Categories
Approximate Thinking Art Creativity Cultural and Creative Industries Culture Films Fuzzy Thinking Science Stories Systems Technology Work

Mundane Evil & Creativity : “I was just doing my Job..”

More often than not, evil is not one great shocking act. Mundane evil is the most prevalent form.. and what we come to see as great evil sometimes [usually in retrospect], starts with small tasks, and accumulates simple additions as it goes.

Ironically, I think this summarizes “Oppenheimer” – the events, and the 2023 film.

Oppenheimer Mundane Evil
Oppenheimer: A story of Mundane Evil

“The greatest evils in the world will not be carried out by men with guns, but by men in suits sitting behind desks.”

C.S. Lewis

Categories
Approximate Thinking Approximation Books Culture Fuzzy Thinking Incompleteness Innovation Knowledge Leadership Psychology Systems Thinking Work

How Lazy is John Galt? Ayn Rand, Approximate Thinking, Ideology, and Selling Books

Ayn Rand and Approximate Thinking?

Many people complain about the simplistic (and sometimes infantile) nature of Ayn Rand’s “Atlas Shrugged”… Still, the book is only less successful (in terms of distribution) than the bible. What explains this? I argue that it is the conflation of identities and political ideologies with ideas and thought.

Ultimately, laziness and approximate thinking are what made John Galt great! This is really the secret behind Ayn Rand’s “Atlas Shrugged”.

Categories
Approximate Thinking Education Knowledge Learning Psychology Thinking Work

Education and The Matrix : Hustlers , Agents , and Punks !

“Does your teacher have a Bugatti?” Asked the Hustler. “Your school ( Education ) wants you to stay in the Matrix… I want to liberate you. Give me $50..”

This post is taken from a talk I gave a while back about the true Matrix, Education, Hustlers, The System, Halos, Approximate Thinking, and meaningful work and effort.

Categories
Approximate Thinking Approximation Culture Fuzzy Thinking Incompleteness Innovation Knowledge Leadership Measurement Psychology Systems Technology Thinking Work

Is Success the result of Chance, Skill, or Effort? The Fuzzy Thinking behind the anger, values, and politics soup

Why is it that discussions on equal opportunities can easily get derailed into name-calling? What are the causes of success, and why are people so sensitive about them? Fuzzy thinking about work and politics, and an incomplete understanding can cause an unnecessary confusion.

Categories
Approximate Thinking Books Brands Consumer Behavior Creativity Culture Incompleteness Innovation Knowledge Marketing Science Thinking Work

Fox or Hedgehog? The Power (Weakness?) Of Focus

“A fox knows many things, but a hedgehog knows one grand thing.” ( Archilochus)…

So it better (wiser) to focus and limit the scope of your work or should you try to diversify ?

Categories
Approximate Thinking Approximation Creativity Cultural and Creative Industries Cultural Products Cultural Resources Innovation Knowledge Marketing Measurement Research Systems Tech Work

The Global Innovation Index 2022: Measurement, Growth, and Achieving Innovation Goals

Can Economists ruin Innovation with an Index? Thoughts on measuring innovation, growth, culture, and creativity.

The 2022 Global Innovation Index report released by WIPO has been published for 2022. Here are some of thoughts on the report, including a few comments and reflections on innovation, economic growth, measurement, and cultural resources.

Categories
Approximate Thinking Approximation Brands Consumer Behavior Cultural Products Incompleteness Innovation Knowledge Leadership Marketing Measurement Passion Stories Work

WeWork Lessons : Excess & Market Behavior under extreme hope and fuzziness

The documentary : “WeWork: Or the Making and Breaking of a $47 Billion Unicorn” is entertaining (if you don’t get angry easily), and contains an amazing exploration of the behavior of markets, consumers, and leaders. There are many hilarious moments too!

This documentary illustrates the dangers of excess, “hopium”, and building great castles on foundations of ‘fluff’. The top WeWork lessons explored in this article include excess, fuzziness, consumer (and investor) behavior, and spectacles.

Categories
Approximation Books Culture Education Knowledge Leadership Work

The Idiot’s Haste: Shortcuts to Knowledge and Happiness – How to read 50 Books in one month, and ‘hack’ happiness?

Can you ‘hack’ knowledge and happiness ??

In a sense, it is OK to do dumb things… If you do them quickly enough.

Random Wise Influencer

“Hack” Happiness – Shortcut #1

Have you tried a ‘happiness’ burger before?

I recently saw a post (apparently was going viral) titled : “How to Hack Happiness”. A guide in the form of a thread of tweets offered the final solution to humanity’s quests over thousands of years.

Categories
Art Creativity Leadership Passion Work

Give yourself permission to be creative – Ethan Hawke

Give yourself permission to be creative

I came across this video (youtube’s cunning recommendation algorithm), and I was quite surprised how insightful and deep it was. It had many lessons on creativity, and the ‘self-permission’ it requires. Frequently, it takes courage to be creative, and this is nicely captured by the talk.

Here are some thoughts / lessons / reflections :

  1. The value of difference and irregularity: In a world where more and more things (and people) are similar, irregularity and unpredictability are valuable.
  2. It is quite hard for us to judge how good what we do is. I think that a better strategy would be to do great effort and keep thinking about growth and contribution.
  3. The world is an extremely unreliable critic: This has been tested many times. Think about it – if something is really original and new, then it – by definition – won’t be familiar, and most people dislike the unfamiliar (because it forces them to think).
  4. Making sense out of life is crucial , but only at key moments –> Why not always ? Well maybe because this activity of ‘making sense’ is not a guaranteed and linear process. You can’t be sure that you’ll make sense of it.
  5. Art helps with that: Art is not luxury – it is nourishment for the soul and the growth beyond the confines of the limited and bounded current reality.
  6. ‘Human Creativity is nature manifest in us’
  7. ‘Know yourself’ – what do you love ? if you get close to what you love , who you are is revealed to you… and it expands !
  8. My experience is not as unique as I’ve thought ..
  9. ‘There is no Path till you walk it’
  10. Be willing to Play the fool
  11. Read the book you want to read (I will probably talk about this later here)
  12. Listen to new music (challenge yourself to do it, even though it might not feel very comfortable at first).