Ethic economy

Yesterday I watched the video "Constructive Capitalism" - a presentation held by Umair Haque.

In this presentation he talks about old business rules that do not work any more nowadays - in this time of crisis. Instead he suggests to apply new rules and he named a few examples of companies and people who already switched there general strategies.

The video is quite long and the slides are unfortunately not very readable and there is also no option to rewind the video, so I tried to extract the new rules - the new focus - of economy he suggests:
  • Renew things instead of exploiting
  • Democracy instead of command
    (voting, discussions - explain, understand and reach consensus)
  • People, not product
    (no democracy without people)
  • War to peace
    (War is crisis of conflict, competition does not work
    because of the limitations of competition given by growth and monopoly,
    Obama won the elections because he did not provoke conflicts)
  • Connections, not transactions
  • Domination to equity
    (not try to dominate the market - create new markets)
  • Creativity, not productivity
  • Value to meaning
    (Crisis of nihilism - a lot of stuff that is done, is
    meaningless today - we often give value to numbers that are not very
  • Outcomes, not incomes
This reminds me to the song "Love Is The Seventh Wave". And it also reminds me to earlier posts about love and intentions...

Related posts: The power of intention, Best wishes to all, The big difference of the How, The most important things to know, Healthy motivation, An eye for an eye, Scoundrel days, The resource problem.


Think yourself

Do not believe in anything because you have heard it.
(words of Sakyamuni Siddhartha Gotama from the Kalama Sutta, Anguttara
Nikaya, Vol 1, 188-193, Pali Text Society Edition)
Related posts: Know better and act on it, Analysis and therapy.


Optimist meeting pessimist

Putting optimists and pessimists together is a potential conflict source. Under the shower I had the following thought:

The optimist should not cross the border to frivolity. The pessimist should not cross the border to angst/anxiety. If both go to meet each other they meet at reality.
And at reality you find people exercising reasonable care, being motivated by the positive goal in mind and with the intention of long-term positive evolution.

Related posts: Positivity barricades, The power of intention, Healthy motivation, Between short and long term goals, Success with optimism AND pessimism.


Between short and long term goals

Ever asked what you would do if you get notice that you will only have a few months left to live?

Sometimes when I get notice of critical illnesses around or when I hear from accidents then I ask this question to myself. In personal development blogs I read about how to achieve your dreams to give meaning to your life which I see somehow related.

It is somehow a question how you want to be remembered by
  • your partner
  • your family
  • your friends
  • your colleagues
  • the rest of the world
If you would get notice that you just have some months left, you probably would stay next to your family or - if you are not a family being - you would probably prefer to do something "great" before you die.

Some articles tell, you should focus on these important things NOW.

The problem with this is: If you are not going to die soon then what would you live from in a few months?

My conclusion is: You should think long term in your planning and goals. But you should not invest ALL your time in that. Keep in mind that you will probably never reach your final goals. You might not get to the big outcome when your goal is or your goals are reached, so you should enjoy the journey - in the short and long term context.

But there are things that are independent from long or short term view because it affects both - the eightfold path known from Buddhism (see also at Wikipedia) - known from Buddhism but IMHO is not limited to any particular religion or philosophy.

Related posts: As it would be the last day, The power of intention, Between GTD and GHE, Get focused with 3 questions., In the present moment, The big difference of the How, Principles over rules, Create consensus.


The power of intention

Some weeks ago I heard (already the second time) of Masaru Emoto and his water experiments. He freezes water after exposing to different type of music, different words etc and then takes pictures of the crystals that are built out by the freezing water. I have seen several pictures of frozen water crystals and I was stunned.

Searching the internet I found also several criticism about the work of Masaru Emoto. See Wikipedia or the statements of Kristopher Setchfield for instance.

I am not sure what to think about this controversal opinions. One thing I can say is: If there might be the possibility that the intentions, wishes and words that you put anywhere in this world do manifest in water or life forms then it makes sense to put positivity in this world.

I do focus on intuition during the last weeks and while in meditation state you can get also a better feeling of the intention - your own intentions and the intention of others.

My results so far are:
  • If you are open minded you can distinguish between people who are interested in doing positive things for others and those who think only about themselves.
  • People with positive intentions are liked more and one feels better being together with positive people.
  • People with positive intentions do emit peace and love and this gets multiplied.
For the empathetic person you can't hide your intentions. So watch your intentions and pay attention to your major orientation and goals.

May peace and love be your intention...

Related posts: When to criticize, How to be happy, Highly happy people, Healthy motivation, An eye for an eye, Positivity barricades, Between short and long term goals, Success with optimism AND pessimism, Optimist meeting pessimist, Ethic economy, The resource problem.


The time bandits

Although reading and implementing a lot of life hacking methods I get caught within useless meetings or do other work with less outcome than effort. Not talking about the countless interrupts while you are trying to do something important.
Often people learn to focus only in very tough times when there is no option and the focus on that one thing is the only choice to survive. You may know this from learning for exams or starting with an important work - often you start quite in the last moment.

It is sad, annoying and producing either aggression when you hardly try to be efficient and do your best and then others start or continue to waste your time. Others? Why others? If my time is wasted it is me wasting my time, isn't it?

Indeed, it is you wasting your time, but sometimes there are others contributing a lot to navigate you in such situations. Then often you can't really get out easily.

What can you do to avoid getting caught by the time bandits (yes I prefer the word bandit here in favor of thieve)?
  • Never attend a meeting without an agenda!

  • Avoid multitasking. As with computers doing two tasks in parallel means that both tasks get done slower and there is an overhead lost needed for the task switching!
    E. g. Never take the phone or switch to read emails if you are currently working on an important task or on a task that requires your full attention!

  • Have clear and priorities and goals (or direction where you want to go). For whatever comes up that does not meet these commitments define a late schedule.

  • Urge others to be concrete (have concrete goals and priorities). If you can't get concrete information immediately keep asking. Often the get away quickly if you ask the right questions, because they have no idea.

  • Don't jump on hypes just because it's a hype. Do your own critical investigation asking for the big benefit. Often there is no real benefit.

  • Don't start actions as long as others did not take their decisions. You cannot take all decisions for your customers, boss or partners - often it is simply not your job and you are not in the appropriate position. Although it seems to be less effort to take a decision than implementing a project often the decisions take far longer.
    Exception: If it has been declared that you do take all relevant decisions.

  • Learn to ignore things that others deposit on you just to get their mind flushed and cleared (this includes everything from annoying colleagues to news crying for attention.
    Exception: If they really have good and creative ideas.

  • Don't attempt to help others if they do not give the clear statement/commitment that they want to really solve their problem. You can identify such situations by watching the reaction of your first solution proposals or by asking for that commitment prior to further action.

  • Don't take the responsibility for a project that others drove into a mess and then just want to attach the problem to somebody else! You take the responsibility for your actions and others have to take their responsibility.
    Exception: You get hired especially for such an impossible mission and get payed accordingly.

  • Change the environment! Hard to accept, but you simply will never be able to have a power hour if many people are around you and can ask you any stuff by accident.

  • Instruct people that they should ask for your time in advance.
    They should ask for a schedule or at least do not immediately come up with their questions but rather ask before if you have time now. If the question is already told your concentration is gone. But a "No, come back in an hour" can be given automatically without loosing focus.

  • Learn to say "No" or learn to postpone the things that are not really important (procrastination can be useful). Some problems dissolve themselves if you do not disturb them.

Related posts: Time thieves and real news, Change the environment, When changing the environment does not help, Crying for attention, Hot air, Masked rot, Total cost of commitment, Change hype, Focus by direction, Find the root problem, Let 'em wait, Why not multitasking how to, How to rebuff somebody, Tell not more and not less, Razor sharp focus.