The Prometheus Factor
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Microsoft also offers some of their research for free:
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and another thing, there is no such thing as a stress free life. You take your stress with you. Trading too stressful? Go raise chickens. In a year you will be stressed out because some of them die and the price of eggs is not rising as fast as the price of feed.
So to get back to the original post, what if everything was covered, a house some books and nothing to do you didn't want to do, what would you do?
You'd do just what you are doing now. Life is your thoughts. If you are wondering now you'd be wondering then. You'd probably be wondering what it would be like to be ambitious.
There's a good line from one of those Russian writers, Kousevtsky or something like that. The story starts out, "One day while on vacation, I was taking a walk on the beach. Well actually I was thinking about all the injustices I had endured and the embarrasment I suffered at the hands of people I thought were my friends."
So to get back to the original post, what if everything was covered, a house some books and nothing to do you didn't want to do, what would you do?
You'd do just what you are doing now. Life is your thoughts. If you are wondering now you'd be wondering then. You'd probably be wondering what it would be like to be ambitious.
There's a good line from one of those Russian writers, Kousevtsky or something like that. The story starts out, "One day while on vacation, I was taking a walk on the beach. Well actually I was thinking about all the injustices I had endured and the embarrasment I suffered at the hands of people I thought were my friends."
Well I agree. I suspect that there will come a time in our future when we are all happy and not stressed, and wish for the days when we could go to war and kill some people and go to work at some miserable place only so that we can pay our rent to someone else and buy food so that we can exist to repeat this mindless existence again and relentlessly, again. It might even make us feel whole again to be in such misery. Who knows, maybe this existence is utopia.
I agree that is the human condition TODAY. There will come a day when people can choose to be miserable. It might even be a vacation destination. "Honey, let's take the kids and go to Planet X for vacation this year. There, we will be treated like pre 21st century humans! I can't wait to feel oppressed by nine hour work days, two hour commutes, and talk endlessly about politics that goes nowhere and read juicy gossip on celebrities! And we get to do this for a whole week!"
We have never run the experiment of what happens to humans when their need to exist and compete, JUST TO SURVIVE, is removed. You might be right, maybe we all turn into drug addicts and sexual perverts, partying all day long 365 days a year, that sit around and do nothing all day long and get fat - who knows? But I don't believe it for a second. There are millions of people around the world that live on two dollars a day, starving and just trying to survive (we can actually solve that problem today). On the other hand, their time is mostly their own, albeit the quality of that time leaves much to be desired. Here, we do better than survive, but we have sold our time, and not only that, we have sold our children's time to those that have the money. When your time is your own, and you are no longer worried that you need to exchange it to someone else to survive, does that change the consciousness of the entire human race? What do we do, or should I say, what do we choose to do, with the quality time on our hands?
Interestingly, I suspect this experiment will be run in the absolutely the most poor countries on Earth, where people have nothing to lose. We will all want to move to Africa in 100 years.
People already choose to be miserable. Go up to Minnessota in the summer and ask any farmer how it's going. The best it ever gets up there is "not too bad."
Man the sun is shining, not a cloud in the sky, a crop in the field, nothing to do until harvest and a perfect day to string a hammock up between two trees and take a much needed rest.
But here's how it goes, "Son, go out in that shed and get the hammock, clean it up and re string it. Somebody may want to lie in it someday. Now hurry up, sun will be setting soon and we don't want to be late for dinner."
Man the sun is shining, not a cloud in the sky, a crop in the field, nothing to do until harvest and a perfect day to string a hammock up between two trees and take a much needed rest.
But here's how it goes, "Son, go out in that shed and get the hammock, clean it up and re string it. Somebody may want to lie in it someday. Now hurry up, sun will be setting soon and we don't want to be late for dinner."
It took living in the midwest for more than a decade, and reaching a certain age to understand the lyrics of some artists that I listen to.
"A lil diddy, bout Jack and Diane, two American kids doing, the best that they can"
" I found myself searching, searching again and again, against the wind, a lil something against the wind"
It's tough out there and as I grow older, I realize that there are no winners. Eat, drink, and make merry, for tomorrow you may die. No truer words have ever been spoken.
I have family in Mali, no electricity, no tv, no radio, no computer. They work hard when they want to, during planting season and at harvest. The rest of the time they just sit around. The men carve stools. If you set just one up and sit on it it means you don't want to be bothered. If you set two up it means you are hoping a certain someone comes by for a visit. If you set three up that means guests invited.
And all they do is argue and tell stories. Everything is worthy of a story and is told over and over. I once gave someone a whole carton of cigarettes and now I am a legend, and whenever I meet someone from that village they know the story.
Sometimes they get in fights, but it is more like a ceremony. The whole thing is loosely scheduled and everyone shows up to watch it. Only young men fight. And it is 99.9% talking and taunting. And the whole thing isn't finally settled until they both agree to become friends for life. Then they are called "insulting cousins" which means they can insult each other now and it is not taken seriously.
So that's how it goes in your perfect world in the future.
And all they do is argue and tell stories. Everything is worthy of a story and is told over and over. I once gave someone a whole carton of cigarettes and now I am a legend, and whenever I meet someone from that village they know the story.
Sometimes they get in fights, but it is more like a ceremony. The whole thing is loosely scheduled and everyone shows up to watch it. Only young men fight. And it is 99.9% talking and taunting. And the whole thing isn't finally settled until they both agree to become friends for life. Then they are called "insulting cousins" which means they can insult each other now and it is not taken seriously.
So that's how it goes in your perfect world in the future.
When my wife divorced me I quit trading and decided to do whatever I wanted to do. Man, it's harder than heck to have fun when you are trying to.
Before, I couldn't get away from the computer too much so when I did, everything was fun. But when you are trying to have fun it isn't that fun. There is always something wrong, because you expected it to be good. Before, I was just glad to have any break from the daily grind and no matter what happened it was fun.
I drove all over the country, spent the summers up north and the winters in Mexico, and to tell you the truth the only fun was the driving, because I had no control over anything. The best nights were finding a Motel 6 with a Mexican restaurant within walking distance. But if I moved to that nice little town how long before it became just like the place I just left?
Finally I came home and shut the drapes and just drank beer smoked cigarettes and watch TV in my pajamas. I did that for 3 months. I was long the S&P in a mutual fund but I didn't care what it did. I had a little money in bonds and figured I probably ought to do something with them instead of just riding them back down, so I re opened a trading account. It didn't take long to get my sea legs back, so now I am trading again. You got a better idea?
Before, I couldn't get away from the computer too much so when I did, everything was fun. But when you are trying to have fun it isn't that fun. There is always something wrong, because you expected it to be good. Before, I was just glad to have any break from the daily grind and no matter what happened it was fun.
I drove all over the country, spent the summers up north and the winters in Mexico, and to tell you the truth the only fun was the driving, because I had no control over anything. The best nights were finding a Motel 6 with a Mexican restaurant within walking distance. But if I moved to that nice little town how long before it became just like the place I just left?
Finally I came home and shut the drapes and just drank beer smoked cigarettes and watch TV in my pajamas. I did that for 3 months. I was long the S&P in a mutual fund but I didn't care what it did. I had a little money in bonds and figured I probably ought to do something with them instead of just riding them back down, so I re opened a trading account. It didn't take long to get my sea legs back, so now I am trading again. You got a better idea?
I can sense that you are truly a free spirit. I wish I had the answer, I don't even have the answer for myself. You may have more to say to me than I you.
Somtimes a piece of art comes along that you can point to and say, "what he said". This does it for me:
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Alien: You're an interesting species, an interesting mix. You're capable of such beautiful dreams and such horrible nightmares. You feel so lost, so cut off, so alone, only you're not. See, in all our searching, the only thing we've found that makes the emptiness bearable is each other.
You may also want to read:
http://www.amazon.com/Innovation-Yo...0691/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1317500503&sr=8-1
"...Have you ever fantasized about your great escape? You know, getting away from the stressful job, the daily grind, the loveless marriage? What if you made a break for it and actually got all the way to the land of plenty only to find that it wasnât what you really wanted? Thatâs exactly what I did (more than once) before I learned that the same mindset that drives a person to try to have it all eventually stops them from having what they really want.
I made my first great escape at twenty nine..."
Although I sense that you don't like formulaic answers either. The one thing is, this book has a tremendous honesty to it, and sometimes that breaks down our barriers. I am reading this book with my GF, and it helps.