Real Work

There has to be a part of every modern person's psyche that screams to do something rather than type or read it on a computer screen. There's a persistent part of me that feels real work is done out in a field or with power tools - the work our forefathers did. We shouldn't dismiss the digital age, but let's not lose site of the things that actually make the world go: the physical infrastructure. For every website there are server racks and terminals. For every VoiP setup there are the actual receivers and understanding of the OSI layer and physics that make up these aethereal non-world we live in.

In short, get out there and do something with your hands. Volunteer, start a charity, learn to smith - just do something outside of the aether for a change.  

Stop Indulging Whiny Losers

The Millenial generation has taken coddling to a whole new level. A disturbing fixture in Western society - probably an emergent property of the 'Self-Esteem movement' - is the reinforced delusions of losers who can't admit they don't have what it takes to make a billion dollars before they're thirty or juggle multiple businesses. Instead of allowing kids to know their limitations and incorporate the lessons of their failures we give them excuses for it. Modern technology doesn't help: it's a self-affirming circus spectacle that makes people feel empowered, distracting them even further from the reality of their loserhood. Yahoo Answers, Facebook, YouTube, G+, Tumblr, Twitter, Reddit, whatever latest flavour has shanghaied our senses - all these serve as deterrents to real self-reflection. They postpone the inevitable realisation that you're not a young success story and have a lower probability of success than those people you idolise (or demonise out of jealousy).

Most don't have what it takes to be a profitable entrepreneur. Fixed mindset, stupidity, failure to launch - whatever it is, most people will be mediocre. Tragically, a lifetime of false promises and jejune assertions of a loser's greatness creates massive cognitive dissonance when they consider that maybe, just maybe they aren't a budding genius who's about to hit it big. Their focus is all wrong: losers obsess about how they're different from successful people instead of looking for solutions to smaller problems. Call it 'externalising achievement'. Such people peruse the Internet with queries like, 'Can I be a success at age 27?' 'How do they do it?' 'Can I learn programming at age 30?' 'I have no ambition, no initiative...' true, and sorry, that's your lot in life. It's not clinical depression holding you back, it's impossible ideals.

Just look at the history of 'the wunderkind', how they engineered personal projects and sought control before they even entered high school. This wasn't part of school or some other system forced on them - they didn't have to convince themselves to do it. They just wanted to - some would say they had to. Those who want to succeed have a compulsion to do so; they don't rely on a childish pat on the back from other Internet losers. They knew what they wanted long before you (and you still don't if you're reading this). They fed their need to solve practical problems and establish independence from a young age. They weren't mired in an existential crisis well into their twenties and thirties. They may ask for help with a particular goal, but that's called getting advice instead of nauseating hand-holding.

But no - these truths are too uncomfortable for a whiny Millenial. They admit it to themselves in private but still want someone to tell them otherwise. They can't stand being a loser; and in this age they have outlets for their frustration, countless methods for convincing themselves it's not true. So when you see that confused, spoiled and lazy high schooler on Answers begging for an affirmation of his latent greatness, don't give it to him. He'll give you a laundry list of accomplishments, will compare himself to his overachieving peers or Mark Zuckerberg and lie in wait for compassionate dupes to tell him that his standards are too high, that he has so much potential, and if he applied himself he too will be a tech mogul by age 25. He signs off satisfied, content with the encouragement of strangers until an hour later when the depressing reality hits him again.

Don't feed the machine of self-aggandisement and self-delusion. The next time a young person wants to be coddled, tell them they're not special and don't waste your time. 

Sports Commentary: Perhaps the most worthless pursuit on Earth

    It is hard to imagine something more worthless than providing commentary and in-depth analysis of something that was worthless to begin with. Such is the case with sports commentators - those who go beyond the play-by-play announcements and the ensuing colour commentary. The real offenders are those who see fit to talk about what the player was feeling or what move he made or what insult some other athletic cipher made towards the first one.

    As of this writing (10th June 2012) the BBC article detailing the death of Kenyan minister George Saitoti, longest-running VP in the country's history and a potential presidential candidate has been shared 1,644 times. Compare that to the Yahoo! trends and "top stories" of Manny Pacquiao, Rafeal Nadal, Paul Pierce and other misappropriated uses of talent. There was one significant story about a new U.S. stealth warship sandwiched between the offending stories and a piece on "The Dark Knight Rises." Congrats on prioritising, you dribbling idiots. Pandering to the masses has the side effect of revealing cultural trends; it seems like our interests are about what demands the least of our intellect.
 
    The Web's most popular sites are Google, Facebook, and YouTube, in that order. Go to FB and YT and look at what they're promoting on a regular basis: material that gets an exorbitant amount of hits but that often doesn't qualify as significant. Here's a good judge of whether something matters: it doesn't lose its importance when you ignore it. Sports are only significant when people watch them, the same as shows and celebrities. Politics does not magically lose its value because people don't watch CSPAN or check BBC broadcasts, or choose to fly right past the news tickers in major newspapers to the D-section of the NY Times (that used to be the sports section; I don't read them much anymore as most of my news comes to me digitally).

    Is this a pointless rant? Maybe. I can only hope that like-minded people search for material that affirms their disinterest in pop culture. Then they may do likewise and create more resources for the hapless and lost out there who gawk at the Internet in miserable disbelief. Poor souls. 

Technological Psychosis

      Depression and nihilism are natural symptoms of the digital age. The amount of data we must process is beyond the mind's capacity to handle. Many view the Millenials as privileged to work in a world with such facility and technical prowess, but there is a great downfall to this system. The spectre of 'choice paralysis,' being unable to decide what course to take in the midst of an overwhelming amount of selections, is a primary drawback. Never before has such a large percentage of the population acted as viable business competition. The urge and the ability to manufacture your dreams have never been so synchronized, but quality soon takes a backseat to quantity. Fortunately, the sheer amount of mediocrity out there won't influence the major successes anyway, so the hordes of potential producers will be as irrelevant as they would have been in any other age.

     Do not mistake me for a Luddite. I am not arguing for the cessation of many modern technologies, nor would I insist on curtailing them via government control. These are just the melancholic ramblings of a mind too split by the ocean of data in our brave new world. 

Murder and Birth are the Same

It is far easier to do without than to have to lose. Bringing someone into this world is equivalent to ending a mature life. Both conditions require that one decides the fate of another, both are done without consent, and both will change the world irrevocably.

I lost my father not one year ago, and from this experience I can say how much more neurotic and fearful I am towards my mother. Every time I am not in her presence I expect a phone call or news report telling me she is dead. I cannot approach her room at night without fearing the trauma of seeing her cold, wan face tucked beneath the covers, with death her final blanket. 

I Don't Do Much of Anything

I am the cleanest person you will ever meet. I don't do a single drug, legal or otherwise besides the occasional glass of red wine. Not even a painkiller or antihistamine will breach my lips. So it is not chemical addiction that has made me a failure.

I resist virtually every new trend and whatever advice anyone has to give me. I don't want help - in fact, I despise it. I get caught in cycles where new ideas and innovations are flying around me, but I remain in my cocoon of old British comedies, theoretical physics and a never-ending march of data to my hippocampus that I never put to good use. In other words, it's all input and no output, and it's always been this way.

I can't interact with a lot of my peers as I haven't experienced nearly the same amount of things they have. I can't comment on sports, parties, bars, clubs, or drugs, and virtually all social events. I don't use a popular computer, operating system, or utilize the same software as most people I know, nor do I use most of it productively.

All in all, my life is about resistance, not creation. Don't live this way or you will be a shell, a cipher, a loser for the rest of your miserable life.

A Non-Theistic Explanation of Coincidence

I have at times stood baffled at how coincidence has struck at some of the most improbable times, marveling at the possibility of a higher order that might be sending me a message. I pass Lark Lane and suddenly hear the lyric "lark" on my radio just a few seconds later.
    But the same logic and reason that motivates the sciences and reveals hidden mechanisms of reality is also in play here. Like-minded people often seek out their own kind. They will often go to similar venues and like similar things. The chances of them meeting the other are not so improbable that God has to come into play. The same can be said of immaterial objects popping up when one least expects them. The careful deliberation of one engineering radio station manager can receive inspiration from nature, play a corresponding song, get you to focus on that one word and viola - we have the coincidence.