That 2:30 Feeling

The media loves to paint pictures of the status quo. They love to tell you what's normal, including the pain, the drudgery, and the fatigue. These are facts of life, they say. No one likes working for someone else, but "ya gotta do what ya gotta do." Sure you'd love to eat healthy, but fast food is cheap and, well, fast.

Their partners in crime, consumer marketing, are then on hand to deliver solutions to the "problems." Have pain? Take pills. Don't like lots of pills? Take fewer pills, but always take them every day! In a rut? Lease a car! Tired? Got that 2:30 feeling? Drink caffeine. Hate the crash? Drink something worse.

The fact that so many of us can sympathize with the idea of a "2:30 feeling," ought to be a sign that something is very wrong. It is not normal to be tired at 2:30 in the afternoon.

As a culture, we have some seriously messed up habits. Some are for things we do, and others are for things we avoid. Mostly, however, an open minded and thorough investigation would reveal the following: We don't get enough well-rounded exercise. We eat, well, we eat toxins. We consume so many preservatives alone that our bodies hold up better than the casket (that might be an exaggeration, but you get the picture).

When we do stress our bodies, it is rarely in well-rounded and productive ways. We overexert at a moment's notice, never giving forethought to preparation. And I'd hazard a guess that many people would consider that exercise—I know I'm guilty.

If that isn't enough, the rest of our problems are directly self-inflicted through our lifestyles—and I'm not talking about alternative lifestyles. I mean even the most "straight" people (in whatever way), will stay up way too late. They skip breakfast, race through traffic, then stress out about whether or not the boss is going to say anything.

No wonder you're dead tired by 2:30!

Discipline and time-management skills are as important to fitness as good exercise and a balanced diet. Consuming excito-toxins, such as those found in conventional energy drinks is no more a solution to the real problem than is having a friend punch you in on time and hoping you don't get caught.

FEATURED PRODUCT: MonaVie Emv - The world's first all-natural energy drink. It gives up to 5 hours of energy with no jitters and no crash—the way food is supposed to work. It's a health drink that gives you energy.

FEATURED MEDIA: Fight Club - While quite dark and overdone, this movie is nonetheless a poignant portrayal of corporate frustration and a rage against consumerism. It serves as a platform for discussion by expressing violence usually boiling just below the surface of a passive-aggressive demeanor.

Hobbies: Creation is a Gift

Everyone has a hobby, but most of us never are able to devote enough time to it because we have to make a living. Mostly, perhaps, this hobby is something to blow off steam and forget the trials of your day-job. Maybe it would simply evaporate if you were suddenly endowed with a fortune.

Realistically though, I doubt it. It seems to me that what we spend our precious spare time on is, by proxy, also precious to us. Does it not follow that we would like to make money while doing our hobby—and lose the job?

Make certain you read that correctly. I said, "make money while doing your hobby." This is a distinct thing from making money by doing your hobby. The distinction lies in the independence of your hobby, and in your control over it. To make money by your hobby is to perform your skill for another person who commissions you. To make money while doing your hobby is to attract people who are interested in what you have created.

The first is dependent upon another person's permission, regardless of the freedom that person allows you. The second is dependent only on your own discovery of a good idea, and your personal willingness to execute the necessary performance.

The first is a trade—your skills for money—and therefore a zero balance. The second is a gift—you create because it fulfills you, then those who appreciate your art support you by paying you compliments, buying the souvenir, and referring you to others—and therefore goes way beyond the initial creation.

Good Intentions

Intentions are a very important part of human behavior. Almost any action can be judged as good or evil based upon our true intentions. Unfortunately, many of us only think we have good intentions, when we are actually self-deceived.

A recent incident is a good example of this. Without naming names, two people I know had an experience with this. They were planning to do a particular task, for which they would be paid $200—$100 to each man. The first man was happy to have a duo, but the second man suggested adding a third person (his son), to which the first agreed that it would improve matters. However, he said, the sum they were to be paid was too small to split three ways, and considering the distance they had to go, it was not worth adding a third man. The second man agreed to this reasoning.

It seemed it was settled that a third man would not be employed. However, the second man, went ahead and invited his son anyway. When the first man questioned this, the second replied that he would share his half with the third man (they would each get $50, while the first man would get the originally agreed upon $100). Seeing as it was the second man's son, it made sense that he was trying to help his son out financially—even a little.

The task was done, and done well. The second man accepted the payment, and gave the first man his share—$70... oops, wait. The second man had gone ahead and split the money three ways after all. Had the first man agreed to the second man's original assertion, there would have been no problem. Had the second man been more assertive about his desire to cut his son in on the money, there also would have been no problem.

The second man's actions of helping his son were good, but his intentions to pull a "fast one" were bad. This could have been miscommunication if it were an isolated incident, but this person has a history of similar stunts. He didn't personally get anything out of the deal (he lost $30), except the satisfaction of being a smooth-operator.

If a good action is to be supported by good intentions, then it must be transparent. What is the point of tricking someone into helping you help someone else. That just ruins the whole point of giving.

FEATURED MEDIA: Leadership and Self-Deception - Told as a fictional story, this book explores the intentions of people's hearts and how self-deception can ruin a business, a marriage, a life.

LOST: The Unanswered Questions—Revisited

It has been a little over two weeks since the series finale of LOST—the show that redefined television for me. As I was working on my understanding of Truth in Fiction, I was pleasantly surprised by some developments in Season 3 which began to sync up with my theories. From there, the show took the reins of my imagination, drawing me into deeper analysis than I thought possible (or necessary) at the time.

Truth in Fiction demands depth of story and depth of characters. It must be able to challenge the audience through repeated tellings. It must stand up to close scrutiny. It must connect the details to significance. The show does this beautifully, and continues to do so as fans begin to re-watch the series from beginning to end in light of "The End."

To many, myself included, the ending was a bit disappointing because it did not answer many questions. However, the interesting lesson here about Truth in Fiction is that discussion and imagination are paramount to a true liberal education. If LOST had answered many of the unanswered questions, it would have—for the first time—destroyed the integrity of what it does best.

My final verdict is that any disappointment felt at the end of LOST is caused by a misunderstanding of the show's purpose. We have been trained by mainstream media to allow the programming to passively inform us. We are not used to television challenging us to answer the questions ourselves.

Therefore, I encourage you to revisit the unanswered questions post and give me your own thoughts on the questions, or ask ones I didn't cover. Let's start a dialog. That is the most important thing.

FEATURED MEDIA: Preorder the final season!

Cognitive Surplus and the Appreciators

This month's Wired Magazine has an article which is extremely relevant to our cause. Wired contributing editor, Daniel Pink, author of Drive, goes head to head with Clay Shirky, author of Cognitive Surplus, about the themes common between their respective works. Basically, Drive points out that traditional "carrot or stick" methods of reward and punishment are not the only motivators—in fact, they're not even the best.

Pink and Shirky agree that people are more motivated by internal drives, in a word their "interests." This is not limited to monetary gains, as a superficial capitalistic definition would suggest, but includes rewards that are priceless. It is the joy of the journey, as it were, that motivates much "extracurricular" activities such as the writing of fan fiction and the editing of Wikipedia. Indeed, the increasing number of Wikis (wikia.com) devoted to fan-created content about any number of stories and products should serve as an indication that fan fiction and open-source encyclopedias are merging already.

Shirky's book argues that, while his generation spent much of its free time sitting in front of the television, consuming time, many members of the younger generations are using their spare time online to create things—rather than to just waste time. This is what he calls "cognitive surplus"—free thought that is not being put to use by a job, but is nonetheless being put to use for productive, rather than consumptive means.

This fits with what FITmedia is intending to do. Though they rail against television media in its current form, it is important to remember that we seek to change the purpose of the medium, thus fitting it to a more productive use. In order to do this, we must encourage and employ the cognitive surplus of fans of the medium.

This is the fourth (and most populated) lobe of the FITmedia model. Überfans make up a group I have off-and-on referred to as the Appreciators. I've spent a lot of time describing the other three, which likewise have names (Orchestrators, Promoters, and Developers), but have not had a platform to discuss the active role of the fans until now.

There is no better way to learn the truth about fiction, which is the very truth of human nature, I believe, than to go directly to the fans for help creating the stories they—not advertisers—want to see put into existence. The open-source community (in which I include wikipedia.org and wikia.com, among a throng of freeware programmers) creates because it is the right thing to do. They create because the world needs what they can give, and the world is a better place because of it.

When the world is a better place, opportunities flourish, freelance gigs abound, and new jobs are created. The new age we find ourselves in is one of giving before getting. If we improve ourselves, we'll improve the world. If we improve the world, everything will be just gravy.

May '10: The Month in Posts

This month saw the end of television history. LOST came to a close. And while I will spare you in this post from further mourning, I do hope these posts will spark your imagination about what is possible in media in the years ahead knowing that such an epic drew an earnest überfanbase. Enjoy.

A Story is a Cypher - May 11, 2010

Give your audience all the secrets of your story, but give it to them in code. Then treat the remainder of your tale as that code's key. The earlier you give this information, the more concise you have to be, and the more central the symbols you use are. (read more)

What If You Got Paid? - May 16, 2010

There was a time when people were self-sufficient. They worked only when there was work to be done. The rest of the time they spent with their families and friends. Now we have debt and other financial obligations. We have to work to meet these obligations. We do it begrudgingly because somewhere inside we know that most of these obligations could have been avoided with better information and planning. (read more)

Battles of Heart and Mind - May 30, 2010

Certainly, the veterans of physical warfare, remembered at Arlington National Cemetery and other places, are the most obvious heroes to memorialize. However, there are many more unsung heroes: those both of ages and battles past, and of present battles fought in everyday life. I'm talking about the battles of heart and mind. Many people live in the grip of ignorance and fear. Many more live with a knowledge base that keeps them afraid. To do anything of significance, fear must be overcome. (read more)

Faith and Fences

There is a difference between religion and faith. Religion is a set of rituals, stories, and artifacts. It is the science of remembering one's faith. Faith is a set of principles—irrevocable, inalienable laws of human conduct.

As such, faith is difficult to grasp by itself. Therefore, it manifests itself in religious practices. On the whole, religion does not exist only in a church, synagogue, or masque—nor does it require them as anchor points. In its most general definition, it does not even have to be a matter of theology, but perhaps one of ideology. Every tribe has its ideals.

The problem comes when religion is followed in lieu of any faith. Without faith, the rituals of religion are merely handicaps. The routines are just meaningless routines. The artifacts become mere trinkets. The stories, while still entertaining, lose their fire with repeated tellings.

Lack of faith leads to a scarcity mentality—the feeling that resources are finite and running out. Ironically, this mentality kills the courage which is required to make the bold moves necessary to grow resources into abundance. It is the role of free thinking media creators to liberate others' minds from such a mentality.

Sometimes, it is possible to change the system from within, but other times it is necessary to begin anew. Performers are leaders who rekindle the fire of dying religions—those which lack faith, and those which are tyrannically rigid. Creators are leaders who start a new fire where there is no fixed religion, or where there is so much schism that a new order is needed.

For our media to become useful to a free and democratic society, it must begin to focus its stories on the division between a true heart of faith and empty religious rituals. This need not be theistic, but it requires a belief in something, even if it's belief in one's own abilities.

FEATURED MEDIA: Rabbit-Proof Fence - When the "protector" of Australian aboriginal people places three young girls in a camp where he intends to "civilize" them with the religion of the whites, they escape. To find their way home, they follow (on faith) the 1500 mile long "rabbit-proof fence" which divides the continent.