The things I've been learning.

Recently, I took a week off from doing the things I normally do to occupy my time. The reason for this was that I found myself in stasis. I stopped learning about the world.  Most of my reading became tailored to me.  The “articles” I read started consisting mostly of opinion pieces by people I knew I agreed with. I could read a headline and know immediately that I’d agree with them.  The “information” I sought was almost exclusively relevant to my very superficial hobbies and pastimes.  I lacked objectivity, I lacked variation, I lacked any sense of learning a new thing. So, I made a point of reading.  This was the true reason for the hiatus -  I wanted to re-learn to use reading as the thing I did when I was bored. It was met with pretty good success. I read. I consumed paper and ink more in one week than I have in the past 3 years.  It was amazing.  The best part is I learned some things.  Here’s a list of what those things are.

In no particular order:

I learned that I know too little about the world.

• I was way too surprised when I read a National Geographic article about Siberian Mammoth Tusk Hunters (best job ever?) and saw classic Mongolian faces identified with classic Russian names.  My brain knew about the vastness of Russia and it makes sense to me that the phenotype of the populace would change dramatically as you traveled from West to East. But, it was still surprising to see such a “classic Mongolian” look to the people of Russia.
• Laotian herb farmers have a tendency to lose limbs due to unexploded bombs left there by the Americans during the Viet Nam War era.  I will never look at lemongrass the same.
• Australia has a ridiculous amount of artistic hipsters that seem happier and less annoying than the classic North American Hipster that I’m used to. Also, their art is fun and earthy, without being easily identified as “Australian”. No kangaroos or koalas in site.
• Many countries simply don’t care about entertainment the way we do. For a lot of the world, people are the main source of entertainment. I’m extremely envious of this. I wonder if any culture exists that doesn’t know about the world “lonely.”

I learned that Modern Lit can be quite depressing.

• I read a few short stories that were submitted to various magazines by “bright, smart, witty, intelligent” up and coming authors.  Each one of them was basically about how our lives are only happy temporarily and that you’re essentially working towards failure in most endeavors.  
• Call me naïve or old fashioned, but I do enjoy a bit of hope or even just a “hey, life’s awesome” kind of story every now and then.
• Since when did being intelligent mean seeing only the shit around you?
• Still, I would probably enjoy having a beer with some of these authors. There’s no denying skill.
• I still think that “Catcher in the Rye” is overhyped shit.

I learned that I don’t understand everything in front of me.

• One of my favourite things that I read was an article about potato chips and how wealthy people pay a lot for bullshit without realizing it’s bullshit.
• Most potato chips are made from actual potatoes.
• Very few of them aren’t.
• Potatoes grow out of the ground in nature and are therefore “natural”
• Putting “natural” on a package lets you charge people more.
• Comparative marketing is the key to getting money
• Saying “ours is better than theirs” is the best way to have your higher price be seen as “worth it”.
• People with money to spend will gladly pay more if it means that the thing they’re shelling out for is “better” than the one the poor folks buy.
• If you want to sell to rich people, remind them how awesome they are.
• If you want to sell to poor people, remind them how awesome where they’re from is.  
• Marketers are basically assholes.
• This is my opinion, but good marketers are basically sociopaths who try to trigger sociopathic tendencies in their customers.  Dudley Moore made a movie that aligns with my thoughts on what would make “good” marketing.

I learned that I don’t like some of my old favourite authors as much as I used to.

• Frank Herbert’s kind of a dink.
• Stephen King is really good at naming people based on what it is they wear or do.
• Stephen R. Donaldson is a fucking asshole – I will not read his shit any longer.
• Same goes for Lovecraft. I’m pretty sure he would have been best buds with Hitler.

I learned that I still don’t have the patience to start a Jack Whyte book.

• Jack Whyte is awesome. He can manage to write about 2 men making an appointment to look at their calendars to maybe create some time for a meeting about planning a war.  This will be the most compelling few pages about their thought processes and how they interact with each other in that pre-pre-pre-pre-planning phase.  
• His books are good, engrossing reads, but the beginnings of all of his books just make me feel like I’m about to read the worst histori-drama ever.  
• I wish I knew better how to get over that “hump”

I learned that there are key words to making me not take someone seriously.

• Patriarchy. I get that it’s an issue, but blaming it for all the world’s woes doesn’t really explain much. Besides, we should be more concerned with the oligarchy which is slowly, but surely being manned by more and more females.
• Feminazi. I get that some feminists come across as caustic and aggressively pro-female/anti-male.  Fight the argument, not the person. Also, adding the suffix “Nazi” kind of softens just how much of a pure force of evil those bastards were.
• Liberal – when there’s a word that has so many degrees of meaning depending on what the subject matter is, it becomes a useless word.
• Conservative – Same as liberal. Just a lazy bit of word usage.
• Anything that tries to classify a person solely on one aspect of their belief becomes pointless as people and ideas are generally comprised of more than just one thing.
• A lot of articles and discussions I read had to do with people’s opinions.  Using shorthand words to disqualify a person’s opinion just seems lazy and annoying.
• I’m going to try and use fewer of these types of terms. I’ve avoided these specifically anyhow, but I’m going to be more aware of terms like them.
• Except for “Douche”. If I call someone a douche it’s simply because their ideas are so without merit that discussing anything further with or about them proves pointless and possibly detrimental

I learned that I like people, but don’t see enough of them.

• It’s not that I need more friends, I just need to see them more often.

I learned that video games still help me process thoughts.

• When I was young, I spent a lot of time in my head while playing video games. I process information the best when I’m partially distracted by something mundane. Video games helped me out here quite nicely.

I avoided quoting or even referencing what I read for the most part.  The reason for this is that I really enjoyed finding thoughts and ideas in publications that I wouldn’t normally read. I think it would be great if people found time to try and discover other views more often. I’m definitely going to start reading publications that are not necessarily in my “wheel house” with some regularity from now on. My brain feels more happy and satiated this week, and I’d like that to continue.