Wisdoms

[Pekka]

I don't get it. Why don't people take the words of wisdom. I'm talking about those universal and timeless truths. Like for example carpe diem. You know.. you won't get what you want unless you try, take a chance. Take dozens of chances.

There are all these folks who have tons of dreams, but they don't try to execute them. Most of them are completely doable. 'I'd like to visit Thailand'. Well.. then what are you waiting for? Go for it. People get old and THEN they realize they should have done some things. It's not too late then either, but it seems like folks just go for the immidiate pleasure or safety.

For example, your parents tell you that school is important. You don't get it, except you believe it but you just 'naah.. '. You have a chance to advance, but you don't see the point of working few extra years in it to get something going on. Instead, you do something immidiate, as in you don't do anything instead. I don't get it. If your parents are not on crack and it seems logical, then why would you go the other way, unless you have a good strategy and plan?

Then people do something that seems average and OK, and give up their dreams. What is that all about? I understand that people who really don't have choices or happen to live somewhere, where you can't have those options, they have to get by with the cards dealt. But we, most people in West.. we can do what ever we want with our lives. At least most of us can.

People here in Finland are the most jealous group of people I know on earth. We have our own wisdoms such as 'hide your happiness'. OK, it has a meaning, and it comes from experience of many people so it's been inducted to one of those truths. Because people will get jealous and try to get you down.

BUt that doesn't make any sense. In here, you have 'free education'. I don't say it's free because it's expensive, there's no free things in the world. But free as in if you're poor, you still have the same shot at studying all the way to PhD. If you have what it takes, you can be what ever you wish. That's equality, equality to me is equal opportunity. After that, after you make your own choices, then it enters the domain of your responsibility of yourself. So stop blaming other people if you didn't feel like reading, and that got you somewhere where you don't want to be. Why don't you blame yourself? And, it's not too late now, start reading now. So I don't get it.

There's tons of opportunities and some of them you have to create to yourself. You can't sit around and wait for things to happen, carpe diem, asap.

I have the same 'empathy' for drug addicts and alcoholics. No one made you do it. It wasn't programmed into your brains and body when you got into this planet. You did it to yourself, so stop blaming other people adn take responsibility. It might have gone to a level where you are sick and seriously addicted, then get treatment and try again and again, never quit. That is, if you have a chance to get treatment.

So, I just don't.. I understand that people in poor countries and poor conditions would start the blame game. But it seems to me like the people in severely poorer countries don't even do that. Some do, but they try to do their best with what they've got. Not a lot of success stories, but that's the way it goes for many people. But they try.

In here, most don't even try, they're dealt with the hand and they can play that hand and not starve. So they are not competitive, because they have a bad attitude. I don't mean you have to be competitive. I'm saying, if you are happy with things and wish to remain where you are, great. That's the most important thing. But don't get upset if some day you find that you wanted to achieve something different.

It's usually pretty simple too. People just don't... you have to have a plan, you have to work your plan and you have to start doing it right away. Make better plans if you're not getting to the goal. But instead, people don't even have a plan. And they don't even get help to form that plan. There are folks out there who help you to form your plan if you don't know how. But they'd rather quit. It's like too much brain work. It would never work anyway, blah blah blah. Fine, but don't blame others then for their success.

So.. I think it's some kind of proof of human stupidity, that we have all these wisdoms and we know most of them.. and yet we _choose_ to disregard them. And then we act all surprised.

[VetLegion]

Re: Wisdoms

Here's one:

"If her hands are cold, tough it out, pay off it shall"

[Pekka]

You can't tough it out then man... you're busted. You have to be some eskimo to pull it off.

Anyway, all you need to do is study what you want, study hwo you 'll get there and then do the hard work and good things will happen. Of course if you don't have bad luck that is.

Now... some people wonder why the US got so succesful.. some say well it was the slaves, no wages for them. That's only partially contributing to the fact that they have a different attitude.

That attitude is 'can do'. It's important. We need to have that can do attitude as well and then support for everyone else who wants to do something. Go for yourself and help others too to do their dreams. Of course the world doesn't work like that, but that should be the attitude and I believe that attitude has gotten US where it is today as one of the reasons.

Sometimes you just jump into something and even surprise yourself.. you just did something you thought was a lot tougher or impossible, and yet you just did it. It feels great, it's the best feeling. So you should just do it all the time. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, but never quit trying, unless you're doing something extremely stupid.

It really is simple. You need a bit of luck but those who try their best all the time and take chances.. they also get luckier in the process.

I'm preaching about taking responsibility of yourself and your own actions and the results of that. It's easier to blame someone else, it's the easiest thing to blame society. I think it's OK to blame that society if it wrongfully handled you or didn't make it possible for you to have those opportunities and when it's out of your own hands but people are always blaming someone for things that they shouldn't have blamed them for.

Plus there are tons of other wisdoms too.. they're not just words. If your parents are smart, then you listen what they say and you think well that's a good thing then. What about these wisdoms that have been formulated by ancient fathers all the way down to your life, and they lived all those times and survived.. then you should pay attention.

[VetLegion]

That attitude is 'can do'. It's important. We need to have that can do attitude as well and then support for everyone else who wants to do something. Go for yourself and help others too to do their dreams. Of course the world doesn't work like that, but that should be the attitude and I believe that attitude has gotten US where it is today as one of the reasons.

At the very least, the /society/state/other people/ should not block those who have initiative and are doing something. The whole communist system was geared against "can do" which is why it sucks and why I'm glad we're having capitalism now. But many people here still carry old habits. It's not easy to make a generation of obedient workers into a generation of enterpreneurs.

[Pekka]

Right... I think what's important with the can do is what you also attach to it. And I agree that it is the... because people are greedy, no matter what system they believe in, all men can be greedy and corrupted.

So.. I think the attitude of can do and can help is a good combo.

[Elok]

This is classic Pekka. He's perfectly clear for most of it, but I still have no idea what the overall theme of the post (if there is one) is, or where it came from.

[Gibsie]

"Don't sit down in the middle of my sofa really fast, lest you bust your ass"

[Pekka]

Elko, I don't know. Just something I thought as I wrote.

Gibsie, this is true. But when I think about sitting down really fast, what I have is a ... human brain is a funny thing. You know when you sometimes start to fall and your feet are somehow trapped? So you can't move, you're going down. And you can only decide between few options. For example, fi you're next to a sofa, you can land on your friend or a little dog that is sleeping.

You have to make a decision in a instant, and you choose to fall on your friend, because you'd prolly kill the small dog, smashing into its little sleeping body. But what is interesting is a conflict in your brain. When you have two equals, that instant thing goes to conflict. For example, the other one is that little dog, and the other one is a small child. What do you do? YOu would choose to land on the dog most likely, however, in that instant, your brain goes on a conflict ... you just as well might land on both of them, or the other one and then roll on to the other one. That's the worst.. when you hit a person accidentally like that and a chain reaction starts and BOOM you're hitting everyone in the room.

That's just embarrasing. But what can you really do? Everyone thinks you're a jerk even though it was an accident. But everyone has the same program in their brains that when facing two equals, there's a conflict for a second and it's too late after that.

Then you usually try to say something to not seem like an idiot but you only make yourself look like a bigger idiot trying to explain. Thus the best way to proceed is to say 'Brain Conflict - so shut up', or just leave the room and never return, depends if you know the people or not. If strangers, leave, if you know them, say those words.

[Nubclear]

Didn't Finland score above the US on that one competitiveness survey?

[Pekka]

Yes. But that's not the point, I mean it could be and you're bringing up an interesting point but... at the end, it's not the 'spirit' of the people, of the individuals. Plus there are many things that 'twist' the result into our favour. I wouldn't say we're the most competitive in real life, we need to drop few measurements to see that or take some more into account. It's biased towards us

But anyway, that's not something I want to debate about. We don't have competitive attitude though. We might have like.... say nationalistic competitive component, where we'd say yes, our country should rise to the top. But all the grass root players would be still hating on each other and not help each other to compete, or just not competing at all.

I'm not talking about businesses and how they compete, I'm not talkinga bout globalization. I'm talking about individual attitude, competition.. and all this is in the context of wisdoms. Then there's bunch of other wisdoms people disregard as well. And all who do something bigger (individuals, not businesses), they always repeat those same wisdoms.

[Nubclear]

Finnish ubernationalism

[Pekka]

I don't know Tass, maybe earlier I would have been about let's do this thing where this country goes to the top.. but not anymore. I'm not interested in countries per se. I see the meaning of nations blurring more and more as in where the power is, where the business is etc..

I see politics done more and more from think tanks and interest groups, if I was to do politics, I'd definitely do that instead joining a party and becoming a filthy whore.

Today, I rather see things from the perspective of the smallest minority, an individual. I don't view things as top-down but bottom up. Then again, I am Libertarian.

[Pekka]

A libertarian who thinks cato institute is filled with nuts to be more precise