Sunday Afternoon
Lives in Cainta, Rizal
From Cainta, Rizal
I’m going to say what I think about perspective, and why I can’t really agree with the implications of this post.
- Perspective is impossible to gain without experience. Perspective can not be transferred through communication between separate beings, it has to be observed. So a person has to be in the right places at the right time. This is unfortunately, mostly luck.
- Beyond that, a person has to be willing to open themselves up to a new perspective and be honest with their self (admitting failures and mistakes), so they have to be capable of introspection, which is learned gradually through experience, trial and error, and the motivation to even think about these sorts of things.
- The next step is application, where the conclusions of the introspection can be applied, and this requires more honesty with the self, it’s a different step. It means acknowledging that the new perspective is the better one, which is very hard to do relying merely on past experience and no experience with the new perspective. It takes a faith in oneself to do this, or self esteem.
- Lastly, this is assuming the person evaluated the experience correctly to gain wisdom. This is very difficult to do, and requires years and years of experience.
My point is this. Depressed people are lacking in all the above things I highlighted.
Depressed people often avoid new experiences, they often isolate themselves. Even when they are in a new experience, they are not engaged, because the lack of dopamine (basal ganglia dysfunction is correlated with depression, ADHD and so on) reduces the ability to focus.
This makes it harder to grasp the important bits of an experience, which makes it hard to introspect.
Application requires faith in oneself, and depressed people are notorious from suffering from extremely low self esteem. This is yet another hurdle, inextricably linked with why the depression started in the first place. Thus, the downward spiral.
And finally, it requires persistence. And if you are already extremely depressed, and you fail a few times in a row, I mean I don’t know about you but sometimes there is only so much a single person can take. This is usually what we call rock bottom, you have absolutely no hope, you tried many times over to get better, and you failed at each one. You have no incentive to keep trying, because you have had no indication that what you are doing is working at all.
Because things are probably not better, more likely worse, you lack the ability to correlate good behavior (wisdom) from bad behavior. This is where coping mechanisms come from, combined with what feels good the fastest because your basal ganglia is already malfunctioning, so instant gratification (food, drugs, sex) are often top choices, with really bizarre controlling behavior and thought patterns (eating disorders, ocd, personality disorders) trailing in at a close second. The individual can literally not figure out what leads to the better way, and what leads worse. Some things just feel better, and some of those things in the long run are really fucking bad.
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The best studies I have seen about depression and actually curing it, to the point where the person is more capable as an individual, more compassionate towards others, generally they are a better person, is this. They have someone(s) in their lives who care(s) deeply about them, and is willing to tough it out with them. They offer guidance when it is helpful, and love and support when it is not. They encourage the person, they help build their esteem up. They are the rational mind when the depressed person fails, they are the counter to all the negative thoughts. They encourage good behavior and discourage bad behavior, but with reasons that make sense, typically leading by example.
Depression is hard to cure. Depression has a tendency to get worse because it’s so complicated, because the longer you let it go, the more shit you have to sift through later (well, as with most mental illness). Depression is isolating, the depressed person is often very self centered (and who wouldn’t be, I’m not being patronizing, when life seems absolutely miserable you simply can’t afford to expend any emotional energy, you barely can expend it on yourself). So, a lot of depressed people come off as anti-social, possibly manipulative, generally not fun people to be around. So it takes a very compassionate person(s) to assist them. This is rare in of itself.
I know I am making this out to seem hopeless, but it really is a big fucking deal. Every small step you take towards getting better is huge. One must I think, constantly remind themselves of the progress they have made, and genuinely feel a great deal of pride in that, because it is really hard.- surely_youre_joking (reddit.com/r/depression)
I’m in kind of the same boat (though some older). I eventually started thinking about what made a good day, what made a good work day, a good work environment.
I was able to say that I liked working with people (rather than alone) collaboratively as part of a team, that I liked problem solving with others, that I liked project work that builds up to a periodic deadline (rather than a routine). I like working with words, I like figuring out how to explain complicated things, and I like supporting neat people to do neat things.
I’m not passionate about any one thing, but if I do this stuff, it’s a really good day, and I can have a smile on my face on the way to work. There are a lot of jobs that might fit all this stuff, a lot of ways to pursue it.
Another way you might think about it — what makes you angry? What really frustrates you? Is it bad design, or boring food, or trolls on reddit? What sort of behavior or product or situation just makes you want to slap someone around, and the world would be a better place if you never had to deal with it again? That’s a form of passion, too.
Make Meaning In Your Organization
I haven’t read any entrepreneurial books, so Guy Kawasaki’s The Art of Start is my first. He said that most of these books begins with a rigorous process of self-examination. Maybe to prepare one’s self on the problems ahead.
- Can you work long hours at low wages?
- Can you deal with rejection after rejection?
- Can you handle the responsibility of dozens of employees?
The truth is, it is impossible to answer questions like this in advance, and they ultimately serve no purpose. On the one hand, talk and bravado are cheap. Saying you’re willing to do something doesn’t mean that you will do it.
On the other hand, realizing that you have doubt and trepidation doesn’t mean you won’t build a great organization. How you answer these questions now has little predictive power regarding what you’ll actually do when you get caught up in a great idea.
He goes on saying that no one really knows if he’s an entrepreneur until he becomes one. Maybe it just boils down on how determined you are on making a difference not for your own life (to which most people I knew are) but how would your effort impact others. I believe everything we do is somehow a PR campaign. It’s true, if people likes you and what you do, they’ll make sure what you’re doing lasts a.k.a. makes sure your business survive. They won’t invest on something they aren’t interested in.
Here’s some good points as said by Guy on making a difference (Meaning)
- Make the world a better place
- Increase quality of life
- Right a terrible wrong
- Prevent the end of something good
I say, Scoop hits all fours! These four formulated the formation of Scoop’s services. Unknowingly these four have more purpose than just formulating your meaning: these four is your most powerful motivator as long as you are in the right of these four.
Quoting Guy:
It’s taken me twenty years to come to this understanding.
In 1983, when I started in the Macintosh Division of Apple Computer, beating IBM was our reason for existence. We wanted to send IBM back to the typewriter business holding its Selectric typewriter balls.
In 1987, our reason for existence became beating Windows and Microsoft. We wanted to crush Microsoft and force Bill Gates to get a job flipping fish at the Pike Place Market.
If you watched Pirates of Silicon Valley, the reason behind Jobs hating IBM is that other than they are men with suits, they believe that a computer should be made available to anyone who wants one or who can have and not just big companies and universities.
In the case of crushing Microsoft, that’s just almost pirate talk. As said by Guy in Enchantment, it is somehow embedded in the male gene that one must eliminate competition (crush them) but what we don’t know is that somehow competition also influences innovation and development of things and probably a better service.
Having just the desire to make a difference doesn’t guarantee that you’ll succeed, but if you fail at least you failed doing something worthwhile.
The Art of Starting, how I did it unknowingly and other good stuff too.
I first heard of Guy Kawasaki from my friend Bryan Chug after a late late lunch meeting with Frederick Ho which ended us three putting up a small startup that will be using a quite new approach on business here in the Philippines.
Out of curiosity I googled Guy Kawasaki, he turned out to be some evangelist from Apple Inc before which triggered my anti-RDF quickly and Seth Godin. Quickly I went looking for books by Guy first since I don’t know, maybe I can’t find Seth Godin books much and that Guy recently released a book called Enchantment to which made me very interested. Knowing Apple Evangelist they do know how to enchant people to buying their products that like Jobs said existence with better packaging.
The first book I found was The Art of Start, wasn’t interested. Then I went looking for Enchantment which surprised me, for 2XX pages and hard-bound book it costs 1,200php. ISN’T ENCHANTING AT ALL. Out of sheer desperation I went to the tubes looking for someone willing to share a pdf or an audio book. Since I finished the Game of Thrones on audio book (worth 40++ hrs I think) I bet I can stick up with something with just below six hours. The book DID NOT DISAPPOINT. I’m not enchanted but the audiobook made me decide to allot fund for the said book. Maybe that’s one part of enchantment (Mind you, I haven’t finished the audio book just yet).
Anyhow, Imma start with The Art of Start book and how, somehow find myself things said/thought in the book by my own impulse and/or initiative.
GIST (Great Ideas for Starting Things)
I decided to join Scoop after being invited over for the reason I want to learn something that is not thought in Engineering. Just that. No specific objective or whatsover, whatever I can pick up, I’ll…pick it up and put something into it. As for the book it says that you must have five important things to keep in mind or at least you have decided on doing.
- Make Meaning Like any organization approved by SLIFE (Student L.I.F.E.) or just any organization in or outside of any organization (school or work) is to make meaning. To create something that gives something or purpose. I have purpose of joining Scoop and that is to learn which lead me into venturing and try collaborate in startups.
- Make Mantra. Mission statements are high-falutin, long, boring and sometime irrelevant. I may not have a mantra per se but this is something I need to try to think about and somehow make one for Scoop. All we know Scoop is there to reduce cost of living etc, but ask any students and the newbies in the organization. They see Scoop as a profit organization in general. Being in Marketing and Communications, I’ll try and change that!
- Get Going. Start creating and delivering products don’t focus in fetching, writing and planning too much. Summarizing what I contributed in Scoop, I’ll say that most of them were done on impulse. That Green Screen in DLSU I didn’t even know what it was for, I just jumped in their launching ceremony and from then I knew that Green Screen is a good opportunity and must not be ignored. I’ll say that I’d rather be the trend setter, I don’t want to be stagnated and left to follow. Most of the board members that time didn’t really care and just approved of my plans anyway. I just went there and put up Scoop as the first true organization who used Green Screen as means of communicating with the Student body. Fail to plan is planning to fail? I don’t think so. There are cases that you’ve got to run before you walk.
- Define Your Business Model. Business model can’t really be applied to one self but the closest thing I have to this how I plan/expect to learn from every experience and get every experience I can. Whatever people call them (Experience is what we call to our mistakes). Scoop know how to make money and the same time a cause. Which is pretty good, but its hard to push new products that would help students, the board for one have been very cynical lately, can’t necessarily blame them. Bitter experiences left them to be very cautious and even with my short stint as a board member yeah I probably have second thoughts. As for our new venture I can’t really explain how but it’s pretty new to the land of cynics and trying to be liberal but still conservative cutthroat country of ours. Crowdsourcing.
- Weave a MAT (Milestones, Assumptions and Tasks) This is the final step as said by Guy, compile three lists: (a) milestones we need to meet. (b) assumptions that are built into our business model; and (c) tasks we need to accomplish before we say we have a great organization. MAT helps enforce discipline and keep one’s organization on track with your mantra and mission.
You’ve found market price when buyers complain but still pay.
- Paul Graham
