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Article – Tinnitus, My Private Cacophony
Sep 1st
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Ear Defenders: Elacin ear armour, I use these and they seem to be keeping the ringing away, most of the time..
Can you imagine how it is to every day endure a constant, high pitched, wailing in your right ear? It never goes away and worse, becomes more piercing and more persistent when exposed to loud noises. Welcome to my tinnitus scarred world. I implore you not to join me here.
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Backstory
About five years ago I was stupid enough to believe that my hearing was invincible. At the time I was a very active musician, playing in a metal band. We would rehearse multiple times every week in the studio (without ear defenders of course). For an idea of what that means, consider shutting yourself in a room for around 3 1/2 hours and bombarding your ears with huge volume, mainly coming from 3 amplifiers and a partcularly loud drumkit (cheers, Pearl Masters). The screaming lead guitar (my role) would go to work on my upper hearing range and the thunderous bass guitar would ravage the lower end. Back then the went by the axiom that everything sounds better louder. And yes, that’s all fine and good until you can’t hear anything at all.
Or to paraphrase another popular truism/cliche, it’s all fun and games until someone loses some stereocilia!
For years I would come out of those rehearsals, ears ringing, but happy. After a few days, the pain would go away and things would return to normal. Alas, this was not to last forever.
- The Jam that jammed my hearing for good…
- I remember the exact moment that the price had to be paid for my love of the metal. I had stuck my right ear next to an amplifier stack for some reason and keenly remember a sharp pain on the right side of my head, around the region of my ear canal. I remember suddenly feeling disoriented and I remember a sharp pain. I reeled away from the amplifier, almost tripping over my guitar lead. Curious, my bandmates looked on. My stereo balance had just turned mono on me and my entire world was suddenly loudly ringing and unsteady. It was like a scene out of a war movie, in which we get a first person perspective of someone who has just been near the site of a large blast.
- image credit: gfhdickinson
Though i can't completely recall the amplifier which really closed the deal on my tinnitus, this is the kind of device which I would deem was responsible / Image Credit: fvancini
A cavalier approach..
Although I had often left concerts with a ringing in my ears and a dull quality in my hearing, I had never felt physical pains in my ear until now. I should have taken this as a sign, but being a teenager I was very good at ignoring signs. I would continue to go on, unphased, into the rest of this practice session. Later I’d assume the role of drummer for a few songs and further damage my ear. For this rehearsal, our drummer happened to have brought an extremely harsh, extremely high-frequency, and extremely loud china crash cymbal (which sat comfortably about 8 inches from my right ear or so). I believe this cymbal was a big part of cementing the damage done by the amplifier on that day. Put another way, the second blow of the one-two punch which screwed up my hearing for good.
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After recovering from my moment of sudden disorientation, I later went home that night my ears full of dull noise. As usual, I expected to awake the next morning with some alleviation to the ringing, or the complete clarity i had come to take for granted. Imagine my horror when I woke to discover this persistent ringing had not even slightly diminished. Perhaps, I hoped, it would leave me tomorrow. Or maybe the day after. This period of prolonged hope lasted for about a week before I finally excepted the painful reality that this infuriating sound was not going to go away any time soon.
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Today.. Consequences.
That was six years ago and the ringing is still here. Let me tell you what’s it is like. Most of the time I have tuned it out, and my environment is usually at a level where the ambient noise obscures the ringing in my right ear. However, in times of quiet I meet with a persistent ringing at around the frequency range of around C9. This noise oscillates about a quarter tone up and down and is made up of a number of different ringing sequences which make for a dissonant persistent ’squeal’. Imagine someone rubbing two pieces of polystyrene together inside your cranium, or pitch shifted cicadas lodged within your ear drum and that is a rough approximation of what I suffer from. It’s hard to fully explain something that exists only inside your head. Just ask any insane person 
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I should have started earlier. / Image Credit: Clare and James
Over the years I have learned to accept the sound and unconsciously phase it out – almost any stimulus when repeated for long enough goes from being annoying to being ignored. Example; the floor is always there but you aren’t continually checking for it. Another example is how quiet you realize your house really is after all the electrical appliances have died (ie. after a powercut).
When I contracted tinnitus, I spent a long time online and off searching for cures, and after months of looking, I do not think there are any yet ( I would love someone to correct me here.. ). There are a number of novel solutions such as white noise generating ear pieces which supposedly cancel out the noises in your ears, but as of yet the physical damage caused by the loss of the small hairs in the ear cannot be repaired.
Tinnitus Masking Software
In googling around the subject again I came across a number of websites that offer software solutions to mask tiinitus symptoms. Though I have ‘willed away’ mine and believe that I am subsconciously screening it out 95% of the time, those who have it worse off than me may wish to consider Vector Media’s Tinnitus Masker.
Though this program could be promising to those of us who have newly acquired ‘the cicadas’ – I am actually of the opinion that it should only be used as temporary relief, if at all. I think that for real longterm coping with the symptoms, we need to give our minds time to ‘phase out’ the noise. However, this is my subjective experience and if we there are longterm sufferers who have it really badly, I hope they find some value in the software. Tell me how it goes for you!
The program offers numerous ways to calibrate the noise it makes to mask your unique tinnitus sounds.
Ticking cicada timebomb..
Despite what may appear, I consider myself lucky. I stopped once I became aware of what I had done and it seems that I have prevented further damage by being meticulous about protecting my hearing. I say ’seems’ as it not uncommon for the extent of the damage to properly reveal itself over the decades (put another way, i may have an accelerated rate of age related hearing loss and a worsening tinnitus as time goes on) .
Nowadays my ears are extremely sensitive, I went to an air show a few months back and almost had my goddamn head explode when a Harrier jump jet hovered nearby. I am pretty diligent/paranoid and carry hearing protection wherever I go. I am unable to attend loud clubs or environments in which I have to shout into people’s years, or vise versa, as such environments bring my ‘reactive’ tinnitus back on again with a vengeance. I have a permenant and underlying level of ringing, which can be exacerbated by a very small exposure to loud noises (ie a high pitched, short durational sound sets off the ‘crickets’ to be more noticeable than normal). Essentially there is a ticking time bomb in my ears waiting to go off any time I am in a loud environment.
I am also sensitive to low volume, high frequency sounds. For example, some televisions give off a noise at a high frequency which drives my ears haywire. It is painfully annoying. I have to leave the room when this happens.
Repeating myself..
I am a case study. I’ll say it again; I have been told that often the full effects of hearing trauma do not manifest for many years or even decades after the first damage is done. This means I could be looking at more severe consequences in the future for the reckless actions of my teenage years, even if I do a good job in protecting my hearing for the rest of my life. It seems unfair that a younger and more brash me could significantly threaten my future happiness, but this is the way things are.
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A warning to you
To anyone who regularly goes out and comes back with a ringing in their ears, I implore you to consider your hearing and how sensitive it is. I implore you not to take the risk that you may have to endure either diminished hearing or that maddening noise in your ears that tinnitus can inflict. It may not sound like ‘pitchshifted cicadas’ or polystyrene rubbing, but you’d probably agree that any noise can become annoying when repeated for long enough (try repeating a random phrase ad infinitum with an irritable family members and you’ll see what i mean).
To all musicians and music lovers out there, your hearing is your most precious asset for creating and enjoying sound. I have lost some of my ability to hear higher frequency ranges, this has negatively impacted my enjoyment of certain kinds of music (I think that I miss some of the higher frequencies). I also believe that I may have lost some of my low-end frequencies, as in some work as a bass player, I seem to have been a semi-tone out (pretty bad for my career prospects, eh?) despite having developed my musical pitch through years of experience.
Sounds familiar?
The range of noises I have heard described in tinnitus is varied, some people hear low rumbling, others here a variety of strange oscillating tones. Some people hear a variety of different noises happening simultaneously. However the general consensus among sufferers is that the experience is at the worst maddening and at the best uncomfortable.
Former U.S President Ronald Reagan is one of the many millions of tinnitus sufferers worldwide
Affirmative action?…
Here in the UK we now have a very forward thinking initiative called ‘Don’t Lose The Music.’ It is an outreach campaign, essentially spreading the same message I am here, informing people on the effects of ’social noise’ and the fact that even though hearing loss is pretty much irreversible it is very easy to prevent.
I really commend and support these people, as by getting the right message out, we may prevent a great many hearing problems before they occur. For my two cents, I think it would be a good idea for all noisy venues which do not have decibel level warnings to be fined until they start to comply. We need to establish a culture in which everyone is aware of the damage that can be done, but of course have the choice to acknowledge this or not, once fairly informed.
I say this as in retrospect looking at my time playing in loud bands. If I would have known of what I was doing to myself, I would have taken more proactive steps back then. I was young and stupid but if someone had given me an idea of what tinnitus was going to be like I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t be where I am now. I mean knowing the full madenning picture, who wouldn’t act?
Prevention, not cure, as they say.
I hope that in future, advances in either biotechnology or nanotechnology will allow all doctors to restore the missing tissue in my ears which is said to be responsible for the condition, but think it would be optimistic to bank on a cure in any reasonable period of time.
Some Tips To Help Retain Your Hearing
There are a number of ways to protect your ears. Many are very cheap, so cost should be no obstacle to anybody. There is the tried and true method of stuffing paper tissue in your ears, though the frequency and volume reduction here is minimal at best, and it’s hardly hygienic. Next up in sophistication and cost are entry level foam earplugs. These are often disposable and cheap to buy. Not particularly comfortable or effective, they can reduce the sound coming in by 10 dcb?
Disposable foam earplugs. cheap and moderately effective.
Next up come what are termed ‘ear defenders‘. Options here in the UK include Elacin’s ear armour. These are essentially very well-designed earplugs, used by people who need harmful frequency ranges filtered out, yet still retain the ability to hear things that are relevant to the job at hand. Reasonably priced around £15-25, I’ve found they do the job for me.
Scaling upwards, there are more expensive solutions, such as custom moulded earpieces, these are said to have an even greater clarity and better ability to filter undesirable frequencies. Many audio professionals regularly working in loud environments swear by their use. I have personally have never used custom moulds, and can’t make any recommendations, because, as they are custom made they are somewhat ’boutique’.
I’ll just say that of all the options, ear armour has worked for me. I have had no further noticable hearing loss since I started wearing them.
Regardless of what you chose, these are all reasonably priced and should be seen as an investment to anyone who wants to work in loud environments and remain sane in the years to come. I’ll say it one more time, because I care about your hearing and wellbeing 
– a temporary ringing in your ears is a serious danger signal and indicates that severe damage is already being done.
You wouldn’t go to an art gallery and spend the duration of the experience pricking your eyes with a paperclip, would you? Nor would you cut out your tongue before being presented a succulent feast.
And By the time you hear the ringing, it can be too late…
Don’t mess with your ears, you only get one pair.
Custom moulded earpieces can be costly, but offer the best protection and clearest sound.
Article – Music Business – Interview with David Newman at Audiobulb Records
Aug 30th
Though not all independent musicians plan for a record deal, many of us are looking to sign to a label that shares our approach. If your approach is innovative, experimental and technologically fearless, then Audiobulb could be a label for you to consider. That is of course, if your music is of the high quality and deviceful style that they are known for putting out. Audiobulb are a UK based musical collective with a strong emphasis on placing artistic integrity before commercial appeal.
I enjoyed writing about the label as they often do things which are quite hard for me to describe. These include maintaining open submission endless ambient spaces, in which artists are invited to submit two minutes to the ever growing soundscape. They have released their own virtual instruments (VSTs), reference detailed scientific treatises on the nature of the sine wave, and have a wonderful visual appeal which blends a harsh mechanical backdrop with colourful scurrying, insect-like figures.
Though perhaps too cerebral to have any real ‘commercial appeal’ (and I think that’s how Audiobulb likes it), they truly are a wonderful and unique example of how the internet can be used to spread the word and connect with our market, no matter how niche.
I was fortunate enough to have the chance to put some questions to David Newman, the owner at Audiobulb records.
This interview provides some insight into the workings behind the label and what David looks for from potential new signings. It is also an interesting perspective into a business that may be seen to have more focus on the artistic than commercial, but does just fine for itself all the same.
What do you look for in an artist when thinking of signing?
In a word, I look for “quality”. For me quality in music encompasses a wide range of attributes, including the aesthetic beauty of their sound, their craft and vision as a composer. I’m also interested in their enthusiasm for their work and their motivation to have it heard. It’s easier to succeed in terms of promotion if an artist is prepared to graft – communicating their work across the web, live events and through personal networks. I am also looking for artists who have found a way to encompass and express themselves and who have been innovative in the manner in which they have approached and executed their work. I like to work with people who are on a journey.2
Do you actively scout talent? How do you get your tips?
I am naturally interested in sound and music. It is second nature for me to be open to new sounds and to explore what is out there. Demos, live gigs, word of mouth and internet sites all bring my attention to artists who might be looking for a label.
What way do you prefer to receive new material to listen to?
I prefer a short introduction, a website link and link to a single track that I can listen to. If these three nuggets of information grab my attention – then I will be looking to start a dialogue with the artist and to hear more about them.
What don’t you like to deal with from potential label artists?
I like to be open to new people and new ideas. However, all label managers inevitably endure a number of persistent frustrations. The usual gripes include people sending huge mp3 files direct to my inbox and people who have obviously not ever listened to our music or taken the time to find out about Audiobulb. We do have a demo policy online and
The mastermind himself..
it should be clear that Euro Trance is not our area of interest. [Ed: oorah!]
Audiobulb is a home for artists. A place to have their work manufactured, promoted, distributed and accounted for. All ask is that we set up clear channels of communication and work productively together. Often this is about addressing expectations and seeing whether we are a good fit for each other. Audiobulb tries to foster a symbiotic/mutually beneficial relationship.
How does what you do relate to the way the major labels operate?
All the same functions are there – A&R, marketing, promotion, publicity, support and financial backing. But is all at a smaller scale and conducted mostly by myself with the aid of friends and partners who help me with design and web technicalities.
What is your perspective on their methods? What do you make of the amount of labels underneath ‘the big 3’?
I’m not sure who the big 3 labels are – but I’m sure they work to maximise profit and efficiency. There is nothing wrong with that so long as they behave in an ethical manner. The big 3 function within a capitalist framework which invariably distributes wealth towards the sectors of the market that can effectively capture mass appeal. The smaller labels operate so that niche genres, smaller artists and non-mainstream works can also be supported and made available. The motivation behind the release of the music changes across labels. Some are working solely for love, sharing music via the creative commons model rather than a commercial business model.
What are the most effective ways you have found to promote your artists online, and offline?
The distinction between on and offline is blurring with every real space having its virtual internet mirror space. Press releases, website and magazine reviews, radio play, videos (e.g., youtube, vimeo etc), myspace, virb, facebook, twitter, web forums, mailing lists, digital download stores, physical CD stores, playing live and word of mouth all are important. The label and the artist need to spread the word across as many of these for as long as possible. Ultimately it is important to go where the interested people are likely to be and say “hello!”
Ultimately there is no single most effective promotion strategy. It is about really believing in what you are doing and telling people. This is usually a joy to do – but there is an element of graft, persistence and dedication. I believe you make your own luck. Sometimes many little actions come together and create a tipping point and magic consequences occur! For example, our next release “The Nest & The Skull” by Ultre is to be featured on the front page of iTunes. This will be great publicity and seems to have come about because people have talked to people and a buzz has built up around the album. I’m so please for Finn (Ultre) as he is a great artist and someone who I am sure a wider audience will appreciate.
What about the easiest and cheapest distribution channels?
Digital download is becoming more and more popular and is easier to administer. Once you have a digital distribution network set up the music enters each outlet and the revenue is collected. However, you can not take it for granted. Without a lot of work releases can become invisible to the public and literally get lost amongst the over whelming amount of output out there. It is possible to have an album in iTunes that sells 10 copies per year! The important thing is to make the album visible by supporting it and promoting it and helping people to access the work. On the audiobulb web-site we put buttons/links to the big digital stores next to each of our releases. CD distribution is harder work and we therefore greatly value our distribution partners, Cargo Records, Art Union Corporation, A-Musik, Adnoisem, Ear/Rational & n5MD.
How do you work with your artists to make things happen? Who gets to decide?
It’s a mutual partnership – we decide together.
Is some amount of live performance mandatory?
It really helps, in so many ways. It helps the artist to grow as an artist and to get out and meet people. To network with people who are interested in the music and let them see there is a real person behind the sound. To connect.
What does being independent as label mean to you?
It means I am doing what I love to do and working with people who I respect and admire.
What is the most important thing for someone thinking of starting an indie label to know? What does it take to run an indie label?
It is hard work and there may be little financial reward. However if you graft hard enough and team up with motivated artists the label can develop. Your fanbase is so important so do get a mailing list started and keep people interested. The big challenges are sorting out distribution channels and spreading the word. If you can devote time every day for several years to such a venture then you are at a good starting place. A label is more than artists and music, it is design, branding, artwork, web-presence and it needs to be dynamic and relevant to keep people’s attention. At Audiobulb I have been lucky to work with great designers such as Cüret at http://www.agraphie.com/ whose design defines the look of the audiobulb website and compilations. It is the bringing together of sound and image that helps people connect with the personality of the label. If the connection is a good one – if there is a personal resonance then a relationship begins.
Do you see the interesting future affecting the way small labels do business in the next 5 years? What steps will you take?
The growth of the web and mobile phone technology means that people want to be able to interact with artist across new media outlets. I have total respect for audiophiles who value CD/vinyl quality recordings and it is important to offer these formats where they can be financially viable. It is also important to make the music available across as many digital platforms as possible and offer compelling information about the labels and artists so that people can feel connected to the ethos of the work. Our output will always be about quality. We do not function to be mass produced, mass consumed and mass deleted. Regardless of the outlet – it should always come across that we do what we do because we are real people who care.
Thought Experiment – Man Hits Fly Hits Man
Aug 29th
Man: You are walking along any place you choose.
Out of nowhere comes a loud buzzing, and a large and (obviously very stupid) fly collides with your cheek
Fly: You are flying, ruminating on where the next dog turd may be. Suddenly a giant, (and obviously very stupid) floating face collides with you.
what a lovely face you have..
Thought Experiment – Predestined Giant Banana Transformations In The Multiverse
Aug 28th
Could there be ever be an understanding complete enough that we could have complete certainty in every possible outcome?
As human knowledge has advanced, it appears that the causes of more and more phenomena are becoming clear to us.
if human understanding of a certain thing can be placed on a continuum where the value of 1 represents complete understanding of the cause of the thing, and 0 represents no understanding at all, maybe ‘randomness’ represents a value below 1. But, can we ever reach 1?
Let me elaborate for you..
In times past, humans used various ‘unscienitic’ reasons as explanations to natural phenomena. Crops failed? angry god. comet? angry god famine? angry god. Of course, you get the picture..
Constraints due to uncertainty
As i understand it, randomness suggests an element of uncertainty, but can be accounted for and worked around. For example, we can leave space in our calculations to excuse randomness and fully expect this will affect our final result. We can account for randomness but this means that the outcome can never be known with certainty.
As I understand it, using statistics we can plot the probable outcomes of an uncertain event. The more results we get from our uncertain situation, the closer we get to certainty on a result. For example, with a coin toss, the odds of getting heads 186,000 in a row are rather small, and things tend to even out towards a 50/50 distribution in the extreme long run. Even so, we can’t be certain that we won’t get these 186,000 heads in a row, no matter how improbable, and therefore we do not have complete certainty.
Similarly, in an infinite or long enough period of time, every event, no matter how statistically ridiculous, would happen. The sun makes a quantum leap an in an instant transitions into a giant banana. The moon also becomes a giant banana. You get the idea…
You never know.. /Image credit: Jason Gulledge
A limitless understanding
A godlike/limitless understanding would imply absolute certainty in all outcomes. Godlike power would mean that all endeavours set into motion would work absolutely flawlessly, with nothing left to chance. Godlike power could result from knowing exactly what needed to be done to achieve certain outcomes. In prediction there would be no randomness, as all outcomes would be known or controllable (there’s that godlike power again). In a real sense, with all things known, all things would be predestined.
Put another way, random outcomes prevent destiny, unless there is some way of knowing enough that we can predict with certainty the outcome of events that were previously deemed random. Therefore, if we can have infinite understanding then predestination is inevitable. But, can we have an infinite understanding?
Here’s my main point; what if there is destiny, and randomness is simply the symptom of a deficit of understanding? For example, we are uncertain of where a coin lands as we haven’t quite grasped some bigger explanation that allows us to predict where coins land with complete certainty.
Statistically speaking we can know that the coin will end up at a value closer to 50/50 to some extent if we continue to repeat the coin toss over and over again, and placing our faith in statistics. But as I said before, this is not true certainty.
Of course we build upon this with the idea that for every point of multiple outcomes, the universe splits into all possible outcomes…
Seeing the sum of all possible outcomes..
A godlike understanding may allow us to connect in some way with a ‘place’ of infinite probabilities. In this place, the totality of all possible outcomes could be collected into a great sum of all, in where everything that can happen, has happened. This is everything..the Tao, the unmanifest/manifest field of probability, the multiverse, God, whatever. This is the ‘place’ of all places. If it could be visualised, what would that place look like? Another wall of solid white light? Perhaps it would look like nothing, the opposite of everything… With further inquiry, it could very well be a continuation of this thought experiment. Anyway..
One who sees with absolute certainty, would be able to walk through this miasmic place of infinites, and pick a path that best suited their fancy. If this powerful person wanted to win the lottery, he/she could simply follow one of the infinite paths through the field which leads to the desired outcome. This p ath would take them from the multiverse/sum off all/God/etc to a universe in which they had picked the correct number.
TLDR/Summary: could randomness simply be a lack of understanding a certain cause in it’s entirety? is it possible to know this much? if i become immortal can i watch the sun become a giant banana?
and now..for a statistically improbable picture .. Image Credit Kila (kee-la)
Article – Futures Lost to Opportunity Costs and Lesser Gains
Aug 28th
Every Day Is An Inevitable Countdown To Death!!
Seriously! Every day you are paying the price in the only currency of your life. TIME. This is a currency that you cannot create more of, at least not in the traditional sense.
Time passes regardless of what we do, and sure as sunrise, a coin is taken from even the most tightly clenched hands. Time marches on. Time waits for no man. Time excuses all the old aphorisms and cliches I can dredge up.
It is may be good to consider what you are buying daily with this time. Are you investing it towards things that are good for you, or recklessly, impulsively spending it on little things?
How much do you value your time? Can you put a monetary price on it? If you could, would you?
Try a test of time..
When you do something, anything
you could ask yourself
what am i not doing instead?
Have you considered the opportunity costs you pay for this activity?
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a future price is paid in the present moment / Image credit: Valentin.Ottone
Within the context of this article opportunity costs are defined as follows: they are the price you pay in the future by the work of the present. Opportunity costs are incurred by doing lower value activities now, instead of maximum value activities. Put differently, opportunity costs are the price we pay for doing what is expedient, not what is best for long term happiness and results. Here’s an obvious example: the opportunity costs of smoking a pack of cigarettes a day could mean that you lose the opportunity to ever run a marathon. The cigarettes you smoke harm your circulatory and respiratory system, and you pay the price for that puff now at some unspecified date in the future.
Important questions:
Brian Tracy, both very successful and very learned, recommends that we ask ourselves; “is this activity the most valuable use of my time, right now?” – Operating on the information you know at current, are you consciously and continually striving to do the high value things that enhance your life’s quality the most?
Remember friend, there is a price that you pay for not doing the things that you could have been doing, if these things are a higher value.
Application: Use and understand the idea of opportunity costs as a semi concrete way to visualise the damage that procrastination or a lack of planning does to your future.
Opportunity costs are incurred every time you don’t do your highest value activities. Like any other value, they compound over time. Your first missed opportunity may choke off any number of additional opportunities or benefits that could have come from that first break.
Self Inquiry:
Thus if you wish to do more, be more and have more It is an extremely high priority for you to find out what the vital things you need to do are, and focus on them at the expense of other, lower value things.
Opportunity costs are often not so obvious, as they often deal with consequences that never happen. How do you know what you are missing if you miss it, isn’t this a paradox?
Unfortunately for us, these could be desirable consequences. Very desirable. Nobody punishes you for these consequences, though some of us get to experience that nagging feeling of disappointment or an irritable conscience.
ø
Has minutiae smothered your dreams with little tasks? Are your precious hours stolen by legions of little, necessary things that you have to do?
How necessary are they really?…
Plan to Budget Your Opportunity Costs:
This is not an opportunity to become neurotic or unhealthily obsessive about time management. Nobody is perfect and you cannot be expected to be doing everything all the time. Like any other cost in life, opportunity costs are probably easier to reduce than remove entirely, and this is normal. Life’s too short not to enjoy some fun and relaxation, and beside, fun and relaxation are certainly high value activities, as we cannot do without them. Yes, you now have an excuse to watch chick flicks/play Civilization/read trashy books – if you really enjoy it.
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Taking inventory may help you find where your biggest opportunity costs are being paid / Image Credit: Grey Rocker
Depending on the rate of change in your life, could consider taking inventory of your biggest opportunity costs on an ongoing basis. How often is up to you. 10 minutes on the first day of every month may be a good start. Planning to minimize these costs is one of the most effective ways you can overcome many of them. It is hard to defeat an enemy you can’t see,and it is hard to avoid a task you haven’t defined.
How do we reduce opportunity costs?:
We have a number of ways to ensure that these costs are kept to a minimum.
- Know what you gotta do today for the results tomorrow – Have a plan of your highest value activities and deadlines to have them done by. Have these specific tasks blocked out at appropriate. For example, if you are a painter and are most creative in the early evening, then paint when you are in full creative flow.
- Delegate – you can use technology to streamline and speed up repetitive tasks. Don’t scan every document by hand if you have a way to automate the process. Alternatively, don’t try to do everything yourself. You already know this. You may have far more competent co workers who will be able to do the task faster than you. A common example of this is accountancy. We have accountants for a reason!
- Play to your strengths - Building on the point above and repeated for emphasis, assign tasks away that are mentally taxing to you, and that you do slowly and inefficiently. If it takes you half the time it does your coworker to write articles, and he can edit video in half the time it takes you, isn’t it logical to assign roles to the strengths you both have? If you can set up a system in which everyone is doing what they are best at and enjoy, then you have a truly efficient and happy workplace.
- Not to do list - Having a list of things that are extremely lower value that may sometimes ’suck you in’ – in a sense this is a wanted list of ‘time thieves’. These may be tasks that are currently unavoidable but you are planning to be rid of, or they may be jobs that you need to refuse immediately based on the time they cost you.
- Say No - Don’t be afraid to use no, or some derivative of this magical word (how about “not a chance!”). Delivered politely, ‘no’ is a true guardian of your time and will help your life immeasurably. A firm no, delivered in a way that does not offend, prevents hours of wasted time in unhappy and un-neccesary work. Saying ‘no’ early is orders of magnitude easier than trying to back out of a commitment once the full horror of the work involved is made clear. For example, instead of being sucked into every side task a certain person in your life tries to rope you into, just smile sweetly and refuse in a pleasant voice. You aren’t here to forcibly reject proposals, just to retain your most valuable asset. You may be surprised how well the other takes it! People unable to stand up for themselves and their time suffer a lot at the hands of those who are quick to take advantage of this. If you are one of these people, don’t feel guilty because you want to refuse. It’s your life. You must remember that these people are sapping away your only currency. Tick tock..
It really is simple:
If anything, just keep asking yourself “what am I not doing here?” – if you can’t find something that feels like higher value to the current activity, then you are on the right path. And don’t beat yourself up if you aren’t the 110% goal striving human machine (i don’t think there have ever been any). Just try to remember that little improvements made on how you spend your time every day will show wonderfully compounding results in the months and years to come.
The future is yours to claim in the moment, and each new moment gives the promise of future opportunity.. / Image Credit: John-Morgan
Article – On Value, Markets and The Crowd Mind
Aug 28th
there is no real value
only perceived value
markets are a shared illusion
driven by the sentiment of the crowd,
amplified by this same crowd’s feedback
and the occasional powerful calculating agency
supposedly acting in isolation
Ω
perceived value drives decisions
if i do not perceive the value you have set as the seller, i do not buy
when a consensus on value is achieved the transaction is made.
markets are ongoing arguments based on price
and you can choose to participate in the discussion or not
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manipulating public sentiment leads investment firms to large profits
or horrendous losses.
in miscalculating sentiment
pigs get slaughtered
fear and greed drive the market
which is like a large projection of the groupthink,
the whole thing, crowd psychology in motion
Article – On Knowing
Aug 28th
what is known
is knowable
what is unknown
still knowable..
˙
if we know what we do not yet know
we may yet know it
if we do not know, what we do not yet know
we may yet know it through happy coincidence
or deep exploration
˚
ideas are thick in the air around us
wishing to collide with receptive minds
Thought Experiment – The Boundaries On Thoughts and Objectivity
Aug 27th
The mind is a liar and a whore. It binds us with chains around our sentience so familiar that we were born into them.
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Amongst other things, perception can be (please excuse these newly made terms):
Reconstruction: Seeing separate pieces and creating a separate pattern or relationship from them. Example: seeing a group of trees as a forest
Deconstruction: Seeing the whole and mentally partitioning it. Example: seeing a forest as a group of trees
Preconstruction: Projecting expectations on an event yet to be perceived. Example: dreading meeting an unpleasant in-law
Postconstruction: Projecting beliefs and values onto past experience (memories) Example: remembering all the times that said in-law made you unhappy
But, can it ever be truely ’seeing?‘
Ω
If we think in language, are our thoughts bound by the limits of speech?
If I think in Italian, is my view of the world infused with more passion than someone who thinks in German?
And if we don’t think ‘in’ language, what do we think in? Feelings? Images?
If I am brought up in an environment where I do not learn a spoken language, what form does my internal dialogue take?
Is this how some animals think?
∑
If not bounded by language’s constraints, what are the boundaries on our thoughts?
There must be some kind of boundaries, after all, what stops us thinking up the answers to everything? A lack of reference points? Can we think ‘outside of boundaries’ or is that like trying to stand erect on a floor that is not there?
And if we are truly looking for an objective view, can we as humans ever find it through the filter of our own thoughts?
In looking for a supremely objective view, what perspective can we take?
Thought Experiment – Freefall
Aug 27th
Image Credit: Entrtaner
Unpleasant Scenario: You are skydiving, descending, in freefall at 15,000 feet. Your chute fails to open. Your second chute refuses to open. You have only two chutes, things look hopeless.
You are above what appears to be a pine forest. It is now 10,000 feet below and the ground is rushing up to meet you..
You recall a story of an airman in the second world war who survived a fall from a similar height, and who also landed in a pine forest. The only advice you remember that he gave was to land on your back, creating as much surface area as possible, thus dispersing the blow.
You also intuitively understand that falling from 15,000 feet without an operating parachute is instant death.
You can now choose to believe either of these things and act accordingly. Should you choose to believe the airman’s tale you can guide your fall over the forest and brace yourself for landing. Should you choose the alternative you can make your peace and prepare yourself for the end
Ω
Symbolically – the outcome of life is no different from this situation.
Inevitably, you are going to die. This is neither bad nor good, it’s just the way things turn out. You can either go on through life and deny it, or accept that life is shorter than it should be and that you have many things to do before you hit the deck. Are you doing these things?
∫
Are you just preparing for (or denying) the end? or making the most of the dive whilst you have the time?
Article – Thought Experiment – God’s Eye Pt.1
Aug 27th
Hi there.
Here’s a mental feast for you to enjoy in many small courses. I call it is seeing with God’s Eye.
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Imagine that instead of perceiving the passage of time as you do now, second by second, you could choose see the passage of time in different orders of magnitude.
You could choose to watch centuries pass like seconds. Or observe nanoseconds drag by like hours.
Now, imagine you could see every of these variable speed time frames moving at the same time. Everything happening all at once. Can you visualise that? Paradoxical perhaps, you ask; how can causality (the idea that things must happen in a certain order) not be violated by objects existing simultaneously, but out of phase within time?
Maybe they can, but we need to rethink what time is. Let’s do away with notions of right or wrong here and just totally lose the plot (the basis of any good thought experiment!).
Ω
If causality is the arbiter of circumstance (as in, things have to happen because they have to come after causes) then perhaps time is a law that enforces causality? Sort of like the rails on a rollercoaster that keep everything travelling along at the right speed. Time ensures that causality doesn’t ever go ‘wrong’ and we don’t suddenly get cakes un-baking themselves or your tea un-brewing. That wouldn’t do in an ordered universe, after all. We refer to the tendency for things to fall apart over time as entropy, and that the fact they do indicates that time has a direction. This is referred to as time’s arrow, and time’s arrow is always in the direction of your ice cream melting or surfaces in your newly cleaned house getting dusty…
Therefore, for causality to exist, we must have time.
∞
This examination of causality is here so that we have an idea of what we are doing away with in the experiment. Examining causality further is a threatening and fascinating detour in itself. I’m just going to say this is a ‘quasi- quantum’ eye that perceives the passage of time very differently. It is not restricted by trivial stuff like causality.
Hey, this is God’s eye after all!
˚
So, back to your view through the eye..
With God’s Eye, in whatever ‘playback speed’ you look at, you would find that everything on the earth is vibrant and alive, having it’s own unique movement and moving in it’s own time frame.
In the eye that drags out milliseconds for aeons, you could go back to what physicists call the Planck time and watch the forces and energies of the universe decoupling, changing phase and establishing themselves. You could watch the transition of the primordial fireball as it morphed from the infinitely small energetic dot into the wondrous universal playground we live in today. You could watch it as it expanded and its eventual fate (whatever that may be).
Interestingly, from our ‘current’ human perspective, the early cosmic genesis would happen so fast as to be completely imperceptible. Worse, to be present at the Planck time would probably result in some serious bodily damage – imagine being killed by a wall of infinitely bright energy. Anyway..
∞
You may have seen a timelapse video in which the tidal motions of the ocean resemble the lapping of waves in the sea in ‘real time’ (God’s Eye sees beyond this real time nonsense). Perhaps you observed a flower that appeared to watch the sun rise and fall? Similarly, to see an individual rock in a longer time frame is to watch an object metamorphose, grow, collect new materials, change size and shape, form and re-form.
In the right timescale this rock may resemble something very much alive, travelling around the earth and shedding and gaining size and materials, such as other rocks, or lichen and moss. Perhaps like a human who moves home, who gains and loses body weight over time, or changes his or her clothing and hairstyle?
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What we perceive as ’still’ comes from our reference points. We are (relatively) frantic, fast moving and (comparatively) newly animated carbon structures, surrounded by a nursing home of very old and very slow moving heavier metals. Like hummingbirds whizzing around a tree, our perception of the timeline is blisteringly fast relative to much of the our surroundings, such as the geology all about us…
We see trees grow, but perhaps not at the speed trees ‘perceieve’ this growth. If a tree could ’see’, it may very well recognise humans as fast moving blurs that are quick to come and hack away with sharp, serrated instruments. Small, demonically fast and brandishing chainsaws!
If I were a tree I would be terrified.
˚∆
I’m a little uncertain about photons, a lead into Part 2….
Next time you see something that appears slow or unmoving, remember that slow is an attribute that is relative to your perception of time.
The photons that carry the imaging information which makes up your body may ‘experience’ you as a totally static environment in which they play out. You know better. To you, they travel so fast as to be unperceivable. More paradoxically still, they are the means in which you perceive. You cannot observe a photon without interfering with it. You cannot know perception from a 3rd vantage point. How uncertain..
Scientists say that the observer and the observed are a closed system. Information transfers between the two parts – observer and observed, regardless. It seems to imply that we are all connected through information.
Let’s make a mess of this with words. To perceive perception you must use perception to perceive, and thus a truly objective state is impossible! This is the uncertainty principle that Werner Heisenberg expressed so elegantly.
Within the message, is the messenger! Madness!
I’m going to try and expand upon this idea of how observation is part of the reality the eye in part 2 .
TLDR/Conclusion: Imagine you can see with God’s Eye. God’s Eye can operate outside of causality and does not affect the system in which it observes at all. It is completely detached from the bindings of the uncertainty principle and of time.
"In the strict formulation of the law of causality — if we know the present, we can calculate the future — it is not the conclusion that is wrong but the premise." - Werner Heisenberg
