Principles of Business Success: #1

Rule #1: Business is an attempt to scab money of other people.

I understand why people chase after money, I mean, money does equal power in a very real way. But to me it's just a rat race, a bunch of animals viciously competing with each other for that extra advantage, that extra dollar. Sometimes I do wonder, though, what they're struggling for - is it simply financial security they're after? Or is it more? Can you survive at all in the world without some sort of urge driving towards the wealthy life?

To be honest, I don't have that drive. I don't care for surpluses of wealth and material goods. Of course, money is extremely important to me, it keeps me alive in a very real way. But I only want a certain amount, enough to enable me to live at a certain level of comfort. Actually, I think I'm onto something here - "enough money to live at a certain level of comfort" - perhaps that's what every one of us wants? And the only thing that changes is the level of comfort we desire?

I also think that a line should be drawn as to how much desire is too much, when acquiring welath becomes hoarding it. I've wondered to myself whether in a world of such extreme poverty, it is immoral even to desire anything more than subsistence. What right does anyone have to eat gourmet foods when some eat nothing at all? This is an extreme view though, a view I doubt many at all in the world (at least the Western world) would hold. It has enough merit in it, though, for me to at least ponder it.

And when I see advertisements on TV by companies just about begging for me to buy their product, I can't help but scorn. Maybe I shouldn't scorn though, maybe the desire for capital is a completely natural one, and without it even mere surviving would be difficult. It's similar to the "kill or be killed" idea - either you join the rat race and scounge for every dollar, or you don't get any dollars at all. There is not a dollar in the world that does not have to be scounged for. The more I think about it, the more this way of thinking makes sense. I wish there was a way around it, but I can't see one.

Rules of Attraction, pt.III

Love is just a milder, more mutual form of obsession.

NIN - Saturday 20th August 2005, Hordern Pavilion

Fukn awesome concert, all that I expected and then some. Reznor really gets into his singing, at times it looked like the veins on his neck were going to pop out because he was screaming so loud. The band was great too, at times creating a blissful ambience, at other times a hard, jagged wall of distortion. From about Reptile we were in the mosh pit, it went off. This was the set list for the show thanks to The Art of Self Destruction, http://www.taosd.net/tour.php:

1. Beside You In Time (Intro)
2. Terrible Lie
3. You Know What You Are?
4. Sin
5. The Line Begins To Blur
6. March Of The Pigs
7. Piggy
8. The Hand That Feeds
9. With Teeth
10. Closer
11. The Frail
12. The Wretched
13. The Collector
14. Reptile
15. Burn
16. No, You Don't
17. Love Is Not Enough
18. Even Deeper
19. Suck
20. Gave Up
21. Hurt
22. Wish
23. Head Like A Hole

Rules of Attraction pt.II

• On couples: Lust brings people together, love keeps them together (or should I say mutual dependence keeps them together? Maybe that's just me being cynical)

• Lust ignites a relationship, love sustains it.

I didn’t know which sounded better

Personality

This should probably be a topic left to the people with psychology degrees, but it is something I’m intrigued by – just how much are our actions and thoughts governed by our personalities? Does personality determine our actions and thoughts, or do actions and thoughts determine personality? Some might say that it’s a bit of both, but to me that’s not really a satisfying answer, because I want to know how much of each, which is of primary relevance. I want to know in what situations we are powerless to act and think how we like, and in what circumstances we are immune from any bias.

I’d like to think that I am always in control of my actions, that if I want to do something I can do it, and if I want to avoid doing something then I can do that too. The problem is, things just don’t seem to be that simple. I might “want” to go to bed early and get ready for my day tomorrow, but something compels me to stay up watching the Ashes while typing up a blog on the topic of personality. Some might say that it is within my power to just turn off the television and go to bed. But what about people with addictions, who are supposedly in a position whereby they can not refrain from doing what they’re compelled to do? And even if they are powerless to change their actions, then what is it that renders them powerless? Is it personality? Is it a physical addiction which anybody, of any personality, could be prone to? Is it just a matter of external circumstance? Is it a combination of all these, and if so, in what ratio? We come to a similar position we were at before in that we’ve got all these possibilities but we can’t clarify where they fit in with each other.

I think there’s an element of addiction in my watching of cricket. Sure, I can turn off the television and go to bed, but the fact is I don’t (although that can only be determined in hindsight, and one problem I have with Science is that it’s all to do with hindsight). It’s a topic I can’t quite get my head around, there are just so many issues and variables at work. More importantly is its relevance, I don’t see this as some dry, irrelevant academic topic. How much control I have over my actions goes a long way in determining how guilty I feel, how proud I feel or how contented I feel. It also matters a lot in my perceptions of others, how I judge someone’s actions and therefore their character (one’s character and one’s actions – another connection which is hard to make), whether I feel grateful for something done, whether I feel angry at something that happened. And going beyond the personal sphere, one’s control of their actions means everything in a court of law.