Don't Think Again

I've been re-watching a documentary called The Century of the Self , written and directed by Adam Curtis and aired by BBC in 2002. It's a great 4-hour piece about the history of how Freud's ideas about the unconscious mind of human beings migrated from psychological and heavily influenced the creation of modern advertising and modern politics. This resonated with my readings of Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged . Throughout Ayn Rand's work, and particularly in her masterpiece, a recurring theme is formulated by the following questions: why worry about them? why not let them have some of what's ours? After all, we are strong enough for the both of us. These questions refer directly to the political matter of welfare. The main characters of Rand's novels are industrialists who outperform all others and seem to be her ideal of a human being: the doer . This idea is still very much present in our modern society, Nike's "Just do it" slogan being but one...

No science fiction, but just plain fiction. I'm from Brazil, live in Japan and have recently traveled to America (to the US, I mean). People think I'm supposed to write about these things, if I am to write at all. I've even tried reading some books about the struggle of the 出稼ぎ that came to Japan from Brazil. Just because they're Brazilian, doesn't mean I'm gonna sympathize instantly and become best friends forever. I don't pay the Chinese prostitutes on the streets of Osaka, and if I did it wouldn't be out of pity. As much as this may sound bad, I don't wanna read poorly written books about a drama that is repeated over and over again in spite of our governments' full knowledge of how to solve this. Reality is always awesome and surprising and unfinished. There's a fundamental flaw in putting someone into the role of HAVING to write about his own struggle or life story. That said, even writing about reality frequently has little to d...

I have this urge to step up my game. Not sure if it comes and goes by itself, if I put myself in this state or if something external has to come along. Maybe some permutation of the above. I'm not talking about my personal life, but about work ethics. About some products of my efforts, I might have thought they were fine by that time, but now I know I could have done so much better. And it's not "brain" knowledge which I logically understand, but rather something I know for sure, for no particular reason and that I can't even imagine having doubts about. It's "body" knowledge. In short, I'm now aware of things that I once wasn't. Whatever these things might be - resources, discipline, ability - they've somehow surfaced now. The point of this abstract exercise is extrapolation. Given I had in the past unknown untapped resources, why would I assume all my resources have surfaced? The process of forcing resources to surface is simple: puttin...

So my life has been spun around and pulled inside out several times over the last decade. I achieved quite a lot, but rather than bragging about accomplishments, all that populates my memories are the sensations. The result is just a result, and it would probably have no value for me if it could just be obtained without having to put myself through the process and the experiences. That perspective is pretty positive, but it used to be paired in my head with a stupid sense of undeservingness. I didn't feel deserving of the result. Lo and behold, that attitude swept away many of the worldly possessions I obtained over the years. I don't mind losing those, and neither do I think that anything of real value can ever be lost. All of the good and tough times have shaped me from a lame ass into a bad ass, and a couple of bucks are nothing compared to this. Either way, I spotted this tendency to self-sabotage recently, and it won't be showing its ugly face again. Now here...

I bet there is something you were supposed to be doing right now. Maybe it's writing a blog post, shooting a video to upload for youtube, or maybe you were supposed to be doing the dishes. Either way, sometimes you just don't wanna go through the trouble of figuring out what the steps are and then taking them. Just like going to the dentist, There's a bunch of inertia that has to be fought through in order for you to get moving. Nike harvested that one with the slogan "just do it".

I disagree with that old adage "you can't have it all". It needs a little more work. So here's the deal: you probably won't be a best-seller writer, a pop idol, an Olympic athlete and a great father. At least, not at the same time. So it's mostly a matter of compromising. Me, I don't know anybody who actually wants a great stuff. Actually, I find most people have learned to tone down their own dreams. A weird compromise, in which you choose dreams that are barely unattainable for the lazy you, but that would be so easy to reach that you actually know a bunch of people who have realized these dreams. Thus, you get to complain and remain in this little self-built hell where everyone gets what you want but yourself. The wrong kind of compromise. The flipside is the compromise that gets you some of your goals. And once attained it's like they were always yours and you can't imagine yourself without them. No fear of losing them either, but were so...

Because we live in an era where everyone is out for their own profit and then they fail to show up when something goes wrong. That's the way the modern day corporations, modern day rich people, modern day fathers and mothers and even modern day low-life convenience store thieves. They'll rationalize it by stating they're looking out for themselves and you should do the same. Thus, selling has been cursed with the label of "bad". Nothing sleazier than a used-car salesman, right? Now even though the stereotype works, there are a bunch of used-car salesmen who have earned their respected by actually looking out for the people who chose to do business with them. What a crazy concept.

So I vlogged about this guy. He is a sui generis brazilian vlogger,  who posted some regular videos (not vlogs) before going viral with this: Short explanation? Ok. The kid says "fresco boiola" which is a funny way of calling the dude a faggot. The guy is actually trying to sing this song: More info: he's been on YouTube since June, 2007; the viral video above was published in July of 2008; this is his blog , from where you can find his twitter, facebook, orkut, myspace and any imaginable social networking website. I actually didn't know this guy until a couple of days ago, when I was watching this show from the Brazilian MTV on the interwebs. The media experts he goes to talk to actually suggest he gets the little kid back in his vids with him. Then they proceed to make a parody of Ke$ha's club success . Anyway, what's the turning point from just having a viral video to actually forming a community, or - as Seth Godin would say - a tribe?

In a winter night last year, I went out to the club and ran into a bunch of people in the little locker wall. I think her name was Danielle, and there were two girls and eight or nine dudes in their clique. She was very hot, even though in Japan she would probably be considered somewhat chubby, given that most Japanese girls are like skeletons ready to be buried. Still, we hit it off right away. I befriended the friends and was going hard for her. What does it look like? I cut the space between us, get in her face, talk nonsense and just generally self-amuse. Now, at that point I hadn't made this subtle distinction between self-amusement and self-absorption. Guess I was coming off a little bit like a bag of douche, or just plain standoffish. She was into it, nonetheless. There was this one particular friend who seemed to be the chode friend. I bet he likes her but got friend-zoned somehow (I'm sorry for you, man). Anyway, this guy was trying to cut me off of their group...

I'm talking about getting things done. As a human being, most of the stuff you once thought of as important will just fall into oblivion, and that's not necessarily a bad thing. Remembering is so much more of a psychotic activity than forgetting. Still, some things are VERY important to us. You're the only judge of value in your own little universe. I'm limiting this discussion to that small percentage of things that are truly important, and still end up not getting done. They won't be forgotten, but people will rationalize three thousand and two reasons why they can't do it, won't do it, shouldn't try it. Rationalization is how people explain to themselves why they made a bad decision instead of a good one, it's like the antics of child: "no dad, I need these snickers because... they're red!" If you're rationalizing failure, a good alternative is to look for examples that contradict your stupid rationalizations. You're no...

As a guy, the Herculean task of understanding what's going on inside a woman's mind eluded me. I was raised in the 80s, a decade that had seen both the macho men from the 50s and the New Age guys from the 60s and 70s. Some of my friends chose to be gay, some chose to put up a front of masculine invincibility. My dad was something else, even though I don't think he'd ever put it into words, but he exudes an aura of confidence that just won't be reduced to the mainstream male stereotypes. Being a man isn't as easy as it used to be. Men are simple, want simple things and tend to be very logical and mental. We do what we believe we're supposed to. The role of men in society got harder and harder to sort out over the last few decades, but, in spite of that, when that role is defined, all a man has to do is follow it. Guys are easy to understand. Girls, on the other hand, are like little magical butterflies flying around from here to there and everywhere, spre...