doing things – Harmonia Philosophica

Megaprojects.

Academics at UCL have identified 18 reasons why megaprojects such as HS2 and Crossrail often fail, as well as 54 preventative solutions. The study found that no isolated factor could account for the poor performance of megaprojects. Instead, the paper is the first to identify several causes and suggest a systemic approach to enhance understanding of megaprojects.

The team list the six themes as decision-making behavior; strategy, governance and procurement; risk and uncertainty; leadership and capable teams; stakeholder engagement and management; supply chain integration and coordination. They were found to be all of equal importance when analyzing why such projects seem doomed to fail. (1)

Aim high. Fall hard.

Does it matter?

Failures are signposts for success anyway. Why fear of them?

The question is not whether failure is good or bad, but whether we should strive for success in the first place! What is success really? Would you celebrate for a mega-project? Would you celebrate for changing the world? Or would that be a cause for sadness?

We admire those who succeed in life.

But they are essentially those who fail to accept death.

We admire change imposed by us.

But this only disguises failure to adapt to what already Is.

Can you see your feet?

Can you feel your heart?

In the midst of your journey…

Do you dare to ask?

How to… do things. Why care? [The curse of doing something]

What a strange era we live in.

People keep on wandering how to do things…

How to make a good site.
How to get a good Alexa rank.
How to make meatballs.
How to buy a used car.
How to make money.
How to mine Bitcoins.
How to make babies.
How to kill babies. (a.k.a. “abortion”)
How to watch solar eclipse.
How to lose belly fat.
How to earn the lottery.
How to find free… you know what.
How to find true love.
How to start a new business.
How to promote your site.
How to train your dragon.

People engulfed in the everlasting Sisyphian effort of ‘doing something’. Not because they want to; most of them anyway despise doing what they do and that is why they so eagerly search for ways to do it. But because they are afraid of the alternative: Doing nothing. People wanting to do things only because doing nothing will let them alone with their most dreaded enemy: their self.

It is easy to always do something. You are occupied so much that you always keep the darkness away. You drift away from the abyss of your own consciousness by limiting your thoughts to the shallowness of existence. You don’t have to worry about the important thing except about what you are… doing.

That the dark secret of our modern times: We are all filling the basin of Danaides – judging those who don’t – but we never care to see whether the jar has any holes. And no matter how long we keep doing it and how little results we see, we keep on doing it mesmerized by the great story taught to us since we learnt how to walk: You must do something…

Let go. Try to just breath.
Look at the butterflies.
Stare at the raging ocean.

Try not to search for how to do something.
But try to remember how to do nothing.
You will discover that this is the hardest thing you ever did…

Being healthy is being an extrovert. (at least for the extroverts) Thinking as the ultimate act.

Scientists may have evidence that our personality plays into our eating habits. People who are open and extroverted eat more fruits and vegetables than others, according to new research.

The new report, published in the journal Frontiers in Psychology, analyzed the eating habits of more than 1,000 young adults ages 17 to 25. Researchers gave participants a test to measure for the “Big Five” personality traits: openness to experience, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism. Then they assigned some participants to keep a food diary for 21 days and others for 13 days, in hopes of encouraging more people to complete the task.

Participants who scored higher than average for openness (the preference for new experiences and variety) ate about 4.5 more servings of combined fruit and veggies per week than their less open peers. They also consumed less unhealthy food, such as potato chips or fries. (1)

A society which glorifies being… adventurous, finds out that… being adventurous is good! Wow! Din’t see that coming! 🙂

I suppose thinking alone cannot make someone eat healthy.

We are too much focused on doing.

And we have forgotten than the ultimate act is thinking.

Socrates stayed his whole life in Athens.

And yet, he traveled everywhere…

Capuchins. Tools. Doing nothing… something?

The capuchin monkeys of Serra da Capivara National Park in Brazil are well known for using rocks. They use them as hammers to crack open nuts. They use them for digging. They even use them to show off to potential mates. Now scientists report that they also spend time banging stones together, for no clear reason, producing sharp-edged stone flakes that are just like some of the first tools of early humans. (1)

Making tools but not using them.

Doing things just… because.

It reminds me of humans.

See that man sitting alone under the tree.

He is smiling. He is not doing anything.

And yet. In a weird unworldly way, he is doing much more than anyone else…