On Winning and Losing

On Winning and Losing (April 8, 2012)

Nobody wants to lose. People would go to great lengths just to win, they would cheat, they would lie and they would even steal just so to have an entry on the winning column.  But losing is part and parcel of life.  You cannot really win all the time.  Victory is sweeter when such is a product of a loss.

The trick here is to learn and extract much from losing.  What is the cause of defeat and what can we do avoid such from happening again.  Though victory gives a sweet feeling, such is only temporary and fleeting.  The lessons that losing/failure gives is far more valuable than an accidental success.

Of course, nobody loves a loser and everybody loves a winner.  But from a different perspective, a failure gives so many valuable lessons; I think that I’ve heard it from the character of Ethan Hunt of Mission Impossible that “failure is a rehearsal for success”.  Show me a winner and I will show you a hard working individual who never gave up until success crosses his path.

Sports will never cure cancer.  In the game of basketball, I see no sense in running back and forth, trying to outscore the opposing team.  The drama and inspiration derived from the effort is another story altogether that is made of stuff that produces legends.  Yes, it will never cure cancer, but it sure can provide inspiration that once properly harnessed could lead to a possible cure.  Because sports inspire greatness and in this era of manufactured and over hyped and over rated players, we still crave greatness in whatever form, shape and size.

That is why we will always celebrate the likes of Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods and Manny Pacquiao.  They are a success story waiting to be told and waiting to be copied and replicated.

Because whether we get it or not, losing is the flip side of winning and failure is the brother of success.  It is all a part of life.  You cannot win all the time and you cannot lose all the time.  The longer the losing streak, the sweeter the victory.  The key is to never give up.  The world is full of people who gave up and they are lamented.  The world is also full of people who never gave up and they are celebrated.

My son is entering the world of sports.  If there is one thing that he should pick up is the invaluable lesson of character, of never giving up and of resilience in the face of adversity.  I should know, though never a professional athlete, I have learned and valued these lessons which were a derivative from sports.

A month ago, I played basketball with my two sons, and let me tell you the sweetness of that feeling.  It was an experience beyond compare.  As if everything is right and though there will be some hardship, the compass or roadmap is already there.  I just need the common sense to follow it.

If we are to fail, let us fail forward (Maxwell, 2008).  Let us learn from our failures and pledge never to repeat the folly that brought us failure in the first place. Let us be calm with the thought that from losing we learn how to succeed later on in life.

Article Writing

One Article a Day (April 7, 2012)

From this day forward, unless there is something wrong, I pledge to write at least one article a day.  I have been delinquent in my writing output for far too long.  This will be an easy thing to do unless laziness in my back.  There are just too many things to write about and I am far too lazy by letting things go by unrecorded.

Today is Black Saturday.  Such is called such because Christ is supposed to be dead (according to Christian legends), but just like any phenomenon, it just took a life of its own.  For lazy people, the holy week became an excuse not to do things or to put things off up to next week. For some, it became an excuse to party, to celebrate and to bum around.  For some, it became an excuse to create a new tradition of their own thus a platform to a new variety of mutation of bizarre practices.  And believe you me, a decade from now, such a celebration would turn into another thing which is far from its intended rationale altogether.

For me, it is a reason to take a rest, for my employer, it is a reason not to pay its employees.  Yes, you have some free time but no money to finance other pursuits.  Now that is irony.

You have time to spend with your family but too much time with them and the nerve under your skin gets irritated.  You want to do some other things but you realized that there is not enough money to go around to finance whatever catches your fancy.

Yes, it is a once in a year time to bond with your family but you come to realize that even your own family  have their own pursuits that doesn’t include you and the twist now is that you have become the intruder in their world.

Black Saturday is supposed to be a holy celebration, the irony here it that we Filipinos have taken it into our own and transform it to something altogether.  From the religious to the mundane and trivial - from something holy to petty.  I started writing this article with some half hearted effort and now that my wife and family are up and about, I have totally lost the motivation to go on because of some unavoidable distraction.  There are just too many things to do and just a limited time.

The computer has a term for this, multi-tasking, unfortunately – I have not mastered such.  So many things to do and so little time.

Can I have some creativity to say something significant or just like anybody else; I am just occupying space waiting for something significant to happen.  From something holy to something that is called inspiration.

Or maybe, what I need to do is to combine ideas, holy and inspiration thus the word holy inspiration.  And now we are back where we started, from something holy coming from Black Saturday and Holy Week.  Now that is the ultimate paradox, the more you want to change things, the more identical they become.  From persons, events and places, such rings true.  Maybe the phenomenon “organized chaos” is not really organized after all; maybe we just don’t have the complete picture.  Maybe it is really organized; it is just our myopic perspective that is in the way.

Mourning and the Ericson Study

Stages of Mourning and the 10,000 Ericson Study (April 19, 2012)

There is an unofficial process of mourning.  Though this is not psychologically validated, the acceptance seems universal.  Personally, I subscribe to this formula and I even use these stages to predict the next manifestation of behavior of an individual.  This is even useful is mourning but in facing failure as well.

The acronym to remember here is DABDA, this stands for denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance.  Accordingly, denial is the failure of the individual to accept the truth even though such is already staring the individual in the face.  Anger here is the lashing out of the individual towards the object of his ire.  Bargaining connotes the attempt of the individual negotiate himself out of the cause of the problem.  Depression here comes after bargaining because, once the attempt at negotiation fails, and this is extreme sadness and lack of energy.  And lastly, acceptance comes to fore where the subject simply accepts the situation and tries to move on with life.

The DABDA formula is not recently validated but in the 1980’s, such was universally accepted and only because of the lack of recent and researches validating the said equation that tarnished its popularity.  But in the evolution of human knowledge, the DABDA equation needs its space and who knows, maybe someone out there is doing a research to further validate and cement the equation.

The Ericson study is really is quite simple, it states that for an accepted expertise in any endeavor or enterprise, the mind needs to invest 10,000 hours with it.  It means that if you want to become an expert guitar player, you need to invest 10,000 hours of guitar playing.  If you want to become an expert basketball player, you need to invest 10,000 hours of playing basketball.  If you want to become an expert driver, a10, 000 hours is needed to acquire the expertise.

If you really want to measure the expertise of an individual, look at the years invested by the individual in that particular endeavor or enterprise.

Summer Enrollment

Summer Enrollment (April 16, 2012)

Enrollment in the summer is always viewed from the perspective of the students but what about the teachers?  For the faculty members, a summer class means a continuous pay during the duration of summer.  Bills that need payment do not stop during this period.  A faculty member needs their summer load because it is equivalent to the continuance of life.  Nobody gets rich teaching.  You could acquire wealth in sports, in politics and in business but I have yet to meet a teacher who could claim that he made his wealth through teaching.

The economic success of a country is best measured by the means of how their teachers are paid.  In the Philippines, teachers (in public schools) are paid during these summer months but the in the private sector, a teacher’s load is the passport for continuous pay, without such, expect no payment whatsoever.

When I jumped into the academe, I didn’t realized that I would be blessed by position of department chairmanship hence of continuous pay even during the lean summer months.  But for my colleagues, a summer vacation is also equivalent to a literal vacation of emoluments and my heart really goes out and bleeds for them – they endure almost two whole months of no work and no pay.

Can the school do something about it?  The answer is a big fat “yes” but why would they do something about it?  It is well within their discretion to do something about it but somehow discretion is lost in the word and world of politics.  Those who are liked gets their summer load and those that are not so liked will have to endure penury and poverty.

Considering that we already raised the bar of college teaching where only those with a masterate degree could sustain a career in teaching this scenario of “no work and no pay” during summer time needs assessment, consideration and creativity to eradicate.

With the creeping of business in the world of education, everything is viewed with the bottom line as the main consideration.  Maximizing profit and minimizing cost have become the official mantra and to a fullest extent, employees have become labor and indirectly a cost, instead of a resource that needs nurture, care and husbandry.

I realize now that I will never get to publish this article for I might get the ire of my higher ups and I do have a family of my own to nurture, care and provide for.  But really?

If a college teacher handles 500 students (at least) in a semester, that is around 1000 students a year and if you multiply that with the number of years of your professional teaching, the figure is really quite considerable.  Personally, since I started teaching in the year 2003 that is around 9000 students so far.

Sooner or later, the issue of faculty retention would come to fore, and the ugly fact is that faculty seeks better treatment elsewhere if they couldn’t find it from their present employment.  And personally, I don’t blame them.

Sun Tzu, Peter Drucker and Steve Jobs

Sun Tzu , Peter Drucker and Steve Jobs (April 22, 2012)

If one were to google Sun Tzu, one would find that his writing is older than Christianity and though his work is principally predicated on the art and science of war, the practical applications of his writings is also applicable in business.  And after going through his works again, what strike me most are pre-conditions before one sets off and declare war on an opponent.  Accordingly, one only goes to war if the following conditions are met:

1.       You only go to war when there is no other alternative.

2.       You only go to war when there is an advantage to be gained.

3.       You only go to war when victory is assured.

4.       You only go to war when your defense is in play.

Personally, the acronym is AVAD, so that I wouldn’t forget these important elements of war.  And being an element, if one or two criterions are missing, then common sense dictates that the act of war would have to take the backseat.  As Sun Tzu was saying, the conduct of war is an art and science as well.

Peter Drucker is considered the father of modern management and among his many quotable quotations; I always recall this particular piece, “the first purpose of business is the creation of a customer”.  No business, whether in the selling of goods or services will ever thrive or survive without a customer.  So at the risk of sounding redundant, any business is best served by the function of customer creation.  He is also credited for the first writer ever to coin the word “knowledge worker”.  If there is no need for a particular goods or services than by god, you create a need and find a customer.

The application of this mantra in psychology is far-reaching.  This mindset of customer creation is palpable in the realm of business psychology, industrial psychology and consumer psychology.  Just think of a particular science dedicated to the prediction of consumer behavior, interpretation of customer, description of a particular consumer, understanding of the many needs of the customer and the manipulation of their behavior.  Now that wouldn’t be so bad for business and psychology as well.

The talent here is how to connect Sun Tzu with Peter Drucker and if we could connect this two immortal dots then the world is ours for the taking.

Prior to the untimely demise of Apple’s Steve Jobs, it was reported that Apple as a company has more cash on hand than the US government; the figure is estimated to be around 76 Billion dollars (for Apple) as opposed to the 73 Billion dollars of the US government.  Now why is this possible?  This was possible because Apple has consistently innovated and created customers from the production and selling of I-pod, to I-phone and recently, to I-pad.

Psychology as a science and as a discipline should innovate and create new customers and consumers of its outputs.

The world is full of naysayers and it is our job to prove them wrong…

Future of the Sun

The Future of the Sun (April 23, 2012)

Typically, the life span of an ordinary sun is around 12 billion years.  Our sun is estimated to be around 4.6 billion years old.  Earth is the third rock (or planet) revolving around the sun and in terms of distance, it usually takes eight minutes before the sun rays reaches our planet and that is in terms of light speed.

Currently, our sun is burning hydrogen, hence the yellow rays but 1.1 billion years from now, our sun will burn 10% more and as a consequence, it would destroy the Earth’s atmosphere.

3.5 billion years from now, the sun will be 40% brighter and hotter and in this scenario, all of the Earth’s ocean will boil and Earth will be like Venus – a scorched planet.

In 6 billion years, the hydrogen in the sun will run out and instead of burning hydrogen, the sun will shift to burning helium and typically will become a red giant.  The sun will grow in size, swallowing Mercury and Venus.  Earth will be the nearest planet next to the burning Sun. 

Helium will run out and instead, the sun will now burn carbon and oxygen.  The sun will be a white dwarf and will eventually cool down and all of these will happen in the short span of 12 billion years.

This common fact was sourced from universertoday.com but what caught my fancy in researching sun’s future was when I was cable surfing and caught a short documentary about our sun.

Now, what does these facts tells us?  Humans are meant to colonize space.  If we want to survive as a specie and avoid extinction, we need to jump into space so as to escape this certain destiny.  Space travel needs to become a reality.  Similar to the early travel of sea explorers (e.g. Columbus and Magellan) a radical and dramatic jump into the business of space travelling needs to become a reality and not just a purview of science fiction.

And these radical shifts will entail a change in the way man perceives himself and his environment.  Everything that we are doing today is wrong and requires a change in the prediction of human behavior, interpretation of human behavior, description of human behavior, understanding of human behavior and manipulation of human behavior.

Our behavior must change intrinsically and extrinsically.  There will be a new mode for everything, from a simple worship, to the continuance of relationship of man with other man and with the environment at large.

Considering that we are talking of billions of years, a minuscule of a couple of decades seems impertinent and irrelevant but we must make our mark and relevance, the option is extinction of the human race and though this is still in the future, the baby steps must be taken now…

Transgender 1

Transgender Contestants (April 11, 2012)

The biggest folly just occurred yesterday.  The very prestigious Miss Universe contest just recently changed its most important rule – starting next year, they are going to accept transgender contestants.  I might sound narrow minded but there is a reason why the contest is called a “Miss Universe”.  It is strictly for women only (and beautiful women at that).  Opening the door for transgender changes the very nature of “Miss Universe”.  It is no longer a “Miss Universe” contest; it is now an open transgender universe contest.

But since the die is already cast, it is really very possible that in the next decade or two, we might have our first transgender “Miss Universe”.

Now if such a thing does occurs, then the very fabric of reality as we know it will finally be changed for something that we are not totally ready.

Truth be said, if the transgender contestant just want a psychological validation, he or she could just simply join a transgender beauty contest.  Why destroy the “Miss Universe” contest?  I am a tolerant individual but there must be a delimitation for tolerance.  And allowing a sexually changed individual in an operation join a contest just ruin the cake and the set-up altogether.

A woman is not a man, regardless of its desire or sex-change operation.  Pitting a man in a contest exclusively for women is just not right.  It is like pitting a women’s basketball team against men’s basketball team.  It is just not right and besides, if the organizer did it for media mileage, nobody in his right mind would watch it.

Before, any or all beauty contest was a travesty, with this current scenario, it has mutated into the level of pornography.

No to this brand of pornography and no to this brand of stupidity.  If they are seeking validation for their mutation then let them find it somewhere else other than the “Miss Universe” contest.

Somewhere, somehow, someone will have to pay for this kind of stupidity.  And I am glad that it is not me…