Superiority

In one form or another, most of us, if not all, are striving or are at the very least subject to projections of superiority.

Types of superiority ranges from religion (thinking that one religion is better than the other), to wealth (associating oneself to a similar elite class), to education (studying hard to prove oneself smarter and capable than others or as a platform to bring oneself further than others) to etiquette (behavior and well manners are closely linked to upbringing) and a whole lot more.

Striving to superiority is, in one's eyes and society's eyes, a determination to be better and to achieve more. This is all good and stuff but at the same time, striving to be better divides people as it inidrectly/directly belittles them. Whether you realise it or not, by telling yourself that you want to be better, you are saying that you are, and many people who are at your similar stage 0, not good enough. And once you've progressed to stage 1, you think that you are better off now than before and others who are at stage 0, are lacking behind.

As you progress more and more in life, the gap may keep on increasing up to a stage where everyone who is not with you becomes part of 'them' and it becomes a separation between 'us' and 'them'. Of course one way of narrowing it is to help others progress. But it is fatal to assume that others view/desire progress the way you do.

I guess my question is, how do you progress without a projection of superiority?How do you not divide it into an Us vs Them thing? And if need be, how do you reduce superiority but at the same time remain relevant?

Respect for all is an answer. Respect will make life a lot more peaceful but it is not the answer to bring us closer. Or am I missing the point? Is division natural and inevitable after all?

^8 Cee

Newton's Law

I had lunch with an ex-mathematician-physicist turned banker today.

And it went something along the lines of....
'So you know the famous Newton's Law right?'

'Err...yea?'
Crap its basic Physics. Please don't embarrass myself.
'Something along the lines of nothing new gets created nor is destroyed?'

Clearly unconvinced. He iterated all 3 laws.
(i) Object in a state of stillness stays that way unless force acts upon it. Similarly, something in motion remains in motion unless a force acts upon it. If an object is moving, one reason that it slows is because friction is acting upon it. Friction is force in this case.
(ii) Force can be defined as F=ma; where m is mass and a is acceleration.
(iii) For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

Ah-ha! I think I got point 3 right! right?! Errr....
Anyway, the whole point is that Force, in totality, always remains constant.

So I ate and pondered and a whole slow 5 mins of thinking later, I was like, 'so what you're saying is force always remains the same in the universe? but if thats the case then the universe cannot be destroyed right and would continuously exist indefinitely since the force cannot be destroyed or lost?'

And as if he saw that question coming, he answered with no hesitation and not even to pause to think, 'True, total force remains constant, but mass and acceleration could change. There are many possible speculated ending to the universe - eg the universe continues to expand at an accelerating rate and lose mass or that it could contract and increase mass and lose out on acceleration. See, that way, force is not loss. It may be the end of us and the universe that we know, but not the destruction per say of the universe.'

Interesting.

It makes you think that you know, we, the physical and non-physical self will exist in one form or another for an indefinite period of time. Its like saying that our body is the mass and our thoughts and actions the force or acceleration. If you believe in freewill then perhaps your thoughts and actions are equivalent to the 'individual force' causing change to your static self and to the static things around you. But see, theoretically, every inch of us from the tangible to the intangible are all just part of 1 entity, the total force.


^8 Cee

Steve Jobs

A very inspiring video discovered through Sha's kick-ass 'Marketing Madness' blog!



Some key points:
"You can't connect the dots looking forward, you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. Believing that the dots will connect down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart, even if it leads you off the well worn path."

"Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose."



^8 Cee