Once we all were young, innocent, clueless, small und without any real knowledge. Dreaming comes easy. Fun seems to be everywhere. Angst is also everywhere. But we get help and we get protected. People ask us what we want to be when we grow up.

Then we get educated, civilized and grow up. Fun gets more complicated. Angst gets more complicated. We get less help and are supposed to help ourselves. Nobody asks us now what we want from life. We are supposed to know it already.

Where is the time to find out about our goals and what we want from life - before it gets too serious and before it is too late?!

What does it mean to be "lonely"?

Does it mean people treat you like an outcast - and you are pushed a side and a lone person.

Does it mean you run away from people - because you dislike them or you’re unable to connect to them.

Does it mean you are always at the wrong place with nobody to connect?

Does it mean nobody understands you or nobody can follow your ideas, mindset or attitude?

What does it mean to be lonely and is it real?

Hollywood has long lost it’s hunger for musical, simple romance and naive Kitsch. The great dance movies of the 1940’s are long forgotten.

But don’t despair: another booming nation is willing to fill your head & heart with naive Kitsch.

India’s romantic  Kitsch crap is making people all over the globe. It’s simple mixture of sing & dance, naive cliches and archetypes right out of fairy tales are easy to understand for those craving some happy and brainless entertainment.

These variations lack all the cynicism and twisted modern identity crises of modern romance and most western romantic Kitsch. In India woman are still old fashioned woman and behave like a proper princess.

So audiences not only crave Kitsch romance, but simplicity itself. Why not move to Saudi Arabia instead, where traditional roles are strictly enforced?

I think before watching any fundamental (Christian) preacher or politician one should always watch this very video.

Many people always say they know what God or Jesus wants from them or us. But what God wanted in the old testament is pretty different from what Jesus and his Daddy later propagated in the new one.

So maybe now 2000 years later there might be some new additions as well?

During the breakaway from religious (Christian) world many philosophers loved to compare our world to a giant clockwork driven by natural principles instead of following a divine plan.

This is attitude is quite understandable, since the new scientific approach seemed to promise an explanation for everything - everybody expected a perfect system that made sense for anything and everything.

Plus it was also the beginning of the machine age - the production and ever more precise machinery like clocks was all the rage in Europe. So no surprise that the clockwork was the symbol for science and progress - just like we use the computer analogy for how the brain works.

We humans love simplistic analogies to make "stuff" more understandable. Neither religions nor modern mass media likes complexity - they both love simple slogans.

Although Darwin has introduced us to the ideas and evolution and expanded biology into a new realm we still love our "mechanical" images to understand it. For example we love the computer analogy to explain functions of the human brain.

The idea that the universe and everything in it can be explained someday holds the eternal temptation to play Gods ourselves someday. Machines can be easily fixed - at least that implies the analogy.

Biology and Machines alike have to operate in the limited sandbox of physics. But that doesn’t make biological beings like machines. Especially random mutations and natural selection are special "mechanisms" of nature that constantly twist the rules without breaking them.

There is also the ideological struggle if the (human) mind can be explained by a mechanical rule set and recreated in form of artificial intelligence.

Some scientists believe that we humans are predictable machines: we are biological automatons (or Turing Machines) with no real free will at all.

As much as I agree that there are limits to human imagination and the so called "Free Will" - but I very much doubt that creativity and humor can be programmed or recreated.

Machines rules can be adapted to include random elements and have mutations, but mutation is not evolution - just a part of it. And rules for "playing" nice machine music or creating "pleasing" computer art is a simulation of creativity.

All these experiments to make teach machines art and creativity is the back channel: our emotions and thoughts while being artistic or watching a piece of art.

Unless machines are inspired, impressed, confused and disgusted by the creativity of others their works will only be mechanical simulations - "soulless" or "without emotions" so to say.

By experimenting with artificial intelligence we have certainly learned a lot about ourselves - so it’s worth exploring. But let’s get rid of the stupid mechanistic analogies and try to think a bit more complex.

It’s worth the extra effort.

We shouldn’t be afraid of the complexities of the universe and that there is no God or (scientific) creator behind it. Just because we don’t understand everything (yet) doesn’t mean we need to mystify it. Let’s just enjoy it the way it is - and learn more on the way …

Our science and mental models are as much driven by science as they are by our attitudes.

More? Mechanism @ Wikipedia

Your Ikea nesting instinct made you buy the perfect kitchen and you are the perfect wife. You know how to perfectly please everybody. You know how to perfectly organize your perfect life. You read all the perfect books Oprah recommended to be perfect. And your career is going perfect too.

Too bad there is no perfect husband for your perfect fantasy world - and it’s perfectly normal that you are running out of time.

Fertility has a limited shelf life and so does your happiness … don’t waste it on perfection.

Shopping doesn’t make you horny or provide any form of therapy, but it for sure makes your poorer. Your credit card company will love you tho …

We are all lazy to some degree - and there is a reason why laziness is a cardinal sin: it kills. But there is laziness and laziness. We all have to learn to enjoy ourselves without guilt. The art of slowness and enjoying life is not laziness - and it’s doesn’t kill anyone if you clean your kitchen not today, but tomorrow.

But you also have to learn to kick your inner pig and set priorities AND act on them. After you have achieved something great or important you two can have a mud bath and enjoy each others company … AFTERWARDS.

You think you are the current top dog? Remember that there always is a bigger dog out there to get you. The only way to win this game is not to indulge in it’s illusion of winners and loosers.

The modern Homo Officium needs some real thrills when he goes on vacation. Corporate life is boring and only real danger can make him feel alive.

That is why such places, bungee jumping and wild water rides are tourist attractions. Danger is the new drug for the mediocre masses to get out of their emotional caves and feel in touch with (a dangerous) reality …

*Thanks to Edosan for the image*

Do you open your mind? Are you an open person? Are you open to new things? Are you well connect?

Of course you are … NOT. We are live in intellectual and emotional bubbles. Our brains are our bubbles - and how much we train, expand and use them.

The question is: even when our brains are limited how much do you use it? No, this is not about the old “we only use 10% of our brain”-myth. It is much more about training and education.

Our brain and the mind within needs to be constantly trained, challenged and cultivated. Brain scans have shown unused brain literally loose capacity and become dull. The mind needs to be sharpened by usage and challenges. Only running “on easy” will dumb you down.

So the questions is now: how much do you open your bubble to let in new, challenging, unknown, uncomfortable and complicated thoughts and tasks? Do you allow “nasty” paradoxes and even painful mind benders into your bubble that will keep your mind fighting and chewing on them - or do you limit your brain and yourself to “easy thinking”?

You have to understand that your mind is only a part of you - a part that needs training and something to challenge it. Regard as your inner dog: give him some yummy bones to chew on, some wild toys to chase around and keep him busy. He will like that!

We all dislike fighting and arguing with other people, co-workers and loved ones. But it’s a necessary part of life.

Most people are stressed out by fights and anger. But like boxing it is a skill that can be learned to reduce the stress and not to waste too much energy. It’s not about anger management, but dealing with stress during a confrontation, making proper arguments, understanding the  physical effects of stress and anger on your body and mind … and getting out of your own “hot head”.

By developing a “conflict culture” and getting to know yourself in hot situations is a benefit to yourself and everybody else. You still can be mad, passionate and intense about your opinions, but you learn how to focus and use your power in a good way to make your point of view clear.

A good fight / argument can be highly stimulation and refreshing - it doesn’t need to be a total disaster for everybody.

Just because you rebel against something or act a bit odd doesn’t make you different. Even amongst rebels, punks and other “outsiders” to the so called system is a certain uniformity and consensus of what is supposed to be different.

Finding your inner child and behaving like an adult idiot doesn’t make you any younger or wiser. Sometimes it is necessary to go back in your memories and heal some old crap. But you should came back and act with the decency and wisdom befitting your actual age. Nobody like big babies.

When I watch some young parents playing with their kids I often wonder: did they want a kid or simply a talking doll?

That phrase “they grow up so fast” especially sounds very stupid in that context. What did you expect what was going to happen: your baby would stay forever tiny, vulnerable and totally dependable on you - so you can play and dominate that little human?

That commercial precisely captures two modern truths: pumping yourself up with music (via your iPod) and loads of sugar & caffeine from your local latte dealer.

Music, sugar and caffeine to make ourselves feel good and calm down our neurotic egos. We do matter! We do great stuff! We have a great job to fulfil! We are someone!

So we force our brains to feel euphoric although there is nothing to feel euphoric about. So that high that you kick yourself into is simply self-deception and worth nothing.

Stop lying to yourself and get real highs.

Forget all these exercises about inner peace, harmony and patience. These are lies - even the gets get annoyed by trivial stuff …

*Thanks to Edosan for that lesson*

Most people are afraid about the future. They fear the unpredictable - that is why all those imposters who claim to give you glints of the future have always been in high demand by scared human minds.

But we define the future ourselves by going there. We can’t influence everything what is coming toward us - but we can take part in the “design” and “movement” of our destiny. It’s not all blurry and totally unpredictable.

If you take an active part in your own life and invest some thoughts & actions for your own future - the coming “now” will be much more to your liking and enjoyable - instead of simply stumbling into another moment of randomness …

How much ‘down to earth’ do you need to be to be ‘grounded’? How close to Mother Earth can you get without feeling ‘down’ or ‘falling flat on your face’? How dirty is getting ‘your hands dirty’? Or does ‘laying low for a while’ really help to ‘get both feed on the ground’?

We all know phrases like “inner child” or “being playful like a kid”. The adult mind obviously is jealous of the fun and simplicity the young mind seems to enjoy.

But it is important to understand that the young mind / brain simply doesn’t understand many things and simply hasn’t learnt them yet. So these simple minds can only understand simple fun and obvious entertainment.

Adults have the pleasure of understanding more complex ‘fun’ or entertaining ‘constructions’ of art, entertainment and meanings.

So when it comes to ‘fun’ adults have a broader scope of possibilities - it’s up to them to enjoy them.

Do you fight for justice & progress? Do you stand up for your enlightenment or do flee before the forces of laziness and ignorance? Do you look your own fears into the eye and try to overcame them? Do you sing to your heart and fill the world with happiness - or do you spread silence and discomfort? Do you build bridges for friends, family and strangers to join you - or do you dig deep holes for yourself and others?

Are you a Hero in your own life? Or just a sidekick to your own misery? Stand tall and show some courage - you only got this one chance for heroism for yourself.

There is no Superman, Wonder Woman or Santa Claus coming to your rescue …

Emotions are often symbolized by water and we have many expressions that represent this analogy as well “drowning in sorrow”.

Especially when our psyche is flooded with too many emotions we should pull the plug - and drain the swamp. Don’t let the flood wash you away or put too much pressure on yourself.

Once the water sinks you can really see what’s buried beneath all the water, mud and murky currents. With less pressure your psyche can work better and find a solution. A little bit of pressure / stress can be stimulating - but an emotional storm or flood isn’t helpful at all.

But do you know where to pull the plug? Do you know how to let go off overwhelming emotions?

So maybe fight water with water - take a relaxing bath or go swimming. Or fight back with tears - crying is one of the best ways to release emotional stress. A few hours in a sauna or steam bath also works wonders.

But most of all use your mind and make an effort to let go - use mental images to see the flow of life and your emotions. Let them flow down your inner drain and regain control of that island called ‘You’ …

We are too obsessed with "bigger / more is better". But proportions should always be judged in context. Too much flexibility can be sometimes be as impratical, as too much rigidness. A wise person always uses the right amount of power, smartness or whatever is needed to get the job done. Too much is a waste, to little doesn’t solve the task.

Learn to use the right amount of whatever you might need. And don’t get to impressed by people to show an overkill of power or dedication … overindulgence of any kind is stupid and serves usually only our ego and not the task at hand.

I am always suspicious about people who tell me they are overworked in their jobs. It usually means that they either can’t organize their jobs or their try to make themselves irreplaceable by sucking up every bit of work and responsibility they can lay their hands on.

The motivation is fear - fear of being replaceable and not important. But instead of being a useful coworker these people become bottlenecks, because they turn into control freaks.

And nobody like bottlenecks - not matter how ‘important’ or overworked they are …

Distrust any religious establishment that doesn’t enjoy the ultimate power of the universe and life: to have sex and procreate.

Unless you fuck yourself how can you explain and share the creative God’s blessings of sexuality? Life = Sex = Universe … and therefore must be godly …