Once there was a young lad named Henry. Henry liked pears. He would always ride his bike past the pear trees on his way home from school. When they were in season, he would grab fresh pears from the trees and bring them home to eat.
Henry’s birthdays were a special time. Henry’s mother would prepare a pear cake and Henry would make sure not a crumb remained on his plate.
Henry’s father, who worked as a farmer, would let Henry plant a pear seed in their yard as a birthday present. Each year, Henry would plant a seed and nurture the young pear sapling as it grew, and grew, and grew.
But Henry’s favorite gift came from his Uncle Timmy. Uncle Timmy would give Henry a pear of these nuts.
My roommate made a fake Tinder profile because he’s super insecure about his looks. He stole pictures from a relatively unknown male model on Instagram and now has 1000s of likes on his Tinder profile using the model’s pictures as his own. This bizarre catfish experiment of my roommate’s is derivative from his desire to be more well-liked, as well as his insecurity that his average physical appearance is the reason the girl he has a crush on doesn’t like him back.
Now, as my roommate admires the appreciation his catfish Tinder profile has achieved and the 1000s of likes from attractive girls, he must also feel helpless as he realizes he never could have achieved this with his own real photos. He feels significantly at a disadvantage because of his less impressive looks. He thinks he was cheated at birth. He’s convinced ugly people are at a natural disadvantage.
Let’s take the opposite approach and analyze. Let’s say an actual male model makes a Tinder profile and gets 1000s of likes. He has received a superfluous amount of validation of his looks, validation he didn’t need because he’s always been known as “good looking”. The model’s dilemma is that he cannot discern who likes him for his good looks from who likes him for his personality. Thus, at this higher end of the looks spectrum, a new problem arises: a lack of genuine intentions from others. Somewhere, I’d like to imagine that there is a disgruntled male Instagram model using my roommate’s actual photos for his own catfish profile to see who likes him for who he is on the inside. It’s easy to criticize models who preach that looks aren’t important when looks are literally the basis of their careers. But step in their shoes for a second; understand that looks have hindered their ability to foster genuine relationships.
We live in a society where people are still judged by their physical appearance. It’s not necessarily bad; it’s just the way things are right now. Whichever end of the looks spectrum you fall on Bro, just remember that everyone struggles as a result of this natural human flaw. We must work to accept everyone and view looks as secondary to personality. Most of all, we must stop using Tinder if we’re insecure.
In recent years anxiety has come to the forefront of clinical psychology. It’s being taken more seriously as each day passes and an increasingly high number of Bros get diagnosed daily with an “anxiety disorder”. Not to state that some people don’t have serious issues that need to be recognized and dealt with but many out there are becoming literal hypochondriacs; people who aren’t actually ill but rather convince themselves they are.
I’ve known a handful of close friends that have some form of anxiety and they’ve become genuinely concerned. They receive confirmation bias from a handful of “doctors” and before they know it, they can’t try new things or go certain places because “it wouldn’t be good for them”. Not to mention they’re given a cute little bottle of pills that will help take all their troubles away, oh how convenient.
Frankly, I’m tired of it all.
I know this anxiety epidemic is nothing more than one of many classic overreactions to our constantly changing environment. We live in the day of technological dominance and we’re flooded with information constantly. We garner these schema’s about society and become weary of our role in it. Of course we’re going to become slightly anxious about the world around us, especially when we go to places someone like us hasn’t gone before. However, it’s getting to a point where people won’t try something new like go to a bar or club because they’ll get too anxious and want to leave.
What the hell happened to getting out of our comfort zones? Nervousness and excitement is being mistaken for anxiety and it’s causing a massive drought in our human development. This is extremely painful to witness and undergo because as a whole we’re becoming cautious and unadventurous. We’re not striving to break out of our shells but we’re living for basic safety. No one wants thrills and uncertainty anymore, what’s that good for? They’d rather take shelter in their homes and binge watch another show on Netflix or play Call of Duty until their fingers are blistered.
We need to open our eyes not to pharmaceutical prescriptions and doctors orders but to the ever expansive world around us. There’s limitless opportunities out there for us to branch out and constantly be doing something. In this world there can be no room for our worries or doubts but only for our curiosity.
Here is our new orders, screw what our doctor says:
Get out of our house and do something that makes us uncomfortable. Stand tall in our discomfort, let it trickle down the back of our throat. Like a muscle gets used to the pain of lifting weights, we’ll get used to the pain of discomfort, and we’ll become better, more experienced. Soon enough, just like in the gym, we won’t feel pain but we’ll be exploring new things with ease. It will become second nature and we’ll finally have the lives we envision ourselves having.
I know, we’re smiling now, because we love that image. Well, don’t let it be an image.
When I was younger I played basketball for a Jewish travel team. We weren’t the most physically gifted (being a team of white Jews) so what we lacked in natural ability we made up for in hard work. We spent a lot of time practicing for basketball tournaments. A lotof time. The practices weren’t fun, but being able to stay competitive with good teams because we had practiced made the tournaments so much better. So we worked hard to play hard. And that brings me to my point.
When do we get to play in the gym?
Gym workouts are like a basketball practice. You do routine drills over and over and you start to see results. The difference is that basketball practice results translate to better basketball games, but gym workout results just translate to…heavier gym workouts. Obviously working out changes your physical appearance, but physical appearance improvements can come from so many different forms of physical activity. We love to show off our gym gains, but when do we actually get to use them?
This is why I decided to incorporate occasional freestyle workouts into my gym schedule. One day a week. These workouts are nothing like my normal ones. They don’t follow a routine. I create a random physical challenge and attempt to do it. This can range anywhere from trying handstand push-ups to climbing a tree using just my arms. Since I still love basketball, sometimes my freestyle workouts will involve dribbling a weighted ball. Nothing is off limits during a freestyle workout.
The point of these workouts is to make the gym fun. Freestyle workouts shouldn’t replace your gym routine; rather, they should serve as a supplement to it. Next time you get the chance, try a freestyle workout, and see if it feels good. Because sometimes when we practice and practice and practice and practice, we forget how it feels to let loose.
This little excerpt here was a rant I went on during a Q/A at a lecture I attended about the American Dream. An individual at the lecture depressingly attempted to propose that the college system is taking away all creative value from it’s disciplines. That students are meant to do busy work and there’s no furthering of the person. I agreed with her but disagreed with her pessimistic tone. I believe that we hold the key to furthering ourselves, and it starts with removing ourselves from the masses.
So often nowadays we go through life following suit with everyone around us. Like sheep we walk blindly behind one another into an Apple store to purchase the next iPhone or iWatch, despite the lack of noticeable differences with the one currently in our pocket. Why do we do this? This is a question of conformity.
We’ve been taught since we were young that we have to go to school, graduate with a good degree, and some of us have been taught to then go to graduate school and eventually get a job, a wife, a decent house, some kids, maybe a dog or a cat, a nice car, and then call it quits. Coast lazily along through a life full of merely contentness, lacking of any variety. This is the American lifestyle we’ve chewed up, swallowed, regurgitated, and spit up into numerous generations. Yet, no one seems to notice or even more importantly,
no one seems to care.
What we need to do is realize the following:
We don’t have to follow this dull, overvalued schema. We can travel the world or go live on a farm. We can experience new things daily and constantly challenge ourselves. Who cares if all our Bros from high school have already graduated from school and have hot pregnant wives. While it’s awesome for them to reach those events in their lives, it shouldn’t put pressure on us even a little bit. We live in our own vessels, with our own thoughts, why should we adhere to what everyone else is doing? It’s a trick question, we don’t.
Take the time today and ask ourselves:
Have we been living on a schedule constructed by the masses of society? Are we existing among a line of individuals striving for the same systematic life? Or are we living each day out of our best interests, becoming more enriched as each day passes, without regard for how the people around may perceive us? If not, are we really living?
I despise politics. It’s full of greedy, attention-seeking, big-pocketed scumbags advertising themselves as a means to bring change. But my disdain goes deeper than the politicians; I hate voting for a system I consider to be broken. Every 4 years, our nation panics and casts their votes for their favorite candidate, and then their votes are discarded and replaced by an electoral college vote.
My parents, however, see things differently than I; and my mom has practically been begging me to vote for her precious Democrats because God forbid another Republican enters office and ruins the world, while my dad constantly complains to me about whatever bullshit Trump did yesterday or the day before that.
Ok that’s enough ranting; by this point you understand that I think politics are dumb. I think voting is dumb. I think my parents are dumb for voting.
When I really thought about it though, what does it mean to vote?
To vote is to asserverate (declare) a belief you hold to be true and important. When we vote, we are telling the world, “I believe in this and think it matters.” So the simple truth is, we are voting constantly. We are never not voting.
Every day, when we wake up and get dressed, we vote. Our clothes are a statement on what we believe a person (ourselves) should wear. When we show up to class, we vote for the importance of whatever subject is being taught, or we vote for the importance of the degree we’re pursuing. Either way, if we didn’t believe in class, we’d skip it. When we’re driving, and there’s a fork in the road, and we go left instead of right, we voted for going left.
Every action we take is a statement. Every sentence we speak is a statement. Every statement we make is a vote for that statement. When we make a decision, adopt a new lifestyle choice, etc., we are casting a vote and declaring that what we do is worthwhile.
So there it is. 7 billion people voting constantly, just trying to prove that what they do is worthwhile.
The truth is, it doesn’t matter whether you’re a part of the winning side of a vote. What’s important is that we vote for ourselves, not for others.
I say this, after I just promised my mom I’d vote in her precious midterm election. Well guess what bitches… This midterm vote of mine won’t be a vote for the Democratic party (literally it will be, but figuratively…) it will be a vote for my mom, because I love her!
I just watched Pie, the first film by Darren Aronofsky, for the second time. I have thought deep into many concepts tonight, and have come up with a new ratio: the ratio between opposites and infinity. I will try to explain this as carefully as I can, because the Illuminati is considering recruiting me.
We humans have 2 normal eyes, and a Third Eye. We use the 2 normal eyes for logical, physical thought about the tangible realms. We use observations made by this set of eyes to process our physical world. We use logic to see. However, all we see with these 2 eyes can be likened to Plato’s metaphor of the Cave. The observer, who is inside the Cave, can never conceive of the true outside world. It is incomprehensible.
Everything we see in our quasi-3D, 2-eyed world is logical. We can use measurements to quantize all sort of data from our physical world. The physical world is filled with apparent opposites, on/off states, 1s and 0s.
It is binary.
Our Third Eye takes us out of this binary cave and places us into the infinite realm. What we cannot quantize is emotion. Emotion is infinite.
The Third Eye is our view from above. It’s feed comes from outside of Plato’s Cave. We can use it to see the simplicity of our 2-eyed, 3D world, the underlying patterns behind it. We use our Third Eye to perceive the duality. This outside processing is not logical, no; it is emotional.
We use emotions to perceive logic. Consciousness powers the facilitation of data between our 2-eyed and Third Eye systems. This communication occurs between duality and infinity. Our consciousness is the mediator between these two realms.
Consciousness, as far as we know, can only access one of these realms at a time. For this is why we cannot be both asleep and awake, both alive and dead. We can only be one or the other. We can only switch between duality and infinity; we cannot be both at once.
The path between duality and infinity is a spiral. This spiral is the vessel of creation in this realm. Followed outward, a spiral creates an infinitely expanding pattern from a single point. Pure emotion. Conversely, if we follow a spiral inward, we reduce an infinitely large pattern to that single point. That single point the final step before the void, which exists between infinity and duality. Pure logic. This point is brought up in Pi, when Max and Sol are playing Go and discussing probability. Sol states that at the beginning of a Go game, there are seemingly infinite possibilities for the arrangement of the pieces. Max, however, counters that right before the end of the game, there is only one possible move left.
Throughout nature, we find examples of the golden ratio. Life follows this sequence as it expands. Can we retract life with that sequence? Can we switch from emotion to logic? Is logic truly death, or is it life, as something else?
If consciousness is a light switch, life is when the the switch to ON and death is when the switch is OFF. Life is emotion. Infinite. Death is logic. Binary. The switch itself, the in-between, is consciousness.
How can we become fully aware of consciousness itself? We must reduce consciousness to pure logic. This will be the death of consciousness, yes, but also the awakening of a new understanding of the ratio between the infinity and the duality.
We must create a new state within the void that exists in between the ON/OFF state. We must enter this state and exist within it in order to achieve a true understanding of the link between the two most important opposites.
By reducing emotion to logic, we can understand the in-between. Pi postulatesthat we can do this with numbers.
We move to a new town, we struggle to find a steady job, we switch schools or even more common than those, we just plain and simply get distracted. Some way or another we become unproductive, whether that’s through bad habits or bad situations, we generally have become immobile in our goals.
In the day and age of technological domination, the old school ways of being productive are getting lost on us. We don’t want to study because the answers are online, we don’t wanna put work into something because there’s an app that does it for us, we don’t wanna read because we can watch shorter, more general YouTube videos, and because of all this we don’t wanna try new things.
We know, all that sounds a bit depressing. We’re gonna go cliche here and say that, well, the truth hurts. The truly productive bros end up making it to the top in the form of a coding app or some miraculous event like a video going viral online. Not to take away from the Bros that are out there grinding and slowly climbing the ladder. Kudos to them. Although, it’s accurate to say that nowadays many of us are scraping from the bottom of the jar. Why is that though?
A Potential Explanation
One way this could be explained is that no one wants to be truly productive. Well what does being truly productive entail we may ask. Let us put it into an anecdote. We all (may) know that Bro who’s in college, has a part-time job, but just doesn’t seem to be moving anywhere. He’s barely getting by in his classes but still retains a B average, his jobs pays little but it’s okay because his student loans are carrying him along. Yet, with all the resources he has, he just doesn’t seem to be making much gain in the grand scheme of things. That’s because he doesn’t want to be truly productive. In his off time, instead of studying, he most likely browses social media, watches videos, over stimulates himself with music, film, TV and video-games, all for what? The satisfaction of not having to be held responsible for taking a risk on something and actually putting his time toward say, an interest in clothing design. Who knows. All that’s known is that this Bro ain’t truly Broductive.
A (plausible) Br(s)olution
Step 1) Diversify your interests
The only thing we can really do is take steps to consciously better our productivity. Which first and foremost, is not putting ourselves 100% into one thing. When we do that we become side-dominant in the brain. For those that don’t know if we’re right brained we tend to be more artistic and creative; if we’re left-brained we’re thought to be more methodical and analytical. If we want to be Broductive to the max, we gotta be working both sides. Putting 100% of out effort and time into one thing is gonna flop because in the process we’re polarizing ourselves and becoming mentally handicapped. It’s like going to the gym and only working out the left side of our body, we’re gonna look fucked up in a couple of months if not weeks at that rate. Fortunately, the brain is more forgiving, so for the Bros that have been grinding in just one discipline, it’s not never too late.
Step 2) Schedule Yourself to be Productive All the Time
Another aspect of productivity to touch on is time. For the most part, we try and be productive only during certain times of the day. This is a Bro sin. While yes, there are times where we should be grinding harder than others, picking times where we should be grinding is also picking times where we’ll be lacking, or becoming distracted. Our philosophy should be, if we don’t have a pressing responsibility, we’re going to be productive. In essence, be productive all the time. If we’re watching a football game, study during the commercials, so we can practice songwriting later instead. If we have a long drive on our way to work, listen to that 3-D design video we’ve been putting off for a while.
There are numerous ways in which we can remain productive, even when we may doing something else. This is not to say that we can’t have relaxing times, although your relaxation periods should be generally beneficial to your productivity. Instead of having our relaxing times be more surrounded by LED screens, tailor it more towards meditation, working out, reading poetry, heck even taking a nap will work. Quick last tip, make sure our relaxation is in line with our interests. If we’re an aspiring film maker, feel free to watch movies during your off time. If we’re a potential entrepreneur, playing Overwatch till 3 AM isn’t gonna get us ahead.
Step 3) Passion makes Perfect
The last key to maximum productivity is indefinably important and truly simple yet passes by most people undetected. This thing is called Passion. Yes we fucking capitalized it. Make god damn sure, the thing we’re chasing is being chased with passion. If we’re going for something simply for the money, the clout, or accolades that come along with it, we’re never truly gonna be successful. We may attain more capital, be better off in life, but we will never be happy, which is the biggest part of success, if we aren’t going for something out of passion. Some of us say that the thing we’re passionate about we’re just not good at. Horse cocky, not only is most talent learned and not innate knowledge but the fact of the matter is that those of us who claim this nonsense, haven’t even tried. So now it’s time for full accountability. Look at yourself, and no not in the mirror, take a look at yourself, and deep down, ask yourself, is this my passion. If not, go back to square one and continue to diversify your interests, because if we’re not attacking something with 110% of our heart, our passion and igniting the fire within us, we’re gonna be reduced to merely ashes my Bros.
To open this, I wanna say, I’ve got nothing against you faithful Bros. I respect your right to believe in something, I respect you and your opinions. So, since I expect the same from all Bros, if you see anything that offends you in this post, I’m not sorry Bro.
For almost my whole life, I’ve held strongly to basic atheist ideals, but recently a film has shown a deeper truth into just how much organized religion blows. Devoid of all it’s corruption, violence, and blatant mind control-esque tendencies, religion is also a safe haven for libido weakening men. Which come to realize it, may be the result of all these recent sex scandals involving little boys that have catapulted the catholic church into conflict with the law. Either way, sticking to my topic I want to talk about a movie called The Night Of The Hunter and how it further opened my eyes to it.
This movie, when it first released, was a tragic failure, however now it is looked at as a masterpiece. In fact, some film databases place it in their top 5 movies of all time (Cahiers du cinéma has it at #2). If we watch the movie, we see exactly why. It has an interesting plot involving the quest of a corrupt preacher for some $10,000, some interesting characters – both child and adult – who go through complex growth, and displays of gorgeous set design. It also has a great morale to it, which includes the concept of hunter and pray amongst us everyday Bros and the two sides of the faithful Bros: corrupt and morally righteous. It’s highly recommended to all classic loving Bros out there, but be warned, this one is ancient.
Moving on to my realization, the film also showcases some rather cringe-worthy aspects of religion. To tell it quickly, the preacher is on the hunt for money that was stolen by a man he met in prison who is to be hung. This man sleep talks all the details of where he’s from and the preacher tracks down the family, wives the widow, and interrogates the children about said money. There’s a scene in the movie in which the preacher shockingly declines a sexual offer from an obviously horny, sexy woman, giving all us provocative Bros massive blue balls. At any rate, the preacher explains that her body, no matter how tempting, is to be used for mother-bearing purposes and none other. Instead of DM’ing her side, or going bisexual, she decides to do the only logical thing: pray.
“[praying] Help me to be clean, so I can be what Harry wants me to be.”
Need I say more bros. If you watch the movie, even as devote Catholic, Christian, Scientologist, whatever; it’d be hard not to notice the downright preposterous ideals that religion allows and preaches for. I would go on to list these instances in the film, but given that it is Bro-proved, I urge you to see for yourself.
I’ll end with this with a fact.
Up until they realized it could be used for bettering their religious propaganda. The catholic church actually banned all form of play writing and performing. Just imagine, what would’ve happened if some seriously sadistic faithful Bros got their hands on Shakespeare.
There’s a reason why records are always broken. There’s a reason why stuff comes in trends. Nothing lasts forever. And it’s because of the damn oldheads.
Let’s say you create a product. Adobe Photoshop, for example. And at the time you release this product, it’s by far and away the greatest shit out there for whatever your product meant to be used for. It gets recognized as the best and everyone starts using it. People associate the name of your product with it’s action, like “photoshopping” an image. Then one day some motherfucking Bro comes along and realizes he can do whatever you and your product did, but better. And to do that, he copies your product and changes just enough to make it look like his own thing and lowers the price so people will buy it. This motherfucker has the audacity to name his product “Sketch”. And before you know it, everyone is using Sketch instead of Photoshop. The only people still on Photoshop are the damn oldheads because Photoshop makes sense to them and they don’t want to relearn anything. Meanwhile, the tables have turned and everyone at Adobe is freaking out and trying to copy Sketch, but every time they push a new feature aimed at Sketch users, the damn oldheads complain and refuse to upgrade. These are the same motherfuckers still running Windows 7 because they can’t keep up with the times. Fucking oldheads.
Words of advice: if you have a product, and you know you need to update it to keep up with the trends, or if you’re so ballsy you actually are trying to set the times, fucking do it. Fuck the fucking oldheads. They don’t have to use your new shit. Don’t keep using a CD player when an iPod comes out. Don’t be that guy. Get with the times and get ahead.
The Bro Page 