Soundbyte Psychology

What we are best at we criticize ourselves the most on, whether out loud or in secret. This is a natural effect. We know the most about what we are great at. We have images, heroes and idols that we consider great. We are not them. The very knowledge that adds to our greatness provides us with equal knowledge of what all WE ARE NOT. Yet, others will tell us. It is a fact that they do not know any better, or they would know what you ARE NOT. They are not wrong, however. Neither are you. Neither are you right. You are great, but you are not everything. You never will be.

8-tracks could hold 45-minutes. At that time, this was the length of an album. The C60 cassette tape held 30-minutes per side. Albums became longer. CDs? 80-minutes. Following the adoption of compact discs, albums started coming up short. Many were not filling the storage space allotted them. Then came DVD, then came data. It is clear that most artists and labels do not aim for more than an hour. Nowadays, the iPod can hold hundreds of albums. The album is dead. The concept is defunct. Already, among the independent artists, you are seeing 2-track and 3-track releases. Is it done? Is it good? Great, then get it out there. The age of data killed the one-hit wonder. Little was it known it would kill the idea of the album as well.

I have a set of assignments. It includes doing one unreasonable thing for two weeks. I have missed only one day so far and am about to be a week deep. The amazing part? Finding out how much we need to do exactly what our mind tells us NOT to do. Seriously. Think about anything you want. Quickly now, what does your mind say? Does it give you reasons why you cannot have it? Most likely. Look for something exact it is telling you. Is that action something you fear to do? Would taking it bring you closer to what you want? The very mechanism of your fear slash ego slash consciousness that tries to keep you safe (and far from what you want) will also help you if you use it in this way. The fear it shows you betrays itself, providing you with the very step you need to take.

You wake up to the sound of barking. The dog next door again, barking right at your window. Do you: explain the situation to your neighbor; or, kill the dog? Many decide to explain before taking action. Not good. What if they let it continue, or, worse, spur the canine on to bark more loudly? If you kill the dog you have already made yourself suspect. The solution? If the odds are that your neighbor will not step in, then by-pass diplomacy for action. Your quality of sleep determines the quality of your day. Kill the mutt and sleep in the day after. Practice intelligent solutions.

What is more predictable? Rolling one six-sided die or flipping a coin? The coin of course. However, you can still predict the coin when rolling the die by calling odds or evens. In this way, a person with many facets can be predicted using simplifications but remains more unpredictable than a person with less aspects. Now, to take the individual into a group. We can state the odds for rolling one die Our guess has a 1in6 chance of accuracy. Our odds to guess the average of a roll increase with every die we add up until a point. Groups are easier to predict than individuals. You or I can bring chaos to a system, but, by its growth alone, a society will continually move towards order and predictability.

A camera flash blinds you. Your ears ring after a loud bang. You know what saturation is. If you think you have it bad, machines have it worse. Our real risk is in a sensory-overload of knowledge. Data, in the past, was lost due to wars and IT-shifts. It was the natural selection of information. Now, data survives. We have the good, bad and ugly of information at our fingertips. Question 1: how do you find objective answers? Question 2: are you sure you are finding the actual answer and not just the answer you want to find?