I read some thing this morning that resonated so well.

Outcomes

Our outcomes continue to be less than perfect because we chase products that sell hope. From our latent desire & fixation on mystical healing to spiritual intervention from peers & fakirs (faith healers) to waiting on divine intervention alone, we have become sheep. Every one knows, sheep get slaughtered.

Why don't we value time? Because we take 220M Population and multiply 24 hours in a day with the population, seemingly granting us infinite time. We also don't equate time to money, as our relationship to time is not linear.

In the U.S. you have to make money, otherwise you are nobody. If you have 40 years of earning capacity and you want to make $4 million, that means $100,000 per annum. If you can achieve this in 250 working days, that comes to $400 a day or $50 an hour. With this orientation Americans can say that their time costs $50 an hour. Americans also talk about wasting, spending, budgeting and saving time as described by Richard Lewis. A world traveler who speaks ten languages, British linguist Richard Lewis decided he was qualified to plot the world’s cultures on a chart.

The Americans are not the only ones who sanctify timekeeping, for it is practically a religion in Switzerland and Germany, too. These countries, along with Britain, the Anglo-Saxon world in general, the Netherlands, Austria and Scandinavia, have a linear vision of time and action. They suspect, like the Americans, that time is passing (being wasted) without decisions being made or actions being performed.

In the linear-active, industrialized Western cultures time is seen as a road along which we proceed. Life is sometimes referred to as a “journey”; death is often referred to as the “end of the road.” We imagine ourselves as having traveled along the part of the road that is behind us (the past) and we see the untrodden path of the future stretching out in front of us.

He talks about Madagascar, I will paraphrase/find replace/quote with attribution, what he says about their use of time into our situation as it applies well so that we can understand how we figure into this equation of time and how beautifully it applies to us. The detailed post here.

Net net our outcomes aren't going to get better, if we do not value time, the only way we value time is when we get paid for time & productivity and not for cruising along.

One New Thing (That I Learnt today)

Boring stuff that Scales

System 1 and System 2

Our brain has 2 systems that operate when solving problems.

System 1 operates quickly and automatically, giving an immediate answer.

System 2 activates when system 1 fails, causing slow and deep thought.

System 1 Thinking: Our brains’ fast, automatic, unconscious, and emotional response to situations and stimuli. This can be in the form of absentmindedly reading text on a billboard, knowing how to tie your shoelaces without a second thought, or instinctively hopping over a puddle on the sidewalk.

System 2 Thinking: The slow, effortful, and logical mode in which our brains operate when solving more complicated problems. For example, System 2 thinking is used when looking for a friend in a crowd, parking your vehicle in a tight space, or determining the quality-to-value ratio of your take-out lunch.

Below TL;DR from Scientific American on the Phenomenon.

In rough order of complexity, here are some examples of the automatic activities that are attributed to System 1:

• Detect that one object is more distant than another.

• Orient to the source of a sudden sound.

• Complete the phrase “bread and . . .”

• Make a “disgust face” when shown a horrible picture.

• Detect hostility in a voice.

• Answer to 2 + 2 = ?

• Read words on large billboards.

• Drive a car on an empty road.

• Find a strong move in chess (if you are a chess master).

• Understand simple sentences.

• Recognize that a “meek and tidy soul with a passion for detail” resembles an occupational stereotype.

Several of the mental actions in the list are completely involuntary. You cannot refrain from understanding simple sentences in your own language or from orienting to a loud unexpected sound, nor can you prevent yourself from knowing that 2 + 2 = 4 or from thinking of Paris when the capital of France is mentioned.

The highly diverse operations of System 2 have one feature in common: they require attention and are disrupted when attention is drawn away. Here are some examples:

• Brace for the starter gun in a race.

• Focus attention on the clowns in the circus.

• Focus on the voice of a particular person in a crowded and noisy room.

• Look for a woman with white hair.

• Search memory to identify a surprising sound.

• Maintain a faster walking speed than is natural for you.

• Monitor the appropriateness of your behavior in a social situation.

• Count the occurrences of the letter a in a page of text.

• Tell someone your phone number.

• Park in a narrow space (for most people except garage attendants).

• Compare two washing machines for overall value.

• Fill out a tax form.

• Check the validity of a complex logical argument.

In all these situations you must pay attention, and you will perform less well, or not at all, if you are not ready or if your attention is directed inappropriately. System 2 has some ability to change the way System 1 works, by programming the normally automatic functions of attention and memory.

The often-used phrase “pay attention” is apt: you dispose of a limited budget of attention that you can allocate to activities, and if you try to go beyond your budget, you will fail. It is the mark of effortful activities that they interfere with each other, which is why it is difficult or impossible to conduct several at once.

To be successful in any thing you do, if you recognize your System 1 and System 2 responses, you can manage, shape, define and re-organize your own outcomes. If you are deliberate about how you choose to react, recognizing this boring little life hack will take you much further.

What you should be Reading

Climate Change Impacts on Health and Livelihoods: Pakistan Assessment. The detailed study here.

The global climate crisis poses a number of threats to the well-being and prosperity of the people of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. The country already witnesses several climate- and weather-related natural hazards due to its geographical diversity and a varied tropical, continental climate (hot summers and cold winters). Pakistan experiences recurring heatwaves and droughts, riverine and flash floods, landslides, and sea storms or cyclones. Climate change is expected to increase the frequency and intensity of these events as well as exacerbate people’s vulnerabilities.

If you are an entrepreneur this presents a unique set of opportunities that can help enhance your and the massess outcomes if you build products & services to counter, what is coming our way.

Monetize your time

By Aiming for Excellence

Aim for excellence, not perfection.

Perfection can:

- Cost you time

- Increase anxiety

- Starve your creativity

- Prevent you from taking risks

If you seek perfection, you'll always be too early or too late, or not ready enough, or missing one last thing. It's is near impossible to reach perfection. You will die trying and be out of time in the process. If you wish to monetize your time, Excellence over Perfection every time.

Made in Pakistan (Hope for every one)

Pakistani mountaineer Shehroz Kashif summits 8,586m Kangchenjunga in Nepal, The third highest mountain in the world. He is first Pakistani to do so and also the youngest in the world.

His first climb was at the age of 11 when he climbed the 3,885-metre-high Makra Peak, followed by Musa Ka Musalla, a 4,080-metre-high mountain.

Continuing to train for longer and harder treks, he did the Gondogoro La K2 Base Camp trek at the age of 14 and at 15, he was able to complete the Khurdo Pin Pass (5,800m) trek. At 18, he did Khusar Gang, a 6,050m peak Alpine style.

Nepal, China and Pakistan are home to 14 of the world's highest peaks, called the 8,000ers.

One Last thing

Birkin Bags.

Birkin bags range from $8,500 to $2 million. When it comes to the bags themselves, Birkin prices — even among the same bag model — vary according to:

• Size: A Birkin’s size is always included in its name (usually in centimeters).

• Material: Different leathers have different prices, and exotic materials tend to be the most costly. In general, a canvas bag will cost less than a leather one in the same style and size.

• Hardware: For example, a Birkin sparkling with encrusted Swarovski crystals will leave your wallet emptier than one with shiny gold-plate accents.

• Limited-Edition Status: This often increases price.

• Custom-Order Status: A Birkin tailor-made for its toter means a custom-made (usually higher) price.

• Location: Prices may differ from country to country. Lower-end Birkins with plain hardware may retail for about $2,000 more in the United States than in Europe.

The origin story is far more fascinating than the current pricing structures.