There is a funny concept among the softly-spoken, the meek, the apologetic excuse-makers that there is some ‘kind’ of person who is confident, capable and calm in the face of adversity. The have-nots usually disempower themselves further by making an assumption that confidence is like a genetic trait, written into the DNA of some, and left out of the chromosomes of another. It’s not, it’s a lie.
Confidence is a con – it’s a lie to yourself that you can be whatever you want to be. The trick is that confident people have mastered the ability of self-delusion, and once deluded, the lie becomes real – for being confident is simply imagining yourself as already confident. That will spread a perception among others, who will react to your new-found power as if it’s you, which will reinforce your behavior and presto-change-o, you are one of the confident people.
One cannot imagine oneself taller, and no matter what ‘The Secret’ tells you – you cannot imagine yourself a new sports car, but you can imagine yourself being confident and become it, immediately. Read more…
Hello, I hear you’re looking for nice people to work in your nice pub. I’m relatively nice. I smile a lot, I don’t tell racist jokes, and haven’t ever tortured an animal.
Exactly how nice is this pub, and how nice must I be to work there?
I used to own an ant farm, but I don’t think that amounts to ‘torture’. One of them died from unknown causes (who ever really knows why ants die?) so I freed them.
I suspect their cushy ant-farm life didn’t prepare them from the harsh realities of lawn life. Most of them died within minutes of their release in the updraft of a lawn-mower (okay so it’s more apparent why those ants died).
I will understand if after reading that story you come to view me as ‘not nice’ and that causes you to reject my application.
My psychiatrist told me I was ‘unhinged’ and ‘evil’ to the ants but I think he was just disappointed because I hadn’t become a psychiatrist like him. He said ‘You’re no son of mine!’ and disowned me, then continued with the mowing. Read more…
Here’s a fascinating TED talk on the nature of robot artificial intelligence. I am still amazed that people don’t believe it’s going to happen, when the evidence indicates that it already is happening.
These machines are about as intelligent as amoeba, but far more powerful, and the speed of their evolution is far faster – as it doesn’t wait for biology but can be sped up on supercomputers. It is legitimately scary and exciting in equal parts – for their pattern of self-replication would put them in direct competition with us!
confident, capable and calm in the face of adversity. The have-nots usually disempower themselves further by making an assumption that confidence is like a genetic trait, written into the DNA of some, and left out of the chromosomes of another. It’s not, it’s a lie.
