Which are you?

 The doubters said,
“Man cannot fly,”
The doers said,
“Maybe, but we’ll try,”
And finally soared
In the morning glow
While non-believers
Watched from below.

The doubters claimed
"The world was flat.
Ships plunged over its edge,
And that was that!"
Yet a brand new world
Some doers found,
And returned to prove
This planet round.

The doubters knew
"T'was fact, "Ofcourse,
No noisy gadget
Would e'er replace the horse."

Yet the carriages
Of doers, sans equine,
Came to traverse
All our roads in time.

But [to] those who kept saying
"It can't be done,"
Never are the victories
Or the honors won.
But rather,
By the beleving, doing kind,
While the doubters
Watched from far behind.

-Bruce Lee

The mark of the immature man

The mark of the immature man is that he wants to die nobly for a cause, while the mark of the mature man is that he wants to live humbly for one. -William Stekel

Eric Hoffer -The Desire For Substitutes

• There is a fundamental difference between the appeal of a mass movement and the appeal of a practical organization. The practical organization appeal to self-interest. A mass movement, to those who crave to be rid of an unwanted self.
  
• We join a mass movement to escape individual responsibility
• They who clamor loudest for freedom are often the ones least likely to be happy in a free society. The frustrated, oppressed by their shortcomings, blame their failure on existing restraints. Actually, their innermost desire is for an end to the "free for all." They want to eliminate free competition and the ruthless testing to which the individual is continually subjected in a free society.
  
• Passionate hatred can give meaning and purpose to an empty life. Thus people haunted by the purposelessness of their lives try to find a new content not only by dedicating themselves to a holy cause but also by nursing a fanatical grievance. A mass movement offers them unlimited opportunities for both.
• The truth seems to be that propaganda on its own cannot force its way into unwilling minds;It penetrates only into minds already open, and rather than instill opinion it articulates and justifies opinions already present in the minds of its recipients. The gifted propagandist brings to a boil ideas and passions already simmering in the minds of his hearers. he echoes their innermost feelings. Where opinion is not coerced, people can be made to believe only in what they already "know."
  
• A man is likely to mind his own business when it is worth minding. When it is not, he takes his mind off his own meaningless affairs by minding other people's business.
• It is doubtful if the oppressed ever fight for freedom. They fight for pride and power — power to oppress others. The oppressed want above all to imitate their oppressors; they want to retaliate.
  

Eric Hoffer -The Passionate State Of Mind Part 5

Rudeness is the weak man's imitation of strength.

Getting Fired

Tribes of long ago that wanted to get rid of their unwanted people without killing them used to burn their houses down -
Hence The Expression "To Get Fired."

Eric Hoffer -The Passionate State Of Mind Part 4

Secretiveness is a source of pride. It is a paradox that secretiveness plays the same role as boasting - both are engaged in the creation of a disguise. Boasting tries to create an imaginary self, while secretiveness gives us the exhilarating feeling of being princes disguised in meekness. Of the two, secretiveness is the more difficult and effective. For the self-observant, boasting breeds self-contempt. Yet, it is as Spinoza said: "Men govern nothing with more difficult than their tongues, and they can moderate their desires more than their words." Humility, however, is not verbal renunciation of pride but the substitute of pride for self-awareness and objectivity. Forced humility is false pride.

The Tao of Jeet June Do - Conditioning

Extracted from The Tao of Jeet June Do

= Conditioning =

Conditioning is a process whereby a specific stimulus will cause a specific reaction. A repeated stimulus eventually creates an action pattern in the nervous system. Once this pattern is established, the mere presence of the stimulus will cause the specific action. Such action is instantaneous and almost unconscious, which is necessary for effective countering. Conditioned action should be the result of intense and concentrated practise of planned action pattern in response to every lead.

The Tao of Jeet June Do - Attitude

Some motivational material in anticipation of the New Balance Real Run. This really influences me.

Extracted from The Tao of Jeet June Do

= Attitude =

The state of the athlete's mind as he faces his event determines the degree of excess tension he will carry into the event. The athlete free from excess tension as he awaits his performance is typically self-confident. He has what is commonly known as "a winning attitude." He sees himself as master of the athletic situation confronting him. To many athletes, being champion is a matter of 'psycological necessity'. Fed by previous successes and having completely rationalized previous failure, he feels himself a Triton among minnows."

As an event approaches, the athlete often notices a feeling of weakness in his midsection (butterflies in his stomach), and his heart pounds, he may experience pain in his lower back. The experienced athlete recognizes these sensations not as inner weakness, but as an inner surplus. These signs indicate a preparedness for violent activity. In fact, the athlete who expresses a feeling of euphoria before an event is probably in a poor state of readiness.

If emotional control is not well learned, critical moments in the fight when the emotional tension is highest will result in loss of skill by the fighter. His muscles suddenly must work against his own over-tense antagonistic muscles. He becomes stiff and clumsy in his movements. Expose yourself to various conditions and learn.

Experience shows that an athlete who forces himself to the limit can keep going as long as necessary. This means that ordinary effort will not tap or release the tremendous store of reserve power latent in the human body. Extraordinary effort, highly emotionalized conditions or a true determination to win at all costs will release this extra energy. Therefore, an athlete is actually as tired as he feels, and if he is determined to win, he can keep on almost indefinitely to achieve his objective. The attitude "You can win if you want to badly enough," means that the will to win is constant. No amount of punishment, no amount of effort, no condition is too "tough" to take in order to win. Such attitude can be developed only if winning is closely tied to the practitioner's ideals and dreams.

Human beings rely upon their brethren and are often disappointed by them.

Don't let someone become a priority in your life,
when you are just an option in their life

What would you do when you have friends like this...

- You personally recommend him for a job interview at a buddy's company. He fails to show up and becomes uncontactable while your buddy sits with his superior for a tense, embarrassing hour, before calling off the interview angrily. A week later, your friend informs you that he dropped his mobile phone.... And then you learn that, that was a lie.

- Busy friend wants to meet and catch up.
>>Friend manages to 'fix you a slot' [insert random number between 1-3] weeks ahead. On appointed day, Friend cancels the meet up because...
A. Completely forgets
B. Forgot that he/she needs to attend a preplanned company function/good friend's birthday/long lost relative from overseas/is a bridesmaid~best man for that day's wedding.
C. Needs to spend time with boyfriend/girlfriend/dog/cat/pig/some stranger on the street.
D. It's drizzling.
And then friend offers to reschedule the appointment.
Keep repeating above until one day you get a sms reply "sorry, may I know who's that?"

- Calls you only once a year, on your Birthday to ask if you would like to chip in on an expensive birthday present for someone you are supposed to have met before.

- Made you rush to town for a sudden meet up, within the hour, and then cancels just when you are nearly there, because her next appointment (which was not mentioned before) showed up 20mins early.

- Apologizes that he/she is working slightly late but would soon finish up and be there. You wait at the mall for 3 hours before checking again to learn that he/she is already on the way home. The appointment had been canceled and naturally you didn't need to be informed.

- Finds a convenient excuse when she realizes that you are not planning to treat her to an expensive restaurant of her choice.

Now what would I do?
Well I don't know, since I no longer have friends like that.

See how we run like pigs from a gun, see how we fly

As all foot soldiers have known for thousands of years,
there's nothing noble about dying.
Only an irritating finality

Written in reversed chronological order through the day:

- Slept well, the sleep of the dead.
- Finally gone to rest at 3am
- Exhausted, but for the first time feels truly alive today.
- Went for a 10km run. Finished in 1hr 2mins. Accelerated metabolism caused effects of alcohol to end much earlier than it normally would.
- Curious to attempt running under the influence of alcohol
- Reached home at 12:40am
- Lots of booze, rather high.
- Potluck at Momo's place (with Tans and Foo family). Received nutrition and mental comfort. Morale somewhat restored.
- After 1hr 40mins trip, arrived at Ghim Moh looking like a zombie.
- Embarked on the long trip to Momo's place. Completely, mentally "zoned-out" from the long day, and the mind-numbing inefficiency of our public transport systems. No longer felt hunger or fatique, just numbed.
- Felt the need to catch up on training, did a rushed 40x6 dips routine before shower.
- No time left for any of the house work I had intended to do.
- Finally reached home at 6.30pm, mind totally numbed.
- Took 1hr+ just to reach home after Raj dropped me from Defu Lane.
- At a coffeeshop with Raj, hungry but only consumed soup because dinner time was near.
- Left office approx. 3.30pm. Been working non-stop for 7hrs. Missed lunch, fatigued, hungry, hands shaking, body trembling, extremely sour mood, less capable of rational thoughts.
- Skipped canteen breakfast to start work early. Expect difficult day since only me and Raj working.
- Revived at 6.30am

THE BEATLES - I AM THE WALRUS

Discworld - Small Gods

Taken from the earlier Discworld Novel I read, could never quite forget this story. Fans like Terry Pratchett for his odd sense of humor. Meaningless yet thought provoking, the world is portrayed in a completely different perspective through the fictional discworld.

SMALL GODS(Discworld 13)

By Terry Pratchett

NOW CONSIDER THE TORTOISE AND the eagle.

The tortoise is a ground-living creature. It is impossible to live nearer the ground without being under it. Its horizons are a few inches away. It has about as good a turn of speed as you need to hunt down a lettuce. It has survived while the rest of evolution flowed past it by being, on the whole, no threat to anyone and too much trouble to eat.

And then there is the eagle. A creature of the air and high places, whose horizons go all the way to the edge of the world. Eyesight keen enough to spot the rustle of some small and squeaky creature half a mile away. All power, all control. Lightning death on wings. Talons and claws enough to make a meal of anything smaller than it is and at least take a hurried snack out of anything bigger.

And yet the eagle will sit for hours on the crag and survey the kingdoms of the world until it spots a distant movement and then it will focus, focus, focus on the small shell wobbling among the bushes down there on the desert. And it will leap . . .

And a minute later the tortoise finds the world dropping away from it. And it sees the world for the first time, no longer one inch from the ground but five hundred feet above it, and it thinks: what a great friend I have in the eagle.

And then the eagle lets go.

And almost always the tortoise plunges to its death. Everyone knows why the tortoise does this. Gravity is a habit that is hard to shake off. No one knows why the eagle does this. There's good eating on a tortoise but, considering the effort involved, there's much better eating on practically anything else. It's simply the delight of eagles to torment tortoises.

But of course, what the eagle does not realize is that it is participating in a very crude form of natural selection.

One day a tortoise will learn how to fly.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Somehow, I find myself relating to the Turtle in this story. Surviving in the politicorporate environment by being 'too much trouble to eat' Thankfully the eagles have not got me yet, and just maybe, someday I'll be able to fly too....

Boogie Woogie Fengshui

The 1st floor office layout had been completely rearranged. Rumors has it that this was done under the consultation of a Feng Shui master. Naturally, this was a strategic decision.

If the rumor was true:
It's said that a particular department was literally sitting too near the exit, which explains the high turnover. Moving them further from the door them will surely pretend more staff from "walking out".

I'm sure there's great wisdom in that. In fact, it might work better if you seal off the door completely. Visiting the washroom would be a problem tho.

that would be the present's legacy to future generations, for now the inhibitants of Acheron ran the processors and struggled to make a dream come true, surviving on a ration of determination, humor, and oversized paycheques. They would not live long enough to see Archeon become a land of milk and honey. Only the company could do that. The Company was immortal as none of them would ever be.

*Taken from the science fiction novel "Aliens" - Alan Grant Foster

Eric Hoffer -The Passionate State Of Mind Part 3

Quote 3.
It has often been said that power corrupts. But it is perhaps equally important to realize that weakness, too, corrupts. Power corrupts the few, while weakness corrupts the many. Hatred, malice, rudeness, intolerance, and suspicion are the faults of weakness. The resentment of the weak does not spring from any injustice done to them but from the sense of inadequacy and impotence. They hate not wickedness but weakness. When it is their power to do so, the weak destroy weakness wherever they see it.

Eric Hoffer -The Passionate State Of Mind Part 2

Quote 2.
Pride is a sense of worth derived from something that is not organically part of us, while self-esteem derives from the potentialities and achievements of the self. We are proud when we identify ourselves with an imaginary self, a leader, a holy cause, a collective body or possessions. There is fear and intolerance in pride; it is sensitive and uncompromising. The less promise and potency in the self, the more imperative is the need for pride. The core of pride is self-rejection.
It is true that when pride releases energies and serves as a spur to achievement, it can lead to a reconciliation with the self and the attainment of genuine self-esteem.

Eric Hoffer -The Passionate State Of Mind Part 1

Eric Hoffer (25 July 1902 – 21 May 1983) an American social philosopher, who was known as one of the first few writers to tackle the issue of Self Esteem by analyzing the consequences of the lack of it rather than the positive effects.

Quote from wikiquote:
His first book, The True Believer: Thoughts On The Nature Of Mass Movements (1951) is widely recognized as a classic on mass-movements and the psychological roots of fanaticism.

The above link has a good summary of the best quotes. Somehow, I found myself reflecting deeply, as I read through. In particular, "The Passionate State Of Mind" was motivating. Difficult to describe, and conflicting in its opinions, but strangely motivating.

Quote 1.
A fateful process is set in motion when the individual is released "to the freedom of his own impotence" and left to justify his existence by his own efforts. The autonomous individual, striving to realize himself and prove his worth, has created all that is great in literature, art, music, science and technology. The autonomous individual, also, when he can neither realize himself nor justify his existence by his own efforts, is a breeding call of frustration, and the seed of the convulsions which shake our world to its foundations.
The individual on his own is stable only so long as he is possessed of self-esteem. The maintenance of self-esteem is a continuous task which taxes all of the individual's powers and inner resources. We have to prove our worth and justify our existence anew each day. When, for whatever reason, self-esteem is unattainable, the autonomous individual becomes a highly explosive entity. He turns away from an unpromising self and plunges into the pursuit of pride — the explosive substitute for self-esteem. All social disturbances and upheavals have their roots in crises of individual self-esteem, and the great endeavor in which the masses most readily unite is basically a search for pride.

Life as a Console Planner

One month into the new department, and about time for a quick look back.

A Quick Background
Now, many had been asking whether I requested for the transfer. To set the record straight. No, I did not ask for this, nor did I resisted. It was CK's idea, and I went along. It's not exactly the best thing that can happen to me, but it does benefit me to some extend. Ultimately, it prevents stagnancy. (See earlier rants)

The plan all along was *** SENSITIVE DATA DELETED *** till then, it'll be the same 'do my best' routine.

The New Environment
Two very prominent differences:

• Team Spirit. A significant culture change for me was the obvious sense of team work and camaraderie* (due to circumstances) which makes the long hours more bearable. Console Planning Team is a closely knitted specialist group. As their responsibilities are completely unique and sometimes exclusive, most of the time they can only relate problems to one another. Furthermore, most tasks were interlinked and mutually dependent. Beyond technical reasons, team rapport and morale was also good. For now the new team appears to have accepted me well.
  
• A totally opposite spectrum. To my surprise, planners primarily function based on estimates, and gut feel. The complete opposite of the perfect click on click precision which I imagined.
  My strengths in 'arcane' system technology tools, were inapplicable in this new environment dominated by experience, quick thinking and on the fly estimates. Indeed, in some situations, even mechanical scripts may be out-performed by dynamic out-of-the-box human ideas.
  
  
  "Precision, without understanding its inherent limitations is useless"
  
  
  I can't think of a more apt term than "Mental Agility". Mine had declined due to over-reliance on technology. Here is a great training camp to re-develope this aspect.
  

*this feeling has gone missing from the CAM team after 老爷left. Although I still enjoyed close bonds among several team mates, the team as a whole was no longer as united as before.

Year end performance appraisal 2007

This time was refreshingly quick*, finishing within a clean half-hour, with both of us trying to rush it. My scores dropped as expected**, but *** SENSITIVE DATA DELETED *** I was better off focusing on the big picture. That seemed to sit well with her.

Overall it was still an above average mark, but it was not encouraging, that she was never able to move beyond her original perception. For the fifth time or so, I was exposed to another variation of this speech:

*** SENSITIVE DATA DELETED *** I chose to humbly agree with her, and asked for a pay increment.

*The June appraisal took 2 hours.
**Its the trend with appraisals by her

*Quote of the day*
Never underestimate the power of the human mind to believe what it wants to believe, no matter the conflicting evidence.

The real "haves" -William Hoffer

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Eric_Hoffer
The real "haves" are they who can acquire freedom, self-confidence, and even riches without depriving others of them. They acquire all of these by developing and applying their potentialities. On the other hand, the real "have nots" are they who cannot have aught except by depriving others of it. They can feel free only by diminishing the freedom of others, self-confident by spreading fear and dependence among others, and rich by making others poor.

"abandon all sanity, ye who enter"

My Fav quote of the year 2006
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/INTERCAL_programming_language
-INTERCAL, programming language parody, is the canonical esoteric programming language created by Don Woods and James M. Lyon, two Princeton University students, in 1972. It satirizes aspects of the FORTRAN and COBOL programming languages, as well as the proliferation of proposed language constructs and notations in the 1960s. Consequently, the humour may appear rather dated to modern readers brought up with C or Java.