Category Philosophy

The very wide field of philosophy

Gurus

Geir Isene 76 Comments

“We want saints and gurus and leaders and heroes because we are lazy. We think they have done all the work, and all that we have to do is just to follow them. You know, when you follow somebody, you’re not only destroying yourself, but the other whom you follow.” –Krishnamurti

The usual reason for following a guru is because the guru has answers that you didn’t have. So, instead of following that guru, you should ask yourself the question “Why didn’t I come up with those answers?”. The answer to that question highlights the path to follow. Take whatever answers and tools available, but the most important quest is to figure out how you can answer your own questions.

My 2 cents.

Delivery

Geir Isene 16 Comments

When we (the company “Å”) helps organizations and individuals do better, we are faced with the task of making sure our client understand what a “delivery” is.

Most people have a rather anemic understanding of exactly what they are supposed to produce in their job. They most often define their job by what they do rather than what they are supposed to create of value.

Being a Norwegian company, we approach the problem by using a well known example. Our board member, Mr. Santa Clause has helped us understand what a delivery truly is. Every year he gets some input (wishing lists), he does some magic (nobody cares how he does it) and when X-Mas comes, he delivers presents to all the nice kids in the world. Mr. Clause has a clear-cut understanding of why he is on the job.

present

When we help people grasp the real reason behind the job they do, we start with this definition:

A delivery is the result of one or more actions. It is the outcome, the product, the value created. It is the reason for doing the action(s).

You can find the answer to what the deliveries of your job are by asking questions along this line:

  • What do I deliver to my customers?
  • Why do I get a salary?
  • What would not be produced if I wasn’t doing this job?
  • What are the valuable results from what I do in my job?
  • If I should measure the output from my job, what exactly would I measure?

It is better to have a clear view of the deliveries intended and do the actions necessary to produce those deliveries, than to do a set of actions and hope for some valuable outcomes.

My focus

Geir Isene 48 Comments

Questioning everything. Being open to radical changes. Or small changes. Working at removing my prejudices, my filters, my principles. Removing mental crutches, one by one. Planning and preparing less. Winging it. And to do it well, being fully present in the Here & Now. Really observing, listening. Not being mentally lazy and jumping to conclusions. But respecting others and myself enough to inspect and evaluate. And only then conclude and act. And as I become better at being fully present, the evaluations gains speed. I become better at what I practice. Never settling with the status quo. Always exploring new horizons to uncover more truth. Not being afraid of being wrong or disproven, but embracing my faults as a catalyst for progress. The progress is the goal, not the goals themselves. Chilling and being able to say “fuck it”. Doing what helps. Not doing what doesn’t help. And worrying seldom helps. Being better at controlling what I can control and not focusing on what I cannot control. Creating value for others. Catalyzing free will and helping others exercising their power of choice. Caring and being kind.

These are the ideals I work toward. I am a work in progress. I enjoy.

What can you control?

Geir Isene 139 Comments

Spend your time and energy on what you can control rather than what you cannot control. Far too much effort is spent on elements beyond a person’s control. It may be unproductive to spend time and energy on the weather, world politics or your mother-in-law unless you can actually control or influence these. It is futile to spend energy trying to change the past. Life can be divided into three categories:

  • That which you can control
  • That which you can influence
  • That which you cannot control

In the quest for a better life, the above serves well as a priority list.

control1

Category 1 should include your own thoughts and emotions, your own actions and how you treat others. These are elements you can gain control over. Category 0.5 would include your family and friends, your workplace and your teammates in any sport you engage in. These are elements you can half-control or influence to a greater or lesser degree. Although Category 0 often steals attention, it deserves none. It serves best as an energy void. You should not spend attention on what you cannot control. It is valuable to learn from past incidents, but being stuck in past incidents is essentially an effort to change the past and results in energy wasted. It is good advice to first gain sufficient control of category 1 before too much energy is spent on category 0.5 all the while no energy is spent on category 0. Top athletes spend most of their energy on category 1. Politicians spend most of their energy on category 0.5. Some politicians, like in Northern Ireland, spend too much time on category 0. You cannot change the past. And you can only influence the future. But you can control what you think, feel and do right now. A great soccer player like Lionel Messi of Barcelona FC has achieved an amazing control of his own actions on the field. He has awesome skills and abilities as a soccer player. He also manages to positively influence his team mates, he “lifts” the whole team whenever he plays. And unlike most players, he doesn’t spend much energy on what he cannot control, like protesting a referee decision. If you never spent energy on category 0, you would be more in control of your life and influencing your environment more. In the start of a relationship there are two people hopefully in good control of themselves and without any control or much influence over the other. As the dating commences, they gradually influence the other person. If the influence is good and agreeable, they may end up as a couple. If one of them doesn’t settle for influencing his partner, but instead tries to control her, you end up with an abusive relationship. The attempt to “mold” or “over-influence” you partner is an effort to move your partner in under your control. Category 1 should be reserved for yourself. You should never try to control another person. You should instead try to influence others in a good way. You can be fully in control of your own performance at work. This includes the limiting of bad influences from others, and the acceptance of good influences and help. You can positively influence your colleagues and customers by focusing on category 0.5. You can “hit the wall” by drooling and complaining over stuff beyond your control. If all of your job resides in category 1, you probably don’t have colleagues or customers and the job would be boring unless you don’t like company. If your focus is mostly on complaining about factors in category 0, you should quit your job now. Category 0 is always huge. What matters is how much you can be in control of yourself and how much you can positively influence others.

control2

A life of struggle with very little control of self and little influence over the environment

A path to a better life can be:

  1. Achieve control of you – your thoughts, emotions and actions – especially those actions in the fields that matters the most to you
  2. Increase your positive influence where it matters the most
  3. Spend little to no energy on matters outside of your control
control3

An interesting life of with good control of self and good influence on the environment

It may sound simple to say and hard to practice. True. Practice may not make you perfect, but it will make you steadily better.

Happiness is a vector, not a state

Geir Isene 26 Comments

Rich and unhappy. Poor and unhappy. Great marriage and still unhappy. Famous, on drugs and depressed. Bored to death while successful.

In the slum and energetic. In the jungle and happy. No money, no job, new girlfriend and erupting with happiness.

What’s going on?

Happiness is a vector (def. #1), not a state (def. #3).

Happiness doesn’t seem to be a matter of what you have or where you are at, but rather where you are heading. You can be depressed or happy whether you are poor or rich, famous or a nobody. The level where you are at does not determine your happiness. It is instead determined by the amount of progress toward a goal that you have set. And apparently it matters less what the goal is. The goal may be small or large in an absolute sense – what matters is how much you value that goal.

I have noticed in my own life that whenever I feel down, I simply pull myself up to complete some tasks – any tasks – and my mood is resurged. And the more the tasks is forwarding an important goal (for me), the more my mood rebounds.

All this is the reason why you hear talks about “the journey is the goal”. Because if the the goal is happiness, then progress toward a goal you set determines the happiness you gain.

Reaching a goal makes you happy for a short while. At that time it is important to set a new goal and milk it for all the happiness you can get by progressing toward it. Enjoy the road, the trip, the quest.

Overconfidence

Geir Isene 105 Comments

Having started and run several companies and a few IT companies in particular, this latest story from Slashdot particularly grabbed my attention. The point of the story, “overconfidence” is applicable is many fields and situations besides that of estimating IT project. First a copy-paste from Slashdot:

“Dan Milstein from Hut 8 Labs has written a lengthy post about why software developers often struggle to estimate the time required to implement their projects. Drawing on lessons from a book called Thinking Fast and Slow by Dan Kahneman, he explains how overconfidence frequently leads to underestimations of a project’s complexity. Unfortunately, the nature of overconfidence makes it tough to compensate. Quoting:

Specifically, in many, many situations, the following three things hold true: 1- ‘Expert’ predictions about some future event are so completely unreliable as to be basically meaningless 2- Nonetheless, the experts in question are extremely confident about the accuracy of their predictions. 3- And, best of all: absolutely nothing seems to be able to diminish the confidence that experts feel. The last one is truly remarkable: even if experts try to honestly face evidence of their own past failures, even if they deeply understand this flaw in human cognition they will still feel a deep sense of confidence in the accuracy of their predictions. As Kahneman explains it, after telling an amazing story about his own failing on this front: ‘The confidence you will experience in your future judgments will not be diminished by what you just read, even if you believe every word.’”

And then quoting Laurens van der Post: “Human beings are perhaps never more frightening than when they are convinced beyond any doubt that they are right.”

And when people are convinced about their conviction, things tend to go south pretty fast. This is seen also during Internet discussions as well as real life discussions. People seek certainty. And the quest for certainty is the real value, not the attainment of it. Quoting Voltaire: “Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd.”

Thinking back to my childhood, I remember with fondness how I cherished the mysteries and uncertainties of life. I loved how I didn’t know, how I wanted to know, and my quest for new knowledge. But as time went by and I grew up, I unfortunately became more certain, less fondly in awe about life’s mysteries and less inquiring.

I am currently trying to find ways to kill my own certainties, be more open for new views and uncertainties and to bring more awe back into life.

Hugs.

Hubbard would recommend Eastern Philosophy

Geir Isene 66 Comments

Looking at the current scene of Scientology, I see no one reaching a high level of spiritualistic serenity. I see bankruptcies, torn families, even suicides. People enter Scientology with some idea or hope of more spiritual freedom or serenity. Had it been possible to reach such a state in, let’s say fourteen or eighteen years, I think most would jump at the possibility. But no, in fourteen or eighteen years in the Church of Scientology, you’re most probably sucked dry for both time and money.

Hubbard should have torn out whatever hair was left had he seen what the Church of Scientology was accomplishing these days. And I believe he would have recommended that people moved to India for their spiritual progress.

In the book “Dianetics 55!”, he wrote about his travels to the East and of people studying Eastern Philosophies:

“..I saw individuals taking fourteen or eighteen years in order to get up to a high level of spiritualistic serenity.”

That would be quite something. I will take Hubbard’s hint and check it out myself. Besides practicing hug-ology, of course.