Bootcamp
Week 1
August 26th, 2013
My Third First Day at MPC
I didn’t have much trouble waking up at 5:30 in the morning. The sky was kind of pink and other similar color tones as well. It was foggy and was just starting the sunrise. It was nice. I had a couple of scrambled eggs and a bunch of zucchinis and broccoli for breakfast and they I headed to the shower. I hurry up a little because I wanted to get to the MPC with plenty of time beforehand, or at least some ten minutes before 7 a.m., which was the time we were going to gather up. So I did. I was there at about 6:45 a.m., perfectly timed. I was glad to see all my fellows and friends there, very joyful and full of energy. I was too. I was happy to start our second year at MPC and the things that would come with it. Although I think I was a little nostalgic about starting the semester, because the summer vacations were going great. I had a very good schedule that worked really fine for me, I was being productive and felt very comfortable, but I think that’s what happens to me at the beginning of the semesters and then I get used to the new schedule and everything turns out just as good as the old one. Nevertheless, I was happy to be there. I had a glance at the new students; nothing caught my attention, just regular kidos, significantly younger than our group (by the age average of course). At about 7:10 we gather up at the deck, there were some words by Karen, Gabriel, and Bert and then we had breakfast. The traditional eggs, sausage, black beans, plantains, yogurt, granola, and some fruit. Because of my Paleo diet, I only ate some eggs (also scrambled) and a little cup of yogurt with figs. Then, a lady gave a brief lecture about the liberal arts and what you can do after you graduate from a program as such, but it was not so interesting to me. She kept up talking about we finding a good job and the skills we would develop in comparison to other “traditional” graduates, but I was not interested because I don’t want to get hired by someone. I want to be an entrepreneur and do projects on my own. Anyways, it only lasted some minutes. After that, we made an activity to know each other better. We were supposed to meet with every student, from first and second year, and present yourself with your name, age, and the school you graduated from, and something unique about yourself, but you mustn’t repeat it with anyone. It was fun. By that time, I couldn’t avoid making judgments about the new comers. I’m pretty sure I can recognize the ones that are going to stay and the one that won’t, after all I did make pretty good guesses with the ones that left from our year; of course I missed a couple. But anyways, I didn’t like some of the new comers. For example, there’s this guy that thinks he is cool and chews gum like a cow, others are just some school boys acting foolishly, and another just smelt really bad like he hadn’t take a shower for weeks and talks like he has been too hi for some years now (I think it’s Mabe’s soul mate. They are both intelligent I think, but certainly they are a little lost with too much “green stuff”.) Sorry for the digression. I was saying that I didn’t like some of them, but also I could see some others with great potential, anxious for learning and becoming life long learners. I hope those ones stay for sure. Then, we separated into groups (Pioneers, and two new comers groups) and had one hour to make an 8-minute dramatization of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. We were the first ones to present and it was fairly good. The next group was awful, and the last group did the best job of the three. It was a fun activity. After that we had lunch and then we the ropes activity. Again, we separated into two groups, pioneers and new comers, and made a couple of activities. It was fun at first but then I got bored so I didn’t have a blast. Time passed pretty quickly and before I noticed it was 3 p.m. and it was time to leave. For the first day, it went pretty good.
My Third First Day at MPC
I didn’t have much trouble waking up at 5:30 in the morning. The sky was kind of pink and other similar color tones as well. It was foggy and was just starting the sunrise. It was nice. I had a couple of scrambled eggs and a bunch of zucchinis and broccoli for breakfast and they I headed to the shower. I hurry up a little because I wanted to get to the MPC with plenty of time beforehand, or at least some ten minutes before 7 a.m., which was the time we were going to gather up. So I did. I was there at about 6:45 a.m., perfectly timed. I was glad to see all my fellows and friends there, very joyful and full of energy. I was too. I was happy to start our second year at MPC and the things that would come with it. Although I think I was a little nostalgic about starting the semester, because the summer vacations were going great. I had a very good schedule that worked really fine for me, I was being productive and felt very comfortable, but I think that’s what happens to me at the beginning of the semesters and then I get used to the new schedule and everything turns out just as good as the old one. Nevertheless, I was happy to be there. I had a glance at the new students; nothing caught my attention, just regular kidos, significantly younger than our group (by the age average of course). At about 7:10 we gather up at the deck, there were some words by Karen, Gabriel, and Bert and then we had breakfast. The traditional eggs, sausage, black beans, plantains, yogurt, granola, and some fruit. Because of my Paleo diet, I only ate some eggs (also scrambled) and a little cup of yogurt with figs. Then, a lady gave a brief lecture about the liberal arts and what you can do after you graduate from a program as such, but it was not so interesting to me. She kept up talking about we finding a good job and the skills we would develop in comparison to other “traditional” graduates, but I was not interested because I don’t want to get hired by someone. I want to be an entrepreneur and do projects on my own. Anyways, it only lasted some minutes. After that, we made an activity to know each other better. We were supposed to meet with every student, from first and second year, and present yourself with your name, age, and the school you graduated from, and something unique about yourself, but you mustn’t repeat it with anyone. It was fun. By that time, I couldn’t avoid making judgments about the new comers. I’m pretty sure I can recognize the ones that are going to stay and the one that won’t, after all I did make pretty good guesses with the ones that left from our year; of course I missed a couple. But anyways, I didn’t like some of the new comers. For example, there’s this guy that thinks he is cool and chews gum like a cow, others are just some school boys acting foolishly, and another just smelt really bad like he hadn’t take a shower for weeks and talks like he has been too hi for some years now (I think it’s Mabe’s soul mate. They are both intelligent I think, but certainly they are a little lost with too much “green stuff”.) Sorry for the digression. I was saying that I didn’t like some of them, but also I could see some others with great potential, anxious for learning and becoming life long learners. I hope those ones stay for sure. Then, we separated into groups (Pioneers, and two new comers groups) and had one hour to make an 8-minute dramatization of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. We were the first ones to present and it was fairly good. The next group was awful, and the last group did the best job of the three. It was a fun activity. After that we had lunch and then we the ropes activity. Again, we separated into two groups, pioneers and new comers, and made a couple of activities. It was fun at first but then I got bored so I didn’t have a blast. Time passed pretty quickly and before I noticed it was 3 p.m. and it was time to leave. For the first day, it went pretty good.
August 27th, 2013
Getting into Socratic Practice and Mark Twain
Today I had a great morning. I woke up early, prepared breakfast, and had a delicious freshly brewed Antigua coffee with some almond milk. Couldn’t get better! At the MPC we started by everyone gathering around and explained to the new comers about the morning meetings and gave some advice. Later we did a critical thinking test (I assume to see where everybody is), which I found very easy. I hope I did well though. After that, the pioneers, Andrew, and Ingrid started the Socratic Practice by reading a summary about it with some rules and tips that Andrew made and then we read a paragraph of Aristotle’s De Anima (On the Soul), and it was a very pleasant dialogue. I enjoyed it very much, mainly because it was well ordered and everybody participated. We debriefed it and then headed to the new comers’ room (I don’t know how else to call them, “first year students” is to large and I like saying “new comers”) to see a documentary by Ken Burn (yes, the same as the effect on iMovie) about the life of Mark Twain. To be honest, it was kind of boring. It was interesting, but as many life documentaries they tend to be very repetitive and put a music on the background that along with the old pictures just makes you wish you had a bed to take a nap (and an invisibility coat, like Harry Potter’s, so nobody can see you sleep. Otherwise it would be kind of weird, isn’t it?). We stopped about at half of the 3-hour and a half film and grabbed some lunch. When we got back there were some new comers late so we waited them for more than 10 minutes (I give them a couple of months at the MPC… tops) and meanwhile talked about what we liked so far about the documentary. Although it was not the best documentary I’ve seen, I have to say that it had valuable lessons, which I enjoyed a lot. They emphasized on Twain’s capacity to observe and see the world around him, the people, the small details, and tell the story of each thing. That’s the awareness everyone should have in this world if he or she wants to make the most out of this once in a lifetime experience. There is plenty of meaning around us, but we must make the connections in order for it to flourish and be significant. It’s like the video How’s the water that talks about quitting the default state of mind and start to be aware of the world we are living in. Another interesting thing was Twain’s attitude towards his sorrows and misfortunes. He is a great example of getting up after being on the ground and do things better. These were great teachings, but they are short to the next one. It’s about the simplicity of life and how the small things can mean a lot to us. I loved when they quoted Twain when he said, “And it was comfort in those succeeding days to sit up and contemplate the majestic panorama of mountains and valleys spread out below us and eat ham and hard boiled eggs while our spiritual natures revelled alternately in rainbows, thunderstorms, and peerless sunsets. Nothing helps scenery like ham and eggs. Ham and eggs, and after these a pipe--an old, rank, delicious pipe--ham and eggs and scenery, a "down grade," a flying coach, a fragrant pipe and a contented heart--these make happiness. It is what all the ages have struggled for.” Just magnificent. I can’t say it better, at least not for now. So again, it’s the small things that make a difference in how we live, whether we live a happier day or not, and at the end is up to us to find the meaning of such small things in our life, such as the freshly brewed coffee I drank earlier this morning.
Getting into Socratic Practice and Mark Twain
Today I had a great morning. I woke up early, prepared breakfast, and had a delicious freshly brewed Antigua coffee with some almond milk. Couldn’t get better! At the MPC we started by everyone gathering around and explained to the new comers about the morning meetings and gave some advice. Later we did a critical thinking test (I assume to see where everybody is), which I found very easy. I hope I did well though. After that, the pioneers, Andrew, and Ingrid started the Socratic Practice by reading a summary about it with some rules and tips that Andrew made and then we read a paragraph of Aristotle’s De Anima (On the Soul), and it was a very pleasant dialogue. I enjoyed it very much, mainly because it was well ordered and everybody participated. We debriefed it and then headed to the new comers’ room (I don’t know how else to call them, “first year students” is to large and I like saying “new comers”) to see a documentary by Ken Burn (yes, the same as the effect on iMovie) about the life of Mark Twain. To be honest, it was kind of boring. It was interesting, but as many life documentaries they tend to be very repetitive and put a music on the background that along with the old pictures just makes you wish you had a bed to take a nap (and an invisibility coat, like Harry Potter’s, so nobody can see you sleep. Otherwise it would be kind of weird, isn’t it?). We stopped about at half of the 3-hour and a half film and grabbed some lunch. When we got back there were some new comers late so we waited them for more than 10 minutes (I give them a couple of months at the MPC… tops) and meanwhile talked about what we liked so far about the documentary. Although it was not the best documentary I’ve seen, I have to say that it had valuable lessons, which I enjoyed a lot. They emphasized on Twain’s capacity to observe and see the world around him, the people, the small details, and tell the story of each thing. That’s the awareness everyone should have in this world if he or she wants to make the most out of this once in a lifetime experience. There is plenty of meaning around us, but we must make the connections in order for it to flourish and be significant. It’s like the video How’s the water that talks about quitting the default state of mind and start to be aware of the world we are living in. Another interesting thing was Twain’s attitude towards his sorrows and misfortunes. He is a great example of getting up after being on the ground and do things better. These were great teachings, but they are short to the next one. It’s about the simplicity of life and how the small things can mean a lot to us. I loved when they quoted Twain when he said, “And it was comfort in those succeeding days to sit up and contemplate the majestic panorama of mountains and valleys spread out below us and eat ham and hard boiled eggs while our spiritual natures revelled alternately in rainbows, thunderstorms, and peerless sunsets. Nothing helps scenery like ham and eggs. Ham and eggs, and after these a pipe--an old, rank, delicious pipe--ham and eggs and scenery, a "down grade," a flying coach, a fragrant pipe and a contented heart--these make happiness. It is what all the ages have struggled for.” Just magnificent. I can’t say it better, at least not for now. So again, it’s the small things that make a difference in how we live, whether we live a happier day or not, and at the end is up to us to find the meaning of such small things in our life, such as the freshly brewed coffee I drank earlier this morning.
August 28th, 2013
Oakeshott and how it relates to our documentation
Everything started pretty well today, although I was a little tired when I woke up. At the MPC, we followed the Socratic practice with Andrew about Aristotle’s De Anima, and it went very nice. I really enjoyed it. After it, we had our first dialogue in months with Bert. It was about this quote of Michael Oakeshott, “A human being is a “history”, and he makes this “history” for himself out of his responses to the vicissitudes he encounters. The world he inhabits is composed not of “things”, but of occurrences, which he is aware of in terms of what they mean to him and to which he must respond in terms of what he understands them to be… In short, he inhabits a wholly human world, not because it contains nothing but human beings and their artifacts, but because everything in it is known to him in terms of what it means to him. A human being is condemned to be a learner because meanings have to be learned. Whatever a man thinks or says or does is unavoidably what he has learned (well or ill) to think, to say, or to do. Even a human death is something learned. For a human being, then, learning is a lifelong engagement; the world he inhabits is a place of learning.” I know it’s a long quote to post in this one-page reflection (which of course I’ll take a little more), but I thought it was worth the space. If I start writing about what the dialogue was about, I’ll take too many pages, so I’ll just say that it was a very pleasant dialogue (I didn’t remember Bert being that participative before though) and it flowed in a very organic way. We talked about determinism, free will, how humans are unique and how we give meaning to things though our relation with them, and also related some of it with Mark Twain’s perspective of giving meaning to every small detail, which at the end becomes our life. They become our life because, as Oakeshott says, each one of us is a “history” and this is created through our responses to the things we encounter every day, and so is too, that our responses and understanding of this things are affected by our past responses and understandings. This is where documentation plays an important role, because through it we are able to look back to these responses, to what we thought, felt, and decided in that moment, helping us understand our present and the past by seeing what has happened through a different perspective. Seeing back to my first year at MPC and also before that, I’m a little sorry I didn’t take full advantage of documenting. I say a little sorry because in another sense I’m glad I didn’t do it, because I have learned what I value in my documentation. So, long story short, here are some advices to be successful in documenting. First, write it every single day. Don’t wait those extra minutes; they only make you forget things for a little satisfaction of not writing. So, make writing a habit. Second, don’t write about the schedule or the things that won’t contribute to my learning; instead, write about the lessons learned both inside and outside the MPC activities, and the interesting things that are worth remembering. How would I know that? Well, I’ll trust my intuition… and then, I’ll read it after a couple of months and see what’s helpful. Third, reflect on what I did well and bad during the day, give me some self-feedback and write what I want to improve on. That’s it. I’m sure this would be enough for now. I’m starting to sympathize more with the idea that one should start little by little, but well paced.
Oakeshott and how it relates to our documentation
Everything started pretty well today, although I was a little tired when I woke up. At the MPC, we followed the Socratic practice with Andrew about Aristotle’s De Anima, and it went very nice. I really enjoyed it. After it, we had our first dialogue in months with Bert. It was about this quote of Michael Oakeshott, “A human being is a “history”, and he makes this “history” for himself out of his responses to the vicissitudes he encounters. The world he inhabits is composed not of “things”, but of occurrences, which he is aware of in terms of what they mean to him and to which he must respond in terms of what he understands them to be… In short, he inhabits a wholly human world, not because it contains nothing but human beings and their artifacts, but because everything in it is known to him in terms of what it means to him. A human being is condemned to be a learner because meanings have to be learned. Whatever a man thinks or says or does is unavoidably what he has learned (well or ill) to think, to say, or to do. Even a human death is something learned. For a human being, then, learning is a lifelong engagement; the world he inhabits is a place of learning.” I know it’s a long quote to post in this one-page reflection (which of course I’ll take a little more), but I thought it was worth the space. If I start writing about what the dialogue was about, I’ll take too many pages, so I’ll just say that it was a very pleasant dialogue (I didn’t remember Bert being that participative before though) and it flowed in a very organic way. We talked about determinism, free will, how humans are unique and how we give meaning to things though our relation with them, and also related some of it with Mark Twain’s perspective of giving meaning to every small detail, which at the end becomes our life. They become our life because, as Oakeshott says, each one of us is a “history” and this is created through our responses to the things we encounter every day, and so is too, that our responses and understanding of this things are affected by our past responses and understandings. This is where documentation plays an important role, because through it we are able to look back to these responses, to what we thought, felt, and decided in that moment, helping us understand our present and the past by seeing what has happened through a different perspective. Seeing back to my first year at MPC and also before that, I’m a little sorry I didn’t take full advantage of documenting. I say a little sorry because in another sense I’m glad I didn’t do it, because I have learned what I value in my documentation. So, long story short, here are some advices to be successful in documenting. First, write it every single day. Don’t wait those extra minutes; they only make you forget things for a little satisfaction of not writing. So, make writing a habit. Second, don’t write about the schedule or the things that won’t contribute to my learning; instead, write about the lessons learned both inside and outside the MPC activities, and the interesting things that are worth remembering. How would I know that? Well, I’ll trust my intuition… and then, I’ll read it after a couple of months and see what’s helpful. Third, reflect on what I did well and bad during the day, give me some self-feedback and write what I want to improve on. That’s it. I’m sure this would be enough for now. I’m starting to sympathize more with the idea that one should start little by little, but well paced.
August 29th, 2013
Conscious Decisions
I was thinking in the morning of yesterday’s reflection about documentation and the ways to succeed in doing it well. I came to my mind a term used in CrossFit called unbroken. It means that when you are doing a set of an exercise (like weightlifting or pull ups), you do all the set without stopping. So, for example, in a workout you have to do 40 pull ups, you are going to do the 40 without separating them into mini sets. If you achieve to them all at once, then it is said that you did the exercise unbroken. But you have also to be smart in knowing your capacities in order for you to manage your time wisely, because you may do an exercise unbroken, but you’ll get tired more quickly, and as a consequence you’ll have a bad performance for the exercise that follows. The same principle applies to many things and I think documentation is one of them. In this case, I think it’s better to have the best performance in doing so and I’ll achieve that through doing it unbroken, following the tips from yesterday. Later in the morning, we had our now recurrent Socratic practice on Aristotle. It was interesting but not everyone was engaged. Then, Ingrid presented us her approach on teaching a part of the art curriculum and how she related it to human action. I think it was a very clever connection and I’m looking forward to our next sessions. The dialogue that followed was not that good, I was really tired to be honest so probably I am to blame in a larger percentage. After lunch, we watched Fred Kofman’s video Conscious Business: Building Value through Values. I really liked it. It was very similar to the other video about tigers and sheep called Vida, Conciencia y Libertad. Basically, he says that in order to be free and happy, one must take responsibility of his actions, both good and bad, and by changing to this state of mind one becomes more aware of oneself. To our surprise, Fred Kofman was visiting us today at 4 p.m. (although Bert forgot to tell us with anticipation, almost everyone stayed). It’s very interesting how first impressions can really deceive us. I only knew Fred from his videos, and thought he and I had a lot of things in common, mainly, the emphasis of living with values and honor the people that share the same set of values as you do. The thing is that when he talked with us, in my mind he became this arrogant, pretentious, sarcastic, and negative human being. He even compared himself with Einstein! Now, I know that he has done great things through his professional career and has worked with multi-billion dollar companies such as Linked In and many others, but somehow I felt that he was living in his own idealistic bubble. It was a shame that this happened, because he was a person I admired (without knowing much about him) by the message he sends to others, but something didn’t make a click with the image I had of him and what I saw personally today. Nevertheless, one should always find a lesson in the occurrences of life and what I learned here is that things may not be as they appear to be. First impressions and the common conceptions of something or someone are not significant in the long run. Knowing the truth is a matter of discovery, achieved by having a logic reasoning and finding evidence, so then one can make a judgment and decide whether things are right or wrong. Ironically, this was Fred’s main message during our dialogue.
Conscious Decisions
I was thinking in the morning of yesterday’s reflection about documentation and the ways to succeed in doing it well. I came to my mind a term used in CrossFit called unbroken. It means that when you are doing a set of an exercise (like weightlifting or pull ups), you do all the set without stopping. So, for example, in a workout you have to do 40 pull ups, you are going to do the 40 without separating them into mini sets. If you achieve to them all at once, then it is said that you did the exercise unbroken. But you have also to be smart in knowing your capacities in order for you to manage your time wisely, because you may do an exercise unbroken, but you’ll get tired more quickly, and as a consequence you’ll have a bad performance for the exercise that follows. The same principle applies to many things and I think documentation is one of them. In this case, I think it’s better to have the best performance in doing so and I’ll achieve that through doing it unbroken, following the tips from yesterday. Later in the morning, we had our now recurrent Socratic practice on Aristotle. It was interesting but not everyone was engaged. Then, Ingrid presented us her approach on teaching a part of the art curriculum and how she related it to human action. I think it was a very clever connection and I’m looking forward to our next sessions. The dialogue that followed was not that good, I was really tired to be honest so probably I am to blame in a larger percentage. After lunch, we watched Fred Kofman’s video Conscious Business: Building Value through Values. I really liked it. It was very similar to the other video about tigers and sheep called Vida, Conciencia y Libertad. Basically, he says that in order to be free and happy, one must take responsibility of his actions, both good and bad, and by changing to this state of mind one becomes more aware of oneself. To our surprise, Fred Kofman was visiting us today at 4 p.m. (although Bert forgot to tell us with anticipation, almost everyone stayed). It’s very interesting how first impressions can really deceive us. I only knew Fred from his videos, and thought he and I had a lot of things in common, mainly, the emphasis of living with values and honor the people that share the same set of values as you do. The thing is that when he talked with us, in my mind he became this arrogant, pretentious, sarcastic, and negative human being. He even compared himself with Einstein! Now, I know that he has done great things through his professional career and has worked with multi-billion dollar companies such as Linked In and many others, but somehow I felt that he was living in his own idealistic bubble. It was a shame that this happened, because he was a person I admired (without knowing much about him) by the message he sends to others, but something didn’t make a click with the image I had of him and what I saw personally today. Nevertheless, one should always find a lesson in the occurrences of life and what I learned here is that things may not be as they appear to be. First impressions and the common conceptions of something or someone are not significant in the long run. Knowing the truth is a matter of discovery, achieved by having a logic reasoning and finding evidence, so then one can make a judgment and decide whether things are right or wrong. Ironically, this was Fred’s main message during our dialogue.
August 30th, 2013
The last day of the first week of the third semester
So, maybe Fred Kofman is not that bad. I was thinking about yesterday and maybe I haven’t understood yet how he makes his decisions based on his set of moral principles and values. What I understand him by saying he can’t be a friend with anyone that differs from his belief in the non-aggression principle is that if someone doesn’t believe in an anarchic state (no government at all), although he or she is a minarchist, then he would not be friends at all with him or her. To me it seems like a waste of opportunities to learn. Philosophy is not the core of life. Ideas are important and they can form our lifestyle and what values we decide to live by, but there is so much more than that. I think (and following the quote by Oakeshott from a couple of days ago) that life is composed by our responses to the occurrences or vicissitudes one encounters. It is us who decide how we are going to understand and learn from them, and if we close ourselves to only a few people who think as we do, we miss a lot of potential learning. I don’t mean that if you are an anarchist and the other is a socialist you have to learn philosophy and economics from him, but maybe you’ll learn something new, like cooking a perfect steak, and enjoy from the company of that other person. Who knows? That’s the beauty of life, you don’t know! So, I like to live a life where I can talk and dialogue with any person as long as they respect my set of values and what I believe, although sometimes we won’t share the same beliefs. And of course, we all have limited resources and time is scarce, so there would be subjects not worth discussing with some people, but also I like to think I can learn something from anyone. To be more concrete, I agree with a lot of things Fred said and I try to live by some of the same principles he lives with, I’m just not sure whether his approach in applying them in his daily life is compatible with how I live mine.
The last day of the first week of the third semester
So, maybe Fred Kofman is not that bad. I was thinking about yesterday and maybe I haven’t understood yet how he makes his decisions based on his set of moral principles and values. What I understand him by saying he can’t be a friend with anyone that differs from his belief in the non-aggression principle is that if someone doesn’t believe in an anarchic state (no government at all), although he or she is a minarchist, then he would not be friends at all with him or her. To me it seems like a waste of opportunities to learn. Philosophy is not the core of life. Ideas are important and they can form our lifestyle and what values we decide to live by, but there is so much more than that. I think (and following the quote by Oakeshott from a couple of days ago) that life is composed by our responses to the occurrences or vicissitudes one encounters. It is us who decide how we are going to understand and learn from them, and if we close ourselves to only a few people who think as we do, we miss a lot of potential learning. I don’t mean that if you are an anarchist and the other is a socialist you have to learn philosophy and economics from him, but maybe you’ll learn something new, like cooking a perfect steak, and enjoy from the company of that other person. Who knows? That’s the beauty of life, you don’t know! So, I like to live a life where I can talk and dialogue with any person as long as they respect my set of values and what I believe, although sometimes we won’t share the same beliefs. And of course, we all have limited resources and time is scarce, so there would be subjects not worth discussing with some people, but also I like to think I can learn something from anyone. To be more concrete, I agree with a lot of things Fred said and I try to live by some of the same principles he lives with, I’m just not sure whether his approach in applying them in his daily life is compatible with how I live mine.
August 31st, 2013
Some extra thoughts
I don’t know if this would be of any interest to you at all. After all, for the following minutes I’m only going to talk about myself, but hopefully you’ll learn something, whatever that may be…
It’s been a week since I started my third term at MPC. Originally, we started 18, but now we are only 12. I feel it’s better that way. Things are different now, for the better I think. Reflecting on what has happened during the past year and what I have learned, I can say that things are better. I am a better person now. It hasn’t been easy all the way nor sometimes fun, but in general it’s been an incredible year. And I know that I have carried many bad habits during this time and I still carry some of them, unfortunately, but on the bright side some of them have been replaced by good ones and I’m proud of that. I see myself as a more centered person now, more focused on what I want, and more conscious of my actions and myself. “You are more metacognitive”, Bert would say. It’s a very nice sensation to be able to say that. To prove myself that I can keep evolving to become a person I would admire. Being able to discover what I value and have grounded my set of moral principles and values, has allowed me to see things and people differently, by what I can learn from them by their relation with me.
When I talk with some people about how, after more than two and a half years of studying Economics, I decided to drop out and start freshly new at the MPC, they mostly are surprised and don’t fully understand why such a decision. I think some of them won’t understand it ever, but some others understand me a little more. They always ask me if I think it was the right decision and, of course, I like to tell them that it was. But, nevertheless, I can’t avoid thinking what would’ve been of me if I stayed in Economics and be graduating by the end of this year. In some scenarios, that was the best decision to make. In others, MPC turns out to be better. So, am I happier now than I was before? In most of the cases, yes. And I think that’s what matters after all. To do the things you like at the moment you like, always keeping in mind your long-term objectives. But the future is uncertain, and that’s one of the things that makes life beautiful; that and food of course. Ok, women too and cooking. Cooking is great. The case is that you are able to “respond to the occurrences you encounter”, and that’s what makes your future. You are free to choose and make your future. So I don’t know what would happen in the future, during the next two years of MPC or for the following years of my life. What I do know now is what I want in my life and how I want to live it. I want to be happier by doing the things I like and be successful in doing so. I want to live my life guided by the moral principles and values I think are the best to achieve my goals and I want to be surrounded by people who also share them. I don’t know about the future, but I do know the way and standards by which I shall make my decisions and live my life.
Some extra thoughts
I don’t know if this would be of any interest to you at all. After all, for the following minutes I’m only going to talk about myself, but hopefully you’ll learn something, whatever that may be…
It’s been a week since I started my third term at MPC. Originally, we started 18, but now we are only 12. I feel it’s better that way. Things are different now, for the better I think. Reflecting on what has happened during the past year and what I have learned, I can say that things are better. I am a better person now. It hasn’t been easy all the way nor sometimes fun, but in general it’s been an incredible year. And I know that I have carried many bad habits during this time and I still carry some of them, unfortunately, but on the bright side some of them have been replaced by good ones and I’m proud of that. I see myself as a more centered person now, more focused on what I want, and more conscious of my actions and myself. “You are more metacognitive”, Bert would say. It’s a very nice sensation to be able to say that. To prove myself that I can keep evolving to become a person I would admire. Being able to discover what I value and have grounded my set of moral principles and values, has allowed me to see things and people differently, by what I can learn from them by their relation with me.
When I talk with some people about how, after more than two and a half years of studying Economics, I decided to drop out and start freshly new at the MPC, they mostly are surprised and don’t fully understand why such a decision. I think some of them won’t understand it ever, but some others understand me a little more. They always ask me if I think it was the right decision and, of course, I like to tell them that it was. But, nevertheless, I can’t avoid thinking what would’ve been of me if I stayed in Economics and be graduating by the end of this year. In some scenarios, that was the best decision to make. In others, MPC turns out to be better. So, am I happier now than I was before? In most of the cases, yes. And I think that’s what matters after all. To do the things you like at the moment you like, always keeping in mind your long-term objectives. But the future is uncertain, and that’s one of the things that makes life beautiful; that and food of course. Ok, women too and cooking. Cooking is great. The case is that you are able to “respond to the occurrences you encounter”, and that’s what makes your future. You are free to choose and make your future. So I don’t know what would happen in the future, during the next two years of MPC or for the following years of my life. What I do know now is what I want in my life and how I want to live it. I want to be happier by doing the things I like and be successful in doing so. I want to live my life guided by the moral principles and values I think are the best to achieve my goals and I want to be surrounded by people who also share them. I don’t know about the future, but I do know the way and standards by which I shall make my decisions and live my life.
Week 2
September 11th, 2013
#SorryImNotSorry
Okay, okay; I know it. I didn’t make my daily reflections of the second week, none of them so I decided that instead of going superficially day-by-day, I’ll do a week reflection of the things I learned and value the most of last week. So, I’m sorry I didn’t make what was assigned to do, but given the circumstances I think this is a good way to redeem it. Here are three things I learned during last week:
First, making promises is easy, way easy, but another thing is to fulfill them. In specific, I’m referring to this case of documentation. I said I’ll do a daily reflection, but I didn’t do it on Monday, then Tuesday, and so on and when I notice that, it was already the weekend. My learning was to be careful with what I commit to, and if I make a promise, then I’ll have to do anything to keep my word. Also, that time passes really fast, and if we don’t act and live the present, then it’s more probably that we would be stuck in only thinking about our dreams instead of living them. Simple as that, #live!
The second thing I learned was because of thinking a lot in what I was doing with my life. This week I was not feeling as comfortable as most of last year, and I think it was mainly because of evaluating my opportunity cost of being here. I kept thinking of what I could be doing instead of having a dialogue or another activity I was not interested in. I know that I may not notice at the moment what I’m learning, since from my past experience I’ve learned a lot of tacit knowledge that doesn’t come right away, but still, I can’t avoid thinking if I’m spending my time in the better way, both for the short and long term. My lesson learned from this experience is that it’s healthy to think if you are on the right track toward fulfilling your dreams. Are you doing what you like and feel passionate about it? If not, how can you improve it? After all, you only live once (#YOLO!)
This last one is not as profound as the one just mentioned, but still, has a lot of impact in my life. The third thing I learned was about having the right balance in your life. This I learned by getting more organized and creating incentives that motivate me to action. I realized that I was sleeping a lot better than last year at MPC and that this was do to two reasons. The first was that I avoided using the computer and cell phone (I did watch TV) for at least 1 or 2 hours before going to sleep. This allowed me to be more relaxed and not feel agitated by some electronic device. I think #FredKofman has this hypothesis about electronic devices affecting your neurons and thus putting your brain in an altered state, which makes you have a bad sleep. I agree, it has worked for me and I definitely sleep better when I avoid these devices. I strongly recommend it to everyone. The second was about my motivation to getting up in the morning. When I didn’t cook and just ate cereal with milk in the morning, I just didn’t feel motivated to keep on moving. Now, it only takes one alarm and not 4 or 5 to wake me up. I wake up energized and I feel that the reason for this is because I enjoy having a good breakfast while watching a cooking program. Three eggs (mostly #friedeggs) or three sausages, or a mixture of both, with a lot of veggies like zucchini, broccoli, and tomato (I know it’s a fruit but I count is as a veggie), and watching one of Jamie Oliver’s TV series. After that, drinking a cup of freshly brewed coffee with almond milk. Then, going to the bathroom (#2… Ok, #tmi) and still having enough time to have a shower and get ready to get to the MPC. It’s just wonderful! That’s what makes me wake up in the morning. My recommendation: Look for the things that would boost your day and that’ll make you more productive during it, and get motivated by those to get out of bed! Also, planning ahead is a great advantage in those days you are running late. #WakeUp #GetOrganized
So, I hope that in this reflection you learned something and are anxious to put it into practice. Meanwhile, I keep you updated of new thoughts and habits I’ll be working on and my process towards getting better. Have a #niceday!
#SorryImNotSorry
Okay, okay; I know it. I didn’t make my daily reflections of the second week, none of them so I decided that instead of going superficially day-by-day, I’ll do a week reflection of the things I learned and value the most of last week. So, I’m sorry I didn’t make what was assigned to do, but given the circumstances I think this is a good way to redeem it. Here are three things I learned during last week:
First, making promises is easy, way easy, but another thing is to fulfill them. In specific, I’m referring to this case of documentation. I said I’ll do a daily reflection, but I didn’t do it on Monday, then Tuesday, and so on and when I notice that, it was already the weekend. My learning was to be careful with what I commit to, and if I make a promise, then I’ll have to do anything to keep my word. Also, that time passes really fast, and if we don’t act and live the present, then it’s more probably that we would be stuck in only thinking about our dreams instead of living them. Simple as that, #live!
The second thing I learned was because of thinking a lot in what I was doing with my life. This week I was not feeling as comfortable as most of last year, and I think it was mainly because of evaluating my opportunity cost of being here. I kept thinking of what I could be doing instead of having a dialogue or another activity I was not interested in. I know that I may not notice at the moment what I’m learning, since from my past experience I’ve learned a lot of tacit knowledge that doesn’t come right away, but still, I can’t avoid thinking if I’m spending my time in the better way, both for the short and long term. My lesson learned from this experience is that it’s healthy to think if you are on the right track toward fulfilling your dreams. Are you doing what you like and feel passionate about it? If not, how can you improve it? After all, you only live once (#YOLO!)
This last one is not as profound as the one just mentioned, but still, has a lot of impact in my life. The third thing I learned was about having the right balance in your life. This I learned by getting more organized and creating incentives that motivate me to action. I realized that I was sleeping a lot better than last year at MPC and that this was do to two reasons. The first was that I avoided using the computer and cell phone (I did watch TV) for at least 1 or 2 hours before going to sleep. This allowed me to be more relaxed and not feel agitated by some electronic device. I think #FredKofman has this hypothesis about electronic devices affecting your neurons and thus putting your brain in an altered state, which makes you have a bad sleep. I agree, it has worked for me and I definitely sleep better when I avoid these devices. I strongly recommend it to everyone. The second was about my motivation to getting up in the morning. When I didn’t cook and just ate cereal with milk in the morning, I just didn’t feel motivated to keep on moving. Now, it only takes one alarm and not 4 or 5 to wake me up. I wake up energized and I feel that the reason for this is because I enjoy having a good breakfast while watching a cooking program. Three eggs (mostly #friedeggs) or three sausages, or a mixture of both, with a lot of veggies like zucchini, broccoli, and tomato (I know it’s a fruit but I count is as a veggie), and watching one of Jamie Oliver’s TV series. After that, drinking a cup of freshly brewed coffee with almond milk. Then, going to the bathroom (#2… Ok, #tmi) and still having enough time to have a shower and get ready to get to the MPC. It’s just wonderful! That’s what makes me wake up in the morning. My recommendation: Look for the things that would boost your day and that’ll make you more productive during it, and get motivated by those to get out of bed! Also, planning ahead is a great advantage in those days you are running late. #WakeUp #GetOrganized
So, I hope that in this reflection you learned something and are anxious to put it into practice. Meanwhile, I keep you updated of new thoughts and habits I’ll be working on and my process towards getting better. Have a #niceday!