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Showing posts with label Observations. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Observations. Show all posts

Saturday 23 March 2024

Random Thoughts

Once upon a time, I saw a thespian’s version of Iago and thought I could do it better than that. I then saw his Hamlet and thought I could do it much better than that. I was extremely arrogant and delusional in my thinking at the time, but I think it was the lack of raw passion rather than any lack of characterisation that made those sorts of exquisitely skilled performances slightly frustrating to me. And so, with the benefit of hindsight, as the sun sets on the day, the more mature, bemused version of me looks back and chuckles at his younger self and realises, I haven’t actually changed my mind at all.

Choosing someone to love is also choosing the one who will make you suffer, so make sure the love is big enough to be worth the price.

One of the silliest widespread human behaviours is dismissing a person into a category based on surface appearances, pre-fixed labels, and personal or ideological prejudices.

I don’t believe that a person’s conscious awareness is the pre-determined result of the biological and societal algorithms applied to them.

We are about to enter a very strange world… changing voices is just for fun now and will improve to be entirely realistic, next up is video content, then integration into daily experience via AR/VR!?

Saturday 2 March 2024

Random Thoughts

It helps a writer to have some aptitude and experience in acting, although appreciation of the art can be enough.


Good actors are natural writers because they use their imagination to explore the world they are helping to create.


I remember once, a while back, someone said, “hey Rob, you’re doing your Blue Steel again.” It was funny because it was true.


A genuine apology would contain: I’m sorry I was a twat; I feel terrible because of what my bad behaviour caused. I promise I’ll not repeat that behaviour by taking steps to not being so much of a twat.


Don’t underestimate the impact of toothache on human history. Chronic pain is an accelerator of untypical behaviour, potentially bad or transformatively good.


It’s a problem if you think it’s a problem.


A helpful question: What will I create today?

Sunday 25 February 2024

Random Thoughts

I would go as far as to say that most of what people believe to be true are delusions; and that people who think themselves to be intelligent are particularly prone to smugness and moral certainty with their delusions. I wouldn’t say that a person with an IQ of 150 is intelligent if they think stupidly, no matter how camouflaged those thoughts are in complex paradigms and skilled words. This is why humility is so important. But more importantly: kindness.


It seems strange to me that people are educated without some training in the nature of thought, helpful methodologies for constructive thinking, or best practice for critical thinking, with an awareness of the common logical fallacies in thinking using real-life case studies. If I were being sceptical I would say the absence of this knowledge makes it easier to control what people think.


Critical thinking isn’t necessarily contrarianism but it should make you wince if you are blindly appealing to authority and what other people happen to think at the time without at least making an attempt to objectively question the evidence.


Social finesse is not the same as decency. Bad motivations are usually hidden behind adept social skills. The very worst people can empathise very well and know how to manipulate this for personal gain.


Pundits often tell stories from a certain perspective. Statement after statement where it is required to accept the reality of illusion.


Just as a comedian will say anything to be funny, a pundit may say anything to court an audience.


I hope that future humans look back and are bemused by how stupid we all were.

Saturday 17 February 2024

Random Thoughts

It is helpful to be aware of low-quality thoughts when you have them. The alternative, in the absence of better or no thinking, is to do something constructive.


A slightly skewed antenna can lead logic to wrong places.


People can be very smart in some areas and behave in ways that drain them of basic cognitive intelligence in others, usually without their realisation, and especially if reinforced by social feedback.


Rather than blandly following expectations, you have an opportunity to create something interesting when you play by your own rules.


If someone keeps getting an answer wrong because they don’t understand the question, they deserve sympathy and help.


Humanity as a group has been and is a psychopath; or at least, the leaders and structures have spread the illness. Individuals are usually far from this but are incentivised and swamped by the culture. What would be kinda cool is if humanity were kind yet strong-willed, funny yet intelligently self-aware.


What’s the point of winning a trophy if you’ve cheated? What does the trophy mean to you? Does it mean the higher perceived social status derived from the acknowledgement of others? In this world, the worst have usually been rewarded with trinkets, titles, and luxurious circumstances. So why would you sell your true value to seek the same?


This should be the emphasis in an educational system: to cultivate the potential to think a semi-original thought; the agency to take action without societal pressure; the ability to be oneself despite the winds of the time. The embedded culture must be rooted in humility, kindness, and generosity of spirit. However, the opposite behaviour is often rewarded in current society.


How will social media change when people can look and sound like anything they choose in realistic AI-generated locations and situations?


If scenes can be designed by text prompts, what’s the point of expensive film sets and CGI?


Actors would need to offer something unique, as AI would be able to produce generic performances.


Perception paints reality.

Monday 29 January 2024

Random Thoughts

If one views one’s own life as a work of art, then “happy, happy, happy” would be lacking in depth, whereas the layered contrast of colours and textures reveal beauty.

I realised that the words from one of my poems go very nicely with a piano version of a famous piece of classical music. I guess I should record that then. As only a piano and vocal is required, I could singsong rather than just read the poem.

For some reason, I came up with a new board game. Looks quite interesting – I would play it. I’m supposed to be creative writing, but my mind pops up with completely random things.

How to say nothing with lots of words: “I’m glad you asked me that question, look, let me be clear, we’re facing unprecedented times, but let’s focus on the real issue, and I’ll think you’ll find we’re turning the page and making progress in real terms.” Which means: “I’m distracting from the force of the question by waffling.” Good answers are always specific, with examples and evidence. Insightful metaphor helps the explanation. Rhetorical flourishes are great for inspiring vision. Humour is what makes all this entertaining.

It’s always interesting when you’ve been listening to someone on a topic and then they put themselves forward as an expert on a subject you know something about. Recently that happened and I realised he didn’t know what he was talking about. It’s wrong to assume that an expert is supported by expertise.

I’ve done all these things: writing; songwriting, singing, acting, art and photography, inventions, apps, business, politics (solutions), public speaking. It’s been interesting, but I want to make some more so.

Friday 26 January 2024

Random Thoughts

What if memories could be bought and sold? People would work to buy memories and make extra money by selling some of theirs. Memory entrepreneurs would create experiences to be remembered and sold on. Also, memories would be extracted, traded, or implanted on the black market. The world’s poor would be exploited in memory farms. There would be memory robbery and memory insertion in order to manipulate. Autocracies would have national memory reeducations to make more compliant populations.


What do you want to think about now? Without asking yourself that question, you will be beaten by involuntary thought.


Imagine a reality and live how that feels, as if it is externally experienced.

Saturday 20 January 2024

Random Thoughts

Inspired by Flash Gordon and Brian Blessed, how about a new sport called Hang Gliding Archery where participants on hang gliders shoot at targets suspended from drones in the air?

 

How about “Footby”  combining football with rugby tackling? It’s football but players can also pick up and throw the ball. If a player is holding the ball, they can be tackled like in rugby.

 

At this stage in the story of humanity, human thinking is generally primitive, insentient of the enormous potential. To paraphrase Socrates, at least I know I’m thick.

 

I’m named after a character in a ghost story that my mum was listening to on the radio.

 

Is it normal to be expressionless despite reacting within?

Saturday 13 January 2024

Random Thoughts

I took the direct scenic route through country villages from Colchester to Cambridge. It would have been the route that people pre-motorways would have journeyed, including William Gilbert, who has a monument at St John’s College.


My ears always pricked up listening to Born Slippy at the repeat “going back to Romford”, as that was where I was born, in Rush Green hospital.


Question: A Greek philosopher with name starting with M.

Answer: Mr Plato?


It’s nice when you meet someone for the first time and there’s a sort of recognition in the eye that you know each other.

Sunday 7 January 2024

Random Thoughts

These days I want people to be happy. I’ve gone through phases of degrees of jealousy and “what about me” nonsense. It’s a lot better to be happy for other people’s happiness.


My interpretation of the Jungian shadow: Use any aggressive impulse within you as your personal drill-instructor, your internal defiance against adversity. Have the awareness to acknowledge it, control its utility and put the shadow to gainful employment.


Humans evolved hands to pet animals. Nothing can pet like humans can.


At Christmas I went back to the town I grew up in. It’s now a decaying shanty town. Woods and grasslands paved over, community facilities pulled down, buildings and walkways not repainted in decades. No football posts or meaningful play areas in sight, just concrete and potholed roads.


I see the sorrow in the corners of your smile waiting to be kissed away.

Friday 15 December 2023

Random Thoughts

Science, through theory and experiment, gives the ability to detect rules and predict phenomena that hold true under set conditions; it doesn’t explain what things actually are or why they are.


It’s worth trying, but why is there an assumption that the universe is ultimately comprehensible? What if its inexplicability is the essential aspect, the prime condition for existence, that makes all things possible?


In sci-fi films and TV, why is Earth always shown aligned vertically on its axis? Isn’t there a tilt? And wouldn’t Earth be viewed from space from any angle – the continents are never shown “upside down”?


When I’m sitting still, calm and relaxed, my heart rate is about 50 beats per minute.


“Please can you recite all the digits of pi” is a type of “just a quick question."


Imagine the potential of humanity if billions of people have the opportunity to flourish within a culture of invention and curiosity.


I do a lot of wandering in circles. Occasionally I break the loop.

Sunday 3 December 2023

Random Thoughts

Life has a way of challenging assumptions, especially about yourself. What if things you think to be true are the other way round? Being open to possibilities is aliveness, in contrast to the rigidness of supposed certainty.

 

Adventures, like good stories, need uncertainty. The adventure of each life is a story within the story of the universe.

 

There are a lot of lonely people out there, even when in relationships. In fact, it’s rare when two people in a romantic relationship understand each other at a deep level and contribute to each other’s wellbeing. Short-term excitement from physical attraction leads to greater loneliness if it’s with someone who is not compatible at the deeper level.

 

Since Imperial sometimes features higher than Oxford or Cambridge in university league tables, should “Oxbridge” change its name to “Oximbridge”? Or maybe forget about that and realise that most people with talent and potential have had no connection with those institutions.

 

Same question asked to me five times in one week: “Are you a fellow?” To which I respond, “No, I’m still a student because I’m very slow at reading, although I am an old fellow without a capital ‘f’.” Any bemused awkwardness is a bonus.

Thursday 26 October 2023

Random Thoughts

“Necessity is the mother of invention.” Maybe, but more generally: Necessity creates the conditions for change.

 

“If you're the smartest person in the room, then you're in the wrong room.” Someone has to be in the wrong room otherwise the place will quickly empty. Anyway, intelligence isn’t one-dimensional; insight from lived experience isn’t a monopoly. It’s possible to learn something from anyone.

 

I was introduced as “This is Rob. He is a genius.” It’s flattering but I know it’s not true. Many people have abilities that are never developed because of how they have been socially conditioned to think and behave.

 

Dear God, please help me to appreciate the blessings that arrive each day. Help me to live with gratitude, to see the joy in life. Help me to truly know that it is okay to be happy.

 

My dear child, understand that joy does not come from your circumstances but from a heart that is aligned with Me. Put down the unnecessary burdens you carry and let your soul dance free.

 

I’m a brooding artist, not a conformist. (I laugh when I write this, so I’m not too far gone.)


New habit: no more looking at social media. It doesn’t make me happy, so why do it? I’ll read instead. I will occasionally read TwitterX because the posts can be interesting/funny/informative if filtered well.


In my life, I have produced interesting creative things from 1998 to 2002; then from 2017 until now. I think I have accelerated this year.

Saturday 7 October 2023

Random Thoughts

A scandal about a scandal concerning a gate is called a “gategategate”.

In archetypal drama, a theory is raised (the theme) and is tested through opposition. Out of the drama comes a transformation of understanding.

An uninteresting story is “I want something, so I get something”, or “I imagine something and that’s how things turn out.” Struggle, setback, and surprise improve the drama. Ever wonder whether the world is one big soap opera?

Life is, beneath all the bad and good that happens, compelling.

Tuesday 19 September 2023

Random Thoughts

I never used to like to rehearse with other people. I wanted to work on my own character palette and understanding, and not repeat elements of scenes like it was a contrived process. Live was where the performance spontaneously arose, after having done all the work, responding to real people and the imagined situation. That approach would piss off other performers because they didn’t know what to expect.


How is a culture fostered where people question, think independently, create and innovate? Tribal thinking is not reason or compassion; it is a primitive impulse to seek acceptance by a herd.


Well-spoken idiots are who well-spoken idiots often refer to as “the elites”. Insight is not the same as being able to string sentences together by repeating phrases from the current dominant paradigm.


The single biggest mistake people make in life is treating a romantic partner as a personal fulfilment creature that must act within a set list of expectations, rather than as a human being who is understood and cared for at a deep level.

Thursday 3 August 2023

Random Thoughts

I keep my distance because I have an infectious personality.

 

Er, I seem to have millions of songs… Poems that are rhyming couplets are easy to put to music. “Soliloquy” (when adapted a bit) is very fun/funny when sung completely over the top with a rock groove.

 

Anything creative has come out of my diligent non-alignment with reality (insanity).

 

I am not party political, nor am I interested in the modern organisational versions of religious zealotry. Dislike of people based on their membership of a monolithic thought faction is bigotry. I dislike instead the premise that people should have to be claimed by these things.


When assumptions disappear, decisions and behaviour look obviously wrong. It’s better not to assume anything, and tend to the garden.


Showbiz has to be the worst professional activity for personal fulfilment. It’s also true though that people with deep sensitivity are often pulled in to it, and are paradoxically least suited to the plastic glare.


The most frustrating thing about listening to interviews on podcasts is when interviewees inject dubious facts and statistics. On one recent mainstream podcast, the guest was making all sorts of claims that didn’t seem very likely to me. Was the person being duplicitous, deliberately exploiting the situation and medium because they knew they would get away with it, or were they just severely deluded? The interviewer didn’t interject, and let the interviewee continue to rattle off probably fictional statistics in response to questions. Real-time fact checking where claims are immediately cross-referenced against sources would prevent this nonsense. For example, if an interviewee says something like “most X were Y”, what is the source for that claim and does the data actually support it?

Sunday 23 July 2023

Journal 2023-07-22

Today I was dancing in the rain on a deserted beach with some seagulls.

It’s always a good idea to come alive before one dies.

When I was very small, my grandad assuredly told me that there is no such thing as God. Later that day, I couldn’t find the boot of one my action men anywhere. Frustrated, I said to God, "I promise I will believe in you if you show me the action man boot." I found it immediately when I looked in the pile of toys again. I kind of feel obliged to keep my promise.

Saturday 15 July 2023

Random Thoughts

Being successful is being happy, and making other people happy. But being fulfilled is deeper and can be found without the help of success.

 

Right?

- I need to write something down, right?

- Er, okay, why you asking me?

- I’m making a statement, right?

- Er, yes?

- Pardon?

- You asked me a question.

- It’s how I talk, right? Every statement is a question, right? Everybody does it on podcasts for some reason, right?

- Can you at least say “left” for no reason to make it less repetitive?

- That’s not right, right?

- This is going to get very confusing if I ask for directions.

- It’s easy, right? The pen is over there on the left, right?

- Right, left, right, right?

- No, left, right?

- Right.

Saturday 1 July 2023

Random Thoughts

True leaders inspire others to be better people. As currently stands, the best places to find them are not in prominent positions, but where kind smiles and warm laughter are usual.

You could tell me about all your heartfelt desires, darkest fears, saddest regrets. Or we could talk about the weather. The truth is, given enough distance, everything eventually becomes funny, especially the ridiculousness of the crazy little me-me-me creature that pollutes the human mind. Laugh at it and it becomes incensed, because it is being shown the truth, the opposite of its purpose within you.

What if you suddenly forget all the things you’re obsessing about? Or what if those things constantly change, disappear, transform and reappear in different ways. What are you left with?

A life lived by thought alone is filled with mistakes and misunderstandings.

If you want to feel love, project love on someone in your mind’s eye. Love doesn’t need anything in return.

A drama series playing out over lots of lifetimes would be more entertaining than one episode.

What if life situations were re-run, changing variable values on each iteration to see what happens?

A good name for the first off-world city would be Terminus 1.

In the unending echo of my thoughts, you reside, An artist who paints on the expansive canvas of my mind. Threads of reason unravel, thoughts dance in an uncontrolled sway, And from this chaotic ballet, a melody of madness begins to play.

Friday 9 June 2023

Random Thoughts

My to-do list increases when I have a day off. The reason is I have ideas when I am not working.

You’re So Vain is a song about how vanity can be very perceptive :)

If you write code and you are not using a large language model to help you then you are either incredibly brilliant or incredibly uninformed.

My opinion is that if advanced aliens are capable of reaching Earth then they probably would be technologically able to not make themselves seen. Imagine an alien is to a human as a human is to a frog. There wouldn’t be must much point announcing ourselves to frogs in ponds and shaking their little hands, because they wouldn’t understand what we were doing. We could easily hide ourselves and observe them in their natural habitat if we wanted to.

Tuesday 30 May 2023

Random Thoughts

I’m an artist. The vast majority of artists (even some great ones) live very austere, under-appreciated lives. The small minority who have attention thrust upon them usually become at least partially corrupted by commercialisation; they start to become obsessed with their brand, units sold, and rankings in pecking orders.

I’m fortunate in that I can earn money in a non-soul-crushing way. I originally qualified as a chartered accountant, but have since been working on optimising and automating financial processes through technology innovation. I find technological progress fascinating, and I’ve met some good people along the way.

Ideas scale through collaboration and specialised expertise. The people you interact with is vitally important; as is the culture within which you choose you live.

Kids from poorer backgrounds are usually at a real disadvantage because of their environment – if not in their own home, then the dynamics and expectations of their neighbourhood. It’s so important that people have opportunities to flourish in all stages of life, not just limited avenues available in the very unlevel playing fields of childhood.

I have a list of new ideas for stories that I will park until October. One is a new sci-fi horror feature film, others are mostly extensions of prior ideas.