Alexander T Lê

Prestige, Vanity, Success, Truth... Nov 11, 2011

2011-11-10T23:52:00.000-08:00

"You went to a shit school, perhaps you should try in your next life"

Prestige, Vanity, Success, Truth...

The world wants to prove you constantly wrong, people are naturally small minded. We live in our own shell in disregard to others. Some more so than others.

Delusions of Prestige

Prestige is a social construct of relative norms. Perhaps all ideas are. It is in this context the human nature of differentiation, categorization, and organization do perceived differences occur. There are varying degrees of importance with each separated idea from the given whole. Prestige comes in where relative value is established. Value judgements formed by individual context. Once a norm is established of a 'thing' being better or best relative to similar choices, admiration and prestige is associated.

The fallacy of prestige perhaps lies in the fact that in the short term view it is eternal, but in reality it is ephemeral and truly delicate just as the whims of human nature. What truly exist in a perceived reality are simply choices and relative value judgements of these choices. Take away value judgement and what you are left with are choices. The value judgement is what makes the notions in themselves ephemeral. What is concrete of this prestige are just the choices, but the choices are not prestigious with out the value attached by some short term norm or standard.

To categorize and organize which is normal and fine with human nature is ok. Attaching notions of value and prestige are ok. One must not let decision making, choice and emanating behavior from such notions are not dominate ones character.

Vanity is a double edge sword...

to those who are vain and to those attack vanity. The truth is as I wrote before is we all hold models that we feel are static. The tension and stress occurs because the actualities of what we model are not static. Perhaps all conflict arises from this notion. Perhaps it is perfect communication that holds the complete resolution to all conflict. Though the perceived world is imperfect, and we can only get close as possible to perfection.

The relevance; those who are vain will feel conflicted when attacked by those who attack such vanity. If harmony is the end goal, both sides loose. One can mitigate the stress that arises from an attack on vanity by understanding ones own weakness and as to why the attack was onset.

Of course harmony is more often than not the end goal. When one attacks, it is completely up to the defender on how they wish to defend. Perhaps defending in such a manor to side step the blow and whisk past and move on with life is the best solution. This places the defender above the attackers relative scale of importance.

The defense becomes an offense and it is now the attacker who must choose what to do. Get left behind again or move on and try and catch up.

Success is cocaine

Those who succeed only are may be dangerously full of vanity and notions of self prestige. Failure is in abundant supply to such individuals waiting to restore equilibrium. To those who've only succeeded their whole existence perhaps has only lived a life within comfort zones and lack of risk. In this sense cocaine is relative.

To those who bark of vanity, success, and prestige only hold themselves back from ascertaining some sense of semblance and peace to the self. Forgetting everything above also will have the same effect.

Sober yourself with some failure. Balance out with good streaks of success.

The truth is the truth

What is, is. We may have the truth dead right in our minds at times and we may have deluded ourselves far from the truth. The two cases are not separate and should not be perceived as so. Be as just is, and live according to perceived notions of what is in a disciplined manor. This should not be a central theme when trying to move through existence. If one wishes to make it so, so it shall be.

Here is the system, here is how the world is perceived by varying forms of X, and here is how you perceive the world. React to what is given according to what is perceived.

Notes - Nov 11, 2011

2011-11-10T09:12:00.000-08:00

Notes to proceeding with introspection and developing focused writing.

Career Goals
Why am I doing X
Why am I at X currently
Why do I want to go to X if so
Use headings and topics to constrain
Use active voice
Find a central theme/story - what is the impetus of what you are doing
use specific details
what is my personal motivation?
What is my Modus Operandi
What are my strengths and Weakness
How do my Strengths and weakness apply/help/hurt in different contexts
Self discovery
Having Fun
Use vivide details and anecdotes
Show unique personality
Define leadership
Show internationality and culture

Its really funny that you need all these things to communicate with others to reach an end goal. Academic institutions are very funny if you think about it. It is kind of like the South Park idea of conformity or the current mainstream idea of hipsterdom.

The ultimate non-comformity is to conform since by not conforming you are conforming. It is so mainstream hence I will not engage with it. Though such a mentality is now the majority and not the minority.

Essentially we have to be a non-conformist and be the outlier from the norm, yet the institution we will converge to leads to non-diversification of the same types of outlier people in which it becomes the norm itself in this subset (human nature converges where dislocations exist).

**side note** I've always wanted to write about the ideas of human demography/genetics or in financial markets the ideas of diversification and to what point does differing become the norm and loose its diversified effect. ****

As I always will say, it is what it is. So therefore I will conform in trying to be non-conformist and unique. Hopefully I can apply the above notes in my continued writings.

The First Step Introspection - Nov 11, 2011

2011-11-10T08:28:00.000-08:00

Notes to introspection.

Introspection is key in being able to communicate effectively to others in relation to helping others with their own goals as well as ourselves.

Introspection in learning/discovering/figuring out who one is in a specific given context. I have always said that half the game is won when one knows himself very well and knows what he wants out of life. Once that part is understood, life's puzzle pieces fall together much easier once this is known.

I say the sooner the better one knows himself the better off he is. Of course the idea of self is something dynamic. Just like the idea of 'edge' in various strategic endeavors in life. Of course, without getting too deep into existential or metaphysical elements, it would help if one understands the parts of themselves that are relatively stable or constant in their essences. These 'stable' parts of essences of course vary in degree in stability from person to person. Some people are made up of more dynamic parts overall while some people just have VERY steady parts that change very little in life. And these two such dynamics in themselves can be characterized as the stable elements of one's essence.

Now some may argue that trying to know oneself to early with out age, wisdom, or experience is not possible. For those who possess more dynamic multiple stable parts of essence will have to continually update and re-evaluate and introspect more often than those who are more stable throughout life. Of course one way out of this is completely tricking oneself into developing fully stable elements of the self in order to pursue a given path early. Again, I would like to avoid Kierkagaardin ideas of self and divergence from this self. I will take it more as we can create self-fulfilling prophecies and those in themselves become truth. Of course than there are economic ideas of efficiency in picking the wrong parts of essence of the self to focus on. Those self fulfilling prophecies may lead to non-true self paths or less efficient paths, there are ways to use the stable characteristics of self essence into making the self fulfilling path a profitable endeavor in a fulfilling sense.

(perhaps some element of being truthful to the self needs to be address to fill the holes)

So in short know thyself. Know thyself well, and at best try to focus and develop the bigger picture around yourself and your stable characteristics.

ON a very simplistic level know yourself and figuring out the rest of life is much easier. How one begins to learn and know about oneself is an arduously complicated process perhaps. Or if we so choose so, it can be extremely easy short and simple.

So one can define this themselves of the essence of self and who they are and what they want to a certain extent.

All of this is discovered through introspection.

Introduction NOV 10 2011

2011-11-09T09:24:00.000-08:00

Perhaps its time I start writing more pro-actively again. Introspection is definitely needed. I need to be able to connect the internal to the external. I need to be able to see the smallest leaves and trees, to understanding the forest and earth and universe as it is...

It is often that the human nature will seek a story. And it is a story we need to tell and most importantly know how to communicate it to attach some sort of relevance to it in attempts to making things clear.

Human delusions it seems to me. Reductionism at its best is still part of something that needs to be reconnected from which it came. The big picture is nothing with out its smaller counter parts. Compartmentalization to delude ourselves into rationalization. True or not it is what is and must be done.

And so forth here I am trying to understand something that simply is. Trying to attach some significance and some story to it. My grammar terrible, my writing style disgusting, my thoughts jumbled and here and there and about. A teacher a writer would cringe at reading this vomit. But here it is. Me trying to spill my guts in order to trick myself into truly believing something that I will self-fulfill and make meaningful in "the end."

I've attempted this writing style in my work writings to jumble my analysis and try to summarize it for clarity since I know everyone cannot be "clairvoyant"... is that word even used correctly?

Well here it is:

I am at a transitory stage in my life
I need to make sense of my own life in order to be able to communicate it to others
I need to write a coherent story so others can relate and attach some meaningful significance to it within a certain social standard and context
I do all this in order to reach some short term and long term goals
So despite any existential underpinnings irregardless of what is and what is not I form my context and constraints (As a theology teacher once told me, religion is just philosophy with the constraints of sacred text being held as true. It is within this context theology explores its nature; similarly I approach my self introspection as so)

2009-11-29T18:54:00.000-08:00

" I think one of the worse things in life is knowing you belong somewhere and never getting there."

2009-07-30T08:28:00.000-07:00

You know, my father once told me that one thing he wished he had growing up was a fatherly figure. At the young age of 14 my dad lost his paternal father. My dad told me this when I was fairly young. In my younger days I thought about it but never could fully grasp what he meant. Though, as I get older it just makes more and more sense as to what he was trying to convey.

The benefits of having a strong strict disciplined guidance maybe a luxury many people take for granted. I’m not saying that I had none such luxuries, but my rebellious nature and stubbornness may have prevented myself from taking advantage of such circumstances.

It is often because of such situations that people, or at for myself at least that I can for surly speak of, must learn the hard way. Having someone there, to tell you with certainty, outcomes you may not have realized seems cliché. But as cliché as it maybe, it is often that people ignore these clichés as they materialize and at such a point in time it is already too late to turn back.

Young people will never comprehend the power of wisdom, experience and age until it happens. And old people all too often forget the nature of youth, and the surprises that the youth will constantly challenge the aged with; the cyclic nature of a tug-o-war called life.

As I get older I realize these blunders and hold the slightest amount of regret in my heart. But, these days there is no time to worry about such seemingly trivial matters of the past, and instead I just got to take what I got and run with it as far as I can before it really gets too late.

As Jackie Chan ones said in an interview:

“Do everything that you can while you are still young” … or at least something like that…

-Alex

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