Author: Ian

What’s the difference between your iPhone and your religion?

Not have an iPhone? Then what’s your favorite smart phone? Better yet what’s the difference between your favorite brand of ______ and your religion?

Are you passionate about Honda, Porsche, Hummer’s, or Ferrari? What’s your favorite brand of computers? Let’s get more specific and let’s ask our brain.

According to your brain there is no difference between brands (your favorite brand) and your religion. This is based on MRI (Magnetic resonance imaging) tests. Studies showed that the brain doesn’t distinguish between our favorite brands and religion. Martin Lindstrom teamed up with neuroscientists to compare the brains activity of devout Christians and brand fans. There was no difference.

Read more about this in Martin Lindstrom’s Buyology

 

Optimism is like red wine

A glass a day is good for you, but a bottle a day is dangerous.

In other words it’s quite beneficial for you to be optimistic. Optimistic people live longer, are healthier, more successful, happier, and make more money. And perhaps there are times when you want to moderate it.

This is inspired from the book The Optimism Bias

How to predict your future

According to Tali Sharot we can make relatively accurate predictions when we look back in time and say, “Last month I was late for most meetings, enjoyed only half of the films I viewed, and received no gifts from my loving partner. Therefore, this month I am more likely not to be on time for the majority of my appointments, will probably only appreciate 50% of the movies that I watch and should not expect any gifts.”

Taken from The Optimism Bias

Religion is for the Masses and the Sheep

Are you a master of your environment? Or has your environment mastered you? Are you an independent person capable of making his/her own decisions? Or are you a follower?

Chances are that you didn’t choose what you believe in. Chances are that your environment chose it for you. Chances are that you have been coerced and brainwashed without you knowing so.

If you are from Indiana, USA there is about a 60% chance that you are a Christian. If you are from Indonesia there is a 87% chance that you are Muslim. Come from Utah, USA? Then there is a 62% chance that you are a Mormon. Do you come from India? Then there is an 80% chance that you are Hindu. Chances are that if you are from Saudi Arabia that you are a Muslim and actually there is little chance that you are anything else.

So if we look at the above percentages on the global scale is there one religion? Doesn’t look like it to me. If there are many religions then is there just one truth? So before you say whatever your religious truth is – think on the global scale. So who is right? The Christian and his belief? The Muslim? The Hindu? The Mormon? The Buddhist?

Frequency beats infrequency

Doing something more often for shorter periods of time in many cases will outweigh doing the same thing less frequently for longer periods of time.

Example 1 – Working out

Working out once a week for two hours is much less effective than working out four times a week for thirty minutes. This will get you in much better shape than the former.

Example 2 – Learning an instrument

Playing the piano, drums, turntable, etc. for twenty minutes a day is more effective than playing once a week for an hour and forty minutes.

Example 3 – Learning a language

Studying Chinese once a week for seven hours is less effective than studying everyday for one.

So to develop a skill in something or to create better habits – do it frequently for a shorter period of time.

Stop Eating Beef

1 pound of beef requires:

  • 1,799 (6,810 liters) gallons of water
  • 6.6 pounds of grain for feed plus irrigation water
  • 36.2 pounds of grass or roughage to eat plus irrigation water
  • 18.6 gallons of additional water for drinking and processing

*taken from National Geographic

It’s simply not efficient. On top of that overgrazing of cattle destroys the environment and causes erosion. And add to that the methane gas that they create which is apparently more powerful than carbon dioxide emissions.