Category: Thoughts & Scribbles

What Is Happiness?

Throughout the history of mankind, one of the main objectives of the human race, if not the core one behind every other objective, has been to attain happiness.
In fact, Aristotle stated that happiness is the only thing that humans desire for its own sake. He observed that men sought riches not for the sake of being rich, but to be happy. Those who sought fame desired it not to be famous, but because they believed fame would bring them happiness.

But what is happiness?

The dictionary says happiness is:
1. joy, the emotion of being happy.
2. Good luck; good fortune; prosperity.
3. An agreeable feeling or condition of the soul arising from good fortune or propitious happening of any kind; the possession of those circumstances or that state of being which is attended enjoyment; the state of being happy; contentment; joyful satisfaction; felicity; blessedness.

But what is it that makes us happy?

Some of the states associated with happiness include success, delight, health, safety, contentment, wealth, fame and love.
But still, being wealthy, healthy, loved, safe or the whole lot together doesn’t guarantee a person to be happy.

Happiness, I think, is unquantifiable and undefinable, because we don’t know what will really make us happy; we do things to reach certain goals in an attempt to gain happiness, but it’s not always the case, and we often find ourselves reaching goals that do nothing for us.

On the other hand, some things as small as a child’s smile, a word from the heart, a passing thought, a nod of appreciation, a moment for yourself can make you feel happy.

Happiness is complicated and simple at the same time, depending on how a person looks at life, I guess.

“How simple and frugal a thing is happiness: a glass of wine, a roast chestnut, a wretched little brazier, the sound of the sea… All that is required to feel that here and now is happiness is a simple, frugal heart.”

— Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek

It’s also impossible to define happiness because it’s different for every single person.

Happiness to me is being with my wife and son, a fruitful fulfilling day at work, knowing that my close family are doing well, coming up with a new cool idea, reading a good book, taking a dip in a beautiful cold clear-watered sea, being able to indulge in one of my favourite pass-times, treating myself or my small family to some the things we want… and the list goes on… and to me, happiness obviously lies in the small details and things of life.

What is happiness to you?

Career Advice: Look Ahead

A friend came to me the other day for some career advice regarding moving to a new job, and I found myself repeating a piece of advice I’ve given some other friends and colleagues before.
I thought I’d share this piece of advice here, maybe it’ll come in handy for someone someday.

The idea is as follows, whenever you’re considering moving to a new job, don’t think about that next job, think about the job after it: consider what the different options you have for your next job will do to enable you to get to the job after it, and then choose.

A person should try and work out a basic outline for his ideal career life, with different points along that line marking the different positions he’ll have to go through to get to his goal.

At every point on that line, when he’s thinking about moving to another point, he should look ahead and see if the point he’s moving to will help build him up for the point after it.

Of course the world doesn’t always throw the best options at us, and that’s why we have to think this way and choose what’s best for our careers, even if it means not moving to a new job, and if that is not an option, then we have to choose the job that can best be an intermediary point along the line, that will give us some of the skills and experience we’ll need in the future.

In short, whenever someone is about to take a step forward in his professional life, he has to try and look ahead as far as possible to know where he wants to get to, and then take the necessary steps to get there.

Globalization vs. Culture: The Loss Of Identity

A good friend of mine and I were chatting earlier today when the subject turned to how so many countries and people are losing their identity.

This is a true problem that I’ve been seeing all over the world, and the main reason behind it is unfortunately Globalization. I’m no anti-globalization activist or anything, in fact, I’m totally for globalization, economically and industrially speaking, but we can’t neglect the negative effects it has on culture and society.

In this globalized world, cities are becoming clones of each other, and people are converging into fake stereotypes; gone are the unique cities that carry so much history and culture in every corner, lost are the enriching cultural differences and specificities that make a society uniquely what it is; London looks like Paris which looks like Madrid; Restaurants serving this or that country’s traditional food are drowned out by the huge fast food chains, beautiful traditional clothing is lost between the new bulk-made looks created by the big brands, people look alike, eat alike and dress alike whether they’re in New York, New Delhi or Cairo.

We’re losing one of the things that count the most: our identity, the uniqueness in us, that which makes us special and allows us to stand out from the crowd.

Again, I’m all for cultural exchange and value it dearly, and I, more than anyone else, treasure the notion of a global citizen, but still that doesn’t mean letting go of our unique cultures to adopt a unified fake money-driven one.

Mobile Phones & Me

For a very long time, I hated mobile phones and didn’t see much use for them, and honestly speaking, I still don’t like them that much to this very day.

I only got my first mobile phone after my first to-be-employer emailed me saying they were trying to call me on my home line to set up a job interview but weren’t able to get a hold of me.

After that, the idea of a mobile phone for me was mainly a device that I could use to contact whoever I wanted, anytime, anywhere I was, but as I’m not much of a babbler, I do that very rarely and only when it’s really important.
But the big downside was that other people could also call me whenever they wanted, wherever I was, at anytime they wanted, even when it’s not important. That I don’t like at all.

So basically, the perfect mobile phone for me would be one that I could use to call people, but that wouldn’t accept calls. A one way thingie.

But the problem is that in all of those calls that I don’t want, there are some that are either urgent or from people that I’d actually like to hear from.

In a perfect mobile phone there should be a feature to take decisions on whether to accept the call or not depending on who the person is, what the subject of the call will be about, and a number of other factors.

As that requires a lot of artifical intelligence from the phone, maybe it could be done simpler and there could be some way for me to configure the times when I’m not willing to accept calls (evenings, weekends), who I’m willing to accept calls from at the different times of the day (close family almost always, friends only after work, work colleagues only in work times, some people never, …etc).

As for all the other features that manufacturers throw on phones today, they’re really secondary, what I think they should work on is offering more flexibility in using a mobile phone and configuring it as the communication tool that it is and will always be.

Everything Is Urgent At Work

Isn’t it so amazing how everything is always urgent at work?
Urgent is to the say the least, as it’s always preceded and followed with a bunch of superlative adjectives.

The alert levels are always up!

This is extra high priority and can’t wait because it’s extremely urgent.

That is so urgent the client is breathing down our necks, literally.

The other is even more urgent the boss is bordering on a heart attack.

You’d think we work in a nuclear facility that is about to melt down or that we have a really important and powerful job, but then you realize all that’s at stake is a website, a document, a product or some other thing that isn’t really that dangerous after all.

Sometimes it seems as if the world’s going to stop turning if something goes wrong in a certain project, or if this or that document is not sent on time; and that it’s our role to save the day and ensure that humanity goes on.

We’re superheroes facing the urgent demands of a mad world, taking them down one at a time, sliding through pointless urgent meetings, answering stupid urgent client phone calls, and somehow making the world a better place, although we don’t really see how.

Everything is urgent at work!

Well, this guy doesn’t buy it anymore, the only thing I find urgent in this life is getting back home to spend some quality time with my family.

So until someone walks in with solid proof that the world is about to blow up in flames or be sucked into a black hole, and I can do something about it, the word “urgent” will be heard as “blah blah” by me.

Astrology Is Not A Science!

Astrology chartI don’t believe in Astrology, not one tiny bit, I think it’s total crap and nonsense, but I don’t care if others around me do, and I don’t give them a hard time for it.
Everyone is free to believe whatever they want to believe, right?

But what does piss me off is when some of the people who believe in Astrology start talking like they’re so damn sure of it, analyzing and judging me, foreseeing my future, while claiming that it’s a well-founded science.
Well it’s not!

Astronomy is a science, but not Astrology; Astrology is a group of systems, traditions, and beliefs in which knowledge of the relative positions of celestial bodies and related details is held to be useful in understanding, interpreting, and organizing information about personality, human affairs, and other terrestrial events.
Astrology, at best, can’t be considered more than a pseudoscience; a body of knowledge, methodology, belief, or practice that claims to be scientific but does not follow the scientific method.

So whatever Astrologers say or write is not based on any kind of scientific fact, it’s just a bunch of unfounded claims and ideas, that I personally find nonsensical.
Where is the sense of believing that a group of people who were born in the same month, week or even day are all going to turn out to share so many things in their personalities, lives and futures?!
And where is the sense in Saturn, Jupiter or some other dumb planet affecting world events?

If you want to believe in the crap Astrologers are selling, it’s fine by me, do as you wish and believe what you wish, that’s your choice; just keep it away from me, don’t apply it on me, and certainly don’t even think of telling me that it’s a science! The next person who does that risks getting his head bitten off!

Believing In God

Some people believe in God…
You can’t but respect their beliefs even if they don’t coincide with yours…

Some people don’t believe in God…
You can’t but respect their right to believe what they think is fact…

And then there are some people who don’t want to believe in God… Meaning, they believe in God, but they don’t want to… They try to convince themselves that God doesn’t exist… For different reasons… Mainly not to feel guilty for whatever wrong they’re doing…
People like that simply can’t earn your respect…

Heaven On Earth

I remember when I was a child, at that age when we start to think about the world around us and analyze the different things we’re taught without any limits or taboos to restrict us; one of my thoughts was about heaven, which we learn is this perfect happy place, somewhere up in the skies, where people who do good deeds go.

I thought: what if heaven isn’t a place somewhere up there?
What if heaven doesn’t exist yet?
What if heaven is what this earth will become when we all start caring and thinking about each other, trying to make this world a better place and doing good deeds?
What if it is up to us to create heaven?

I know some people could regard those thoughts as heresy, but as children I guess we can actually get away with any kind of thinking or philosophy.

Now, years and years later, I still find myself thinking from time to time about how heaven-like our world could be if we just cared a bit more; about our planet, our environment, other people, the future, …etc.

What if we could create a heaven on earth?