Nobody Will Remember You (And That's Okay)

I once said that life was about choosing how to be remembered yet there will come a time when nobody will remember us. Slowly but surely time will forget that we ever existed whether it be shortly after our death or a thousand years in the future.

Out of the billions of people that ever existed only a handful of them are still remembered today. If we think of Julius Caesar, Michelangelo, Albert Einstein ... all of those individuals left a mark that will likely be remembered for thousands of more years but there might come a point when history will forget about them too as in order to remember anything we need the ability to carry forward the knowledge from one generation to the next. In the event of a global catastrophe, that would prevent a generation to share its knowledge to the next, this chain would be broken only for history to start anew.

This is "okay" because it simply can't be helped. There's nothing, anyone, can do that will leave a permanent trace into this vanishing thing that we call time. A million years from now, humans may not even be around anymore. 

Sometimes one has to wonder what's the point of all of this? A religious person might say that our existence is some sort of test that will determine where we'll be in our next, eternal, life. I always found it a bit strange that what ever behavior we have in our brief existence on this planet is, somehow, playing such a major role in another, more permanent, state of existence. 

If we, somehow, lost all of our history and started anew it would be interesting to see what kind of religion humans would create for itself. My guess is that the Sun would, once again, reach deity status in much similar ways as our ancestors have... up until a prophet comes along to shake things up.

The Future is Vegetarian

It makes sense for a specie with self-awareness to move away from barbaric origins in favor of a nobler future. We've made a lot of progress in that regard and one of the ways we can further this is by moving away from meat. Animal cruelty aside, it's not difficult to see that we will eventually reach a point when our meat habits will no longer be sustainable. 

Maybe it's my, albeit small, Buddhist side of me speaking but does it really make sense to have our specie consume another for survival? Consuming another specie has been useful to us in the past yet we now have the technology to move away from it. Why not explore these options further?

While the current meat alternatives aren't necessarily the healthier option it's still a step in the right direction.

If we ever reach space age then we will need to make changes to our diet. It wouldn't make sense, for example, to bring cows for long term space travel. 

If we think about it from the perspective that the planet we live on has limited resources and that once we reach space age we will need to find alternatives to meat then why not start looking at alternatives now? We may not need to remove meat from our diet completely, yet, but we should start thinking about revisiting some of our meals.

Manager Vs Leader

Lately I've been finding that I'm an excellent manager but a very poor leader. As a manager, I'm good at coming up with processes and assigning tasks to others but I doubt that other people see me as being inspiring (a quality of a good leader).

Being in a management-ish role, I have more people than ever before looking up to me for answers to their day to day struggles. Sometimes, I share these answers but it doesn't seem to stick and I'm required to repeat myself frequently as a result. My current belief is that, given more leadership capabilities, this wouldn't be as much of a problem

According to the book Launching a Leadership Revolution, by Chris Brady and Orrin Woodward, Leadership effectiveness is determined by three things:

• Character - Doing what you say you're going to do even when nobody is looking (or being trustworthy). 
• Tasks - Ability to accomplish the tasks at hand.
• Relationships - Being able to connect with other people.

Relationship is, perhaps by far, the area I struggle with the most. Making friends has never been one of my strong points. It's not that I'm a bad person it's that I find the entire process of building relationships kind of exhausting. 

It is said that Extroverts are those that gain energy from being around people and that Introverts are those that gain energy being alone... I'm definitely in the later group.

What now?

Relationship is one of the most important qualities to have as a human being. If you don't have relationship skills then your human experience is going to be a lonely one. This flaw of mine is something I absolutely need to solve. How? Re-reading the Launching a Leadership Revolution book might be a great place for me to start.

Wish me luck!

Recycling the Unrecyclables

I find it difficult to believe that in 2022 we still allow companies to use material that can't be recycled. Is there any reason why we can recycle a bottle of water but not the cap? Why not make the cap recyclable too?

I understand that there might be some limitations, such as meat can't be stored in "x" type of plastic for whatever reason, yet we need to get back to the drawing board and find a solution to this problem. 

We also need to look at ways to recycle the unrecyclables. Can they be used in other products? Can they be broken down and made into bricks to build houses with? Can a used bottle cap be washed and used for another bottle?

Are we not doing this already because it would be too costly do to so? Why is it cheaper to pollute that planet than it is to do things to preserve it?

Sadly, I have frustrations when it comes to this problem but like most I don't have a solution for it. Is it possible to live without destroying our environment in the process?

Show Your Skills/Work to the World!

You can be considered good at something until you either expose your skill/work, and the general consensus is that it's good, or you go through some sort of challenge and finish at the top. Many people consider themselves to be the "best" at something but they don't share that skill/work to anyone. 

How do you know you're good at something if nobody else knows about it but you? 

It takes courage to show your skill/work to the world as it can potentially expose you to the reality that you may not be as good as you made yourself out to be in private. 

I like to think of myself as a great writer but the reality doesn't align with how I see myself as a writer but because I know this I'm left with a choice: Do I cry about it or do I keep pushing? I chose the later... Anyone that wants to be the best at something needs to go through this.

Show your skill to the world, let it judge you, find something to improve and keep pushing. You'll grow faster this way than if you try to be the best only in private.