Current GDP and Economy

The first thing to understand is that economic activity is just activity, and that just looking busy, doing more stuff, isn’t a useful goal in and of itself.

More people doing more stuff, moving things around, moving money around, stressing out, sending emails back and forth, hurrying from one place to another, having meetings, … Well yes, ok, it’s economic growth, sure. But… Is it achieving anything useful?

Sometimes. 
But often, a lot of that energy is wasted.

Imagine some people who don’t smoke. 
And they want to grow their economy. So they start working more, to plant tobacco, and to harvest and process it, and to transport it, and to advertise it, and to sell it. 
They end up with a growing consumption, growing sales, jobs, etc. 
Then they hire propaganda specialists and think tanks to cast doubt on the link between smoking and cancer, and they hire more advertisers to push it even more aggressively, promoting smoking as something healthy. 
And they also have to hire more doctors and nurses and build more hospitals to treat all the sick people dying of cancer. 
And they can have some random grifter writing ineffective self help books on how to stop smoking. 
And pharmacies selling nicotine patches.

Now it’s very obvious that the tobacco industry grows the overall economy. 
People end up working more, more taxes are paid, more profits are made, more people are sick, more nicotine patches are sold, etc. 
There is a lot of economic activity going on, people are doing stuff, money is changing hands, surgeons get paid to help lung cancer victims.

But… it’s not actually improving society.

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Some economic activity is useful. 
For example, if you want a house, the house needs to be built, so what the workers are doing is useful.

If you want to eat food, farmers need to grow food. 
So you can’t really have no economic activity at all.

But at some point, you hit diminishing returns. 
Working one job, so that you can afford to put food on the table, sure, that makes sense.

But if you already have a second job, so that you can fund some kind of sugar/soda/junk food addiction, where the farmers grow extra corn syrup, more than needed, and there are teams of people working to advertise the junk food to you as dishonestly as possible, and you consume more than needed, and your waist size keeps growing along with your weight and your consumption, and you are struggling to afford the healthcare and the insulin costs linked to your sugar addiction, and people are employed to push misinformation blaming fat for obesity, and coca cola funds misinformation saying it’s actually just about exercise and sugar isn’t to blame, and there are a zillion people selling ineffective diets and so on…

Well, all of that extra economic activity is “doing stuff”, money is changing hands, stuff is happening. 
But again: Is it really improving society, is it improving your life?

You could get a third job and try to struggle to afford some gambling addiction or something like that, so that more stuff is done, and more money is changing hands.

But again, is that really all that helpful?

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Personally, I find that if I consume a moderate amount of food, I’m actually happier than when I’m consuming more and more, and growing more and more obese.

I’ve never hit the point where the growing consumption of food and growing weight caused me to need growing amounts of healthcare services to deal with a growing number of chronic health issues.

But honestly, I’m really not interested at all in that kind of growth just for the sake of growing.

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Growing pollution, growing global temperatures, growing CO2 levels… 
It’s going to lead to more economic activity. 
As more natural disasters happen, people will have to rebuild more, people will have to leave there homes behind, other people will be building fences and concentration camps, there will be growing wars, just more and more panic and frenzy and stuff that is done.

But again: Are we really that desperate for something to do, that we want to create that much more work for ourselves?

What if we had a growing amount of free time instead of growing obesity? Would that really be so bad?

Someone who is just spending time with friends or family is not increasing the GDP or growing the economy. 
Someone who stops smoking, stops drinking, stops gambling, stops compulsively stress eating, and stops having so many chronic health issues, and instead meditates, and does bodyweight exercises at home, and has human relations, is shrinking the economy, hurting the addiction industry.

Is that really so bad?

Do we really need to ramp up the production of bombs and stuff like that, to produce ever more wars? 
I’m not saying we need 0 production of anything, but this whole cult of production and consumption for the sake of doing stuff and being active all the time, seems rather toxic. 
Instead of just trying to look busy doing something, we should think about what the actual goal is, no?

Promotion ?

 First, let us look at how Peter’s principle works. Peter principle - Wikipedia.

It states that the selection of a candidate for a position is based on the candidate's performance in their current role, rather than on abilities relevant to the intended role.

Thus, employees only stop being promoted once they can no longer perform effectively, and "managers rise to the level of their incompetence".

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• The biggest career mistake that people usually make is that they tend to over estimate their worth in the short term and underestimate their worth that is possible in the long term.
• Often many people end up in a sub optimum job (where they do not like either of work, co-workers, or boss), and do not move out of it, and think that they will get a promotion next year or so.
• Then when they do not get a promotion, they think that they have incurred one more year in the sunk cost, so they should stay for one more year, wait for a promotion, and then move.
• If they still not get one, then they tend to give up, and lower down their own performance(second biggest mistake) which is when it is even harder to get a promotion and that is exactly how they get stuck where they are.
• Then, family and multiple other obligations come up, and the likelihood of getting promoted or to find a better job goes down even further.
• Then, they enter a stagnation mindset, in which they spend multiple years.
• Eventually, companies do promote them, and this can all happen at least two to three times until eventually they make it to a position where they are not the most competent persons for the job, they are actually incompetent for them.
• Unfortunately they take up those roles(third biggest mistake) and ruin the companies they work for.

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How not to make these mistakes?

Thinking:

• In the initial years, it is often very tempting to think that you are really amazing. Unfortunately, you actually are not, so stop thinking you are amazing.
• Instead, focus on what will actually make you so amazing that you can do a job two levels above your job. Sure this will not happen overnight. This will happen in 10 years, but one must plan like that.
• In short, people should actually prepare themselves for two grades above where they are in terms of their thinking.
• That is, always think like your boss’s boss.

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Doing:

• To actually do the work, you should work as if you are your boss.
• Learn the technical things very systematically, and try to make everything really easy for your boss.
• Become the person who can train all others around you as if your boss was to do this task.
• Work very closely with customers and find out how you can satisfy them.
• Network with as many people as you can, and grow this way as much as possible in your current job.
• That is, always work like your boss.

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• If you succeed in thinking like your boss’s boss, and doing like your boss, then be assured, that you are sure to get promoted sooner than later.
• As soon as you get promoted, start thinking again about your boss’s boss and start working like your boss. Perhaps they are still the same persons, or probably different persons.

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• Always keep the enthusiasm alive, and never ever give up in your life.
• Sometimes promotions will happen on time, and sometimes not.
• Your work ethics are in your hands, but promotions really are not.
• Also, never tie your happiness with your promotions, otherwise you will never be happy.

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Now some people will say why not work on your own start-up? And I will say - sure that will certainly be amazing, but even then, this is how you really need to inspire people in your organization and you are sure to succeed.

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Stay blessed and stay inspired!

-Rohit Malshe 

The definition of entertainment of today's youth has become flawed

Now for them the entertainment is

1. Clubbing with friends and consuming alcohol.
2. Smoking weed.
3. Playing virtual Games like Pubg.
4. Get into relationship at a very early age
5. Watching useless TV serials like Big Boss.
6. Shopping for things which they don't need.
7. Social media scrolling for long hours.
8. Scrolling Dating websites.

Rather the entertainment has to be like:

1. Playing your favorite outdoor or indoor sport.
2. Dancing, singing, painting, sketching etc
3. Reading a good story book
4. Hitting the gym for daily fitness
5. Listening to podcasts on YouTube
6. Writing your experiences.
7. Creating some new Content for others to consume, like blogging etc.
8. Planning your next trip, which you want to do in near future.
9. Going out for an adventure activity with friends.
10. Learning some new skills like photography, musical instrument, cooking etc.

I do believe that today's youth has to be guided in the right direction. If youth themselves are reading this, then please try to change your definition of entertainment in line with the above 10 points.

Live life like a King !

-Nikhil Panwar

Please hear me out on this. This is so important

I don’t see myself getting married anytime soon (if ever.) But I’ve experienced this first hand.

If you are a woman who is married, about to get married, or even dreams of getting married, please make sure you have an education or a means to make money.

I understand if you want to be a stay-at-home mom or not be the main source of income. Feminism is about giving you that choice, and if it’s what you truly want, have at it.

But please for the sake of your future-have a side business, or an education, or some form of a career you can jump into if need be.

So many marriages start out great and progress into something completely different.

Maybe the man you wouldn’t dream could hurt a fly has no trouble taking his anger out on you.

Maybe he cheats on you.

Or maybe after 20 years you two have grown so far apart you no longer see a future together.

This is where your education and career is important.

If you have no career or money prospects, you’re essentially betting your entire livelihood on one man.

I’ve seen women who stay in horrible, abusive situations and relationships, simply because they have no other option. They feel trapped and extremely unhappy…but it’s all they’ve got. They’re living out a nightmare.

And I want you to be able to leave a relationship if that’s what you need.

I don’t want you to feel trapped within your own life. Suffocated. I don’t want you to have to put up with anything less than what you are worth.

So please, Find a way to make money if need be.

And if your relationship is going well, you’re still not exempt from a similar horror. Maybe he becomes extremely ill and is unable to work or passes away. How are you going to provide for yourself and your family?

Life has many ways of falling apart. I want you to be prepared for a it.

So please, Find a way to make money!

This goes without mentioning the stress this puts the man under. Honestly I feel as though this is a huge reason why men have a shorter life-span. With the man being so pressed to make a living, he may continue in a job he despises, stay away from a career that has high earning potential because of the low starting income, or worse yet completely give up on his dreams in life. It has a cost for all within the family.

I wish money didn’t rule the world…but it truly does.

(Sorry for the depressing read, I just really think it’s something that needs to be said. And sometimes, the things we need to hear are not what we want to hear. But they are still important.)

Genius ?

Genius doesn’t exist

Genius doesn’t exist.

I, like many people, just believed my brain wasn’t wired to do certain things or think certain ways. I thought I was just naturally bad at coding, thermodynamics, and learning languages among other things. I thought other people were more gifted than me in certain areas. A book I read changed that belief in me forever.

When human babies are born, we’re kind of idiots compared to the rest of the animal kingdom. A baby horse can walk, drink, and eat all by itself an hour after its born. Meanwhile, human babies can’t even stop themselves from drooling. This is actually really cool because we’re born to adapt to literally anything! If humans were born with the ability to dog sled, that’d be really useful in Alaska but pretty worthless in Thailand. If we were born with the ability to program computers, that’d be a super useful skill today but worthless 100 years ago. A horse is born with almost everything it’ll ever need to know in its lifetime where we’re hardwired to learn everything. We are the only species designed to adapt to any environment and any time period.

The way we learn skills is through something in our brain called myelin. Myelin acts as a sort of insulation. When we do something correctly, like swing a golf club well for the first time, neurons in our brain fire and signals myelin begins to wrap around those neural pathways. This myelin can wrap up to 50 times and it increases our processing power by 3,000 times. This is why when you begin to golf, you have to think of every step (raise the club over your head, keep your eye on the ball, keep your arms straight, etc) to swing correctly and your movements are awkward and slow. But two years down the road, after you’ve practiced a long time, you step up to the ball and swing without thinking, it’s natural. In fact you are thinking, you’re just thinking at 3,000 times the speed you used to because myelin insulated that circuit. You’re thinking so fast you don’t even know you’re doing it. This is how skills are made.

The implication of this is incredible. We’re all born as blank slates, therefore we’re all born at the same level, therefore we’re all capable of anything. Genius is a myth. Mozart, often called a musical genius, was estimated to have been exposed to 3,500 hours of musical training by his composer father by the time he was 6 years old. This puts his first composition at the realm of impressive but not unobtainable skill. Michelangelo trained under a master artist for ten years before he himself was allowed to create masterpieces. Savants, known for their ability to perform astronomical calculations in their heads, are able to practice calculations ceaselessly in their heads while appearing to be in a conversation or doing nothing. None of these people had or have superior brains, they just all had astronomical amounts of practice.

Well what about that person who just seemed to naturally learn calculus better than you? Myelin transfers. Neural circuits useful in one skill transfer to others. So though you both may have never studied calculus before, that person has learned a related subject that helped him pick this one up easier. That naturally athletic person has played a sport their whole lives that developed hand eye coordination which transferred to many sports. Nobody was naturally born better than you mentally, they just practiced in some way you haven’t.

I can learn anything and I know that now. I wasted too much time not trying things because I believed I couldn’t do them. This knowledge changed the way I approach everything. The question is no longer “Can I do it?” but rather “Am I willing to put in the time to learn it?”

-Charissa Enget

Education can make you millionaire

Education, especially awareness is very important.

Let me tell you an incident of what happened at our hospital during orthopedics posting.

A woman, 56 maybe, fractured her tibia ( leg bone) while climbing trees. She fell and landed on a hard surface causing this accident.

Being in immense pain, she decided to treat it at HOME. A fractured tibia treated at home…

Anyways, she did some kind of paste, massaged it with hot oil and what not. The pain didn't go (obviously, that's not even surprising).

So she visited some local quack, who gave her some kind of cream (probably steroidal cream) and few tablets of betamethasone( once again, a steroid). That quack knew that steroids have a good effect on pain, but little did he know that steroids kill the immune system, and if the patient is diabetic, then God save her!! She is going to develop serious infection.

Which is what exactly happened..

The pain subsided, but.. She developed high fever and a dirty abscess over that area(we call it acute osteomyelitis) , sign of sepsis turning to septic shock.

The day she was admitted, she had a fever of 104 degrees, which wasn't coming down even after repeated acetaminophens.

The TLC was 35000 ( normal is 4000–11000)

She was passing no urine, sign of kidney failure ( sure sign of septic shock).

It looked something like this.

Became delirious after few hours and breathless too. Had to intubate her.

Our orthopedician decided, that only amputating the leg can save her after she became a bit stable ( performing such big surgeries when the patient is in such bad condition is wayyy to risky)

Sadly she passed away that night only.

Cause if death :- sepsis with septic shock, dyselectrolytemia and Acute kidney injury.

It's was surprising for us, as how can someone die of just a fractured tibia.. That too a closed fracture.

Now, obviously people are going to comment that she couldn't afford going to hospital where X Ray costs 1000 and doctors visit is 2000.

Now let me tell you this.

The thing is, the PHC ( primary health center) was just 15 mins away from her home, and there, everything is done for FREE. A PHC treats these cases for free. Even they would have referred the patient to the nearby Govt Hospital for operation.

She could have gotten better if she knew not to trust quacks. She could have gotten better, only if she was aware of the facilities she could avail. She could have survived if she went to the free PHC.

Someone dying of a fracture is very rare and should never have happened.

That is why, awareness and education is necessary..!!

-Pallab Roy Chowdhury

 

1. Are my dreams truly mine? — people give in to society’s vision of what they should be.
2. If I had all the money and time in the world, what would I be doing? — these things will nurture you.
3. Are my friends and family keeping me stuck? — most times it’s the ones closest to us that hold us back.
4. What do I regret the most? — learn the lessons or it will keep happening.
5. What is calling me but I am afraid to do? — asking someone out, taking a trip, etc.
6. When was the last time I was ecstatic? — notice what you were doing.
7. What’s holding me back from my dreams? — it’s usually a bullshit story.
8. Why is it holding me back? — another bullshit story.
9. Why don’t I believe in myself? — take a chance on yourself.
10. Am I in a loop? — like the mundane existence of most people.

-Rafael Eliassen

You are your own ceo........

How can I become rich?

We’re 7.6 Billion people in the world.

Growth won’t stop anytime soon.

The population is projected to grow +1 billion in the next 10 years!

Millions wake up daily and hustle to become rich.

Millions are trying to do unethical things to become rich.

Millions are trying to get elected to a government position to become rich.

Millions are in college today to find that “secret recipe” for becoming rich.

How can I become rich (stand out) in this world among billions of people?

Let me explain with a soccer analogy:

This is a perfectly LEVELED playing field.

Which team will win?

Obviously the team with the best players.

Those with the best abilities.

Those gifted to be faster and stronger, plus who work hard to master the game.

Agreed?

The advantage is obvious; a team of professional players will always win over a small high school team.

This is exactly what millions are still learning in college today: how to become “professional” soccer players.

Now picture this playing field:

Now which team will win?

It’s NOT a fair game anymore, correct?

In business it’s called DISRUPTION!

The team that scores to the left goal has to go uphill to score.

The team that scores to the right goal will score with a fraction of the effort.

What does this mean?

The world HAS changed.

The economy HAS changed.

It’s virtually IMPOSSIBLE to achieve financial wealth if you still play as a normal “soccer player”.

To understand the new rules of the game you need to learn the new rules of the Digital Age and develop a new mindset.

Let me further explain:

Wealth is NOT created by hard work anymore.

IT’S ALL ABOUT LEVERAGE! You:

Leverage other people’s time.

Leverage other people’s money.

Leverage other people’s talents.

Leverage the power of scalable tools.

Welcome to the Digital Age! New economy! New game!

Ways of creating wealth have changed:

In the Agrarian Age, wealth originated from using nature.

In the Industrial Age, wealth originated from using machines.

In the Information Age, wealth originates from using information and knowledge.

To become rich you must master the new rules, the new opportunities and play the new game!

Let me talk about kids and young people and what can damage them the most

1. Long term emotional neglect. If you are neglected by caregivers — not touched, not treasured, not seen and barely noticed, your heart will die a little every day. You will either decide you have no value or you will do whatever it takes to get the attention you crave. Both will lead to disaster.
2. Long term emotional abuse. It sounds crazy, but this may be less damaging than complete neglect. It’s bad, but at least you are real and alive and seen. Still, like the neglected child, you may grow up to be hateful, abusive yourself, or you may seek out abusive relationships because that’s all you know.
3. Substance abuse in children and teens. This is much worse than for adults, because kids are wired to develop psychologically at a fairly rapid pace. Being stoned or drunk or high interrupts the course of development. We don’t get a second chance at childhood or adolescence, even if some of the damage can be repaired later.
4. Traumatizing experiences without adequate support. Long, serious illnesses, major accidents, and big losses like a nasty divorce, can interrupt healthy development. High conflict divorce is a double whammy because kids are hurt by parental conflict, and parents may disappear into their own issues, making matters worse.
5. Being different. Kids who feel different because they are too fat, or too slow, or too clumsy, or sexually different can really suffer. Often they get only generic pep talks that minimize their pain and sense of exclusion. In our evolution, being a member of the tribe meant survival, so kids long for it. Exclusion for long periods can be seriously damaging.

-David McPhee