How to be smarter than other people
Analysis and Opinion
By Joe America
We are smarter than some, not as smart as others. In today’s environment we have special challenges. Bullies define smart as power, the ability to make others squirm or give up. Muscle smarts. Well, I personally think that is not actually smart because it casts pain upon others, it does not help them. That’s cruel. Every moral guidepost I know of from the Bible to Asimov argues for compassion.
So my question, I suppose, is how to be smarter than others in a world increasingly infested with bullies.
Smart has two components. Data and calculation.
It’s that simple. Your challenge is to acquire more data than others with the caveat that it must be clean data, or it is not data but dirt. And you must know how to understand, extract, and manipulate the data to make better sense than others. A part of this is to stick with reason as others wield emotions. That’s a huge challenge.
The “how to” part is like any other aspiration, sports, chess, war, debate, or making money. You practice. You build muscles. You become expert at the tools and techniques.
- You read, wide and deep, as others are too lazy and undisciplined to do this.
- You listen more than speak. You smile at the dogmatists preaching nonsense, you don’t get angry.
- You understand logic and the tools bullies use to undermine it, the most prominent being name-calling, diversion, and erroneous generalizing from specifics.
- You work hard to set emotions aside to deal calmly with data and logic. This is hard, which is why you need to practice it.
- You use AI for basic speed-framing of issues and data-gathering, recognizing its flaws are like Wikipedia, occasionally erroneous or incomplete.
- You write, to get better at organizing ideas than the slackards who surround you.
That will get you started. You can get advice from other smart people as you work your way up.
One of your best thinking exercises would be to read The Society of Honor blog articles and especially the attached discussion threads. Some of the oldies are real goodies. We have some of the smartest people in the world commenting here. The articles are devoted to understandings, especially of the Philippines.
Short-form media are easy and entertaining. So they are addictive and distracting to robust data gathering and sharper, more intricate thinking. So be aware that they keep others dumb.
As you excel at smart.
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Cover photo generated by Word Press AI using the article as a prompt.
The Society of Honor by Joe America 
I understand what you’re trying to convey here Joe, but let’s consider that there are plenty of smart people in the sense of intellectual potential who don’t really put out much effort. What makes these people different from someone who has let’s say, a mental disability yet tries their best with what they know? I’d rather people value hard work and perseverance instead. After all, a criminal mastermind might be a genius, but is still defeated by the methodical work of a number of much less intellectually gifted police detectives.
“Smart” can also be a dangerous word in the Philippines that holds someone back, especially in relation to people who are clearly not smart at all, but think they are. It’s not uncommon for Filipino boys to develop fragility by being excessively praised as smart, gifted, handsome, etc, then shatter at the slightest resistance. Then there are Filipina children who can feel ignored, acknowledged, unrewarded yet expected to quietly do the hard work. It’s no wonder then that some of the most intelligent and hard working Filipinos I know are Filipinas.
Joey,
Being called smart if one senses it is sincere and not condescending is never wrong.
Better than being called bobo,tanga, estupido, tonto. You know what i mean.
True. Negatives should not be used also especially for children.
But too much positives even if sincere can create false superiority if the child is so predisposed, which can breed many more bad behaviors and tendencies later on.
I do recognize though that some Filipino families can be quite toxic. There’s a lot of sad stories I’ve lent my ear to over a San Miguel or have read on Reddit. I really don’t agree with that treatment of children. The seeds of both confidence and competency are sown in childhood.
some children are made emotionally cripple the day they are born by the name they are given.
when I was in grade one in primary school, there was a boy in our class named charito which was a girl’s name. we all laughed at him each time there was roll call and horribly teased him, wearing shorts when he should be wearing a skirt! the poor boy was traumatized. nobody ate with him at recess and no one played with him. he was alone and miserable most of the time. four weeks it went on, until our teacher changed his name to charlito without his parents’ permission, saying there has been a mistake. our teacher couldnt change charito on the boy’s birth certificate, but she made sure he was charlito in all his school report cards, even got him a new school ID bearing the name charlito. so charito become charlito, and was a lot happier boy charlito was. no longer fearful of rollcalls.
charlito finally got the affirmation and the acceptance of our tribe and became one of us. we even voted him class sergeant.
In elementary, I was bullied for wearing thrift store clothes that were either too big or too small for me, and my pants often had patched knees. I punched that bully in the face and broke his nose, and that was the end of that.
In high school I dated a girl that another boy desired and thus he started bullying me. He styled himself as a gangster and martial artist. One day he decided to sucker punch me and I broke his leg at the knee with a swift kick, giving him a limp. To this day nearly 30 years later if he runs into me he turns tail and limps away.
Well it is good that Charlito was eventually accepted. Kids learn bullying behavior from their parents, and I’m glad that Charlito’s teasers ended up being his friends due to the positive and kind efforts of the teacher.
Yes, in life, it is often the story of the hare and the tortoise that applies. And your story of the team of detectives reminds me of some Filipino programmers from Big 3 (no Big 4 yet at that time) at the UN who somehow sneered at Indian programmers for discussing things through, questioning all assumptions to arrive at a plan of action while their approach was “sabak” meaning just go do it with nary an explanation to others. I was told by my father that they were like Filipino musicians with oido while the Indians and myself were trained with notes.
Well, I carried some of that disdain for being thorough with me when I called Edgar Lores pedantic the first time I met him here. He did help me organize my thoughts by taking time to look at the important points instead of jumping to conclusions. I write better thanks to him.
A UST grad I know whom the Big 3 colleagues referred to as a moron behind his back (poor boy from Camanava BTW) built his UN system career on diligence praised on LinkedIn by his boss. But I think Joe does mean exercising one’s intellectual muscle properly, not just being smart.
Yes exactly. From the start Joe tells us to find meaning, dig deeper, understand context so on and so forth and this is not different. By the way I recall my pedantry pageantry with the ever patient Uncle Sonny. Looking back, I forehead slap my self and ask my self what was I thinking back then?
Hahaha! And I read some of my early smart-ass blogs and turn red in embarrassment. Fortunately Irineo skips past them in his hunt for the classics. But we carry on, warriors with scars.
Yes, we carry on . Hahaha on Irineo skipping some on his treasure hunt.
Yes, working the muscles. Get good data. Parse it logically, and extend it sensibly. The challenge these days is getting good data. Kids who have their libraries raided by the anti-woke mob are severely handicapped.
ex deped sec sara duterte once order that all class decorations be removed from class rooms, blaming the decors to cause children to have short attention span and unable to concentrate at class. well fed sara probly did not know that malnourished kids are not very good at concentration, and their grades suffer.
Totally insane policy to restrict teaching aids.
While belittling others does happen in the US, it’s also done here by Americans who feel inferior and thus need to take others down to their level. Not that many of those compared to the majority though. I often think of Americans are reacting by overreacting and overestimating a challenge. My favorite example is the USAF freaking out at the Soviet MiG-25 “super fighter” and creating not one, but 4 of the most high performance fourth generation jet fighters (F-14, F-15, F-16, F-18). It turned out later when a Soviet pilot defected in his MiG-25 that that particular model was a POS and made to be a one-way interceptor to catch the SR-71 spy plane (the Soviets never caught that spy plane either, which was created as an over reaction to the Gary Powers’ U-2 being shot down). This attitude of feeling confident in one’s abilities while also rising to challenges is what had made the US so successful in the past, at least until the age of digital brain hacking.
My father once said that the USA has an amazing capability to reinvent itself. He also took my brother and me to Rocky I-III, maybe to teach us the very American value of bouncing back.
I could add the Manhattan project and the space race to the challenges America took on, overestimating their rivals but certainly not underestimating them. I also recall how Isaac Asimov described how popular science, which he was a spearhead of, was an important component of educating kids back then, as US culture always had an anti-intellectual strain. IIRC he did compare the Russian respect for learning as compared to the US as a challenge when Sputnik came out first. I also devoured a book about the CIA I bought at Barnes and Noble NYC in the 1990s that stated that in the post-WW2 era, American strategists worried about the American lack of knowledge of the world as opposed to Russian suspiciousness that gave them a natural advantage especially in counterintelligence, pushing them to found a professional organization out of the WW2 OSS who were more like volunteers and amateurs. The movie Oppenheimer was no surprise to me as I had read a book about the Manhattan project as a kid and recall that the USA feared Germany would develop an atomic bomb first. Indeed, it was a German defector to the Soviets, Manfred von Ardenne, who helped them develop their bomb. The AK47 is a 1947 knock-off of a German WW2 rifle. But well.. A lot of Soviet military hardware proved to be junk. The NATO took interest in East German MIGs, I read. The Yugoslavian Federal Air Force ran its MIGs over Slovenia when it broke off, sometimes overshooting into Carinthia, Schwarzenegger’s home state, and forcing the neutral Austrians who had no NATO allies to call to close the airspace around Graz airport. Must have felt like late revenge over a former colonial master, just like the story of a Serb sniper taking pot shots over the Slovenian-Carinthian border while keeping Slovenians in check that an Austrian taxi driver told me about a decade later when I went for a discount wellness vacation in Slovenia. I am not surprised that the Austrians allowed KFOR and SFOR to transport material over its territory into the later war zones throughout the 1990s. I sometimes saw the trains after I moved to Munich as my suburban train passed the freight tracks. Nowadays, I hear or even see copters above those rails (I am a bit home along da riles, joke) often due to refugees, I read..
The Soviets indeed had many excellent scientists, who came up with various theories that turned out to be true. The difference then I think is that Americans excel at *applied theory.* The US government routinely doles out federally-funded research even if that research may fail, but the successful programs grant great benefits. Whereas under a top-down system, only the research that benefits the party and in extreme cases, the party leader, are funded. For example, Soviet leadership even under more “forward thinking” times after Stalin scoffed at Pyotr Ufimtsev’s electromagnetic diffraction theory, which forms the basis of “stealth” technology. The Soviets had no problem with publishing scientific papers as a way to touting their superiority though. Well, Lockheed took Prof. Ufimtsev’s research and created the first truly stealth aircraft — the Have Blue project that birthed the F-117 stealth fighter. Stalin famously sent Sergei Korolev to the gulag for not making rockets fast enough, and he was only later propagandized as the “Father of the Soviet Space program.”
Beyond theory, the lack of applied theory in fields like engineering also meant that the Soviets, then Russians never caught up with the US in the material sciences necessary for precision engineering. There’s much hullabaloo about supposed Chinese super fighters, but exterior s in similarities aside, I reserve doubt about actual electromagnetic and aerodynamic performance. The Russians never came close to American or even European turbine technology, so I find it hard to believe Chinese turbine technology which is a copy of Russian technology can be better. The Russian engines are still based on the old British first generation designs, with some input from French technology transfer. There’s the famous story of Stalin ordering that a B-29 copied that was forced to land in the Russian Far East after a bombing run on the Japanese main islands. The resultant copy, Tu-4, was such an exact copy that Soviet engineers had even copied the manufacturing origin stamps on the sheet metal. Well the Russians still use a modernized variant today as their main strategic bomber, the Tu-95.
Yes, there is a flip side to everything. But I look at the great dumbing down of political choices and wonder, how do we persist in the face of such a swell of lies, manipulations, and hostility? How can we contribute to rational thinking? The answer is to work at being sensible, not succumb to the gamers. Will we be happier or healthier or more successful? I can’t say yes. Maybe it would be better to succumb to power. But that’s not my idea of living. So I figure that being smart, or smarter than those who succumb, is the best way to push back against the stupidity, and to feel empowered in a very hostile and dysfunctional world. CDE Filipinos are not my target audience.
Judging from my school years back in the 1980s and 1990s, reading was probably a declining pastime even then. As a poor kid whose house only had one secondhand black-and-white TV set much less a game console, one of my personal heroes was LeVar Burton. So while many people thought of me in amazement when I achieved nearly a perfect SAT score with minimal effort, personally I wasn’t surprised nor found the SAT to be particularly challenging. I was someone who read the dictionary for entertainment simply because I had nothing else to do outside of playing practically every sport in those school days. My mother did work a lot of overtime to purchase me Collier’s Encyclopedia set from a door-to-door salesman as my 7th birthday present, and I availed the Collier’s free research service to receive photocopies of research material often enough that I knew the librarian lady on a first-name basis. Well, aside from being nicknamed “The Human Rocket” during my track days, I was also nicknamed by classmates as the “Walking encyclopedia.”
So it’s not enough for a child to have access to a decent school. A child also needs engaged parents who are interested in developing a successful young adult. I had my hardass vet dad who sat there with the switch while quizzing me with a bombardment of questions and logic. I had my strict but fair minded mother who encouraged imagination. In the absence of engaged parents, the job of teachers just becomes harder.
Of course nowadays being “smart” as you’re trying to encourage here is so much harder with countless distractions. Human brains are wired for intellectual shortcuts, as the brain consumes an immense amount of calories for its relative size. To me, falling to distractions like socmed without realizing (or ignoring) the obvious brain hacking that triggers those intellectual shortcuts is a sign that the person is not equipped to deal with those issues to begin with. Those with even less ability to deal with brain hacking are those who fall to conspiracies no matter how absurd or how may mental pretzels they need to twist themselves into. Media is also well aware of these brain hacks in order to gain readership, viewership, or income flows. Notice how US media is no longer talking about “migrant caravans” or even about the LA fires now that Trump is back in power. In the Philippines the outrage over the Slovenian murdering his partner dissipated just as fast.
Honestly the only way to solve this may be two-fold. First children need to be shaped at a young age. We have now an entire generation around the world who were over-indulged and thus did not develop even a minimal level of critical thinking. It’s not a surprised that this young generation are the children of the last generation that was over-indulged. Secondly there is a role for government to regulate the brain hackers no matter what industry they are in. When even very intelligent people can fall, most people are just not equipped to fight against over-stimulating brains at a very base subconscious level.
Well, you are blessed with an uncanny memory and other-worldly ability for expression, so you are decidedly not normal. JoeJr has similar skills, a step lower but easily achieving good marks at school and winning all his arguments with his father. But for sure, Filipino kids get cheated for the poor parenting and overburdened schools. The entitled buy good education for their kids. And social media for sure has dumbed down two generations, or more.
Your suggestions for improvement are superb. Build a foundation early, and I would add make sure the joy of discovery is a part of that. And, yes, government should be smart enough to make sure the nation’s kids excel. On this point, the Philippines performs badly. But I think Sec Angara will make improvements.
I would add give people a chance to improve themselves. The same teacher who gave me additional math self-study materials (to also get me busy and disturb the class less, I realize) gave me an American book for learning cursive writing, to this day people note I have an American style of handwriting and also holding paper or notebooks I write on diagonally US style – I do need lined paper though as I otherwise go “off the rails”. I had to learn to stop drawing spontaneous cartoon portraits of colleagues in my early office career in Germany, even as my father often drew caricatures also when talking on the phone and my brother was the unofficial cartoonist of the Filipino youth paper we published in mid-1980s Germany, the layout partly already assisted by computer the printing still good old offset, ah the smell of INK!
An artistic piano player who can sing but not dance or play the guitar, can master chess and is a whiz at exams, and loves to debate, but has humility, my my. Sounds like character to me.
Well, thanks. Though my sharing some experiences with learning just after Joey did might be construed as boasting by some Filipinos, as in „does he think he is important“ or as complaining, like „we had it harder“. It is a face and power, not a knowledge sharing culture.
The West was able to increase its knowledge of other parts of the world and the world in general due to, for instance, the likes of Marco Polo and Pigafetta. The Philippine is NOT able to profit as much from millions of OFWs, even as those who share their experience are increasing. Well, guess Greeks like the mythical Ulysses, seen as representing the first Greeks to strike out into the Western Mediterranean, had to invent all kinds of monsters they defeated or tricked to not be seen as weak when they came home, the philosophers came later than those pioneers.
It is not boasting to be proud of one’s accomplishments. Empty pride would be boasting though. I’ve been called arrogant plenty of times throughout life when I’m trying to share knowledge, or even when I didn’t even mention anything at all — the accusers are almost all small minded boasters.
What can come off as American arrogance is mostly cases of a form of self-confidence. Self-confidence when moderated is the greatest foundation for solving problems and moving forward. When I first worked with Japanese corps I had older Japanese coworkers who said they changed their view on so-called American arrogance when they saw the benefits of self-confidence, and realized that Japanese culture has its own form of self-confidence after the Meiji transformation that other Asians may see as arrogance. Of course, Koreans are famously “arrogant” even when they were a disjointed jumble of warring minor kingdoms.
Without having confidence in one’s current abilities, and being able to recognize one’s own personal and cultural deficiencies, it’s quite hard to get ahead with progression. When I look at my old classmates, the ones who both lacked confidence and were envious never got anywhere in life.
Then there’s the ability to rise to challenges rather than expecting another to fix everything. We can recognize that individually we are not fully effectual, and with help we can unlock more potential. But those who are so incurious to the challenges and try to pretend problems don’t exist of course can’t solve the problems at hand.
These are cultural traits that are not innate — the positive traits of a cultural are taught and transmitted to the next generation, just like negative traits are also taught and transmitted. But how can a culture change? That requires leaders who can become change agents to clear the way and show others the benefits of changing the culture. The Greeks learned from the Minoans and Ancient Egyptians, and the Romans in turn learned from the Greeks.
Multi-ethnic cultures also have an advantageous starting position as those cultures are more open to new ideas. In absence of that multi-ethnicity, cultures that are in contact with other cultures can also absorb positive outside influences. The Philippines for such a “connected” country at a critical trade crossroads is remarkably insular and inward thinking. Perhaps this is because outside of the cosmopolitanism of Manila and Cebu, people are just not that exposed. The majority of Filipinos see images and hear stories about how others are so rich or great, but don’t have any examples to look up to close by where they can observe “how things are done.”
If I were an advisor in government I’d recommend programs to spread the “know how” adapted to the Philippines. If others see that a Filipino living in the Philippines can do it, perhaps they would start thinking they can try also. Filipinos are a very practical people who are as hands on as thy are imaginative. That’s why I think that a sound industrial policy where Filipinos can be employed on better salaries, making things in the Philippines with Filipino hands can be a great benefit to national confidence. No longer would there be knock-offs aping foreign products (like all the Filipino junk food brands), but something else with a distinct Filipino flavor. Then there would be more instances of Filipinos being rightly proud of accomplishments big or small, rather than what I see where Filipinos either envy others’ accomplishments or feel defeated thinking they could never achieve greatness.
There was a lot of hope at some point that Filipinos working abroad would bring home knowledge about what they had seen working elsewhere, but it didn’t happen.
It was very different with the Romanians abroad who, indeed, mostly voted reformists as they wanted to be able to set up small businesses in a less corrupt environment at home.
That Filipinos seem even to close their ears and eyes to how others have achieved things might indeed be that it was not done by someone like themselves.
But then again, many will ignore what SEA neighbors like Indonesia – those who look and act most like Filipinos – have achieved while adoring Korea, Japan, and China.
Like islanders in corny, somewhat racist 1950s American movies who see those who come to their shores as white Gods and laugh the moment they prove to be human.
Some Filipinos now see Westerners in that light, and their new White Gods are Northern Asian.
Ninotchka Rosca noted that Darna is an example of how Filipinos lack belief in themselves, as Darna is an alien and needs the stone for power. Actually, the exact opposite of kryptonite. Ned Armstrong of Voltes V, which inspite of being Japanese, seems to have the largest following in the Philippine, including the recent GMA remake, is an outcast Boazanian prince. Well, the way PNoy was treated as perceived “elitist” was like a “white God” who proved to be human.
The “magic” more modern savior figures in teleseryes at least have “magic” that is more practical, like special ops capabilities and martial arts training – Ang Probinsyano, Iron Heart and Incognito. Even if the present Incognito getting into the phase of a Pinoy team working for the CIA for full deniability is corny AF and full of Filipino MC syndrome, it does show how badly Filipinos also want to feel they can do what others can do, even if it is just a fantasy. Iron Heart with a Filipino penetrating “tatsulok” organized crime undercover is also pretty much fantasy.
Getting Filipinos to a kind of real yes we can seems to be Angat Buhay’s long game indeed.
It’s not just the Romanians, but the other Southern and Eastern European diasporas have come back to their countries and started helping to implement reforms also. Of course I had noted before that it’s much easier for countries who had a history of prior ethno-cultural unification and a stable state to rebuild, no matter how long ago that previous period was. Judging by how shocked Filipinos can be at their SEA neighbors’ progress, and how a growing set of educated Filipinos are able to look past learned racism to realize that “even African countries are rising,” as a UP grad remarked to me, I guess many in the educated elites don’t even think about these things. The Philippines can be said to be at a disadvantage due to never having a unified state before (and arguably the state is still unifying even now with inter-island transportation being easier in the last 20 years), but as we discussed previously that could also be a chance at a new beginning on a blank slate where the Philippines can be whatever she chooses to be.
I wonder if those Filipinos who may see new gods in Northern and Eastern Asians had ever considered that those countries’ rise was facilitated with Western, mainly American technology and know-how. The PRC might be a manufacturing powerhouse, but the factory tooling is American or European, while the products are American or European designed. Even Japan and South Korea, whose countries had risen from the ashes after WWII, depend greatly on Western technology. By the time something becomes commoditized, Americans had already moved onto inventing something new. So it’s a bit amusing but sad that the PRC’s propaganda especially has been so effective. A China-pilled friend visited Shanghai Disneyland a few years ago, and once she got out of the carefully curated bubble, she did not like what she saw.
So it seems I may have somewhat convinced you a bit that Angat Buhay’s project is in the long game. A nation needs to start out somewhere, and where better to start than to start locally and at the grass roots to build up confidence community by community. May those trees that manage to survive spread their canopies like a mature mangrove, spreading their runners and seedlings at first nearby, then beyond, giving shelter to a multitude of other lives that can grow in safety.
Maybe a mix of Angat Buhay and Joe’s idea of frontrunner LGUs is key:
So let some lead the pack but also make sure to leave no Filipino behind.
Mar Roxas’ Bottom Up Budgetting was a good idea in theory, BTW, but I somehow get why Angat Buhay uses private donations.
I saw an example of a Barangay Hall in Bikol built with BUB where it took TWO YEARS for the funds to arrive, I would get it if it were a sports stadium.
Sometimes, I want to ask how many Philippine government employees are needed to change a light bulb.
Right, without an incentive, people don’t have an incentive to work a bit harder and work a bit smarter, and those who would be builders will build elsewhere. The baseline can be set and raised over time to lift all boats.
The nationalistic consciousness that existed since the Katipunan then propagated throughout Filipino society reminds me of the radicals in the French Revolution. While there may not be ultra-radicals anymore, I question if the intellectuals and political elites would be willing to give up some of their own power and live by what they preach when it comes to trying to wish the Philippines into some kind of modern utopia. Chasing fantasies over time further removes one from the realities at hand, and the fantasies are only reinforced with every failure. Every Filipino deserves a life of dignity free from poverty, basic needs fulfilled by being paid a living salary, and a system where those with a drive for more can achieve their dreams through innovation.
I was actually at a disadvantage. Learning disabilities were not commonly recognized until the 2000s. I did have great teachers though. An English teacher, Mr. Hunt, was a fellow dyslexic and helped me with strategies to overcome the disability. A very dedicated Filipina math teacher, Mrs. Romasoc, helped me overcome dyscalculia by working through things with me with physical aids. I wasn’t formally diagnosed with ADD until I got to Berkeley when I had access to specialists at the student clinic. Even now I find that while thoughts and ideas can flow like water, it’s much easier to organize thoughts once put down in electronic or physical form. Of course having ADD and OCD, I work best under pressure — it was quite normal to write school papers in one frenzied session on the morning it was due. I’m not quite sure why other colleagues who have OCD have difficulty organizing their time when it’s most important. I work with quite a few people with ADD and OCD, being in business and tech.
But yes, despite being further disadvantaged by childhood poverty, I had been blessed with encountering just the right mix of teachers, mentors, of course my parents. I don’t really agree with treating people, especially children, with “kid gloves.” There needs to be an appropriate level of pressure to drive action, with the watchful eye of adults nearby of course. It’s terrible when children are not afforded opportunities if they didn’t have some exceptional inner drive. Sec. Angara is going in the right direction. As it has been said time and time again, the youth are our future. The future should be invested in properly.
My interjection. What happened to baby steps?
Of all people who need to be treated with kid gloves, why include the kids them selves from whom should be treated with kid gloves.
I empathize for you from your revelation.
I am bipolar, my brothers were autistic and so on.
Right now I am undergoing physical and occupational therapy for my left hand a problem I shrugged for thirity years since I am not left handed, but more limitations are exposed as we age, so I need to take care of it.
I am reminded of patience and no shortcuts in these PT OT sessions
When I used the term “kid gloves,” I’m referring to excessive and sometimes misguided shielding from the realities of life. Children can be remarkably intelligent and capable if adults around them develop and shape that potential. I dare say children who are neurodivergent need that shaping more so. Neurodivergence can either be a great hindrance or a superpower, but in order to be unlocked a child needs a healthy environment mentally, emotionally, and full of curiosity. Forcing compliance without reasoned explanation doesn’t help that formation as that probably just creates pasaway children and pasaway adults. Unfortunately or fortunately we are both of generation before that was realized, so we probably have issues we need to surpass on our own. Nowadays the young folks can often be hindered by being prevented from making mistakes and learning from it, such as in helicopter parenting.
Like taking meds. Correct dosage and timing.
Need I say more?
Yes I think that applies. My doctor complains all the time that I’m noncompliant 🤣
I aced a lot of exams as my memory always was extremely good, but indeed I noticed in university days and in my professional career that some classmates or colleagues had better work habits than me who often had it too easy. In fact, I was bored in Grade 1 and 2, and my bad motoric skills meant that I had bad “permanship” (penmanship) as some Filipinos said then. Some teachers said chicken scratch to my writing and some classmates called me bobo but I just didn’t care until a teacher just back from the states gave me additional self study math material in Grade 3 and was more American aka motivational than the usual maldita titsers. Well, the Lord, as many Filipinos would say or luck as my gambler uncle might have said, does not give anyone all talents. I saw how learning disability feels like at the motoric level when I took long to learn basic karate and basic dancing steps at dojo and dancing school, way later. And I do respect those who have huge talent in martial arts or dance that I will never have. Singing and music was something I took to naturally, though. The weekend children’s theater and song group I was in at UP College of Music was a bit of a passion. I was even MC once! Hated CAT (high school ROTC) as it took me off that “bakla” (joke lang) course. Maybe the mestiza also in the weekend group (she became one of the DepEd Usecs to implement K12 in PNoys time) would have been my love team partner at ABS-CBN in another timeline. Joke also. But for instance also, I learned piano well but had zero talent for guitar.
Playing chess with my father or discussing with him at the dinner table also shaped my mind. I did tell Dr. Xiao Chua once that mental sparring with my father, who was just a few years removed from his Sorbonne training, was like learning fencing from D’Artagnan or sparring with Pacquiao fresh from his Roach training. I did tell Xiao most of my father’s followers in Pantayong Pananaw challenged him too little, treating him a bit like a datu. Let’s say my father’s style of discussion probably also had influences of my grandfather and one of his cousins he was close with, both lawyers. Re sparring partners, it took me two months playing chess every day during lunch breaks at a UN agency were I cut my first teeth as an IT specialist, in a break room with a fat Russian who was a brilliant player, to reach a level where I could actually defeat my father exactly once at chess, he told me I finally knew how to bring a game to the end and I never played with him again. People need challenges, that is clear. And learn habits good and bad from mentors and peers. Karl says life is what you make of it. Writing here and learning to be more organized from Edgar Lores also kept me from getting bored on the job and, in fact, indirectly helped me level up as a pro over a decade. All that..
American science books my father brought home from the time he taught at UP Clark also fueled my interest in all kinds of tech, BTW. They explained stuff well, especially for me, I am very visual and often still must fight to be patient in reading stuff properly. I often skimmed stuff through in my first TSOH years getting stuff wrong and either had Joe get a bit annoyed, Edgar explaining patiently, LCPL_X and me going off on a tangent, Karl joking to defuse tension and sonny also giving occasional nudges in the right direction. What a journey life can be.
Again thanks for sharing, I was surprised about the reading stuff properly perhaps on technical writing side, but history books and the literary stuff you are on a different level.
I too like visual aids and pictures.
Thanks for recognizing, the various ingredients in this blog tambayan of ours.
Listing down some classics that I often see being read over the years based on the blog stats, the evergreens, so to speak:
Data is not information is not knowledge is not wisdom. That is, I think, self-evident.
A lot of this blog is information as opposed to just the data out there on the Internet. Some of it is knowledge. The classics here are nuggets of wisdom.
Perfect!
For some, being smarter than others has a different connotation:
I have also heard it used by the new Filipino middle class of the 1990s with a connotation of diskarte. This is just to differentiate what WE mean by smart.
More TSOH classics:
Rappler got on my nerves. Also blogger Ellen Tordesillas, so bitterly anti Aquino. They gave us Duterte.
I appreciate Rappler for an independent voice, but sometimes I am annoyed. Rappler’s ethos is quite similar to Jacobin Magazine, which equally annoys me. I tolerated Rappler over the years, but the whole pro-Hamas sympathy and misguided “anti-imperialism” Rappler had been running for over a year made me read their site a lot less.
Yes, exactly. The foundation of coverage is actually political, not factual + conceptual. Their mood meter is also nonsense, intending to emotionalize the articles.
Plus, I don’t like orange. 🤣😂🤣
I also don’t like orange 🤣
Maria Ressa does have a degree in Political Theater (yes, that degree really exists). I also watch who people associate with, and Ressa’s association with the smug far-leftist opiners at The Intercept tells me all I need to know. I find Rappler’s coverage to be suspiciously soft on the PRC and Russian aggression, while being critical of the US under Obama and Biden trying to put the world back together, and being rather unsympathetic to the Ukrainian fight for survival.
Hahaha, political theater. That is funny funny funny.
Here is the AI Overview of political theater.
A political theater degree is a degree that focuses on the study of political theater, a genre of entertainment that addresses political issues. Political theater can be found in film, television, and live performances.
What is political theater?
Examples of political theater The Crown, Parks and Recreation, and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.
Thanks Karl!
I once took on a Rappler article which was pretty simplistic. I even tweeted directly to the editor who wrote it and to Maria Ressa but got no answer. But I mean, someone who writes that VP Leni has yellow blood is already playing games.
Well the far-left won’t change their easily identified simplistic thinking, even if they might change their colors to infiltrate into the mainstream left. Besides, the far-left have countless well-meaning sympathizers among the left that fall of emotionally charged persuasions. Everything is easy in theory after all. Only after an attempt at doing something that it’s realized how hard reality is, compounded by needing to corral people who may have their own views and opinions. I’m convinced after years of observing both the radical left and reactionary right that they prefer to be out of power, as that is where their actual strength lies — standing at the sidelines and criticizing those who are trying their best even if not perfect. It’s no wonder that a lot of these “intellectuals” are effectively excess elites who attended courses in esoteric and useless theory. The only ability they retain in the end is opining, as they cannot deign to lift a finger to help others. They try so hard to be unique and different, like groupies of obscure underground (often crappy) musicians. The “I know what you don’t know, and that makes me your better” is the image they curate for themselves, and hardly anyone believes it.
I am sour oranging on Rappler. I tried to apply there once as a writer, but it was not meant to be, I was not a fit there. Got a lot to learn,so I soldier on, here.
For the Maritime Review, right now, I am running out of new ideas, I am in the stage of what can I say that has not been said. Good thing everything is about location ooops not that I meant timing
From the looks of it, Rappler is relying on student interns to write most their articles in the last couple of years. While I think there is a lot of value in OJT, I question why Rappler which leans heavily to the left is engaging in seemingly exploitative work conditions for their main workforce. Well, I’m never surprised when people of certain ideologies who wax and wane about class exploitation turn out to be the biggest hypocrites.
I beg to differ on OJTS. The exceptions are the ff.
Solita Monsod, JC Punongbayan, John Nerry. to name a few.
I am careful to call someone hypocrite because we are all consistently inconsistent. Even passion is never permanent. Ok I am being anti purism there or anti pedantry, hypocrisy is a word and it may hurt like saying bato bato sa langit ang tamaan ay wag magalit. But the one saying that should be prepared for people whose nerves he or she pinched. Sorry for lecturing.
But on classwar, I know someone who used that as a hashtag.
We were both products of MLQ3 and Filipino Voices blog, he is Chuck Jugo. He had a tag team partner, brianb but I have not heard from him for the longest time. Chuck is still at it on twitter. I still consider him a friend.
I recognize “hypocrite” might be loaded word in the Philippines where it is sometimes thrown around as an attack and not a descriptor. I’m referring to the term itself though as a neutral descriptor meaning someone who doesn’t practice what they preach. Of course no one is perfect in doing why we say, but it is right to criticize those who hold power or operate in the public arena as a leader of their area. I think if someone wants to be held up in public respect, then they should also expect the attendant public scrutiny.
Thanks for being level headed. Thanks for being patient with me.
If I can be patient with the dear corporal, I can be patient with anyone hehe.
Hehehe
As for the left.
I just learned that one of my Uncle/cousins passed away, his views and ideology made him a target of ISAFP many times, may he rest in peace.
That is why I reacted differently when you kept on voicing out your disdain for the left. But I had many arguments about that with my fellow military brats some even told me of not learning after all this years, etc.
Condolences Karl, may your uncle rest in peace 🙏
I am a quite leftist in all but the official label. In US politics I identify with the old Progressive wing, and dislike that far-leftists stole that label. The true progressives in the US are mostly fine operating under the Democratic Party’s big tent, so label-wise I’m a Democrat. If I was active in Filipino politics I’d identify most closely with Akbayan, though I think Akbayan should compromise halfway with LP on timelines. Liberals are technically left-spectrum as well, being somewhere from center-left to a bit further left.
I recognize that the Philippines has a terrible history of red-tagging, where many who were not far-leftists but had spoken out were targeted as alleged communists. But that’s also the reason why Joma’s disciples, who espouse Maoist views refashioned themselves as Makabayan under Satur Ocampo.
I don’t think far-leftist leaders have ever been politically helpful in any case ever since the formation of radicalism and ultra-radicalism in the French Revolution. Personally I don’t like extreme political views, because they only feed outrage but have no solutions, and don’t want to dirty their hands fixing things. In the Philippines context that would Makabayan and likeminded groups under that banner or outside.
Thanks Joey.
Ellen Tordesillas is someone I met twice, first when my dad and myself visited Sen Tri in Crame and another one. She knew my dad. I used to visit her blog.
Now as to Sen Tri, even I was chided by him in a viber chat group, when I implied we had lost Scarborough, I got the you don’t know what you are talking about lecture, Former Chief Justice Carpio got the you were not there, it so happened that the concerned officers during the standoff is also in that forum and the administrator of that forum was the Coast Guard Commandant during the Scarborough standoff. Oh what an experience, traumatic at first, but I got over it.
Below is an example that some may call bitterness and some may call Monday morning quarterbacking and for some this is telling us what really happened.
https://www.ellentordesillas.com/2016/05/20/pnoy-del-rosario-responsible-for-ph-losing-control-of-scarborough-shoal/
TSOH classics again:
My cousin Maude is really pissed that you did not feature her on these classics. She texted me from Palawan, reads daily.
I will do it.
https://joeam.com/2013/01/22/angry-maude-rants-the-surreal-philippines/
https://joeam.com/2012/10/17/angry-maude-does-libel/
https://joeam.com/2013/09/30/angry-maude-what-kind-of-asylum-you-running-here/
https://joeam.com/2013/02/16/angry-maude-rips-two-senator-ladies/
https://joeam.com/2012/09/27/angry-maude-blasts-get-real-post/
https://joeam.com/2012/09/02/the-awakening-beast-public-indignation-angry-maude/
Ha! Thanks for getting her off my case! That woman gets a bee in her bloomers and won’t shut up.
Glad to help.
That Get Real Post article is terrific. The discussion got heated then we got past it. Fun to re-read, thanks.
Welcome.
Tito Sotto is tops on my idiots list, a conceptual midget, but that’s just my opinion. Grace Poe, the Senate’s empty-headed drunk smoking bimbo is a close second. Bong Go is next, a faker of extreme talent.
Continuing with classics:
Yet more classics:
Indeed, although this batch makes me sad, for the loss of Edgar, and for the futility of casting big ideas into a pond of lethargy, self-dealing, and small ideas. There is no grand vision of the Philippines as a dynamic modern state. We the conceptually unrestrained plant seeds that whither for the lack of sunshine. Odd that.
We soldier on. As you wisely told me.
I get Joe’s fatigue, though. I have felt more fatigue and have been in this only half as long as Joe and you.
I ask myself whether the most truthful thing my father ever said about Filipinos is that the poor only want to survive while the rich only want to make money, so maybe the answer to why we are doing all this is what Neo told Agent Smith, “because I choose too”.
That is it, precisely.
I forgot the term I neologized ah: Exactacisely
Possibly, the sunshine needed is a dream, and that is lacking:
In 2022, I hoped there was a bit of a Pink dream.
The awakening was very rude.
For a moment I thought this was about the Philippines, or a generic third World, alas it is about the UK.
https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/1276439-poor-nation-rich-lifestyles
There’s a reason that the only time I agreed to work in the UK was on the condition I was paid at the American rate. Initially I was offered just above half. I have British friends who are highly educated, yet worked at Tesco (grocery store). Thankfully they were able to migrate to Canada, Australia, some other US. It’s often said that the UK is “The City” (City of London financial district), and then there’s everything else. The British economy does make a lot of money laundering Arab and Russian, and now PRC, money though.
My bad, downside of reading too many articles you mix them up.
Anyways UK has its share of one percenters beyond the royal family.
The article I posted was about Pakistan and their version of one percenters, sad but true story.
Adding what I consider my best stuff here:
And some josephivo:
Wherever Josephivo is, I hope he is doing well.
Popoy, Neo, Andy showed up with his snoozing in the noodlehouse a while back.
JP, hope all is well with you and yours.
Some more classics
And more
A couple of pithy ones, and the most well-read TSOH article ever, why I respect President Aquino. North of 200,000 reads as I recollect. I did many many articles on him, a couple critical.
That evaluation of presidents was one of my more creative undertakings. I might tweak it a bit, but the idea is right.
Still more classics:
That Mamasapano article is one of my best, wrapping up several reports on the hearings that were undertaken. It does miss data that came in later, that it may have been someone on the Peace panel that gave rebels a heads up on the operation, by informing Muslim leadership, who passed it on to the killers. That individual, if it is true, should be given primary accountability for the slaughter. And that would certify that the mistrust felt by Napeñas and Purisima was a real deal. Everyone blabs. AFP, peacekeepers, and Muslim leaders. But not the US. They just didn’t help after putting SAF on the hunt.
The article is an excellent parsing of the contexts, something lame-brain Senator Poe could never comprehend. Or anyone in the hearing room. They just bumped around from fact to fact, rote investigators, without piecing together what happened and why. They learned zero I think.