Tag Archives: overthinking

The Road to Diamond, Day 197: Facing The Lions

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Posted by on in collaborating, Community, impediments, Personal goals, Personal Values, Social, Spiritual, Striving

June 13, 2025- The simple matter seemed larger than it actually was. I needed to access an e-mail account that is not my personal account. Getting mixed up between Outlook and Edge, I toggled back and forth, until a co-worker advised sticking to Outlook. After a bit of playing with the site, I was in, and a mole hill that had been made into Sagarmatha was reduced to its actual size. Technology is sometimes a lion that, like any other large feline, needs to be faced.

For me, there are two basic lions: The number of different platforms, which as mentioned above, I get confused; the tendency of some sites to loop around and around, usually due to a glitch. I ran into one of those tonight, as well, on the site of a charity I have supported. A live person will no doubt respond to me, next week. It is just part of the period of adjustment, yet serves neither human nor AI. Glitches are the reminder that Artificial Intelligence, as a creation of mortal humans, will always have a certain level of flaw.

I have, essentially, come a long way in having the confidence to face challenges, even those that seem to be way beyond my level. I am not going to climb the actual Sagarmatha, or anything close to it in height-for both financial and familial reasons. There are other challenges ahead, which are most definitely within my bounds. These will be enough for this lifetime. You, the reader, will have a front row seat for as many as you choose to read; Stay tuned!

The Road to Diamond, Day 54: Common Sense

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Posted by on in Assistance, collaborating, Community, Inspiration, Personal Values, Social, Spiritual, Striving

January 21, 2025- One of the stated principles of the new administration in the Executive Branch is “the return of common sense.” We’ll see.

The concept means different things to different people. As one who used to overthink matters, or rush through things without a thorough thought-process, or sometimes both at once, I began to consistently adhere to common sense, rather late in life. Now, though, even the most random or novel of events are unlikely to throw me off.

There are matters that would appear to be easily decided by common sense-like “two sexes”. That is what is necessary for natural procreation. IVF and artificial insemination also require a male/female interaction. In the world of modern genetics, however, the effects of chemical contamination, from microplastics in the blood stream to adulterated foods, have been more and more evident in the past three decades. Thus, mutations present themselves, across the world of nature, including the human race. Common sense tells me to accept people as they are.

There is the matter of criminal justice. “What constitutes a crime?” is a process that has evolved, since the dawn of civilization as we know it, across the continent of Asia, in northeast Africa and in various parts of the Americas. Punishment of crimes has likewise evolved. Common sense would seem to indicate that a crime has been committed when one or more persons cause injury or death to one or more other people, or when they steal, or cause damage to, public property or the private property of others. This has been complicated, by the notion that public order is at risk, if a certain level of respect is not shown to rulers or other public officials. Common sense tells me that ridicule, alone, does not impede a leader’s , or other official’s, ability to do her/his job. An emotionally secure person can take quite a lot of ridicule.

We will see to what extent common sense prevails, in the next four years-and beyond.

Focus and Count

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Posted by on in Community, Education, impediments, Inspiration, Personal goals, Personal Values, Social, Spiritual, Striving, Technical stuff

August 28,2024- Her head spinning, the excitable teen threw up her hands and announced she was too stupid to figure how to do Scientific Notation. Looking at the arcane samples written on the white board, I could see where she, and several others, had come to that conclusion.

It’s not them; it’s the system of instruction. Focusing on maintaining order, I vowed to look up the matter in the quiet of my Home Base. So, should one want to write the number 168,275,000 in Scientific Notation, it would be necessary to move the decimal point (presently after the right-most zero) far enough to the left that the whole number,1, is followed by .68275000. Then, count the digits to the right of the decimal point. There are eight of them. This translates to 1.68275000 x 10 to the eighth power, or ten with an exponent of 8 . This laptop will not write it properly, but anyone who has had Algebra I knows what I mean. I will write it on the white board for all to see, tomorrow.

Focus and count is also necessary, when trying to make a rational, evidence-based decision that balances a heart conviction. Many men in their late teens and twenties have spoken of wanting to see a decisive, “macho” leader, who will, essentially, make the trains run on time-and shove all obstacles aside. That was tried, nearly a hundred years ago, in several countries of Europe. It’s been tried in several other countries since, with limited results, actually.

Historical evidence shows that human nature gets in the way of a machine-like system that knocks all obstacles to the side. The “macho” leader is still a human being and is subject to whims, fancies, and other emotions, which can and do make him/her go overboard. The leader, for example, may misjudge the nature of a an event or a phenomenon, convincing self and supporters that their way is the only way to get through the morass. The problem itself being complex, there are disappointments, setbacks and unrest that come before its resolution, and thinking outside the box, something often anathema to the authoritarian, to the hidebound elders and the unseasoned youth who support his/her efforts, is exactly what is needed to resolve the issue.

The same thing can happen with a top-heavy bureaucracy, which will, in its turn, bring another call for an authoritarian system. Red-tape vendors don’t like divergence of opinion, either. The fact remains, though, that the universe of problems can only be soothed by exactly such diversity. There are matters that can only be resolved by a trusted executive; others that require limited, but vigourous, debate and consensus and others that demand universal participation.

Many matters require that those involved focus, and count.