Is it for my child and can it make him successful?

Thank you for calling. Sure it is for your child. Our program ensures that we make as many people as mediocre as possible.

Mediocre? Not successful?

Success is, if you will, like a painting, and mediocrity is a plain canvas. The plainer the canvas, the better we can help your child paint a picture of success.

Success is like a picture? I thought you either are successful or you are not?

Rest assured, sir, we are trained story tellers. We can make anyone think they will be happy by being successful in helping our School remain profitable. Educated people are like dumb machines - they're so much easier to govern!

You WHAT?

I apologize for my rant: let me rephrase, sir. Success is a journey and we help your child get there.

Oh. Okay. Hmmm. So your success thing comes with this happiness thing as well?

Success is a journey, sir. But to be honest we do get weirdos saying they are not happy with our package. Unlike you sir, these people aren't very educated, don't you think?

So you are expert story tellers and you can make anyone happy? I'm not so good today could you tell me a story and make me happy?

I'm afraid that's not how it works, sir. But if you are interested, we have this I Believe I'm Happy program for adults. It will train you in all 10 characteristics common to all happy people.

Uh-huh

Would you like us to send you more information on it?

It's okay I'll think about it. Thanks.

Thank you for calling, sir. We wish you and your child success.

Happiness number 2341 is now available for collect

Happiness number 2341 is now available for collection at the Institution. You may not resell your happiness nor reverse engineer your happiness. The Institution reserves absolute rights over the brand of Happiness rationed to you, and is the sole dispenser of Happiness in your reach. Failing to observe the above mentioned ground rules may result in the removal of all comforts associated with the Happiness you receive. Remember, the Institution's Happiness is what makes your life complete. Understand that we worry for you should you stray from the safety of our Happiness.

Sign below to acknowledge you have received your package.

Every system that survives the test of time despite everything bears witness not to its worthiness but to the success of a mechanism that either aligns or prioritizes its continued existence above its original purpose.
Sometimes people become part of such mechanisms. We call these people Conservatives.

I'm secretly so proud of my peers who have stayed alive, despite parents, despite churches, and despite the "conservative" world around us.

#myworld

#myworld

All movement is beautiful. But beautiful depends on the song you're playing. There is no male movement and female movement, only efficient and inefficient movement, and movement you are in shape to do, and movement that gets you in shape. Stay beautiful. Keep moving.

*1

*1

Words: (
? Are they hardwired into us
? Or are we free [
! To define what we want to mean
! And how they run across the page?
] )

Why do we hold on to them: (
! Like the (*1) remnants of a dear one [*1:
Utterly irreplaceable?
] )

We live in new realities: [
! That break every bone in our fathers' imaginations
! Because in the dark world of brilliant minds, we have redefined: (
? Every familiar word
? Every conceivable innocence
)
! Our children will not share in our analogy of the floppy disk icon
]
We already know that, but we refuse to let go: [
! Neither the construct of marriage, of religion, of race
! Nor the qwertyness of keyboards
]
No, we prefer to hold on, onto the (*1) power
Our fathers have given us, our pecking order
Over weaker minds: [
! We shall teach them to hang on to the memories they never had: [
With the same confidence
They run on their prosthetic legs
]
! We will get them hooked on knowledge: [
like the pure delight, dancing
at the end of a fishing line.
] ]

Obedience is conforming where it doesn't matter; disobedience is rebelling where it does.

We obey because it's unproductive to make a fuss about something that doesn't matter; we disobey to protect what matters to us.

"Cultivating" obedience is pretty much like animal farming - you will never learn what your herd is thinking, your herd doesn't care about you, they start disobeying in things that do not matter, and no matter what you think, you're sending them to the slaughterhouse.

Disobedience is a form of communication. Disobedience is a virtue. Pay attention when it speaks.

We're not done playing God, until our inventions have learnt to play.

If people do not have the empathy to resonate with those they despise, what makes them think they can understand their gods, which aren't even human?

On Healing

If I have learnt one thing last year, it is that treating is not the same as healing. The experience of treatment is comfort; the experience of healing is rejuvenation. The danger of pain is that it redefines one's reality - one's expectations of what one considers to be acceptable. In that altered state, one loses the power of rebellious imagination; one stops being able to grasp what it would be like to be free, to be wild. If I may liken life to a disease we are continuously struggling with, the problem with being alive, arguably in any age, is that we give in to this pain. We stop imagining what it is like to be bubbling with life. We refuse to imagine healing, and come to terms with simply receiving treatment. This is not okay. This is not acceptable. The day we decide it is okay to settle into little worlds we build for ourselves in little holes in the ground - that is the day we transition from the miracle of being alive, into the quiet process of dying. Death is not a single event. And we need to stay alert, that it does not slip into our beds on days we get worn down.

Wearing shoes in the house is like wearing underwear in the shower...

You don't know what you're not washing until you take it off!

TNBT: imagine artificial meat made with nanobots that mimic the texture and taste of food, woven into the fibers of real food. And you can select exactly how many calories you want your meal to contain while having your meal experience stay exactly the same. And the nanobots would be recyclable, cutting the energy requirements to produce "real" food. Yes the idea of recycling what you put in your mouth sounds disgusting, but don't worry by the time we invent this, our values would have moved on.

Realizing that your ears are picking up conversations in a language you understand in a crowd is almost as eerie as quantum entanglement.

Time (aka how we die)

Time (aka how we die)

1. Our experience of time is not proportional to its duration. 2. It is proportional to the number of events our brains flag as significant. 3. An event is by definition a change. 4. Our brains are excellent at noticing patterns, and gets better with age. 5. A change that can be generalized as a pattern stops being significant. 6. Such changes are what we call routine. 7. Adults stop experiencing time because they tend to fall into routine. 8. Adults fall into routine because they have negotiated with powers in society for a lower risk environment in exchange for being submissive to these powers in specific, predictable ways.

9. To experience time again, adults can work around the brain's mechanisms: consciously seek out activities that are new in new ways; construct schedules specifically to break routine, even if they comprise the same activities in different orders; or, find a way to make ends meet in roles that require one to specialize in doing things that nobody has done before.

10. Just because one is "sacrificing" for a "good" cause is not sufficient reason for choosing routine - routine is a choice, often made as one's willpower is gradually eroded by the stress of not acting directly on a perception that one's survival is at risk. 11. But routine can also be a strategic decision, such as to make space for new activities that the brain will find overwhelmingly eventful. 12. Deciding to give certain activities up to routine is therefore sometimes a very brave decision.

13. The brain is optimized for survival. 14. Eventually one has to come to terms with one's total experience of time and how it was or wasn't relevant to one's paradigm of survival. 15. just because it feels like time has stopped doesn't change the fact that the maximum amount of time one can experience is continuously decreasing. 16. But time is not the only dimension we move in. 17. Yet because we cannot steal time, and we cannot make time, it is a unique experience: it is completely free, yet altogether precious.

TNBT - APE

TNBT Imagine religion evolved into something called "Applied Psychology Experience" (APE) where you willingly get psyched into believing in a framework of memes carefully constructed to appeal to the way your brain ticks. And in this framework you will find it easy to make yourself do things you thought were not possible. Even something like spending unimaginable amounts of time to ace an exam or master a skill, or to take up an impossible or dangerous assignment of a lifetime - by allowing APE to draw on your innate survival instincts that worked on you when you were a kid.

The difference between professionals and non-professionals isn't the money or the skill. It's being able to consistently satisfy your clients, no matter who they are or how you feel. The next time you think about sex workers, think about how you measure up to that!

The story of human survival has 3
chapters:

satisfaction and sustainability aka now and forever aka doing and being,

power and submission aka freedom and stability aka addiction and sanity,

sensuousness and rationalizing aka anecdote and statistics aka order and chaos.

Love, bravery, kindness and all that? Just different ways these primal forces play on our perception!