There is anticipation in the air.
A couple days back, a friend said he heard that it is still a few weeks before...
You know the drill.
Of course we want good results in what we do, and these days we have heaps of numbers around us to tell us how we are doing, but we shouldn't dwell on the numbers. Because if we live by the good, we are going to die by the bad.
This comes up in many forms in human existence, but numbers are probably one of the uniquely human aspects of our species. There is no way to tell when we started counting things, but now they dictate nearly every part of our lives, because nearly everything we interact with is driven by some kind of algorithm created to maximize gains.
Everything is commercialized.
This is especially true in the digital era, as everything is trackable, collectable, collatable, saleable. Every conversation, no matter if held publicly or privately, is part of a larger narrative, a data stream that is designed to attract and engage, both gather and separate simultaneously. Public discourse is polarized, no matter the topic, no matter the policy, no matter whether true or false, because anger attracts clicks and shares, and the more eyes on, the more adverts sold. The subject isn't the point, it is just a bucket to collect clicks.
So much of our lives are dictated by the numbers, but there are differences in the why perhaps. For instance, There are numbers that drive my salary, KPIs, tasks, feedbacks, and the numbers in my salary allow me to spend, to buy this, that, the other thing. However, it is a bit different than the numbers that are driving a corporation, isn't it? The numbers for profit are removed from the people, there is nothing in in of a corporation, no desire to get something, no will to improve something, no thought at all. A corporation is just a set of algorithms, designed to maximize the increase of the numbers, whether necessary or not, whether right, or not. There are no limitations and each is set to monopolize, even if it isn't in it's own best interest to do so.
Because a corporation is mindless.
We don't think about this enough, because we have bought into the advertising model that tell us that this product, that person, or those methods, will help us improve our numbers, so we can get more stuff that we want - so we can fulfil some of our desires. We are just part of the mechanism they require to drive the numbers up - part of the algorithm. No corporation cares about us.
Because corporations are desireless.
Again, something that we don't think enough about, yet we are told that desire is the root of suffering. We think that if we renounce our own desires and are able to achieve desirelessness, we won't suffer, which is true. We will be like corporations, indifferent to the world, no care for good or evil either way, mechanical. Every experience in our life becomes transactional, not experiential, which means no interaction has value, other than whether it makes the numbers of our personal algorithms go up, or down.
No corporation fails.
Yes, they come and go, but a corporation can't fail, because it doesn't actually exist - it is just a construct, a set of numbers that for some period of time, people interact with and manipulate in order to get the algorithm to grow wealth, more numbers. When the numbers grow, the construct exists, when there is no longer a way to get the algorithm to run, the construct is shut down, the formula shelved. The people continue on, the corporation only exists in memory.
But isn't it funny how we tie our own sense of self to these numbers, as if we are a success when the algorithms we are using work, and a failure when they do not. We identify ourselves by the outcome of a formula that doesn't actually exist, as if it represents our value as a human.
For the love of money.
Some love people, some beautiful things, some fast cars, some big houses, some a gaming console, some train sets, but does anyone actually love money? I don't think so, but many like the ide of money, and the beliefs it represents. The belief that high numbers mean personal success. But if we tie our identity to our bank accounts, what happens when there is only a zero remaining?
Numbers are meaningless, until we give them context.
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]