I work with the general public everyday - and I read things here on Cougarboard - and at my older age I'm really surprised about how stuff goes over people heads and they don't see the world as it really is - it's as though they're spectators to the happenings around them and their life is a continual entertainment event - one thing after another. They think they're here on Earth for the sole purpose of being entertained. They forget about educating themselves about how to function more fully in a complex world.

A good question to always ask yourself is - Why is this person saying this to me - and what is their motivation? What's my best course of response?

This is where it gets interesting - "how do you respond to the things around you?" That "response" is literally the core of who you are as a person. You're not really a person as much as you are a complex pattern of responses to those around you. You're just a biomass of decaying material and a reaction/response. You are a response machine - a free agency response machine.

Over the last few months - years actually - the same question of advertising comes up. "Why did they choose that guy for the Dr Pepper commercials?" "What are those Hampsters and what do they have to do with a car?" "I want that product because "it's 50% off." People just don't get advertising - how to do it, and why it works. The story is told of the early days of NIKE when Phil Knight didn't want to spend money on advertising because he couldn't quantify it to growth in sales. He didn't trust advertising. Now 40+ years later, Nike is a virtual ad campaign with their logo on the bottom of shoes so when an athlete is on the ground you can see the logo and think NIKE. Learn what advertising is and develop an appropriate response to it. Figure it out - why do they do that?

Another is the time value of money. I've heard dozens of people on here speaking as though they're beneath something because of the amount of money they make. Another buggy thing is how people give up without trying. They're unfamiliar with something, and so they never engage in learning how to do something because their time is too valuable. It never occurs to them that being a well rounded person is the ability to manage the machines in your life without having to call in a specialist to fix your problem. It's a good thing to know how to do the basics in your life - like replacing a dryer element on the back of your dryer - or even knowing that when the dryer is not blowing hot air it's because the element is burnt out and needs to be replace for $39 rather than paying a repairman $200 to do it for you.

Rereading this - seems a bit of a ramble - or old man grumble - but it's posted with good intentions. If you read this and it's not for you - good job - you've arrived and this is pointless. If you've wondered lately - what's going on in the world and how does this effect me? You're on the right track. If you're irritated by this post - well there you go.

How's this for a random thought of the day?