Monthly Archives: February 2014

What are Relationships?

Life Education, Relationships

A relationship between two people is created when two separate identities (see Who Am I?) interact and create a shared reality (see Properties of Reality) between them.  The relationship is that shared reality.  

Relationships can be formed within the physical world (two people went to the same high school) and they can be formed within the mental world as well (blue is related to a blue window, a blue house, and a little blue corvette).

People exist both in the physical world (bodies, possessions) and in the mental world (thoughts, likes and dislikes), so in order to fully describe and understand a relationship between two people we must look at the physical and mental relationships together as one.   The relationship between people is further complicated because people also have emotions which do not follow logic. They are limited by their Judgment and Logic (see What is Judgment and Logic).

The Nature of Relationships with People

Accept Yourself, Accept Others, Achieve Balance – How to Achieve Healthy Relationships

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What is Skill, Talent, Potential, Smart, Intelligence?

Life Education

Skill is an objective measure of your ability to do something.  How long you can hold your breath is a measure of your skill: the longer you can hold it, the more skilled you are.  How fast you can run 100 meters is a measure of skill: the less time it takes, the more skilled you are.  Your score on a test is a measure of skill: your skill at the subject and at test taking.

Talent is a measure of your advantages over other people.  Some people are born with a bigger lung capacity, have a genetic advantage like the Tibetans do for oxygen metabolism (article here), and so can naturally survive longer on one breath than others.  Some people have the right genes to have the right muscles for sprinting vs long distance (article here), and so can accelerate and run faster than others.  Everyone sees the world slightly differently due to how the brain is wired and what kind of childhood someone has: if your parents are math teachers who tutor you often at home, you will seem talented at school even though it isn’t necessarily due to being naturally gifted.

Out of talent comes a measure of potential: if you believe in a physical reality governed by the physical laws of science, then you know your abilities are limited, and since everyone has different physical bodies, everyone’s limits are different.  Someone with talent might jump to 6th grade english while in 5th grade, but someone without talent, with another year, will reach 6th grade english and be on the same level.  What this means is that most of the time, if Bob is better than Abe at piano, it is a temporary fact: if Abe practices and Bob stops practicing, Abe will surpass Bob.  The only time this is not true is when both Abe and Bob are approaching their potentials: one of them will reach a lower limit than the other no matter how much time and effort is put in.

Skill and Talent are typically used to refer to abilities that are within the physical world, like most of the examples I have shared thus far: holding your breath, running 100 meters, and playing piano.  Smart and Intelligence are more closely associated with abilities that are within the mind: English class and music theory and composition.  The two words are used in the same way: Smart is a measure of objective ability, Intelligence is a measure of your advantage over others.

Achieving top levels of mastery is 10,000 hours away according to Malcom Gladwell’s The Outliers so have patience, and focus on things you honestly enjoy doing.

Intelligence is the logic of building logic (see What is Logic and Judgement?), Smart is the logic you presently have.

Resources

Intelligence is maximizing future freedom of action – Computer Science answer by Alex Wissner-Gross

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Tips for Unemployment

Life Advice

Too many unemployed people just sit at home and apply to jobs.  This often leads to boredom, depression, decay of skills, and reduced mental health.  Instead of just applying and waiting, they should also be spending time developing skills or life experience.  What’s the difference between working on something and not getting paid, and sitting at home passing time and not getting paid?  In one situation, you’re in a position to develop skills and/or place to meet people who might hire you; in the other, you’re not developing skills, and your chances of meeting an employer or someone who knows an employer is close to 0%.

Fulfill a passion or hobby you’ve always had, browse Craigslist for small jobs, work for TaskRabbit or Mechanical Turk, or walk around outside in public places and whenever you see someone who needs help, GO HELP! 1. you’ll feel great, 2. you’ll be doing good work, 3. you might get recognized and hired by people who see that you’re able to get things done for other people.

Lately, there has been an over-emphasis on how much you are paid for what you’re doing, and we have forgotten the importance and value that just doing something has: it trains skills that will become useful later, and if the skill itself isn’t useful later, the skill of training will be.  Stay in the training, in the learning, mindset, and you will be far better equipped to adapt than other people.  The idea that you would work for someone else without being paid is not valued enough. Doing so keeps you sharp so that you’re not out of practice when interviews or full-time jobs begin.

Wallowing in misery helps no-one, not even yourself.

Next, read: What is Skill, Talent, Potential, Smart, and Intelligence?

Resources

To find out when those posts, and other life education writing, are released, subscribe on the side! Follow on Twitter, on Facebook, on Google+, on Tumblr.