Author: Karol

Human beings believe a lot of funny things.

For example, of the 9,535 reported deaths in London in the year 1632, thirteen (13) of them were allegedly caused by Planet.¹

As in, “the planets were aligned” or “misaligned” or “Mercury was in retrograde.”

This “death by Planet” belief was thanks to the pseudoscience of astrology, which was popular and accepted as fact at the time. Court astrologer was an official position. Queen Elizabeth I even had her own personal astrologer. A man, John Dee, who was basically paid to make stuff up.

If you’re out of work there are lots of well-paid jobs still available in this “make stuff up and get paid” field. See: Deepak Chopra, who earns millions peddling his own charlatanous brand of misinformation and baloney.

And, of course, two of the big beliefs from our past:
– The Earth is flat.
– The Sun revolves around the Earth.

You don’t believe any of that now because you know better. Because we’ve learned some things that our ancestors did not know.

As a result, we think those formerly normal beliefs are silly now.

The more mistakes we make the more we learn. The more we keep fearlessly making mistakes and learning from them the more we’re going to look silly to the people of Earth 2414CE. Just like the beliefs people had 400 years ago make those people look silly to us today.

Which brings me to:

What beliefs do you or I hold today that are going to make future generations think we were idiots?

I can hypothesize a few. You?

———-

¹ Thanks to John Gaunt’s vital statistics work in the 1600s for the data.

Popular opinion seems to skew towards the benefits of surrounding yourself with positivity.

Meaning, surround yourself with people who tell you things like this:

• “You can do anything you put your mind to!”
• “You should do whatever you want, who cares what anyone else thinks!”
• “Those people don’t like what you’re saying/doing because they’re haters.”
• “You’re so amazing. There is nothing at all wrong with what you’re doing or the way you’re doing it. You’re just perfect.”
• “Everything happens for a reason. Whatever happens happens. Don’t worry about it. It will happen the way it’s supposed to.”

But that’s akin to surrounding yourself with “yes men.” History has numerous examples to prove this is not a good idea.

You probably agree as well when you’re looking at it from an objective point of view that doesn’t involve you and your ego.

A better idea, and unfortunately not popular opinion, is to surround yourself with honesty. It’s a rare trait in a friend or colleague and, as a result, much more valuable. Most people are afraid to be honest with you. (Maybe even that person who tells you they’re being honest with you.)

When you find someone who isn’t afraid to tell you the truth cherish them. You don’t have to agree with them. You don’t have to act on what they tell you. But listen, cherish, and appreciate them. They’re helping you more than the yes men.

“My view is that if your philosophy is not unsettled daily then you are blind to all the universe has to offer.” – Neil deGrasse Tyson

A few weeks ago I was in Austin, Texas hanging with a couple people and we were talking about underwear. Specifically ExOfficio boxer-briefs, which are popular amongst the traveler crowd because they dry fast, feel good, and are anti-bacterial.

“How do you know they’re anti-bacterial?” asked Lindsay.

“Uhh, wow. I like to say I question things, but I have absolutely no proof of this, except what the company’s website says. Thank you.”

Maybe they are anti-bacterial, but the Aegis® Microbe Shield used in the product sounds very pseudoscience-y. Quote from the Aegis website:

The active ingredient in the AEGIS Microbe Shield products forms a colorless, odorless, positively charged polymer that molecularly bonds to the treated surface. You could think of it as a layer of electrically charged swords. When a microorganism comes in contact with the treated surface, the C-18 molecular sword punctures the cell membrane and the electrical charge shocks the cell. Since nothing is transferred to the now dead cell, the antimicrobial doesn’t lose strength and the sword is ready for the next cell to contact it.

If you read that and thought, “uhh, that sounds like bullshit,” then congratulations for having your critical thinking cap on!

Does this mean that it doesn’t work? No, not at all. But it does mean we need a little more evidence than it’s a “positively charged polymer that molecularly bonds to the treated surface.”

Now, I still like ExOfficio underwear. They do feel great and dry quickly so they’re perfect if you’re traveling light. But I’m no longer in the anti-bacterial camp until I can see some proof. Because I was open to questioning my beliefs my mind has been changed until further notice.

And therein lies the key.

You can’t change someone’s mind unless they’re open to having their mind changed.

If someone claims to definitely know something that can’t be currently known you’re not often going to convince them otherwise. Especially if they’ve spent a lifetime, lots of personal free time, and lots of money being indoctrinated. (See: religion.)

I’ve tested a lot of different strategies when trying to influence people over the years.

For example, I’ve tried to get people to “see the light” as far as a plant-based (or mostly plant-based) diet in the following ways:

1. appealing to their compassion: “Watch this factory farm video, look at how horribly the animals you eat are treated. Why do you support that?”

2. being an asshole: “You pretend to love animals and yet you support the rape and torture of animals every night for dinner. How does that make sense?”

3. using facts: “Eating mostly plants is proven to be healthier than your current diet.” (Assuming that diet is mostly meat and junk food, of course.) Source (one of many)

4. using pseudoscience: “Eating a plant-based diet is no-doubt the best diet ever and can cure and reverse disease!” (Note: can be true, but not to the degree that it’s usually touted. Plants ain’t curing cancer at this point in time, my fellow dudes & dudettes.)

I’d like to apologize for the times I used approach #4 because it can be dangerous and I am anti-pseudoscience. I don’t want to be associated with or a promoter of the likes of Oprah, Dr Oz, Jenny McCarthy, et al., so I know I need to be more careful about allowing pseudoscience into my life.

All of these approaches worked although certain approaches turned people off completely. (Mostly being an asshole.)

Maybe the most important thing I’ve learned is that different approaches work for different people and there isn’t any one right way. Which is why I used multiple approaches.

(Recently, I’ve been testing satire as a method of influence. See this and this.)

I’ve influenced enough people to at least try veg meals that I can say this has been a successful endeavor. I know most people won’t go all-out veg*n and that’s cool. But I also know that some people just need a little nudge or support or “aha!” and they will go all-out veg*n. And that’s cool too.

I’m finding the same approaches work when it comes to religion, but to a different degree. It’s far more difficult to get someone to think rationally about something that’s so irrational. (You can state that it’s rational, but just because you state it’s rational doesn’t make it so.)

Before you get your panties in an uproar, note that I don’t care if you believe something silly. But it’d be great if you embraced the “magic” of reality and simply showed some proof for your claims.

As the saying goes, “If you can hate the sin, but not the sinner then I can hate the belief, but not the believer.”

Atheism is, at its base, the lack of a claim. Unless, “show me the evidence,” counts as a claim. (It doesn’t, though you might have been brainwashed to think it does.)

It’s not too much to ask to back up your ideas, is it?

Any idea worth a damn should be able to stand up to at least the most basic questioning.

If somebody said they had a stock market strategy that offers 50% returns per year you’d ask for proof before handing over your life savings, wouldn’t you?

If somebody told you they had the cure for cancer you’d want to see some empirical evidence, no?

If somebody claimed to be able to dunk a basketball on a 5 meter (~16 foot) rim, you’d want to see it with your own two eyes before you believed it, am I right?

My question to you is, why isn’t the truth that important when it comes to your belief system?

A note on comments: You’ll notice that not a single defender-of-the-faith provided any evidence or so much as answered questions about their “knowing” of god. This is typical. And a problem. If you want to defend your ideas please do. But as I stated above those ideas should be able to stand up to at least the most basic line of questioning.

Yesterday I was thinking about what I was like as a baby and I came to a conclusion. 

When I was a baby I was extraordinarily dumb. It’s no surprise I had to wait until I was five years old until they finally let me into a school classroom.

I’m glad I lived in a nice home to make up for it. My parents are living legends who never once called me a dumb baby (they waited until I understood what it meant!), but they probably should have.

Just how dumb was baby Karol?

1. I didn’t know how to speak. Like an idiot I used my “voice box” to mumble incoherent gibberish which nobody understood. (I was not on drugs or booze. I was too dumb to know what drugs or booze were anyway.)
2. I didn’t know how to walk.
3. I didn’t know how to read.
4. I didn’t know how to write.
5. I didn’t know how to play an instrument.
6. I didn’t know simple addition. (Or any mathematics whatsoever!)
7. I couldn’t count to ten if my life depended on it. (Thankfully, it didn’t.)
8. If you’d have put a little honey on a $100 bill I’d have tried to eat it. (Unconfirmed.)
   

Name anything scholarly or skillful a semi-intelligent human can do and I couldn’t even do that when I was a baby. I know, I’m embarrassed too, but it feels good to finally get this out.

You’d agree a baby as dumb as I was couldn’t make a single rational decision, yes? You’d be crazy to think otherwise.

Yet, somehow, I was deemed intelligent enough to choose a religion and its corresponding belief system.

Or maybe  … ?

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Possibly Related Articles On This Site: My Experience At Suburban Toyota

According to the 2012 WIN-Gallop Global Index of Religiosity and Atheism 87% of the world’s population believes in a god.

Now, according to the World Health Organization 8.2 million people die each year worldwide due to cancer.

Based on these statistics we can make the assumption that 87% of these cancer deaths were brought upon believers.

That means 7.13 million people (.87 * 8.2) who believe in god die of cancer each year.

God is omnipotent and all-knowing, an intelligent designer. Using that intelligence, god created cancer. It’s anybody’s guess as to why, but don’t question it.

According to acceptable sources the definition of carcinogen is: A cancer-causing substance or agent.

Therefore, god (as agent) is the world’s leading carcinogen with 7.13 million deaths per year.

Tobacco use, coming in at a far second place, accounts for 1.13 million cancer deaths per year. (71% of the 1.59 million lung cancer deaths per year according to the WHO.)

That means a belief in god causes over 6 times the number of cancer deaths as tobacco use.

In other words, light ’em up! Cigarettes have nothing on god.

Sometimes people tell me they love failure.

Not me.

I hate failure.

Hate.

It.

I – sing it with me – haaaaate it.

If it’s possible to be a failure-racist then that’s me. That sounds awkward when you read it out loud. Considering. You know. What a racist feels and all.

To be clear, I am not a racist. Not any more than you are anyway. As I type this I’m really hoping the “Grand Wizard” and his kkkronies don’t read this site. I should probably delete these last two paragraphs and save myself from the next episode of Misunderstandings In Cyberspace.

When I work on a project and it fails what happens isn’t pretty.

How un-pretty?

Have you ever hit a stray dog?

At the ripe age of 17 (Spring of 1998) I was driving down Utica Road near Dodge Park in Sterling Heights, MI and I saw a minivan – fucking Ford Astro minivan! – hit a gorgeous little deer. Commonly known as bambi.

Bambi’s beautifully-ignorant-of-traffic mother Mrs. Bambi had just run across the road and made it happily to the Meadow of Dreams and Safety on the other side. But Baby Bambi followed – as children are wont to do – and got clipped in the ass-thigh by some stupid soccermom in a minivan.

I got scared. I didn’t know what to do so I called my Mom at home. Not a soccermom and Zeus help you if you say any differently. (For some reason my Dad had a cell phone in 1998 and I borrowed it for this particular excursion. Stop asking questions.)

My Mom asked if the driver – whom I affectionately called Some Stupid Soccermom in a Minivan – stopped to see if Bambi was alright.

“Yes, Some Stupid Soccermom in a Minivan pulled over.”

“Well then there’s nothing you’re going to be able to do Son.”

OK, fine. So I drove on. But I was distracted. By Bambi. And by cell phones. And by stupid soccermoms and their stupid minivans. And by the fact that I was driving a god damn Pontiac Trans Sport minivan! Did that mean I was going to end up like Some Stupid Soccermom in a Minivan?

Then I remembered thinking that I should probably pay attention to the road instead of entertaining the Class 5 Rapids of thought flowing through my cerebellum. (Note: If you know anything about the cerebellum you know I just bullshitted everybody who doesn’t know anything about the cerebellum. Hehe. Our little secret.)

And then I hit a stray dog.

Just kidding.

But …

A couple years later my Parents flew into the Windsor, Ontaria, Canada airport after a vacation. We lived in Metro Detroit, near the Canadian border. I went to pick them up and decided I’d drive us all back as well. Gotta get that mileage in if you’re gonna be a good driver, you know?

It was dusk. The road was bathed in pale moonlight, filthy streetlamps, and a trash can fire. As we made our way towards The Land Of The Free Home Of The Brave From Sea To Shining Sea my Dad yelled, “Watch out!!!”

(Note to Dads and Moms and Humans and Parrots and other creatures of vocalized mimicry everywhere: Do not do that.)

I thought Dad yelled because of the dudes hanging out on the right side of the road who were just milimeters from being sideswiped by some distracted asshole. Me, for instance.

But if you thought for one second that I was going to accidentally plow down a group of Canadian hoodlums and end up a prison lifer – living on phone calls and commissary M&Ms; addicted to toilet hooch – well, you my friend are dead wrong.

Instead, I swerved to the left with a deftness that would make you proud. Really. The odds of you giving me a high five after that feat of vehicular maneuvering were astronomically in my favor. Any bookie would agree.

But it wasn’t the people on the right side of the road my Dad was yelling about. It was the golden retriever running across the street coming from the left side of the road.

And then … I hit a stray dog.

Just kidding again.

Got you.

Again.

I slammed the breaks and swerved back to the right like I was the second coming of Dale Earnhart and missed that doggie.

(Get it? Because there is a second coming of Dale Earnhart. His name is Dale Earnhart, Jr Einstein. Wait. His name isn’t Dale Earnhart, Jr Einstein. I was calling you Einstein because you didn’t get the whole second coming thing. But does anybody really understand the second coming of anything? You are henceforth forgiven.)

The self loathing and self destruction which stems from my failures is nearly unparalleled.

Liquid adult consumables are guzzled with the fury of a thousand unbathed pilgrims roaming the desert and finally … finally! … after too many sun drenched hallucinations to count … finally! … stumbling upon an oasis. I don’t know what that means any more than you do. Please bear with me. Because if I fail at keeping you engaged I will sink another half litre deeper into the pits of despair.

But shhh, nobody knows any of this about me, so let’s keep it between us please.

You wouldn’t know this about me because for most of my adult life I’ve made myself fairly difficult to get ahold of and converse with. And since 2009? Whooo boy, I’ve been nearly impossible to get ahold of. Go ahead, call my cell phone. Oh, you can’t because I’ve had 10 different numbers in the past few years? I understand. Don’t worry. I don’t hold it against you.

That’s a lie. Why don’t you care? I hold it against you.

Just like I hold it against you if you tell me you love failure. It makes me wish I was you. And then it makes me wish I had a time machine and could go back 30 seconds and stop you from saying something that would make me wish I was you.

And then I wish I didn’t waste a time machine on something so stupid. Failed again.

But you know what? I’m trying. And if I keep failing?

Well, at least I didn’t kill any stray dogs. Success!

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On a slightly related note I’m writing a book called Failure: What You Don’t Know About The Greatest Successes In History. Join the email update list so I can tell my future publisher, “Look! People want to read this. Now give me a nice advance and let’s play nice.” ;) Enter your email and click “Click to learn about Failure!”:

I mentioned not long ago about doing a 50 day cycling challenge. I got this idea from Matt’s 50 day running streak.

I had an unofficial goal this year of riding my bike 1,610 km / 1,000 miles, tracked via the endomondo app. 51 days ago I was barely over the 600 kilometer mark. That meant I had almost 1,000 kilometers to go to with the cold season already beginning here in Poland. There was no way I would reach that goal without a good challenge.

So it was. 50 days of cycling. If I averaged 20km/day I’d reach my goal. I set my daily goal at 10km though (psychology!). I actually hit the 1,610 km mark for the year on Day 48. After that my last goals were to ride 1,000km in 50 days and actually complete the 50 days.

I’m happy to say I reached all these goals. (The most interesting stat is I spent 2.55 days on a bike during this challenge. Wow!)

It wasn’t always fun or easy, but I’m glad I did it. To some of you professional cyclists out there 1,006.19km in 50 days is nothing. (My friend Darren probably does 1,000km in his sleep.) But that’s OK. Challenges are not about comparing yourself to others, but about comparing yourself to yourself.

1) Bad weather can be tamed mentally.

OK, rain and cold is annoying. But the worst part of riding in the rain is initially getting wet. After that I felt like I was 10 years old again. I had at least 5 rain days, including Days 49 and 50. For most of the 50 days the weather was about 13C / 55F, not particularly pleasant. (I usually wore shorts because I didn’t want to ruin my one pair of jeans.)

A note on feeling 10 years old: This is generally why I enjoy riding my bike over most other physical activities. Nothing else makes me feel like a child, no cares in the world.

2) Travel is no excuse to not get shit done.

I spent 2 days of the 50 in Prague for MicroConf. I didn’t have a bike at my disposal so I woke up early every day and was at the gym when it opened at 8am. 10km on the stationary bike isn’t quite as good as 10km on a real bike, but sometimes you have to make do with what you have. Which brings me to …

3) Make do with what you have.

I don’t have a “sport” bike. I bought my bike used at an open air market. It’s a kind of hybrid, not a road bike nor a mountain bike. I also don’t have biking gear, or any real sports gear in general. I wore the same shorts every day and I wore my only pair of jeans for 3 of the 50 days when it was just too cold. I also wore my No Meat Athlete shirt until it was as nasty as it could be. Instead of biking gloves, I wore my one pair of winter gloves.

Whatever. Not having the perfect gear to accomplish what you want to accomplish is no excuse.

4) Having a cold is not a good excuse for doing nothing.

In the past if I was ill I used to lay around all day doing absolutely nothing. I caught a bad cold while in Prague and I had a sinus/chest infection for about a week afterwards. I didn’t want to ride, but I did anyway. I went easy – usually sticking to 10km per ride – and it felt good.

The cold went away – as they are want to do – and I got more done than I’d usually get done while sick.

5) It doesn’t matter how fast you get there as long as you arrive.

Some days I was tired and it felt like my legs were dipped in lead. So I went slower than normal. And I got there.

6) It’s OK to trick yourself or play mental games.

If I absolutely didn’t want to ride I’d tell myself, “Fine, just go down the street and come back.” I’d always end up riding for over an hour. One day I delayed this until about 10:00pm (“Go! It’s now or never.”), but otherwise I stuck to a morning schedule.

7) Pain is a personal experience.

We all have different thresholds for pain, but I think we’re also too easy on ourselves.

A few weeks into the daily rides my left knee started to hurt. I thought, “Oh great, the streak is over.” But it wasn’t like I couldn’t move my knee. Sure it might have been a little overused, but is that really something to worry about? I decided that if the pain increased or didn’t go away during the day I’d stop the streak. But it usually only hurt while riding, so I chalked it up to, “my bike’s too small.” (Which it definitely is. I’m 6’5″ so most bikes are too small.)

Also, butt pains are inevitable. I have no tips on how to make your butt feel better if you’re going to sit on a bicycle seat for 61 hours 12 minutes. Just grin and bear it! (There’s a joke in there somewhere. Have at it.)

Truth is, there are more lessons than just these, but I these were most useful to me.

I Hate Running, Let’s Run!

My next challenge will be to do some run training, going from 0k to 5k, starting next Monday (Nov 11). I really don’t enjoy running. And Winter is fast approaching. I don’t have running shoes or Winter running gear. Whatever. If you want to join me, here’s the Facebook group.

Note: We’ll use Matt’s 10 week 5k training program if everybody who joins me has (or buys) his book. Otherwise we’ll use the 9 week Couch to 5k.

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If you missed it, I posted a new feature called Reads of Note on Saturday, including a new email list of my curated list of good reads.

$3,417.70

(Refresh)

$3,518.90

(Refresh)

$3,921.50

Every few minutes I refreshed my browser it felt like a dream, and if I’m being honest, a nightmare. The numbers in my affiliate account were staggering and showed no signs of letting up. On my best days I spent nearly $10,000 on Google Adwords with 20-50% profit margins depending on the day.

Although I had very high available balances on my credit cards I was nearly maxed out. When I opened the floodgates on this advertising campaign there was no way to stop it. Except, of course, running out of short term cash to keep the whole thing moving.

I showed my Parents my screen.

(Refresh)

$5,424.10

“I don’t know what to do. I need money to keep these ads alive. I have about a week of credit limit left. How much can you give me?”

It wasn’t a question of, “Can you loan me a few hundred bucks?” That would keep the campaign alive for an hour or three, at best.

It was more a question of, “How much is your life savings? Because I’m going to double it in a month.”

At the same time I was scrambling to open a no credit limit account with Amex Platinum while also trying to open a massive line of credit with my bank. I needed every possible available penny or this would all end in an instant.

The end didn’t come in any way I could have imagined.

It was much worse …

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What happened next?

I’m writing a book about it, tentatively titled Failure: What You Don’t Know About The Greatest Successes In History.

I am nowhere near a “greatest success in history” so the focus will barely be on me. But every good book needs some personal anecdotes, doesn’t it?

I love reading about success, but nobody writes about failure. And while we can learn a lot from success, we can learn just as much from failure. Especially when it’s framed in a “here’s where and why I failed and then here’s what I did to ultimately succeed” context.

I need your help.

Here’s the deal: if you want to read this book, type in your email address below and click “Click to learn about Failure!”

Email:

When this post generates 1,000 people who are interested I’ll send more of the story above. And more info about the book as well. (Current count: more than 100 but less than 1,000!)

Thanks!
-Karol

P.S. I need your help Part 2. Can you please share this on Facebook and Twitter? Just click the buttons below.

Below are a series of statements. After reading each one, answer if you agree or disagree.

1. Do not give opinions or advice unless you are asked. (Agree/Disagree)
2. Do not tell your troubles to others unless you are sure they want to hear them. (Agree/Disagree)
3. When in another’s lair, show him respect or else do not go there. (Agree/Disagree)
4. Do not make sexual advances unless you are given the mating signal. (Agree/Disagree)
5. Do not take that which does not belong to you unless it is a burden to the other person and he cries out to be relieved. (Agree/Disagree)
6. Do not complain about anything to which you need not subject yourself. (Agree/Disagree)
7. Do not harm little children. (Agree/Disagree)
8. Do not kill non-human animals unless you are attacked or for your food. (Agree/Disagree)
9. When walking in open territory, bother no one. If someone bothers you, ask him to stop. If he does not stop, destroy him. (Agree/Disagree)

Click here to find out who/what you agree/disagree with.

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What’s the lesson?