The Last Samurai

The tiger's eyes are like my own.
But he comes from a forest deep, and I the sea.

The perfect blossom is a rare thing
You could spend your life looking for them,
and it would not be a wasted life.
Perfect. They are all perfect.

Like these blossoms, we are all dying
To know life in every breath
In every breath we take,
In every cup of tea,
In every life we take:
That is Bushido.

When I speak of the martial arts, most people think of an organised system of self-defence training. Yet, for me, martial arts offers a chance to gain access to the minds, hearts and spirits of our forefathers. Martial arts use a physical training system to teach great truths and cultivate personal strength... Not so much in terms of physical strength, though it does so, but more effectively and more importantly in terms of mental strength.

Bushido teaches tenacity... To persevere despite adversity and irrespective of obstacles until your outcome is achieved.

Bushido teaches individuality... That while we each have different dispositions and habits, by training we are able to move beyond whatever we might have begun with... That we should do what we can until our destiny is revealed; act with boldness without becoming attached to transient objectives.

Bushido teaches presence... That there is only one present - now - and that this present is a gift that we must enjoy and exploit to its greatest extent, for our own benefit and for the benefit of those around us. By being present in each moment, focused totally upon now, we can enjoy peace.

Bushido teaches service... We must serve, not because we owe anyone else, but because we owe it to ourselves. Service allows us to live a life of purpose... A life that rewards us with all our physical necessities, while fanning the fire of our spirit, and allowing us to retire in peace.

We ought live our life as if it matters, knowing that paradoxically all that matters is who we are and who we become along the way.

Bushido teaches us to live now.

Notes from The Science of Getting Rich...

I feel somewhat swept up in a wave that I sense is coming, the wave of pop-psych and new-age and self-help that will lead to the rise in The Secret... The Channel Nine (Australian TV) sponsored entry into the personal development world. While perhaps the content is somewhat over-hyped, especially given that learning the 'secret' isn't such a big deal after all (it was always there - applying the secret is the challenge), I have already gained great value from my exposure to it.

It all began when Natasha text messaged me, inviting me to a screening last Thursday. After I spoke with Nick about it over an affogato and iced chai last night, I realised that I had to find out more...

In brief, it's a movie about profound personal development. I haven't seen the movie (yet), though sense that it's about how your thoughts create your reality, to maintain a sense of abundance and gratitude... looks very interesting.

I was led to review The Science of Getting Rich, and have a few provocations (PO) from there... note that the quotes are preserved as written (no gender balancing here!):

• PO "The purpose of Nature is the advancement and unfoldment of life; and every man should have all that can contribute to the power; elegance, beauty, and richness of life; to be content with less is sinful."
  
• PO "The man who owns all he wants for the living of all the life he is capable of living is rich; and no man who has not plenty of money can have all he wants."
• PO "There is abundance of opportunity for the man who will go with the tide, instead of trying to swim against it."
• PO "Every man has the natural and inherent power to think what he wants to think, but it requires far more effort to do so than it does to think the thoughts which are suggested by appearances. To think according to appearance is easy; to think truth regardless of appearances is laborious, and requires the expenditure of more power than any other work man is called upon to perform." [Do as thou wilt... be in the world but not of it...]
• PO The formless becomes the manifest through a thought. Thoughts can be controlled, thereby affecting the manifestations. This is axiomatic to "The Science of Getting Rich."
• PO "Life is the performance of function; and the individual really lives only when he performs every function, physical, mental, and spiritual, of which he is capable, without excess in any." [balance...]
• PO "You are to create, not to compete for what is already created."
• PO "First, you believe that there is one Intelligent Substance, from which all things proceed; second, you believe that this Substance gives you everything you desire; and third, you relate yourself to it by a feeling of deep and profound gratitude."
• Purpose + Faith - We must first form a clear image of what we want. What do you want? More than just knowing what you want, you need to cultivate the sense that what you want is your's - a sense of faith that it is coming to you, which you must maintain as you work.
  
• Rather than a specific time for prayer, we must 'pray without ceasing'... to make the object of our desire the obsessive focus of our life... without telling others, for in telling others, we bring our ego into the experience, Edging God Out, and undermine our purpose.
  
• Apply your will only to yourself - not to influence others.
  
• PO "Poverty can be done away with, not by increasing the number of well to do people who think about poverty, but by increasing the number of poor people who purpose with faith to get rich... The poor do not need charity; they need inspiration."
• "If your heart is set on domestic happiness, remember that love flourishes best where
  there is refinement, a high level of thought, and freedom from corrupting influences; and these are to be found only where riches are attained by the exercise of creative thought, without strife or rivalry."
• We must receive wealth by giving more value than that which we receive, in whatever form that gift may come.
• Fulfill your purpose in your present place - do your job today, using today as the first step to where you want to be. "Do, every day, all that you can do that day, and do each act in
  an efficient manner."
  

A few basic thoughts... designed as an instruction book rather than a discussion point... it cites Hegel and Emerson as Western authors, though suggesting that this stems from Hindu underpinnings. Interesting...

Venture Capital in China

We haven't even begun to see how the rising Chinese economy can be turbo-charged with the addition of some outstanding venture capitalists. Sure they're mean, nasty and take a big chunk of any sort of developing company... but they can give ideas - especially the world-changing, game-shifting, pervasively powerful ideas that we both want and need - the capital that they need to go from concept through development and into execution.

This is where history is made... at least in the short term.

Who says that big companies just want to dominate the world?

Is a major company entering the market of a developing country a case of domination and exploitation waiting to happen, or is it more about helping promote the development of that nation by giving it the things that it wants?

Entry-level PCs in India are going to drop in price by 20% - that's by a fifth! - in the next two months because Intel has found a way to make a deal. Sure, it'll mean that they'll get huge enhancements in any economies of scale, especially from their older products that might not even sell in the more advanced markets, and helps starve competitors that might pop up to service that market, but surely it's a good thing. After all, it's going to make it easier for the poor to access computers, facilitating their more rapid development and evolution.


Along the way of course, they're also pushing for India to rollout WiMax, Intel's vision for the future of wireless internet access. It has the potential to give internet access for millions more easily and more efficiently than even the developed world currently enjoys.

To me, it's interesting how a 'social good' can be used to strengthen the strategic position of a firm. Indeed, perhaps it is by aligning the social good with the individual good that markets work... and how the world works. I'm just waiting for the anti-trust legislation in India.

Likewise Microsoft. For years, they've been buying in the radical innovation that they can't generate themselves (not such a bad strategy...), and now it's broadening widely with their pursuit of companies dealing with mobile advertising. Quite impressive really; in a complex and evolving field, it would seem that the primary strategy is to keep your options open...

Dogville and The Da Vinci Code - the Movie

The Da Vinci Code was released this week. Other than giving those people who didn't find the time to spend two hours reading, and who would instead prefer to spend the best part of three hours watch a B-grade film promoting a work of fiction based upon the delusion that it is true.

To me, it's amazing that despite the book being overtly fictional, being sold as a work of fiction, and a series of contradictions of most of the exciting intimations in the book, people still think that it's real. In case you missed it: The Da Vinci Code is fiction!

Yet, like so many movies, it presents some useful insights, suggestions and perhaps even the odd interesting stimulus to lead us forward. One of the movies that I found most provocative was Dogville.

Dogville is about arrogance. It is about what happens when you are able to do what you want... and whether that's good enough. Arrogance is usually taken to focus on egocentrism and self-centredness; yet the character Grace faces the following realisation:

F: Rapist and murderers may be the victims... but I call them dogs. And if they're lapping up their own vomit, the only way to stop them is with the lash.
G: But if they only obey their own nature why shouldn't we forgive them?
F: Dogs can be taught many useful things but not if we forgive them every time they obey their own nature.
G: So I'm arrogant? I'm arrogant because I forgive people?
F: Can't you see how condescending you are when you say that? You have this preconceived notion that nobody can possibly attain the same high ethical standards as you... so you exonerate them... My dear child, you forgive others with excuses that you would never in the world permit for yourself.
G: Why shouldn't I be merciful?
F: No, no, no: You should be merciful. When there is time to be merciful. But you must maintain your own standard... You owe them that... Every human being needs to be accountable for their actions, but you don't even give them that chance. And that is extremely arrogant.

Thought provoking... somewhat like The Fountainhead.

The modern world is a wonderous thing...

Living in the skyscraper filled developed world, it is easy to forget that most of the world lives in a poverty that we could barely comprehend...

A group of 80 people coming into a town in Columbia, after having lived for their lives in "the bush", serves as a reminder of the difficult balance that so much of our world sits in. They are now struggling to join a society that they do not understand, to move from shooting monkeys with blowguns to a world of drive-by shootings, to face a whole new world of challenges. And it seems that the threat of communist guerillas, a rival tribe and a leader polluted with thoughts from the city, acted together to bring the most radical change that this community is likely to have seen for thousands of years.

Who knows whether the challenges of the city are better or worse than the challenges of the bush... and how could you decide anyway?

Property prices falling?

So many people rely upon rising real estate prices to bolster their personal wealth. While we are familiar with high-priced property, the United States is starting to see the marked drop in prices that will put real estate seminar salespeople out of business (when and if they realise that they're not effective anymore), and more accurately establish where we are at.

I don't know how precisely this might affect Australia... but maybe we're going to start separating the lucky from the skilled, and start rewarding value creation rather than just letting people ride the wave.

And with Australia continuing to rely upon primary industries, what value creation can we offer to reverse this trend?

What makes someone good at something?

Great minds frequently encounter violent opposition from mediocre minds. Yet, those great minds should also be physically superior if you listen to our friends from Cambridge (Cambridge Handbook of Expertise and Expert Performance).

Observing that those born earlier in the year tend to perform better - especially at age-level sports but also beyond - researchers are trying to understand why. While having a few months as a child over the person sitting beside you might give you a little advantage as a child, it's the gap created by teachers, coaches and the public reinforcing talent that really creates an advantage. By inadvertently rewarding earlier development rather than genuine talent, and punishing delayed development rather than accepting variations as just part of the heterogeity of childhood, we make the smart kids smarter, and let the less talented students trail.

I didn't realise that it was so marked until I learned about how national youth teams (the ones that feed into the senior teams) have children born in January, February and March - at the start of the measured year - outnumber those born in the rest of the year by up to a dozen or so to one!

Sure talent has a role - especially in grabbing attention - but, according to Ericsson, the key to learning is less talent: the game is really about immediate feedback and specific goal setting. So do what you love... it's the only thing that you'll bother to do well anyway.

What is consciousness?

Robin Craig asked the following:
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What is the nature of consciousness? What is its cause? What is its evolutionary function? At what level of mental complexity on the evolutionary scale does consciousness occur (e.g. humans only, mammals, birds, fish, insects)?
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Brain power can be compared between organisms according to the number of concepts that they may simultaneously process. For example, when we are small, we may think that a glass holds more water just because it is taller, since we are only able to compare them on the basis of height. As we mature, our brains become more complex, to the point that we can process four and sometimes five concepts and a relationship at any time. On this basis, "self awareness" or consciousness requires the ability to process a notion of 'self', a notion of that which is 'not self', and a relationship between the self and the outside world.

An infant is unable to distinguish between itself and its mother for several months after birth. While separating ourselves from the world is a step towards consciousness, there must be more to it... after all, our notion of 'consciousness' is more than just being able to tell the difference between cutting a tomato and cutting a finger!

I would suggest that consciousness requires a self vs not self distinction to be processed in the presence of at least one additional thought. This may take the overt form of asking yourself questions or thinking, while knowing that you are separate from your environment, or it could take the form of empathising with another, or acting directly, or any other activity that you might take. It is acting, including thinking, while being aware of yourself that constitutes consciousness.

Consequently, consciousness requires the capacity to process at least four things at a time. Scientists show that only the most developed brains are able to achieve this feat: Humans, dolphins and the higher apes.

I wonder whether we might consider a further distinction. There are some of us who are driven to live. There are some people who look to go beyond their conditioning and 'mere' survival, looking to lift their 'consciousness' to a higher level. Some would explain this as spirituality, whilst others would use more secular terminology. Striving to go beyond our environment, our conditioning and our history appears restricted to humanity alone - and even then only parts of humanity. Whether this is a desirable outcome or not is not my immediate concern... But if consciousness is being able to think whilst knowing that "I" exist, could higher consciousness be an awareness of our consciousness?

Evangelical Christianity

Sometimes I wonder where the boundary between spirituality and feeling good about yourself lies. When you walk into a room with loud rock music, people dancing and focusing upon feeling good about themselves, what causes the feeling?

Is it that God is touching those in the room?
Or is it that we're doing the things that facilitate us feeling good?

If we have a 'flow' experience - where we lose track of time, where we're focused on something bigger than ourself, where we are overloading our sensory capacity - is that God, or is it really merely a positive emotional experience?

When I have walked into some large Evangelical Churches this year, I've sensed that people in the room have thought that feeling good equated to God supporting their experiences. Maybe they're right... Maybe God is making them or letting them feel good. Yet what if the same experience can be simulated without involving God?

Then again, if people are enjoying the experience, what does it really matter?

If personal enjoyment and popularity are the criteria for establishing whether something has God's blessings, wouldn't you find that sex is the best devotional activity ever? I wonder whether these same Churches would endorse such a line...

But it does matter... as someone who lives with the personal knowledge that spirituality is real, for someone to assert that just "jumping up and down and feeling good" is God is as blasphemous and even idolotrous as saying that God is a tree stump.

Human nature?

We are really simple creatures.

As I listened to a successful business leader of innovation I was dumbfounded at how even one of the most advanced organisations can use just a few different techniques and suddenly they're classed as 'innovative'. I have great respect for de Bono popularising creativity and expressing a few useful tools. And it is probably because of this that an organisation just selecting the first thing that occurs to them happens.

Perhaps it's an explanation of why McDonalds does so well: Don't give your customers too much choice!

Even if you felt called to use de Bono's suite of techniques, ignoring the fact that none are validated (and that many other schools of thought exist), I remain bemused that a 'leader' of innovation would just choose the first technique that comes to hand. Not that the techniques themselves are poor in themselves - but surely an innovator would be called to look beyond the obvious?

If you want to use de Bono, go beyond the 6 Hats - they're great, but they're just the beginning. A scientist should explore water logic, action shoes, ToLoPoSoGo and a bunch of ideas outlined in Serious Creativity... AND look to other sources of thinking on creativity.

We set our standards so low... even people who innovate often end up just innovating enough. With the rise of Asia in an era of abundance and outsourcing, the only way that the developed world can continue to demand the sort of quality of life that it has grown accustomed to is through lifting up the value chain. We don't get that by digging deeper holes: We get that by freeing our minds...

Take off the handbrake, unleash the throttle and explore the things that you've never thought possible... That is the path to genius.