Random Stuff

I have this word file called important in which I copy paste all the well, important stuff which I find on the internet, which I know I'll want to refer to in the future. Not links, phrases or paragraphs which appeal to me. I'll share these:

"You can’t turn people into puppets with hypnosis, but it does tell you how to get in synch with them in a way that they are more likely to trust you and want to have you around. That’s handy in every walk of life. And you can tell if what you’re saying or doing is having a positive or negative impact as you are doing it. That helps a lot too."

This one is from the Dilbert blog, from a very, very old post on Hypnotism. This was the first thing I saved actually (or the first thing which I saved after the nth purging of my PC from viruses). It especially struck me because I was seeing someone having this very same hypnotic quality, and I noticed the effect of that on me.

"When you're feeling alone, like no one cares, read this cuz its absolutely true: Every night , someone thinks about you before they go to sleep, At least fifteen people in this world love you. The only reason someone would ever hate you is because they want to be just like you. There are at least two people in this world that would die for you. You mean the world to someone. Someone that you don't even know exists loves you. When you make the biggest mistake ever, something good comes from it. When you think the world has turned its back on you, take a look. Always remember the compliments you've received. Forget the rude remarks."

Although it sounds a bit like wishful thinking, I just liked it.

"SHED- separate the treasures, heave the trash, embrace your identity from within and drive yourself forward."

This was from some site which propounded reducing the material clutter around you to achieve a sense of spiritual liberation. I know it sounds corny, but it does make sense.

"It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes short again and again, who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause, who at best knows achievement and who at the worst if he fails, at least fails, while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat."

Truly mind-blowing quote, but no idea where I read it. Maybe it was in someone's sig in one of the many forums I frequent.

"Five simple secrets of success (People skills necessary for success)
Rapport, empathy, persuasion, cooperation and consensus building"

Don't mind this. I'm into management, leadership, self-help and corporate training in a big way. I probably picked this up from one such book.

"Relationships do not end when a person dies. Some other aspect of it deepens and begins. Your relationship isn’t over, it is just no longer externalized. The pain involved is the consequence of love. That’s what love costs. Some people say the price of love is too high. They will take many incarnations to get by that fear, which is fine. However, there is a point in which fear does not lead our life anymore. We are willing to love even if it is painful at times.

Love is the only rational act of a lifetime. Everything else pales in comparison. Things that are motivated by love can still turn out badly in the physical world, but the intention for love does not turn out badly, it can only bring a deeper capacity for love."-Stephen Levine

Profound. If that touched you, google Stephen Levine or get your hands on Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom.

"Immanuel Kant- Kant believed himself to be creating a compromise between the empiricists and the rationalists. The empiricists believed that knowledge is acquired through experience alone, but the rationalists maintained that such knowledge is open to Cartesian doubt and that reason alone provides us with knowledge.

The mind itself necessarily makes a constitutive contribution to its knowledge, that this contribution is transcendental rather than psychological, that philosophy involves self-critical activity, that morality is rooted in human freedom, and that to act autonomously is to act according to rational moral principles

The concepts of the mind (Understanding) and the perceptions or intuitions that garner information from phenomena (Sensibility) are synthesized by comprehension. Without the concepts, intuitions are nondescript; without the intuitions, concepts are meaningless—thus the famous quotation, "Thoughts without content are empty, intuitions without concepts are blind."

That's a bit of psychology/philosophy. I do have varied tastes. Having obtained some knowledge of this realm (as much as Wiki provided), I feel Kant's school of thought is sound. I agree with Freud too, in certain things, but I'm in disfavour of the Jungian school of thought.

"Just because you do the same thing day after day everyday, doesn't mean life is boring. The trick is to find what is interesting in the repetition - to find meaning for every iteration. Then, and only then, will you discover that there is actually something new in what you have been doing, and you never really saw it because you never really looked."

Reminds me of my own blog post on Repetition. It's true in essence, there is a meaning in every iteration, if only you care to look for it without thinking of it as a drudgery.

"No offences , but over my schooling , engineering and MBA , there have been numerous occasions when students from the reserved categories have made it while far smarter and deserving ones have been left in the cold. It’s all too moving to read about the son of the rickshaw puller who made it to Infosys , but what about the guy from the general category who had double the brains but could not get into a decent engineering college because the rickshaw puller’s son got in through the quota ? I am sure that one day, there will be little kids dropping years to get into nursery class."

And THAT is why I really hate India, the whole damn country is ruled by greedy politicians who mess with the education system and wreak havoc in the lives of millions of students year after year. Reservations in IIT and IIM? The dream institutes for many brilliant minds, who work hard and long, only to be beaten at the end by the son of a biscuit who proudly presents his SC/ST/BC certificate (thus degrading himself calling himself a 'backward person', and without even having as much self-respect as to care about his own status), walking away with the seat of a more deserving candidate.

That was from the blog of an ex-IIM guy by the way. On another note, I don't condemn the people who make use of their 'free' seats. I'd do the same if I were in their place and have the same lack of dignity and self-respect.

There's lots more, but I'll save that for another time.