When we look around at the land we’re standing on, we see the plains and hills and valleys of what is considered a normal landscape and we think that it is all there is for us right there. How boring is that? It’s because we know that there are other, truly magnificent scenes out there on this world…soaring mountains and thunderous 1,000 foot waterfalls, amazing islands with pirate-ready cutout bays, intricately carved canyons following rivers of deep green waters and frothy white rapids…

…and we look at the dirt beneath our feet and think, if only…

But what we don’t see in that dirt is the billions of years it took for it to be there. The mile deep seas that washed over it with millions of creatures filtering down into its depths, the 2 mile thick glacier that ground it down and carved it’s valleys, the empty dry winds that carried sand and debris for thousands of miles to drop into sculpted piles right where we’re standing…the sometimes beautiful, sometimes horribly scary animals that lived, mated, burrowed, raced across and died in that dirt.

We only see “now”.

Wherever we are, anywhere on this planet, we are only standing at an infinitesimally small portion of its lifecycle. When we broaden our horizons and try to look past our own understanding, we are able to see the full length of its magnificence and can be truly amazed at what we find.

Just like people. When we look at someone or even know them for a length of time, we tend to see the “now” version…but if we broaden our horizons and try to look past our own understanding, we are able to see the full length of their magnificence. We are able to see the arc of their life and know that whatever is “now” is an infinitesimally small portion of who they are…who we are…

…and most important, one day who we all can be.

Believe. Go. Do.

~TrevorZen

In a 2004 psychological study, a couple thousand engineers were asked to rate their performance and almost 40% rated themselves in the top 5%. Think about that. People whose careers are all about deeply understanding properties are completely deluded about their own properties. The facts are that out of 100 people only 5 can be in the top 5% while 40 think they are there.

Don’t laugh, you do it too.

Psychologists call this tendency toward an inflated self-assessment the “above average affect” and we are all guilty of it because that is how our brains are built. In fact, it is kept us alive the last million years or so. Instead of viewing evidence and then forming conclusions, we tend to form conclusions then look for evidence to support them. This has had the effect of us striving to modify our environment versus modifying ourselves—making weapons for instance where our hands are not adequate to help us feed our families—and has allowed us to become the apex predator.

Now think about how this affects what we do every day, day in and day out, and you can see that it’s not an insignificant thing.

When your brain tells you that you are better at doing something than reality will eventually show that you are, you cannot help but be disappointed in yourself after the fact. The problem is that your disappointment is disconnected from the fact that your brain lied to you. “Dammit! How could my brain lie to me like that!”

…said no one ever.

What happens next is that you’re not exactly sure why you’ve failed and why you’re so disappointed and angry—and apparently no one jumps to the conclusion that it is their own fault—so logically you turn that anger away from yourself and blame external sources; the sun was in your eyes….the crowd was too noisy…they didn’t teach what was on the test…other people’s fault basically. Think of this the next time you invariably fail at something where you were absolutely convinced you were going to succeed…

…and don’t believe everything your brain tells you.

Believe. Go. Do.

~TrevorZen

What is the difference between perfection and imperfection?

Considering that perfection is an ideal and does not exist—simply because the universe is not strong or big or tough enough to create and hold it—and considering that imperfection is everything else, the difference is…

…you.

Believe. Go. Do.

~TrevorZen

The exact moment you stop lying to yourself is the same moment the need to lie to others simply disappears.

Believe. Go. Do.

~TrevorZen

When people say, “If you have nothing to hide you have nothing to worry about,” about the government spying, I am simply aghast with disbelief. It’s just so hard for my feeble little mind to comprehend that there are people that actually think this way. It’s something I can’t rationalize because it makes no sense and there is no justifiable excuse. I am compelled to ask “Do you want the government to know who you voted for…or will vote for? Which political party you give money to…or you refuse to give any party money? That you have a genetic disease…or cancer? Do you want the government to know how many times a month you have sex with your spouse…how many times a week you masturbate?”

Why don’t these people care about their privacy? Don’t they know that privacy is the absolute cornerstone to freedom and liberty? Now I’m not some tinfoil hatted conspiracy theorist but do they really believe that the government is their friend and will always look out for their best interest?

Really?

And what makes their best interest is more important than one of the other 400 million or so citizens? Our interests cannot be the same so one group will suffer from the best interests of another group…that is just an inevitable fact…and it is exactly why privacy is so important to us.

Or should be.

If you watch science fiction movies, especially the older ones, you’ll notice that the spaceships are sleek with swept back wings and slender, needle-like noses. Very aerodynamic…with the operative word being Aero. In those movies, the machines that are meant to travel in deep space between stars are designed to efficiently slice through atmosphere.

As in air.

That doesn’t exist in space.

Um…yeah.

So think about this when you’re contemplating a problem that needs to be solved. The information you have now—like the negative effect that air has against rockets flying efficiently or far—may not be the information you actually need to solve the problem. In fact, using the wrong information, even if it’s the only information you have, may make your problem worse. Sometimes you have to wait for the right information before you try to solve your problem.

All of the time you have to check that the information is correct…

…before you fly into space.

Believe. Go. Do.

~TrevorZen

Understand this; we want our answers to be easy. We want them to be simple to the point of infantile so that we can be completely and utterly sure that they are right…that they will do the job but, much more importantly, that we understand them. Answers that require us to think, to reason, to weigh choices are the worst because those answers seem as hard as the questions!

They make us feel that there might be two or three different ways to interpret them therefore we feel confused, unsure…inadequate…and ultimately unhappy because of our discomfort. We want our answers to be simple and to the point because society—corporations and the government via the media barrage we are subjected to, every minute of every day—has trained us to believe that it is hard to think, that it is too difficult to determine the best choice among many.

So we search for simple. And safe.

We seek out the easy answer because society doesn’t want us to think. Thinking gets in the way of controlling us and if we are not controllable then political parties and corporate marketing departments have no use for us. By engaging in deliberative thought, we mean nothing to their polls and surveys and we definitely don’t increase their revenue margins or their voting blocks.

Basically, thinking renders us useless and unusable by society.

I’m OK with being useless. You should too.

Believe. Go. Do.

~TrevorZen

Almost 7 billion people on this planet…imagine a meteorite lands in L.A. tomorrow with a rapidly reproducing virus that we have no protection from. Zero. When it hits it creates a city sized dust cloud quickly spreading it’s deadly payload including LAX…which spreads the virus to the rest of the world. Gestation is 3-4 days and by the end of the week half the population is gone. By the end of the month 90% of humanity is no more.

By July 4^th you believe that you are the only one alive on Earth.

When the meteorite hit you were on vacation at an “all included” spa that runs on wind and solar energy…there is canned and frozen food enough to last until you are old. Past the point you might commit suicide. There’s a book and DVD library, several clothes stores…you have everything you need but you are alone and will be until you die. On the day you realize this, that you are alone forever, are you a different person from who you were before?

Does that fact that no one has any expectations of you change who you are?

No one to tell you that cannot do that…you cannot sing that…you cannot build that. Simply; you cannot, cannot, cannot. If there is no one left on the planet to tell you that something you want to do is impossible despite your obvious effort and interest…

…does that mean you can?

Believe. Go. Do.

~TrevorZen

Here’s something amazing to think of…you. Imagine the million years or so of evolution, a massive trial and error process with billions of your ancestors, that it took to get all of the right cells in place, at exactly the right time, in order for you to be sitting where you are, reading this right now.

The billions of years before that for what is the essence of you—63% Oxygen, 20% Carbon, 10% Hydrogen, 3%Nitrogen, 1.5% Calcium, 1.0% Phosphorus, 0.25% Potassium, 0.2% Sulfur, 0.1% Chlorine, 0.1 % Sodium—to percolate out of the supernova of stars and travel thousands of light-years to ultimately converge upon the infinitely small point in space that is you.

Utterly amazing…who said you’re not lucky?

The most amazing thing of all is to know that what is singularly needed—the only essential thing—for you to take those billions and billions of cells and create the person you are today is an idea of who you believe yourself to be. That’s it. You believe you are and you are…and all of those intricately amazing processes within your body follow that belief like an orchestra, individual instruments playing their own parts but together producing the incredibly beautiful concert that is you.

Bravo! Brava!

Don’t be embarrassed to take a bow…

Believe. Go. Do.

~TrevorZen