Unconsciously, we tend to look more favorably to people who have gained wealth and look down on people who have not, regarless of the manner on how their wealth or lack of it was gained- either thru sheer talent or plain luck or coincidence.
This view includes how we look at ourselves. We tend to put more importance to our ideas than others' when we are compensated more. This thought is particularly significant when we interact and 'brainstorm' with our co-workers.
"That is why although there is some little difference in ability between a wildly successful person and one who is not as succesful, there is usually a big difference on how they are viewed."
From The Drunkard's Walk by Leonard Mlodinow
Friday, February 26, 2010
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Success -alternate view
This is like a 180 degree turn-around to the insights I gained from The Alchemist. Though we tend to form very concrete explanations on how we arrived at where we are in life, we cannot really predict where we are going to end up in the very near future.
Having been given these two frames of mind, there is more 'science' for taking the point of view that life is a mixed serving of unpredictability and persistence. As humans we are sort of hardwired to think of causality and determinism, thus all the movies about how life is destined.
Our circumstance in life is most often than we care to admit affected by a lot of unpredictable and uncontrollable factors, that it is simply incorrect to credit our success(or failure) to our own talents and doings.
This however doesn't excuse us to be just complacent. Although with modest effort, we will do end up somewhere, it doesn't follow that it is where we truly want to be. Like molecules or atoms, we will constantly bump with other molecules and thus push or pull us to somewhere. But to go to somewhere at least near where we want to go, will require a lot of persistence from our part.
"For in a complex undertaking, no matter how many times we fail, if we keep trying, there is often a good chance we will eventually succeed..
..That deterministic view is the view in which it is mainly the intrinsic qualities of the person or the product that governs success. But there is another way to look at it, a nondeterministic veiw. In this view there are many high-quality but unknown books, singers, actors and what makes one or another come to stand out is largely a conspiracy of random and minor factors- that is, luck..."
from The Drunkard's Walk by Leonard Mlodinow
Having been given these two frames of mind, there is more 'science' for taking the point of view that life is a mixed serving of unpredictability and persistence. As humans we are sort of hardwired to think of causality and determinism, thus all the movies about how life is destined.
Our circumstance in life is most often than we care to admit affected by a lot of unpredictable and uncontrollable factors, that it is simply incorrect to credit our success(or failure) to our own talents and doings.
This however doesn't excuse us to be just complacent. Although with modest effort, we will do end up somewhere, it doesn't follow that it is where we truly want to be. Like molecules or atoms, we will constantly bump with other molecules and thus push or pull us to somewhere. But to go to somewhere at least near where we want to go, will require a lot of persistence from our part.
"For in a complex undertaking, no matter how many times we fail, if we keep trying, there is often a good chance we will eventually succeed..
..That deterministic view is the view in which it is mainly the intrinsic qualities of the person or the product that governs success. But there is another way to look at it, a nondeterministic veiw. In this view there are many high-quality but unknown books, singers, actors and what makes one or another come to stand out is largely a conspiracy of random and minor factors- that is, luck..."
from The Drunkard's Walk by Leonard Mlodinow
Monday, February 1, 2010
Quotes
Found this site (click on Title) when looking for some good related quotes re Tri. Here are some:
"There is no failure, only feedback" -Mark Allen
"If it's hurting me, it's killing them"
"Going numb is Ironman foreplay"
"They told me it was impossible, I thold them it was inevitable"
“Dignity is when your mind doesn’t allow your body to be as soft as it would like to be.”
"If you think you can, or you think you cant - Your right."
"Fortitudine Vincimus (By Endurance We Conquer)" -- Ernest Shackleton
"Fear is probably the thing that limits performance more than anything - the fear of not doing well, of what people will say. You've got to acknowledge those fears, then release them." --Mark Allen
"There is advantage in the wisdom won from pain" -- Aeschylus
"What we have is based upon moment-to-moment choices of what we do.In each of those moments, we choose.We either take a risk and move toward what we want, or we play it safe and choose comfort. Most of the people, most of the time, choose comfort. In the end, people either have excuses or experiences; reasons or results; buts or brilliance.They either have what they wanted or they have a detailed list of all the rational reasons why not."~ Anonymous"
A man is not old until regrets take the place of his dreams" John Barrymore
"I am not only still dreaming, I am living my dreams." -Emilio De Soto II
"Fear is probably the thing that limits performance more than anything - the fear of not doing well, of what people will say. You've got to acknowledge those fears, then release them." --Mark Allen
"Our truest life is when we are in dreams awake"-H.D.Thoreau
“The arrow that hits the bulls-eye is the result of the one hundred previous misses.”
"In order to get things you never had, you must do things you never did."
"There is no failure, only feedback" -Mark Allen
"If it's hurting me, it's killing them"
"Going numb is Ironman foreplay"
"They told me it was impossible, I thold them it was inevitable"
“Dignity is when your mind doesn’t allow your body to be as soft as it would like to be.”
"If you think you can, or you think you cant - Your right."
"Fortitudine Vincimus (By Endurance We Conquer)" -- Ernest Shackleton
"Fear is probably the thing that limits performance more than anything - the fear of not doing well, of what people will say. You've got to acknowledge those fears, then release them." --Mark Allen
"There is advantage in the wisdom won from pain" -- Aeschylus
"What we have is based upon moment-to-moment choices of what we do.In each of those moments, we choose.We either take a risk and move toward what we want, or we play it safe and choose comfort. Most of the people, most of the time, choose comfort. In the end, people either have excuses or experiences; reasons or results; buts or brilliance.They either have what they wanted or they have a detailed list of all the rational reasons why not."~ Anonymous"
A man is not old until regrets take the place of his dreams" John Barrymore
"I am not only still dreaming, I am living my dreams." -Emilio De Soto II
"Fear is probably the thing that limits performance more than anything - the fear of not doing well, of what people will say. You've got to acknowledge those fears, then release them." --Mark Allen
"Our truest life is when we are in dreams awake"-H.D.Thoreau
“The arrow that hits the bulls-eye is the result of the one hundred previous misses.”
"In order to get things you never had, you must do things you never did."
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