Sometimes, even the smartest people need to keep this in mind
Tuesday, October 29, 2013
Thursday, October 24, 2013
Red or Green are two sides of the same apple
Haven't had much time lately to think about anything other than differential equations or electric circuits and nobody really wants to see or discuss that. But I just saw this talk on TED and it hit home so much that I couldn't stop myself from taking the time from circuits to pick it apart. The talk is on jealousy and envy and though it doesn't bring any answers to the question or relief to the problem (other than misery loves company), it is still a very interesting listen.
So here it is. Envy is an integral part of our lives. Though it is frowned upon, at the same time society creates all the necessary conditions for it to flourish. For one thing, we are in constant competition with one another. And the hippie psycho-babble is that we are all special snowflakes and we are not in competition but we actually complete one another. Sure thing. So maybe I'm not competing with every single one of the 7 billion humans on Earth. But I am competing with the other guy interviewing for the same job as me. I'm competing with the other girl who is interested in the same man I am. I'm competing with the other smart-asses in my class for grades because of course we live in an academic system ruled by the bell-curve. And the most insidious competition of all, the one on social status that has been exacerbated and blown out of proportion through the powers of social media. We are more connected than ever, but at the same time, we never felt more alone and Facebook is just another way to ask, no rather, BEG for attention. And this makes us deeply unhappy. I don't know about you, but personally every single time I log on to Facebook I feel just a little bit worse. Because there's always someone who just went to Greece on vacation and posted their pictures or somebody who got invited to a party that you were left out of and now is describing what an amazing time they had. Facebook has become an endless competition to show off. Because as Tyler Durden so eloquently put it, "You are not a beautiful or unique snowflake. You're the same decaying organic matter as everything else. " Sure there are differences but there is a limit on the number of unique attributes you could have and we are all just a combination of the same ingredients with different concentrations. BECAUSE we are not so unique as our high school professors might have liked to make us believe, because our world is made up of limited resources for an ever-growing population and because we live in a market economy that only rewards the best of the best, because marketing is mostly based on exploiting unfulfilled desires, we are in competition with one another. Ultimately, we have to learn to ignore our natural impulses and the messages society sends us on a daily basis or else live in misery with only Proust and Shakespeare as company.
So here it is. Envy is an integral part of our lives. Though it is frowned upon, at the same time society creates all the necessary conditions for it to flourish. For one thing, we are in constant competition with one another. And the hippie psycho-babble is that we are all special snowflakes and we are not in competition but we actually complete one another. Sure thing. So maybe I'm not competing with every single one of the 7 billion humans on Earth. But I am competing with the other guy interviewing for the same job as me. I'm competing with the other girl who is interested in the same man I am. I'm competing with the other smart-asses in my class for grades because of course we live in an academic system ruled by the bell-curve. And the most insidious competition of all, the one on social status that has been exacerbated and blown out of proportion through the powers of social media. We are more connected than ever, but at the same time, we never felt more alone and Facebook is just another way to ask, no rather, BEG for attention. And this makes us deeply unhappy. I don't know about you, but personally every single time I log on to Facebook I feel just a little bit worse. Because there's always someone who just went to Greece on vacation and posted their pictures or somebody who got invited to a party that you were left out of and now is describing what an amazing time they had. Facebook has become an endless competition to show off. Because as Tyler Durden so eloquently put it, "You are not a beautiful or unique snowflake. You're the same decaying organic matter as everything else. " Sure there are differences but there is a limit on the number of unique attributes you could have and we are all just a combination of the same ingredients with different concentrations. BECAUSE we are not so unique as our high school professors might have liked to make us believe, because our world is made up of limited resources for an ever-growing population and because we live in a market economy that only rewards the best of the best, because marketing is mostly based on exploiting unfulfilled desires, we are in competition with one another. Ultimately, we have to learn to ignore our natural impulses and the messages society sends us on a daily basis or else live in misery with only Proust and Shakespeare as company.
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