From: Logicomix: An Epic Search for Truth
Discovery is not something that most of us give any thought to in our day to day live. The word invokes images of Vasco da Gama or Bertram Russell, people who made important contributions to the world and our way of thinking. Where, we ask ourselves, do I fit in?
While it is true that you may not be an explorer, either of the globe or of human thought, we are all explorers of our own lives. Or at least, we should be. To Discover means to use the Wisdom you have and the Senses you can to work your way towards a goal, a plan, a paper or even just the right recipe for dinner.
To discover is to learn, to unfold, to come to the new by way of hard work and knowledge. So maybe you won´t be charting the New World or solving the mysteries of Math. But, odds are, you´ll get some satisfaction doing it.
by admin on March 12, 2010
iStockphoto
It is easy to dream. When we are little our minds are full of mad schemes and wonderful machinations, most of us probably spent at least half our childhoods plotting out some plot or working out the exact details of some major goal. Most of us probably spent hours upon hours daydreaming about our futures, our spouses and our homes.
Where did it all go? How many of us can look at our selves in the mirror and say, “I have done it! I AM married to Ariel, the little Mermaid. I DO work for a flying-car company!”
OK, so maybe those sort of dreams are a bit far fetched, but there are plenty of others that were a bit more grounded in reality. Where’s that house you were going to have right when you got married? Where is the job that you love and the work you can’t stop doing? Why aren’t you a doctor, a writer, a fireman?
Because it is easy to dream but it is hard to bring dreams to fruition. When we at eGo.com say Dream we don’t mean wish or fantasize- we mean put that dream into reality.
Anyone got the number for Disney…?
by admin on March 10, 2010
Copyright: Lakia Films
What is Courage? We at eGo.com believe that courage is not the absence of fear or the inability to realize what you’re up against. That’s Lunacy and Stupidity, respectively. What courage is is that special ability to go forth against great odds, knowing what you are up against. Neil Gaiman, the best-selling author, has a wonderful little scene in his book Coraline, the book who’s film adaption lost BEST ANIMATED FILM this week, where the title character explains so beautifully, in a tale about her father, wasps and glasses, what courage truly is and how one defines it.
But we don’t own the rights to Coraline and haven’t gotten the author’s permission to use it, so we won’t be putting it here. Suffice it to say, Coraline (and, by extension, her author) use the same definition we do. If you don’t believe us you can buy the book and see for yourself.
(No one at eGo.com was paid by anyone associated with Mr Gaiman or HarperCollins for the above post, we just really think it’s a great book.)
by admin on March 8, 2010
Circle Files
When the time comes to finally act, to make that Decision, we always find ourselves just a tiny bit nervous. We can have all the Wisdom in the world, we can be open to the power of Sense and we can make sure that we have Discovered all the facts we need- we still find ourselves shaking with trepidation at that irreversible moment of choice.
What can you do? Nothing, really. Without that sense of apprehension and the feeling of relief that follows from choosing, science says that we would never make choices; research shows that it is that very moment of doubt and unsureness that forces the brain to reward you for your choice by releasing dopamine. So you’re stuck with it, decisions will always be a trial. The only thing you can do is what we said above- use your Sense, your Wisdom and all that you have Discovered to make sure that, queasy as you feel as crunch time, you never regret the choice you made.
While not the most pleasant memory for some, High School math class is one of the perfect places you can learn the importance of Wisdom. Don’t get confused, that doesn’t mean that the math you learn in high school is one of those bits of wisdom you need all your life (unless you’re an architect or mathematician), just that the way you learn there is something you can… um… learn from.
Most Maths require the learner to not only understand the basic rules, but also to memorize and understand a formula or two. A formula is a symbolic representation of a rule of math, a simpler way to remember how the basics work.
This is really what all wisdom should be- a building block of proven fact that allows us to make decisions faster. So whether or not your Math teacher looked like Ben Stein or if you use the Pythagorean Theorem on a daily basis- you learned something useful in Math class.
Magic Eye 3D
Perception is a pretty tricky thing. Our eyes can convince us that some squiggles and dots are a three dimensional image, that a still image is moving and even that there’s a whole subterrianan world under our feet! How do we do it? How can our mind take flat, simple pictures and report that they’re “real”? Like everything else, it all goes back to our brains.
Our eyes, amazing devices that they are, are nothing more than information gathering tools- it is the brain that does the sorting, the processing. There’s a brief lag between our seeing things and our brain putting the information together. Caught between what we’re seeing and what we expect to see, our brain fills things in as best it can, creating the illusion that things are real when they are not.
Sense is when we use all of our senses to make sure our brains don’t get tricked too often. As real as a chalk drawing can look, there’s no feeling of air coming from the cave or smells of water flowing from a spring. Only when we open up all our senses and use them can we truly trust the information we are getting.
Fibers.com
One of the biggest obstacles in life is when we fool ourselves into believe that obstacles exist. Whenever something stands in our way, it’s really up to us to see it as an obstacle or as an opportunity.
When faced with a new project at work we can complain about the difficulty or we can just roll up our sleeves and get to work. As Edgar Guest put it:
Somebody said it couldn’t be done,
But he with a chuckle replied
That “maybe it couldn’t,” but he would be one
Who wouldn’t say so till he’d tried.
So he buckled right in with the trace of a grin
On his face. If he worried he hid it.
He started to sing and he tackled the thing
That couldn’t be done, and he did it.
Somebody scoffed: “Oh, you’ll never do that;
At least no one has ever done it”;
But he took off his coat and he took off his hat,
And the first thing we knew he’d begun it.
With a lift of his chin and a bit of a grin,
Without any doubting or quiddit,
He started to sing and he tackled the thing
That couldn’t be done, and he did it.
There are thousands to tell you it cannot be done,
There are thousands to prophesy failure;
There are thousands to point out to you, one by one,
The dangers that wait to assail you.
But just buckle in with a bit of a grin,
Just take off your coat and go to it;
Just start to sing as you tackle the thing
That “cannot be done,” and you’ll do it.
by eGo on February 26, 2010
Four Leaves=Luck?
How often do we bemoan the fact that someone else got something we didn’t? A better price for airfare, a prettier spouse, and cheaper phone service; whatever it is, we usually say the same thing- “It’s just not fair!” But what are we really complaining about here?
Do we actually believe that some random factor just happened to allow things to work out for this person? Do we ignore the rest of the information they give us about going to five different websites looking for tickets or the trials and tribulations of their courtship? Of course not. What we’re really saying is that it’s unfair that they put in all that effort and got good results. We put in effort, maybe even an equal share and we don’t, or don’t feel we, get the same amount of reward.
This is just the way things go when you work to Discover; sometimes you get what you’ve been trying for and sometimes you don’t. But you certainly won’t get anything if you stop looking.
by eGo on February 24, 2010
Copyright; DC Entertainment
Dreams have an interesting dichotomy- We often use the term to mean two seemingly opposite things. When we tell someone to “quit dreaming” or see someone say, “It was only a dream!” We are focusing on ephemeral aspect of dreams, the fact that they are only visions in our head rather than reflections of reality. When we tell someone that “we have a dream” or that we “dream big” we are referring to the fact that we often call our plans and hopes “dreams.”
These two ideas are not really at odds with each other. Fact is, if all you do is hope and wish from your dreams to come true, then you really are living in a world of unreal visions. It is only if when you Dream with precision, finding ways to activate your dreams and make them a reality that we use it as a positive. Your options are simple; dream The way Martin Luther King Jr. did or dream the way a five year old does. Your choice.
by eGo on February 22, 2010
We all remember the Cowardly Lion’s song, “If I was King of the Forest.” What that ‘fraidy-cat was saying was that he couldn’t perform his role as King of the Beasts since everything scared him. Now, while one hates to be dismissive of The Wizard of Oz, this song doesn’t begin to make the point about courage that is made in the book.
In L. Frank Baum’s classic “The Wonderful Wizard of OZ” his main point was that all of Dorothy’s compatriots already had what they thought they lacked; The Tin Man would often cry over his lack of feelings, the Scarecrow would say, “if I had a brain I would suggest we…” and get them out of bad situations and the Lion… Well the Lion would constantly talk about all the things that scared him but he never faltered when it came to facing them and protecting his friends.
If anything, this is the perfect definition of courage; His extreme fear made the the Lion well aware of the dangers around him, yet when he needed to act he did.
We should all be so cowardly…
