Ohk Guys!! The thing is I am writing this totally drunk, I know this because I had over 20 liters of alcoholic drinks in my fridge last night and now it is in people’s systems hopefully ;) … and because I have great meta-cognition .. haha!!
But this is the thing, I was having a conversation with two guys (Charanjeet Singh & Sidharth Shah for people who GAF) and I realized something, now I know a lot of you guys and gals think he is just another drunk guy with his great eureka moment. Ohh!! Ohh!! I have too much alcohol in my system and confusing a pee with an epiphany. But the thing is even Socrates, and all those Greek dudes used to have to arguments after getting drunk ;) … Let me pee out my Eureka
Or as my dad puts it, you need to talk things through to really have your logic straight. And the three of us were the last people left standing after the Housewarming. So enough with the suspense, the blog is about Giving A Fuck or as I want to label it GAF … I am a marketer kill me for branding anything that is conceptual.
What is GAF?
- GAF literally translated would be caring
- It’s about caring about stuff, it’s about things/people/ideas/anything that concern you
- It’s about your willingness to listen to other people’s opinions, their ideations and their solutions to problems which might or might not even be relevant to you
Why is GAF important?
- Well, GAF is important because it sort of defines you. We are labeled by what we do, what we say, how we do things, what we wear, what we express and what we don’t express, the things we don’t do
- GAF-ing or Not GAF-ing pretty much plays a pretty important role in defining and shaping who you are and will be, because according to me, everything at time (t + Delta t) is pretty much a result of the events happening at time t and so on and on
- The good thing about being human is that we are sentient, we are conscious and if we are aware about things not being the way or having a probability of not turning out as we intend, we can make efforts at time t (present) to bring about change in the time t + Delta t
- Well the changes might happen or not happen depending on the comprehension of the system and the quality of effort put in but the thing is this…. Our consciousness is actually pretty limited. It’s limited to things we GAF about and we ignore things we don’t GAF about
- So!! As you can understand now, all that happens in time (t + delta t) is pretty much a result of three things a) GAFing and not GAFing b) Ability to change things at t and c) Your ability to understand how the overall system works
How is all this important?
- Well this is important if you GAF about your future. If you are one of those who just live in the moment or even want to revel in the moments of the past, well I am really happy for you, but I somehow have this constant zest to better myself day in day out and if you are a bit like me I think you will find this important
- One of my friends Prashant Saurav once put things beautifully in perspective for me and I will quote his "crystal clear" vision to you “You have an unconscious and so does the universe, when they align you are successful, when they don’t you fail”, simple and beautiful wasn't it? So effectively the whole idea is to align your actions with the state of universe at time t for a better (t + delta t)
- The thing about b) is that it is very very hard to change it in short term, it takes a lot and lot of hard work and time to change things at a given time or maybe just plain luck always helps =)
- The thing about c ) is pretty similar too, like b) where you have a given position and past c) too is defined by similar things
- The thing about a) is that is mostly conscious or at least it appears the same to me. The things you choose to care and value are often either programmed into as a kid or you choose them consciously in your adolescence or if you are super-special maybe some part of later life too
- So the thing is that even though b) and c) at any short term are not that much in your control, changes in what you GAF and not a GAF about can help you with the same
When do I know that it is time to change the things I GAF about?
- Well the thing is according to Erikson and his psychosocial model, it just happens, it is part of growing up and getting older so if you listen to your heart, it will itself modulate those things. But Hey! If you have read this far, you probably aren’t one of those people who trust every other thing their heart says that easily
- You probably over think things at times, paralysis by analysis and often end up wondering why even though you tried your best you ended up messing things instead of creating a wonder
- So??
What to do if you are not able to listen to your heart that easily?
- Lol, well first of all, I don’t know. I have always trusted myself and I realized this while telling Sidharth Shah a story and this is what I remember myself saying “I obviously only care about what I said because I am the only person whose goals are aligned with myself”
- And now that I thought about it, that statement isn’t that accurate. Often our own goals are conflicting with each other and this in-congruence is what causes the whole problem
- So here is my solution to the problem, because you know what I believe “If it doesn’t have a solution, it’s not a problem” (old Jewish adage)
- Anyhow here is the solution… most of what you think is in your heart is an unconscious sum of what has influenced you and your own personal genetics/special sauce whatever you want to call it.
-The thing is that you have three forces acting on you x) you special sauce y) you conscious thoughts z) the social influences around you (shaping your unconscious)
Where are you taking us? Get to the point... =P
- Lol, come on guys, I am a little drunk still, the thing is you can’t change x), at least that is what my understanding of x) is
- So effectively you have just y) and z) left … now you can either be one of those people who is just moved by every social stimulus you get and change according to everything around you
- Or you are the type y) wherein you just need to figure out everything yourself, and unless and until you know the answer it is just not right!
- The problem with being either is that… in y) you will have a huge lag; your cognition alone is just too slow!! (Accept it!) … When there are 6 Billion other processors just as powerful as you, how can you even expect that you will outdo them alone!
- The problem with just z) is that you find it very hard to maintain a competitive edge and in effect the only differentiating factors would be your peer group and the situation you are in time t
- So the thing is you have to figure the perfect spot in between y) and z) for the Gold!!
- Or as Hadi Alam would put it you have to find “Aurea Mediocritas” the golden mean =)
Fig 1: Aurea Mediocritas Frontier (GAF Frontier)
Now I am so serious about this thing that I actually went out and made this diagram in MS Paint! For the people who are visual thinkers, sorry auditory thinkers you i don't have a podcast =P ... now there is no statistical data behind this thing, but intuitively feel that the curve above would closely depict the performance of a person if you keep the luck factor constant { lol, like that is ever going to happen ;) } … the success a person can expect in the long run is depicted by the radial distance of the frontier from the origin on the vertical axis you see a point where the frontier intersects the z axis, this would be a person who is completely social dependent. Similarly on the horizontal axis you see a point where the frontier intersects the z axis this would represent a person who is more reliant on his/her intelligence.
Now again I intend to clarify, these are my estimates for the average; the thing I am concentrating on is the ratio between z and y or the slope of the line and as the input and the available output. The axes in themselves do not indicate the effort put in. The points I want people to notice are
1. Somebody who is completely socially dependent is performing a lot better than somebody who is completely self-reliant (The exact values would depend on your peer group which affects the intersect at z and your intelligence, which would affect your intersect at y but these are my guesses for the average are in the curve)
2. The line in green indicating a more social person is no longer than the line in red which indicates a more self-reliant (introverted) version of the same person
3. The Aurea Mediocritas is the sweet spot, now I feel the graph would vary from person to person (and a person can have multiple golden points too ;) ... yay!! More places to strike gold) but the thing is you just have to find your golden point… and voila!!
4. So hence the point about GAF (if you haven't figured yet, GAF is measure of z/y)… to find the sweet spots you need to find the right amount of GAF for the given domain, as you give more fuck and are more willing to listen to others to you will move to the left and slope of the line increases
Thanks everyone who came for our Housewarming and every person I have ever met =)
But this is the thing, I was having a conversation with two guys (Charanjeet Singh & Sidharth Shah for people who GAF) and I realized something, now I know a lot of you guys and gals think he is just another drunk guy with his great eureka moment. Ohh!! Ohh!! I have too much alcohol in my system and confusing a pee with an epiphany. But the thing is even Socrates, and all those Greek dudes used to have to arguments after getting drunk ;) … Let me pee out my Eureka
Or as my dad puts it, you need to talk things through to really have your logic straight. And the three of us were the last people left standing after the Housewarming. So enough with the suspense, the blog is about Giving A Fuck or as I want to label it GAF … I am a marketer kill me for branding anything that is conceptual.
What is GAF?
- GAF literally translated would be caring
- It’s about caring about stuff, it’s about things/people/ideas/anything that concern you
- It’s about your willingness to listen to other people’s opinions, their ideations and their solutions to problems which might or might not even be relevant to you
Why is GAF important?
- Well, GAF is important because it sort of defines you. We are labeled by what we do, what we say, how we do things, what we wear, what we express and what we don’t express, the things we don’t do
- GAF-ing or Not GAF-ing pretty much plays a pretty important role in defining and shaping who you are and will be, because according to me, everything at time (t + Delta t) is pretty much a result of the events happening at time t and so on and on
- The good thing about being human is that we are sentient, we are conscious and if we are aware about things not being the way or having a probability of not turning out as we intend, we can make efforts at time t (present) to bring about change in the time t + Delta t
- Well the changes might happen or not happen depending on the comprehension of the system and the quality of effort put in but the thing is this…. Our consciousness is actually pretty limited. It’s limited to things we GAF about and we ignore things we don’t GAF about
- So!! As you can understand now, all that happens in time (t + delta t) is pretty much a result of three things a) GAFing and not GAFing b) Ability to change things at t and c) Your ability to understand how the overall system works
How is all this important?
- Well this is important if you GAF about your future. If you are one of those who just live in the moment or even want to revel in the moments of the past, well I am really happy for you, but I somehow have this constant zest to better myself day in day out and if you are a bit like me I think you will find this important
- One of my friends Prashant Saurav once put things beautifully in perspective for me and I will quote his "crystal clear" vision to you “You have an unconscious and so does the universe, when they align you are successful, when they don’t you fail”, simple and beautiful wasn't it? So effectively the whole idea is to align your actions with the state of universe at time t for a better (t + delta t)
- The thing about b) is that it is very very hard to change it in short term, it takes a lot and lot of hard work and time to change things at a given time or maybe just plain luck always helps =)
- The thing about c ) is pretty similar too, like b) where you have a given position and past c) too is defined by similar things
- The thing about a) is that is mostly conscious or at least it appears the same to me. The things you choose to care and value are often either programmed into as a kid or you choose them consciously in your adolescence or if you are super-special maybe some part of later life too
- So the thing is that even though b) and c) at any short term are not that much in your control, changes in what you GAF and not a GAF about can help you with the same
When do I know that it is time to change the things I GAF about?
- Well the thing is according to Erikson and his psychosocial model, it just happens, it is part of growing up and getting older so if you listen to your heart, it will itself modulate those things. But Hey! If you have read this far, you probably aren’t one of those people who trust every other thing their heart says that easily
- You probably over think things at times, paralysis by analysis and often end up wondering why even though you tried your best you ended up messing things instead of creating a wonder
- So??
What to do if you are not able to listen to your heart that easily?
- Lol, well first of all, I don’t know. I have always trusted myself and I realized this while telling Sidharth Shah a story and this is what I remember myself saying “I obviously only care about what I said because I am the only person whose goals are aligned with myself”
- And now that I thought about it, that statement isn’t that accurate. Often our own goals are conflicting with each other and this in-congruence is what causes the whole problem
- So here is my solution to the problem, because you know what I believe “If it doesn’t have a solution, it’s not a problem” (old Jewish adage)
- Anyhow here is the solution… most of what you think is in your heart is an unconscious sum of what has influenced you and your own personal genetics/special sauce whatever you want to call it.
-The thing is that you have three forces acting on you x) you special sauce y) you conscious thoughts z) the social influences around you (shaping your unconscious)
Where are you taking us? Get to the point... =P
- Lol, come on guys, I am a little drunk still, the thing is you can’t change x), at least that is what my understanding of x) is
- So effectively you have just y) and z) left … now you can either be one of those people who is just moved by every social stimulus you get and change according to everything around you
- Or you are the type y) wherein you just need to figure out everything yourself, and unless and until you know the answer it is just not right!
- The problem with being either is that… in y) you will have a huge lag; your cognition alone is just too slow!! (Accept it!) … When there are 6 Billion other processors just as powerful as you, how can you even expect that you will outdo them alone!
- The problem with just z) is that you find it very hard to maintain a competitive edge and in effect the only differentiating factors would be your peer group and the situation you are in time t
- So the thing is you have to figure the perfect spot in between y) and z) for the Gold!!
- Or as Hadi Alam would put it you have to find “Aurea Mediocritas” the golden mean =)
Fig 1: Aurea Mediocritas Frontier (GAF Frontier)Now again I intend to clarify, these are my estimates for the average; the thing I am concentrating on is the ratio between z and y or the slope of the line and as the input and the available output. The axes in themselves do not indicate the effort put in. The points I want people to notice are
1. Somebody who is completely socially dependent is performing a lot better than somebody who is completely self-reliant (The exact values would depend on your peer group which affects the intersect at z and your intelligence, which would affect your intersect at y but these are my guesses for the average are in the curve)
2. The line in green indicating a more social person is no longer than the line in red which indicates a more self-reliant (introverted) version of the same person
3. The Aurea Mediocritas is the sweet spot, now I feel the graph would vary from person to person (and a person can have multiple golden points too ;) ... yay!! More places to strike gold) but the thing is you just have to find your golden point… and voila!!
4. So hence the point about GAF (if you haven't figured yet, GAF is measure of z/y)… to find the sweet spots you need to find the right amount of GAF for the given domain, as you give more fuck and are more willing to listen to others to you will move to the left and slope of the line increases
Thanks everyone who came for our Housewarming and every person I have ever met =)
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