Elbert Hubbard

Freedom is a condition of mind, and the best way to secure it is to breed it.

Perhaps this is a necessary condition, but not sufficient. ;)

Good advices

The INTELLIGENT LIFE magazine published in January/February 2012 an article I liked a lot: 60 years with the same job. Freeman Dyson an 88 year old quantum physicist answered the following questions, which are worth reading:

1. Q: Why did you remain hard at work?

I continue working because I agree with Sigmund Freud’s definition of mental health. To be healthy means to love and to work. Both activities are good for the soul, and one of them also helps to pay for the groceries.

2. What were your strengths and weaknesses now compared with earlier in your career?

In my younger days my work as a scientist was deep and narrow. Now, as I grow old, my work grows broader and shallower. As a young man, I solved technical problems of interest only to a few specialists. As an old man, I write books about human affairs of interest to a broad public. In both halves of my life, I tried to make the best use of my limited abilities.

3. What advice would you give to those who have been working for (a) one year, and (b) 30 years?

(a). Advice to people at the beginning of their careers: do not imagine that you have to know everything before you can do anything. My own best work was done when I was most ignorant. Grab every opportunity to take responsibility and do things for which you are unqualified.

(b). Advice to people at the middle of their careers: do not be afraid to switch careers and try something new. As my friend the physicist Leo Szilard said (number nine in his list of ten commandments): “Do your work for six years; but in the seventh, go into solitude or among strangers, so that the memory of your friends does not hinder you from being what you have become.”

"The ability to learn from failure is critical to making progress" - HBR 2006

How responsible are you?

The more you know, and the less you do, the worse it gets...

Desilusión y desencanto

Conforme va pasando el tiempo, la vida va quitándonos a golpes - o sí no, al menos con tragos muy amargos - aquella inocencia que ya no creíamos tener, reduciendo poco a poco esa fé que nos hace ser idealistas y creer en un mundo mejor.

Dicen que a los verdaderos amigos se les puede contar con tan sólo una mano. Yo tenía, o tengo, mis dudas al respecto. Pero todo indica que de aquellos que tenías en un pedestal, que admirabas y en los que confiabas ciegamente, ellos no son tanto como imaginabas, o simplemente te habían mostrado su mejor cara. Es triste ver el otro lado de la moneda, ver su realidad animal. Pero bueno, al mal paso darle prisa.

Siempre he querído creer que es mejor confiar en las personas, hasta que demuestren que no son dignos de confianza. Sólo hay una oportunidad. Antes de actuar irracionalmente, antes de dejarse manipular por otras personas, piensen bien lo que pueden perder al hacerlo, lo que pueden destruir con sus palabras, con sus estúpidas acciones que no valen un carajo. Piensen bien, piensen más de un par de minutos, reflexionen; que las palabras hieren, y dejan siempre cicatríz. Si hieren a uno de los míos, me hieren a mí.

¿Nunca han sentido que enloquecen?

¿Qué pasaría si el cuerpo no nos limitara la mente?

¡Qué fugaz es esta vida!