“No mind” is a Buddhist ideal, but what they fail to emphasize to Westerners is that no mind can be attained in many ways. There is no mind in action as with exercise. And, one of my little favorites is achieving no mind through the subjection of thought to distractions, preferably distractions from other humans rather than distractions from animals or the non-human, natural world.
robinhood account status
training on…
I have a couple of points to mention tonight. Some like to use the term “thought experiment” and I really have never had the opportunity to use it so I might as well give it a shot. Imagine if you will a competitive person B that would like to compete with competitive Person A. Person A is older and has shown the world an established set of skills. Person B is just starting out. Person A has an undergraduate degree, which implies a certain set of skills as well as athletic abilities and maybe a foreign language ability to a 3rd grade level of proficiency. Person B is just starting their undergraduate coursework, is quite athletic and has gotten down a musical instrument to the level where he could earn enough to eat if he were to busk on a busy street corner.
A variable is added to the mix, Person B has been tipped off that Person A is someone to “train oneself on” in order to achieve fame and fortune. Just hold on here and don’t jump to conclusions. The master apprentice relationship is very very old and even exists today. Why is it that the master always has to know the apprentice and why is it that the apprentice has to gain knowledge from the master through direct interaction? Both are unnecessary. True masters might even welcome multiple apprentices learning from them simultaneously with none of the apprentices required to be physically present.
So, in sum, we have Person B, the deadbeat, trying to steal seasoned skills from Person A. If there is one thing I have learned in philosophy, it is that no philosophers throughout history really hated anyone making attempts to learn from them. They, of course, did not approve of plagiarism of their work but a person intent on learning what they may have already learned is almost encouraged. Academia is wrought with many people all trying to say that what someone said before them is “great, but…”. It is hard to break free, to approach a subject or discipline from a new angle. That spot is usually reserved for a seasoned professional that sees the opportunity before the newbie can get a chance to get his act together.
Philosophy, if employed properly, can destroy this entire thought experiment. There can be no competitive endeavor. Philosophy can lay bare sentential structures that are indisputable so any act of competition in skill acquisition is ridiculous, as in worthy of ridicule. It is one reason why I like philosophy and almost the same reason why I dislike it. It feeds itself. It, by its very nature is as objective as you can ever get, beyond even science. One could say, “Well, if that is the case, why doesn’t everyone study philosophy?” And that, my friends, is the reason why I did.
not much has changed in IT
I pretty much dropped out of the tech world in 2005. I had a nifty little job that could have been huge but the manager I was working with at the time chose to stay local. I don’t blame him and I don’t blame many people for not wanting to think in terms of scale of business when they make an ecommerce site. From 2005 to 2014 I played with tech but never sought to make a living off of it really. In many ways, I am glad that I have done this. I am not rich, by any means, but I have been able to live with myself. There is incredibly so much BS out there these days, it is almost impossible for an executive that is in budgetary control of IT hiring to weed through it all. The same was the case from 1998 to 2005 too when I was actually “working” in tech. If you type in “wordpress” for job search keywords it comes up along with all the acronyms for the underlying programming languages and technologies. Not many hiring managers think about how wordpress can be optimally fit into an organization. If it is used properly, it is a very powerful tool. Really, what managers should be looking for is the ability to fully control all aspects of cPanel. Then, after that, you ask the person what he thinks of wordpress. Each non-hired moment leads to waste and each hire that engages in bad decision making leads to waste. Well, people love waste. It staggers the mind to think of the amount of money in flux each day regarding these personnel decisions.
If people have thought in relation to me, they probably thought…
…that I simply never had my shit together. It is an easy case to make. I would have made that case of myself had I had to analyze a lot of my actions since I finished my “undergraduate degree”. Just remember this, awareness of conversational domination techniques can have implications. Writing for the sake of writing to crowd out others that are not writing can have implications. Stealing attention that is not worth stealing can have implications. I never really wanted to steal attention. I never really thought it was necessary. But, that is only because I come from middle class wealth. It is essential to steal attention to live for many people, at any cost, from any direction. Awareness of this has made me reexamine priorities of writing. I am not sure I fully have a solution yet either.
Shutting people out and making an arrangement whether it be with words, images, or physical objects is simply being an artisan. It is a way of making a living. You can admire the ability that some have to shut others out and create “a work”, that is entirely up to the admirer. But, wealth and competition need to be considered. Hunger is a distraction. Overcoming distractions for the middle class is easier than it is for the poor.
What I see and the way I see it has to do with many subjects that are not popular. They are not fun. Not exciting. They are bleak, bloody, and involve masses. It is easy to say, “don’t waste your time”. But, those that know a thing or two about the history of philosophical systems and how they relate to law and political systems may understand what I mean.