5 lessons of 2020

At the end of the year there are overviews and top-this-and-thats all over. The short version: a lot has happened to us as a global community. It has been an interesting year as well, and hopefully it has also been a year that gave you something to aim for towards the future. 

We aren’t in the new year yet though: these are the days in limbo while we’re all counting down…. It’s almost there and in that the end of the year is the perfect time to sit back and reflect on all that has gone down (besides goofing off, family time, running errands, video games, movies, books, doing nothing and everything). That’s why today’s article are 5 lessons that I learned in 2020.

Things can turn around, just like that

This may be the closest reference to the pandemic. Initially. This one comes around on and off every few years, usually when tragedy strikes with the tragic passing of close friends or family members. Or when other things end at the flip of a switch. This year it was that mass event that hit everyone hard.

On the other end of that notion is one of my reasons for moving abroad for a few years, back in 2012: the extreme over-regulation of life up in The West. Don’t get me wrong though, I prefer to live in an organized society where you will have this notion of life as being so-and-so. It just has to do with the extent where The Spark has been regulated out of everything. 

During the years prior to my move in 2012, I had this feeling that my life for the next 25 years would just be a continuation of the status quo that I was in back then. Looking back, my life wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t how I wanted it to be either. But all that was more of a rationalization of a feeling, because the feeling that I walked around with all those years was a sort of home-sick-ness for the ascend (if that makes any sense). 

My point being: the pandemic is something that happened to us, but when you seize an opportunity it’s a small step that you willingly take and it will pay for itself in more ways than you can imagine. 

A little pressure, but not too much

I was reminded by this principle in a video that I saw recently, and I discussed this in the first ever Friday Fold-up. In so many words it comes down to this: when you’re out of a job, you might think that it would give you the ultimate incentive, motivation and direction to learn a new skillset that will lead to employment. 

This is the notion that is explored in that video, and the guy talking has come to this conclusion after teaching some course. He had expected that people who were in big need of a new job would outperform those who did it mostly to pick up a new skill, but who weren’t dependent on doing so to make a living. It turned out that the opposite was true. 

And if you think about it: this absolutely makes sense. Being without employment or income is highly stressful, which means that you won’t be as effective in performing intellectual tasks (learning new skills). The key take-away here is to figure out the basics first; go after a small job that pays the bills, and figure out your next move while you have established that base-line.

Starting something online is really, really hard

I think we all have this day-dream on and off about acquiring a passive source of income. At the surface it may seem an easy enough task, but in reality it’s really hard. I’m still in the process myself, and part of my attempt with this site is to document the effort in such a way that it may be helpful to others. My first few attempts at writing the kind of fiction that people will enjoy with well defined themes, strong characters and a silver lining didn’t exactly take off (see The Entity, The Island and The Bird Man).

I still feel that I’m on to something here, and that’s why I’m not ready to just give up. Even if it was just for that little notion that’s stuck in the back of my mind: highly successful individuals didn’t just become successful over night. 

What turned things around this year was a deeper understanding about the basics of SEO. If you’re new to this, I definitely recommend that you watch this video series. It explains in simple steps what SEO is all about, and you can utilize that to create content and ultimately a product that people actually want. 

When I started figuring out how to write fiction, and how to do it well, I started with myself in mind: most new books are poorly written and uninspired, and same goes for most new movies on streaming platforms. I thought that other people would feel the same way, and that if I just wrote those amazing stories, then they’d sell like hot-cakes.

That obviously didn’t happen, so I needed to figure out a next strategy. That’s why I started writing articles based on SEO, together with additional articles that are linked to this. That’s more or less the story in a nutshell, and I try to build this out into a larger frame-work.

What caused one article to take-off (and why it didn’t soar)

I learned the finer details of SEO in June, right around the time with all the demonstrations and unrest in the US and around the  world. It obviously was a hot issue, people were looking for an understanding and there wasn’t that much related content available yet. 

I managed to write one article that got picked up without too much effort. For a few days the traffic to my site spiked, but then it dropped again because I didn’t have that much of a framework available to get people hooked. The traffic was also more because of posts on Facebook and Reddit, because I had posted that article on a new blog that hadn’t been picked up yet by the google algorithm. But it did take off for a while, because it was the kind of story that people were actually interested in at the time.

To be hopeful is a powerful thing

This last one is linked to the pandemic, albeit side-ways. Moving forward in life we don’t always know what will be waiting for us, and to be fearful and hesitant is an initial response of many. But it’s not the kind of response that will get you towards creating a better future for yourself and those that you love. 

Come to think of it, maybe this one is closer connected to a New Year-message than anything else: we owe it to ourselves, we owe it to those around us, we owe it to those that we love the most to be hopeful towards the future. 

Think about it, whenever you start something new, whenever you decide to take that first step, you don’t know if any of it will work out. What you do know is that you believe that it will work. You may call it moxie, confidence, being a little full of yourself, but today I will stick with hopefulness. 

Have a wonderful last few days of 2020. 

(and if you read this some time after: good luck on your next enterprise). 

Continue reading

Apple Sucks: why people stick with bad relations
On the decline of Apple-products linked to the 2016 democratic party, 2007/2008 recession and decay of democracy.

Axis pandemic-recession: how to solve social inequalities
On the real problems that the recession has unveiled, and how we as a society might turn all of that around.

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On writing the story of our lives in such a way that we can live with ourselves.

Happy Holidays!

This week there will be no post on Wednesday: I'm enjoying a digital detox with more time with my family and loads of errands around the house. That's what the holidays should be about, and in all honesty I was getting a little overloaded with computer time in the weeks prior. 

CU all soon, take a step back, relax and recharge: enjoy the holidays and your loved ones!

Apple Sucks: why people stick with bad relations

There. I said it. And you can quote me on that. I have been an acolyte of Apple for years, and it took me years to turn away from all of it, until I very recently made the decision to never buy an Apple-product again. If I think about it: it’s silly why I would want to stick with a line of products that are overly expensive and poorly made. It has been a recent development though that has started roughly 10 years ago, but it hasn’t always been that way.

I can still remember the day in 2008 when I bought my first MacBook. It was exclusive. It was something that most people didn’t have. It held a promise and it connected me to whole other range of people: those with Macs. 

It worked good enough, even though it was kind of slow. And I didn’t think any worse about it when the wifi stopped working within a month. And I managed to work around the battery that started swelling so much after two years that it no longer clicked inside. Then the escape-key fell off. 

Looking back, the reason that I looked past that was: 1) maybe this Mac is a little flawed, and 2) it’s still a Mac. Now you might think that I was treating this machine very rough and that I went all over with it. That really wasn’t the case. I left it at home and treated it with care. And in all honesty, it did serve me a good long time: eight years. 

Then what am I bitching about

In all honesty, eight years for a laptop isn’t bad at all. In fact, if I had bought another brand, it would probably not have lasted that long. In fact, after those eight years I was still a believer. But all of that changed over the course of the last four years, which was coincidentally around the time that Trump was elected into office.

It was only more recently that I connected those dots: 2016 was the year when it seemed that everything had gone downhill. A big part of the reason that Trump got into office had to do with both the complacency and elite-ism within the democratic party. The attitude was kind-of: people will make the right decision, so we don’t need to go above and beyond in order to do the best job possible, to give a vision of a better tomorrow and to secure a functioning society. 

Obviously that whole attitude didn’t originate in 2016, but it started around the economic crisis of 2007-2008 of which the causes (excessive risk-taking by banks and the housing bubble) were never really resolved. So after that it wasn’t just business as usual, but it was ‘grab all you can’. 

Call me naive or old-fashioned, but personally I’m a firm believer in putting good things out there and that being good to other people, will in some form return to you later on. Or to put it another way: be passionate in every aspect of your life, and the money will follow later. This is kind of the opposite of ‘grab all you can’ and ‘f*(^ other people’. 

It does touch on one core idea as well: in what kind of world do you want to live? This is where I believe that most people are on the same page: a world where you will have a fair chance of making something for yourself by determination and working hard. The other end is too depressing to even consider: a world where the 1% keeps amassing wealth and power.

The way to succeed as a normal person is where it gets fuzzy, and where people don’t make it, is where it opens the door to all kinds of frustrations. That’s the realm of the underbelly, superstition and all that, if a society let’s it happen by not having security mechanisms. 

Such mechanisms are fragile and it doesn’t take much to create enough room for fake news, flat-out lies and ultimately right-wing politicians and autocrats. Just like it doesn’t take much to create and maintain a functioning society.

There’s this little known principle: if everyone is doing better, then it will benefit everyone involved. This applies to a small organization that has found a niche and developed a product that people love and because of that they have developed a loyal customer base. 

Everyone benefits, from the cleaners to engineers to managers to executives. But, it takes effort, it’s hard work, it means making sure that customers stay loyal, it means continuously updating your products to stay ahead of the competition, and to overall give an amazing customer experience. 

Taking this further, the same principle also applies to societies. The only difference is that the social structure is more complicated and there isn’t a customer to satisfy, but it’s the system that needs to satisfy itself. This works as long as the system functions properly, but as soon as a cog (a person or a group of persons) becomes rogue and starts grabbing things for themselves, that’s when the system gets unaligned and can ultimately collapse. 

That’s the tipping-point where things can go wrong, where populist politicians start pointing fingers to the elite, but also to a scape-goat who isn’t organized and who can’t fight back. Think minorities. That’s where a lot of the following sentiments creep in: anti-tax, anti-regulations, anti-accountability, anti-trust, anti-loyalty, and it doesn’t take long until fear takes over. And irrationality. And distrust. And hate.

Who wants to live there

And this is exactly where it boggles my mind every time: these populist politicians are the ones who stand to benefit the most from anti-tax and anti-regulations. They usually have money, and because of that they have the means to take care of themselves whatever happens. But this doesn’t apply to the majority of the folks who are also anti-tax, anti-regulations and anti-everything: because they feel left out, they have become anti-the-system, while they are in fact the ones who stand to benefit the most. 

A strong system secures healthcare, education, affordable housing, a strong and stable currency, and by means of investing during tough economic times, a strong system secures employment. I would almost call this a democratic superstate, and the sad fact of the matter is that many countries have moved away from that, or they have moved away from the trajectory of getting there. 

It has created a gap, or to be precise, a gaping hole that’s being filled by big global corporations and ‘the market’. The interesting thing is that these are systems of their own, but where a superstate stands to serve everyone, these corporations have different agendas that are largely unknown. What we do know is that they have absorbed vast amounts of liquidity, and it isn’t hard to guess what that can be used for. 

The exception

The only global company that deviates from this trend of endless wealth-accumulation is Tesla: the liquidity that’s amassed by Tesla is used towards SpaceX. And by that it exactly fills that gaping hole that’s left by shrinking governments, and this might be one of the few cases where less government is actually desirable. 

Looking online, it has almost become a hobby of many to buy TSLA-stocks. The current dividend of this stock is 0.00%, which means the company knows how to allocate liquidity. Without dividend it’s more like a crowdfunding than a stock-exchange, and that’s exactly where it outperforms government-budgets. In theory, this construct makes the SpaceX budget endless. 

Most other big corporations are definitely not on that trajectory, and they amass liquidity for the sake of amassing liquidity. This in itself isn’t ‘bad’, it’s just what 99.99% of big corporations do (Apple, Amazon, Google). That brings us back to the drama of the Trump-administration with fear, back-stabbing, false news, disloyalty and all of that nasty stuff. It’s exactly the stuff that you don’t want, but it has become kind of the dysfunctional household that many folks have found themselves in. 

And it is a household, because there’s that shallow threshold between the private and the public, where things spill over and what seems to have been out there, has also entered our private lives: we feel the effects on a daily basis. And then I’m not even talking about mounting healthcare costs, mounting housing prices, dysfunctional governments that want to please by not collecting enough tax to sustain a functional society. I’m just talking about the rot that has set in after the recession of 2007/2008 was ‘sort of okayed’.

But at the same time, it becomes kind of warped, because in a way you build kind of a one-way relationship with brands like Apple, Amazon and Google. This includes all its effects and constraints: intimacy, commitment, loyalty, pride, preference. Where relationships become interesting in the public domain is where things turn South, and most notably one specific case thereof: some people willingly stay with their partner after they have been physically or mentally abused, humiliated or cheated. It’s a strange psychological mechanism, but it’s also a fact of the matter, and it may be a stretch, but the same kind of mechanism might apply when we decide to stick with products and services that are overly priced, and not of such great quality.

That’s where we’re almost full-circle. The recession of 2007/2008 was the result of ‘grab all you can’. It had become the norm, people came away with it, some people suffered because of it and that was that. It may work for a while, but it isn’t a strategy that will work in the long run. What works in the long run is decency, of character, but more importantly, of action. 

Back to apple

When I bought my over-priced MacBook just before the Trump-election in 2016, it starting falling apart within the next two years. And in a way it was much like what Trump had done to the US: after a year the battery failed, then the charger, then the second adapter, then it stopped charging, then the screen failed. 

I started looking online on YouTube and the decline of Apple-products has been steady since 2009. I became an avid fan of the videos of a guy named Louis Rossmann: he runs an independent repair shop for Apple-products and for his business he uses the kind of model that’s used by smaller organisations. 

In his videos he gives it all away: he shows exactly how to repair any Apple-product on the level of replacing microchips and all that other stuff for which you will need specialized equipment. The idea is simple enough: by putting the knowledge out there, it both levels the playing field, but it also establishes his reputation.

I performed all of those repairs myself, except for the not charging issue (I have left it un-repaired since). What shocked me most of all was the quality of the components: no brand that I had ever heard of, except for one. The screen was made by LG. Now there’s nothing wrong with LG, but it isn’t exactly a-class, and since I paid top-dollar, and since this machine starting falling apart so rapidly, this really is a case of ‘grab all you can’. 

That’s it? Only two bad experiences?

Even after all this, I still wanted to try another Apple-product: the iPad. I bought one in September, a 7th generation just weeks before the release of the 8th generation, because I wanted a device without too many bugs. 

It stopped charging after one month. Since I live in the Caribbean, it can only be returned in a box that will be send by Apple and it needs to be returned within 10 days. Mail is slow in this part of the world with items sometimes taking up to three weeks before arriving at my doorstep. I asked for a manager through their site, but no, they weren’t willing to show any flexibility on those 10 days. 

In a way Apple has become the 2016 democratic party: it has become complacent, with a fat-cat goal and objective of the 99.99% of big corporations: amass wealth to create a bigger stronghold for the 1%. There was no flexibility. In other words: they don’t need me. I’m not one of them.

So that’s it. I’m done. I will ride out my MacBook, the iPad will go into the trash and I’m looking into either a gaming laptop or a Linux-laptop as a replacement. It’s really messed up, and I believe this story needed to be told, because awareness of all this stuff needs to be out there. Tell me your story: are you still using Apple products?

Continue reading

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On the real problems that the recession has unveiled, and how we as a society might turn all of that around.


The Bizz...
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Rewild the mountain: I need to make a change in my life
On the mountain and how what we think we want isn't always what we actually want.

Crappy day: help, I want to change (2 ideas)

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Rewild the mountain: I need to make a change in my life
On the mountain and how what we think we want isn't always what we actually want.


Another word for default: hard work and success in life
On hard times and the distinction between personal management and leadership.


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On what dystopian science-fiction movies can teach us about the social dilemmas that we're facing right now.

Nofeartoughbooks# 3 - Infinite Jest (finale)

Rewild the mountain: I need to make a change in my life

About two years ago I read an article about an unlikely acolyte of the Unabomber (ub). At the time it was mostly a guilty pleasure read about a serial killer – who was obviously completely insane – but there it was: an article that was getting more readable as I went along, until I reached that point where I actually got hooked. 

It’s kind of out there in the public mind, but just to state the probably obvious: the ub was murdering with a more primitive society in mind. The primitive part was what this acolyte was into and he explored that whole subject from a sort of academic perspective, at least that was the tone of the articles on the now ceased Wild Will site, that has since moved on to Facebook. 

On a side-note: that move may have been cheap, but it’s also a bit of a swing and a miss, because in my mind a site like Facebook is a total status-quo and it will always have less credibility than any other site. In my mind, Facebook is kind of the opposite of a re-wilding, because it’s hyper-domesticated, leaning into the hyper-personal and the hyper-social in that everything gets inflated to such an extent that it’s almost some sort of fantasy, or some distorted reality, which in my mind is a little too close to the kind of societal and moral decay that has been set in motion by Trump and the likes. 

Let me get one thing straight though: I do use Facebook for promotion, to give a very measured account of what I want to get across, and to create a very measured public image. I post links to articles that are off-site, which is more difficult for readers on Facebook, because it takes more effort, but it offers something else: quality in leaps and bounds, and hopefully a bigger sense that I know what I’m talking about. But yeah, like I said, that’s all on a side-note.

Then the wild, or even better: the mountain

Native Americans have this saying: I am the mountain. It’s more like a poem or a rhyme: the mountain crumbles, the mountain becomes earth, a plant grows in the earth, I eat the plant, I am the mountain. In it’s simplicity lies also its truth and its appeal: we all kick back from time to time thinking about a simpler life. 

At least, that’s what I do. I read non-fiction articles, mostly through the resources that I have mentioned before, and from time to time I read about this primitive life. But that’s always where it stays: as an idea of mind, it does have its appeal, but to live well you need to be part of a functioning society which secures a decent quality of life, and which includes access to healthcare, but which in my mind doesn’t necessarily include the city life. In fact, I have moved away from the big cities about nine years ago, and I doubt whether I will ever return. 

A simpler life does have this definite appeal, and it’s more in reach when you’re out in the country. But what a lot of us have never learned are the skills like growing our own food and all that. What is always lost in the story though is that just living will become a full-time job. 

Most recently I watched a lot of the videos of Kyles Cabin. Even if it wasn’t for the fact that I live far away in a warm climate, I do enjoy watching those videos for the sake of watching. As an idea I would like to do something like that: build a cabin. But in reality I don’t, and even if ‘everything’ was totally different, I wouldn’t actually go out and build a cabin. I guess that the fact that I don’t actually want to build a cabin has more to do with a different idea of a good life. Or maybe it’s all just part of some lucid day-dream.

Then, what about this mountain?

What those re-wilders claim that they are after is a wilder and a more feral way of life. It’s about foraging, it’s about growing your own food, it’s about living closer to the land and closer to nature.

I’m totally into all these things, but only to some extent. It always reminds me of Rousseau who defined the feral state where there’s no society as the nature-state: everything is up for grabs, no one owns anything and no one is safe. 

In Rousseau’s thinking, the nature-state is the exact opposite of the social contract, which comes down to both an understanding of society function so-and-so, both in terms of written and unwritten rules. When you live in a society where this so-and-so is very well worked out, then it’s tempting to forget about all the good things that we as a society have. 

These days you don’t need to look far to find societies that are not as well organized as most of the European countries. Even though the US may have lost its role as the moral world leader, it still tends to be a benchmark for a lot of things. In Europe healthcare is very well organized, but in The States it isn’t ----- for a lot of people. 

This is just one example that a successful society needs to organize extremely well, and it all comes down to this very simple premise: if everyone is doing better, it improves the total performance of a society as a whole. The other side of this reasoning is there as well, if not everyone is doing better, then there’s a minority that benefits from this. 

A very practical example comes from the island where I live. There’s no property tax, which is especially good for those folks who have large houses. It’s bad for folks who have a small house and who don’t earn that much money. By not taxing property, a lot of tax isn’t collected, which is money that can’t be used towards a more equal distribution of wealth through a system of grants, subsidies and whatnot. 

Then what is the right strategy for change

At the risk of stating the obvious: the right kind of personal change is one where you try to live a simpler life, but it’s also one where you make sure that you’re part of a highly functioning society. The last part may be easier said than done, but it can also be taken as an incentive: to vote left and liberal to make sure that things will get better tomorrow. Obviously, change should include the entire picture, which includes not just a new job, but also our family lives.

In summary

- a simpler life is always a good priority, but it shouldn’t be taken too far

- sometimes it’s good to evaluate to what degree we have high credibility

- Rousseau’s social contract includes written and unwritten rules

- it’s important to belong to a highly organized society

Continue reading

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On 2666 and Savage Detectives

As you may know by now, Stephen King is my all time favorite fiction author, and Roberto Bolano is a good second. The distinction between them is fast though, at least at the surface: SK deals in horror, RB in literature. Below that is what makes their stories, and for that matter, any story work is the stuff that's easy to identify, but hard to reproduce: suspense, entertainment, well-rounded character, a journey, a resolve and an easy to identify theme. If you're interested, you can read more about my theory of fiction in the foreword of The Entity.

Why both 2666 and Savage Detectives? Partly because they're very alike in their scope, their all-over-the-placeness, tone, etc etc. In fact, RB was very consistent in the quality of his output, usually underdogs in cities and towns that were going down the drain, fighting against something, but ultimately fighting against themselves. 

2666 is the most massive of the two, and also the most pulpy. It starts off with three academics that are after an elusive figure named Archimbaldi, and what ties all of them together is that they are all after the same woman. Then the story is all over the place, until it ends up in Mexico and it zooms in on the murder of many young women, and it's explored whether this was done by an individual, or a group of individuals. It remains in the air, which of the two, just like it has remained in the air, and many of those murders, which were actually committed, were unresolved. 

Savage Detectives is the story of a group of poets that live in Mexico City, they circle around each other, and around some elusive older poet. Beyond that, not much happens, but the writing is of such excellent quality that you get easily hooked and just keep on reading. 

When should you read these works

- The characters are underdogs that are fighting the system, but ultimately themselves. That makes it excellent reads during times when you're trying to figure out your bearing, whether you're a teen in high school, in college/university or when you've been in a job for a few years and you're trying to figure out your next move. It's excellent for all of this, because these stories are very 'meta': between the lines they deal with our place in the world, and that's what you will get out of this (in so many words), even though you will not be able to put this into words after reading, beyond the notion that these were interesting reads (if that makes any sense...).

- These are also excellent reads for those times when you catch that notion of efficiency, productivity and all such ---- and when you realise that it might be applicable to some of our lives, but definitely not to all. These works will get you to switch gears and slow down. 

Continue reading

On IT by Stephen King
On childhood, friendship and true scares.


On Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace
An analysis in three parts: part 1, part 2 & part 3.


On Do I amuse you? by Salvator Paine
On a free short story that I found online.

On IT by Stephen King

Notes > fiction

I spoke about IT here and here. 

Personally I have periods during which I read many works of fiction, and periods where I don't. The fact of the matter is that a lot of fiction is mediocre and it doesn't deliver. This even applies when it comes to a single author: IT is one of my all-time favourites, but The drawing of the three is so dry and boring that I can hardly get through. 

IT does deliver and it does this for a few reasons:

1) It's written around a theme (the imagination and friendship from our childhood is like nothing else)

2) It's entertaining.

3) It deals with things that we can't quite comprehend by inventing stories

4) It leans heavily on the power of nostalgia, which is something that we all need from time to time (as a reminder not just of how things used to be, but also what it was like to be a kid and how we were as kids ourselves)

When to read? 

- During slow periods.

- When you have some stuff to figure out, but you don't know yet exactly where to begin.

- When you have the need to relive what it was like 'back in the days'.

Continue reading

On 2666 and Savage Detectives
On underdogs and fighting the system.


On Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace
An analysis in three parts: part 1, part 2 & part 3.


On Do I amuse you? by Salvator Paine
On a free short story that I found online.

Another word for default: hard work and success in life

O, yes, hard work and too much of it. There are days and weeks like that where I tend to default and fall back on routines to such an extent that I navigate entire days on auto-pilot. That’s not to be dramatic, but for me it’s a link back to former times, and in some way I think that it helps me see more of a continuity in human history, our condition and all that stuff. 

The work gets done, and my guess is that most people don’t even notice what goes on behind the mask: we’re all more alike that you’d think, so that means that there must be a whole lot of people who operate from the same base-line. To some degree it brings up a whole other notion and line of questions like are you not treating yourself short? Or are you not treating others short?, but the simple fact of the matter is that there are stretches in life where you just need to pull through. Sometimes it’s as simple as that, and that also means that questions like that don’t always matter; at least not when you’re in the middle of it. 

Where does a base-line become a default

It does matter where you work blindly with no end in sight. And I fully realize that things aren’t always easy, and that there might be certain folks who might ‘have it easier’ than others, but there’s always an extent where you can take control of what’s going. This doesn’t mean that you can turn your life around just like that, but there’s always a nudge where you can pry something loose, and that might be the beginning of a next move. 

But believe me, it’s hard, especially when you reach that stage where you want to build something new like a next career or a business ---- it’s hard. Here’s the thing though: it’s hard for everyone, especially when you’re just starting out. To put it a different way: when you start on a new journey, you may need to make certain sacrifices that may actually lower your quality of life for a while. 

And that’s hard, because you have grown comfortable, your family has grown comfortable and people have come to see you as such-and-such (or at least that’s what you think). 

There’s one distinction though that’s of key importance, and that will decide whether you will stay stuck to that same base-line: that’s the distinction between leadership and management.

In itself you might think that these two only have to do with the management of businesses or government organizations, in that it applies to dealing with large numbers of people. That’s just a matter of scale, and you can easily scale the reasoning down to the least number of people: you. 

I always designate one day out of the week where I do my R&R, where I spend more time with my family, and where I analyze not just what goes in the world around us, but also whether I’m still on course to where I want my professional life to go. I like to refer to this as maintenance. All this is leadership: where you analyze where you stand, where you’re going, and whether you need to make any adjustments. 

Management on the other hand is just where you carry on and carry out, and this is the modus that most of us operate in during the week. And that’s perfectly fine, because to get anywhere, to advance your career, to build a better life for yourself and those around you: hard work is needed. That means putting in the hours and working towards something. 

It doesn’t mean working blindly, because that will keep you stuck to that default, and, worse, you might get side-tracked without even noticing. 

Default equals wishful thinking

That’s much of the reason why just working hard isn’t enough. It’s essential to have an idea of where you’re going. In the first installment of Gaze wide, aim far I gave the example of Elon Musk who iterates this as that ‘most people tend to default to wishful thinking’. That’s exactly why a lot of businesses and such don’t stick around for more than a few years: they default to wishful thinking, while they should have devoted more time to the analysis of where they are and where they are heading. 

That means that people have got themselves stuck in management, while they should switch to leadership every now and then. This leadership doesn’t need to be all that hard. 

Before enrolling in a master of this-or-that, analyze projections of the job-market for the coming decade: will you find employment or will you be able to establish a business? If it doesn’t seem like there will be any opportunity: don’t do it.

Before starting a computer-repair business: is there a business as such in your vicinity? How long have they been in business? What are their rates? What are their expenses? What is their rent? How many employees do they have? What is their online presence? How prosperous do those folks seem? If it doesn’t seem viable: don’t do it. 

Before becoming a delivery guy/gal: ask the same questions, and ask additional ones: is there a large competitor? Do people like working there? In this case you might realize that there isn’t much of a market, and that’s when you can continue looking for opportunities that are very local, where you might be able to have an edge because of a more personal relationship, etc etc. 

One thing though about how it seems these days that everyone is becoming their own brand, and where everyone should want to be their own boss. The reality is that a lot of us either don’t have the ambition to be self-employed, or they literally wouldn’t be able to pull it off. And that’s okay too. Working for yourself usually means working more and working harder than you would when you work for an employer. 

The whole point that I’m trying to get at here is that you need to become analytic and strategic from time to time. Wishful thinking is in the same line as that other default where people tend to become overly authentic and they basically state; this is who I am, and it isn’t going to change. A professional is always deliberate in their actions.

To an extent it makes sense, just like being wishful also makes sense to an extent. This is where it borders being confident towards the future, where you know that you can pull something off, both in relation to a profession and your ability to find employment. To put it another way: to an extent it’s about finding that sweet spot, but I must say that it may end up coming down more to a strategic analysis than being wishful and hopeful (in numbers, 70% strategy vs. 30% wishfulness, moxie and all that).

In summary

- on and off we all operate from a base-line in order to get the work done.

- to move forward takes dedication, hard work and sacrifice.

- to realize anything in the long run you will have to switch back and forth between personal leadership and management to stay on course

- before making a move, analyze whether the move makes sense and is feasible in the long run.

- wishful thinking is about 10% of the equation, it’s needed, but it’s not enough. 

Continue reading

Dystopian theories: the social controversy of global problems in relation to social equity issues
On what dystopian science-fiction movies can teach us about the social dilemmas that we're facing right now.


Persistence and determination: how to act more professional
On what it really takes to get an advantage and to get ahead.


Why do anything: thoughts on social issues and strength during tough times
On a very basic question that we have all asked ourselves at one time or other, and why the notion of it matters.

Dystopian theories: the social controversy of global problems in relation to social equity issues

I have always been a fan of science-fiction movies, some of my favorites in recent times are The Martian and that excellent sort-of-fiction documentary of National Geographic with that unassuming title: Mars. Then perhaps more fictional and more dystopian, the two Blade Runners, both the original and the one that was made 25 years later. 

There are obvious many more movies and series out there, but these are the ones that are the best ones by far. Partly because of the story, the acting, the special effects and the overall idea. I like the speculation in both The Martian and Mars of what it would be like on that first manned mission to the red planet, because as it seems now, either of those scenarios might play out: a man going solo, or a group of folks establishing a base. Then there’s always that unsaid notion that a trip to Mars might very well be a one-way trip, which always makes it feel even more claustrophobic and heroic in some warped way. 

Blade Runner hits closer to home with a future Los Angeles where few people live, and where the land outside the city has become a desert wasteland because of some big thing gone wrong. This one is so powerful on atmosphere and the tech in this movie is so plausible, in fact it’s too plausible, with robots gone rogue and the story centering around this underdog who lives his lonely life in this big old town. 

In a way I wish there was some sort of bridge between those two vastly distinct, but also vastly interesting universes. The thing is just that neither of those universes in the Mars-movies or the Blade Runner-movies are places where you would want to live. They are more like the kind of places where you would want to spend some time, as some place in some far of future, or just to spend time with that notion that one dystopia might just be that everything turns into one big Chinatown, a place that’s so alien to most of us, and that leans so overly heavy on tech, that it’s a place that you might contemplate or consider, but it’s ultimately not a place where you might actually want to live. 

What if it actually turns out to be a mix

Overly crowded, overly expensive, overly everything. Just considering the fact that a root problem for a lot of folks is that they feel entitled to this-or-that, and because of that people get into debt to start living above their means. This is kind of the overly that I’m getting at here, and a very simple fix would be to start living a simpler life, more than just one notch below overly.

Then the next question is how that will dodge a dystopian future, because all those futures will have become ‘unlivable’ because of the big problems that are caused by all of us. This is where it relates to that ‘disaster’ that turned the land outside of Los Angelos into a wasteland desert. We all know this, we all see this, but it’s very few of us who are actually able and willing to small initial sacrifices that might end up not just dodging the wasteland, but it might also end up dodging our own demise. 

The apocalyptic as a social dilemma

Of course these movies are fictions of what the future might actually be like, but at the same time they are metaphors of our lives as we live them right now. We’re all aware of the big dilemmas of our time: one is the decay of democracy and the rise of social inequalities (1% vs. 99%), with expensive housing, healthcare and education. 

If we look beyond that then we reach the social dilemmas that are in some ways more obvious: to minimize the impact of climate change we should all use less fossil fuels. To solve the waste-problem we should all buy items that produce less plastic waste and that can be repaired and safely dismantled once no longer of use. 

The thing is just that, and I stated this before, when it comes down to it, most people aren’t all that noble in that they should care about the Big Issues, but at the end of the day we’re more motivated by Me and Mine, and by extension we don’t think that far ahead. And of course, this is an understandable mechanism, I mean, how else can you go on living? Most of us have enough problems to deal with ourselves. Right?

Maybe then it’s more about ideas

I personally refuse to leave things like this where they are at, because that just means caving in and giving up. That’s not the kind of attitude that I want to have when it comes to anything, and at the same time I realize that a lot of this comes down to government policy.

Now most of us are not politicians, but what we can all do is to put ideas ‘out there’. This means most of all to be in the now. That was more or less my reasoning behind writing the second installment of Gaze wide, aim far: to do anything and to realize any ambition, you need to know what’s going on in the world around us. 

At the same time, there are the obvious things that we can do, and what a lot of us are already doing: lean towards smaller houses, driving electric, composting and all such things. It may be a small start, but it might just pave the way towards a better tomorrow.

In summary

- The Martian, Mars and Blade Runner are great because they give a very visceral idea of our future

- The big problems of dystopian movies are ultimately caused by all of us

- The big problems are social dilemmas that can be solved with powerful government policies (to a large extent)

- To contribute to the solution, you need to be in the know

Continue reading

Persistence and determination: how to act more professional
On what it really takes to get an advantage and to get ahead.


Why do anything: thoughts on social issues and strength during tough times
On a very basic question that we have all asked ourselves at one time or other, and why the notion of it matters.


What makes a man (or a woman): how to deal with procrastination
On what makes a real man (or woman) and how you can take your first steps towards that today.

Persistence and determination: how to act more professional

For years I believed that statement that the reason that I’m not extremely rich and successful is because I don’t have any specific talent, that I’m not extremely smart and that I don’t have the proper education. But over time there’s this little truth that manifests itself, based on my experience and what I observe around me. 

Does the reason that I have over a decade in my current profession prove that I have some sort of talent that I’m born with, or does it show that I just ‘stuck it out’. I tend to lean more and more towards that second one. And this really is a sobering insight, because it’s one notch below approaching a profession as a craft that requires certain steps and procedures. This is much more primal, much more guttural, this is just toughing it out and sticking with something until you’re there (or you’re stuck, but that’s not what I want to get at here….). 

And if I look around me at folks of my age that have higher positions, or that have a bigger job that earns way more money, it’s more often than not that it seems to me that they aren’t that much smarter than me, but still they ended up in that different position. Based on that alone, you might reason like, maybe they’re better connected, maybe they have certain skills, maybe they have some insight in human nature that allowed them to position themselves as such. Or did they just board a train that ended up there?

It’s an interesting thought-experiment, it’s sobering, like I said, but it isn’t exactly ‘hopeful’. Just look at politics. A lot of the politicians that are in high places definitely have the people skills to manipulate themselves into high positions, but are they that bright, that talented and that smart? The only exception that I can think of right now would be Obama, I’m still a big fan, and a far second would be Verhofstadt, former prime minister of Belgium. 

Those two definitely have the ‘It’-factor, and when you look at the world of business there are a few other individuals that have that same factor, but as a percentage of the entire work-force, they are definite outliers. Most people are like the rest of us, or worse. 

If it’s all going downhill from here, then what?

This whole notion isn’t exactly encouraging, but it does one thing for sure: it levels the playing field. If most people are just like you and me, then it means that it shouldn’t be that hard to create an edge. 

If the statistics of streaming services are any measure, then it’s almost like most people spend hours on end spaced out, watching pulpy series with little or no depth. I mean, if that’s what you’re up against, then this era that we’re in right now is better than ever, because the other side is that YouTube is full of the best teachers on any subject, career, mentoring and whatnot. 

And if just a skill-set isn’t what you’re after, then you can even unroll in online universities. That’s not to say that this is the only way, but it’s just part of that whole notion that most people don’t do what you’re doing right now. Most people don’t read informed articles, most people don’t try to get a deeper understanding into what’s going on around us right now, most people are content with just to go on living. 

And if that is what works, then there’s nothing wrong with that. I lost years to exactly that mind-set, by going out on the town on most nights of the week, with making a lot of friends, with having a lot of fun basically. I don’t regret it one bit and I still have many fond memories of that time. 

And if you’re in that situation where life just rolls out like that, then you should definitely dive right in, because there will always be this ‘end-point’ where you either had enough and you realize that it’s time to move on, or it’s enough because you hit rock bottom. The thing is just that live isn’t just about making a career and making it big, but more than that it’s about human connection.

And this might be a side-note, but in my experience there are always these stretches where I tend to work really hard on something, and then I take my time to relax, and to get a reorientation as to what’s going on. But what I always try to do is to keep track of that which is important: the people that I care about the most, my family. 

How does all this make me into a professional?

Well, this one ain’t that hard, or at least, when you want to get there half-way: act as if you’re already there. In psychology there’s this well known principle, and I’m just going to call it the facial-feedback-principle: the way that you express your facial muscles actually influences how you feel. So if you look happy, at least some degree, you’re actually going to feel happy. 

By extension, the same principle might very well apply to more overt behavior, and that’s how acting can be a first step of creating a mind-set towards a new career. Obviously it takes much more, because if you’re just acting, it won’t take too long for people to figure out that you have no idea what you’re talking about. But if you combine this idea with actual knowledge, from YouTube or pursuing an online master, then you will definitely stand a fair chance of creating the best opportunity that you can possibly have.

The rest should be obvious by now, and at the risk of repeating myself, a professional always acts a certain way, and that means that the actions of a professional are always deliberate. 

In my current profession there might be times when things get to you, and you get emotionally involved. That’s why we had this saying in one of the schools that I worked for: if you’re emotionally involved, you can’t act professionally. This isn’t to say that you shouldn’t act on ‘what feels right’ and all such things, because if anything, we need more of that, it’s just that when you’re too involved you can’t always make the best decision. And like all principles, it’s a loose guideline. 

In summary:

- to make it in a career, to a large extent, has to do with ‘toughing it out’.

- to a large degree, most people that hold a higher function than ours aren’t brighter or more talented, they just stuck it out in a different trajectory.

- if most people aren’t smarter than us, and they binge watch on series and movies at night, then it’s easier to get an edge.

- when life is fun, when you have the opportunity to go out a lot and to have a lot of fun, enjoy the ride, until it’s time to move on

- make family a priority

- act as if you’re already there, and combine this with acquiring the appropriate skill-set.

Continue reading:

Gaze Finder TV: On principles and brevity
On the way principles can make us better at what we do, and the way brevity makes us seem more knowledgeable.


Axis pandemic-recession: how to solve social inequalities
On the real problems that the recession has unveiled, and how we as a society might turn all of that around.


Career change in your mid 30s: some ideas to get you started
On steering your career into a different direction, and the difference between doing this in your mid-30s versus mid-20s. 

Why do anything: thoughts on social issues and strength during tough times

When I was 19 I tried reading Either or, the first published work of Kierkegaard. I’m not entirely sure what I was expecting to get out of it, possibly ‘wisdom’, ‘insight’ or basically anything that could confirm that I was heading in the right direction, that what I was doing was making sense, and that it was the right thing to do. Does anyone know anything at 19? At 19 you’re a year into ‘adulthood’ and even though it has been some years since for me, is what I’m in now ‘adult’?

I like the way Stephen King writes about being 19 in the introduction of The Gunslinger. It’s as breezy as ever, with many open doors, but it still hits a chord, because I can definitely remember feeling that way; that the world was at my feet, that I had jack-shit of an idea of where I was heading, much less that I had much of a notion of what I was getting into at the time. Yes, I have been there. We all have.

It was in Either or that I read that notion of a kid of 19, who was rich, but this was the 19th century, so that’s relative, and he asked himself this very simple question: why do anything? His reasoning was that he probably wouldn’t get any richer than he was at the moment, his life wouldn’t become more comfortable, and it probably wouldn’t become ‘better’, so there it was, that same question: why do anything?

Some time ago I was watching re-runs of The X-files, which was basically my favorite tv-show when I was growing up, and then there was this one episode where Fox Mulder and Dana Scully are stuck on a boat in the middle of a lake at night, trying to go after some murderous creature that was supposed to live there in the deep of the water. That scene on the boat must have been an improv by Duchovny, because there it was, that same question, and he related it to this notion that if you were a pirate with a wooden leg and a hook for a hand, then simply to go on living would be enough, but we, the rest of us, we have to be out there, we have to have a purpose and we have to make something of ourselves.

I really liked that scene, and if you’re interested, the episode is titled S3E22 Quagmire. That statement of Mulder really ties in to the why do anything?, because the fact of the matter is that if you have less to choose from, then there’s less of a choice to make. The statement works, because we know about those pirates from cartoons and movies, but they’re not flesh and bone people, but we can still extend the idea to folks that are nearer to our proximity.

So then, really, why do anything?
In a way this is a tough one, it’s one for debate, but it’s also a luxury to even ask this question. It’s also meta, in the sense that it’s almost a question about a question (just leaving out the ‘why’ turns from a future problem into an evaluation of the past), but at some point you just realize that the question is less essential than it seems to be.

Yes, you need to be deliberate about the way you spend your time. Yes, you need to do something that’s in line with your interests, character, temperament and all that. Yes, it needs to bring in enough money to sustain yourself and possibly your family. Yes, it needs to be something that gets you excited enough to be able to get up in the morning.

This last one is an ideal, obviously, because there are many folks who are stuck in their job, who either never liked it to begin with, or those who have reached that point where it becomes essential to move on to other and to bigger things. Over time the ‘why do anything?’ slowly morphs, it drifts away, and from time to time it pops up like a relic from the past, “Oh, yes, that old lot.”

To a large degree, a lot of this stuff is much simpler than we make it out to be. You may lean into philosophy, but you might also lean into it from a more nimble, and a much easier intent: it’s just human nature to do things. There are very few of us, hopefully, who are content to not do anything.

That in itself is a message of hope, and I fully realize that, and by extent I believe that it will be very hard for us to go on living without ideas and notions as such. Tied into this one is that most people are basically decent and are willing to do the right thing. With that in mind, it almost becomes child-like:
“Why do I have to do this?”
“Because it’s the right thing to do.”

That in itself is so simple, but it’s also something that’s very easy to overlook. Even this, those two lines, show that there’s another element to that initial question as well: why do anything? It isn’t just singular and personal, but it greatly involves other people and new experiences. Which is the stuff that ‘kind of happens’, but that’s an inherent reward in anything that you commit yourself to doing.

That’s it?
There’s this other principle that I became more aware of as the pandemic unfolded: if more people are doing really good, then it ultimately benefits all of us. This is a very interesting concept, and it ties in to the way that a lot of companies go about their business these days: they freely give away knowledge, while they charge heavily for doing the work for you.

In itself this seems like a contradiction, because if you give away knowledge for free, then people don’t need your business. In fact, it will even make it easier for others to set up a business that might become a fierce competitor. In reality, this is not how it works, because what it does most of all is that it increases the size of the pie, but it’s also a way of building an expert reputation, it’s a peek behind the scenes and a way to build a customer relation.

Most recently I saw this principle being used by Louis Rossman (Apple repair), the Dutch Farmer (how to grow your food), the Courtney Project (self-publishing). This is also how society has changed: these three individuals are very active on YouTube and in their specific niche they tell you exactly how to turn an initial interest into a business.

The bottom-line here isn’t just that the best teachers are on YouTube, but most information is freely available, which in theory makes it much easier to turn thing around and to build that better life. But it doesn’t happen just like that. In fact, building a better life is a lot of hard work, but I do believe that the work-part is bigger than the difficulty-part. You know that statement, right: 1% inspiration, 99% hard work. Which you might even translate into something like: plan for a few hours once a week, and use the rest of the time to carry out those plans.

In summary:
- Why do anything? Is meta, but it’s also an over-analysis: we do things, because it’s human nature. Nothingness is anti-human.
- Why do anything? Is social, because doing things gets us in contact with other people, which is another inherent part of human nature.
- Doing anything, and doing it well is a step towards solving social issues.
- Doing anything and doing it well is also more ‘hard work’ than it is ‘difficult work’.
- The best teachers are on YouTube and they will show you the way.

Continue reading

Self-improvement retreats: determination to succeed
On deliberate activity and relaxation to get new perspectives to succeed.




Living autobiographically: how to use narrative identity
On writing the story of our lives in such a way that we can live with ourselves.




Choose another path: how to identify opportunities in life
On figuring out what you're made of and when to seize opportunity.

What makes a man (or a woman): how to deal with procrastination

“What makes a man Mr. Lebowski,” the old geezer in the wheelchair asked, “Is it to do whatever it takes? Is it to succeed against all odds? Is it to go the extra mile?”
“That, yes,” the Dude said, leaning into a pun, “That and a pair of testicles.”

I wasn’t exactly going for precision here, but you get the point, right. And hopefully you get which movie this line is from. The question is one that we should ask ourselves every now and then, and in this case it’s What makes a man? Sometimes the answer is surprisingly simple, and in its simplicity it makes total sense: a man gets things done. 

In itself an answer this simple is a bit disappointing, because you’d expect great things like warriors, pioneers, and adventurers and all that stuff that links to these histories when life was rough, violent and short, and ---- to these rugged ideas of manhood. Bar fights, saloons, lone warriors and all that good stuff. But no, just this: a man gets things done. And in all of this, man applies to women as well (obviously).

But the simplicity of this whole statement doesn’t cut close to one of the issues that most of us deal with, a lot of the time. How to deal with procrastination. And this one that we all fall into every now and then, when it’s early in the morning, it’s cold outside and you feel like staying in and doing nothing and everything. And before you know it, you have spend the day watching YouTube, playing video games watching movies and all that stuff. Which is good from time to time, but which isn’t the stuff that careers are build on. 

Then the other side is there as well, where you become so obsessed that whatever you do has become a compulsion that you spend every waking minute on. Even though, on a side-note, if you look at highly successful individuals, they usually spend an insane number of hours on what they do, and part of that hard work has contributed to their success.

So what you should aim at, more or less, is somewhere in the middle, that spot where you’re ambitious, where you get things done, but where you also make time for your family. Balance and all those things. To some degree you might say that there might be a woman that keeps you in check, live in some far off place without too many temptations, parenthood that shifts priorities, and all such things. But all this kind of revolves around that notion of what comes first: will you find a good partner and then get your act together, or is it the other way around?

I guess you know by now what I’m all about, and which comes first in my book: sorting yourself out is the best advise at any given time, because that will help you figure out what you’re made of, what you’re capable of doing, and all such things that ultimately give you a very fine view of what you want out of life. 

This want might be very essential, because that implies that you have a greater part in all of it than ‘circumstances that just happened to you’, and it gives you a clear indication of where to start. And just make sure that I spell it out so that there’s no miscommunication: anywhere. Of course it’s always good to read up on strategies such as in articles like these, but you should definitely check youtube and all that to get yourself all riled up and ready for action. 

Then your strategy becomes this: just get started. At first it doesn’t matter that much where you start. Just compare it to doing the dishes or mowing the lawn: cups first, plates first, utensils first? It doesn't really matter. At first it’s more about the habit of getting started, and then the rest will follow easily. It’s said that if you do something for 7 times, then the 8th time it has become a habit. 

And a habit is exactly what will pull you through when you feel yourself getting lazy, when you want to stay in bed, when you want to stay in for the day, and all that stuff. Creating a habit is the most important thing that you can create after you put yourself out there to just get started. 

Then when you’re in the habit you should do some definite soul-searching. Start close to home; start by figuring out why your family members and close friends ended up in the careers that they did. More often than not you will share character, temperament and interests, which will go a long way of lining you up for a certain career. I wrote about this at length in the first installment of Gaze wide, aim far, but I just wanted to put it out there, because it’s a definite and an early step in establishing a new direction in life. 

Of course there are all kinds of micro-management tricks from thereon. For example, the two-minute rule (something that takes less than two minutes should be done right away), using a timer during which you will work on nothing but your new career, dedicating a specific place in your home where you will always sit to work towards your new career, arranging with your family or other people that you’re in proximity that you will not be disturbed during that time, connecting with other folks that are in a similar process, or preferably one or a few steps ahead. 

Beyond that I don’t want to overwhelm you, because any new beginning will be hard at first, but as with everything, after that it will become much easier. Just get started would be the take-home message. 

In summary:
- a real man (/a real woman): he or she gets things done.
- the solution to procrastination is in balancing things out, and avoiding the other end (obsession).
- sort yourself out before engaging in a new path, be it a career or a long-term relationship.
- just get started, and start by building the habit of just getting started.
- after the 7th time, something has become a habit.
- start close at home by figuring out which professions run among your family and friends.
- consider micro-management after that.

Continue reading:

Self-improvement retreats: determination to succeed
On deliberate activity and relaxation to get new perspectives to succeed.



Living autobiographically: how to use narrative identity
On writing the story of our lives in such a way that we can live with ourselves.



Choose another path: how to identify opportunities in life
On figuring out what you're made of and when to seize opportunity.