MY FASCINATING FINDS
A TIME TO REFLECT
MY FASCINATING FINDS
Hello, greetings from home. So I made a trip home, and I can tell you that up until last night, I had forgotten what a vacation feels like. But take me back to the good old days of school breaks, I am having a nice time.
My publication today, and for the next one week will be me just reflecting on Busyminds as a whole. I need the reflection to make sense of how far I have come, and how I can do better. But there is still much to learn. My head is running wild with my fascinating finds, and I wish to bring you into that arena.
For the next few days on fascinating finds, you will learn that;
We don't want things, we want to be things.
People cannot articulate their interests.
Articulation is at the root of all deliberate human invention.
Busyminds has become more articulate in defining its visions and goals.
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WE DON'T WANT THINGS, WE WANT TO BE THINGS:
On this subject, advertisers make tons of money. How? Good advertisers know that people want to be like their favorite models, sport stars, influencers, or whatever interesting personality they love and admire. They know that the desire of the audience is not for the item, but for the status the item confers. On that small note, here is a marketing hack: don't spend too much time describing how good your product is; tell your audience what the product does for them.
By tying the advertised product to the admired personality, advertisers draw the desire of those who aspire to be that person. So, you want to buy a certain jacket, not because it is a great jacket, but because your favorite star wears it and you want to have something in common with him. I had my roommate one time try to persuade me that a certain jacket was worth its exorbitant price. He was scaringly fierce about it. Well, I couldn't see it and I wondered what the craze was about. But what was missing to us both was that he was deeply invested in the lifestyle of the model and I was not. The attachment or detachment to the model was the difference. The jacket wasn't it for me at all but it meant a lot to him.
The idea is that objects often carry the value we place on them. But that value is influenced by some individual who we have placed on a specific cadre.
Essentially, our desire for objects, habits and traits are not mostly motivated by the objects, but by the social credit that comes with having that object. This goes to show how easily we can be misled in our motivations. It has its dangers, like causing you to double down on the things you hate just because you want to belong. The danger therein is the death of the unique individual.
Another good example of this behavior is the obsession with wanting to be a part of the cool kids. Yes, the common peer pressure. The pain of social exclusion is dire, and no one wants to experience it. Everyone hates the feeling of being left out. But in the bid to get included, we acquire assets, objects, traits, and habits common with the 'cool' group. We want the things to be a part of the group and not the things themselves. The traits, objects, and assets offer us no real satisfaction. They are not the end, they are means to an end. An end, which is the sense of belonging. This is where FOMO (the Fear of Missing Out) comes in.
Take the rave of Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies as a case study. Many people cannot define in clear terms what distinguishes Bitcoin from regular fiat currency. Yet, this has not stopped many people from acquiring and investing in cryptocurrency to assuage their fear of missing out. This also explains the hype around Bitcoin and Dogecoin when Elon Musk invested in them. The phenomenon is interpreted in this question: "If Musk in his intellect and repute invested in the deal, why shouldn't they?"
My point in all these is that we underrate the source of our motivations. We are too busy looking in the wrong places and we are misled. There is much of your life that will be left unchanged when you can't reach the correct origin of your motivations. You will leave much unresolved within you if you continue to follow the motivations that creep up on you rather than the motivations you craft for yourself. Introspection is a human need, an antidote in fact. But unfortunately, it is uncomfortable turning the light inwards for truth and meaning.
By the end of My fascinating finds, I will publish on 'Developing a conscious mind; an antidote to misdirection.' Till we meet again, this is Busyminds and you are on to My fascinating finds.
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