I sat back and looked over my To-do list. Actually there were a lot of things I need to do. My mind wasn’t here though; It’s not settled on this stuff. It’s bugged by a handful numbers of topics that Instagram has fed in its feed. It’s not happy with how the world was rolling and being rocked up at the moment. But it did believe that every crisis comes an opportunity for a very reason we often look forward to. I just letted my mind wondering around endlessly for about an hour or two, then sat back again and tried to distract myself with irrelevant matters.
“Meritocratic”, that was a new English word that I learned today. It derives from Meritocracy: meritocratic society or social system that gives people status or rewards because of what they achieve, rather than because of their wealth or social position.
Maybe I do believe in it as well. And I love it, this idea, a lot. I mean, Thomas Edison, who’s nowhere like me except he was a human being, believed in it. The American Dream was built upon it. Elon Musk, maybe, was also promoting it (wait, I haven’t finished reading his book yet). But it’s again, a made-up term to encourage people to do better and put more effort into their lives. I used this term to work harder as well although deep down, I would prefer sleep than doing homework. I mean, we love sleep don’t we? Let that sink in.
It’s incredible how the world want us to put more effort. I just want to have more time to sleep. But I would tell myself, “Hey B, you haven’t washed your laundry yet”,..”Hush B, you need to read this article for class”,..”Hey B, the world is burning, you need not to sleep, there are people who is suffering, WHY ARE YOU SLEEPING?” And then I would bare myself to ran through posts to posts to consume what people are saying, so to make my brain work a little bit harder, so maybe I would be able to understand their struggles, and so I might be able to help.
But then I was exhausted without doing anything significant. Why? And then I wanted to sleep again, or giving up doing homework. I would spare you, my reader, for reading this post. Give yourself a clap for being patient. While we are reading, we are simultaneously burning energy to keep up with understanding the messages. Our brain is constantly working, and it needs rest and breaks. I wished I can cite better, but I suggest you read Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman to understand the concept.
Maybe there should be time that I can be more purposeful. Because life is short and I want to make every minutes count. I was lazy, I would admit, there’s a reason why I want to wake up everyday and do something great. After all, we don’t know how we going to die, and we aren’t sure when. But one of my dear friends have said that we should aim to live our best lives. A live that we would be proud of, maybe our children would be proud of, and maybe they would be grateful for. I mean, there’s too little to expect, I’ll try to keep it humble and sweet.
Maybe one day reading these notes, I would term myself as a drunkard trying to write sense. Who knows? You guys might make fun of me for writing this. I’d be happy if you actually read it and give it a comment. The beauty of the Internet is that you would be hated and loved at the same time for the same reason, and I wouldn’t waste my time to argue about it.
Here are some continuing parts of the last post Writing in time of crisis (P.1)
3. Commercialization of Space Travel and the ambition of Elon Musk
This, is probably a month old, but what is up with Elon’s Meme tweet? http://stankmemes.com/ summed it up :)) Tesla Stock price: TSLA (NASDAQ) $1,025.05 0.00 (0.00%) has just reached new high, passing $1000 this week. But perhaps that’s only a small part of the overall achievement that Mr. Musk has been able to acquired during this first half of 2020. While the world was placed under lockdown due to Coronavirus, Musk’s SpaceX was able to launch Dragon Crew to dock at ISS (International Space Station). There are certainly a lot of excitement going on. We are expecting that space travel will become as common as commercial flights, once Coronavirus Pandemic pass. From looking at historical world pandemics, it’s safe to say that this one would last until the end of next year, with the current level of travel restriction and border closing. After that, we either hope that humanity realized a better way to travel across continents, or else we would be back to the track. Perhaps more of us would be inspired to do space travel.
4. Finding a new place in Tokyo
The extreme of procrastination is reality hitting in the face when I realized I have not found a new place to live for these coming 2 years in Tokyo. Though it would be another great lonely experiences, I really do hope it is not going to be a depressing one. Many of us are now living in the city, and we don’t live with family that often anymore. Thinking back, I miss my family. Now that both Vietnam and Japan have remain closed on borders and restriction on international flights, the chance that I would actually see my family again face to face within this year is pretty slim. Calling them everyday helped to deal with the longing a bit, and of course it helped me being in touch with my brother more often. It’s funny how I wanted to move out so bad when I was home, to the point when I remember that I used to hate (not hate, but dislike) the limited life possibility that we had. Our “city” was a small one that doesn’t have much entertainment, but it was full of seawind and hot beach. City live was great in its way because it’s uplifted and exciting, yet there aren’t so many things you can do to replace the vibes that you get from your hometown. In a city, there are so many things, so many stuff you can buy; So many things you can acquire to make your lives more secure and convenient, yet nothing can fill up the void that you have for a lost childhood with crickets in the trees and white cranes floating across the shiny sunset. With the rapid urbanization, regardless of which countries you are from, as an adult, you would probably find yourself spending time being alone more than ever. I mean, even before the Coronavirus. Because of the Coronavirus panic, we were socially instructed to be more distant among others, hence the physical gap between us widened up.
Coming next:
5. Artificial Intelligence: A personal FOMO
Discussion of how you can learn about AI, how to use one for your need, and how AI can help solve world problems.
Questions: Can robots help us plant more trees? Can it? I want to learn how robots help us plant trees.
6. On a lighter note: staying organized, focus, and be disciplined when you are left alone
I want to tell myself not to give up before seeing the result, or before realizing the goals that I was aiming for. It felt like I was in darkness, but to be exact I wasn’t turning on the light myself and didn’t look at the right directions. I hoped that someone would show me the way, but in reality it was that I didn’t know where to go at first. But it’s ok isn’t it? I think it’s time to say it’s not ok if you are not moving on your way. It’s hard to complete work productively without following a system these days. However, there are still hopes.
7. About Business and Environment: Can business still achieve profit margin while committing to help the environment?
8. How history repeat itself
9. Wearing a tight coat
The social media sometimes behave like a baby, so responsive and sensitive, or sometimes worse, as chaotic and crazy like maniac. That means hope AND destruction at the same time, for humanity at large. It’s a baby because it’s still learning and responding to the change around its environment.
Once again, thank you so much for reading 🙂
Qbooz 