Latino Culture is Not a Bootleg Version of Black Culture
In December of 2020, fans accused Bad Bunny and Argentinian rapper Rosalia of appropriating African American culture. This conversational stick of dynamite is a perfect ice breaker for you and I to have a chat about the Latin identity. What you are about to hear does not get a lot of media coverage, but it is a conversation that is sorely overdue.
Dear White (and Black) People
As much as it hurts me to say it, the way North Americans of all shades and colors see my Latin identity, or the “Latino brand,” if you will, is a bootleg version of African American clichés. The cholo is often portrayed as a Spanish-speaking “Big Scary Black Guy.”
I’m not saying these human beings don’t exist in real life. I’m saying they do exist in America. In the U.S.A, the Latin image has been pimped out by Hollywood executives for more than 90 years.
I’m fed up with that sh*t.
Who is Bad Bunny? IDK, But He’s Definitely More Black Than Rosalia
Who are these Spanish rappers who find themselves serving as ambassadors for the diverse people of the Spanish world? And if it is not braids and chains like their Black Anglo counterparts, then what the hell are they supposed to be wearing? Instead of angrily Tweeting about cultural appropriation, why is nobody asking these questions?
Let’s start with Bad Bunny. Bunny is from a unique place in the world. Puerto Rico is literally part of the U.S.A. But while it technically boasts both English and Spanish as its official languages on paper, its people speak much more Spanish than English. Puerto Rico is an island full of proud U.S. citizens who cannot speak a sneeze of English.
Puerto Rico THINKS more North American than any of the 19 Spanish-speaking countries in the Americas. PR also has the quirk of being particularly Black — meaning influenced by African culture. So when Bad Bunny interprets African American culture by rocking grills in I Like It ft. Cardi B, he is doing it both as somebody with both African and American “affiliations.”
Bunny is not ignorantly appropriating African American culture since he actually does have a claim for being both American and (kinda) “Black”.
Rosalia is a different story. She has no alliance to Black culture. Spain is less than 3% Black. It’s a country rich in original history, style, and fashion. Ironically, Spain is as protective of its culture as African Americans are with theirs.
Her wardrobe in this particular video is OK. It has no relation with African American styles and is actually more reminiscent of the dress worn for Spanish flamenco.
However, none of this matters. Cultural appropriation is a problem, and not a solution. The point of this conversation is proposing a solution to cultural appropriation.
One Characteristic of Gen Z is the Rejection of European Beauty Standards
Internet-educated young people are starting to pick up on the fact that there are millions of styles missing in their world. Millions of fun, beautiful, efficient ideas have been laughed and ignored out of existence since the freaking Renaissance.
European standards of beauty are not the best. Certainly, they are not the only standards in the world.
I typed “Angry African man” into a search engine and literally got images of Central American gangsters. The problem is these are two completely separate cultures that are often lumped together in popular culture.
I have one example for you that is near and dear to my heart.
Magical Realism, One Solution to Cultural Appropriation
Magical realism is an Amazonian art movement. It is a standard. It is a non-European standard. It is a pattern of design that we can use going forward as Latin American artists.
Magical realism was made reality in our world through the books of 20th century Colombian author, Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
I can’t tell you what should be beautiful, but I call on trendsetters and those whose business it is to spread good ideas and ask them urgently to not turn away from their own culture when it comes time to design the brand or product.
Sub to my channel on YouTube for philosophy, positivity, and improvement
Not everything that offends us is an insult and not every insult has to offend us.
Have you ever seen a small child bump his head and look to you for a reaction before seemingly making the decision to burst into tears? That’s us. The dynamics of getting offended doesn’t change much from the time we’re toddlers. You could say the process just gets streamlined.
Believe it or not, science says that feeling offended is a choice. It’s more interesting than just a blow to our honor. We must interpret an event before we are offended by it.
GOOD NEWS:
We have control over this process. It is possible to plan ahead right now and decide what will and won’t offend you.
BAD NEWS:
The trouble is that unlike a toddler, we decide to be offended in milliseconds. It is a very very fast choice we generally leave to the subconscious, especially as we get older. Doing this automatically can be a problem for obvious reasons.
The Most Normal And Most Destructive Miscommunication in Relationships
Positivity is a choice, and the first step to making that choice is wanting to change. Tweaking your definition of insult and offense can act as a springboard for the rest of your personal development plan. The difference between being ‘offended’ and being ‘insulted’ is this:
If I insult you, I am doing something.
If I offend you, you are doing something.
This mix up is probably one of the most normal and most destructive miscommunications in English, but if you want to get more respect and improve your relationships, we recommend you start by addressing this seemingly tiny confusion. It is actually a massive massive trap.
You can’t do anything about somebody insulting you, but you have control over whether you will take offense.
What to do
We “take” offense. A paper by Sagu University says a good way to visualize offense is as something we can choose to leave or take.
1. Clip Your Heuristics
In psychology, the choice to feel offended could be called a product of heuristics. Heuristics are like mental shortcuts we use to organize our thoughts quickly. The link above goes to a whole TED Talk that will make you question whether free will does exist.
Your mighty mind can use biofeedback to overpower even the most entrenched heuristics. The rest of these tactics are actual practices to help you accomplish this strategy.
2. Plan Ahead
The only way to do this is to plan ahead. To avoid getting offended in the future by something you know is a waste of your time and energy, you can plan right now and decide what kinds of things you are okay getting offended by and which you’d like to change.
3. Look For Common Ground. Be Empathetic
Egos and miscommunications have been causing tragedies since the dawn of mankind. Pretty much every religion ever has tackled this problem with rules that help believers speak the same language.
Isabella Poggi says that when we think the person offending us has the same beliefs as us, we are less offended.
4. Be Humble
Arrogance and offendedness go hand-in-hand. The way I got interested in offendedness was at a speaking event by Mickey Singer, where he made a point that stuck with me. I still use this trick to this day.
No matter how terrible you feel, your offendedness will pale when you frame it within the vast spans of the universe.
Conclusion | Positivity is a Choice
Ask your friends about their pet peeves. Have them ask you about yours. Do these ever keep you from living the life you want?
Knowledge is power. We hope you will use this stuff wisely in order to captain your life in the direction you actually want.
Zander (1976) defined the feeling of offense by describing three chronological phases. These phases describe how a person expresses feeling offended in the real world. A person has already chosen to take offense when s/he begins to go through these phases:
The offended person identifies the cause of the offense and works to develop some sort of interpretation.
The offended person attempts to determine the intensity of the feeling of the offense which is based on one’s belief of self and whether the offender holds those same beliefs.
The offended person has some sort of reaction to the offense that is based on a number of factors.
Is it so wrong to think you can use lifehacks in school to take world-class photos using just your cellphone from the “comfort” of your desk?
Is TikTok a Good Place to Scout Lifehacks?
Tiktok is the latest expression of the spirit of the internet, aka the Gen Z spirit. It is probably the most polarizing platform you know. TikTok often gets pegged as a posterboy for social media vapidity.
Critics do have a point. The whole point of TikTok isn’t to connect with friends, but to strike fame. Unapologetic fame-seeking is actually one of the characteristics of Gen Z.
TikTok has risen to infamy on the back of thousands of trends that could be described as vapid or even straight-up stupid.
“the whole point of TikTok isn’t to connect with friends, but to strike fame“
There are two main points I’d like to make in TikTok’s defense:
Play isn’t a bad thing as long as nobody is getting hurt
There is amazing educational content on there
The platform’s management team seems acutely aware of its reputation. It has recently launched a massive initiative intended to pivot how it is seen. For the entire month of August, TikTok will be boosting the visibility of videos with the hashtag #learnonTikTok
These lifehacks are sourced from photography channels and TikTok creators. They mostly consist of crafty filters and clever angles.
Lifehack #1: The Frozen Filter
This was the favorite photo hack of YouTubers Alex and Alan Stokes. My personal opinion is that it looks really cool (pun unavoidable).
Find a table with a glass top
Get a bag of ice
Model goes under the table
Ice goes on top of the table
Arrange the ice to surround your model’s face
Sport a blue filter when you shoot
Go nuts
This effect comes out looking borderline cinematic. The trick gets you special effects pictures that will do well on social media and have your followers wondering if they need to call 911. Little do they know …
Lifehack #2: The Contortionist
This trick is an optical illusion based on angles. Unlike lifehack number one, there are no props involved … Unless you count your friend’s legs as a prop. In a nutshell, you lie on your belly looking at the camera while your buddy lies on his back on top of you.
Find a friend with legs that look like they could be yours
Lie on the floor on your belly
Ask your friend to lie on top of you with his head facing your feet
S/he should be face up
Place your camera about 2 feet away from you, also on the ground
Make a constipated face for the full effect
This optical illusion is a simple, fun way to get a unique picture and uhm … bond with your friend.
Lifehack #3: The Instant Uyuni
The Instant Uyuni is named after the famous Uyuni salt desert in Bolivia. That link goes to an awesome music video by FKJ that was filmed there. This natural wonder of the world is literally a 500-mile mirror. People flock there from all over the world to take pictures just like this one.
Being the smart life-hacking individual you are, you can use this life hack to save the money your dear, sweet grandma would spend buying plane tickets to Bolivia.
Get a second phone
Place it directly under your camera with the long side facing your model
Lock the screen
Angle the two phones
Tell your friends about the magnificent salt desert you visited in Bolivia
Life Hack #4: The Phantom
Did somebody call Bloody Mary three times in the dark? This creepy effect can be produced using the panoramic tool on your phone. It might involve a little finessing, but you will be impressed with the results. This is also one of my favorites.
Get a friend
Set your phone on panoramic mode
Model should be facing you with her back to the mirror
Pause while scanning horizontally AFTER the camera captures your model, but BEFORE it captures your model’s reflection
The model should turn to face the mirror
Finish the panoramic by scanning your model’s altered reflection
Call a priest
Life Hack #5: The CD Flare
If you or your family has any CDs lying around, this is one way to put that wonderful shininess of theirs to good use. Solar flares are for beginners.
Grab a flashlight and a CD
Place them both near the camera
Leave a tiny piece of the CD in the corner of the frame
Adjust the angles so the flashlight is hitting the reflective surface of the CD
Snap away
This one might take a few tries to get the angles just right, but it gives a striking effect that will be liked by all your friends and stalkers.
Conclusion
These photographic life hacks can be done at school or at home. They are beautiful and fun. Maybe you can even build a following by using these tips. How many likes did you get by using this article?
Sub to my channel on YouTube for philosophy, positivity, and improvement
This is a quick post about personal development and life hacking.
Three real life human superpowers
Super Stamina: Human beings have developed to be able to run without stopping for thousands, yes thousands, of miles.
Spidey Senses: One in 2,000 people has a condition called synesthesia. These people are able to mix senses like sight, smell, and sound. Some report being able to taste music. The condition is linked to savantism.
Cold Control: Using breathing techniques and the power of the mind, extreme athlete Wim Hof was able to climb Mt. Everest shirtless and in shorts. He says you can learn to control the cold as well.
Super Stamina
Human beings can outrun any animal on Earth. That is the title of a Business Insider article about the first superpower on this list. It is one we actually all possess.
I remember being 6 years old and feeling utterly disappointed when I saw a chart showing the top speeds of different animals, the humans almost dead last, right between turtle and iguana.
What nobody told me as a little boy is that walking on two legs and sweating means we can absolutely wreck a cheetah over any distance over a couple of miles. When it comes to running long distances, humans can outrun almost any animal.
Forrest Gump’s thousand-mile marathon was not impossible. Humans are actually capable of achieving this feat.
If we’re built to run though, how come so many runners injure themselves?
The New York Times reports “a combination of factors is likely to play a role, experts say. Exercise early in life can affect the development of tendons and muscles, but many people don’t start running until adulthood, so their bodies may not be as well developed for distance. Running on only artificial surfaces and in high-tech shoes can change the biomechanics of running, increasing the risks of injury.
What’s the solution? Slower, easier training over a long period would most likely help; so would brief walk breaks, which mimic the behavior of the persistence hunter. And running on a variety of surfaces and in simpler shoes with less cushioning can restore natural running form.”
But superpowers don’t actually exist in real life … do they?
After seeing Donald Trump become president of the country and seeing Elon Musk name his child X Æ A-12, it is difficult to make the case for what is and isn’t possible.
@Citizens of the Distant Future: This gentleman is Mr. Elon Musk, the current richest man in the world
Is nothing impossible for human beings, then? Well, we all have our limits. The important thing to realize is how mutable and downright bizarre these limits often are. Often, we are limited by our mind and our training, rather than our physical capability.
Personally, I have found this to be true in skateboarding and parcour. Doing a backflip over a ledge onto a roof is physically doable for most people, same as a cheeky kickflip, but are you about to run out and do either? Hell no! The reason why can be found in your deep mind. We call it the subconscious.
The subconscious is always in your thoughts, whether you like it or not.
John Harold
Do you know how your subconscious works? This is the powerful mechanism for unlocking every one of the three real-life superpowers in this article.
Sadly, most people have no idea how their subconscious works or how to make friends with it.
Your unconscious mind is basically like an appliance in your brain that extracts and packages enormous chunks of memory, feelings, and intuition instantly. It warms them up. Then, much like the toaster in your kitchen, it pops out a fresh, hot answer to life’s questions.
These questions can be as mundane as “how much milk should I drink with this pastry?” or as complex as “should I ask her to marry me?”
This is when your senses get jumbled together and you “smell” a color or “taste” a sound. It happens with brains that have above average neural connections. It is also reported to have an association with savantism.
This dramatic trait that is more common than you might imagine. Billie Eilish has it. Stevie Wonder did too.
Ironically, it means the only thing Stevie Wonder could see was his music.
Synesthesia is not exclusively a product of hard genetics. I can personally attest to experiencing it for years following the use of psychedelics, anecdotal evidence that was later unexpectedly corroborated by scientific findings.
Our brains have a nifty feature called neuroplasticity. They change. They can change themselves. It’s pretty incredible. Our life experiences and the way we live form a feedback loop. Smithsonian’s online magazine reports that we can actually teach ourselves synesthesia. (Mine manifests itself as occasional 3D visions of abstract ideas such as “how the poor look at the rich”)
Some of the common types of synesthesia include:
Color-to-sound: Some hear sounds when they see colors, others see colors when they hear sounds. They are consistently the same pairings, but the pairings are not necessarily the same for everyone, although there are significant similarities.
Visio-spacial: Numbers, letters, months, and dates will occupy physical points in space. A might be farther away than B and perhaps lower than C. Sometimes they are arranged in circles. Studies show these synesthetes have a superior ability to recall events.
Mirror-touch: They feel the sensations of people they see. They can’t watch violent movies because they feel as if they are being shot and chased themselves.
Sound-gustatory: They taste sound. I once heard a report on Snapchat News about a synesthete with this type who said that hiphop was sour and pop was sweet.
Cold Control
Wim Hof is not your ordinary extreme athlete. He has mastered his body and mind to the point that he can literally be injected with toxic e.Coli bacteria and beat it by overriding his automatic nervous system with his brain.
The guy is so incredible that hearing his accomplishments without seeing the evidence isn’t enough for most people. That is why I’m going to include this little video.
an example of real life superpowers, no way around it 😲
Through his app, Wim has actually taught thousands of people how to be stronger, happier, and healthier. He attributes his discoveries to basically spending the 80s doing hardcore vigilante research on deep vedic meditation. His powerful commitment to his practices are a major reason he has been so successful.
There’s really too much to say about this guy. He’s a superhuman with an identical twin who is just a dude living in Italy–basically tells you everything you need to know, right?
Joshua Waitzkin, another guy who figured out how to hack the simulation
He was 16 years old when he received the title of International Chess Master. He is also a Tai Chi world champion and the inspiration for the book “Chasing Bobby Fischer.” More than anything else though, Josh is a bold bold lifehacker.
Take, for example, his claim that he translates the essence of chess into the language of Tai Chi.
Waitzkin says he does not like the word prodigy. He claims we can all harness incredible superpowers if we just learn to learn.
Conclusion: these are three examples of real life superpowers
In conclusion, you and everybody around you has access to superpowers. That is, human beings are naturally able to run thousands of miles without stopping, we are naturally able to breathe fine at freezing temperatures, and some of us are even able to see sounds.
Which of these real life superpowers would you pick if you could only choose one?
What is and isn’t possible? The truth is that the answer to that is changing right in front of our eyes.
The superpowers in this article have been used and practiced by human beings for thousands of years. It is only our own Western culture that is getting to know them for the first time thanks to the interference of the internet.
The internet has created obsessive self-improvers like myself, and it has enabled us to hunt down the blueprints to eye-popping phenomena like Wim Hof method and synesthesia.
Sub to my channel on YouTube for philosophy, positivity, and improvement
Find the Most Satisfying Future Proof Jobs With Good.co
College grads across the world are on edge about the future they face. I’ve even heard rumors of AI lawyers terminating the profession of attorney.
If you are looking for the most future proof jobs out there, a good place to start might be “human resources companies” like Good.co. This platform is a hub of relevant information and networking capability for job seekers.
platforms are like factories for services.
Kevin Kelly, author of The Inevitable
Ford’s assembly line changed the world in the early 20th century. This revolution produced millions of jobs. Today, we live in a world populated with both different sorts of factories and different kinds of jobs.
To figure out how you fit into this brave new world of ours, ask yourself what your priorities are. According to Good.co, a platform that makes job-seeking easier and funner, these priorities usually come in three flavors.
Compensation
Career
Culture
What makes Good.co better than Linkedin or whatever?
Being happy at work is all about matching your psychology to a routine that fulfills your emotional needs. Different company cultures express this in different ways.
This toughest of all business responsibilities is the domain of the human resources department. Human resources is all about psychology!
High-quality applied psychology
It is the quality of the psychology in their value proposition that makes Good.co such an interesting platform to play with.
High-quality psychology makes Good.co an interesting platform to play with.
Juan Lozano
Good.co’s UX actually feels like playing a game because it is so clean, dynamic, and colorful. As a fan of good design as well as practical psychology, this website stands out from other professional development companies to me.
This awesome career connections company produces archetypes that describe both individuals and companies as well as fun quizzes that let you find where you fit best.
Their blog is full of tools and tricks
This website offers EXTENSIVE resources for job seekers. It doesn’t stop at just direct job profiles and applications. Their blog, created by (profession professionals?) has an insightful tip for everyone—data analyst to graphic designer.
They seem to have close ties with a website that specializes in startups called Angel List. This startup forum, whether owned by them or simply associated, provides a great email newsletter for anybody seeking startups to apply to.
Is Google Still Competitive With Microsoft, Yahoo And Facebook In The War For Talent?
Google has built a reputation as a supportive and innovative pioneer, but the New York Times wrote an article about how they could be overtaken in public perception by potential talent by companies such as Amazon and Facebook.
This article describes pre-2014 Google’s company culture as “Commando” style and new Google as “Collaborative Intergalactic Explorer” style.
Take These 7 Career and Lifestyle Risks in Your 20s and 30s
The gist of this article is that you are only 25 once. This is the best possible time for most people to move for work and learn new skills. It’s honestly kind of a fluffy article, but inspiring and more informative than you might think just because Good.co has a great writing team
6 Reasons Why You Should Discover Your Personality Type
This article is made a lot stronger by the fact that Good.co hires psychologists to devise practical employee and company archetypes. This isn’t the point of this article however. The point of this article are actually more traditional personality tests such as the Meyers Briggs. Learning about your personality and striving for personal development can take you deep into the all-important search for meaning and motivation that matters much much more than money
Does the flurry of technology thrown in your face every day feel like an assault on society? If it does, you are not alone. In a way, that is exactly what it is.
Imagine you lived in 1903. You are looking for the most future proof jobs during the second industrial revolution, and you are having little luck. All of the rules are being rewritten by Mr. Henry Ford and his conveyor belt.
The setting for your “future proof” career would have probably been a dense factory. The set of qualities demanded of you might have been mechanical pragmatism, assembly line speed, and a close tie to the community. Today’s future proof jobs require a different employee. Kevin Kelly, the founder of Techcrunch magazine and author of The Inevitable, Understanding the 12 Technological Forces that will Shape our Future, has a theory about how these new jobs might look.
He says that the nature of our industrial revolution can be found in cheap, ubiquitous copying.
In the spirit of cheap and ubiquitous copies, why don’t you hit that share button? Any friends or family looking for a future-proof job will be sure to appreciate it.
Sub to my channel on YouTube for philosophy, positivity, and improvement
“Love is the will to extend one’s self for the purpose of nurturing one’s own or another’s spiritual growth … Love is as love does. Love is an act of will. Love is a choice. We do not have to love. We choose to love.” – from The Bassoon King by Rainn Wilson
Dwight Schrute’s real name is Rainn Wilson. I found out about Schrute’s brainy alter ego after stumbling upon Rainn’s talk at Google.
Rainn calls himself a “multi-nerd” — that’s the genre of nerd who participates in computer club as well as model U.N. and band. He is a believer in ghosts, God, and having fun.
Hearing the talk, I got the impression that Rainn’s parents were almost certainly West Coast hippies. Then I read his book, The Bassoon King …
Who is Rainn Wilson?
Rainn is the son of two OG West Coast hippies who came within one parallel universe of naming him Lord Byron Wilson. So … yeah.
He made his film debut in Galaxy Quest (1999). In 2005, he was cast as Dwight Schrute in The Office, a role he played (sublimely) until the series finale in 2013.
His friend and real-life Jim, Will Eno, calls his first book, Soul Pancake, a very gentle game of truth-or-dare.
Soul Pancake came out in 2010 as a kind of companion to Rainn’s internet brand. The accompanying YouTube channel has more than 1 million subscribers and seeks to make philosophy and spirituality less … well, boring.
An Eccentric Fellow
Like Dwight, Rainn is an eccentric fellow with a love for the outdoors. Rainn had a wild childhood. He lived in Nicaragua from the ages of 1-5. During this time, he had a pet sloth and got a traumatizing case of tapeworm.
Today, he and his wife own three pitbulls, two potbelly pigs, and a zonkey named Derek.
“My most vivid memory of Nicaragua involved worms coming out of my butthole”
The Bassoon King
Rainn’s earliest years were spent speaking Spanish in a Nicaraguan port town called Bluefields. Yep. His eccentric characters are based on his real life eccentricity.
The music at Bluefields was a Caribbean mash up. Rainn writes about “reggae and dancehall from Jamaica; Calypso and soca from Trinidad; son and salsa from Cuba; and even country and western, which was brought by the American employees of the United Fruit Company.”
Also, don’t freak out, but Rainn’s philosophy sounds like a cult. He and his family subscribe to a smallish religion that started in 1844 called the Bahá’í Faith.
A Spiritual Fellow
Don’t make fun of him! I’m sure being born into a non-major faith has caused him enough trouble, lol.
Anyway, the Baha’i faith sounds like a gentle and tolerant canon. Rainn is one step ahead of those of us who have grown up asking ourselves what is my philosophy of life? The Baha’i call Love the defining power in the universe and don’t go door-to-door unless completely shorted out on toilet paper.
Some of the big answers offered by Baha’i thinking include:
We are not alone in the universe.
You can be friends with Others.
Good means living according to Love.
God exists, and he is chill about the name you call him.
How did Dwight Schrute Help Me Figure Out What is My Philosophy of Life?
With his public-facing spirituality, Rainn’s nonchalant championship of faith makes it a little easier for non-atheist, non-Christian, non-Jewish folks like myself to “come out of the closet” as spiritual people.
That is particularly important for us Gen Zs, since we have little precedent for spirituality in our generation. It’s good to see somebody smart and relatable talk about spirituality on YouTube without sounding like he is pushing some ancient, outdated agenda.
The benefits of spirituality include physical ones such as longevity, less hypertension, and decreased depression.
An explanation for why Dwight freaking Schrute might actually make an impact on how our generation sees spirituality is social proofing.
Social proofing is a concept in psychology that says people will follow the masses. In other words, people see an action as easier and safer if they see others doing it.
Rainn provides precedent for spirituality as somebody who is fun, interesting, smart, and (apparently) satisfied with his life while believing in something beyond science.
Some folks care more about social proofing than others, but it’s hardwired into all of us.
“My dad swears that there were real, actual ghosts in that rickety old house. Every night he would hear this mysterious screeeeee sound, like something scraping the floor, and every morning he would come downstairs to find that the furniture was arranged a bit different. ”
Personally, he makes me more open to believing in the unexplainable, ghosts, for example. I don’t care if science doesn’t partake in a good haunting.
Conclusion – Do You Ever Wonder, “What is My Philosophy?”
To start with, the scientific method is as much of a philosophy as Christianity, so whether you live your life based on faith or science, you are still following a philosophy.
Wilson’s personal tao (or path) hinges on having fun, being open-minded, and expressing your individuality, even if it comes at the cost of being made fun of or missing out on being “normal”.
If you want to know the inner workings of the mind behind Dwight Schrute, you can find his second book The Bassoon King on Amazon.
Sub to my channel on YouTube for philosophy, travel, and word hacks
Vaughn Bell once called dopamine the Kim Kardashian of molecules. It’s popular, sexy (?), and it just pops up where you least expect it.
Dopamine is often called the pleasure molecule, but that is the wrong way to understand America’s favorite neurotransmitter. In fact, dopamine is more like the desire molecule. You could even call it the motivation molecule.
This article is about a misunderstood molecule that secretly determines almost everything you do. Read on to find out more about:
What Dopamine is Used For
How to Have More Motivation
What Jordan Peterson Says About the Relationship Between Responsibility and Meaning
Oxytocin, not Dopamine, is the most aptly called “pleasure molecule”
What is Dopamine Used For
In 2009, scientists published a study that showed an extreme difference in motivation between rats with and without dopamine.
The conclusion of the experiment is that the dopamine-ful rats would develop cravings so strong that they would keep pressing the lever that signaled food until they literally dropped from exhaustion. Meanwhile, the dopamine-less rats would not get out of their little rat bed even for food or water.
The rats that had dopamine blocked were still capable of feeling pleasure if food was put in their mouths, they just lacked all will to live.
How does this apply to me? It applies to you, friend, because you live in the most dopamine-drenched time in human history.
Social media, junk food, and masturbation are all dopamine-intensive activities.
This is a problem because our bodies quickly develop a tolerance for dopamine, like with alcohol. Our body’s homeostasis automatically defends us from over-motivating. The problem is that this doesn’t stop at junk food.
If your dopamine pathways are overstimulated for too long, your motivation plane is destined to plummet and crash land in depression valley.
So what causes your brain to produce dopamine? The simple answer is anything where you anticipate a reward.
How to Summon Motivation
photo by @LievanoFreeman
Meaning automatically leads to motivation
Verse Lozano
Have you noticed how there are weirdos out there who don’t seem to dread going to the gym? Some people have so much motivation that they somehow don’t mind coming home from their 9-5 to stay up until the wee hours working on their side-projects.
Highly productive people have made friends with their dopamine glands. Sometimes, without even knowing what dopamine is or what it’s used for.
One surefire way you can infuse your life with chemical motivation is by discovering what brings you meaning. Meaning is a sustainable source of the reward feeling that is triggered by dopamine.
For many people meaning is the pursuit and/or maintenance of artistic ability, love, responsibility, or family. Let me know in the comments what other things I haven’t thought of that can bring us meaning.
How to Get Respect and Motivation at the Same Time
Jordan Peterson likes to talk about the relationship between responsibility and meaning. If you begin to accept responsibility over things in your life, you will generate meaning and therefore, align your dopamine homeostasis with things you actually care about and are good for you.
Meaning aligns your dopamine levels with healthy activities
If you embrace responsibility over something, this relationship becomes a tool you can use to boost yourself into a meaning-rich lifestyle. It doesn’t matter if your responsibility is over a child, a dog, or a manager position at the Barbie doll factory.
Before we talk about positives such as respect and meaning though, let’s just try to imagine the life of a very frustrated person who suffers without meaning and enjoys very little respect in his/her life for some one reason or another. The reasons don’t matter. What matters is that this person would obviously be better adjusted with respect and esteem. Likely, the person knows this.
Practical Applications
Philosophy without an application is pointless. So we have included two ways you can actually re-structure your dopamine balance.
These tips will help your body begin to crave productivity.
Get a Simple Elephant Agenda:
This particular agenda is better than others because it leverages positive psychology to propel you toward your long-term goals. It comes with a generous amount of blank pages in the back that let you express yourself creatively, loosely, and spontaneously; it includes a vision board and mind map in the front that keep you aimed toward your goal; and it includes random appearances of an elephant icon throughout the regular entry pages—when you see this icon, you are supposed to go back to the mind map and vision board in the beginning and reflect on your progress.
Learn What is Meaningful to You:
Meaning aligns your dopamine levels with healthy activities. Psychologists talk about the relationship between responsibility and meaning.
If you begin to accept responsibility over things in your life, you will generate meaning.
If you embrace responsibility over something, this relationship becomes a tool you can use to boost yourself into a meaning-rich lifestyle. It doesn’t matter if your responsibility is over a child, a dog, a company, or a job as a busboy.
Jordan Peterson’s Advice
Peterson uses the relationship between responsibility and meaning as a recurring theme in his bestselling book Twelve Rules for Life. He believes it is a valuable relationship to explore because it is so dang underrated.
Twelve Rules for Life offers psychology’s solutions to the mental health problems of modern society.
Peterson’s twelve rules are:
Stand up straight with your shoulders back
Treat yourself like someone you are responsible for helping
Make friends with people who want the best for you
Compare yourself to who you were yesterday, not to who someone else is today
Do not let your children do anything that makes you dislike them
Set your house in perfect order before you criticize the world
Pursue what is meaningful (not what is expedient)
Tell the truth – or, at least, don’t lie
Assume that the person you are listening to might know something you don’t
Be precise in your speech
Do not bother children when they are skateboarding
Pet a cat when you encounter one on the street
Conclusion
Dopamine is a misunderstood molecule. Its use is not pleasure, but chemical motivation. Learning to recognize when your brain is launching a dopamine campaign on your affect can be a useful tool in your personal development arsenal.
If you want to learn more about psychology in an artistic way, check out our debut book on Amazon. Our books are made to feel like the paperback form of an educational YouTube channel.
By accepting that the puppeteer is a person too and then using the word “gaslighting” very liberally in his day-to-day.
Does somebody else control how you feel and act? Around this person, you are not yourself. You feel mentally weak compared to this person and you wind up doing what they want more often than not. Do you know what it feels like to be hopelessly manipulated?
This is an article that seeks to capture and describe a vision of manipulation and control called The Puppeteer Archetype.
Sharie Stines, a California-based therapist, says that a manipulative person might twist what you say and make it about them, hijack the conversation or make you feel like you’ve done something wrong when you’re not quite sure you have.
Please, reader, just read the disclaimers before making any judgements about the person who manipulates you.
Puppeteers are people. People are complex. There is more to a person who embodies the Puppeteer than just that one archetype. In other words, they can evolve.
The Puppeteer archetype is just one of many. Not only do many manipulative individuals fall outside of the vision that this article will try to illustrate for you, but those who reside within this vision do not often do so permanently. In other words, take this article with a grain of salt. It will not apply perfectly.
The Puppeteer archetype seems like a natural manifestation of the nature of some people. Historically, puppeteers are born from self-defense and a form of entertaining themselves. In other words, manipulation is nothing but a game they are good at and you are not.
You Need to Know How to Get Respect
After all, most puppets are deader than a doorknob. Unfortunately, this applies to you too if you are a person who is being manipulated. You have to prove that you are alive.
This is a question of limitations, control, and probably most importantly, it is a question of respect. You have to respect yourself before anybody else will respect you. So how do you do that?
Address micro rejections
Use the truth as your shield
Whatever you do, don’t take it personally
Use the word “gaslighting liberally
1. Dealing with Micro Rejections
Did you know that the pain from social exclusion activates some of the same pathways activated by physical pain?
It’s exactly what it sound like. Micro rejections are a habit. They are a common habit. In a relationship, they can lead to abysmal feedback loops that leave love shredded.
Visually, micro-rejections are often talked about in psychology as a tech replacing human interaction phenomenon. Visualize the girlfriend who automatically checks her phone while you are talking with her. It can also be any kind of automatic shutdown that is not thought through.
These are easy to brush off individually, but if you are have a problematic relationship with somebody who doesn’t respect you, you need to be aware that these micro-rejections exist and they DO mean something.
2. Why is Telling the Truth Important
The truth is a powerful Spartan shield that you can do all kinds of cool moves with.
For starters, it keeps you and your values straight. If you are truthful with yourself and others, you will always be able to defend a past position. Admit it to yourself when you’re wrong!
If you are truthful with others, but not with yourself, you have built yourself an unwieldy lead shield that will do nothing but drag you into the mud. If you have a manipulative person in your life and you need him/her to respect you, you will need to be nimble and solid.
Telling the truth brings you
Peace of mind
Bigger man-ness
Growth for you and those around you
3. Don’t Take it Personally
Oh yeah. You need to get over yourself too. Manipulative people suck, yes, but I’m sure you have problems and peccadilloes too.
Mickey Singer, author of The Untethered Mind, puts a great deal of faith in the value of not being offended. If you expand this idea, you can apply it so sooo many things.
Things we are daily offended by:
Poor manners
Loud personalities
Slow computers
It’s easy to forget that a whole multiverse exists out there and our problems are a 0.000000001% of it.
4. Learn and Use the Term “Gaslighting”
Words matter guys. This particular word means: “when somebody else tries to make you out to be somebody whose thoughts have no value because you are crazy.”
It’s a very common strategy among the puppeteers of the world. You have to be careful not to use the word so so often that it loses its potency, but it will serve you well as the basis for your honest, unoffended confrontations about how he/she is micro-rejecting you and playing silly games with your heart.
Conclusion
Honestly, guys, respect is a very easy thing to get if you are brave and honest with yourself. You need a word-tool or two to leverage your ballsiness, sure, but why not give “gaslighting” a try? You might just reverse the puppeteer-puppet dynamic you have going on in your life.
Who are you, puppet, or puppeteer? Personally I’m actually more of a puppeteer 🤷♂️
Ground Positive Media 