If you follow your instincts in the face of contrasting evidence,
and it works, you’re a genius.
If it doesn’t, you’re just plain stupid.
LAL – live and learn.
Not everybody can win an Academy Award;
but when it comes to denial, sculpt 7 billion… and counting.
LAL – live and learn.
The shortest distance between two enemies = death = the longest distance between two friends.
LAL – live and learn.
If everyone acts his brother’s keeper, the intention, however good or bad, is meaningless.
LAL – live and learn.
Facts are stubborn things, they budge for no one;
opinions, they kiss-ass.
LAL – live and learn.
When your fighting spirit is fused with fatigue, frustration and the freeze-up, something in the past or present took your fun away. Figure it out, rekindle the flame and set your focus firmly in the present yet aim fiercely towards a fearless future. Don’t just freeze and let fatigue and frustration be; force them to go F themselves… the other F’s – focus, fight, fixture fearlessness, flame the future and figure in fun.
LAL – live and learn.
Be less eager to jump in with the crowd before preview or knowledge of the outcome; because it’s a well-known fact that when you stuff too much in at one end, sh!# could happen.
LAL – live and learn.
When the cloud of failure comes over you, don’t look down,
look up – how else will you see the silver lining;
don’t go into hiding, stay in the open – let the drops of ‘lessons learned’ soak into you.
LAL – live and learn.
Upper class: “Great news! Just closed on that deal. Feast over at my chateau.”
Middle class: “Awesome! Just got invited to the party at the chateau.”
Working class: “On a Sunday night. That sucks! But need to wait those chateau tips”
Lower class: “What’s a chateau?”
Hustle class: “Who gives a shit! Trying to get mine.”
No class: “Who gives a shit! Wrap me some leftovers.”
LAL – live and learn.
As with knowledge, there’s no such thing as a useless experience.
There’s however, useless use of experience or knowledge – as with a second criminal conviction, or a third world war, or the actualization of over decades of warning and data on the impending effects and consequences of climate change, global warming, and the future of our global habitat.
LAL – live and learn.
Everybody has a story, everybody has a dream. By exploits of soul and desires of heart, all stories are separated by 6 degrees, and all dreams connected. When you tell your story, your world becomes bigger and the world becomes smaller; when you seek after and live your dream, the world becomes riches, and you become complete.
LAL – live and learn.
‘Back to the basics’ – that most reliable formula that crystallizes the true essence from the quagmire of complexities and ego-friendly climates, and refocuses the cause.
LAL – live and learn.
The more of your fears you conquer, the more alive you become. Yet, the conquest of all fears is the annihilation of all cares.
LAL – live and learn.
The numbers don’t lie; just the formula.
LAL – live and learn.
Why is it a joke for anyone to try to put you down or brand you ‘less’? Because you’re too unique not to be cool – there is no other you, and the best of you possible, is you.
LAL – live and learn.
When confronted by ‘The Sell’, be careful not to be blinded by the ‘brand illuminations’, or bow unscrupulously to ‘The Halo Effect’, because while reputation means everything, it does not mean competence or compatibility or compassion; ‘The Sell’ rarely sees your halo, but locks a bullseye on everything else.
LAL – live and learn.
The greatest shackle one can place on oneself is to conceive an immutable and infallible idea.
LAL – live and learn.
If fear is a capital factor driving your decisions to do, you may succeed in sparing yourself ‘pain’ now and then, but will succeed in sparing yourself ‘living’ most of the time, ‘truth’ many of the time, a deed or two of kindness, an act or two of generosity a lot of the time; you will succeed in sparing yourself the exhilaration of quest, the richness of enlightenment and the chance of ‘better’ – all the time.
LAL – live and learn.
Facts and values can run counter: the fact that you want doesn’t mean you should. But for any value to sustain truth and be sustained in truth, it must first be grounded in fact. The only incorruptible state of affairs in any system of values for wellbeing is ‘need’ – not ‘want’ or ‘wish’ or ‘desire’ or ‘fantasy’. What you need is the truth that only fact can reveal.
LAL – live and learn.
If ‘eventually’ is fatal, then ‘now’ is lethal – if ‘eventually’ is bullet cutting through flesh and bone, ‘now’ is a loaded gun; if ‘eventually’ is success, then ‘now’ is sweat and blood; if ‘eventually’ is the throne, now is the game. So give ‘now’ the extolment equivalent to an ovation, a bow, a prostration. Accord ‘the means’ the reverence deserving of ‘the end’ – its worth is consequential.
LAL – live and learn.
“You are a product of your environment” is as deep figuratively as it is literally: while your hopes can run boundlessly, you are only as flexible as the elastic limits of your surroundings. Watch the friends you keep, what you eat, thoughts you harbor, principles you hold, associates you accompany. If you feel your fins scratching the edges when you wiggle or maneuver, it’s probably time to find a new pond.
LAL – live and learn.
The encounter of brilliance is a thing of beauty – exhibiting a vast array of knowledge and skill sets in vast aspects of existence and life. But being a genius who is socially insignificant – with knowledge and skills inconsequential to the human race and the life at large – is like a incredibly sophisticated safe with an undecipherable locking or opening mechanism. But traversing the spectrum from ‘exhibiting prowess in the humanitarian and civil pursuits’ to ‘defeating the compulsion to center all on self’ is the most beautiful kind of genius.
LAL – live and learn.
Honesty could end your prosperity, but it would solidify your dignity and enrich your fecundity. The converse could bring disgrace and decadence, and punctuate your legacy.
LAL – live and learn.
Own your ‘fail’s and be proud of your ‘try’s – they will make you a better winner.
LAL – live and learn.
What’s the difference between the hardwork of the poor and the hardwork of the privileged? Maslow’s hierarchy: everyone blow needs everything above; everyone above has everything below: the privileged just needs to put the mind to it, put in the work then soar; the poor first has to dig back up to grade level. While both hardworks are the same in principle, they are vastly different in reality.
LAL – live and learn.
To remain true to a cause in the face of countering evidences means two things: 1. a commitment to intellectual dishonesty, or 2. an enthrallment to be eternally loyal. In either case, ‘fear’, ‘love’ and/or ignorance are the underlying factors – the mediator or instigator of terror from convicted conceptions, and seduction to presumptive predications – emanating from espousal to the cause’s creed or oblivion of causes and deeds.
LAL – live and learn.
Padawan: “Master, how do I make a dazzling impression and steal every moment while remaining sincere, affectionate and considerate?”
Jedi Master: “Be happy, be confident, be grateful and always wear a smile. May the Force be with you.”
LAL – live and learn.
Any belief system – culture, religion, philosophies, ideology… – can evolve to be as grotesque as its most extreme injunctions, and only as humane as its most lenient tenet.
LAL – live and learn.
Such is navigation amidst intersecting cultures: one man’s common sense is another man’s rocket science.
LAL – live and learn.
An irony is a naked paradox.
LAL – live and learn.
Context is the true shape of reality.
LAL – live and learn.
Occam’s razor is a KISS.
LAL – live and learn.
Compassion is nice but not a necessary arbiter of civil liberty; justice is – both nice and necessary. So is truth.
LAL – live and learn.
What a person believes in is the air his or her soul breaths, ‘truth’ being its purest form. Like nature’s, it is susceptible to pollution. Unlike nature’s, pollutants don’t kill the soul, they own it.
LAL – live and learn.
Pay no mind to what others think about you, but welcome the option, because you can always do better even by your own standards.
LAL – live and learn.
Virtue is the exhibits of human nature in moderation and appropriation. All exhibits in the excessive are bad. Pride, envy, gluttony, lust, wrath, sloth, greed – the most vicious exhibit of excessives – the 7 deadly sins, the capital vices. There’s an 8th: despotic elation – drunkenness on power and authority, and consequently, the abuse of it.
LAL – live and learn.
What’s the difference between your thoughts and your actions? There’s an infinite chasm between what you think and what you do: the former is instantaneously insignificant and progressively revisable; the latter is intractably consequential. The bridge is your ideals in relation to this fact; the truss is the degree to which you understand this.
LAL – live and learn.
Let fade that pie in the sky and be present, because time = money is an irreversible equation.
LAL – live and learn.
“Wish everybody well even those who do you wrong and bring evil upon others.”
Should you? Should they go about perpetuating their iniquities and getting away with it?
Yet, forgiveness and love are non-negotiable.
So, I do not wish them bad or evil.
I wish them the length of the rope of the good in them – to climb up and out to redemption.
LAL – live and learn.
Truth is unbiased, objectivity is emotionless; it doesn’t mean they can’t be compassionate.
LAL – live and learn.
Code Switching and Context Phasing (relating with others at the different levels at which they perceive their environment that includes you) are the interpersonal tools for situational awareness, emotional engagement and visible compassion.
LAL – live and learn.
Forgiveness is the thin line between war and peace.
LAL – live and learn.
Unconscionable pardon is the murder of reparation, the death of justice and the stillbirth of forgiveness.
LAL – live and learn.
The crazy thing about expectations is that: it’s a glass bottom built by your fans, and you’re supposed defy gravity when you leap for the goal; it’s a glass ceiling built by your haters, and you’re supposed to suffer a concussion when you leap for the goal.
LAL – live and learn.
Fear is an equalizer – learn to fear the adverse consequences as much as you love the overwhelming benefits. It could save your life.
LAL – live and learn.
Life is a chess board, infinity×infinity×infinity; so when you see a good move, look for a better one – especially when you’re young.
LAL – live and learn.
People love authenticity, and people admire effort. So, just be yourself, just not your stupid self.
LAL – live and learn.
Maturity is when your brain begins to understand why you can’t afford to do stupid stuff.
LAL – live and learn.
Love your being entirely, unapologetically and unpretentiously: love your existence wholesomely: love yourself fully and completely, but with the responsibilities and accountabilities that come with it.
LAL – live and learn.
The world is not all black and white. Nuance simply means if it exits, there’s a school for it; if it exists, there ought to be an acknowledgement of it.
LAL – live and learn.
Bias, prejudice, xenophobia and bigotry: what’s the root of their illogical, irrational and socially destructive natures? Their tunnel visions – in the direction of self-interest, self-reverence and self-preservation; self-criticism, elusive.
LAL – live and learn.
Be careful not to revolt from the unexamined before you only to retreat into the horror behind you.
LAL – live and learn.
What is the difference between a belief and a delusion? Delusion is a belief proven untenable.
What distinguishes a belief from a delusion? Time.
LAL – live and learn.
Show me a record that hasn’t been broken, a feat unsurpassed, situation never encountered, and I’ll show you time that hasn’t elapsed.
LAL – live and learn.
Touchy subjects are like a minefield: it makes no difference if you step boldly or tiptoe. Barring a case of life and death, or substantial/significant gain or loss, flying over it or just not going “there” is the smart, right and respectful thing to do.
LAL – live and learn.
Two diametrically opposing views on a subject cannot both be equally right on the subject; they can both be completely wrong, but they cannot both be right. So be humble in your convictions in the face of undiscredited view in diametrical opposition to yours; because even on a good day, you have a 50% chance of being wrong.
LAL – live and learn.
Hypocrisy is blindness – with the direction of the non-vision turned inwards.
LAL – live and learn.
Most speak of love as the gateway to peace. But what really is missing is sacrifice – because it is possible to love and give a lot, yet sacrifice nothing.
LAL – live and learn.
What should you do with an asshole that shits diamond? (a) plug the asshole, or (b) welcome the doodoo? The noble needy and the able greedy do not share the same dilemma on this – to one, a predicament; to the other, a no-brainer. To one, “between a rock and a hard place”, to the other nevertheless, “between a rock and a bed of roses”.
LAL – live and learn.
There are only 2 reasons for life: to enjoy it and to be responsible for it. While the latter is a check on the former, there are many rules to the latter. But there are really only 2 that matter: a base limit – “live and let live”, and an upper limit – “living for the responsibility (in service of other lives or lifelines)”. Therefore, YOLOSOLOWO: you only live once so only live omnifariously with onus.
LAL – live and learn.
Sometimes the synonymousness between the characteristics of a contradiction is the synonymousness between killing and self-defense: one can mean the other, but the other is not the one.
LAL – live and learn.
Only cowards live in the past, only fools dismiss the significance of the history.
LAL – live and learn.
Whether the arena is mental, physical or psychological, whether the competition is verbal, contact or indirectly adversarial, the caliber of a good fighter is really always only exposed by a better fighter.
LAL – live and learn.
Don’t give into anything that doesn’t empower you. At the same time, don’t give into anything that doesn’t challenge you. If you had to choose, choose the challenge. Because there’s nothing more empowering than conquest and no deeper source of wisdom than lesson learned.
LAL – live and learn.
They say if it ain’t broken don’t fix it. But if it ain’t broken, opponents will pouch, haters will encroach, and salacity mongers, scandal miners and misfortune racketeers will circle like vultures. So, if it ain’t broken, polish it often, give it a tune-up from time to time, and upgrade early.
LAL – live and learn.
Don’t assume anything done to you is done because of you. Never presume the world only as big as your experiential boundaries. You may postulate your relevance, but don’t ever conclude that your significance is weighted more than another’s – no matter the circumstance. Because your relevance to an era or place is not the same as your significance in space and time. To the universe you are uniquely significant, but insignificantly universal.
LAL – live and learn.
If you are remembered at all, then you remarkably effected. If you are to be remembered not for your failures then you have done at least one thing exceedingly well.
LAL – live and learn.
There’s positive “woke” and there’s negative “woke”; there’s good “woke” and there’s bad “woke”. Be woke, but be the former.
LAL – live and learn.
If you live art as reality, you border between delusion and fanaticism. If you live reality as art, you border between immaturity and insanity. If you’re able to weave art into reality or reality into art, you traverse between virtuosity and genius. If you corrupt either and conflate or confuse both, you incarnate fundamentalist zealotry on one – right – hand and anthropophagous purism on the other – left – hand.
LAL – live and learn.
When up and above, be humble and generous; when down and below, aspire and be gracious.
LAL – live and learn.
The most dangerous thing on earth is a malicious person with power. The second most dangerous thing on earth is an ignorant person with resources.
LAL – live and learn.
Tribalistic is when someone reflects your values, you qualify it as virtue, or as vice when contrary. Cannibalistic tribalism of the human strain is to war in defense or propagation of this delusion.
LAL – live and learn.
Compromise and sacrifice are necessary when knowledge and resources are limited. Generosity is needed when knowledge and resources is somewhere surplus. Knowledge and resources is always adequate in a ubiquity of union, unity and unison.
LAL – live and learn.
“You gotta do what you gotta do” is code for “I’m about to be a hypocrite, but don’t judge me the same”
LAL – live and learn.
Trust without communication is simply tempting faith. Communication without trust is a lie waiting to happen, futility made inevitable and confirmation-bias unraveling in real-time.
LAL – live and learn.
The picture of love is not complete without trust. it’s a negative.
LAL – live and learn.
Don’t trust anyone who lives in the past. Because they see their shadow only – perfectly in love or too scared of it. They have their eyes (i’s) turned down (!).
LAL – live and learn.
Data is facts, but data does not equal truth. Truth = data + compassion, sincerity and accountability about the data.
LAL – live and learn.
There’s power in both discipline and free-spiritedness. One is control, the other is freedom. Autonomy is having both. Authority is mastering both.
LAL – live and learn.
“Option” means opportunity. But in the mind of the undisciplined, “Options” will manifest as an illusion producing a parallel-mirrors effect: it sensationalizes perceptions while convoluting that mind’s realities – that 1 or 2 or 3 or 4 is effectively 1+2+3+4.
LAL – live and learn.
“Tough love” is being kind – because to administer in faithfulness and truth, requires love intelligence and Understanding. “Going out of your way not to hurt another’s feelings” is being nice – and does not require love intelligence and Understanding; only sympathy. Don’t ever be nice unless you’re being kind too.
LAL – live and learn.
People suffer most in the aspect of their lives where they would have found the most peace and pleasure or where they come closest to touching perfection and paradise.
LAL – live and learn.