Stay on Offense Climb Mountains

Attacking Adversity

Bookish Weapon Number Thirty-Three

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This bookish weapon is a potent one. It is an older book, written in 2009, but even more relevant today. It is called “Rapt.,” by Winifred Gallagher.

With everyone on their smartphones this book will be a welcome tool for you to help yourself focus and as Gallagher says, “…your life-who you are, what you think, feel, and do, what you love-is the sum of what you focus on.” And, “In contrast, the things that you don’t attend to in a sense don’t exist, at least not for you.”

More Focus

There is so much talk of happiness. How do we achieve it? Can it even be a goal or should it be? Gallagher says, “…you cannot always be happy, but you can almost always be focused, which is the next best thing.”

She defines the book’s title by saying it means, “completely absorbed, engrossed, fascinated, perhaps even “carried away.” It is important to choose your “targets” for your focus. She says that your decision is critical. “Deciding what to pay attention to for this hour, day, week, or yer, much less a lifetime, is a peculiarly human predicament, and your quality of life largely depends on how you handle it.”

Gallagher says,”..when you lose focus, your mind tends to fix on what could be wrong with your life instead of what’s right…” and I think it is largely because we are always looking for the threats to us.

Feelings

How do our feelings affect our focus? There is a whole chapter in the book and it is entitled, “Inside Out: Feelings Frame Focus.” As recent studies confirm we are drawn to the negative. You have heard of ANTs – Automatic Negative Thoughts? Gallagher puts it this way, “…we pay more attention to unpleasant feelings such as fear, anger, and sadness because they’re simply more powerful than the agreeable sort.” From what I have read elsewhere this is because our reptilian brain is trying to recognize a threat and keep us alive. Do you question this? Well, you will be interested to know a little fact about your birthday. She says, Here is the icing on the cake: on your birthday, you’re up to 20 percent more likely to have a heart attack, perhaps prompted by fears of aging or disappointed hopes.”

However, there is good news. “Paying attention to positive emotions literally expands your world, while focusing on negative feelings shrink it.” So focus on the positive. “When you feel frightened, angry, or sad, reality contracts until whatever is upsetting you takes up the whole world – at least the one between your ears.” Understanding this really helps you prepare for the fight.

Old Age

What do young people focus on vs what old people focus on? This was interesting. She says young folks focus on the future and new experiences and old people “emotional satisfaction in the here and now.” She quotes psychologist Laura Carstensen who says, “Age does not entail the relentless pursuit of happiness, but rather the satisfaction of emotionally meaningful goals, which involves far more than simply “feeling good.” I would say, I suppose so, but I like new experiences and adventures still. I am probably the odd old person or just not as mature as most of my peers. However, many older people think they know it all and they close their minds to new ideas.

Decisions

She says we pay attention to the wrong things during the decision making process. Focusing on the easy way instead of considering second and third level consequences. “Our thinking gets befuddled not so much by our emotions as by our “cognitive illusions” or mistaken intuitions, and other flawed, fragmented mental constructs.” She quotes Daniel Kahneman frequently. In reference to a financial situation he says, “If you focus too much on each issue separately, considering each loss and gain in isolation, you make mistakes.”

You have two selves. One is the “experiencing self” which focuses on the present. Then you have an evaluative “remembering self” that looks back on the experience. This second self is relying on memory which is not so reliable. That messes us up. Kahneman says, “Nothing in life is as important as you think it is while you are thinking about it, Why? “Because you are thinking about it.” The bold is mine.

Just like focusing too much on your memories to help you make decisions, the effects of adaptation (getting used to a situation) impacts our decisions. You are used to a job and forget the good things about it because it has become routine. So you quit and go somewhere else only to find out you had it pretty good in the other job but had gotten used to it. Kahneman puts it this way, “Forgetting that you’ll eventually stop paying attention to a new thing can skew not just big decisions about the future, but also the small ones that quietly but profoundly affect your present well being.”

Multitasking

Easy as flipping a pancake or a myth? She says, “…multitasking for most piratical purposes is a myth, and that heeding its siren call leads to inefficiency and even danger.” Amen to that!

Sometimes if you are used to doing many things at once and have done so for years you may just not realize the impact it has on you. “…there’s a risk: if you grow up assuming you can pay attention to several things at once, you may not realize that the way in which you process such information is superficial at best…and stunted your capacity for serious thought.”

Finally

There s a great section about diet and how the right focus can help you and much more so as always, get the book.

Go Hiking And Be Aware

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How hard could it be to be aware when your hiking? You have to pay attention or you fall. Of course, Anthony De Mello is not talking about that kind of awareness. He says it is the kind where you don’t care whether you live or die. I reviewed his book and you can read more about it there.

So I will take a little license here to just discuss awareness when it comes to hiking.

Nature

When you are in nature you are going back to your roots as a human. It is, after all where we all lived our lives many moons ago. Now we are surrounded by concrete and skyscrapers. It is far from natural.

One could argue that cars and concrete require a lot of awareness. You have to avoid being hit by a car. But it is actually awareness filled with distractions. People looking at their phones. You are really not aware.

Cell Phones

These devices are not just in the city. People take them on hikes. That would be fine if they left them in their pocket for emergencies, but they don’t. I see people talking on their phone while hiking up a trail. Please don’t do that. It insults your surroundings!

How can you be aware of wild things or dangers if you are on your phone? It is a deadly habit in the woods. I remember an instance when I was running down a trail and came upon a young lady with earpieces in place. She couldn’t hear me coming. So I scared her and she screamed. Good thing I was not a bear.

I suppose it will be much better when instead of the cell phone we all have the chip in our head and will be scrolling Instagram in our mind. Just as dangerous I would presume, but what do I know about chips in our heads?

In the meantime, keep the phone in your pocket until you want to take a picture. Listen to the wind in the trees and the silence. Be aware of your surroundings.

Bookish Weapon Number Thirty-Two

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This book, “Awareness,” by Anthony De Mello was written some time ago but has received recent accolades from the likes of Tim Ferriss and others. There is a good reason for it. He was certainly one of the first proponents of mindfulness although he didn’t call it that.

The book is short with big ideas. Sometimes those are the best kind. You can just read them over and over again.

Sleeping

De Mello says most people are asleep. He says, “They never understand the loveliness and the beauty of this thing we call human existence.” He goes on to say that “all Mystics, Catholic, Christian, non-Christian, no matter what their theology, no matter what their religion – are unanimous on one thing: that all is well, all is well.”

Insights abound in this book. Being asleep is discussed throughout the book and he makes a point that people do not want to “be cured.” “What they want is relief; a cure is painful.” “Most people go to a psychiatrist or psychologist to get relief. I repeat: to get relief. Not to get out of it.” So he says you need to “realize that you don’t want to wake up.”

You

Here is a passage that struck me and like I so often do I will quote the whole thing. It is an idea I think everyone needs to hear especially in this day and age where it seems everyone is running to therapy over even minor things. He says that we are “not ok” but it doesn’t matter. We should just observe (be aware). Then he says,

“This reminds me of the fellow in London after the war. He’s sitting with a parcel wrapped in brown paper in his lap; it’s a big, heavy object. The bus conductor comes up to him and says, “What do you have on your lap there?” And the man says, “This is an unexploded bomb. We dug it out of the garden and I am taking it to the police station.” The conductor says, “You don’t want to carry that on your lap. Put it under the seat.”

“Psychology and spirituality (as we generally understand it) transfer the bomb from your lap to under your seat. They don’t really solve your problems. Has that ever struck you? You had a problem, now you exchange it for another one. It’s always going to be that way until we solve the problem called “you.”

Suffering

“Do you want a sign you’re asleep? Here it is: You’re suffering. Suffering is a sign that you are out of touch with the truth.”

He says, “All suffering is caused by my identifying myself with something, whether that something is within me or outside me.” “Grief is a sign that I made my happiness depend on this thing or person, at least to some extent.”

He makes the case for enjoying people not for who they are but also for more than who they are and we are. He goes on to say that, Loneliness is not cured by human company. Loneliness is cured by contact with reality.” Then he talks about the “organized industry” designed to distract us from reality. I/Phone anyone?

How about some “bliss.” De Mello says, “There’s only one reason why you’re not experiencing what in India we call Anand – bliss, bliss. There’s only one reason why you’re not experiencing bliss at this present moment, and it is because you’re thinking or focusing on what you don’t have.”

Wisdom

The Bible says wisdom begins with the fear of God. I am sure De Mello has read this and agrees, but he says there are four steps to wisdom. First, you need to become aware of negative feelings you didn’t realize you had. Second, is to “understand that the feeling is in you, not in reality.” The third step is to “Never identify with that feeling. It has nothing to do with the I…don’t say, “I am depressed.” He says you can say “It is depressed.” You should not define yourself in terms of a feeling. That is a mistake. The fourth step is to change yourself. Don’t try to change somebody else. Realize that “the world is right because I feel good.” You feeling good goes first.

De Mello says, “There is no explanation you can give that would explain away all the sufferings and evil and torture and destruction and hunger in the world! “…Because life is a mystery, which means your thinking mind cannot make sense out of it. For that you’ve got to wake up and then you’ll suddenly realize that reality is not problematic, you are the problem.”

Life

“Life only makes sense when you perceive it as mystery and it makes no sense to the conceptualizing mind.” How about that statement! I agree with him when he says. “Loneliness is when you are missing people, aloneness is when you’re enjoying yourself.”

Then he gives us a pretty good definition of awareness. It is like mindfulness without the wanting. He puts it this way, “When people say they want to experience every moment, they are really talking awareness, except for the “wanting.”

Death

“You are not living until it doesn’t matter a tinker’s damn to you whether you live or die.” Now that is something to think about. He doesn’t end there. “People mistakenly think that living is keeping the body alive. So love the thought of death. Love it.”

Then he suggests visiting a graveyard. Consider the people there. How short their lives were.

I must confess that I am asleep and hope I remain asleep if being awake means you don’t care if your alive or dead. I think his perspective may be due to the fact that he is old as he writes this and closer to death or I am just to stupid to grasp this idea.

Love

He says, “Give up your dependency. Tear away the tentacles of society that have enveloped and suffocated your being. You must drop them. Externally, everything will go on as before, but though you will continue to be in the world, you will not be of it.”

And then he says something I can really identify with. “It will help, too, if you return to nature. Send the crowds away, go up to the mountains, and silently commune with trees and flowers and animals and birds, with sea and clouds and sky and stars.” “That is the cure for loneliness.”

Go Hiking And Be Antifragile

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Everyone wants to be indestructible like Superman! Do you say you don’t? Ok then, almost everybody wants to be indestructible. Unfortunately, that is not going to happen for you in this life.

On the other hand, you can make yourself antifragile by hiking mountains. In Taleb’s book, he says he likes deadlifts. They are good, but hiking is better!

Uneven Terrain

Mountains are not treadmills or even streets with hills. The surface is varied. Your body needs to adjust to rocks, stumps, mud, and blown down trees at times. This makes your body ready for anything.

The surface is varied as I said, but you are also going up for a long time and then down which adds even more variety to your workout.

Your Mind

If you walk around your neighborhood it is always the same neighborhood. Mountains change every week. A tree falls, a rock tumbles into the trail, and different people are on the mountain. Weather is typically more severe in the mountains. All these stimulate your mind and make it antifragile.

Just figuring out the logistics for a climb is a good exercise for your mind and keeps it strong.

Testing Yourself

Every time you climb a mountain it tests your ability. You find out of you still have what it takes. This contributes to you being antifragile. It surprises your body and mind.

If you are going to remain that way you need to test yourself over and over again. This is not a one-time thing or you will regress and become more fragile. You will break easily. Climb Different Mountains

This is something I need to work on more. I tend to hike the same mountains. It makes me more fragile. Last year I did climb some new ones so I became more antifragile that year, But I need to keep at it.

This is a good admonition for everybody. Change things up in your life. Drive a different way to work even if it takes a little longer. Change your routine.

Become ANTIFRAGILE! Go Hiking!

Bookish Weapon Number Thirty-One

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Nassim Taleb wrote a book you really need for your arsenal. It will definitely help you stay on offense. The title is “Antifragile” and the subtitle “Things That Gain From Disorder.” If you read any of Taleb’s books you better put your thinking cap on. This one doesn’t contain formulas, only some graphs. It still makes you think.

If you don’t do deadlifts on a regular basis you will after you read this book. Why? Because they make you “antifragile” or as others might say, “hard to kill.”

A Definition

Taleb explains why he chose a “neologism.” It was because “there is no simple noncompound word in the Oxford English Dictionary the expresses the point of reverse fragility. For the idea of antifragility is not part of our consciousness-but, luckily, it is part of our ancestral behavior, our biological apparatus, and ubiquitous property of every system that has survived.”

With that Taleb begins his book. He uses some big words. That is why I put quotes around neologism. It is a word most of us need to lookup. However, in spite of the erudite nature of his work, it is useful stuff.

This book is over four-hundred pages so I will only be picking a few outstanding ideas from it. You really need to read the whole thing to become convinced.

Life, Death, and Mistakes

Chapter four of Taleb’s book is titled, “What Kills Me Makes Others Stronger.” He discusses many things. Here is a typical statement, “If every plane crash makes the next one less likely, every bank crash makes the next one more likely.” Think about that. He says reinsurance companies do well after they take a hit from some catastrophe.

Taleb says “…my definition of a loser is someone who, after making a mistake, doesn’t introspect, doesn’t exploit it, feels embarrassed and defensive rather than enriched with a new piece of information, and tries to explain why he made the mistake rather than moving on.”

Then he states that “what does not kill me kills others.” He sites Nietzsche when he says, “what does not kill me makes me stronger.” Then he says it could also mean, “what did not kill me did not make me stronger, but spared me because I am stronger than others, but it killed others and the average population is now stronger because the weak are gone. In other words, I passed an exit exam.”

Later when discussing randomness he says, “This is the central illusion of life: that randomness is risky, that it is a bad thing-and that eliminating randomness is done by eliminating randomness.” He goes on to say that “plumbers, dentists, tailors, etc have some volatility in their income but they are rather robust to a minor professional Black Swan.” However, employees can just get a call from HR and their income goes to zero. “Employees risks are hidden.” Two things about that. First, if you are scratching your head and asking, “What is a Black Swan,” then you need to read his book “The Black Swan.” Second, everyone who works for someone else should re-read this paragraph.

“The Turkey Problem”

This gem alone is worth the price of the book, but I am going to reproduce it here and then promise there are more like it.

“A turkey is fed for a thousand days by a butcher; every day confirms to its staff of analysts that butchers love turkeys “with increased statistical confidence.” The butcher will keep feeding the turkey until a few days before Thanksgiving. Then comes the day when it is really not a very good idea to be a turkey. So with the butcher surprising it, the turkey will have a revision of belief-right when its confidence in the statement the butcher loves turkeys is maximal and “it is very quiet” and soothingly predictable in the life of the turkey. This example builds on an adaptation of a metaphor by Bertrand Russell. The key here is that such a surprise will be a Black Swan event; but just for the turkey, not the butcher.”

He goes on to say, “We can also see from the turkey story the mother of all harmful mistakes: mistaking absence of evidence (of harm) for evidence of absence, a mistake that will see tends to prevail in intellectual circles and one that is grounded in the social sciences.

“So our mission in life becomes simply “how not to be a turkey,” or, if possible, how to be a turkey in reverse- antifragile, that is. Not being a turkey starts with figuring out the difference between true and manufactured stability.”

Other Insights

There are many other insights in this book. For instance, he discusses size and says, “In spite of what is studied in business schools concerning “economies of scale,” size hurts your times of stress; it is not a good idea to be large during difficult times.”

Another Talebism is that things that have been around a very long time will probably still be around when you are gone. He applies this idea to many areas of life.

Then being comfortable is not good. It makes you fragile.

Complex systems are risky and he says, “humans should not be given explosive toys (like atomic bombs, financial derivatives, or tons to create life).”

Medicine. He says because not all doctors are sophisticated you shouldn’t go to the doctor often. “…it is a serious error to infer that if we live longer because of medicine, all medical treatments make us live longer.”

Exercise. “..walking effortlessly, any a pace below the stress level, can have some benefits-or, as I speculate, is necessary for humans, perhaps as necessary as sleep, which at some point modernity could not rationalize and tried to reduce.”

The concept of “skin in the game” is well associated with Taleb. If you are a salesman for a company and don’t make a sale it impacts your income. You have skin in the game. So your opinion of sales means something. This is why he doesn’t like academics in general because none of them have skin in the game.

Marketing. “Anything one needs to market heavily is necessarily either an inferior product or an evil one.” That is really something to think about.

And finally, he says, “The best way to verify that you are alive is by checking if you like variations. Remember that food would not have a taste if it weren’t for hunger; results are meaningless without effort, joy without sadness, convictions without uncertainty, and an ethical life isn’t so when stripped of personal risk.”

Go Hiking Because The End Is Always Near

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It is always good to keep danger in the back of your mind as you climb. Alpinists face it all the time and to a much greater degree. However, weekend hikers can do face plants as I have done, break bones, like I have done or run into some wildlife. However, there is less chance of catching the new Coronavirus from China when you are out in nature away from people.

“Danger, Danger, Will Robinson”

Some of you don’t remember that quote and some do. It was a computer of sorts talking, but when you hike you do not have any warning for what might happen.

So don’t have an earpiece, listening to music as you climb. Use your ears to hear something before it sees you. It might even be a tree falling toward you in the wind. Save the podcast listening for the treadmill at the gym. Besides, you will miss the singing of the birds.

Snow

If you hike in the snow, be sure to stay away from avalanche areas. Don’t even trust the reports. Just don’t climb there. Too many people have died because of ignorance or testosterone poisoning.

I am sure I have mentioned this before, but if you go in the snow take your Microspikes or at least Yaktracks. They will save you from injury. Sure, I know you young folks have better balance than me, but why take chances?

High Winds

You need to listen so you can hear a tree coming down, but the best way to avoid being crushed is to stay home when there are gale force winds in the mountains. Why push it? Remember, Risk = Danger Times Exposure. You might get away with it once, but be exposed long enough and you might not.

A little wind is good. It blows the stink off of you ad keeps you awake. The sound of it is soothing as well.

The main thing to keep in mind, of course, is that “The End Is Always Near.”