April 29, 2008
President Bush: Our Times may, in fact, be Difficult
George Bush tiptoed into his rhetoric of difficulty today, sounding a little like a certain web blog. Mmm? The issue: the economic slowdown affecting the nation, what to call it, and what to do about it.
In declining to embrace the word “recession,” Mr. Bush said that many Americans were just beginning to receive their tax rebate checks as part of an $168 billion stimulus program, and that it would be some time before the effects of those checks on the economy were clear.
Is President Bush is turning a corner into some new realization about the nation? Could he really be starting to “feel your pain”?
Pressed again on whether the United States might be in a recession, Mr. Bush replied: “You know, the average person doesn’t really care what we call it. The average person wants to know whether or not we know that they’re paying higher gasoline prices, and that they’re worried about staying in their homes, and I do understand that.”
Here’s what I want to see: A president that sees the difficulties set before us as opportunities to achieve great things, to accomplish difficult deeds, and thereby achieve honor. The current prez? He doesn’t think this way, not even remotely.
The stage is beginning to be set for a new dawn in this country. And the clamoring naysayers and pessimistics must be drowned out by a beam of optimism. We don’t really have a choice, so we’d better accept our challenges and deal with them.
Posted by Rob at 04:33 PM | Comments (0)
July 18, 2006
My Basic Psychology for Losing Weight
1. Become sufficiently terrified.
People tend to fail at losing weight unless they experience mortal terror. It is actually good to have a vivid and in-your-face medical situation that impels you to change your behavior and habits. For me, my horrifying prospect was diabetes. For Ron, it was seeing his ailing father. For many others, who have not lost weight as they wished, chances are they are not scared enough. The first step, counter-intuitively, is becoming terrified. (However, for Brian, it was not this way: he simply felt it was time. He did not need to be terrified.)
2. Imagine a detailed picture of the body you want.
Once the terror gets a hold of you and you are fully motivated and thinking hard, you must create in your mind a highly detailed picture of what you want to look like, the way you want to look. This image must be from head-to-toe; each body part should be clearly imagined and in-focus—arm muscles, legs, abdominals, shoulders, even your neck—all clearly envisioned. Spend some time on creating this image because it is the very core of how you will stay strongly motivated in the face of obstacles. The more detailed the image you create, the stronger you will be in the face of temptations. If you find that you fall victim to the myriad of temptations out there, I'd wager that your image is too blurry, not focused, and that you need to re-form the details of the picture of your new body.
3. Search for an eating principle. Be curious about digestion.
By this I mean you must aggressively learn about your own body and determine what foods for you are best, and what are worst. Losing weight is much, much easier if you understand your digestive system. Most people have shockingly little knowledge about how their bodies operate and they wonder why they're not gaining the control that is so satisfying to acquire. Furthermore everyone is different and no single dieting plan or way of life is best for everyone. To that end, there are many eating principles out there to try: the Atkin's diet (this worked like a charm for me and Brian), the Mediterranean diet, various low-fat diets, Eat-Right-For-Your-Type, and many more. Once this eating principle becomes secured in your mind, you will find many eating decisions fall into place naturally and without any conflict: your life will become very simple and your body will be forced to respond.
Other Tips
- Losing weight comes primarily from changes in eating habits, not exercise. For regular people, e.g. not extreme athletes, the ratio of struggle should be 80% effort toward eating habits and resisting temptation, and 20% effort toward exercise.
- Study your own eating habits and examine your relationship to hunger. It's best to feel the sensation of real hunger at least once a day and reflect upon it. Yeah, it hurts a little, but then you have a snack and the hunger goes away. When you do this, it makes you appreciate food more and you feel direct feedback from your stomach that it's responding to your change in behavior. Your body will have no choice but to shrink.
- Examine your relationship to your "poisons". Many people have a weakness for specific types of food. If the incentives of your poison are stronger than your detailed picture of the new body you want then—guess what?—no weight loss. Try to instill in your mind that your imagined picture must always overpower the tempting nature of your poisons. This is how you psych yourself into successfully losing weight.
Posted by Rob at 09:25 PM | Comments (0)
January 10, 2006
The Burdens of Microsoft: Hackers? Or Itself?
Lately, a string of problems has Microsoft getting a little more than its usual dose of bad press.
Enormous software companies (such as Microsoft) suffer many difficulties — bad PR, anti-trust litigation, embarrassing dancing CEOs, and heavy abuse from hackers. But when seen from the perspective of difficulty, adversities such as these offer opportunities to overcome obstacles that smaller organizations never have. Little companies don't get put to the test the way big ones do; they are not subjected to this level of abuse and malevolence, but these trials make everything stronger, both their product and their organization... One would hope.
The hackers who exploit the holes within Microsoft are really doing it and the public a favor, an idea that I believe many people within Microsoft tacitly agree with. But from my layman's perspective, Microsoft does not appear to be learning from these experiences or taking advantage of the lessons that they present.
This leads me to wonder: who then is the greater burden for Microsoft? The hackers who so inconveniently and repeatedly yank down Microsoft's trousers? Or the fact that Microsoft keeps forgetting to wear a belt?
Hackers make you stronger. They are inconvenient, but they make you strong. Wear a belt, or suspenders, or whatever. Fool me once...
Posted by Rob at 08:40 AM | Comments (0)
December 23, 2005
The Lessons of Difficulty
What did New York learn from the TWU strike? What did I learn from it? And the TWU itself, what did it learn from its own strike?
New York, as a whole, learned a lot about annoyance; it learned that collectively the public is one gigantic irritant to itself and is very quickly brought to the brink of total breakdown. It learned about weakness, about dependence, and about the pain and discomfort of adaptation.
What did the TWU learn? It learned that its hands were tied from the beginning by the Taylor law and, even as it sought to cripple the city and bring it to its knees in order to prove its worth, it, the TWU itself, was legally crippled and not fully able to flex its muscle and apply the incredible leverage it has at its disposal.
What did I learn? I learned these past three days that my habit of regularly biking to work came in handy and that the winter-cycling apparel that I have was a very, very good thing to own. I learned that cycling to work in the winter (during normal transit conditions, during times with no transit strike) is largely one of nearly total isolation: no one is on the bike paths, no one is crossing the bridges, no one is bicycling down the bike lanes, and that it is blissfully boring and pleasant. I learned that anything disturbing mass transit ends up causing me, as I ride on my bike over the Brooklyn Bridge, a lot of irritation, a lot of anxiety, and literally, because of all the exhaust fumes I inhaled, a lot of headaches. Yep, I had a whopper last night the entire ride home, from the exhaust.
I wonder: what else can I, the TWU, and New York as a whole, learn from this experience? What kind of lessons can come from such a enormous and encompassing difficulty?
Posted by Rob at 04:22 AM | Comments (0)
December 22, 2005
The Great Metropolitan Crutch
Although the MTA Transit strike has disrupted the lives of millions of people in an intimate and very real manner, the strike is also revealing from an abstract point of view.
It shows, in incredible clarity, how dependent our society has become on heavy machinery, the heavy machinery like that used by the MTA subway system. These devices have become for us one gigantic CRUTCH. This machinery moves us, carries us to work and back home again; it allows us to run businesses, allows people who live far away to travel long distances to work; it does our heavy lifting, and in general we depend upon it to do our work for us. And without this crutch, what happens?
People, in general, have become annoyed. They ask: Where is our crutch? Where is the tool that we used to have? Are we not being deprived of this crutch? Is not this crutch our right? Upon the third day of the strike, I notice that people are settling in and adapting to new ways of getting to work, but that patience is waining, and the sense of irritation is heating up like a piece of coal.
I find it profitable to skew the issues surrounding the transit strike using this crutch metaphor: the Transit Union operates and controls the crutch, and the rest of us depend upon it and have taken it for granted; and when the Transit Union takes this crutch away, we suffer and have to limp along, metaphorically speaking, without it.
There are times when the injured or handicapped must not use crutches: they must move on their own. And so must we, without complaints, without anger, without irritation.
The crutch is gone, the training wheels are taken away, the starling falls from its nest and beats its wings. Difficulties like this make us stronger, do they not?
Posted by Rob at 12:56 PM | Comments (0)
December 21, 2005
Welcome to These Difficult Times! Welcome to the Transit Strike!
Welcome to These Difficult Times! Welcome to the Transit Strike!
On this blog I will write about and discuss what I will refer to as the Law Of Difficulty.
What is The Law Of Difficulty, you ask? It is a philosophical system of satisfaction and way of life that seeks to empower you, the reader of this webpage, with a simple (yet counterintuitive) path toward tangible satisfaction and pleasure. As you read these pages, I will continue to lay the groundwork and fundaments of this law.
But, to inaugurate this website first entry, I will begin with a short post about a central tenet of this philosophy, one that is exemplified by the disruptive effects of the New York City MTA Transit strike, which is currently choking the economy of New York to a grinding halt, in perfect synchronicity with the holiday shopping season.
THE TRANSIT STRIKE
Let me now state that I support the transit strike. As an agent of refreshing contrast to convenience, ease, and technology, the strike has forced millions of people to either stay home from work or to find another way, either by commuting by car with other people, or by bicycling, rollerblading, skateboarding, scootering, running, and, most of all, by walking.
What has the strike done to New Yorkers? It has deeply disrupted the lives of nearly every New Yorker. But has it ruined their lives? No. Has it forced them to appreciate the myriad of methods of transportation available to them, including their own legs and feet? Yes, it has. From the perspective of taking technology like this for granted, has the strike been a step backwards in technological progress? Yes, it has. But is this step backward refreshing? Yes, but only if you are a New Yorker who is prepared to forgo the conveniences of highway and railway transportation.
As a difficulty of obvious weight and importance to the New York metropolitan area, the transit strike is one that hits different people in different ways, but please remember this: Difficulties are not always burdens. Sometimes they present avenues to satisfaction.
After walking seven miles to work, did you not feel satisfied? After walking past people trapped in their cars, honking and impatient within the incredible gridlock that froze the island of Manhattan, did you not feel glad you at least could walk? When was the last time you appreciated the simple act of walking? If you are like me, sometimes you go a long time without thinking of little things like this.
The idea that difficulties are not always burdens is one of the central ideas within the Law of Difficulty.
Posted by Rob at 01:53 AM | Comments (0)