Are You With The Right People Or Just Lost With The Wrong Crowd?

How to identify progressive people from the crowd?

Garnering ideals and ideas from people from everywhere expands the palette of rich expressions with which we paint our world.

The attic theory is as important to be applied in all areas of your life as much as in all mental nuances of your own mind. You become your own thoughts and you weave your destiny with the very intent of your mind. The 1st step of the Laplacian demon in `architecting` (you become the Architect of your life) your life is to actively enrich your time and people around you. The ecology you live in needs to be favorable for you to build optimality.

`Attic theory`

However, how do we identify progressive people from the rest? Here are some tell-tale characteristics we can consider.

“The only normal people are the ones you don’t know very well.” — Alfred Adler (7 February 1870–28 May 1937)

* Also quoted in “The Angriest Man in Brooklyn, Movie, 2014” by Aaron Altmann, played by Peter Dinklage

You can’t be poor and empty with friends who are rich in spirit to fill your life with it. — 2012-08.25

It takes years to build friendship, and one night to destroy it. - 1999-08.01
A shallow person will only have shallow relationships. - Daisaku Ikeda," A piece of Mirror and other Essays"

1. Progressive people talk about ideas and facts, instead of people.

We have to ensure we put our precious mortal minutes out of the daily limited 1440 minutes into the right yield. As progressive people, anyone surely wants to get something out of what they put in, instead of burning the mortal minutes away on empty discussions. Therefore, it is vital to know the difference between a productive discussion, where we can mine vital information, insights and perspectives, versus foolish prodigal ones, where we gain nothing aside delusional fake-feel-good.

Characteristics of productive discussion
1. Augment awareness (if after the discussion, the awareness remains the same, we wasted that session)
2. Newly developed directions and/or Mining and developing methods 
3. Inspective: Introspective vs Retrospective 
4. Ad logos (focus on facts and evidence) not ad hominem. The people do not reject evidence to defend beliefs and/or preserve ego. 
5. Truth not preference (Debate to win or Discuss to discover)
6. Converge and diverge coordination vs Focused and Diffused mind frame (neurological development)
Layman intuition 
1. What do you learn? Eureka moments? 
2. What do you get? 
3. What can you do (next)?
4. Did something that was previously not there come out from that discussion?
5. Is there follow-up and follow-through?
* Quo vadis: Where are you going? (Next step forward) 
* Nosco quo vadis: Do you know where you are going?
In both, it relates to “Doing the right thing” and “Doing the thing right”.
People should not be pursuing to win an argument for ego sake, but to surmount and overcome their ego in order to go beyond one’s awareness and beyond oneself. 
"""
[claim] --> [conclusion]                                        ❌
[claim] --> [more claims] --> [conclusion]                      ❌
[claim] --> [weak / rigged evidence] --> [conclusion]           ❌
[claim] --> [attested and attestable evidence] --> [conclusion] ✔️
"""
You don't pass a verdict without a trial, you don't hang a suspect. - 2001-09.21
An educated mind may hold several opinions, but 1 single unambiguous and attested principle. - 2010-12.29
Be clear that when we agree or disagree, we do keep in mind that there may be more than 1 answer to a situation, but being right and wrong should not be evaluated by what we prefer or are aversive towards with. - 2013-08.31

We should not debate to prove who is right or who is wrong. We should debate as a process to refine and extract on what can be and what may be. That is where the opportunity is, for even if we are wrong, we can find what is or may right or least an area where we may not know and yet an exciting blind spot to explore and try out.

Let’s make this brutally clear, a human has about 2.5 billion heart beats per lifetime, and this is not a lot if we really know what each beat means. This comes clear when we ask the people who are running out of it soon. Hence, if the person is burning or squandering time or prodigiously doing so, stay away from that life wastrel.

Don’t argue, don’t debate. The time and energy fuel will be expended for nothing foolishly. Look for the few rare egoless people who have that will to act to work together after co-work expansive discussion. Let history be your witness and the one to make that conclusion.

2. Progressive people focus more on scientific development than entertainment.

3. Progressive people read more books for knowledge than news on human affairs (as human just go in circles).

The internet is not as neutral as we hope it to be. To date, 70% of network passes through the Dulles Technology Corridor. Opinions, misconstrued as `news` and `facts`, are merely representation and misrepresentation of reality, posted and segregated in different versions of preferred representations in different languages and regions. Search engines and social media further help divide the seas in this reinforced conditioning of belief systems and Pavlovian conditioning and shepherd the minds to their preferred social and cultural context.

The internet junkyard is now the modern Allegory of The Cave for herd and heir herding. It is an instrument that is able to make people hate people without them meeting each other or leaving their seats to go onsite to see, understand and empathize with the reality. It puppets the mind of the mass to magnify and contracts, filter and focus, and cherry pick facets, facts and features of reality. Black shepherds can easily be herding minds in the mastered scheme to harden the minds and hearts to complete their design of ossified beliefs and behaviors.

The internet is a junkyard of gossips. Many online `experts` never went onsite. If your reality is online, and not onsite. Your reality is virtual, and likely rigged and fabricated.

An arm-chair critic has no sense of dimension of the problem, fundamentally because s/he is never on the actual site or scenario. It's akin spouting unwarranted and irrelevant opinions on a jump. Looking from the side always looks easier than looking down. - 2010-06.21
Gossips, pretense, hypocrisy, iconoclasting the righteous, self-indulgence, apathetic to real world problems - it's because of bastards like you, the world is in such pain. - 2003-08.13

There was a long and tedious debate for years, and finally I convince the person, and it is just one person. That person was finally convinced, but he was shy to admit that he lack the energy and will, and he just said “good for you (lor)” and consoled me with “I will pray for you”. I was never looking endorsement nor agreement, I was rallying for support, the willingness to work together and most vitally alliance and commitment to solve the long pressing problems, as well as to complete the incomplete perspectives which I doubt on and fear on those blindspots and `black swans`. I closed the line and sat there feeling stupid. I took out my journal and re-adjusted my modus operandi and worked out the next steps.

A man convinced against his will Is of the same opinion still. — Dale Carnegie (November 24, 1888 — November 1, 1955)

The opinion of 10,000 men is of no value if none of them know anything about the subject. — Marcus Aurelius

说了你又不肯听, 听了你又不肯懂, 懂了你又不肯信.
Even if I explain, you refuse to hear.
Even if you are hearing, you are not listening.
Even if you are listening, you refuse to understand.
Even if you understand, if you refuse to believe.

Then why ask?
Most people are not talking with us, they are talking at us. — Ursa

4. Progressive people focus on what they can do, they front proactive ownership instead of saying someone else is responsible.

When people asked "when will Covid end?"
This question is actually not difficult to answer if they can answer this question 1st: "When will people change?"
1. Focus on medicine (including taking proactive responsibilities for pushing developmental outcome forward, instead of arm-chair critiquing Big Pharma with little to no understanding of the medical terrain), rather than entertainment or mere hedonistic and profit pursuits.
2. Focus on progressive societies and work together, instead of partisan political, religious or nationalistic bigotry and pride.
3. Focus on advancing life-saving industries and programs, instead of (you-guess-it) hedonistic feeding complex.
... so ... When will people change?
If you are not part of the solution, there is a likelihood that you are part of the problem. 

Some Ugly Truths No One Wants To Talk About

Our opinions worth nothing until we provide good. - 2013-12.08
It's not about making a point about whose opinion is right, but which opinion works. - 2002-01.17

5. Progressive people work very hard to immunize themselves of pride, preferences and prejudice. They know how dangerous it is.

We did some introspection with some trusted friends about why we are against libelous mockery. We realized that it is clearly both dishonest and destructive. If someone has solve the problem, we should ask:

5.1. Can you tell me how it is done?
5.2. Can you help me?

instead of doing lowly intellectual and underhanded hindering and lip-canon sabotage.

If it is true, it is not insulting. Use your energy to work to make sure that the insult will be invalid in the future, instead of pathetically waste on foolish prideful denial and deepening the current dangers.

If it is untrue, let the perspicacious adjudicate the clarity. The only insult is obdurate denial and stubborn bigotry instead of sincerely working on progress.

Why deny and refuse a fact to defend one’s cowardice, rather than to seek a brutal honesty to sincerely enhance oneself? — 2011-08.16
Pride and sloth are both costly and tragic excuses to miss and discount the opportunities to improve. - 2013-06.13
Is the ego rejecting sharing and communion as a piece of officious and unwanted advice? When everyone is living in the world of their own, the only right they believe is the right to pose opinions to others, seen to be a form of cordial invitation, while having the rest to keep their opinions to themselves, as deemed only to be officious and obnoxious. - Re: 1-way cloistered sharing, 2009-02.12
Discoursement is a synergetic exchange of knowledge and information; debating a crossfire exchange of ignorance and egoism. - Re: Cloistered minds and autism, 2009-03.01
The inferior man does not wish to be impressed by anyone else other than himself. - 2009-09.04

Most societies are not cultures of progressive change or improvements, they are cultures of status quo.

On top of defending simian, primate pride, what we see commonly today is the society persisting in a predatory one, instead of working on a forward civilization. The only reason why this persist is that people think that the change is too expensive and people aren't willing to do anything about it. Every generation have to live in a mistake that the previous generation has no skills to improve upon. Most people are merely waiting for someone else to bring that improvement, instead of taking the responsibility themselves. Worst of, a major of the people are making things very difficult and retroactive.

6. Progressive people focus on what the people should and can do, instead of arm-chair critiquing politicians.

The number of people do not necessary make a difference nor significance. There is a difference between a crowd and an army, gaggle is an unorganized or loosely organized group that is doing nothing or much ado of nothing, only when directed can the army march against a campaign and achieve a calculated and calculable end. — 2010-09.04

7. Progressive people focus on the future and solutions, instead of past blaming and problems.

Autonomous navigator governs with the idea of “I author my life.”
Mediocre struggle with the belief of “Life happens to me.”

8. Progressive people ensure every conversation is enriching instead of empty “fake-feel-good”.

Most people hate their honest friends, even — and especially those who sincerely work and make relentless efforts to move things forward. Sadly, insanely and inanely, they prefer callous fakes who cajole to their likings with all those sweet lies that lull them to their failing flaws.

Person A: We have to improve our social justice, our healthcare, our lives.
Person B: Stop complaining, there are people with no clean water, no food, and no proper clothing. Count your blessings!
Person B has dismissed wantonly the urgency for change and improvement by distracting the focus from the real, clear and present danger. He attempts to weaken the fact by comparing with the worse or probably the worst. While the focus and effort can be placed on working on enhancing the possibilities, he consoles the defeatism by stating that tyranny has not reach it's best yet. Again, this is a logical fallacy because Person A was referring to the opportunity and possibility to improve the situation, the plight of another person has no relevancy in dismissing the potential and talent for such aspiration. 
- Re: The dangerous popularity of Straw man logic, 2011-08.16
Your worst enemy is the person who lulls you into a sense of complacency to trap you to persist in status quo. Worst of all, this person is hidden from your sight, it is most likely - yourself. - 2011-08.16

9. Progressive people focus on so much on the attic theory that they are likely to care little about the outward appearance. They are the substance over style people. If people come across stylish, they are most likely not the progressive tribe.

Many social gatherings I attended are nothing but an act of Chinese opera. I always wonder who are behind their painted faces. Genuine sincerity is never found behind those cheap smiles they wear; in all these ado of clamorous pretense, the precious minutes of life are just irresponsibly dwindled away, leaving a lame vacuum of human existence. - 2003-08.09

Eccedentesiast (derived from Latin: 'I present to you'. Someone who “performs by showing teeth,” or smiling): One who fakes a smile.

10. Progressive people look for new ideas instead of the stale old boring human issues. Progressive people strive to learn something to augment and better themselves instead of repeating the old news.

There is nothing “unprecedented”, only exaggerated to excite those who are parochial with limited awareness, constricted to stay within their regional history and concerns. The more aware and vigilant will know that it is yet another Same Old Boring (S.O.B.) story akin a dog chasing its own tail. If you are repeating the old news next year or years from now, you haven’t moved forward since.

Cogito, Cognosco, Creo (Latin: “We think, We learn, We create (act / do)”. )

11. Progressive people ask themselves what is next instead of the “cie-la-vie” attitude.

12. Progressive people are well do-ers, and never well-wishers.

Procrastination is a delusion that there will be a more propitious time where the conditions are more favorable. Most practiced religion is a form of procrastination, it is likely to be a make-believed of a make-ready for the most desirable situation that we do not have to do anything. This is also why people offer pseudo-help by saying they will pray for us while they could have helped us readily directly.

How many times do we hear - "we'll pray for you" or "we wish you the best" - and nothing is ever done? - 2013-03.24

13. Progressive people do more of positive working than positive thinking. End of the day, they ask 3 vital questions:

12.1. “what have you done?”,
12.2. “how hard have you tried”, and 
12.3. “what have you not done — which you should?”

There are 4 kinds of people, “The Small people talk about other people. The Average people talk about things. The Great people talk about ideas.” Then there is the 4th kind — they plan, and do it after the talking, while the rest just “talk”. — 2011–08.25

If Che merely met Fidel to small talk their frustrations in their revelry of wine and song. There will be no Cuba today. — 2011–08.25

14. Progressive people ensure that every meeting and dialogue is productive and fruitful, apart from the rest which are impotent and fruitless.

Every meeting is an Oracle, before people come and after they go, we want to ensure they bring something and leave with something else. If there is nothing, either someone failed to deliver or someone failed to take or received. No one comes empty handed, and no one leaves empty handed or with status quo contents or state.
"""
All greatness of character is dependent on individuality. The man who has no other existence than that which he partakes in common with all around him, will never have any other than an existence of mediocrity. - James F. Cooper
"""

15. Progressive people know the difference between output and outcome.

16. Progressive people seeks the uncomfortable and inconvenient, and push against the labor toil of growing pains.

17. Progressive people compete with themselves pushing on their limits against their growing pain. The non-progressive compete and compare with others on jejune greed and hedonistic pursuits.

18. Progressive people seek synergetic collaboration and symbiotic allies instead of wasteful zero-sum competition.

19. Progressive, strategic people do not have shallow, fair weather friends. They are optimal, not opportunistic in relationships, and are always preparing forward rigorously and for situations to be handled.

You can easily judge the character of a man by how he treats those who can do nothing for him. — JW von Goethe

20. Progressive people have more questions than answers. They are never the “know it all”, but the unquenchable “seek it all”.

21. Progressive people think deep and wide, while the non-progressive assume shallow and narrow.

22. Progressive people have wide bandwidth of diverse people around them, while the non-progressive cloisters themselves with parochial interests.

Universal empathy is the resolution to narcissistic parochialism which will eventually be the self-inflicted constricting and self-blinding vector.

If you are unhappy or frustrated with life, check if you deserve the kind of life and world you live in. By the same way you ignore and abandon the cries and crisis of others, the very same way your prayers will be left unanswered. - 2013-04.10

23. Progressive people want to empower you. They will want to work with you for — progress. Non-progressive people will ride the merry-go-round, you won’t go anywhere further from the rap-and-crap. There are no take-aways. There are no next steps forward. Yet be caveated that while there are, if you cast them away, you could be squandering away that chance to advance with the progressive folks.

24. Progressive people do not demand, beg nor ask for respect, they earn and command it.

25. Progressive people do not seek apologies, they work on concrete remediation.

26. Progressive people don’t argue or debate on things that won’t go anywhere at the end of the day. They want results. They want to have measurable outcomes. They don’t win arguments. Progressive people have strategic mindset, they calculate everything. Hence, they only discuss constructively to gain information to gain the next vantage point.

How deceiving it is to ask someone to be “open-minded” solely and 1-way to your ideas without an augmented circumspection.

Constructive interactions explore and create new possibilities, build new constructs, evolve more advanced models, and push for progress.

I believe in free discussion, but I believe that people should be educated before having free discussion, if they are not ready by adulthood - something is wrong with the formal education and their parenting. - Re: unschooled and under-developed reasoning, 2011-08.16
Instead of wasting energy defending the believed and unproven, we should earnestly understand and labor assiduously to work the fairness. It may not be equal but we can compensate the fairness if we work forward now. - 2016-12.08
It is futile trying to start a fruitful discussion to find out anything with someone who is rushing to conclude. - 2021-12-28
I am not sure about a zombie epidemic, but it seems that the undead thinking is a common statistical average, most people I meet have difficulties getting to the point, and getting the point. - 2011-09.13
"不和人争一时上下, 应抓紧时间屯兵, 以备再战." 
Never debate with people for that momentary delusional, trivial victory, instead capture time to gather your soldiers and provisions, to prepare for the next battle.

27. Progressive people are so obsessed with their self-enhancement, they spare no minutes to tussle on trivials and vacuous vainglory with others. They know they have 1440 minutes a day, no more, no less; and they make every minute count.

Strategic Time Management

The Alchemy of Time, Fate and Kairos

28. Progressive people are hyperaware that egoism and egotism are a deadly blinding disease. Understanding the murderous danger, they are, in fact, paranoid of how this deadly disease can abort expansive possibilities and cripple acquisition of faculties.

29. Progressive people are never ad hominem. It is one fatal fallacy that they will never commit. Slanderous accusations and ad hominem fusillade has no additional information other than about the abased quality of the person desperately trying to assure and console if not congratulate themselves. Non-progressive people will desperately shout down and shout out the facts so that they will remain their own convenient version of perception. It is the reason why non-progressive people cannot advance forward.

An intelligent discussion, on the other hand, distills the facts with new found or expanded awareness. Information and ideas are exchanged. The one who gains more examines through the data and insights, and considers how it can be of benefit to themselves. Progressive people understand clearer than the common fool that self-congratulatory sense of victory only degrades themselves and their time. Time is never recyclable. Progressive people are extremely vigilant about that form of resource.

Most people do not have years of scientific work. They conclude prematurely with very little understanding based on at most a few glimpses of introductory facts (mostly insufficient or inaccurate) or even none very often. You know they are not here for a discussion to learn and explore. They are not here to find out what is right, but to tell you who is right. The pretext of discussion is to hide the real agenda to nurse their ego. If this is the agenda, why sign up and sign in for this? If ad hominem is a corollary on examining the premises, then the level of intellectual ethos is abysmally low.

Science is not based on what one prefers. Feelings and words do not change the laws of physics. If they are really unhappy about it, it is immoral to just shut someone up just because they can. Either prove it (facts not person) wrong or re-engineer to change things. Facts either right, wrong or unknown can be used, `not for feel`.

There are a few reasons why people insist on things they do not really know: either they are intoxicatedly ignorant, they are liars, they suffer from some form of dementia, they are religious, or all the above in any form of composition.

There is most likely no new insights, facts or data you can gain from the session. A discussion must result in augmented and paradigm shift post discussion. If this is not the outcome, the discussion did not yield the time vested in. In other words — you wasted your mortal minutes.

Progressive people look for learning not victory. They want those minutes to make the worth.
Instead of arguing, I prefer people to admit - “I don’t know” and “let’s try and trial it out together”. - 2018-07.30

30. Progressive people are not ad populum. They are deadly ad logos, ad verum and perspicacious.

How long more do humanity have to take to realize that Alexander the “Not-So-Great After All” was eclipsing the sun of the illuminated Diogenes?

31. You will know the quality of the person from the way they get frustrated and even insults you, or even at all. The situation is a crucible and oracle to assess the human quality. The person’s human quality can be gauge from one’s :

31.1. ability to reason; 
31.2. endurance, mental strength and integrity in managing or mastering oneself and the situation, 
31.3. courage to face with people and situation with sincerity and genuineness to improve the situation and oneself
31.4. benevolence towards others and a reflection not to compromise one’s elevation and refinement
31.5. will and willingness, and the will to act.
"""
I cared very much for people, but I fear that they are only making use of me. I am there for them, but when it comes to my justice, I am alone with my placard and plea. - 2020
Sometimes people who have lost their dignity for too long, get so used to it that they come to think they don’t need one. - 2024-03.20
You cannot trust people who are so willing to let go of their dignity as much as they would have lost their sanity. They would remain so low that they would stoop low enough. - 2024-03.20
"""

Fundamentally, the quality of people earns and determines their trustworthiness. It correlates to their currency of trust.

32. Progressive people do not believe in the `Good Guy versus Bad Guy` story. They understand very clearly that it is pathetically naïve to take online claims as the source of reality. Most online claims hardly reflect the onsite.

Cyber-aggression signifies a pandemic pent up society where they cannot express themselves directly to the people around them, but are given a channel to express themselves in a faceless virtual world, safely ranting behind a buffer distance. This expression is yet understandable due to repression, however spiraling further evidence for the people likewise that the society at large is uncaring and selfish. In reality, it is a few people, magnifying it to a bar fight.

Cyber lawlessness and felony is an epidemic, yet so stealth and obscure even to speak about. Cyber policing with cyber-counseling should be rethink and re-designed.

You `research` and believe everything online? Would you believe online dating?

They empathize and understand that everyone is limited, and they see the good in everyone and they take responsibility for them.

The internet is a junkyard of gossips. It would be naïve to trust online. Many a times online don’t reflect the onsite. Many online `experts` never went onsite. — Ursa
The fatal problem with belittling your opponents is illusory superiority. It creates invigilance bias in overestimating ourselves and underestimating the distance between us and the opponents. Worst off, we may misperceive who or what the real adversaries or adversities are, and they may not be who or what we think they are. In short, it degrades our cognizance and puts us in a lower cognitive vantage. - 2021-06.28, Re: Self-administered stupidity
""""
锦上添花人人有, 雪中送炭世间无, 
隔靴搔痒是无智, 火上加油更可恶
画蛇点睛即使稀, 画蛇添足却普及
隔岸观火有人在, 趁火打劫也无缺
There are people who:
1. add little useful information to what is already provided, not many provide the most critical and useful information.
2. add redundant or totally useless like complaining with no solution shows the lack of intelligence, adding chaos to the mess (添乱) is clearly immoral.
3. provide paradigm shifting details to steer the situation into a game change is rare, adding junk details to adulate, muddle and confuse is far more common.
4. gloat on the situation and exist passively, and there is no lack where people exploits the situation for self-gain and gratification even at the tragic cost of others.
""""
If you criticize with little or no intent to care for the person or persons, your agenda and motivation are likely to be nursing your own ego. - 2013-02.05

33. Progressive people look for what is right, and ensure it is not distorted by confirmation bias of what they like.

People have to learn to doubt themselves first. The most important question is — “What if I am wrong?”. Progressive people are introspective.

Non-progressive people have a false sense of self-sufficiency. This is exacerbated in a cultural ethos of `fake-feel-good` factor. Dunning Kruger effect persists. Many are talking ‘at’ each other, not ‘with’ each other. How many seek to listen and understand first? They are not here to discuss and learn, they are here to conclude and yell down at each other. Nothing achieved at the end. Opportunity window wasted foolishly.

It is clear that “short-thinkers” are poor-thinkers. “Short-thinkers” make premature conclusions by “short-cutting thinking”. We can identify and forecast time and energy resource to be wasted with 2 types of inferior “short-thinkers”:

The fundamental mental blocks
33.1. "I don’t like it (or you), therefore it is wrong"
The acceptable way should be: 
Premise --> Warrant (sufficient and sound)--> Intermediate conclusions* 
* where proven sufficiently to be wrong, therefore I am aversive towards it.
33.2. "I don’t understand it (or you), therefore it is wrong"
* "I don’t like your claim or you, therefore, you are wrong."
The acceptable way should be:
Premise --> Warrant (sufficient and sound) --> Intermediate conclusions** 
** where proven sufficiently to be wrong, therefore there is nothing insufficiently lack of understanding.
33.3. "I cannot accept, and therefore it is wrong"
Compounded forms:
* "I cannot accept, therefore I don't want to understand and therefore it is wrong"
* "I cannot understand, therefore I don't want to accept and therefore it is wrong"
33.4. "We have a bigger number to disagree with you, therefore, you are wrong."
When consensus is unsound, democracy is merely foolish demagoguery.
"""
Argumentum ad adfectus or Argumentum ad bonum affectum or Argumentum ad passiones. (I don't like it, therefore, it is wrong; or the reversal: I like it, therefore, it must be right.) - 2015-06.15
"I do not like it" does not add any merits to the truth - unless you are divine. - 2013-05.01
A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right, and raises at first a formidable outcry in defense of custom. But the tumult soon subsides. Time makes more converts than reason. -  Thomas Paine (February 9, 1737 – June 8, 1809)
To argue with a person who has renounced the use of reason is like administering medicine to the dead. - Thomas Paine (February 9, 1737 – June 8, 1809)
"""
When you can't measure or prove anything, the subject at hand is reduced to no more than a sheer opinionated preference or just a wild guess. - 2011-08.19
Even if you can measure, quantify and quantify a matter, without consider necessary and sufficient facts and facets, the subject at hand may no longer be an opinion but is still value no more than a preferred, incomplete, and probably distorted, over or under emphasized faceted fact. - 2011-08.19
If someone accuse me of being an 'incompetent moron', I say let this man continue and complete his propositions. If he is right, let him suggest on a remedy, if he is wrong, let us come to an understanding. He may have good intent, but if he has ill-will, let him speak nevertheless, and let fools take his words. Let the man express freely, he is born free - no matter if I like it or not. - 2011-08.16
You can call me an 'incompetent moron', but you must do 2 things - 1st, prove to me that your claim is true; 2nd, be responsible to help me to stop being a fool. - 2011-08.16
There is hardly any such thing such as an 'insensitive comment', but an insensible reasoning. - 2011-08.16
You may insist that you are entitle to your own opinion, but you are not entitle to claim your opinion as fact. - 2015-04.16
Do not be confused that while you may want to exercise your rights, you may not be right. - 2015-04.16
People care about respecting difference. I don't. I don't care whether is it is the same or different, I care if it makes a significant and effective difference. - 2015-04.20
Not everyone can reason, not everyone is willing to reason, not everyone knows the reasons, not everyone can face the reasons, hence, not everyone is reasonable. - Ursa
I once argued with a person who was born blind who does not believe in colors. I was that fool. - 2024-04.06
What is perceived as "nonsense" may not be of having no sense, it is more likely we lack the means to make sense of them. - 1995

If the arguments are based on preferred reality, then we cannot have a wholistic and objective discussion, because no one cannot share the self-referential distortions, unless it is a shared hallucination like a religion or political conviction.

Be reminded constantly that our opinion is hardly coincidental with the truth. - 2012-04.20

Do not allow your ego to be present for the traction of other people’s ego to propel. People do not know the `who`, they only think of the `what` they think of us. No insults nor praise is therefore relevant. If they live in their own bubble, do not enter and join their own trap in an endless merry-go-round inanity.

Our intelligence is not insulted when people insults us during a discussion, but our intelligence is insulted when we adulterate the discussion with insults we initiate in the first place, when there is clearly no functional purpose of how insults improves the quality of the mutual discourse. It would also further violate the quality of our intelligence if we further engage in that form of discussion which we form no further and refined ideals and ideas from.

Where dishonorable men comes to power, vanity rise to vogue.
— Ursa, 2006–04.09

“非淡薄无以明志, 非宁静无以致远。” — 诸葛亮
“Be vigilant with your guiding principles, be unwavered towards your objective, weigh lightly with victory and defeat, never succumb to ambitions and temptations.” — Zhuge Liang (181 AD — August 23, 234 AD)

Judge you must, being judgmental you must not. — Ursa

Do not laugh at fools too early, ensure that they are really fools, and at least check that you are not 1 of them afore. — 2010–01.18

The Guard Against The Non-Progressive

There Are No Enemies. They Are Their Own Enemy.

Like the most fatal poison, the animus of false friends may be inodorous.

1. Do not trust nor entrust
Never trust the stupid to do their discursive, disjointed reasoning, as never trust a dog to guard your food.
Do not construe expressions as intentions.
2. Do not advise
Never render unsolicited assistance, even when requested. Sometimes, the request may be rhetoric, the intent is not what it sounds to be. Sometimes, the rendered advice is not within the expectation and willingness of the recipient. The difference is either a violent propel or a blame of an accused and accursed cause to justify the intent which may be subliminal concretized from the start, which stands in disparity from the rendered advice.
There are people teasing questions to dishonorably smear them as "unsolicited advice" later. It is a fool's insult with wastrel's idling. Tender no advice to the fools, render no aid to the ingrates. You will incur only indignation and reciprocation with evil.
Advice is only for the humble wise; for the bigoted fools, one shall render deception.
Do not even inform and/or make aware. One of the most ruthless ways to kill someone is to abandon the person to fester in his unawareness, under-awareness, undeveloped or under-developed state, according to my father. In my statement, you don't have to kill them, you just don't have to cure them.
3. Do not help wastefully
"""
A farmer boy was worried about the health concern with the pig's hygiene. Many a times, he would wrestle with the pig, drag it out from the mud and give it a nice warm bath. Yet many a times, the pig would curse him and return to the mud, leaving the poor boy looking silly in the mess from the aftermath.
"I love the ones who are in my life and make it amazing and I thank the ones who left my life and made it even more fantastic", snorted the pig, rejoining his gang of wallowing hogs, while laughter continued to ridicule the boy.
* pigs cool down in mud during summer. The 2nd thematic message is : pigs will be pigs.
- Re: In 'Good' Company, 2014-02.02
"""
I found myself working too hard to help people more than they are willing to help themselves. - 2010-06.26
"""
4. Do not hate
What is the point? The most violent hatred and anger does nothing.
Emotional energy must be conserved. Time and energy are precious limited resources. Do not squander.
He would promote and entertain the thoughts of hatred befriends the devil.
Inflating cruelty and earning hatred will have no lasting victory. The way to enduring conquest is to dissolve the enemy by manipulation - taking over his mind. 
""" 
It is the sins that we hate, not the sinners. - to the Fellowship, Re: Physicians and the contagion, 2002
You preach peace, but you teach people to hate. - to Mihai, 2003-09.27
Don't just make your victims sorry. Make them feel indebted. Win respect, not hatred. - to M. Ee, Re: The spirited fist, 2008-09.15
Spend time removing weeds, don't sow evil seeds. - 2006-08.12
"""
Once you ask this question, the moment you even have that intent - you are already opening up a vulnerability to be destroyed. You think of fear because you understand that, you empathize it, and you want to share it - in this case, to infect your victim. You understand fear and uncertainty, you understand his / her volatility, and hence, you already have that in yourself. Your question itself hints at the answer. 
A man with nothing to love or hate or fear is a man that can't be bargained or betrayed. You desire to destroy your enemy. That very same desire can destroy you. It is the same and exact vulnerable ailment of which you seek to find within your 'enemies'.  - Re: `How do I psychologically destroy enemies?`, 2015-12.12
"""
5. Do not blame
Attribute clearly. Deny no clarity. There is a difference between blaming and making clear analysis.
"""
There is no profit to use more energy and time to blame people for the consequences you are suffering if you cannot transfer that penalty. - 2018-09.01
"""
6. Do not retaliate
Don't get provoked into stepping into a minefield just to prove your meaningless ego.
Ignoring your opponent is one approach, but the upper way is to deny him your sincere thoughts. Help him along with his insults towards you, agree in any aspect, and yet continuing the discussion in the sincere manner with others is a clear demonstration of how you value different people.
"""
Do not attack anyone directly - help them to fall, and yet never seen your face nor felt any of your involvement. Then offer help as you set the next trap just in case they harbor malice. Let their malice be their own tripwire. Let them decide their own fate. - 2022-05.20
"""
7. Do not insult 
Rudeness is a retaliation of pride. Pride is a poison of civilization. Shaming your enemies may be a sweet rhetorical revenge, but it is useless. Anger based on shame subsides slowly. Humiliation makes persistent enemies.
Indeed, many times we all had been demonically cornered and emotionally abused with duress and bludgeoned like a wounded animal, and had swallowed the humiliation and antagonization. I bear no grudges, I forgive, albeit, I am reminded that people like them are merely symbolic representations of a mass. there's no use plucking the weeds, for the roots runs deep.
By using violent words to defend ourselves against our enemies, we have been lured into aggressive mode, just as our foes would want us to play their game, their way.
You can insult the enemy to demoralize them, but it is not worth it, and you should never do it yourself, always use someone else.
To insult a person who intends to be your enemy is to deny that person of that right, dignity and significance. Be superior by gifting him/her with unconditional aid and affection, and if s/he persists for an insult, the worst treatment would be not to even mention him/her upon death.
When someone insults you, it is probably merely a message or signal to you or a means attempted to be as vicarious as possible to let you feel on how s/he is feeling exactly. Instead of feeling angry, tend to him/ her first. Instead of feeling angry, we should feel responsible.
Insults do not really mean anything, as long as they remain as unwarranted opinions, and not an accomplished fact.
It does not require debasement or abasement to be abased, the baseness of the being lies in its quality. Let them bluster, we have scores of tenable premises to bolster and buttress.
"""
Humiliation never vanquishes any foes, it merely feeds to the bitter vengeance that thirst for blood for the humiliators. - Re: 勾践夫差 (gōu jiàn fū chà), 2008–05.17
I do not expect an answer from a dog, except barking, when I render a rhetorical question. Naturally, barking is the inherent endowment. - 2010-02.09
Let the opponent trumpet on, when their breath grows faint, sound your war drums and drown him. - 2007–06.03
There is no point flogging a dead horse, there is no meaning in admonishing a brainless man. - Re: Patience, 2003-09.17
"""
8. Do not curse
I used profanities as an exclamation mark - a highlighter, a bold and underline marker - when people don't seem to hear me. I realized that without it, people are not paying attention, nor have any intent to give it any serious consideration, despite the given gravity of the matter. - and it still does not make any conversion out of anyone. The words are not a product of uncontrolled frustration, but designed messages and loaded suggestions. I do quote but I don't curse.
Further rendering only make us foolish. Nothing changes. It will only be foolish self-stimulating `fake-feel-good`.
"""
People are so hopelessly stupid that I can curse them everyday all the way to my grave. - 2017-02.10
Don't throw things around (within) to vent your frustrations, you will have to clean them up later. - Re: Don't Curse The Mental Room, 2006-01.10
"""
9. Do not debate, reason, argue, persuade or contend
There will always be this 1 guy, who does nothing, tries nothing in his life, and yet assumes himself as the absolute, infallible authority to discredit the most skilled and arduous years of work of the most noble minds with cheap words which he fabricated promiscuously in minutes. You want to convert a political fanatic supporter? Try converting a religious person who believes in a god. Even when that god does not save them - clearly we can see from the "miracle healing on plague" - they will find a reason, no matter how delusion, and an image (the reason why people paint their gods in their own images - e.g. black Jesus or yellow Buddha) to believe. By arguing and insulting them, you are only making them stronger and giving them another reason to vote against you - that reason is called hatred, and you unwittingly and unwittedly created it.
"""
10 people who speak make more noise than 10,000 who are silent. - Napoleon Bonaparte
The fastest way is to ask, empty bravado is not part of productivity, nor is it necessary to showcase perseverance. - 2000
"""
Beware of human foolish ego, especially your own. Understand your intent of your debate.
What is going to come out of it? There are 2 things you have to build before any debate or negotiation - confidence and relationship, else never debate or negotiation. Enter any debate with confidence and consanguinity, and you will win.
It is stupid to try to convince 10 fools over the next hour ending in nothing further, or you can jester in a tea party of willing but lost people who have the will to act on the real progress, and perhaps and only perhaps ... you may build the next `Cuba` over a tea party with the willing. It may be still broken, but you get a nuclear state.
If they can't be convinced by logic, they have to be deceived by lies.
"""
Me: There is 1 possible statement for me to convince you to focus on life saving solutions above profit motivations though you may insist I am a fool.
A: Try me.
Me: The victim is your mother. 
- 2016-09.23
"""
The most cruel thing against religionists is a reverse strategy, instead of converting them away from their religious beliefs, make them labor tortuously on the grueling burden of their preach. Have some fun with their beliefs. Make them hamsters behaving according to what they preach. Trust me, it's almost impossible, and you can insult them at the same time, and if they can, you make the world a better place with better behaved people - so why not?
Yours truly,
The `devil` 
- 2011-09.11
"""
One good way to destroy another person is to maintain the obscurity of reasoning by keeping one's observation of a resolution which can change the game of another person's plight, instead of getting into senseless rounds of argument trying to extricate him from his own stupidity. - 1990
The superior way is to educate the egoistic is to humble yourself and let them make a fool of themselves. - 2003-08.23
Sorry for making you feel stupid ... your feelings are not unfounded. - 2003-08.09
Most people who assert the other guy to be wrong hardly check the conditions that they have the wrong assumption. - 2012-03.16
These are the people who will shut us down with no words of argument at all, they are not even argumentative or they may not even study noetics or logic. They live their bigoted ways. - 2013-08.06
Many people don't even evince a whit of wit in their reasoning, they cannot reason, do not want to reason, and dare not reason in consequence largely based on fear that they may end up in buffoonery; worst of all, there are most who has no sense of shame over their buffoonery. - Re: Cogent reasoning, 2006-11.17
It does not matter which side you are discussing (most people would debate instead of discuss), whether it is atheism or theism, as long as your main motive is to prove yourself right and others wrong, your core central is egoism. - Re: atheist, theist or just egoist, 2013-11.26
"""
Atheists, theists,
Let's not fight over something that does not exist...  and if that Almighty God really exists, does `he` need mortal men who are helpless themselves to prove on his behalf?
Theists, 
Ask yourselves why you feel offended. If atheists are attacking you on a personal basis, it's ad hominem, they may be at fault, but if you feel angry for your own rejection, something is not right, because they are rejecting God, not you - it has nothing to do with you. If God is Almighty, it's his part to convince them. Don't play God. 
- 2013-12.10
"""
One way to shut up contention is to agree, to remove anger is to satisfy, never leave them tenable grounds to lay their battle plans. Leave them confounded and strike them in their slumbering unanticipation.
The more we contend, the more we build up wasteful contention. We don't have to argue or convince anyone. 3000 years, 3 billion years from now, if we crack the riddle .... those people will not be around to say anything. Why would we waste the time when I clearly lack them? If the time unfolds and the argument is for ego sake, it is clearly a detrimental, unbespeakable folly.
"""
Your debate does not require much strength to seal the conclusion, if your argument applies the right angle, alignment and leverage. - 2011-07.10
If the opponent is displaying vanity, spare no audience. If he is looking for contention, do not participate. If he strikes, shift and let him fall to the fatal stab you laid while he was busy brandishing his strengths.  - Re: 不参 (bù cān), non-engagement, non-participation, 2007-04.22
Pardon me for lack of attention to continue our debate, I have yet unfinished with debating with myself. I don't think I know, I doubt you do either. - 1997
We cannot help those who refuse to reason, cannot reason and are not capable of reasoning. - 2006-07.06
People who wish but incompetent of reasoning are pardonable, but people who simply refuse to are irrecycleable. - 2003-05.04
I can't agree with you on everything, but I can concur with you on 1 fact - I may not always be right. - to C. Lee, 2005-04.21
Never get in the car to argue with someone (a fool) who has made up his mind and is on the way to crash land his car. The most cruel way is not just to keep silent, but to keep him distracted and encourage him to speed up towards his end, - Father to Michael, 1991
"""
10. Do not render under-appreciated proof or evidence
Initially, I thought if I could use a few projects to prove the difference, somethings may work out. It turns out that people are not interested about the proof, because they are never keen on the truth. Most people are most willing to accept that there is nothing they can do, so that there will be nothing they should do, hence, nothing they have to do.
Deprive them of strategic data. Let them fall on their own knives.
"""
The sins of an accursed management shalt be waged upon the same to their children. (the methods and mentality in principle are the same) - Re: Scourge phenomenon, 2010-08.23
People are not interested in the proof where they were never keen with the truth. - Ursa
"""
11. Do not be insistent to be acknowledged as being right all the time. 
You can convince people by juggernaut reasoning, overwhelm them by hypnotic charm. But pride is not an easily forgotten evil, it will one day foment malice.
Do not be confused with being unconvinced with being right. Everyone may be wrong in entirety, and perhaps even be  irrelevant.
12. Do not discuss further
Why render further unrequited sincerity and get punished for it? Perhaps calculated lying and pretense may be justified under no means of malice, gain or egoism, but as a device to achieve a conscientious, moralable strategic design.
I am unperturbed by the most emotionally evocative words people use to rally their claims, but no matter how crude or tasteless the words used, I am extremely concerned by what they can prove even with the most basic logic and basic arithmetic.
The average fool is the mediocre human. Mediocre humans are stupid, selfish, crazy, boring and obdurately limited. They are short-lived and short-sighted. Physics is working against the scattered-minded and scatteredly organized humans. As time moves forward, we are losing good people and possibilities to mine for methods and engineer machines to construct desirable scenarios. Is there something we can do about this? If so, what is the next optimal step? Do not discuss this with yet another mediocre human who will suggest trivial wasteful steps in the limited longevity of your mortal life. 
"""
People are so stupid that their pretense is a low grade acting of constipation and fits. - 2020-02.12
The problem is - the only person to whom we wish to impress can only be impressed with no other person but himself. - to Badil, Re: Where social allegiance would fail, 2010
They are not there to look for a conversation or dialogue, they are there to look for audiences. - to Badil, Re: Where social allegiance would fail/ Political bloggers, 2010
Let me know if you can hold an intelligent conversation and willing to work on intelligent solutions, so that I don't waste my time. - 2010-11.08
I can't even convince people to think out of the system, not to say to get out of it. I have wasted my time getting them to work on a new one. - 2014-01.25
"""
Depart from fruitless, immaterial and immaterializable discussions. 
"""
Faith is a good thing; however, prayers, hymns, preaching or awareness drive, and idea discussions, exclusively, let me know what you are willing to do for your beliefs. - 2012-12.28
Deny all you want, the consequences speak for themselves. - 2020-12.22
Your words don't worth anything if you have no works. You don't even understand the context and syntax of what we are talking about. Your side barking does not make sense, only noise. - to verbal attackers, 2013-09.22
Let only those who labor with their hands speak about their thoughts. Those who have words but no works, should not stop others' hands when their hands are atrophied with inaction. - 2017-09.25 
"""
"""
J.: I've been labeled loner, anti-social and so on.. i am used to it... there are ways to trigger needed neuro-chemistry without so called the human bond... humans are overrated.
Me: You are only antisocial towards P0 humans. It is actually called - an allergy. Non-P0 humans have that. It is your immune system triggering a detection of pathogens. So I think you are ok.
- 2020-04.23
"""
After mining for sometime, and people heaping statements that have no value to improving solutions in systematic or operational means. If there is nothing I can use from their poverty of inputs, I am wondering if I should be clear then that I am there not to convince them, but to inform them.
"""
Towards the intransigently artless, witless and clueless, and those who are lull in their hubris, I am not wonted to render any witticism. - Re: Pearls before swine, 2006-07.08
It is really very arduous to do a logical discussion, when the human emotion is so sensitive and fragile. - 1997
"""
13. Do not disclose or share further
If the disclosure of your thoughts puts you in a precarious position, conceal your intents. It is more risky to share ideals than ideas, one suggests how people should do things, the other proposes to them on re-valuing certain issues.
"""
If you dig your own grave, don't blame the person who buries you. - 2018-09.04
"""
14. Do not explain yourself.
It is laborious to explain in completeness and soundness, and to obtain consensus and acceptance, which does not guarantee the later even in the most violent authority, yet without so subjects one to peril. The laborious way is immensely taxing, the fastest way would be to deceive, the crux is how to work this hoax seamlessly with part fact, part fiction.
Many people merely seek to justify the situation by explaining the blames, as much as it is described, it does not warrant any solutions.
In discrediting a claim, one should also broach warranted, evidenced alternate means, any cursory examination and caviling is to be deprecated. Else, the intent to seal an unfair verdict would harbor other ulterior agendas.
The best warrant is no less than corroborating evidence, but not for those that had already decided to dismiss them even before you start.
"""
Neutrality is not appreciated nor accepted by bigots when one does not share the sentiments with them. - 2010-10.07
"""
15. Listen ... Intel is key
Insulating yourself in a room from the cold outside, may also mean insulating yourself from the warm. It is most important to be well-informed to make well-informed decisions.
Always be listening. Democratically, we have to give them a voice. Sometimes, they are right; sometimes they are wrong; sometimes serendipitously, they point in the right direction while doing the wrong things. We don't know everything, but we can adapt our knowledge. Hardly any opinion gets the truth, but it may point to it. When opinions are justifiable, they are usable facts.
"""
... keep an open heart, open mind, and an open eye. - to Sage Em, 2018-08.30
"""
Most people are confused with loneliness and boredom. They may know the difference only when they meet nasty people. - 2014-10.07
"""
话不投机, 半句多.  
No matter how important your message will be, if what you want to say is not in what people want to think about, even 1/2 a statement is too much for them. - Thoughts of Socrates' end.
"""

Never interfere with a man who is in the process of hanging himself. — Napoleon Bonaparte (August 15, 1769 — May 5, 1821)

If I don’t give a damn, I won’t even bother giving a fart (you won’t even hear me fart). — 2010

If you care enough to say “I don’t care” — you still do. — 2016-02.22

On Guard

Means And Meaning

Every time my family and friends had to travel, move into a neighborhood, or even to the most minute detail of turning on the tap for water, haunts me deeply with the nights of reading and linking with people on what I termed as ‘terrain survey’. This has been conveniently dismissed as paranoia or ‘wanting a bone to chew on’. Besides the part that it has warranted me as an accomplished security expert in the field that I am qualified for every word I said. I paid for the advice which socially people discount me on. What a tragic irony.

They do not think properly. All you should do is to guard against them hurting and harming people. Understand that many diasters are due to idiocractic mindlessness. Mindless people are pathologically, criminally negligent. They have no qualms to make people pay with their lives for their vainglory and bigotry. You should put time and energy to make contingencies to stay away from the disasters they are making.

Expostulation

Time and energy has to be optimize. There is opportunity cost to our limited 1440 minutes a day — no more, no less.

I look both ways before crossing a one way street. That’s how much faith I have left in humanity. — Tom Hardy

It’s not about going anywhere if you are not going with the right people. Yet again, it’s not the right people, but making the people right. — 2002–01.02

To Truly Know A Person, You Need A Heart-To-Heart Talk

The Modeling And Making Of The Übermensch

The Problems of Life as the 12 Labours of Heracles

The Solution Is Simple But No Less Painful

How To Trust Someone

“公知其一，未知其二。夫运筹策帷帐之中，决胜于千里之外，吾不如子房；镇国家，抚百姓，给馈饷，不绝粮道，吾不如萧何；连百万之军，战必胜，攻必取，吾不如韩信。此三者，皆人杰也，吾能用之，此吾所以取天下也。项羽有一范增而不能用，此其所以为我擒也。” — 刘邦

“Strategizing in a tent, decisive to the fate of battlefields 1000 li away, I cannot be compared with Zhang Liang. Stabilizing the internal affairs of the nation, assuring the provisions for the people and providing comfort, I cannot be compared with Xiao He. Leading millions of troops, capturing victories, and reigning in battles, I cannot be compared with Han Xin. These 3 are outstanding people, they serve my camp, so I can take the world. Xiang Yu has Fan Zeng, but do not engaged and employ wisely, so he becomes my captive.
— Liu Bang, Emperor Gao Zu of Han, (202–195 BCE)

1. Reasons Why We Fail
2. What Is Required To Succeed
3. The Mistakes That Most People Never Learn
4. What They Do Not Teach You
5. Common Bad Advice
6. How Positive Thinking Can Hurt You
7. Objective Positivism
8. What Should One Do In Their 20s To Avoid Regrets In Their 30s And 40s
9. Why Your Will Your Drive Your Wit And Any Of Your Ways Will Fail You
10. Set Yourself Started And Going
11. Fail Fast, Fail Functionally, Fail Forward
12. Tansformative Shifts The 1% Fulcrum On The 20–80 Pareto
13. Chaining The Behavioral Butterfly Effect
14. Are You With The Right People Or Just Lost With The Wrong Crowd
15. When Life Is Too Much For Us To Bear
16. Engineering Hope
17. How To Look For Your Purpose — The Search For An Elixir
18. Questions That Can Re-write Your Fate
19. Your Intent Writes Your Life
20. Lessons From The Eccentrics
21. In Pursuit Of Virtues And Values
22. How T o Trust Someone
23. The Expedition
24. The Alchemy Of Time Fate And Kairos
Your Quality In Thinking
1. Understanding Thyself— The Deadly Bias
2. Understanding Thyself — The Deadly Mental Flaws
3. Understanding Thyself - The Deadly Fallacies

嚴以律己 寬以待人 (“Be strict on oneself; be understanding and lenient to others.”)

以诚待人, 以理办事 (or 以仁待人, 以实办事): Dealing with people, engage with benevolence and sincerity. Dealing with process, engage with veracity and rationale.

In the long run, the aggressive civilizations destroy themselves, almost always. It’s their nature. They can’t help it. — Carl Sagan (November 9, 1934 — December 20, 1996), Contact, 1985, Chapter 20 (p. 359)