Urban Ascetic (Lite)

A new philosopy for modern living 

Less is more

Acoustic guitar, elevator and one very talented guy.

 

Great, great cover of tear-drops by massive attack (the original is also very good)

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Therapy session gift vouchers 32 x better than cash

I can see it now  granny opening her card from little Timmy  the vouchers fall to the table she smiles imaging the M&S jumper she's going to buy .... nope sorry granny its off to therapy for you this year.  

Hmmmm 

Chris Boyce of the University of Warwick and Alex Wood of the University of Manchester compared large data sets where 1000s of people had reported on their well-being. They then looked at how well-being changed due to therapy compared to getting sudden increases in income, such as through lottery wins or pay rises. They found that a 4 month course of psychological therapy had a large effect on well-being. They then showed that the increase in well-being from an £800 [$1302] course of therapy was so large that it would take a pay rise of over £25,000 [$40,726] to achieve an equivalent increase in well-being. The research therefore demonstrates that psychological therapy could be 32 times more cost effective at making you happy than simply obtaining more money.

So let's be clear: according to this study, dollar for dollar, money spent on therapy is 32 times more well-being enhancing than a raise or lottery win. You score a 40K raise, but that won't make you as happy as the guy in the next cubicle who's been in therapy for the past four months. Your scratcher hits it big, but it's your neighbor with the weekly "appointment" who is smiling.

I know research methodology well enough to understand it's not this cut and dry. There are certainly limitations to the study and it's tempting to lapse into hyperbole. But these findings are compelling.

I'm intrigued because Boyce & Wood attempt to quantify a long-held belief: getting understanding trumps getting stuff. Clients sometimes quit therapy or ask for fee reductions so they can spend money on other things (cars, clothes, new apartment, etc.) to make them feel better. Therapy is not just a purchase, it's also grueling work for the client without the immediate gratification of a new car. Many people cut and run to get that immediate gratification. This research points out the flaw in that logic.

So on Black Friday, our national holiday to consumerism (the odd yang to Thanksgiving's gratitude and togetherness yin) people blow obscene amounts of money in their quest for well-being. Are Best Buy and Target and Walmart the best places to buy happiness?

I wrote Dr. Boyce to see what his research might have to say on this matter. His thoughtful response:

The purpose of our research is to demonstrate to people that they may be overestimating the effect that money has on their well-being. We should be questioning whether our current spending patterns are really having the greatest impact on our well-being. Our mental health should be a priority. Having a new car, a bigger house or more expensive jewellery are unlikely to improve our mental health so our research suggests that people might be better off spending money on psychological therapy, such as non-directive counselling.

Looks like it's time to develop psychotherapy gift cards. They're 32x more valuable than cash!

Article from Ryan Howes over at psychology today



 

 

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Bling makes you selfish

Interesting article from Roy Chua at the Harvard business school.  The more branded high end goods you posses/receive the more self centered you become. So Bling won't outright make you evil but it does make you think about other people less. 

Although the concept of luxury has been widely discussed in social theories and marketing research, relatively little research has directly examined the psychological consequences of exposure to luxury goods. This paper demonstrates that exposure to luxury goods increases individuals' propensity to prioritize self-interests over others' interests, influencing the decisions they make. Experiment 1 found that participants primed with luxury goods were more likely than those primed with non-luxury goods to endorse business decisions that benefit themselves but could potentially harm others. Using a word recognition task, Experiment 2 further demonstrates that exposure to luxury is likely to activate self-interest but not necessarily the tendency to harm others.
Gandhi once wrote that "a certain degree of physical harmony and comfort is necessary, but above a certain level it becomes a hindrance instead of a help." This observation raises interesting questions for psychologists regarding the effects of luxury. What psychological consequences do luxury goods have on people? In this paper, the authors argue that luxury goods can activate the concept of self-interest and affect subsequent cognition. The argument involves two key premises: Luxury is intrinsically linked to self-interest, and exposure to luxury can activate related mental representations affecting cognition and decision-making. Two experiments showed that exposure to luxury led people to think more about themselves than others. Key concepts include:
  • Luxury does not necessarily induce people to be "nasty" toward others but rather causes them to be less concerned about or considerate toward others.
  • Experiment 1 showed that when primed with luxury, people are more likely to endorse self-interested business decisions (profit maximization), even at the expense of others.
  • Experiment 2 further demonstrated that exposure to luxury is likely to activate self-interest but not the tendency to harm others.
  • Exposure to luxury goods may activate a social norm that it is appropriate to pursue interests beyond a basic comfort level, even at the expense of others. It may be this activated social norm that affects people's judgment and decision-making.
  • Alternatively, exposure to luxury may directly increase people's personal desire, causing them to focus on their own benefits such as prioritizing profits over social responsibilities.

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Thinking Like a genius

"The first and last thing demanded
of genius
is the love of truth" - Goethe, German 1749 - 1832

  1. Look at problems in many different ways.
    Find new perspectives that no one else has taken (or no one else has publicized!)

    Leonardo da Vinci believed that, to gain knowledge about the form of a problem, you begin by learning how to restructure it in many different ways. He felt that the first way he looked at a problem was too biased. Often, the problem itself is reconstructed and becomes a new one.

  2. Visualize!

    When Einstein thought through a problem, he always found it necessary to formulate his subject in as many different ways as possible, including using diagrams. He visualized solutions, and believed that words and numbers as such did not play a significant role in his thinking process.

  3. Produce! 
    A distinguishing characteristic of genius is productivity.

    Thomas Edison held 1,093 patents. He guaranteed productivity by giving himself and his assistants idea quotas. In a study of 2,036 scientists throughout history, Dean Keith Simonton of the University of California at Davis found that the most respected scientists produced not only great works, but also many "bad" ones. They weren't afraid to fail, or to produce mediocre in order to arrive at excellence.

  4. Make novel combinations. 
    Combine, and recombine, ideas, images, and thoughts into different combinations no matter how incongruent or unusual.

    The laws of heredity on which the modern science of genetics is based came from the Austrian monk Grego Mendel, who combined mathematics and biology to create a new science.

  5. Form relationships.
    Make connections between dissimilar subjects.

    Da Vinci forced a relationship between the sound of a bell and a stone hitting water. This enabled him to make the connection that sound travels in waves. Samuel Morse invented relay stations for telegraphic signals when observing relay stations for horses.

  6. Think in opposites.

    Physicist Niels Bohr believed, that if you held opposites together, then you suspend your thought, and your mind moves to a new level. His ability to imagine light as both a particle and a wave led to his conception of the principle of complementarity. Suspending thought (logic) may allow your mind to create a new form.

  7. Think metaphorically.

    Aristotle considered metaphor a sign of genius, and believed that the individual who had the capacity to perceive resemblances between two separate areas of existence and link them together was a person of special gifts.

  8. Prepare yourself for chance.

    Whenever we attempt to do something and fail, we end up doing something else. That is the first principle of creative accident. Failure can be productive only if we do not focus on it as an unproductive result. Instead: analyze the process, its components, and how you can change them, to arrive at other results. Do not ask the question "Why have I failed?", but rather "What have I done?"

  9. Have patience

    Paul Cézanne (1839 – 1906) is recognized as one of the 19th century's greatest painters, and is often called the father of modern art, an avant garde bridge between the impressionists and the cubists. During his life he only had a few exhibitions though his influence on subsequent artists was great as an innovator with shape and form. His genius, however, was not evident until late in life. He was refused admission to the Ecole des Beaux-Arts at age 22 and his first solo exhibition was at age 56. His genius was the product of many years' practice and experimental innovation.

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The practice of genius

"A thinker sees his own actions
as experiments and questions -as attempts to find out something. 
Success and failure are for him
answers above all. " - Friedrich Nietzsche, 1844 - 1900, German

As we grow older and wiser,
we learn to recognize our strengths and weaknesses, and accept them.  We work to align our lives with the gifts we were born with, and cultivate them.  This is a process of finding our place within the world.

As we recognize and organize our strengths, 
we discover and expose ourselves as to who we truly are. Our discovered place in the world becomes the opportunity for the expression of our genius: our special set of gift(s) that we can contribute. It lies within all of us.

Some may say that they have little to contribute. 
However, if we contribute small things greatly, true to our purpose, we will exceed those people who do great things poorly.  For the small thing done greatly can be picked up, and magnified by another, and so by another.

True prophets and leaders want us to work towards
an honest recognition and admission of who we are, to see the beauty and strength in each of us, as well as for each of us to see and admit the beauty of others. With this honest perception of the self, the exercise of genius takes one to a higher spiritual plane.

By its nature, genius pushes against the boundaries
of culture, religion, society, environment.  Boundaries serve a purpose and should be honored for what they are:  a context that tests.

A nation or people or society is only as strong
as its individuals are empowered to rise to the level of their individual genius.  When prophets and leaders encourage us to follow them, they are asking us to hear their message and empower our lives. 

As social animals, our tendency is to institutionalize
the message and to build belief systems and rituals.  However, we need to be alert to when our spirituality, and genius, is limited by these constraints and that context.  It may be that what is built up after the prophet and leader is contrary to his or her message.

Genius recognizes that we must honestly recognize
and meet with humility, even confront, those conditions in which we are placed.  We set aside distracting influences and things of our youth since they are not true to who we are.  Should we succumb to weakness, that which we are not, we need to recognize the test for what it is:  either a miscalculation of our power, or an inappropriate response to our environment.  If we go astray, act contrary to our purpose (we are not perfect) we must learn the lesson provided. 

We hold steady, we join hands with those walking with us
on our spiritual paths, learning that the genius of others will also guide us.  Others will be there to lift us up.  With them, our full genius takes us to the place where we can overcome digressions and transgressions.  There is a super genius at work, that of we as people.

Don't restrict yourself to the standards! 
Consider them standards and build on them.  Practice the basics, then don't be afraid to move away from the normal and think outside of the box, or the textbook!" (Colin.C.Saxton)

Read widely and deeply.

In addition to being a statesman, diplomat, author of the Declaration of Independence and President of the United States, Thomas Jefferson was a notable agriculturalist, horticulturist, architect, etymologist, mathematician, cryptographer, surveyor, author, lawyer, inventor, paleontologist, and founder of the University of Virginia. As a 16-year-old college student, he studied 15 hours a day. His insatiable curiosity and disciplined study of a broad range of academic and practical disciplines were the basis for his exceptional accomplishments. President John F. Kennedy welcomed 49 Nobel Prize winners to the White House in 1962, saying, "I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge, that has ever been gathered at the White House, with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone." (Gavin Ehringer) 

Material from Study Guides and Strategies.net

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He has the most who is most content with the least.

So said Diogenes of Sinope, famed as the man who lived in a barrel.  He Was a Greek philosopher, father of the cynic school of philosophy. 

He spent his life demonstrating how one could be happy without material possessions and teaching people to see the futility of transient attachments.  Like Socrates before him Diogenes was a gadfly continually challenging the social conventions and expectations of his day. 


Life lessons from a dog

“Diogenes believed human beings live artificially and hypocritically and would do well to study the dog. Besides performing natural bodily functions in public without unease, a dog will eat anything, and make no fuss about where to sleep. Dogs live in the present without anxiety, and have no use for the pretensions of abstract philosophy. In addition to these virtues, dogs are thought to know instinctively who is friend and who is foe. Unlike human beings who either dupe others or are duped, dogs will give an honest bark at the truth” - Wikipedia

Sayings attributed to Diogenes

I threw my cup away when I saw a child drinking from his hands at the trough.

He has the most who is most content with the least.

Dogs and philosophers do the greatest good and get the fewest rewards.

We have two ears and one tongue so that we would listen more and talk less.

The sun, too, shines into cesspools and is not polluted.

It is the privilege of the gods to want nothing, and of godlike men to want little.

Of a rich man who was mean and niggardly, he said, "That man does not possess his estate, but his estate possesses him."

I am not an Athenian or a Greek, but a citizen of the world.

It is said that Diogenes once met the great king Alexander who excited to meet the famous philosopher asked him what he could do to help. Diogenes answer was very revealing:

 Step aside so I may see the sun.

Upon hearing this great Alexander said to his soldiers that if he had to be anyone other than Alexander he would be Diogenes.

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Filed under  //   Ideas   Philosophy   Simplicity  

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Five keys to innovation ?

FIVE KEYS TO INNOVATION

Researchers say they have identified five skills that drive innovation: 

1. Associating: The ability to connect seemingly unrelated questions, problems or ideas from different fields. 

2. Questioning: Innovators constantly ask questions that challenge the common wisdom. They ask "why?", "why not?" and "what if?" 

3. Observing: Discovery-driven executives scrutinize common phenomena, particularly the behavior of potential customers. 

4. Experimenting: Innovative entrepreneurs actively try out new ideas by creating prototypes and launching pilots. 

5. Networking: innovators go out of their way to meet people with different ideas and perspectives. 

Article on Cnn 

Most of it is pretty much what you would have heard before the bit that got my interest was  number 5 Networking:

"When it comes to developing your ability to innovate, Ventresca recommends simply setting aside 30 minutes a week to talk with a contact you wouldn't normally talk to -- for example someone you met at conference six months ago.

Ventresca told CNN, "If you do that every week, that's 52 conversations in a year taking up 26 hours of time.

"Say 10 of those yield something interesting, and two of those 10 let you do something new and valuable -- by investing just 26 hours a year you've come up with something pretty remarkable." - Mark Ventresca is a lecturer in strategic management at the University of Oxford Saïd Business School

Sounds like he's talking about social networking to me.  See I knew I wasn't wasting all that time I spent on twitter.

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Filed under  //   Ideas   Innovation  

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Witness

 

"I have been a witness, and these pictures are

my testimony. The events I have recorded should

not be forgotten and must not be repeated."

-James Nachtwey-


Terrorism


Genocide


Pollution


Neglect

http://www.jamesnachtwey.com/

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Simply NY

found this through: Reflection of me thanks ;)

Just a vid of NY by Canon Film makers with accompanying  music by  RJD2 (ghostwriter

Another Great example  of less is more, great shot composition, great framing, great music.
Really nice job loved this.

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Living in a world of give and take

Image from the very interesting times article Living without money ( read it while you can before Rupert takes it off-line )

A good friend sent me an article yesterday about German former teacher Heidemarie Schwermer. Heidemarie has been living without money for the last 13 years.

She is something of a minor celebrity in Germany having set up and organised a skills and goods trade scheme in Dortmund.  Her philosophy of life is based around the concept of trade rather than purchase,  Gib und Nimm (Give and Take).

Initially she was hoping to have an impact on the homeless but instead found the scheme resonating with the unemployed and the retired of Dortmund.   Heidemarie herself took things further than most by choosing to live without property and only a few possessions. She has been living nomadically since 1996 moving from place to place trading menial services for room and board and living without money.

People like Heidemarie show just what it’s possible to give up and still live happily in our material world.

She is admirable but is she an exemplar?

In truth I don’t believe she is, for me she offers an example from which we can learn a lot but doesn’t offer us a template. 

I think her mode of life isn’t one that masses of people could emulate. 

After all whose houses would they stay in?  

It is possible for a few people to live like Heidemarie but a whole society I don’t think so.

To me Heidemarie is like a modern day Diogenes of Sinope (greek philosopher who lived in a barrel). A humane cynic reminding us that people should be our focus and that we don’t need much in the way of material goods to be happy.

I'd be interested to find out what you think of her philosophy and her life?

Could we all really live in a world of give and take ?

 

 

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Filed under  //   give and take   Money   Philosophy   Simplicity  

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