Subjective Blog | Useful. The New Black.

Culture:

That which is in us, that which we are in, and that which shapes our growth.

There are many forms of culture, and while they do not change our innermost being, they infect our perceptions, interactions, and capabilities within the world. Fortunately, a culture can be overcome, but really, only if a person’s inner culture is suitable for such a revolution.

On one hand, the word “culture” bears the ideal of Excellence. ie. We have culture because we are no longer stupid neanderthals, and have chosen to overcome such barbaric behaviours. Though really, we simply traded one culture for another. On the other hand, culture is also the term used to describe micro organisms that live in a perpetual state of consumption.

Both definitions are accurate.

Culture is what a person thrives or dies upon. I do not believe that culture possesses any objective qualities, instead I perceive it more like colour - it can be bright, beautiful, muddied or even torturous, and different for every person.

The subtlety of culture is perhaps it’s most vital quality. Bacteria itself cannot be seen without the aid of a trained eye, and neither can the nuances of the society a person lives in. However, the effects of each can be seen rather well.

1. A person has a fever and a runny nose, because they associated with a particular culture.
2. A person has a habit of consuming drugs, because they associate with a particular culture.
3. A person strives for personal excellence, because they don’t associate with a particular culture.

The culture of a person does not change who they are inside. Instead, who a person is inside determines how they interact with various cultures. For example, each person in my family behaves differently, though predictably, to a cold. My daughter is always the first to get it, and she gets weak and needy and sits on the couch for a week watching TV. My son gets sick hard and fast, and wants to be snuggled incessantly, but is over with it in a day or two. My wife disregards the fact she’s sick and works as hard as she would any other day, even though she ought to rest. Myself, I’m always the last one to get sick and stubbornly put up with whatever the cold throws at me — I have to be suffering for several weeks before I’ll even consider taking medicine.

In essence, how a person responds to a culture is more so a statement about who that person is, than it is a statement about the culture. The choices we make when we interact with the world reflect who we are inside. Do we indulge? Do we ignore? Does it even catch our attention?

Speaking of condemnation vs. commendation, working hard should be commended. Right?

Working Smart is not Hard.

While growing up, I was taught that a job well done comes from working hard, and only by grinding myself to the bone will I do well enough to be accepted by society. That paradigm is fading fast. The internet has enabled a degree of delegation unheard of before, automating processes, taking Ford’s principle and blowing it wide open. These days, if you have to work hard to survive, you’re not working smart enough.

Practice Precision.

When I was a kid, I remember watching a cartoon where a bunch of muscled bound prison inmates were busting up boulders with sledge hammers. All except for one guy. He was so tiny, that he needed a ladder to climb up to the top of the boulder, and when he got there, instead of hit it, he measured it. He climbed back down, wrote some calculations in the dirt, then grabbed a hammer so tiny that at first I thought that was the joke. As he stood beside the rock held his chin and went “hmmm” then hit the rock just so — *tink* — and the entire boulder cracked, then crumbled into a puff of dust.

I swung my head around and looked at my dad. “Is that possible?!” He answered simply, “Yup.” He explained to me that if you know the grain of the rock, you can find it’s weak spot and shatter it easily. I’m sure it’s not quite as dramatic in real life, but the principle made sense to me and it left a lasting impression.

Sure, measuring takes time. Knowing exactly what you’re doing and doing precisely what you need to, takes time and preparation. But the results can be far more rewarding, and easier in the end.

Use your brains, not your muscles.

Working Hard is not Smart.

In the end, it’s all about accomplishing as much as possible with the least amount of effort. Some people call that lazy. Others, like myself, call that efficient.

I’m not a fan of blogging. For myself, that is. I love reading blogs, and spend a good portion of my day doing so, but blogging for myself is a chore. Which, in terms of Getting Real, is something I should avoid at all costs. Unconsciously, I think I have been. This is further compounded by the state I’m in - trying to find my voice - and that last article is an experiment in doing so that I consider failed.

As I took the haphazard thoughts I had and forged them into ’sophisticated’ sentences, I posed myself the challenge of writing without the word ‘I.’ I had thought that by removing myself from the equation that my writing would somehow be ‘better.’ Or perhaps that the content would be more ‘valuable.’ In the end it was OK, but it led to an overly sophisticated style full of large words, little sense and no personality.

Onward, balance is what I’ll seek. I’ll be personal enough to be a real human, tempered with usefulness, and aiming to succeed by showing, not telling.

Subjective Voice

It’s my love of writing that’s pushing me into uncomfortable territory. To be frank, I ought to write more, and would like to do so, but Time isn’t always the most available thing. And I’ve got a lot of projects that I’m working on. The voice of this company will hopefully be powered by that passion. As I said, I’m not a fan of blogging, and I’ll be using Subjective as a vehicle to explore alternative forms of publishing on the web - currently I tread the path of blogging as a deliberate exercise, not an easy first step.

Further more, the attitude of the writing needs to be established. I came to the conclusion, rather quickly, that there’s enough condemnation in the world, and that Subjective will instead search for those worth commending.

Like design, the art of removing gratuities, is Subjective.

Blogging, for instance, while occasionally a useful tool, is despicable and temporal. It’s very nature ensures swift death to itself and it’s knowledge because, like the shark, it must continue incessantly or perish. By it’s very nature this tool shall be wielded for an occasion only, to instigate creative juices while alternative publication altars are crafted.

Time shall bide this blemish until disintegration.