Monday, April 20, 2009
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Pet Peeves!
"Peeves" isn't really the right word for what I have in mind, but there is no better one. I mean, sure, I could say "My interesting issues," or "Things that I think are important," or "My ideas," but those seem so, so, blah. So, what are these mental pressure points? What are these things I have pushing at my psyche like apple peal stuck between my teeth? Well, here they are in a nutshell!
1) Someone needs to start an InterNet Nano Bank that automatically keeps track of NanoBuck debits and payments that are based on the hits our Internet sites attract and the hits that our usage generates on other people's sites. They get some nanobucks from our account when we use their information, I get some nanobucks from them when they use my sites. A nanobuck is 1 millionth of a dollar, or 1/10,000th of a cent. This may seem small, but when one generates millions of hits a day, they start to add up. This would put all of us bloggers and many other web activists on the payrole instantaneously!
2) Ok, next on the list is IQ Phobia! How did we ever get the idea that knowing our IQ would be a bad thing? What if someone told you that knowing your shoe size would be a bad thing? Would you buy that? They might say, "Knowing your size would prevent you from trying on all those smaller or larger shoes!" or, "Knowing your shoe size would prevent you from growing bigger feet!" Hogwash! Knowing your shoe size makes it possible to find the right fit without a lot of wasted anxt trying on every shoe in the store. Well, the same is true for IQ. People who have a high one will never be really happy in a job that doesn't let them use it. People who have a low one will never be happy in a job that requires them to have a higher IQ than they have!
Here is the bottom line. People have to get over their belief that IQ is any more important than our height, weight, complexion, hair color, age, etc. There is nothing wrong with telling a ten- year-old he is too young to drink. By the same token there is nothing wrong with that ten-year- old knowing that he is ten! Know thyself...isn't that good advice. You can take a quickie IQ test online, or just look at your school records to find out yours. Believe me, doing so can do no harm and may just help you understand yourself and your situation better.
Ok, all that said, I know I have a high IQ. Well, not that high... I mean, I'm like 2 in 100 high. That's not like Einstein who was 1 in a million high. No, my IQ is just high enough for me to feel like I really can understand most things I put my mind to, but not so high that I want to make a living out of being like totally smart! But, IQ isn't everything. There are a lot of different dimensions of mental life that contribute to our "practical intelligence." One of these is what the IQ researchers call "ideational fluency." It is the ability to think outside the box.
A good example of this would be the people who realized early on when credit-card companies were giving frequent-flyer miles when the customer "bought" traveler's checks that they could get "free" airline tickets. Here is how it worked... Traveler's checks are like cash almost. So, these people, put $20,000 in traveler's checks on their credit card, deposited the $20,000 in their checking account and used it to pay off the credit card bill before the end of the month in order to avoid paying interest, and viola! they got a completely FREE domestic air ticket! These unscrupulous people saw a huge outside-of-the-box opportunity and many of them took advantage of it, until the credit-card companies got wise to them... So, a lot of times people with a modest IQ and a low ethical IQ can be very high on ideational fluency and do very, very well in problem-solving or creativity positions.
But, the fact that we do not yet have a standardized way to measure and report our Ideational Fluency Quotient (IFQ), does not for a minute excuse us from the need to know ourselves as well as we can. We should all know our IQs! Just my opinion...
3) Since the third time is the charm, I think I'd better cut straight to the real bottom line panacea...Zen. Yes! If you haven't read my Zen books, then you don't know that, with all of the deep and sophisticated wisdom I have gathered throughout my relatively long life, I have come to the conclusion that the best thing for everyone in the world to do is daily Zen meditation which is called zazen. The reason I think zazen is THE PANACEA for the planet is that it is! So, don't ask why I think it is, just accept my judgment for once. There is no way that anyone could explain what Zen is or why daily zazen practice might resolve our personal and cultural ills, so forget that. All you need to know is that zazen meditation is a very natural and very powerful way to address our mental malaise. It is totally without any doctrine or any belief system to impose on the student. The only thing we can possibly acquire via such a practice is a deeper understanding of ourselves. With that deeper self understanding we can then begin to understand our loved ones and our not-to-loved-ones better. We can find better ways to be in the world. Being, is the art that zazen strengthens in us. Just being who we really are. If you think that being who you really are would be a bad thing, then you need to WAKE UP!
So, start a zazen practice NOW!
I'll explain how to do it in my next post just in case you haven't read ANY of my books!
....to be continued...
1) Someone needs to start an InterNet Nano Bank that automatically keeps track of NanoBuck debits and payments that are based on the hits our Internet sites attract and the hits that our usage generates on other people's sites. They get some nanobucks from our account when we use their information, I get some nanobucks from them when they use my sites. A nanobuck is 1 millionth of a dollar, or 1/10,000th of a cent. This may seem small, but when one generates millions of hits a day, they start to add up. This would put all of us bloggers and many other web activists on the payrole instantaneously!
2) Ok, next on the list is IQ Phobia! How did we ever get the idea that knowing our IQ would be a bad thing? What if someone told you that knowing your shoe size would be a bad thing? Would you buy that? They might say, "Knowing your size would prevent you from trying on all those smaller or larger shoes!" or, "Knowing your shoe size would prevent you from growing bigger feet!" Hogwash! Knowing your shoe size makes it possible to find the right fit without a lot of wasted anxt trying on every shoe in the store. Well, the same is true for IQ. People who have a high one will never be really happy in a job that doesn't let them use it. People who have a low one will never be happy in a job that requires them to have a higher IQ than they have!
Here is the bottom line. People have to get over their belief that IQ is any more important than our height, weight, complexion, hair color, age, etc. There is nothing wrong with telling a ten- year-old he is too young to drink. By the same token there is nothing wrong with that ten-year- old knowing that he is ten! Know thyself...isn't that good advice. You can take a quickie IQ test online, or just look at your school records to find out yours. Believe me, doing so can do no harm and may just help you understand yourself and your situation better.
Ok, all that said, I know I have a high IQ. Well, not that high... I mean, I'm like 2 in 100 high. That's not like Einstein who was 1 in a million high. No, my IQ is just high enough for me to feel like I really can understand most things I put my mind to, but not so high that I want to make a living out of being like totally smart! But, IQ isn't everything. There are a lot of different dimensions of mental life that contribute to our "practical intelligence." One of these is what the IQ researchers call "ideational fluency." It is the ability to think outside the box.
A good example of this would be the people who realized early on when credit-card companies were giving frequent-flyer miles when the customer "bought" traveler's checks that they could get "free" airline tickets. Here is how it worked... Traveler's checks are like cash almost. So, these people, put $20,000 in traveler's checks on their credit card, deposited the $20,000 in their checking account and used it to pay off the credit card bill before the end of the month in order to avoid paying interest, and viola! they got a completely FREE domestic air ticket! These unscrupulous people saw a huge outside-of-the-box opportunity and many of them took advantage of it, until the credit-card companies got wise to them... So, a lot of times people with a modest IQ and a low ethical IQ can be very high on ideational fluency and do very, very well in problem-solving or creativity positions.
But, the fact that we do not yet have a standardized way to measure and report our Ideational Fluency Quotient (IFQ), does not for a minute excuse us from the need to know ourselves as well as we can. We should all know our IQs! Just my opinion...
3) Since the third time is the charm, I think I'd better cut straight to the real bottom line panacea...Zen. Yes! If you haven't read my Zen books, then you don't know that, with all of the deep and sophisticated wisdom I have gathered throughout my relatively long life, I have come to the conclusion that the best thing for everyone in the world to do is daily Zen meditation which is called zazen. The reason I think zazen is THE PANACEA for the planet is that it is! So, don't ask why I think it is, just accept my judgment for once. There is no way that anyone could explain what Zen is or why daily zazen practice might resolve our personal and cultural ills, so forget that. All you need to know is that zazen meditation is a very natural and very powerful way to address our mental malaise. It is totally without any doctrine or any belief system to impose on the student. The only thing we can possibly acquire via such a practice is a deeper understanding of ourselves. With that deeper self understanding we can then begin to understand our loved ones and our not-to-loved-ones better. We can find better ways to be in the world. Being, is the art that zazen strengthens in us. Just being who we really are. If you think that being who you really are would be a bad thing, then you need to WAKE UP!
So, start a zazen practice NOW!
I'll explain how to do it in my next post just in case you haven't read ANY of my books!
....to be continued...
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