Deep Thoughts by Jack Handy on "Rich Dad, Poor Dad," and Personal Attractiveness
Reading, Learning and Teaching
I finished reading Rich Dad, Poor Dad last night and I am now officially part of its cult. It was enormously inspiring! I'm even thinking of rereading it right away before I return it to the library. I openly recommend this book to everyone. Wow! It's also given me a list of new reads I want to sink my teeth into, and I'm actually making a list. One thing I'd like to learn more about is buying foreclosure properties in real estate. I've known people who did this, friends and coworkers. What little I've read tells me there are certainly good deals to be had. I've always had something of an emotional opposition to it, however, as if it's taking advantage of someone else's misfortune. I have not entirely shed that notion, but I think I'm getting there. This is one reason I'd like to read up on it a little more. Since I liken this feeling to buying a house that's haunted, I think having more knowledge of how this works will help exorcise those ghosts. I don't even know if you get to make an offer contingent on a satisfactory inspection when you buy a foreclosure property. I'd like to know more.
Rich Dad, Poor Dad illustrates to me a point Ian has made about some of his art education at the Guildhall. The people teaching him are so enormously talented naturally that sometimes they're not conscious of how they do things. For example, in his anatomy class, the instructor went into excruciating detail about certain muscles and joints, etc., and then would conclude with, "and then you draw the rest of the arm," as if it's obvious. To some of the students, it is obvious. They couldn't explain, either, how they draw the rest of the arm, they just do. If you weren't born with the innate knowledge of how to draw a human arm, however, that sort of non-instruction can be frustrating. The author of this book thinks similarly about finance. Much of this is intuitive to him, and I'm not sure he realizes he has blind spots in his teaching, particularly around the "how." At the end of the book, he presents a chapter that's ostensibly a "to do list." But none of it are actions at all, they're all philosophies behind actions. The next chapter is, "No really, here's an actual to do list," where he admits that maybe the last chapter wasn't sufficiently specific, so here's a real to do list... but he gets a few items into it, and then falls back to mindset and philosophy rather than action. I know he's published two more books in this series, and I wonder if he's saving the actual itemized instruction for the other books? And/or I'm just dense and prefer more hand holding than his "Go educate yourself so you don't need hand holding" philosophy offers?
Personal Attractiveness
This is just the door opening to these questions and this topic for meditation -- not finished thoughts. I don't have answers yet. I'm just working up the questions.
Through totally separate influences in conversation with friends and reading LiveJournal entries recently, I've been thinking a lot about personal attractiveness lately. I should note that this is really an objective meditation on the concept, not specifically about my own level of attractiveness. They are two entirely different thought processes, after all.
Someone on my reading list posted some thoughts recently which made me question how I react to people who are "pretty" -- This is my term here, not the original poster's. Do I respect people who care about their appearance and "make the most of it," whatever that may mean -- work out for appearance's sake, fix their hair, wear attractive clothing, do their nails, whatever. Do I care when those qualities are present or when they're absent? My early thoughts here tell me that when I see someone who's making an obvious effort to pretty themselves up on a daily basis, I think they're trying to attract others. Maybe they're looking for a mate, maybe they want to impress everyone around them. I don't often think about this consciously, but I have thought about it. Actually, I think it may have the opposite of the intended effect on me: I think that person is insecure about how they're received, or I think they might be vain and shallow.
I tend to equate vanity with being shallow.
Now what I want to delve into more deeply is the question of why I feel this way. Since I'm not one of those people, is it envy speaking? Competition? Sour grapes? It might be, at least in part. I don't think so, but it's such an obvious thought, I have to consider it?
Do I look down on people who look good? I don't think so... but do I? Wouldn't that be a kick in the pants!
I welcome others' thoughts on this issue. It's an interesting one to me lately.
Later, alligators,
T$
I finished reading Rich Dad, Poor Dad last night and I am now officially part of its cult. It was enormously inspiring! I'm even thinking of rereading it right away before I return it to the library. I openly recommend this book to everyone. Wow! It's also given me a list of new reads I want to sink my teeth into, and I'm actually making a list. One thing I'd like to learn more about is buying foreclosure properties in real estate. I've known people who did this, friends and coworkers. What little I've read tells me there are certainly good deals to be had. I've always had something of an emotional opposition to it, however, as if it's taking advantage of someone else's misfortune. I have not entirely shed that notion, but I think I'm getting there. This is one reason I'd like to read up on it a little more. Since I liken this feeling to buying a house that's haunted, I think having more knowledge of how this works will help exorcise those ghosts. I don't even know if you get to make an offer contingent on a satisfactory inspection when you buy a foreclosure property. I'd like to know more.
Rich Dad, Poor Dad illustrates to me a point Ian has made about some of his art education at the Guildhall. The people teaching him are so enormously talented naturally that sometimes they're not conscious of how they do things. For example, in his anatomy class, the instructor went into excruciating detail about certain muscles and joints, etc., and then would conclude with, "and then you draw the rest of the arm," as if it's obvious. To some of the students, it is obvious. They couldn't explain, either, how they draw the rest of the arm, they just do. If you weren't born with the innate knowledge of how to draw a human arm, however, that sort of non-instruction can be frustrating. The author of this book thinks similarly about finance. Much of this is intuitive to him, and I'm not sure he realizes he has blind spots in his teaching, particularly around the "how." At the end of the book, he presents a chapter that's ostensibly a "to do list." But none of it are actions at all, they're all philosophies behind actions. The next chapter is, "No really, here's an actual to do list," where he admits that maybe the last chapter wasn't sufficiently specific, so here's a real to do list... but he gets a few items into it, and then falls back to mindset and philosophy rather than action. I know he's published two more books in this series, and I wonder if he's saving the actual itemized instruction for the other books? And/or I'm just dense and prefer more hand holding than his "Go educate yourself so you don't need hand holding" philosophy offers?
Personal Attractiveness
This is just the door opening to these questions and this topic for meditation -- not finished thoughts. I don't have answers yet. I'm just working up the questions.
Through totally separate influences in conversation with friends and reading LiveJournal entries recently, I've been thinking a lot about personal attractiveness lately. I should note that this is really an objective meditation on the concept, not specifically about my own level of attractiveness. They are two entirely different thought processes, after all.
Someone on my reading list posted some thoughts recently which made me question how I react to people who are "pretty" -- This is my term here, not the original poster's. Do I respect people who care about their appearance and "make the most of it," whatever that may mean -- work out for appearance's sake, fix their hair, wear attractive clothing, do their nails, whatever. Do I care when those qualities are present or when they're absent? My early thoughts here tell me that when I see someone who's making an obvious effort to pretty themselves up on a daily basis, I think they're trying to attract others. Maybe they're looking for a mate, maybe they want to impress everyone around them. I don't often think about this consciously, but I have thought about it. Actually, I think it may have the opposite of the intended effect on me: I think that person is insecure about how they're received, or I think they might be vain and shallow.
I tend to equate vanity with being shallow.
Now what I want to delve into more deeply is the question of why I feel this way. Since I'm not one of those people, is it envy speaking? Competition? Sour grapes? It might be, at least in part. I don't think so, but it's such an obvious thought, I have to consider it?
Do I look down on people who look good? I don't think so... but do I? Wouldn't that be a kick in the pants!
I welcome others' thoughts on this issue. It's an interesting one to me lately.
Later, alligators,
T$