Tag: Independence Day

Individualism-collectivism

We got to stay somewhere in the healthy middle.

Infrastructure building, social safety net and cyber security, cannot be achieved without collaboration and commitment. Far out in the ultra left , we got sustainability and science (to far-out galaxy).

Can’t go alone. Not far.

So celebrate Independence Day, or more rightly, Co-Dependence Day.

Leading causes of death used to be influenza, diarrhea etc.. Now, it’s cardio vascular and cancer.

All thanks to world scientists and drug manufacturers who made vaccine available.

The Gates Foundation is active on this front. Three cheers to the Billionaire.

Occasional pops of firecrackers are nothing compared to Regional Fireworks show tonight.

Another example of collaboration, of group over the individuals.

Yet, individuals often times go alone, in the garage or the lab, to face “dark night of the soul“, to return to the source, to figure it all out, to discover and connect the dots (Steve Johnson noticed that inventions often clustered around a certain period in history if we zoomed out).

Insight came to an individual, but needs validation and verification.

That’s where science needs to co-discovered in a Body or Community..

The pull of the 60’s was a collective one, albeit its central message was individualism. Now, we got TED talk, the ultimate digital “commune”, of crowd-sourcing.

It’s ironic to have a bunch of old hippies in need of health care and hospices.

Individualism or collectivism?

Inverted 80/20

Lemonade for Vampires
Lemonade for Vampires (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

We make lemonade when life gives us lemon.

Who wouldn’t want to focus on the top money-making time-saving activities!

But …given the constraints we found ourselves in, we should celebrate not Independence Day, but Survival itself.

First, stay alive. Then, stay free.

I hear fireworks cracking. I hear music playing.

But it’s been a while, my inner stereo got turned off.

Hard to jump up and down.

Being an optimistic, I rely not on externalities. Not on other people or circumstances to cheer me up. Telecom has been down for a while, inverted 80/20..

But in the process (of decline), I learned about myself, about my colleagues and about reinvention.

How people react to hard times by reinventing to survive.

I was forced to listen, to watch and to adjust my style.

In short, I no longer am idealistic. Just optimistic.

I still advocate quick action, follow the money, use all your resources etc….

But at the same time, I know there are flipsides, inverted rules, and unintended consequences.

We cannot rid ourselves of one another. We need to bail one another out, to share the same fate .

Inverted 80/20 or not, we are either on the giving end or receiving end.

Just keep in mind that your failed opponent will someday become your ardent advocate, and best customer….if he/she survives to see the day.

Be generous and ready to entertain the though that someday, you will have to make lemonade when it is your turn.