Friday, September 02, 2005
China Rising
We should all start learning chinese. China's economic progress will fuel the world economy for the next two decades. With a population of almost 1.3 billion, it is in the interest of most businesses to make sure that they have a strategy that incorporates China.
Wednesday, August 31, 2005
On seeing and wisdom
Why is wisdom associated with the owl?
Maybe because they are supposed to have large eyes and somehow wisdom is connected to sight. So if you can see more you have more wisdom. Indeed the early roots of the English word wisdom are related to watching and our current definition does have the connotation of seeing with the "mind's eye".
Wisdom and knowledge are connected to seeing past or beyond what is superficially apparent, seeing the real beneath or behind the visible or pulling out the abstract.
Maybe because they are supposed to have large eyes and somehow wisdom is connected to sight. So if you can see more you have more wisdom. Indeed the early roots of the English word wisdom are related to watching and our current definition does have the connotation of seeing with the "mind's eye".
Wisdom and knowledge are connected to seeing past or beyond what is superficially apparent, seeing the real beneath or behind the visible or pulling out the abstract.
Tuesday, August 30, 2005
Researching Strategies
One of the best strategist in history, be it military, business, or otherwise, was the ancient Chinese General Sun Tzu ca. 400 - 200 BC. "The Art Of War", written by this general more than 2000 years ago, seems as relevant today as ever. His ideas on being adaptive and "formless" are informative because as he notes, if your competition does not know where to defend or plan to defend against you, then he will have to distribute his resources thinly. You then can concentrate your resources against a single point, focusing action toward a single objective and succeed with a much higher probability.
Monday, August 29, 2005
The physics of human "wants"
Some thoughts about the physics of desire or wanting.
Human desire denotes craving and points to a preference for a certain future event to occur or not occur. Also, human desire is a function of the arbitrary values individual's hold for objects. A person senses an object whether abstract or concrete, and places a value on either the use or possession of that object. The contrast between an individual's perception of the value of an object, with their perception of the likelihood of obtaining that value influences the degree of desire for that object.
Furthermore, most all desires have a motive of obtaining pleasure, avoiding pain, or insuring and or increasing the chance of survival of the individual or some other abstraction. Moreover, in some individuals, desires having to do with offspring or group survival issues, are tied to personal survival. Thus in many individuals the survival of offspring and or socio/cultural groups for which the individual feels connected, seems to supersede their personal survival instinct.
Equally significant, desire is related in some ways to individuals attempting to extend themselves or exercise control over something outside themselves. The human drive to control may be related to human being's structural makeup as well, in that the human body operates as a single organism by the nervous system exercising control over the body. Hence desire can be seen as an extension of an individual's internal control mechanisms.
Therefore, at a primitive level, the human consciousness makes no distinction between the internal self and the external world. The human "self" is predisposed to internalize and or personalize sensory input and continually reinterpret itself within the context of its perceived reality. The continual process of determining personal definition is related to a human being's sensory instincts that must constantly maintain a bearing as to its spatial orientation.
Additionally, curiosity is a manifestation of the control characteristics of human consciousness. The urge to know or understand the new or the unfamiliar is an example of the human consciousness attempting to find order and thereby exert control.
Lastly, hunger is an inborn human desire which may also feed all of the other types of desires as an emotional template or blueprint. Hunger is normally the first information that individuals try to communicate in the form of crying.
All in All, desire is the emotion produced along side of or as a result of an individual's natural attempts to exert control over everything from internal thoughts and physical processes to a myriad of externalities, both concrete and abstract. Pleasure, pain avoidance, and survival issues play roles in the mechanics of desire. The desire to define "self" and curiosity are examples of the human consciousness trying to determine its orientation.
Human desire denotes craving and points to a preference for a certain future event to occur or not occur. Also, human desire is a function of the arbitrary values individual's hold for objects. A person senses an object whether abstract or concrete, and places a value on either the use or possession of that object. The contrast between an individual's perception of the value of an object, with their perception of the likelihood of obtaining that value influences the degree of desire for that object.
Furthermore, most all desires have a motive of obtaining pleasure, avoiding pain, or insuring and or increasing the chance of survival of the individual or some other abstraction. Moreover, in some individuals, desires having to do with offspring or group survival issues, are tied to personal survival. Thus in many individuals the survival of offspring and or socio/cultural groups for which the individual feels connected, seems to supersede their personal survival instinct.
Equally significant, desire is related in some ways to individuals attempting to extend themselves or exercise control over something outside themselves. The human drive to control may be related to human being's structural makeup as well, in that the human body operates as a single organism by the nervous system exercising control over the body. Hence desire can be seen as an extension of an individual's internal control mechanisms.
Therefore, at a primitive level, the human consciousness makes no distinction between the internal self and the external world. The human "self" is predisposed to internalize and or personalize sensory input and continually reinterpret itself within the context of its perceived reality. The continual process of determining personal definition is related to a human being's sensory instincts that must constantly maintain a bearing as to its spatial orientation.
Additionally, curiosity is a manifestation of the control characteristics of human consciousness. The urge to know or understand the new or the unfamiliar is an example of the human consciousness attempting to find order and thereby exert control.
Lastly, hunger is an inborn human desire which may also feed all of the other types of desires as an emotional template or blueprint. Hunger is normally the first information that individuals try to communicate in the form of crying.
All in All, desire is the emotion produced along side of or as a result of an individual's natural attempts to exert control over everything from internal thoughts and physical processes to a myriad of externalities, both concrete and abstract. Pleasure, pain avoidance, and survival issues play roles in the mechanics of desire. The desire to define "self" and curiosity are examples of the human consciousness trying to determine its orientation.
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