Society

In The Box Podcast

Episode 11: Media Law, Earbuds, Dojo, Pilot Episodes And More – Podcast

Garth Beyer

On this episode of In The Box Podcast, we had a conversation about dojos, pilot episodes, copyright law, the nastiest four letter word out there, and generational differences in society… I mean, earbuds. Enjoy.

Episode 11: Media Law, Earbuds, Dojo, Pilot Episodes And More

Pilot episodes – Can you really tell if something will be a success after the pilot episode.

Dojo – What is a dojo to you?

Copyright, Fair Use, and other laws of the internets – Can you really overkill being cautious of copyright and other media laws?

Communication – What are your favorite forms of communication?

Food/Diet – Why is food not viewed as a good investment but a diet is?

Earbuds!! – Do you think earbuds are destroying the threads of society?

 

Stay Positive & What’s Your Dojo?

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In The Box Podcast

Episode 2: The Daily Me, Workplace Hierarchy, Streaking And More – Podcast

Garth Beyer

On this episode of In The Box podcast, we talked about the narrowing of journalism, customer acquisition for startups, a bit about ice hockey, restaurants in Madison, the computerization of the workforce, and the importance of feedback in the chain of command in a company.

Episode 2: The Daily Me, Workforce Hierarchy, Streaking

Ice Hockey – “Good isn’t good enough when better is expected.” What do you think of this?

Restaurants – Favorite restaurant in Madison in terms of bang for your buck?

Startups – What’s the first best move a new business can take to get more customers?

Journalism – How do you feel about the narrowing of information? Is only seeing what you like bad for society?

Computerization of the workforce – Are we overlooking the leverage imbalance created by the computerization of the workforce?

Workplace Hierarchy – How important is chain of command in a company?

 

Stay Positive & Think About Things Differently

Storytelling In The Digital Revolution

Garth Beyer

Being a digital native, using the term new media does not feel accurate. While it may be new to other people, it is perfectly normal and expected to me. However, the world does not consist entirely of digital natives and the media must account for this. They do in the sense of utilizing and incorporating storytelling into all forms of media. Every TV program, radio station, YouTube video, and E-version of a magazine use storytelling to not only gain the attention of you and me, but to maintain that attention. Rushkoff, who spoke in Digital Nation explains how everyone is multitasking now. Rarely does a person focus on one specific thing intensely; they are all over the place! It is our inability to focus which requires the new media to use storytelling.

It seems that when media uses storytelling, it is the only time when a person is face-to-face with technology, which they can actually focus on one specific thing. You can find examples of this in every medium of media. On TV, you can watch the speeches given by Romney, Anne, Michelle, Obama and others. Most people who do watch those speeches are not doing ten other tasks at the same time. Why? Because each of the speakers go up and tell a story, they get your interest, they offer a plot, rising action, a climax and so on.

Why is this so effective? Because storytelling has been around since the beginning of man. Before scripture was invented, people communicated and entertained each other through storytelling. It is in our nature to be attracted to storytelling and the media knows this. However, not all media knows it and this is where we get the distractions; the ads, the pop-ups, the proclamations of people who interrupt our lives. “It may be decades until we know what living in a state of constant distraction will do to us,” says Rushkoff. He is right in the sense that we are living in a state of constant distraction, but since the media utilizes storytelling in all that they communicate effectively, as long as we continue to subject ourselves to that type of media and not the type which only acquires are attention for a few moments, we will be safe.

If the media and storytelling are so vitally important to our lives and society in general, we better be paying attention to the right kind of media. It is almost as if media’s storytelling ability makes us grow or destroy us. Since storytelling holds such persuasion over our daily lives, how do we know what storytelling is right and just? This is my biggest fear. The new media direction of storytelling is an absolutely great thing overall, so long as the storytelling persuades positive action. Going back to the example of our presidential candidates and ladies speaking on TV, their speeches were inspiring, positive, and radiating love for one another and our nation. However, we can look at the type of storytelling that is occurring in another country to find that the particular storytelling the media is producing creates negativity, arguments, and even wars. I suppose you can go so far as to say that our quality of life is dependent on the media’s quality of storytelling.

A Lot About Women And Love

Garth Beyer

Yes, it’s that kind of post. A trend I see with famous writers and thinkers is that their thoughts on love, women, and relationships never get brought to light until they are dead. (The people themselves, not their relationships. Well, those too I suppose)

Note: This post is not going to be the typical inverted pyramid style. The small stuff will grow into the deep stuff. Ready?

 

“Ethics is just a word made up by women” – Co-worker I’m starting to keep notes of all the one liners he says. Maybe I’ll write a book from them someday.

 

Beauty: When you first meet, you either see it right away or she slowly opens your eyes to it. The way in which it happens is not the matter. The matter is that every woman, once their beauty is seen by another, must perform upkeep. While she may think her beauty lies in makeup and moisturizer, it really is a result of the relationships she maintains with another. Once severed, she does not become ugly, hideous, grotesque. Her beauty disappears, becomes void, incoherent. When it comes to a woman’s beauty, it is there or it is not, nothing replaces it. Beauty is impermanent.

 

A woman who loves knows everything, a woman who doesn’t is clueless to everything, including herself.

 

I get a hard time, mainly from myself, about not finishing puzzles. I always match two pieces and call it finished. My views on life and puzzles is that there can be 500 pieces or more than 7 billion pieces, but all it takes is two that connect to make it worth it.

 

I made you responsible for my happiness, not only that. I made it hard for you. I lost myself. I forgot I create my own happiness and that is what makes you most happy and vice verse. Being there, sharing experiences, giving support, having fun, that is a relationship, that is love. I respect our differences in our way of living and dreaming and I’m loving the process of growing into everything love means.” – an excerpt from the journal of a guy whose relationship ended three days later.

 

If your arm is not around her when you introduce her to anyone, it’s unlikely love.

 

When it comes to love, always dream more than you can. The tragedy of a perfect relationship is that once success is met, it doesn’t matter. Once you are living with your partner, are financially sound, are entertaining each other on a regular basis, once you feel that it’s perfect, none of it matters. You got to where you wanted to go and once you do that, you decline, everyone does. (Aside from those who feel stuck, which is a fair amount, but being stuck is just another type of decline). So dream HUGE about the relationship you will nurture, make it an impossible goal; when you tell someone your plans, they better be in disbelief, they better tell you it’s impossible, they better expect you to fail. You better fail! The point isn’t to succeed, it’s to have a goal of a successful relationship so high that you will never reach it. But you will try because that is how love manifests.

 

The best memories hurt the most.

 

The Impermanence of Love

“What is a plan?”

“Gods have a plan

but animals don’t”

“What happens when a God has a plan and animals don’t?”

“It’s magnificent – the love that wont happen ’til the God ceases to be.

See – you can pray for love, but it doesn’t change a thing”

“What does the animal see”

“Nothing…

Nothing changes, only deteriorates

and that’s not change, change is too late”

“What is change?”

“Do you know of sacrifice? it is very strange,

It is when you want to give up a piece of your heart

to gain a piece of life with another.

Change succeeds sacrifice”

“Do you think me a God or animal?”

“Neither.

I’ve been a God

and done as an animal – sacrificed everything for another.

I once thought as you may,

that you become more of what you sacrifice. –

It is not true.”

“What are you?”

“Non-existent.”

 

Humans are passionate, but inconsistent.

 

A stable relationship can be judged as such when there is a balance between the number of times you open the car door for your lady and the number of times that you let her do it herself.

 

Never say to a woman that you are letting her do something. It can even be in the most considerate way such as, “I’m letting you have your space.” Think about it. Really think about it right now because every woman reading this is smiling in agreement at the truth of this. Never say you are letting them.

 

When people are using their phones and iPods, are they unavailable? I’d say the iPod is the new promise ring. You may hit on someone that’s wearing a ring, but you don’t say a word to someone with their ear buds in. Is this what the world has come to?

 

Why I don’t approve of homosexuality with women: Quite plainly, they decrease the chance of a guy finding the girl of his dreams. When a girl is lesbian, that is one less girl in the world the guy has a chance with. The world is hard enough for men to find a good woman, and now they go off and enter relationships with other women leaving the guy less of a chance.

Now you may think, well, why doesn’t the guy become gay as well? Don’t the gay guys balance out the gay girls?

Why I don’t approve of homosexuality with men: Most gay guys aren’t just gay, they are super gay, and can you guess who likes super gay guys (beside other gay guys?) Girls. And not just any girls, typically the gorgeous ones. They cling to their gay boys like their prized possession and protector. Gay guys make it so girls don’t feel the need to have a real man and that decreases a guys chances even further to finding the right girl.

 

Life is so much about competition as it is, and of course, Love, the only reason worth living, is the toughest competition of all.

 

Why is it only girls that we see often can we have a chance with? Why is society built so that if I see someone I can’t just introduce myself and see if we have anything in common? We make love so difficult. My imaginary world would be a place in which you can go and talk to any girl and it’s normal. If that was the case, there still isn’t a promise you would find love quicker. The chances of finding someone that you spark something with right away is somewhere around 2% I would imagine. Although, you would make more friends but more friends doesn’t make it more likely to turn a friendship into a relationship because you know that there are so many other girls out there you can talk to and hopefully spark something with right away. So, this general acceptance in society to make starting conversations with strangers doesn’t really make finding love easier, it simply makes finding love more of an experience. What do you think?

 

Stay Positive & Heck, In Love You’re Doomed, But Best To Make Your Journey To Damnation As Near To Cloud Nine As Possible

Garth E. Beyer

Think On These Things

Garth Beyer

Don’t you hate when questions are answered with questions? They are often confusing and even more aggravating unless it’s Krishnamurti asking the questions.

This was my second time picking up “Think On These Things” and reading it all the way through. I mentioned that I read it all the way through because it’s actually a hard book to read start to finish because you are constantly asked to do exactly what the title says, to think on the things that are talked about. I’m not sure about you, but thinking can get exhausting especially when what you are thinking about is breaking boundaries, challenges status-quo and punching tradition in the face.

The reason I tried reading it a second time is because the last time I read it, I was 16 years old and I wanted to see if 1. It is really worth reading a book twice and 2. If I had a different outlook on the philosophies that Krishnamurti spoke about 3.5 years later.

Before I write a short book regurgitation, let me riff on reading books over again. This isn’t my first time trying it, and I’m going to give it one more shot with another book that I am going to read again soon. During New Years I was reading dozens of posts about the best books to read and the fact that this year is supposed to be about reading the best books over again and applying the lessons to your life.

What I have come to learn is the little things which you would catch in reading a book over again, are rain dropped throughout a similar book by a different author. The books are similar, so these small repetitive lessons are also similar. You have already taken the most important pieces of the first book; there is no point in reading it again to catch the small points when you can just read another book with new big important pieces and the same small points.

The thing about the many books based on the same subject or field of interest is that they are all plagiarized. The author read nearly a hundred books on the subject, used the small points from them and created the larger, new, more important ones and the next author did the same. Because this is the way books are written, it seems ill-fitting to reread a book over again.

Book Regurgitation

“To find out what you love to do demands a great deal of intelligence; because, if you are afraid of not being able to earn a livelihood, or of not fitting into this rotten society, then you will never find out”

The real reason I picked Think On These Things up to read it again was because I wanted to revisit his concepts of the function of education which is the title of the first chapter. Throughout the entire book the way education is taught is challenged and ideas are given to improve it. Being straightforward, everything that is mentioned in the book is supposed to also be mentioned in school, to be thought on, to be philosophized on – something that will also appear in my first 30,000 word eBook that will be released at the beginning of August.

Freedom is the next subject that is focused on as most people are not free; they are dead or near death. “We all want to be famous people – and the moment we want to be something, we are no longer free.” (pg 10) At the same time of freedom, intelligence is thought on. Intelligence is to find out, but to find out is not to make a conclusion. Once a conclusion is made, the mind is bordered and dies much quicker. See, the whole concept of freedom is to free the mind, not in the sense of it being empty but in the sense of it being aware with love and experience.

Love is mentioned very few times throughout the book because love is simple.

“Have you noticed how few of us have deep feeling about anything? Do you ever rebel against your teachers, against your parents, not just because you don’t like something, but because you have a deep, ardent feeling that you don’t want to do certain things? If you feel deeply and ardently about something, you will find that this very feeling in a curious way brings a new order into your life” (pg 61)

Another quick note to make about the book is that aside from the opening of each chapter, the chapter is comprised of answers to questions. One particular question is “However much I may want to be an engineer, if my father is against it and won’t help me, how can I study engineering?”

Krishnamurti’s answer, “If you persist in wanting to be an engineer even though your father turns you out of the house, do you mean to say that you won’t find ways and means to study engineering? You will beg, go to friends. Sir, life is very strange. The moment you are very clear about what you want to do, things happen. Life comes to your aid – a friend, a relation, a teacher, a grandmother, somebody helps you… But you see, we don’t want to invite life, we want to play a safe game; and those who play a safe game die very safely is that not so?” (pg 126)

Other great questions which are issued and responded to:

To revolt, to learn, to love – are these three separate processes, or are they simultaneous?

How can we be free of dependence as long as we are living in society?

What is self-knowledge, and how can we get it?

Why do we want to be famous?

I am full of hate. Will you please teach me how to love?

What is happiness in life?

Why do we find pleasure in our games and not in our studies?

Why do we hate the poor?

Why do we like to be lazy?

How is one to become intelligent?

Why do birds fly away when I come near?

As always, I have to give the one chapter to read to see if you are interested in getting the book. “The energy to life” is the fourth to last chapter in the book and basically answers how to be full of energy all of the time rather than lethargic and lazy each day. All in all, was it worth the read a second time? No. Was it worth a read the first time? Yes.

Free Library

Krishnamurti is the far right one, had to be different and put the pages facing out

Since I moved to Madison, I have noticed something peculiar popping up as I ride my bike on the bike paths. Bird houses. Not just your typical bird house, but a huge bird house, with an actual door instead of a hole. Above the door the words “Little Free Library” are written. Inside this giant bird house are random books that people have put inside. I think it is an absolutely brilliant idea and as you can see, I have deposited my Krishnamurti book in one. At first I was worried that there are only bad, terrible books being tossed into the free library because people don’t want to hold on to them. Then I realized the books inside are probably the best books anyone can read because they are so valuable that people have to share them, have to let someone else experience them and have to feel that inspiring power of knowing that you contributed to someone’s experience in reading a fresh, positive, great book. To the person who will pick this book out, enjoy. To the readers who will check this  book out at a public library or view the recommended chapter at a book store, enjoy.

Stay Positive & You Get The Most Thoughts For Your 4 Bucks With This Book

Garth E. Beyer

1,000 Destinations

Garth Beyer

Everything is about the journey you take: how you did it, how it felt, what you learned, who you helped. It goes on. No, really, it goes on. The journey is a life long journey, it’s never ending – unless you count death as the end. Regardless, there has been a new conflict of interest in society, more specifically in the most recent (and upcoming) generations.

For simplicities sake, I will refer to the group of people as                                           Generation Destination

Generation-D loves a journey. They love the process, the failures, the mistake, the lessons, the connections, the ups, the downs, the progress, and all the unrelated interesting things they learn during the journey. In fact, they love a journey so much that one, just isn’t enough. Gen D produces more creativity than any other generation. Their instinct and ability to adapt is so inhuman that they deserve to have more than one journey. In fact, they are so far out of the status quo that instead of having 1 journey, they have 1,000 Destinations.

Generation-D is so talented –not born with, but created talent– that they have the power to manipulate the time a journey takes. Actually, it is not so much manipulation as it is the fact that the more creative, the more passion and the more busy (productive) a person is, the more time they have. In Gen D’s case, they use the extra time they have to make more journeys. Because they follow their heart, invest in their art and connect with everyone by offering a gift to all who they meet, they reach the end of a successful journey the quickest, resulting in a smile and a start of their next journey.

What Generation D is not

If Gen D could spit (some of which can and do), they would spit on two things. First they would spit on anything that is not art and anything that impersonates art. They don’t follow the status quo, they don’t do as their told and they don’t like mediocrity. They spit on anything that is unoriginal, factory made and has a set of instructions on how to make.

The second target, which you can bet they would really build up for, is anything average. Unlike, the people who live one journey (the average) instead of a thousand destinations, Gen D does not work, work some more, and keep working only to attain minimal amounts of progress. They don’t stand in the assembly line, they don’t walk down a hill, they run up it. They don’t create anything that if someone breaks, they wouldn’t be fined or go to jail for. That is how remarkable of content, creation and value they enforce and produce.

Generation D Statement

To create 1000 times the value in a 1000 different ways. (It’s not just a statement, it’s personal, it’s a pledge, it’s a declaration)

They aim to make 1000 destinations because they not only do what they love, but they do it efficiently, quickly and precisely. They can reach a 1000 destinations because they create art that has and adds value wherever it goes. The saying that you can be successful when you want it as bad as you need air to breathe doesn’t have a say here because the air Gen D breathes is success; it is art, it is passion, it is value, it is originality, it is everything we need.

Quick question, who do you think is going to gain the most interest in society?

The generations of mediocre, average, incomplete, held back, ill rewarded, humdrum, and unexceptional

or Generation D?

 

Stay Positive and End The Conflict Of Interest, Be Indispensable

Garth E. Beyer