6 Truths to Make You a Better Person

Off Topic
41

[quote]ukrainian wrote:

[quote]Otis Rush wrote:
So we should all strive to become corporate wage slaves that reduces all human interaction to: “what’s in it for me?”

He raises a few interesting points, but his #1 point has no purpose other than to reinforce his bias. [/quote]

I think you misunderstood the article. He was more so saying that we shouldn’t look to the world to make us feel special just because we are who we are. He also never said just go into the corporate world. Skimming doesn’t count as reading. [/quote]

I didn’t misunderstand anything. His central message boils down to: you need to offer value to people, and you need to be a person of action.

That as a standalone would be acceptable, but it’s mired in his own personal bullshit. What does the message of his favorite glengarry speech convey? That a person’s measure of worth is bound up in how much money they can earn for themselves and their employers. Wong goes on to say: “Your job-the useful thing you do for other people-is all you are.” Then finishes by saying it’s a mechanism of the universe, and nothing can be done about it.

42

[quote]Otis Rush wrote:

[quote]ukrainian wrote:

[quote]Otis Rush wrote:
So we should all strive to become corporate wage slaves that reduces all human interaction to: “what’s in it for me?”

He raises a few interesting points, but his #1 point has no purpose other than to reinforce his bias. [/quote]

I think you misunderstood the article. He was more so saying that we shouldn’t look to the world to make us feel special just because we are who we are. He also never said just go into the corporate world. Skimming doesn’t count as reading. [/quote]

I didn’t misunderstand anything. His central message boils down to: you need to offer value to people, and you need to be a person of action.

That as a standalone would be acceptable, but it’s mired in his own personal bullshit. What does the message of his favorite glengarry speech convey? That a person’s measure of worth is bound up in how much money they can earn for themselves and their employers. Wong goes on to say: “Your job-the useful thing you do for other people-is all you are.” Then finishes by saying it’s a mechanism of the universe, and nothing can be done about it. [/quote]

That is your bias speaking, you could be self employed, you could employ people.

And yes, that is the same principle, because either you create value for other people or you are worth nothing to them.

43

So the moral of the story is… ???

tweet

44

I just want to say people who post this kind of stuff on facebook are probably the least likely to actually do any of it…

45

[quote]pat wrote:
Ha! Good thing I have already made those adjustments the thing I learned about people in life is the following:

  • Everybody is the most important person in the world, to themselves.
  • Nobody really, actually gives a shit about you. They are only nice when being around you bring benefit to themselves.
  • Everybody thinks they are the best employees.
  • Work doesn’t give the slightest shit about you, only what you can produce. And it doesn’t matter what it is, you can lose your child, get maimed in a drive-by, etc… (basically any terrible life situation that one would think draws pity) if you aren’t producing they will can you, period. And they don’t give the slightest fuck about what you did yesterday.
  • However little people give a shit about you, they give even less of one about your kids. They don’t care if your kids is a football star, gets good grades, came up with a revolutionary drug that cures cancer, etc. NOBODY gives a crap about your kids, they don’t want to talk about them and they damn sure don’t want to see pictures and most people would rather hang themselves to see a video about your kids. Your kids are only cute and special to you.
  • Most people think that the opposite of the above is true…about themselves.

In other words, we are all a bunch of naive ego maniacs who thinks they are important. We watch shows like “Housewives” or “toddlers and tiaras” to laugh at those qualities in others. We may be more subtle, but often not much better.[/quote]

We only have one lens in which we see the world, how can blame us?

46

[quote]orion wrote:

And yes, that is the same principle, because either you create value for other people or you are worth nothing to them.

[/quote]

Not really. That line of thinking is for the very naive (including the author, a no-mark who’s probably never worked a day in a suit) or for the very naive.

A person can be very good at their job, extremely good, in fact, but be a fucking asshole or even really - just not in line with the “company culture” and get shoved into cold storage or stuck under a glass ceiling. Don’t believe it? It happens all the time. I work in IT - I’ve seen wizards and gurus, people who can code or route rings around average dudes get passed over on promotions for the very same average joes. Why? Because of worse inter-personal skills, because they didn’t get on so well with the boss, or maybe they were fucking the bosses secretary - who knows? But its not a simple A vs B, A is better at his job than B, so A goes farther in life. No way.

Life is not a fucking episode of House MD where people will bend over and “deal with it” if you are a genius with seriously lousy personal skills and personality disorders.

Pretty much the BEST (or only) job for an asshole is the sales job - as personified by the Baldwin in the Glengarry Glen Ross clip. Guess why - because job is quantifiable (sales numbers) as well as salesmen are out of the office most of the time so people don’t have to deal with your pompous ass so long as you are bringing in the goods. You pull that kind of shit on a more subjective role (HR, IT, Project Management) and there will be repercussions unless you’re the chairman’s son. I guarantee it.

47

[quote]Otis Rush wrote:

[quote]ukrainian wrote:

[quote]Otis Rush wrote:
So we should all strive to become corporate wage slaves that reduces all human interaction to: “what’s in it for me?”

He raises a few interesting points, but his #1 point has no purpose other than to reinforce his bias. [/quote]

I think you misunderstood the article. He was more so saying that we shouldn’t look to the world to make us feel special just because we are who we are. He also never said just go into the corporate world. Skimming doesn’t count as reading. [/quote]

I didn’t misunderstand anything. His central message boils down to: you need to offer value to people, and you need to be a person of action.

That as a standalone would be acceptable, but it’s mired in his own personal bullshit. What does the message of his favorite glengarry speech convey? That a person’s measure of worth is bound up in how much money they can earn for themselves and their employers. Wong goes on to say: “Your job-the useful thing you do for other people-is all you are.” Then finishes by saying it’s a mechanism of the universe, and nothing can be done about it. [/quote]

Please give us some examples of how you would add value to people’s lives that do not involve what you do for a living. Remember that you need to be able to finance these activities in some manner.

48

[quote]challer1 wrote:

[quote]legendaryblaze wrote:

[quote]challer1 wrote:

[quote]legendaryblaze wrote:

[quote]challer1 wrote:

[quote]cstratton2 wrote:

[quote]Jaice wrote:
It speaks the truth, no doubt. Couldn’t really have come at a better time either.

As for the usual internet drivel, I do think a there is a lot of homogenized shite out there that preaches all this ‘new age’, spiritual crap that never meaningfully helps anyone - but on the other hand, when I find articles like this that are objective and highlight things that I occasionally doubt about myself then I’m always going to sit up and listen.[/quote]

Not sure if its categorized as new age… but ever read The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle?[/quote]

I have. Eckhart would think that the article posted by the OP is drivel.[/quote]
Why is that?[/quote]

Eckhart believes that we have two purposes in this world: an inner purpose and an outer purpose. Our inner purpose is spiritual, and the end goal is simply to awaken spiritually before we die (even if that awakening does not happen until the moment of our death). He believes that this is the most important aspect of our life on Earth.

Our outer purpose is everything else - our jobs, family, contributions to society, wealth, etc. This purpose is secondary to the inner purpose, and he really has nothing negative or positive to say on it. He states that there is nothing wrong with enjoying the material world in moderation and certainly nothing wrong with being a productive member of society, but you cannot find peace or your true purpose in external matters.

Eckhart does say however that most people get too wrapped up in their outer purpose and lose sight of what is really important - the spiritual purpose. He calls this succeeding in your outer purpose but failing in your inner purpose. He believes this is what Jesus referred to when he warned his followers about “losing their souls to gain the world”. That Glengarry Glen Ross video is the epitome of this failure.

As Pat put it in an earlier post, we are all a bunch of naive ego maniacs who thinks they are important. Glengarry Glen Ross and the author of the OP’s want us to embrace this state and go from naive egomaniacs to savvy egomaniacs. Eckhart wants us to rise above the ego entirely.[/quote]

Eckhart sounds like a fucking retard to me, then.[/quote]

I thought that too until I got a cancer diagnosis. When reflecting on your life you won’t be sitting there wishing you had closed another sale.[/quote]

I was the same way before… constantly chasing goals and aspirations but always left feeling empty inside… I then developed an extremely severe panic and anxiety disorder in 2009… Suddenly everything came crashing down on me… I went completely numb and depersonalization wiped me of all emotion…started feeling seriously depressed My thinking was nothing but negativity… After that all I wanted was to feel like a normal human being again and that was it period… In that time frame I came across the Power of Now and several other things and even recovering from my anxiety and sensitization was the same theme as some of the things eckhart points out… two most easily recognized as surrender and unconditional acceptance… From there I recovered but I never quite fell the same… I felt I rested in a much deeper place and recognized alot of insanity that people go through until acute suffering forces you to drop it all… There is way more to life then the surface level influence of power, money, status, etc… Its all irrelevant to everything that matters and for some they never see it until death strips them away of literally everything… Interesting stuff It rang true for me and thats all that mattered for me cause I finally woke up from a serious nightmare.

49

[quote]Cortes wrote:
Anyone who needs to have those kinds of lessons spoon fed to them as infinite_shore suggests isn’t going to end up benefitting from them, or even applying them, anyway. [/quote]

Didn’t you follow the specific recommendation in a book to get out of your alcohol addiction?

50

[quote]infinite_shore wrote:

[quote]Cortes wrote:
Anyone who needs to have those kinds of lessons spoon fed to them as infinite_shore suggests isn’t going to end up benefitting from them, or even applying them, anyway. [/quote]

Didn’t you follow the specific recommendation in a book to get out of your alcohol addiction?[/quote]

Absolutely. But I had all of the other stuff in line, first. If I hadn’t, that recommendation would have been completely wasted on me.

51

I’ll go even further, and say that I would not have even noticed the thing that led me to the book or the recommendations in the first place.

52


I love the deconstruction of the article. Here is this man who is giving what amounts to meta-advice. Advice that is meant for the aggregate of the unmotivated. Now we have people who are saying “this isn’t necessarily so because…” and then go on to give an anecdote about their experience with a fraction of a percent which is the exact opposite of the point of the article.

You’ll always be able to refute any kind of advice/statistic/article that’s meant of a generalized portion of society. Also, just because it doesn’t “mesh well” with your individual experience doesn’t mean it doesn’t hold merit in the aggregate. It does. And if someone on here has to explain the meaning of the Alec Baldwin clip then, yes, you indeed did miss the point. Probably because your haven’t removed your head from self-important ass to apply the article to its intended purpose - the aggregate.

attached picture is unrelated but hilarious

53

[quote]polo77j wrote:
I love the deconstruction of the article. Here is this man who is giving what amounts to meta-advice. Advice that is meant for the aggregate of the unmotivated. Now we have people who are saying “this isn’t necessarily so because…” and then go on to give an anecdote about their experience with a fraction of a percent which is the exact opposite of the point of the article.

[/quote]

Nope the article is wrong - because the author is a sheltered tool.

“Either you will go about the task of seeing to those needs by learning a unique set of skills, or the world will reject you, no matter how kind, giving and polite you are. You will be poor, you will be alone, you will be left out in the cold.”

The first point alone illustrates how stupid his point is. Yes you will be poor, alone and out in the cold if you have no marketeable skills (although Kim Kardashian seems to get by fine, but whatever). However, the flipside is also possible: that you could be poor, alone and out in the cold if you DO have marketeable skills - but are an asshole.

See, in the real world, being a nice guy DOES fulfill a need in society.

54

Would being a productive citizen who offers value to this world and others make you happy? You go to work sacrificing your health to make money, then you sacrifice your money to recuperate your health. A vicious cycle that leads to your end.

In reality you don’t have to do anything in this life. Until you realize this, none of this will make you happy. The only thing you have to do in this life is die, the rest is optional.

55

[quote]NotaQuitta wrote:

[quote]polo77j wrote:
I love the deconstruction of the article. Here is this man who is giving what amounts to meta-advice. Advice that is meant for the aggregate of the unmotivated. Now we have people who are saying “this isn’t necessarily so because…” and then go on to give an anecdote about their experience with a fraction of a percent which is the exact opposite of the point of the article.

[/quote]

Nope the article is wrong - because the author is a sheltered tool.

“Either you will go about the task of seeing to those needs by learning a unique set of skills, or the world will reject you, no matter how kind, giving and polite you are. You will be poor, you will be alone, you will be left out in the cold.”

The first point alone illustrates how stupid his point is. Yes you will be poor, alone and out in the cold if you have no marketeable skills (although Kim Kardashian seems to get by fine, but whatever). However, the flipside is also possible: that you could be poor, alone and out in the cold if you DO have marketeable skills - but are an asshole.

See, in the real world, being a nice guy DOES fulfill a need in society. [/quote]

Thing is, you can succeed as an asshole with a necessary skill set, but you cannot do the opposite, and succeed as just a nice guy without any useful skill set. So the point is, get off your ass and learn to do something. Many, many, many do not. I didn’t until I was 26, then I turned my whole life around because I finally figured out exactly the points this guy makes in his article.

56

[quote]Hellfrost wrote:
Would being a productive citizen who offers value to this world and others make you happy? You go to work sacrificing your health to make money, then you sacrifice your money to recuperate your health. A vicious cycle that leads to your end.

In reality you don’t have to do anything in this life. Until you realize this, none of this will make you happy. The only thing you have to do in this life is die, the rest is optional. [/quote]

If you are adding real value to the lives of the people in your community, trust me, happiness will not be something you have to work for, and the money will come naturally, too. That’s what people actually mean when they say, do something you love, and the money will follow. They aren’t really talking about playing WOW all day long.

57

[quote]NotaQuitta wrote:

[quote]polo77j wrote:
I love the deconstruction of the article. Here is this man who is giving what amounts to meta-advice. Advice that is meant for the aggregate of the unmotivated. Now we have people who are saying “this isn’t necessarily so because…” and then go on to give an anecdote about their experience with a fraction of a percent which is the exact opposite of the point of the article.

[/quote]

Nope the article is wrong - because the author is a sheltered tool.

“Either you will go about the task of seeing to those needs by learning a unique set of skills, or the world will reject you, no matter how kind, giving and polite you are. You will be poor, you will be alone, you will be left out in the cold.”

The first point alone illustrates how stupid his point is. Yes you will be poor, alone and out in the cold if you have no marketeable skills (although Kim Kardashian seems to get by fine, but whatever). However, the flipside is also possible: that you could be poor, alone and out in the cold if you DO have marketeable skills - but are an asshole.

See, in the real world, being a nice guy DOES fulfill a need in society. [/quote]

Being a nice guy only fulfills a need in society if you USE your niceness in a way that benefits others.

The author’s entire point is that simply thinking that you are a good, just, and fair man will not bring you happiness if all you do is sit on your couch, watch TV and feel bad about what is going on in the world. BUT, if you use your traits of being a good, just and fair man to actively help even just one person than it will help bring you happiness and make you useful to society.

58

[quote]NotaQuitta wrote:

[quote]polo77j wrote:
I love the deconstruction of the article. Here is this man who is giving what amounts to meta-advice. Advice that is meant for the aggregate of the unmotivated. Now we have people who are saying “this isn’t necessarily so because…” and then go on to give an anecdote about their experience with a fraction of a percent which is the exact opposite of the point of the article.

[/quote]

Nope the article is wrong - because the author is a sheltered tool.

“Either you will go about the task of seeing to those needs by learning a unique set of skills, or the world will reject you, no matter how kind, giving and polite you are. You will be poor, you will be alone, you will be left out in the cold.”

The first point alone illustrates how stupid his point is. Yes you will be poor, alone and out in the cold if you have no marketeable skills (although Kim Kardashian seems to get by fine, but whatever). However, the flipside is also possible: that you could be poor, alone and out in the cold if you DO have marketeable skills - but are an asshole.

See, in the real world, being a nice guy DOES fulfill a need in society. [/quote]

He never said you need to be an asshole, but you DO need to get shit done.

In fact, if you read “How to Win Friends and Influence People” and “Talent is Overrated,” you’ll see that many of the most successful people/companies AREN’T assholes.

59

[quote]rrjc5488 wrote:

[quote]NotaQuitta wrote:

[quote]polo77j wrote:
I love the deconstruction of the article. Here is this man who is giving what amounts to meta-advice. Advice that is meant for the aggregate of the unmotivated. Now we have people who are saying “this isn’t necessarily so because…” and then go on to give an anecdote about their experience with a fraction of a percent which is the exact opposite of the point of the article.

[/quote]

Nope the article is wrong - because the author is a sheltered tool.

“Either you will go about the task of seeing to those needs by learning a unique set of skills, or the world will reject you, no matter how kind, giving and polite you are. You will be poor, you will be alone, you will be left out in the cold.”

The first point alone illustrates how stupid his point is. Yes you will be poor, alone and out in the cold if you have no marketeable skills (although Kim Kardashian seems to get by fine, but whatever). However, the flipside is also possible: that you could be poor, alone and out in the cold if you DO have marketeable skills - but are an asshole.

See, in the real world, being a nice guy DOES fulfill a need in society. [/quote]

He never said you need to be an asshole, but you DO need to get shit done. [/quote]

Why?

60

[quote]Hellfrost wrote:

[quote]rrjc5488 wrote:

[quote]NotaQuitta wrote:

[quote]polo77j wrote:
I love the deconstruction of the article. Here is this man who is giving what amounts to meta-advice. Advice that is meant for the aggregate of the unmotivated. Now we have people who are saying “this isn’t necessarily so because…” and then go on to give an anecdote about their experience with a fraction of a percent which is the exact opposite of the point of the article.

[/quote]

Nope the article is wrong - because the author is a sheltered tool.

“Either you will go about the task of seeing to those needs by learning a unique set of skills, or the world will reject you, no matter how kind, giving and polite you are. You will be poor, you will be alone, you will be left out in the cold.”

The first point alone illustrates how stupid his point is. Yes you will be poor, alone and out in the cold if you have no marketeable skills (although Kim Kardashian seems to get by fine, but whatever). However, the flipside is also possible: that you could be poor, alone and out in the cold if you DO have marketeable skills - but are an asshole.

See, in the real world, being a nice guy DOES fulfill a need in society. [/quote]

He never said you need to be an asshole, but you DO need to get shit done. [/quote]

Why?
[/quote]

Well, his premise was fundamentally that one’s sense of self worth and self esteem is in a large part related to the positive feedback you get from being successfully integrated into society. If you spend your time providing value to other people, you’ll receive benefits that reinforce that behavior and increase your own personal sense of value… and, you have something to barter with in exchange for getting what you want from other people.

Now of course there’s more to life than that, and there is some real value to trying to find personal happiness without needing the external validation.