Rubik's Trev

I lived in London for 8 years before moving to the Shire. Most of it was spent with a normal job, until I decided that was overrated. Normal jobs give a "no need to decide" structure to days. The normal 5 days a week, and two-day weekend, loop. A physical place to go. Perhaps, new problems each day, but within a known category. My blog gives my days that structure now. Most days, that is the thing I know I will do. In the beginning, I used to keep a little log of ideas for blog posts. Gradually, it just became something I did automatically. Within themes. I carry on exploring, but the paths are less surprising. Perhaps I explore a new country, city, or language on Wikipedia, or learn aloud a little more about Universal Basic Income. Or I follow up on a conversation I have had with someone.

The "loopy place" I physically go is more flexible. In London, you can have a degree of anonymity. There are so many people and places, that I could find a little hidey hole and not be noticed. Places open. Places close. To get some recognisability to my loop, I went to my "Artist's Lunch" on Wednesday. Colleagues become the very human part of our loop. The idea of separating work and play is bizarre when we spend so much time at work. Leaving the normal working world meant, in a big part, leaving a group of friends. The Artists from the Wimbledon Art Studio which I was a part of for four years, became my point of consistency. 

Now that I live in the Shire, I still venture back to that Artist's Lunch as often as I can. I like feeling part of something bigger. Even though each Artist is doing their own thing, it feels like you have a degree of 'shared mission'. Similar to separating work and play, separating Competing companies is also rather unnatural. Professional or Trade groups and associations remind people that we aren't defined by the company that we work for. They would do well to have Artist's Lunches.

A "Buhr" was a small fortification. A "ford" is a place that crosses a river. I live in a small medieval town called Burford. Slowly, this Donkey is becoming a local. The South African guy with long hair who is either walking, on his kindle, computer, phone, or playing with a Rubik's cube. As much a part of the furniture as Lady Diana and her mobility scooter. When you regularly cross the river, the river becomes a part of who you are, and you become part of the river.

We like to identify with the thoughts in our head. With our decisions. More and more, I believe our decisions are loopy. "Narrative Therapy" is a form of psychotherapy that helps people create stories about themselves that are helpful. It helps people by "Co-Authoring". You identify the characters, themes, and plots. The backstories, and events, that create the way we respond to the twists. Rather than autonomy over each fork in the road, it helps people step back and look at the road. It helps people identify their knowledge, skills, and values. Choose your road.

To ensure we are focusing on the things that really matter. That we know the things we are becoming part of.

Boggles my Mind

We are all at the centre of our own Universes. What we see and understand is determined by what we have seen and understood. A Controlled Hallucination which plugs in new information to all the things we have processed before. In Mindwise by Nicholas Epley, he talks about reasons why it can boggle our minds when people don't understand things the same way we do.

The Neck Problem is that people are simply paying attention to different things to us. Our attention is limited, and other people don't dwell on the same things we do. The most important thing to us, isn't necessarily the most important thing to them. There are too many important issues in the world for us to focus on. We choose. We choose differently.

The Lense Problem is that we don't see things in the same way. The Curse of Knowledge is that the deeper you understand something, the more it restricts you from seeing something else. Once you can read, you can't help but 'hear' words in your head if you see them. They then frame everything else. If you can't read a certain alphabet or language, you just see squiggles... and you will see differently. The same with languages. The same with all the context, and shared context, required to understand. Nothing exists in isolation.

My mind and heart are regularly boggled. I think all of us have to struggle with miscommunication, misunderstanding and generally missing each other. That is why I increasingly believe that debate is overrated. When someone disagrees, we should be fascinated. We should explore that alternative way of thinking. In exploring with them, both of our ways of seeing will be changed.

That is what connection does. It changes us by changing how we experience the world. Together.

Good-enough Parents (Michelle)

Although I went down the financial route in my studies, and choice of work, most of my extended family have been involved in the caring professions - teaching, medicine, psychology or the church. I am lucky to have always been surrounded by ears willing to listen, and nets willing to catch. I am a pretty confident guy, but that is because I know what is behind me. At my lowest points (and many of my highest), one of the people who has always been there is my Aunt Michelle. She practices clinical psychology and neurophysiology, and is busy with a doctorate researching insomnia. She recently started a blog on parenting. Many of my friends have 'the crazy eye' at the moment as they deal with being new parents. I asked her if I could share her thoughts here...

Most of us fly by the seat of our pants as parents. We can read, prepare, listen to advice yet our experience is a unique and intriguing one. We may have been surprised, or carefully planned being a parent. Regardless, there are immeasurable sacrifices of self and yet immeasurable rewards.

Sons and daughters bring yet another dimension to our experience of life, and often leave us with a truck load of random feelings that come from a place we didn’t even know existed. Collectively, these feelings cover dimensions such as overwhelmed (particularly at the onset, by responsibility regarding the “foreverness” of the task), stuck, bored, mesmerised, in awe, bemused, delighted, irritated, angry, immeasurably proud, humiliated, ashamed, guilty and downright confused. Guilt, oh the feelings of guilt…

We are never the same when a child comes into our lives. We are more: multiplied, transformed, and metamorphosed.  We need to care for self yet should no longer be self-centred, other-centred, stretched and expanded out of ourselves to see this person growing up under our care. We view the process with fascination and trepidation. Parenting is progressive and has momentum. Time never stands still; it is never enough or is immeasurably slow. We have to take care to not be distracted, dissociative, disconnected, tardy or poor role models. The little person becoming adult (eventually and way sooner than we perceive in the earlier days) watches and learns from everything we do and say, dependent on our ability to parent as responsible adults, not as friend. We need to keep them safe, watch their backs and treat their lives with honour, respect and reciprocity.

We watch their growth and marvel. How is it possible that we created this extraordinary human being, an extension of ourselves yet so unique in itself? We joy in family and social expansion as school starts and watch academic advancement. Extraordinary, frustrating, exciting, annoying. We defend our offspring with every fibre of our being, every instinctual urge and feel offended, affronted, anxious and distressed by outcomes. Yet the accolades and achievements blow us away, make us marvel again and breathe a sigh of relief that we have all survived once again. To strive for perfection in the process is nigh impossible. In the words of Winnicott, we need to be “good-enough parents”.

Dedicated to all the indelible and privileged journeys I have made with my children, and the children of others.

Essentialists

People are essentialists. We believe that there is something core at the heart of things and people that make them what they are. Beneath the simple characteristics there is an essence. A story. That story matters deeply. Change the story and you change how we see the thing even if nothing physical or biological changes. Holding a baseball we believe Babe Ruth hit for a home run is different from holding an identical baseball that he didn't. Same ball. Hearing Roger Federer tell his story is different from hearing Roger Federer's life story. Same story. The connection between the thing, the story, and us is what creates our reality.

The story gives the ball its value

Babe Ruth

Self-Expression – The Dalai Lama & Desmond Tutu (Tim)

It’s a sad truth of life that when we grow older, we tend to become less spontaneous and less creative as we acquire more social anxiety. A lot of times, we’re so worried about what others think of us that we have no idea how to relax and be ourselves. The generally agreed principle in psychology is that social anxiety has to do with the ego. While the ego is something that we tend to protect and cherish (See Donald Trump), the good news is that long-term meditation works to strip away the ego. And if you want proof of the joy and spontaneity that a lifetime of meditation can bring, just watch these clips of the Dalai Lama goofing around with his chum, Desmond Tutu.

Tim Casteling

Conclusion of a 7 part series on Self-Awareness

(1) Doubt (2) Criticism (3) Discovery (4) Awareness (5) Discipline (6) Compassion

Self-Compassion – Hakuin (Tim)

There are many forms of anxiety, but paradoxical anxiety is my favourite. This is the (highly ironic) anxiety that results from fear of being too anxious. And so it is with the over-eager meditator, who expends a great deal of mental energy on not thinking too much, and thereby…well, you get the picture. In fact, the Zen patriarch, Hakuin seems to have suffered a nervous breakdown on the way to enlightenment. The answer to this paradoxical malady? Go easy on yourself. For example, when you are mediating, and you find your mind wandering, be gentle about re-focusing your thoughts and avoid the temptation to scold yourself. Stupid jerk that I am, I’m not very good at this, either.

Tim Casteling

Part 6 of a 7 part series on Self-Awareness

(1) Doubt (2) Criticism (3) Discovery (4) Awareness (5) Discipline

Hakuin Ekaku

Self-Discipline - Mo Farah (Tim)

The old cliché of meditation is that it’s a blissful state of relaxation. Unfortunately, meditation is not always blissful. It’s a lot more like running the 10,000m; great when you have the fitness, but it takes discipline to get there. To begin with, it’s generally recommended that you start with some form of mindfulness meditation like mindfulness of breathing. All you have to do is pay attention to your breath. When your mind wanders, just bring it back to your breath, again and again. As you do this, you slowly get in the habit of catching your errant mind. Eventually, you find yourself catching negative thoughts all the time. By the principle of neuroplasticity, your brain slowly but surely changes for the better. Or so I’ve read.

Tim Casteling

Part 5 of a 7 part series on Self-Awareness

(1) Doubt (2) Criticism (3) Discovery (4) Awareness

Mo Farah

Self-Awareness – Matthieu Ricard (Tim)

Matthieu Ricard

While self-help and psychedelics may be dismissed as snake oil, the benefits of meditation are increasing well documented by science. Matthieu Ricard is a Tibetan Buddhist monk who has the distinction of being both the “happiest person in the world” and one of the most studied individuals in the history of neuropsychology. Studies on the brains of Ricard and other skilled meditators showed that they were significantly more active in areas related to compassion, conscious attention and happiness, but significantly reduced in their capacity for negative thinking. This is down to the capacity of even the adult brain for growth and change – neuroplasticity. And, as you would have guessed by now, the engine for change in this case is meditation.

Tim Casteling
Part 4 of a 7-part series on Self-Awareness
(1) Self-Doubt (2) Self-Criticism (3) Self-Discovery

Self-Discovery – Syd Barrett (Tim)

Ayahuasca

In moments of weakness, many of us have sneaked a peak at the self-help section in the bookshop. But, while these books might make you feel warm and fuzzy, they are unlikely to challenge any aspect of your being, other than your wallet. On the other extreme, psychotropic substances including peyote, LSD and ayahuasca have been used for spiritual purposes for most of human history. The idea is that these substances can provide a short cut to self-knowledge by breaking down the barriers that protect our false, ego-centred, sense of self. Unfortunately, they can also provide a short cut to psychosis, and the alleged benefits have never been objectively measured anyway.

Syd Barrett

Founder member of the band Pink Floyd

Tim Casteling

Part 3 of a 7-part series on Self-Awareness

(1) Self-Doubt, (2) Self-Criticism

Self-Criticism - Donald Trump (Tim)

Before we start our trip down the trail of self-discovery, a word from the skeptics. There are so many problems in this world, they say. How can we justify the time and effort spent on selfish navel-gazing when we could be doing something constructive? Well, the short answer is that a lack of self-awareness tends to make you a bit of an arsehole. Without a healthy sense of humility and self-criticism, you tend to overstate your own needs and downgrade those of others. You tend to ignore or become defensive about your own flaws while exaggerating those of others. If you’re getting a mental image of Donald Trump, then you’ve got the idea.

Tim Casteling

Part 2 of a 7 part series on self-awareness

(1) Self-Doubt

Self-Doubt - Socrates (Tim)

Socrates

To paraphrase a few online dictionaries, ‘self-awareness’ means that you are conscious of your own independent existence, including your personality and your feelings. Seems simple enough at first glance. In fact, genuine self-awareness is so difficult that true insight into the nature of the self could be said to be the ultimate goal of spiritual practice. And to make matters worse, Buddhism argues that the self has no independent existence anyway. It’s all very confusing, but don’t blame Eastern mysticism. Socrates was famous for saying, “The only thing I know is that I don’t know.” To cut a long story short, radical self-doubt is the only valid starting point for a journey of self-awareness.

Tim Casteling

Part of a 7 part series on Self-Awareness

Walking Away

Maintaining the ability to walk away doesn't mean you don't value something. It means you have perspective. A view above addictions so powerful that you are willing to sacrifice everything else. Everything else. Lost awareness of the sacrifices being made. Not conscious. Addiction means even the attention to recognise the value in other things gets redirected. The world evaporates. The ability to detach allows you to value something without possessing it. Desperation eats away at appreciation. The emotions driving that trap are powerful. Positive energy that could be directed elsewhere. In a direction that releases rather than absorbs you. Keep perspective.

Keep Perspective. Protect your Energy.

Contradictory Challenges

One of the guys I was at school with was quite some way ahead in his reading... very early. Every now and then a word would slip in to his usual chat that left the rest of us with a glaze on our faces. I still remember hearing one of them when we were about 10. Partly because the glaze didn't leave my face even once he told us what it meant. Paradox. One of my favourite comes from Bertrand Russell, 'I always lie'.

It is nice to think everything has clear answers, but you can't ever finish asking some of the most interesting questions. Saul Smilansky wrote a fascinating book called '10 Moral Paradoxes'. In it he looks at some of these self-contradictory challenges we face. 'Fortunate Misfortune' is one example. When something awful happens to someone. Truly awful. Something they couldn't possibly not wish hadn't happened. Death of a close friend or family member. A disability. A traumatic event. Yet, their life at that point takes a dramatically positive turn. We know about Post Traumatic Stress. There can also be Post Traumatic Growth. 

When you get to questions that can't be answered with logic, perhaps it is time for the artists to step in. Consistency does make life easier, but contradiction can be full of flavour.

Dreams and Dreaming (My Mom)

'Your vision will become clear only when you look into your heart. Who looks outside dreams. Who looks inside awakens.' Carl Jung

Dreams and dreaming is a concept that is often spoken about, but generally informed by what we hope for or imagine our future paths to be: ambitions and desires. However, for me, the more interesting understanding of dreams and dreaming is what happens at night when I sleep. The time when my mind creates a world of personal myths and unchartered waters. The dream world is exciting, informative and opens up new paths to self-discovery.

I love my dreams. The good, the bad and the terrifying. I cannot censor my dreams. They access the very centre of my being and if I am open to interpreting them in terms of my own experiences, then I am provided with new understanding regarding that which I want to present and that which I would prefer to leave hidden. It is in looking at the hidden that I am able to learn more about who I am and where I need to be challenged.

I can remember dreams from my early childhood and understand now that some of them were my way of trying to work though personal challenges that were beyond my control. To accept.

One of my earliest dreams was a recurring one in which my mother was in a Nazi concentration camp and was about to be executed (yes I am old: must be if I am Trev's mother!). In the dream I had to save my mother. The walls of the camp were fortress high and had no access. I always woke up in a panic and would try to figure out how I would save her: consciously I would create a plan but in my dream I always failed.

In hindsight I can make sense of the dream. My mother was very ill and I desperately wanted to save her, but could not. I stopped dreaming this dream when she died.

Did the dream alter the course of my life? Not at all, but it was one of the earliest dreams that challenged me to look at the part of myself that wants to be a 'super hero' and save the world. It has taken me years to understand that I can't save anyone - I can only listen and be present. To this day I still catch myself falling into the old trap but my dreams give me a nudge when I do so.

Some of my dreams have been awesome. Once I dreamt that I was with a close friend and he called me out to look at the sky. In my dream state I saw a heaven filled with dazzling light and a choir singing the theme song from 'Jesus Christ Super Star'.

If you examine this dream from your personal perspective and try to give meaning to what I dreamt without knowing me or my context at the time, you are likely to be wrong. My dream is my dream and the symbols can only be interpreted by me, often in conversation with a trusted friend who can help me unpack the meaning. My dream did however give me a moment of ecstacy (totally unrelated to the drug!)

Some dreams have taught me to look at my dark side. They are the more challenging and at times scary in that they often highlight what I don't want to see or look at. However, when I take the time to stop and examine them I am truly humbled by the uniqueness of our minds to provide us with very powerful metaphors and personal myths that can be life changing.

If you wake from a dream that lingers and leave you feeling unsettled then listen to your soul and explore the meaning of the personal story you have been given.

Storytelling, myths and legends as well as dreams have an ancient history. Dreams are recorded in all texts of great religions. The Greeks, Romans, Egyptians and many other ancient cultures valued dreams. Throughout history, and to this day, the value of dreams has been recognised.

'A dream which is not interpreted is like a letter which is not read' Carl Jung

'What a pity!' Swartdonkey's Mother

Do Stress

Stress builds happiness. Excessive stress causes anxiety and pain, but insufficient stress causes boredom and stagnation. If I could, I would tweak our standard question of 'what do you do?' to 'what are you working on?'. Having a problem/question/dream you are working on is part of the magic of life. It means you are engaged. Positive Psychologists call periods of this good stress 'Flow'. When we are in flow, we stop worrying about whether or not we are happy. We stop pursuing happiness because we are doing happiness. We don't find it, but realise it found us.

The Same Moan

I once heard a story I loved about how to implement unpopular change. A minister asked his congregation whether he could move a piano from the left of the front of the church to the right. They said no. They didn't like change. So each week, he moved the piano a few centimetres towards the right. A year later, he asked the congregation if he could move the piano from the right to the left. They said no. They didn't like change. He smiled.

I took the moral of this story as being you shouldn't get despondent if things are very different from how they should or could be. Small changes add up. Unfortunately there is a hole in the implementation of this tale. People don't really concentrate that much. We can't keep everything in mind and so focus on the things that are important to us. Moving the piano may be important only to me. They don't notice it moving each week, because the piano doesn't really matter to them. They just don't like change. Then suddenly one day when it is half way across and I am congratulating myself about how sneaky I have been, they do. Sneakiness doesn't help. People have to come along for the journey. We change our own minds.

Change can be ridiculously slow. It's absence can be irritating. It can get you angry. Being irritated and angry is over rated. I will stick my hand up and admit that I have gone through some very moany stages. It is one thing to chew over things in your own head without going anywhere. It gets a bit weird when you do the same thing with other people. When you realise that the moan you are having now is exactly the same moan you had last time you saw them. When you realise that they are becoming 'The person you moan about X with'. It may be that you enjoy moaning. It drives me nuts though. I hate it when I catch myself getting into a moaning rut. It is lost time. Time is priceless.

Picking your battles is something I have always struggled with. When something grates me, I always feel almost a responsibility to help change it for the better. All the time. Every change. That is not possible. Choosing the battles to fight is a balance between idealism and pragmatism. I don't think there is any point in wasting energy just because you were or are right. There is always the chance that you are wrong, but more importantly you don't get brownie points for intention. What you do is what matters. Pragmatism wins.

I spoke about my cousin helping people to accept chronic pain so they don't stress over it. I think the same is true of moaning. There are plenty things that are not the way we think they should be. They shouldn't get more of our attention than they deserve.

Attention is precious. Give it consciously.

Are What They Are

My cousin Charles is a psychologist who helps people with Chronic Pain. The pain that doesn't go away. It seems to me we are mostly wired to take action. To come up with a plan to get from where we are to somewhere better. Charles says a big part of what he does is helping people accept the pain. By acknowledging the pain, you are able to give it the necessary attention. But no more. It reminds me of the Hulk when Iron Man is trying to irritate him into getting mad. He says he has learnt a trick to control it. You assume it is a trick to remain calm. But no.

'That's my secret Captain. I am always angry' Hulk

One of the things I have to work on the hardest is to just listen. I am a talker. When I go into meetings with a conscious decision to just keep quiet and listen, it almost never works. I have a buddy who was a little like Iron Man. He liked to poke. He used to get great pleasure out of listening to me planning a strategy for silence, and then just before the meeting whisper something like, 'but you wouldn't be you if you kept quiet'. Inside, I am always talking.

The talking comes from a bubbling of ideas of how and what we can do to defeat all the challenges in the world. The 18 year old idealist in me doesn't seem to have realised he has doubled in age. I have met lots and lots of equally passionate people. Everyone has something that gets us going. Something that sparks us off to rage against the world. Something we desperately want to change.

Yesterday I was wiki-walking through various philosophers. It turns out one of my favourite authors, Ursula Le Guin (The Earthsea Quartet) has written a book about Lao Tzu who another of my favourite authors, Josh Waitzkin, regularly talks about. So that will be my introduction to Taoist philosophy. I did enjoy one famous Laozi saying I found, 'Try to change it and you will ruin it. Try to hold it and you will lose it.'

It seems some of the big challenges in the world are pains we need to acknowledge rather than fix. Some require more listening to solve than action with big ideas. I said yesterday that happiness, for me, is a combination of a question and a practice. The bit that is missing there is the acceptance. Some things are what they are.

A Little Distance

The battle between what we do and what we want to do is tragicomic. My favourite metaphor comes from Jonathan Haidt. He describes our mental and emotional processes as a Rider and an Elephant. The Elephant is the one who does the living. The Elephant came first. The Elephant has the kind of intelligence bees have. Able to coordinate, delegate, specialise and communally survive with a built in understanding of the world. We have been around for millions of years and slowly but surely the elephant has trained itself to behave in certain ways.

What we do, What we want to do

Source: ArtFire

The rider is a fairly recent addition. As we developed language, and the ability to look backwards and forwards, our worlds were forever changed. Our learning ceased to be purely instinctual. Through words and culture we could learn lessons. We gained a memory. Not only of our own deeds, but of what others had learned. We could bend and change the world. Our brains effectively became a communal asset, where what we knew was much less relevant than what dots we could connect. There is absolutely no way I can absorb, process, retain or understand all of what we do.

But we still have our Elephant. And our Elephant is still the one that does the doing. Elephants are strong and willful. They are a collection of habits. A habit isn't just something you hear about and do. It requires training. We know we should save. We don't. We know how to get to a healthy weight (eat better, exercise more). We don't. There are all sorts of things our Riders know and our Elephants just ignore. There are also things our Elephants know or do, and our Riders don't understand. Rather than admitting this, our Riders act as Public Relations Officers and make up reasons why we did stuff. The Rider prefers that to admitting they don't understand or aren't in control.

 

I like the metaphor because it resonates for me. In some places I have built up habits that make my rider smile. Others are deeply embarrassing and frustrating. The Rider-Elephant idea allows a little bit of distance between what I regard as 'me' and what I do. Almost like I am an Avatar in a game. Instead of 'I am angry'. I can think, 'My Elephant gets really angry in these situations'. Just this small bit of breathing space means I can think of how I can train my Elephant to respond differently, rather than identifying with the thing I can or can't do. I am not a runner. I can't dance. I am not handy. etc. Instead, characteristics become tasks or goals. Even feedback becomes less of an attack on the soul.

I used to say I was my harshest critic. Turns out I just hadn't met enough people. But I do find the distance between what I think of as 'me' and the stuff that makes that up is a form of relaxation. The more I am able to connect to the things that really matter to me, the more I can see the other stuff as noise. The less the habits matter, the easier they are to change.

Still doesn't mean they change as quickly as I'd like, or my Rider is as good a coach as I'd like. But it adds perspective.

Changing Views

One of the thing I struggle with when friends, family or people I know have mental health issues is that they are normally far more of an expert than I am. There isn't much I can say. This is obvious. People tend to show interest in things that are relevant to them. Michael J. Fox knows more about Parkinson's disease because he got it. Anyone who has an issue that affects them, especially one that disrupts their lives, will get to know as much about it as possible.

So when someone is depressed, or has anorexia etc., they will usually know significantly more than you will even be able to read up on. I like the idea that I can help my friends. I like the idea that when they speak to me, they feel better afterwards. I am a do gooder. Taking a step back is incredibly difficult. Watching an expert you care about doing something that makes no sense requires incredible restraint.

It is not far from our regular approach to 'mental issues' that aren't diseases. We all have a worldview that can not be displaced by logic. Most of the time we have heard the arguments against our worldview many, many times. We are the experts in rebuffing the arguments or withdrawing into a defensive shell. It is almost impossible to change someone's worldview. Only they can change it. I don't think our perspectives are static for the simple reason that no one I have ever met has a consistent worldview. We all carry ideas around that contradict each other. Normally we can get away with this because we can use different views in different bubbles. When two of our ideas clash, we get cognitive dissonance. The two ideas will fight, and the one that is most important to us will change.

 

Telling someone a story that doesn't resonate with their World View is pointless

That is why we need to be patient about changing people's minds. A Professor I met the other day says this is the approach he takes in teaching. He repeats ideas in small doses. Slowly, he sees the penny drop for more and more students. Some eyes remain blank, but there is nothing you can do about that. People only absorb ideas when they want to absorb ideas. We overestimate how much we can do in the short term, but we underestimate how much we can do in the long term by doing a little bit at a time. I think we learn about the big ticket items that change our worldview in the same way. Through drips.

It can be ridiculously frustrating when someone believes something, or does something that makes no sense, rationally or emotionally. This is true of mental health issues, and it is true of each and every one of us. We all have our own special flavour of crazy. Other people's craziness can make us angry.

Changes happen gradually, and it is hard to accept that listening to and trying to understand someone else's worldview is the most effective way of both people ending up better off.

Permabears and Permabulls

A 'Permabear' is someone who is always negative. They don't get to lay claim to predicting the crises that come along. It would be like someone repeatedly saying heads when you flick a coin, then saying 'watch next time' when it lands on tails, and 'I told you so' when it lands on heads. Predicting is less useful than getting stuff done and done well. A Permabear will always be moaning or doing nothing, because they are waiting for things to get worse.

A 'Permabull' is someone who is always positive. They can't lay claim to predicting the ups when they come along. The key difference is the Permabull doesn't try and predict the ups and downs. They are more interested in the general direction. The engine. They get to participate in both the ups and the downs and being the positive characters they are, believe that this is a good thing. The downs let us learn lessons. The ups are, well, awesome.

I am a Permabull when it comes to two things. As an investor I believe that well chosen Equities are always the best place to keep my money. I have always been a good saver. This may be because of Marshmallows, because I am competitive, or because I thought other things were more important than money. Whatever the reason for saving the money, the next question becomes what to do with it. I like to think of my money as an employee to get away from all the noise of trying to predict things. So in thinking of where to invest, I think of where I would like my money to work. For a person, you need to think of what you love, what you are good at, and what society needs. Investing is effectively ethical slavery. All you need to think about is which companies are good at doing what society needs. You money will love that. Even if they are a fantastic company, they will have ups and downs. I try think of the engine. Can they learn from the downs, reinvent where necessary and participate in the ups. Buying a reasonable number of companies like that means I don't have to worry about pure bad luck, and can allow for my own bad decisions. Another way I allow for my own bad decisions is by finding other investors I trust to invest the money for me. The majority of my money is still managed by others as I think you need more grey hair, and for life to punch you in the stomach in a few more times.

The second thing I am a Permabull on is the World. More specifically I have always been a Permabull on South Africa. Recently I have become worried about the implications of being 'Proudly South African' and the unnecessary, arbitrary barriers that puts up with other people. But I do believe that South Africa very much shares the global long term trajectory, and that trajectory is up. That does not mean that there won't be very hard periods. Sometimes those hard periods will make you really doubt your belief. There will always be more Bears around in bad times, and more Bulls around in good times. That is because most people don't make their own minds up. Their tribes do.

One of the challenges I throw back at South African Permabears is to put their stick in the ground. Give some concrete measures and predictions. Define what you mean by 'going to the dogs'. It is not good enough to simply have a rolling 'in the next 5 years' claim that things are going to fall apart. That 'prediction' is toothless. If it were a house in Game of Thrones, the house of Permabears would have the Wet Blanket as their sigil. Things like saying 'no GDP growth' is not going to the dogs. It just means we have what we had before. Even infrastructure problems like electricity shortages, waste issues, water issues, road issues etc. are temporary if they irritate enough people into doing something about it. Or if a Pretoria born tech-genius-come-potential-bond-villain decides to suddenly solve energy problems. These are bumps, not bottomless pits. Life goes on.

Source: Reddit

This is not me being all fluffy and motivational. It is also not me saying there are not plenty of challenges. Everywhere. If there is a common thread that binds everyone from around the world, it is our ability to survive. Pick up a history book. We were all pretty much arseholes in the past. We looked down on people who weren't like us. We were sexist, racist, classist, homophobic, xenophobic blood thirsty arseholes. And we were good people. We loved the people not cut off from us by prejudice. Most of our horribleness came out of a desire to survive the best way we knew how. It just took us centuries to learn from the great moral leaders of the past just how much 'love, compassion & empathy' should override any other short-term rules of thumb we may have had to control for things we didn't understand. There is a lot we don't understand in our bubbles.

So try predict things if you want. Join a tribe if you want. I am a Global Citizen, and me and my tribe are going to get on with it.