I’m writing this from work because my ATT DSL line has been down for three days now and I’m seriously pissed off about it. For three days they’ve been telling me it will be fixed “within 4 hours.”
Grrrrrrrr!
I was watching a program about sociobiology.
It’s the study of how animals create the societies in which they live. Termites, for example, live in highly organized societies. They have soldiers, workers, nurses, etc. and each of them knows his job and does it automatically out of “instinct.” The organization of their society is programmed into their DNA.
So the guy who started this line of study started with insects and then expanded his observations on up the food chain to primates and monkey societies. Naturally, when he published his findings, his final chapter included some observations about how these ideas might apply to humans and this set off a firestorm of controversy because the existing dogma was that humans only have very basic instincts like the instinct for a baby to suckle. The idea that elements of human society are instinctual was heresy.
Fast forward to this morning… as I was getting ready to go to work, I was thinking about how we invent ourselves every day. Today I woke up and decided to be who I am. I decided to be the guy with a job who goes to work and does a good job and all of that. I decided to be the same guy I was yesterday and the day before.
I could have decided to walk out the door and never look back. I could have decided to be a guy who robs banks, or who cuts lawns, or who panhandles or whatever. Every day I have the choice of who I’m going to be.
I used to think that most of what I did was simply habit because I know how powerful of a force habit can be. Habit brings us the comfort of the familiar… for good or bad.
But now I’m wondering how much of “me” is learned behavior and how much is simply an expression of deeply programmed social instincts. Not that it really matters. I’m still faced with daily choices and I’m still defined by the choices I make, but it is interesting to me to wonder how much choice I really have in my responses.
I suspect that sometimes I’m a really big termite.
I’ve been watching some of the Olympic trials and I have total respect and admiration for those girls. Every single one of them has achieved something extraordinary and they’ve done it through extraordinary effort. Sure, it takes talent to get to that level, but you don’t make it on talent alone.
I find them inspiring.
Buying an iPod Touch because you need an iPod would be stupid.
The truth is that the iPhone is really a hand held computer that also works as a phone.
The iPod Touch is really a hand held computer that also plays music.
Buy them because you want a hand held computer. Any other reason is sorta silly.
A man is unflinchingly honest with himself.
A man recognizes his strengths and his weaknesses and accepts both of them.
A man takes responsibility for his own life and the lives of those dependent on him.
A man steps up to the plate and takes his shot. You won’t hit a home run every time. Deal with it.
A man does what is right and not what is easy. This is a choice you will face every single day of your life is ways both small and large.
A man respects himself and others.
A man self-validates. Never let the opinions of others determine your opinion of yourself… for bad or good.
A man never pretends to be something he’s not. Never act. Be.
Words to the wise…
You’re not Superman. Deal with it.
Never stop trying to be Superman.
No woman has any idea what it means to be a man.
Women want a man they can admire in some way. Be worthy of that admiration.
I work with a guy who is absolutely sleepwalking through life. He’s never actually engaged in what he’s doing. He’s just pushing buttons
and not bothering to think about what he’s doing. He doesn’t even think about if what he’s doing makes any sense or not. It’s really a shame, but it’s a good reminder for me to always make sure that I’m not doing the same thing. It’s not really in my nature to do so, but it happens from time to time.
I had a physics teacher in college named Mr. Lindblat. He was a very cool guy and he taught me a lot of stuff but the most valuable
lesson he taught me was to ask myself a question…. Does this make sense?
This was back in the day when physics was done with a slide rule and when you’re using a slide rule, it’s easy to lose your power of ten.
One, ten, a million, they’re all the same place on a slide rule. So he taught us to always check our answers against what we know about reality. For example, if you’re calculating the weight of the sun and you come up with an answer of 750 pounds, then you know you’ve done something wrong simply by asking yourself if the answer you’re getting makes any sense. If you don’t ask yourself that question, then you end up making huge mistakes and this is the sort of question that sleepwalkers never ask themselves.
Is what you’re doing making sense?
