Comments on: The Battle for Our Minds

By: polun

polun — Wed, 20 May 2009 08:07:16 +0000

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

By: Gurminder

Gurminder — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 10:22:51 +0000

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

By: Diana Young

Diana Young — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 21:39:09 +0000

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

By: James Hall

James Hall — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 08:26:47 +0000

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

By: Jenny

Jenny — Wed, 28 May 2008 00:51:19 +0000

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

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

Great Post!

By: Michael Martine | Remarkablogger

Michael Martine | Remarkablogger — Tue, 06 May 2008 03:12:09 +0000

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

By: Klaus

Klaus — Mon, 05 May 2008 19:09:37 +0000

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

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

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

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

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

By: Chris

Chris — Sat, 03 May 2008 01:15:58 +0000

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

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

By: Marelisa

Marelisa — Sat, 03 May 2008 00:15:43 +0000

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

By: Jeff Cobb

Jeff Cobb — Fri, 02 May 2008 10:45:06 +0000

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