Project Mojave Blog - Latest Comments in The Battle for Our Minds

Re: The Battle for Our Minds

polun — Wed, 20 May 2009 04:07:16 -0000

Intelligent people know that they don't have to follow any rules and trends to be happy. They are conscious of who they are and that more then a half of western world's population has been successfully brainwashed.

Re: The Battle for Our Minds

Gurminder — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 06:22:51 -0000

A very good post indeed. While reading I was some how able to align it with my mind.
During my previous job I had very good time though was not much money making but I was enjoying, At that time in my life I started discovering my own thoughts. I use to say to myself "Let the mind be free like wind" can go anywhere anytime. That really helped to get creative ideas.
Another thing I would like to share is:
Our thought about something is based on 3 things
1. Our past experience about that or something similar to that
2. The present state of our mind
3. Our future expectations from something we see.
Just block these three causes and try to get the thought.
I think its getting longer. Anyways it was a nice post!! Thanks

Re: The Battle for Our Minds

Diana Young — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 17:39:09 -0000

Great post and best of all it makes me feel great about how I spend my day. No more driving to the office/hospital. No more bosses telling me what shade of pantyhose I'm allowed to wear. And I have time to read that vagabond book. Life is good.

Re: The Battle for Our Minds

James Hall — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 04:26:47 -0000

Thanks Clay-
for your commitment to sanity & humanity. I'm "new here" & still a little unclear about your purpose or what inspired your interest in sharing your life experience with others. Some would say (not me of course) this is a form of "enlightened self interest" but your gain is mine in attempting a similar rabbit hole pursue-al of "enlightened self interests" which I refer to as "My" or "Mine" (a no dude/dudette is an island referral). It seems to me the way to selflessness (whatever that is) begins with selfishness. But that requires enormous strength (or pain). Someone named Karl Krause (from a library book on aphorisms I'm reading) wrote: "How powerful social mores are! Only a spider's web lies across the volcano, yet it refrains from erupting". He evidently started a periodical back in 1899 which attacked middle-class manners and morality, and took a "pyromaniac's delight in setting blazes under society's most sacred taboos." One perspective I perpetually forget is that I'm living better than 99.9999% of the humanity that has proceeded me on this planet. Being naturally angst prone this reveals my N. American sense of entitlement - bringing that overfed, uncomfortable, gaseous feeling of my very own personal & enormous "bloated nothingness" (I'm talkin' Elvis palatial Vegas style utopia bloat here}. A very short attempt follows at trying to be more humble and grateful for the utopia I'm living thru but can't quite thoroughly enjoy. Thankfully it quickly passes so I can get on with this business of searching for more & more meaning or at least some kind of reasonably acceptable philosophical solace for "my" highly unlikely & quantum-ally questionable existence (after all I didn't ask to come here in the first place, you know) .
Otherwise Clay, I surely would not know what else to do with my brief time here. My genetically gloomy & pessimistic outlook reminds me continually that nature doesn't appear to allow too much happiness before it finally devours you in "the end"... & forevermore! (like totally weird man or what?... reincarnation???)
Your writing is excellent, keep it up! I feel that delicious elation on discovering "Wow, someone else on the planet thinks like I do!" Apparently we dropped out of different high schools together.
J

Re: The Battle for Our Minds

Jenny — Tue, 27 May 2008 20:51:19 -0000

I understand exactly what you mean about thoughts coming to you when you don't necessarily need them to. I vacationed recently in Colorado and while atop of a hill looking down into the valley and the river that was flowing through, I had some amazing ideas for blog topics. I was definitely not in the mindset to come up with these, yet here they were and they are good ones.

I had lost some perspective, or the ability to see different perspectives until I went on vacation, now I feel somewhat refreshed and ready to take another look at the world I'm in!

Great Post!

Re: The Battle for Our Minds

Michael Martine | Remarkablogg — Mon, 05 May 2008 23:12:09 -0000

Wow, I liked you immediately when I met you at SOBCon, but I had no idea your blog was this good! I am so subscribed.

Re: The Battle for Our Minds

Klaus — Mon, 05 May 2008 15:09:37 -0000

Sorry, Clay, this post is - eh, how to put it politely?

You do not "exhaust" your brainpower - this is nonsense. Even if you "exchange" your brainpower for money, you still have all your brainpower left. You do not run out of "brainpower". Well, you might get tired, but that's a different issue.

I argue that the issue with being a workoholic is just an issue of one-sided input. Similar to eat nothing else than hamburgers - it is not healthy. The trick is to provide your brain with alternative input, e.g. reading books (the stuff without the scroll bars at the side ;-), sports, listen to music (different styles!). The more intellectually challenging it gets, the more nutrition you get for brain...

From past experience I can tell that you can keep up with a highly demanding work environment or long working hours only if you are able to find your own balance and perspective - otherwise, you burn out in a few years.

And, yes, here you're absolutely right: you can't hack perspective.
Klaus

Re: The Battle for Our Minds

Chris — Fri, 02 May 2008 21:15:58 -0000

People always ask me why teachers have a long summer vacation. My answers is that the two months actually is used for recuperation and a time to find creative ways to teach.

I have always known this but I could never articulate it as well as you had it here.

Re: The Battle for Our Minds

Marelisa — Fri, 02 May 2008 20:15:43 -0000

Clay; I'm going to have to disagree with you on this one. I think it doesn't have to do so much with brainpower (the more you have the more you're likely to be "wasting it" working for a corporation or a law firm), but with your "mentality". If you're brilliant and you "get" that you should find a job only to get the experience necessary to go on to do your own thing, you're probably going to do a lot better than the not-so-brilliant types. I spent a lot of years in school (BSBA, JD, and almost finished an MBA)and was a workaholic for about 5 years (I'm now a recovering workaholic), but I think it had more to do with societal conditioning that with IQ.

Re: The Battle for Our Minds

Jeff Cobb — Fri, 02 May 2008 06:45:06 -0000

Great post, Clay. I think to find fulfillment - which may or may not have anything to do with conventional ideas of success - people have to learn to take their learning into their own hands and free themselves from the chains forged by most academic and corporate approaches to learning. This absolutely requires perspective - as well as the discipline and courage to make time for that perspective. - Jeff

Re: The Battle for Our Minds

Louise Pool — Thu, 01 May 2008 17:26:50 -0000

You've done it again, Clay!

Wonderful article and I couldn't agree more. Years ago, I read a book by Somerset Maugham called "The Razor's Edge". (I think there was a movie as well.) In it, the main character, Larry, refuses to work in any way where he would have to use his mind. He wanted his mind to be free, so chooses to take on odd jobs and "squander" his education. He spends a lot of time vagabonding around Europe. I was lucky enough to read this (and take it to heart) when I was a teenager and have been "vagabonding" in some way ever since.

I think there may be cultural pressures as well. Asians, for instance, are pressured to go into certain fields and "do well". Women, in the push of feminism, were encouraged to join the professional/corporate world and make their mark.

Did you know that free state education was first provided by the Prussians with the explicit mandate of training obedient (un-thinking) people? I wonder if the objective really has changed much, the armies of today being the corporations ...

Re: The Battle for Our Minds

Louise Pool — Thu, 01 May 2008 17:25:09 -0000

You've done it again, Clay!

Wonderful article and I couldn't agree more. Years ago, I read a book by Somerset Maughm called "The Razor's Edge". (I think there was a movie as well.) In it, the main character, Larry, refuses to work in any way where he would have to use his mind. He wanted his mind to be free, so chooses to take on odd jobs and "squander" his education. He spends a lot of time vagabonding around Europe. I was lucky enough to read this (and take it to heart) when I was a teenager and have been "vagabonding" in some way ever since.

Did you know that free state education was first provided by the Prussians with the explicit mandate of training obedient (un-thinking) people? I wonder if the objective has really changed much...

Re: The Battle for Our Minds

JEMi | Tips for Life, Love, Yo — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 16:04:54 -0000

Clay,
This is an incredibly insightful post.
You can't hack perspective - I love that line.

I like how you have managed to articulate something I've been feeling/sensing lately. It's why I've been searching for some kind of balance. I DO find my best from unexpected sources...when my mind isn't cluttered on the top notch performance of every intellectual task I have to perform on command everyday.

Those tasks are important but I wouldn't say they are more important than the power of my own thoughts. I daresay those tasks can't even happen without my downtime. Seriously.

I used to think that was a major flaw that I had. I would see some people be able to crank it out with seemingly no downtime at all. But I dont think that anymore and I would say this post helped validate that. Needing and cultivating my freedom of thought is an asset. I can give more, do more, create more.

Oh and Vagabonding huh :) That def. does sound like something you can read. Keep up the awesome writing Clay :)

Re: The Battle for Our Minds

Clay Collins — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 15:07:21 -0000

@Aaron: That's a sweet video. Never seen it before.

@The Financial Philosopher: I absolutely love those quotations. Thank you for sharing.

Re: The Battle for Our Minds

The Financial Philosopher — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 14:40:53 -0000

Emotional intelligence (EQ) matters more than IQ. This EQ and your "perspective" comes from self-awareness.

The real problem with us humans is that we do not combine our knowing with our doing. In school, we are taught to "talk smart" but are not taught to actually "do" anything. We are rewarded for talking smart by receiving praise for class participation and for finding clever ways to communicate old ideas on paper. What about the "doing" part?

Here's some philosophy to add to your other wise thoughts:

"All truly wise thoughts have been thought already thousands of times; but to make them truly ours, we must think them over again honestly, till they take root in our personal experience." ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

"Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Seek what they sought." ~ Basho

Re: The Battle for Our Minds

Jay — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 13:35:14 -0000

I too have thought about the demands placed on intellgence before, and my overwhelming realization is that the perspective we so sorely need is just as much a catalyst for balance as it is a lifelong pursuit.

But here's the funny part for me. The more time reinvested into my brain power, the more productive I become at work. This results in increaseed expectations, effectively snowballing the free time I just created for myself. Since leaving my office job is not an immediate option for me, that means I've actually had to slow the pace at which I get through my workday. I'm not sure what adverse effects that may have on my psyche and/or work ethic, but at the very least it gives me a chance to catch on your blog!

Keep up the good work.

Re: The Battle for Our Minds

Daniel Richard | Winning Every — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 13:11:42 -0000

Eye catching sub-point headers! We can't hack perspective, but to build on them up.

Re: The Battle for Our Minds

Vitor — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 13:10:14 -0000

Those thoughts are too dangerous to be read from a corporate-owned computer, but I'm doing it anyway ;)

I have found this paradox to be painfully true: the most productive times for me are the ones where I seem least active from an outside view. Lately, I've been so far away from this state of mind that the very memory of it has started to fade. It's definitely time for a change.

Re: The Battle for Our Minds

Aaron Griffin — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 11:28:06 -0000

Sounds like SOMEONE has been listening to too much Flobots.
http://www.youtube.com/watc...

Re: The Battle for Our Minds

David Bohm once — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 11:16:11 -0000

"This notion of INTELLIGENCE can be contrasted with INTELLECT.

"INTELLIGENCE acts as the key creative factor in the formation of new categories [of thought, knowledge and expression.] In this sense, Intelligence is the mind's capacity to 'read in between the lines,' or to see 'in between' existing categories, and to create new categories.

"INTELLECT [however] is relatively fixed, for it is based primarily on an already existing scheme of categories.

"While intelligence is a dynamic and creative act of perception through the mind, the intellect is something more limited and static.

"This distinction can be highlighted by suggesting that the IQ test should be more properly said to measure an intellect quotient than an intelligence quotient."

So, there's part of the rub, huh?

I guess that's Bohm's polite way of saying people can think they're very smart, can pride themselves on high IQs or PhDs and still be rather daft or even ignorant.

From the book:

Science, Order and Creativity by David Bohm and F. David Peat.

Bohm was a colleague of Albert Einstein. A major scientific figure himself. So he's speaking from some rather deep experience of the high priesthood of science and industry.

Re: The Battle for Our Minds

Albert @ Headspace (http://tho — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 09:48:44 -0000

Very nice post, Clay.

I have found that neither stressing or slacking gives me perspective. It is rather that elusive balance between them that gives birth to insight.

It is often in the periods of rest after intense mental effort that insight comes to me.

In the morning I work for a few hours before going for a walk with the my dogs. It is during that walk that the good ideas come.

Albert @ Headspace
http://thoughtsintime.co.za

Re: The Battle for Our Minds

Paul Montwill | SwitchStories. — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 04:19:27 -0000

Clay, this is what I lack! Perspective. I tend to organise every single minute of my life. I just don't want to spoil it. I don't think I will ever have free evenings. I just feel I waste me time if I do nothing...

Re: The Battle for Our Minds

Mark Krusen — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 04:13:24 -0000

I've added meditating to my day also. I haven't been able to pin it down to a special time. But I have come to spend at least 20 minutes just sitting and doing nothing. I would lay down, but found myself falling asleep.LOL.

MonkMojo, I like the Avatar.

Re: The Battle for Our Minds

Guest — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 02:43:39 -0000

Another killer post Clay. I read a lot of blogs, this is one of the few I study. I have nothing add to this fine piece, but I am motivated to show off my new avatar, and subscribe to the emailed comments.

PS -
This lynchpin you pulled in closing; beautiful.

Re: The Battle for Our Minds

Elizabeth — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 23:43:49 -0000

On the eve of first year law school finals this post makes me both excited for finals to over so I can reclaim my thoughts and totally freaked out because I'm in law school. I think I have my mind now(most of the time) - I'm afraid of losing it.