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Philipsophy

This page was updated on Fri Nov 12 21:02:41 IST 2004
Read this if you want to grasp the idea of what is my view of the world and of my way of life. Don't take the things written here too seriously, cause I'm not. Do remember, however, that in every joke there is grain of reason.

1. Toy soldiers leaders or new vs old toys

Old toys have more appeal than brand new, out-of-the-shelf, all-the-same toys. When i was a kid, i had a bunch of soldiers. The Game you play with soldiers as a boy is a war game of course! One of the secrets of successful war game is to partition forces into two (or more) more or less equal in strength armies. If one army stronger than the other, the result of the game is no mystery - it will win the war. Stronger survives, its that simple. When the armies are of the almost equal strength, then it is a different story. Then the result is unknown, then there is a mystery and secret. Only then the war game is interesting. One of the major factors in an army is its leader. Great leader can make a loose army into a winning one and faulty leader can be defeated with huge and strong army. How do you choose a leader for your army? Leader has to be a distinguished figure with unknown past, preferably older and, therefore, wiser. If you have a bunch of soldiers that were bought at the same time and look the same, then how can you pick one? The answer is simple - you can't. Even if you pick one then he will be a faulty leader. He is as old as the others. He is no more experienced then the others. Why should the others listen to him, why should they follow him into a battle? On the other hand i had a few older soldiers. One of the were painted in blue and had no legs (i have no idea how did this happen, its still a mystery to me), another one was the only indian (all the rest were pirates and WW2 soldiers), yet another one was in different color. As you can guess, they were my leaders. They lead their men into a battle and men followed them. They were different, they had an idea, they've seen world and experienced things. Their soldiers had trust in them. They looked after their leaders and dreamed to become someday like them
This is the difference between an old and new soldier. Between a new and old toy. Old toy is individual. It has story. It has past. Its unique. If its destroyed or lost it can't be replaced by a new one. The replacement will never be the same as the old one before, which is not true with the new toys. :-(

2. Ceremonize up!

Every person i know once in a life experienced a feeling of emptiness. If you hadn't then skip this part. Feeling of emptiness, feeling of routine, when nothing interesting happens and you can't tell days one from another. This feeling enters your life and all of the sudden the road ahead seems gray and boring. I'm not writing this and wasting your and my time just to complain and tell you that I've felt it too. I'm writing this cause i have a magic potion. It works for me, so i thought that maybe if i share it with you it might help you too. The secret is to keep your life filled. If you can't fill it with something big and important, then fill it with something small and funny. I believe that anyone needs a hobby in his/her life. The problem is to find one, moreover sometimes we're in no mood for hobby, or have no time or maybe no cash (especially if your hobby is flying fight aircrafts or crossing the Pacific Ocean). Thus you should fill your life with something that doesn't require the same amount of time and money as a hobby. Another observation to make is that your life IS filled with all kind of things that you do: you brush your teeth, make yourself a coffee, dress, drive your car and etc. There is a clear contradiction here: from one hand you feel that your life is empty, while from another your life is full with all kind of small things that you do. From this contradiction comes the solution: you should make the little things you do your temple. You should make them important and then you will feel your life full again. It is already full with there things, its just that you don't pay an attention to them. OK. Now, how do you do it? I can't tell your the absolute truth or work-for-all advice, i can only tell you how i do it. I make a thing that i do a ceremony (as a title of this part suggests). Probably an example will help: I'm shaving, this is not a secret anymore. :-) To tell you the truth, this is a kind of boring minutes, since its the same thing you do every morning. One day I've decided to enter some fun into this, I've decided to shave the left side with my left hand and right side with right hand. This sounds stupid, but it entertained me for quite some time. When I've done this i made a shaving from dull period of my day into something challenging and risky (try to shave with the left hand by yourself). Agreeable that this makes my morning more fun and "full". Another example: near a door i have a money-collector (its just a box). The thing is that its not fun thing to throw a nickel into a collectorž just like it another thing that you *have* to do. I mean, its there, so you have to use it, right ? Wrong. At least i don't agree with it. I've found some small toy penguin, which sits on the top of the box. I call it "The Box Guard". Now when i want to put a coin into a box, i pick up the guardž put it to the left (always to the left), put a coin and return the guard to its place. I'm doing it with the feeling of respect to the guard and to the ceremony. Finally, I've wrote this word: "ceremony". This is what i mean, fullish things i do in order to make myself happier. I'm aware that it stupid and childish, but it makes me feel more alive. When i will feel that the guard ceremony is turning into a routine, i will make a funny name for the guard, or add another guard, or change the box, or will break the box and buy something for the guard on the money I've collected there. This is my advice to you. Make a small things around you funnier and fulfilling by turning them into a small rituals. Just try to do this...

3. The One

What is this issue about "The One and Only" ? Isn't it a depressing thought, that you have only one person that is right for you? You can't just marry with the girl you love, you have to be sure that she is the one. This weird thought creeps into your mind from time to time, "is she the one or not? how do i know if she is the one?". I've asked a few of my friends who got married, how did they knew that this is the girl/boy you wanna see naked till the rest of you life. The most dominant response is "you will know when you meet her/him". i always wondered, what is the feeling of knowing, how will i know. Is my "The One" will walk around carrying the sign with my name, like in an airports? I doubt it. I don't know who is comfortable with this spirit, but I've seen a divorce statistics - its terrible and terrifying. It says to you: "You will NEVER, i repeat, NEVER find The One!" and then it laughs hysterically. i think it all comes from a fairy tales, "and they lived happily ever after...". I want to believe in it, just tell me who did the dishes! Another annoying thing is that if she is "The One" for you, nobody promises that you're "Mr. Right" for her. Buy the way, what is the opposite of "Mr. Right", Mr. Wrong or Mr. Left. Both of them not very comforting, but it makes a difference in a feeling. Back to the subject, imagine to yourself, you've found the one and you're positive its her. Does it mean that you will live happily ever after? Nope. You're not her Mr. Right! Go hunt another The One, which is impossible by definition, since its "The One and Only"! So there is no other one! Solution: you settle. You marry somebody, knowing that she is not the one. This is where the statistics about betrays comes. From settling. I don't wanna settle. I will keep on looking and i know that i will find the one. And if you (The One) read this, then beware, I'm not taking prisoners and "No" wont be accepted as an answer.

4. Small good deeds

I believe in small good deeds. Its like a smile from someone you meet on a street. I don't mean the american smile, the one you "its not personal". I mean a smile which is for you personally. It makes your day better. I think that if everyone everyday will do something good, even a small one, this world will be a more bearable place to waist some time. I have no illusions, there wont be heaven on earth. I just think that apart from doing selfish things, as people usually do, you should do something good for the others. Thus, maybe someday passer-by will smile at you, making your day better.
Examples: taking hitchhikers, letting a car to enter before you, letting people to enter a doctor and ask their "one question", giving blood, giving donations, throwing trash into cans (not yours counts twice), smiling at someone.

5. Creativity

If you ask people to count you the basic instincts of a human, you will get a range of answers. There is only one that wont be there for sure (unless you ask me) - the creativity. Men create from an ancient times. The first monkey, the one which took the stick in his hand, created the very first work tool, or maybe first weapon. Painters were drawing on a cave walls, not because they had spear time, but because they feel the urge. There are always men who invent things, other people who paint, those who write and those who build. People create things all the time, you can't take it from them. Its like food, or sleep or breed. I've been told that not all the people have this instinct, therefore this is not a basic instinct. I'm not sure about that. I believe that all people want to create things, its just that some don't have a time, or money, or ... Anyway, those who does create things, they are the ones who lead the others, who is taken as an example by the others. Those are the ones which is praised (or cursed) in books, songs and paintings. For the very simple reason, as a matter of fact, cause they are the ones who create these books, songs and paintings. So the punch-line of this, is cultivate a creativity in yourself, otherwise you couldn't tell your grand-grand-children about yourself.

6. Web pages design

People are working hard , investing their time (very valuable), fighting each other in order to make better layout engine, there are standards to make up with and at the end ? Everybody using tables, web-masters "know" exactly how they want their pages to be. All layout power for nothing! Stop it! Let browser do its job, don't use formating tags, browser made to do it and it can do it better than most of us. You're making a web page , fine, just throw all your elements on it and browser will make it pretty !

7. Routine

Consider a person. A person that you might meet at the office today. Or maybe a man who just passed you by on a sidewalk. Lets call him Adam. He has a job, house, family, friends, maybe a pet or two. In other words: he has life of his own. This man wakes up every weekday, goes to work, where he spends most of his day. Returns home. Yells "honey! I'm home!". Eats, talks to his wife and kids. Watches TV and drinks his beer. Every weekend he meets his friends and they drink beer together. From time to time, Adam and his family travels abroad or inboard. So he can drink the beer that his wife can't buy in a local store. This is what is called "routine" life. Days go and form months, months form years and years form decades. All of the sudden Adam opens his favorite magazine with his right hand (holding beer in his left hand) and reads there: "You should do something outrageous once in a while, just to break the routine and enter some spice in your life". And he thinks: " Damn, They are right!!!". He divorces his wife. Or quits the job. Or maybe does a bungy jumping. He enters a spice in his life. Just like they say. Sounds great isn't it? Now, he has something in his life. Something that he will remember and will tell his grandchildren. "When i was young i was a one wild thing!". Everyone wants to be a wild thing in his past. The truth is: The routine is a very very very good thing. Its probably the best thing that can happen to a man. Routine makes you feel secure and comfortable. It even makes you want to do outrageous things. *Because* you feel so safe. And i guess, they are right. You should do some wild thing. Just to feel how good it is to slip back into your warm and comfy life style. To return home every day and feel "right" about what you're doing. To have no doubts about your life. And when your neighbor tells you the rumors how Adam left his wife and can't find anybody who even comes close to her. Or how Adam quits the job, then sells his car, house, boat and pet just to pay for food. Or how Adam does bungy jumping and spends 6 months in the hospital. You will think: it good that i have my routine life (and another can of beer in a frig), cause i can tell my grandchildren anything i want - they wouldn't tell the truth anyway.

8. Free software

Another thing is free software. Let me get it straight from the beginning : I'm not against propriate software, but i couldn't tell it better than .....

9. Easy life

We (I'm talking on behalf of computer people) invest a lot of time and money into creating easy-to-use software, actually today's software is so easy to use that even if you know almost nothing about computer you still can use it. And this is a good thing. Well, i have to say it no matter how hard its to me : Microsoft is the best in this. OK, i said it, now i can continue. Microsoft software user interface is pretty good and can (and it is!) be used by low-power users. There are a lot of invention and releases that have been done just in order to improve user interface, to make it easier to use, to save another click for a user even with price of slower programs.
By now i think you wonder : "what is the point?" , i mean : why all the others can't do the same thing ? By others i don't mean other computer companies, but "others" , non computer related fields. Example :
Banks, i don't know how does it works outside Israel, but in Israel its this way :
banks open from 9:00 - 13:00 almost everyday. I have two questions : how comes they have such a small working day ? another one is : how can i get to the bank if i work 8:00 - 17:00 ? I'm a customer, they should work when its convenient to me not to them!!! And don't sell me this stuff about phone lines and Internet, i don't believe in technology! i want to come and to speak with the real person to whom i can explain what i want and she will translate it into bank's terminology.
Another thing about banks is why they don't put a signs all over the place or hire another person just to answer general questions ? i always come to bank and stand in a line for half an hour just to hear the clerk says : "you should be standing in THAT line". Every time i want to ask a question without standing in line all people in line start telling me that they have "only one question" either.wouldn't it be better if there were someone to ask ?

Another example is post-office. Every time i change my apartment i have to change my address in about 10 places. One of the first principle of programming says : make a function to do this. imaging there is a central place (post office) where you update you address and all other places can access it and send you mail. If you want few addresses then supply them or give you address directly to all places and update afterwards but give me the opportunity to update my address only once. Yes, I know that there is a possibility to make a post box at the post office, but hell , if i move to another city , i still have to change it.

10. Democracy ???

These times most of the people think that democracy is the only and the best way to run the country. The best example is an ancient Greece, look at them, they had these famous meetings where they've decided about future of their country (in nowadays interpretation its a voting once in a few years). Another thing is that greeks (have you noticed that its Greece and greek, funny ah?) implemented is that during these meetings older (and hopefully wiser) people had one voice like the others, but a lot more heavier one. The corresponding "wiser" people are our prime minister and deputies. Another strong reason why democracy is good usually : "Look at all others ! USSR (socialism) fall apart ! Tyranny leading to poor countryman and rich dictator. Aristocracy is a rotten idea of concentrating the power in hands of a few men."
Basically, this is it, we don't want to concentrate the power and control in one hands. We want to separate the three authorities and control them. We want to make decision by ourselves and we want to choose our future. Democracy is the closest regime to offer all this. More precise, this is how it looks to us.

Lets look at the goals and how they are implemented in nowadays society.

  1. everyone can be accepted into any hierarchy level of rulers.
    Really? Did you ever tried, or on the contrary heard about a government which does not put their friends or relatives into the key positions ? Or maybe everyone can be a president/prime minister/minister ? You need a lot of money to be chosen as one, and a lot of money is more that average and therefore more than most of people have. This means that government positions are closed to most of the people.
  2. everyone can influence the future of the country.
    From time to time we read about new and dirty government/military secrets. There are many more secrets which are never revealed and never heard about. There are project that go on under "right" and "left" governments the same way. And one more thing, how much from what is going on do you know? What is your source of information ? Media : newspapers, TV and now Internet. It is know for a long time that people can be brainwashed, there are schemes how to do that and books that explain it. There are a good examples too : Germans and Russia. But now, this can't happen in our country! we are progressive and our government will never do anything like that!
    This is exactly what Russians thought (and BTW Americans were brainwashed very well during the cold war).
  3. Separation of the power.
    Yeah. This one works the best. We have successes in separating the authorities in most of the cases. There are still corruption, but the cases are rare.
    4. In conclusion, the power concentrates in hands of a few men (like in aristocracy), most of the people are unable to reaches the key positions and are unable to influence the country course, to make the things worse they are not aware of many things which occur. You're a duracell battery like in "Matrix", it just that you supply your vote and not electricity. You supply your vote to the man who looks better on TV and who has better speech writers. This is your purpose in life and this is all you need to know.

11. Expensive toys as ultimate squander

Did you ever visited a toy store? any store. As in all areas, there are cheap items and expensive items. And as in all areas, there is an eternal question: Is the price reflects a quality and value of the item? My observation is: not in toys.
What are the most expensive toys in a store ? Big fancy looking cars and robots is one category. Another category is an electronic devices. These are the major categories for boys. I will focus on them, surely there are more categories, but i believe that the same reasoning applies to them too. Lets take a look at the first category: robots and cars. The robots look fancy and attractive in the store, but are they as good at home? There are, for example, walking and talking robots. What the hell do you do with this thing at home? After you watch it walks its walk and talks its talk for, say, 20 times, you're getting bored. So, the kid puts the robot aside not to use it again till he reaches the age of 18, when he takes the robot and throws it into trash. Why? Cause you can't do nothing with this robot. There is no creativity and no room for fantasy. You can't make him fly cause it walks, it can't "say" different things cause it already talks a few and specific things. Another thing is cars. If its expensive then its huge and complicated, thus you can play only one game with this car. The game that its creators had in mind. So, the problem with this category toys is that they are for one game only. Now lets move to the second category. Electronic gadgets. I mean all kind of tapes, fancy keyboards, all these things that work on electricity and not in the first category. I wont talk long about this stuff. Just how fun is it to record yourself on tape and hear it afterwards? This is fun once in a while, but this is not a daily basis toy. Its an occasional-fun toy. This is not all, though. What happens at home when child gets one of these expensive toys? He doesn't get any other toy for month, since he got a toy and an expensive one ! "Why don't you play with this robot? Look how it walks!". Cause its boring! What is the end result of such an acquisition? The child doesn't play with a new toy. The new toy collects dust in some distant and forgotten corner. The parents are angry, they've spent a lot of money and he doesn't play with it. And the most important thing is that child development stays at the same level as without the toy, thus its better not to buy this toy at all then to buy it. At least you will spare the frustration of the both parts. Don't buy this kind of toys, they don't develop the child and only frustrate him and you. This is a money and time, and emotions waste, thus this is waste in its supremacy.

12. Dream on

I will talk here about day-dreaming and dreams as fantasies. If you're interested in night dream meanings then you should look in some other place for the information. I will explain why in my opinion the dreams are the engine of your life and as such are a good thing.
Everyone dream and fantasize about things. About vacation, being prettier, smarter, richer, taller and etc., and etc. There are two kind of dreams: "target" dream and "fantasy" dream. The first one is the one which you can accomplish and the second one is the one that you can't. Dreams from the first one are more like wishes: "i wish to learn Chinese" or "i wish i would be thin" or "i want a better job". These are the dreams that you can achieve and you should! These are the dreams that make you invest a time and effort in yourself. These are the dreams that everyone agree that they are good for you. "American dream", for example. You can be anything you want to be. On the condition that you work hard enough for it. I don't want to argue on "target" dreams, i agree that they are the good thing and moreover, they are absolutely necessary for everyone. Without "target" dreams a person stalled in the same place for years up to the point that he can't tell days apart. So, if you don't have one "target" dream right now, stop for a moment and thing about something you've always wanted to do or to be and here is your dream. (Of course, you should check the possibility of this dream). Lets move on to the second dream kind: "fantasy" dream.
"Fantasy" dream is a dream which can't be accomplished in a full manner. It doesn't matter how much i want and will do in order to be tall, blond, blue eyed and pretty this will never happen. This category also includes dreams about a prince on white horse, dating Sharon Stone and joining "Enterprise". The common perception of these dreams are overly negative. They are the waste of time and has no positive effect on a dreamer (take a look at what happened to Jacob). As you already might guessed, i disagree with this. In my opinion these dreams are highly valuable and welcome. Every such dream is a potential ancestor of the "target" dream, a lot of them begot more than one. For example: dreaming on being prettier makes one go to the gym, a lot of pilots dreamt about flying a space ship into other galaxy, dream about being Marco Polo brings people to study Chinese. "My point is that a "target" dream is a derivation of a "fantasy" dream. Another good influence of a "fantasy" dream is a development of ones imagination, memory and creativity. While this is an important plus too, i wont dwell into this issue cause i believe that the first point is enough.
Ah, I'm sorry, I'm almost forgot a last good thing about "fantasy" dreaming: its sooooooooo fun!!!!!!

13. House cleaning aid

Most of the people live in some kind of houses nowadays. It might be a claustrophobic flat, villa or ancient castle. Till now, living without producing garbage and dirt isn't possible yet, just as breathing a fresh air without letting the dust to enter. As a result of these by-products our houses get less "shiny" and require cleaning. One can a number of categorization of cleaning, here the focus is in author and outsource categories. Author cleaning is when the one which lives in the house and as such, produces dirt, cleans it. An outsource cleaning is when house-maid is hired to clean one's house. The question is whether to hire such or not. Everyone should decide for himself, of course, i will only write down the pros and cons as i see them.
Lets start with pros:
Cons:
What is the conclusion? As most things in our life the answer is : "It depends...". It depends on the size of the house, if its a castle where you can't remember all the rooms you simply can't clean it alone. If its a tiny room, then getting help is just plain ridiculous. If you have no time or just lazy then get aid, if you have no money then don't.
I clean, btw.

14. Idiosyncrasies

Each one has idiosyncrasies. The question is whether you show them or not. Most of the people aware of them, but intent to hide them and pretend that they do not exist. These peculiarities make you different and nobody wants to be different, you want to be like the rest, like all, right ? How many times do you hear words: "nobody does that" or "everybody do it like that"? How many times did you see somebody who doesn't look like all the rest and you thought to yourself: "this is one crazy fella!". But here comes the paradox, call you fellow "ordinary" and he will be offended. He chooses all his actions and words to be like the rest of the environment, but if you tell him that he had achieved his goal... You offend him. He wants to be special. Well, logic is not my best side, but you can't be special if you're acting like everybody else, doing the "regular things", dress like the rest, speak like a "normal person". In order to be special you have to be special, you have to be individualistic. It doesn't mean that all you have to think of is how to be different. Believe me, we all have enough idiosyncrasies to make us different. As a matter of fact, we all different, but to find it out you have to dig and know the person really well. People are hiding them like a dirty laundry. i don't think this is the way to go. if you want to be special, be special. If you like to wear t-shirt, then wear it even if all the rest put on business suits. You don't have to be like the rest, cause you can't. Everybody is different. There is no use in trying. There is a fear of loosing friends and that people wont talk to you. This is correct. Some people wont talk to you, some of your friends will cut you short. No matter. These are the people who look no further than the ground. You don't want them. if you're dating a girl who is afraid from your "weirdos", then what good can come out of this? She will find it out sooner or later anyway and break-up will be only more painful. There will be others who will be attracted by your peculiarities.
Be yourself, show your idiosyncrasies.

15. In _____ i trust

I think that I'm getting wiser but not smarter. I believe that in any given time I'm making the best possible decisions based on all available data for me at the time. I trust the decisions I've made in the past. It maybe the case that now i know more, or that now i know the optimal decision, which is happened to be not the one I've made. However, i feel no regrets, cause as the old proverb goes: "hindsight is always twenty-twenty". The trust in my past, the trust in me is the baseline of my life. This is what gives me the power to continue without looking back, this is the reason to make the decisions without thinking "what if I'm wrong". And this is also the way to put things behind and move on, to advance. Frankly, if you don't believe in yourself, whom do you believe in? God ?

16. Piecemeal collections or step-by-step moving

When i was younger and looked at a huge collection of something or a very time-consuming piece of work i find myself bemused and thinking: "just how long did it take to gather" and angry at myself that my patience span is very short. Now i know that most of the collections have been gathered by piecemeally. "How did the project is one year late ? - Day by day" F.Brooks ("A mythical man-month"). This is the exact principle behind labor extensive pieces and large collections of something. You don't gather a huge collections of papie-mache in a week, a month or even in one year. You're working on it for years, to get a beautiful something in the end. To gather something big, you have to remember that each time you're adding something you're taking a small step forward and this is the only thing which is matter. You don't have and you can't, jump to the end. But by making step after step you will finally make it. This is one of the most basic things in life. Don't expect immediate results, but keep on moving, you will get there in the end.

17. Familia

Family. The only people you can't choose. Its like going to a isolated island and somebody else chooses your gear. You can't change your uncle to somebody nicer or your brother-in-law to a beautiful sister-in-law. Nahh, what you've got is forever yours. Even if you are really annoyed by somebody there is no easy way out. Unlike your neighbors or pals where is some probability that you'll bump into them, with your relatives there is an absolute certainty that you will meet them. Sooner or later, this will happen. From the other hand, they are stuck with you too. They wish to exchange you to somebody nicer, but they can't. They have no choice but meet you and talk to you. They are the people you can always ask for advice and help. They will be there for you, because you're family. You're from the same clan. You're not alone, you've got your family. Forever.

18. Doing vs. Thinking

Ideas flow through my head in and out. Its not the lack of ideas that bother me, its the ability to grab one of them and to execute it. It makes me wonder, why don't i make more things done. Why can't i implement more ideas than i do? I think that the answer to it is simple: there is a tiny difference between thinking and doing. While thinking is easy to do, doing sometimes is unthinkable. OK, now i know the solution too: do more things. Instead just thinking about them, try to do them as well. The best thing about such an attitude, is that its a free lunch: i can do more and i don't have to think less. :)

19. Habits

Everyone has some bad habits. Even me. Everyone knows how a habit is formed. First you need to perform some action for a copious number of times. Gradually, this action will become a habit. If i, for example, have a habit of eating a yogurt at the morning as my breakfast, it means that I've done it hundreds of times and i have no idea how to start a day without it. Moreover, bad habits are called so because they are bad. Either they are bad for your health, smoking and drinking, for others: smoking again, have an unsocial appearance: nose picking and others. People always say that bad habits are hard to get rid of and they are correct. People also say that good habits are hard to acquire. And they are correct about this one too. The reason for this is the same reason they are called habits: you do them for so long that they have become your second nature. I've come to realize some time ago, that this is exactly the reason why they can be broken. I've tested the system and lo, it works.
The system is quite simple. It even works for both the problems: ridding of a bad habit and acquiring a good habit. It is also very simple: DO THE THING YOU WISH TO BE YOUR HABIT OVER AND OVER AND OVER AGAIN. After a countless repetitions, it will be your habit. This is true from the definition of the habit. I've tested the system many times and it works. In the past, all my coffee and tea were with 2 cups of sugar. Now they are sugar-less. Once i was so shy that i couldn't ask the time on a bypassers on a street. Now i have no problem talking to strangers (including girls). It works and it is simple. Try it, you will never regret it.
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