Friday, December 30, 2011

The Impossible Question

If one is in the habit of observing -- rather than being told what to see -- it becomes apparent to the observer, that some things are more significant than other things, and those who can make those distinctions properly and reliably, go on to be successful at whatever they are doing, while others will do many things, and be confused as to what is important to do. And so they rationalize such behaviors with the proclamation that doing anything, is better than doing nothing at all, and even observing and understanding what they are doing and hope to accomplish, before acting at all, is "doing nothing" -- rather than the most significant thing to do -- before anything else.

Such people are "exhausted,' because it seems the more they do, the less they accomplish, and the farther they become, from those promised objectives -- if they still recall what they are. Usually, they just get lost in all their activities and busyness -- as though that was the objective in itself. Thus such people are always "too busy" to be healthy, happy and fit -- because they are too busy throughout their day and lives, to have any time and energy for that which is most important to do -- and to let go of the rest.

That happens whether one has a lot to do, or a little. So the significant question to ask, is what 5% of the effort, gives one 95% of the results -- and making that determination (discrimination) consistently and persistently, always leads to favorable results (outcomes) -- because one is distinguishing the significant from the total randomness of activity. That is actually what scientists do -- and makes anybody scientific and systematic in the pursuit of any objective -- determining the 5%, and then the 5% of that, and then the 5% of that, which achieves the more than 99.9%-tile which almost guarantees certainty.

Such people then, seem to know what they are actually doing -- differentiated from the many who just "think" they do, but have no clear idea of what they are doing, because it has just become a compulsion with them. They do what they do, because they've always done it that way -- and can't think of any other way to do things, except as they have always done them before -- regardless of whether they achieve any desired results (outcomes). It is enough that they just do them, or follow the directive of the next thing to do (compulsion).

But always, they do not think through these things for themselves -- and rely on their own senses and results (outcomes) in determining whether it makes sense to continue in the way they have been -- until finally, they may become so exhausted and confused, that they just "give up" on everything -- including and especially, looking for the 5% of effort, that provides the 95% of the favorable returns.

Unfortunately, most people's conditioning (education) are still that way -- thinking that anything, is better than nothing -- instead of determining the 5% which clearly distinguishes the qualitative difference, and from that, those who will go even further in refining that 5% to the 1%, and then the unmistakable because they are so extraordinarily exceptional.

Most of that math, or computations, are done for us now, by computers that begin asking the simple question of, Is it this or that? (Yes or no?) -- to determine the clear 50%, and then the next question is, similarly and tirelessly, Is it this or that? -- at which one immediately arrives at the 75%-tile, and the result of that tedious and relentless determination, will in 10 simple distinctions, enable one to determine the 99.9%-tile unquestionable champion of that activity and distinction, which is the veritable needle in the haystack that would have be futile to begin the quest for.

That is how the impossible becomes the possible -- and then the inevitable.

Monday, December 19, 2011

The War Against Every Other

Honest and truthful people come in every size, shape, color and occupation -- and are not only self-selected by those who choose to become "trained journalists."

This writer has chosen to generalize the shortcomings of one particular individual -- to smear and impugn everybody else not in her inner circle of socially-approved, politically-correct defenders of the powers that be, who always wish to remain exclusively so. It is a (not so) subtle institutionalization and socialization of the kind of deception and manipulation that is not as obvious as many people's (blogger's) clumsy and more obvious misuse and abuse of speech -- but actually much more dangerous and destructive to society, because it uses all the ploys of mass media techniques to convince us of what is not true -- as the truth -- that only journalists are truthful (are you listening Jayson Blair), while everybody else majoring in everything else in life, cannot be trusted to know and tell the truth.

This is the war that the self-certified "journalists" have declared on everybody else to maintain their preeminence over every other occupation and inclination -- just as the teachers and the university professors declare daily that they should be paid ten times as much as everybody else guaranteed for the rest of their lives -- because of their "sacrifices" for everybody else all their lives, and comparing themselves not to the median as their peers, but to the top 1% -- as their perceived fair share.

Yes, the manipulation and propaganda running daily through these journals of "political correctness" of what we should all believe, is that obvious and ham-handed. So rather than smearing and slurring every other camp as the "unanointed," every person has a responsibility to be truthful and as unmanipulative as they can be.

Monday, December 12, 2011

A Challenge for Everybody -- Throughout the Ages

The fact of the matter for the USPS demise, as most people can see and reason, is that the traditional mail delivery business is shrinking irreversibly -- and we can't keep maintaining (quasi-)governmental institutions at full employment, increased compensation, benefits and pensions forever -- when there are vastly better ways of fulfilling those needs, and providing those services at competitive market rates.

So while the USPS business is shrinking, the UPS and FedEx is growing -- because they only come by on actual demand, and not as a regular service -- which has its place, in the proposed downsizing of service to needs -- which could be as little as every other day, rather every day. Very few people get mail every day -- excluding the junk mail. In another time and age, people would fill the mailboxes with Christmas cards -- and now virtually nobody does it anymore.

And the reason they don't is not because they aren't in touch, but because they are more in regular constant communications with those who really matter -- instead of the annual Christmas card to everyone today's world would consider a "Friend." The newspapers, bookstores, centralized data processing centers, buggy whip manufacturers, schools all have these same challenges of dealing in a new age of technologies and capabilities that they have to rise to the challenge in meeting -- instead of insisting that the whole world has to rally and keep them at the top of a social/economic hierarchy that no longer can be justified.

That's the challenge of these times for everybody -- throughout the ages and times. That is the history of the world.

Tuesday, December 06, 2011

All is Better Than One

The flaw in the popular conventional thinking on exercise, is the belief that if one works only the heart, it will develop all the other muscles of the body -- rather than the much more logical thinking that if one develops all the other muscles, the heart will take care of itself -- which is really the design and function of the human musculature. That's why the heart is an autonomic function; it does what it has to do without conscious effort to do it. It automatically adjusts to the demands made on it by the other muscles -- and not vice-versa.

One of the great mistakes is thinking that the effect is the cause -- rather than the proper relationship of the cause to effect. With that kind of thinking, one is led to believe that simply raising the heart rate to target levels, automatically makes one jump higher, lift more and run faster -- rather than the mastery of a specific coordination of the voluntary muscles -- acting in confidence that the heart will take care of the rest of the body, so the mind is free to focus its concentration to that which requires its complete attention.

Random energy expenditure, is not the same as extremely focused concentration of energy -- which is what a person is deliberately attempting to do, rather than just randomly burn as many calories as possible -- even when the objective is weight control, and body shaping -- the latter which is seldom discussed, even when the subject is "Getting into shape." The muscles will get into the shape, one expresses it to do so -- just as the muscles can produce a frown (disapproval) or grimace (denial), rather than a smile and affirmation -- until that is the permanent expression (shape) the face takes on -- and one could not suspect it could appear any other.

All expressions of the human body, are effected by the musculature similarly, if not consciously -- but it is more than a matter of just elevating the heart rate deliberately and specifically -- to cause those effects. It is the very deliberate and intentional expressions that alters the underlying support systems -- to be healthy, because that is what one can effect and affect through voluntary actions (movements). A muscle that has never been expressed, has no idea what is the shape it can take. It requires some bit of experimentation and then practice, to achieve the effects it desires -- but wishful thinking alone, makes little difference in those outcomes. One has to actually express them -- which is the muscle, altering its shape (and appearance) -- in contracting or lengthening, which is all it does -- but 600-800 muscles throughout the body, produces a complexity of expression and usefulness unduplicated and unmatched by any other species -- particularly at the extremities of the head, hands and feet that individuate people.

Other species are much more specialized, and therefore limited, in the expressions and uses it can have -- such as a horse's hoof to give it speed, a tiger's claw, or even an monkey's grasp -- have all not achieved the versatility of the human hand for manipulating tools, the human face for expressions (communication), and the feet to run, jump, push, pull, lift, or dance. And because of these expressions, people take on different appearances to embody what they do -- specifically, which is why gymnasts as a group, look strikingly different from marathon runners -- which is the ideal chosen as the general rule of what it means to be fit -- even though such a highly self-selected gene pool, has very little relationship to how most humans look -- even as an ideal, for doing anything other than running the marathon.

But is running a marathon, or operating a treadmill for extended periods of time, the best and most useful expression of the human capacity? Undoubtedly, fat people just want to get as skinny as possible, and skinny people want to get as massive as possible, but beyond those gross generalizations, what truly is the human ideal? Those whose specific objectives come closest to defining that, are probably the competitive bodybuilders, but as many others realize, that is not the ideal for everyone also -- to be as intimidatingly massive as possible -- in a very stereotypical fashion unique to that competition.

For most others, but probably less dedicated to such singlemindedness of purpose and conformity to that ideal, infinite other variations are also possible -- not that they would necessarily win any other contest. But what matters is that they are in the shape they want and require to be in -- which is the best they believe they manifest and embody at any time -- and not just to peak for one contest, which is very damaging for the overall health of individuals -- as many are familiar with in virtually collapsing in exhaustion from the effort and deprivation required to achieve that optimal "look" even for that one targeted moment. That's not a prescription for a healthy lifestyle most would want every day -- because "balance" is the key concept in developing a healthy and happy life.

Acknowledging that, would one be better to work the one muscle more that already has to contract over 100,000 times each day unfailingly, or spend that time, actuating (activating) all the other muscles, that may not work at all, every day, even for a moment? What would make the bigger difference?

Fortunately, one doesn't have to do 600-800 specialized movements to activate each muscle in isolation -- if one knows how to activate all the muscles as though it is just one.