the meaning of life

been pondering this for quite a while. and i think i'm onto something pretty convincing, at least for myself. of course, probably the majority of this is bits and pieces of things i've read or heard about. but i've come up with some interesting theories to tie a lot of these things together. coming to these conclusions definitely has helped me understand what i'm really supposed to be doing here, and where i want to take my life.

what is the meaning of life?
it is simple from a macro perspective. and the most common answer is the correct one. we are here to find happiness, spread our positive influence, and ensure our genes are spread. we are genetically predisposed and driven to do so. i don't think anyone will question that. its an inner desire we are born with. everything we do after puberty can be linked to our desire to make sure our genes are spread before we die. why do we go to school, buy a car, buy a house, buy nice clothes, work out, get a job, get plastic surgery, wear makeup, beat up people, etc? to attract a mate, so we can procreate, and raise our gene hosts (aka children) to put it in the most dry way possible.

the long drawn out answer is when it gets interesting. you have to view our planet earth as one giant organism. and we are just the cells. the one difference in this analogy is that we have the choice to be benign cells, cancer cells, or a cell that helps the organism by helping other cells survive, replicate, spread good, and fight off the cancer cells. we have the choice to be one at any time.

the survival of the fittest genes
for an organism to live healthy, it needs to have a system in place so that the better genes have a higher chance of replicating, and the inferior genes have a hard time doing so. this explains why we do things like the list mentioned above, and why we spend every moment of our adult lives trying to advertise that the genes that we are carrying are good for replication by advertising our good health, physical beauty, intelligence, skill, charisma, ability to provide for others, or our high place in the social/cultural ladder. that is why all of these things are so innately attractive to the opposite sex. it is the ultimate test of life. you need to prove to yourself and others that your genes and upbringing is good enough to continue to go on for the good of more than just mankind, but everything that exists on our planet.

on the opposite side of things, if you choose to not follow this system, you won't be attracting the opposite sex any time soon. of course, some of these things listed are things we're born with, and its almost impossible to be a dud in every item listed. you will be able to initially attract someone, but you'll be in trouble if you fail to prove that you'll be able to do your part in the big picture, guarentee as much as possible that you'll be able to raise your children by any means, whether it be the ability to throw a spear into the heart of a wild boar wearing only a sash, or be financially abundant to where if something unspeakable to happen to you after the children are born, that they will continue to grow up healthy.

happiness is everybody's endgame
another thing just as important is to find happiness. This is why even if you have good genes, and you can show that you can raise a healthy family, if you cannot demonstrate that you can at least keep your partner happy for a very very long time, its another deal breaker.

here's my view (and I'm sure many people's view) of what happiness is. Like how it is said in Greek that there are many words for the word love, there should be many different words for happiness. it is true that driving a new ferrari off the lot may make you incredibly happy, but this type of happiness and the happiness that we are hoping to find in the big picture of life is not the same thing. the different levels of happiness may be adjacently mapped to our brains but there is only one type of happiness that we are all innately looking for. and if we had that, we wouldn't need anything else to heighten our emotion, because we would already be at the peak of happiness.

my picture of "true happiness"
-only reachable after having successfully raised healthy children (knowing my genes will continue to survive)
-a collective euphoric emotion shared by the family that you hope will never end.
-purely emotion based where physical world has no meaning, especially the ownership of material objects.

why do people adopt?
i would say whenever an adoption is made, there is some sort of compromise. whether you can't reporduce or maybe you are sacrificing the desire to pass off your genes so you can save a child. it would be an addition to the great "nurture vs nature" debate. and it would be one for the nurture argument stating that nurture is at the very least, as important as nature. just like spreading genes, you can spread your philosophy of life. and if you can do that successfully and in a potent way, is there really a difference than spreading your influence that will carry on for generations and generations for the good of mankind compared to spreading genetic predisposition? in a overall macro view, there is no difference. you are helping the big organism earth in the same way.

could married people with no kids be truly happy?
i truly believe in what i wrote, and i would say, you can find substitions and make compromises for a lot of things to achieve happiness to a certain level (pets, helping the needy, influencing people), but I think they would be missing out in a some way. Maybe they'll always feel like something is missing, or maybe they'll not know what they are missing and live completely happy lives. Can't say for sure. If these people don't do anything like spread their influence (even though they believe that they have good influence to share), these would be a good example of benign cells. They exist at one point in time, then the cells and genes are gone forever. their philosophy of life doesn't continue. It makes sense for the greater good that people who are willing to live lives with a selfish philosophy shouldn't be spreading genes or influence anyway.

money and the material world
it is true that money and material posessions doesn't have anything to do with the finding of happiness that i've been talking about, but money has a lot of purpose. just because you realize it doesn't have anything to do with the ultimate happiness, it doesn't mean you shouldn't make as much money as you possibly can.

what does money actually buy you?
1. health. you need money to feed yourself. even health comes before anything i've talked about.
2. a home (a roof over your head for your family).
3. added security (guarentee food will be at the table, that the mortgage will be paid, and that you're doing your best to protect your family from the "cancer cells" on this planet)
4. a climb up (or the catchup to) the social ladder. the higher you are up, the more appealing you'll be to the opposite sex. futher you are down, the less appealing you'll be. maybe this mainly applies to males.
5. free time (hopefully to improve yourself physically and mentally).
6. the biggest and most important, the ability to instantly help others become healthy. there is not enough money you can have to help feed and give medical attention to the less fortunate. as we speak, thousands of people die daily from famine. it is part of our calling to help mankind. unlike us who ponder what we should do with ourselves, people who can't feed themselves or go to the hospital because they are poor can't do anything without health first. unfortunately and forthunately money is probably the number one contributing factor. If we can feed a child for 11 cents a day, imagine what you can do with a million dollars. with money, you can impact lives directly, and instantly.

the soul
what is the soul, and how does it play a part in all of this? the soul is an internal system that analyzes our worth on earth, and is the governor to our happiness. it tests us to see if we should spread our genes, drives us to improve if we haven't proved our value yet. to achieve this, its the moderator and source of all types of emotions. it punishes us when we don't do well, it rewards us for being good, and drives us to improve.

cancer cells (bad people)
cancer cells are people who negatively affect the health of earth. whether they are hunting animals to extinction, killing people, or setting off nukes, unlike the people who try to improve the planet we live on, these cancer cells are out there to damage it. another example of cancer cells are like if someone now posesses a gun, and intends to use it maliciously, he skips through the systems that earth has set in place, and without proving himself to anyone, now posesses great power over others, and defiintely can spread his genes by force. he can also convince others to follow in his footsteps.

in conclusion, life is simple
why are these bad people on earth? why do some of us have cancer cells in our bodies? i haven't started pondering that question yet. i'm not trying to figure out how the planet was created, or how we got here on earth. i'm just trying to demystify that life is much simpler than what we probably expected. no one really knows how we come into existence. and it doesn't really matter that we don't know. trying to find out might not be a part of our business (and out of our level of understanding) because we are just a small part of the big organism and our roles when we've gotten here are simple. if you have mutated into a being with good genes, and/or have been nurtured with postive influences, spread it as much as you can. and don't just spread it, make sure its effectively spread. then we will be rewarded for it.

Thinking Out Loud: What is Intuition?

One topic that has been on my mind lately is the topic of intuition. Just what is it? What does having it mean to the one with the intution? What does having it mean to others around you? Can you have it now, but not have it later? Is there such thing as good or bad intuition? Is it based on past and present experience, or is it judged on one event? Can you improve your intuition?

How is intuition related to things like psychic abilities, the sixth sense, premonition, insight, luck, and prediction? Is based on results that come from experience, and being able to assess (read) the situation and seeing the results after having performed the decided action as a whole?

Here's my currently answer so far. Intuition is something others can believe that you have. Once someone believes you have it, they will gain trust in your ability to make decisions on their behalf, even if they (the someone) doesn't fully understand the reasoning you made the decision with at the moment. The people that believe you have intuition believe that your intuition does come from experience along with the trust that they will be acting on the greater good if you leave it up to them. And also believes that there is an intangible factor at play, and that the person with intuition has some extra-ordinary power, whether it be an ability to predict the future, or accomplish near impossible feats. The person with the intuition also knows that the majority of his intuition come from past experiences. But a small part might be attributed to knowing he's holding the building blocks to a puzzle that he can solve, and acting on that belief without actually having put the pices together before the action.

In conclusion, intuition is the trust in one's abilities based on previous experiences. If you want to believe you have it, you will have to trust in your abilities to solve new problems having gained the building blocks from previous experiences to solve the problem at hand. If you want others to believe you have it, you need to demonstrate it, and the more times you do it, the stronger the belief you will establish. If you want to improve it, number one thing is experience. Experience and master the important building blocks to any problem you might need to face in the future. Demonstrate to yourself and others that you can solve new problems with the building blocks you have gained from your previous experiences.

leadership, communiation, trust, rapport in a nutshell

being the ceo of a company where I need to inspire people to work basically for free until we are profitable, learning the art of leadership has been one of my main focuses.

As John C Maxwell states, whatever someone says, leadership is influence. nothing more. nothing less.

Everyone looks to the leader for leadership. Whether you are not a leader at all, or the leader of the country, you need to acknowledge that the hierchy is there. of course, at the top of the branch, you might find God, the president, or a personal mentor. but if you are somewhere in the middle, you can make the climb up. it'll just take a lot of work.

there are two types of leaders. Positional leaders, and true leaders. Positional leader can be best described as someone with the title of leader, but without the trust and rapport from the followers. Furthermore, the positional leaders stay as positional leaders because they do not spend the time or see value in establishing trust and rapport with the followers. A positional leader might not sound like a bad position to be in, but if you break it down, they are a big liability. Positional leaders rub people the wrong way. He asks for a hand without the trust of his followers, and it can create tension and generally rub people the wrong way in any situation whether in a business or even at a party.

Anyone remember Lumberg in the movie Office Space? I can't think of a better example of a positional leader. It is clear, he has no intention of building trust and rapport with his staff, and when he asks for people to come in on the weekend. It is difficult for him to ask so he starts off like "ummm....yeah...". He's not in the position to ask for any help, and his staff is obviously not interested. But because he is in the position, people will come in, but don't expect them to be movtivated. If they do any work at all, they are doing it out of obligation, and they will only do the work they feel obligated to do.

This is why ceo's and officers in companies are paid so well. They all generally hold some good leadership qualities which translates to a lot of influence. imagine if your boss, that you have respect for, have a lot of trust in, and you know that he is looking out for you, asked you to work over the weekend. Would you do it? Of course. You probably would feel touched that he came to you personally and asked for help. You are going to give it 100%.

Rapport building 101 - Connect with people.

-Before anything, people need to buy into you, before they buy into your vision. This is one part you cannot immediately establish without a reputation. To to able to immediately establish this, this is where the time and energy you invested in networking and establishing your reputation pays off. If you do not have that, you need to spend the time to get across that you are genuinely a good person, can be trusted, and practice what they preach.

-Find some common ground. Find something you both share, whether it be a hometown or interest. So that you have a common ground to understand eachother below the verbal communication level. And if you had to make a decision, he would trust you to make a decision in not only his behalf, but a decision that is the best decision for the whole group.

-Pay attention to their interests and passions. This is generally what people talk about naturally. When they mention something they are passionate about, take notice, and when the opportunity arises, let them know you've listened by an action. One of John Maxwell's laws of leadership states, you must first touch people's hearts before you ask for a hand.

With some practice, you can establish rapport, and gain trust upon the first meeting. But like anything, takes some practice to be able to do it well.

The fastest way to lose trust and rapport from your followers
You can pretty much throw away all the work you put in gaining people's trust and inflence in a heartbeat if you exhibit a slip in character by:
-not practicing what you preach.
-overlooking the decision that is best for the group for personal gains.

if you do that, you'll need to spend a lot more time to gain trust back. exponentially more than you spend establishing the relationship in the first place.

applying your influence doesn't always have to be about the big stuff. it fully applies in any situation with any group of people. whether you are hosting a party, or out at the movies with a big group of people, everyone wants to accomplish the same goal. without a leader, you'll have to reach a group consensus, which is no easy task. with a true leader, he will lead the group and be able to communicate (with the aided help he has from the trust he's gained with the group) that the next action he proposes is the best action for the entire group. either the group will feel like he just read their minds and that you are looking out of their interests, or if they think the decision is something they wouldn't have chosen personally, they'll trust in his judgement and follow you wholeheartedly.

in conclusion, whether you'll be leading a group or not, you should always establish communication, trust, and rapport with just about anyone. establish it as quick as possible. stronger the better. always work on improving your relationship with them. so that if the time arises when you need to ask anyone for a hand (this situation will always arise) you'll already be in the position to do so.

it is true that some people are born with the ability to lead, but leadership is a skill, and every aspect of leadership can be learned. you may be born with leadership skills, but the best leaders are the best leaders because they've made it a practice to keep improving their leadership abilities.

new website up

major revisions to the company website. thanks to peter for the awesome content.

the site is better suited for 800 x 600 resolution. tons of more content. more professional feel. we have more than one product now, and the site reflects that (no longer single product feel) the site is search engine optimized as titles and headings are dynamically geneated through asp. lots of marketting on the website.

"The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing." - Albert Einstein

As I was driving back from Rock Bottom, I saw a guy pretty much parked in front of a busy intersection. I thought it was just a stranded motorist, but upon closer inspection as I was driving away as the light turned green, the guy was passed out in the drivers seat, with his door wide open. I knew he needed assistance. But it was at a somewhat busy intersection, and for a second, I thought, someone must have already called 911, because it was so obvious he needed help, bad. And I hadn't even looked at what the cross street was. Then I realized, who cares if a hundred people called it in already. One more call, whether it be the first one, or the 101th, police weren't there yet, and no one else was helping him, and I realized it must be done. I made a quick U-turn, got the cross street, and called 911. Amazingly when I called, it from what I could tell from the operator, I was the first one calling in. Luckily for the guy, he had left himself exposed half a mile away from a the fire department, police station, (and even 2 hospitals). After I had to make another U-turn far down the road to get back to his side of the road to see if I can park anywhere, the police had arrived, with the firetruck about a quarter mile away, I knew I had done all I could. Whether it was shock, heartattack, stroke, or botched carjacking, if I hadn't called it in, he would have had to wait longer, maybe seconds...or maybe even minutes. Not sure what the outcome was, and its none of my business, but I drove with the certainty that the outcome for him couldn't have been any better. It was definitely a spiritual experience.

Good things come in 3's?

Today was one of those out the blue great days. Woke up, and saw a evaluation request. Then while talking to my sales guy, our first eval guy who i thought I could have done better in presenting him the product, and his evaluation kit was loaded with bugs finally emailed us.

I thought we let him slip through our fingers, but he emailed us today saying that he is most likely gonna go with us because he sees a great amount of value in our product. And we know how much the other products suck. I always said, if they are willing to evaluate, they are going to buy. I definitely don't like losing any prospects.

Then got another eval request from someone big. Small hint... They make airplanes...

Other than that, might take a little time, for another prospect, the sale is pretty much in the bag. The interesting thing is, he hasn't even evaluated yet. And may just buy it without an evaluation first because we showed him exactly what he was looking for.

My primary sales guy has been training 2 other guys today on our product, and these 2 guys are now pumped after I hit one out of the park when I demo'd the product to the new sales guys today. They are now eager to make some sales calls.

Sleep Phase Monitoring Alarm Clock

Just bout an axbo

http://www.digitalreviews.net/reviews/miscellaneous/axbo-sleep-phase-alarm-clock.html
Had to order from europe. Denmark? It was ~$283 shipped.

there are 2 other products.

SLEEPTRACKER. Almost half the price. No problem getting it in the US. Plentiful at Amazon.

Supposedly the axbo is better because the wrist band is more comfortable than a watch, and the alarm is better (and no worries about it being covered.) Not sure about underlying technology.

SleepSystem is unreleased, but it is the most promising because it actually uses brain waves (it seems) to determine your stage of sleep. most accurate. it was a hot topic as a cog sci major at UCSD. Good to see products finally exist. Unfortunately you can't get SleepSystem right now, and i need something now.