Uncommon Sense

Say a person is fortunate to live until the ripe old age of 75. That means they get 900 months on this earth to do ANYTHING they want. That’s right. ANYTHING. Especially the people who are capable, privileged, and free enough to read this online.

Say you are 25 right now, give or take a few years. That means 300 of those months are already gone. You now have somewhere between 0-600 left. How many, we don’t get to know.

0 at worst, 600 at best.

When I think about it in those terms, it really does go so fast.

Today happens to be the 7th day of this month, and the rest will likely fly by. 599. Next month will fly by too. 598.

For this month, how many days have you put aside to do what you love most - to do exactly what you feel you are here on this earth to do? How many hours even? Is there room on the calendar, or does it keep getting pushed back?

This month is 1/900 of your life. YOUR life! How much time will you spend it watching TV shows that aren’t even that enjoyable? Complaining? Arguing? Moping? Comparing yourself with others? Worrying about criticism? Avoiding failure? Hanging out with people who don’t want the best for you? Thinking about what you don’t have? Doing stuff you hate to buy useless shit that doesn’t mean anything in the grand scheme of life? 

How long have you been living for some other day that will always remain as some other day?

Now, how much time this month will you spend in absolute bliss? As your highest self? In a place where you can honestly say there’s no place you’d rather be?

What really makes you tick? What freezes time? What makes you excited to get out of bed every day?

Four weeks pass. 597.

Four more. 596.

Oh, yeah, I was supposed to start doing that thing that day, but it slipped my mind and I put it off. 595.

Enough time has slipped by.

Today is Friday.

Do not let this weekend slip by without doing that thing.

Drop the shit that doesn’t matter.

Start now.

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It was a freezing, windy winter night in Manhattan. I had just gotten out of a late meeting, and was walking to catch a train home and go to sleep after a good day’s work. Thinking about the next day’s to do list, I was practically in my own world, not really paying attention to my surroundings.

“Hey man, I love your kicks!” said a voice to me from the sidewalk. When I looked back to see where it came from, I saw a man wearing tattered clothes, carrying a garbage bag, standing outside of a restaurant - with a warm smile on his face. As I was about to say thank you, a woman walked by. “Hey lady, you have the most beautiful eyes. Can you spare some change?”

A revelation washed over me. This homeless man had a magnetic charisma about him. He had no fear of talking to anyone; and he was excellent at lighting people up. He had this amazing gift, and I felt pulled to help him harness that potential. I introduced myself, and told him dinner was on me. “Ralph’s the name. Thank you so much sir!” he said.

As we sat down and ate, I told Ralph that I felt he has an amazing talent for connecting with people. Hesitant at first, he eventually began to open up. He spoke much about how he used to love to fish. Ralph really knew his stuff; he was like a fisherman’s encyclopedia. I asked him what he could see himself doing, and he said that he thought he could be a good salesman. That was all I needed to hear to put two and two together. There was a sporting goods store right down the street. I asked him if he ever considered going there and telling them that he would help them sell their fishing equipment. 

There was a pause. 

Ralph put his hands over his face as he spoke through tears. I’ll never forget what he said next.

“For 11 years, I’ve been walking around these same few blocks just trying to get a bite, get some cigs. I ran away from my problems, man. I had my woman and two kids, and I left them. I didn’t know how to deal with it. This morning, I was praying for something good to happen. I’ve been so caught up in the struggle that I couldn’t see clearly. In 11 years, no one has ever done anything like this for me. It’s time for me to make things right again. Tomorrow, I’m going to that store, and I’m going to find my girl. My prayers have been answered. You are an angel. I will never forget what you’ve done for me.”

By the end, I was in tears as well. Ralph thanked me for my help, and we went our separate ways. But to be honest, Ralph was the one who deserved all the thanks. The chance to be a part of something bigger than myself brought me unbelievable joy; much more than I could ever get from buying something for myself. The money I spent on Ralph’s meal was one of the greatest purchases I’ve ever made. Knowing that it is possible to have such a profound impact on someone’s life in such a short period of time gives me faith that, with the right amount of effort and resources, it is absolutely possible to create a world where no one is homeless.

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For the sake of gaining wisdom, the best way to go into a philosophical debate is to be open to the possibility that you may learn some new information that invalidates everything you’ve ever known or believed in. 

If this does occur, you have two choices: to change your entire life and worldview, or to admit to yourself that you are not living according to your highest principles.

This is not something to be taken lightly. Changing ways of thinking and habits of living are some of the hardest things for a person to do.

It is precisely this fear of being wrong, having to admit that we have been ignorant of some important knowledge, dealing with the stress of adaptation, and the loss of certain people, circumstances and comforts that causes us to cling so tightly to inaccurate, closed-minded belief systems.

From a self-centric point of view, denying the truth is hands down an easier path than having to change.

But if we look around the world today, we can clearly see the problems that arise as a result of this unwillingness to question ourselves and seek objectivity. 

Is it possible that we are wrong about something that we stubbornly don’t want to admit? Is it possible that the person with a different perspective has some merit to what they’re saying, but we’re stubbornly not giving them any credit for it?

View your situation from your own shoes. From the other person’s shoes. From outside of the situation completely. View it from every angle you can. The way you communicate with others will change completely. This is where wisdom and harmoniousness come from.

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John Hunter - The World Peace Game

Marcin Jakubowski - Open Sourced Blueprints for Civilization

Hyenseo Lee - My Escape from North Korea

Simon Sinek - How Great Leaders Inspire Action

Brene Brown - The Power of Vulnerability

Amanda Palmer - The Art of Asking

Derek Sivers - How to Start a Movement

William Kamkwamba - How I Harnessed the Wind

Elizabeth Gilbert - Your Elusive Creative Genius

Myshkin Ingawale - A Blood Test Without Bleeding

Hans Rosling - Let My Dataset Change Your Mindset

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The guy who beeped at you isn’t angry that you took two seconds to go when the light turned green. He’s upset that his kids don’t communicate with him anymore.

The woman who gossiped about you at work isn’t really angry with you. She’s upset that she never got that big break she dreamed of, and feels stuck. 

The person who is nitpicking and makes snarky comments on the article you wrote isn’t really so upset that you misspelled a word. They’re upset because they don’t feel the love and affection from those around them.

No matter what we do in life, we will never make everyone happy, and especially not all at the same time. We can try our hardest to do the right things, and we should as often as possible. But sometimes, others will react negatively and try to tear us down.

It’s important to realize that this is not personal. If someone else is upset, or angry, that is what they have chosen to be at the moment. Their negativity is simply a way of trying to release the intense suffering they feel. They may just not know how. More than anything, it’s really a cry for help and a longing for friendship.

If you can be a friend in this situation, and help someone get down to the bottom of their stress in order to release it - despite them actively trying to bring you down - congratulations. It’s one of the toughest things in the world to do. It’s not something you can do every time, because it takes an unbelievable amount of energy, patience, compassion, and willpower. Too much of this will drain you and distract you from accomplishing anything else.

I’ve tried it and succeeded a few times, and I’ve also tried it and failed miserably other times. If you do give it a real effort and see that it is of no use, distance yourself from it and don’t engage. Perhaps they’re not ready to look within right now, or just need to hear it from someone else. But don’t feed into the negativity. Don’t let it infect you. No one can make us upset. We can only choose to be upset; and when we do, it is now our problem and ours alone. Now we need to be quarantined and treated as well, or else we risk moping, complaining, and spreading this infection to even more people.

It’s important to learn how to deal with this type of thing in the most effective and evolved way. Otherwise, we will often allow the fear of dealing with this outside negativity to force us to play small. To speak softer than we want to speak, to hide the ideas that others might not approve of, to need others to tell us that what we’re doing is acceptable.

And that doesn’t serve anyone.

If you pour your heart and soul into growing the best strawberries you can possibly grow, someone will still hate strawberries. That’s okay. That has nothing to do with you. You didn’t hurt anyone. Many other people will still like them; and if you enjoyed growing them, then it was worth doing. Sometimes you’ll create a batch that doesn’t come out good. That’s okay too. Sometimes I write things that aren’t as fluid and clear as I’d like them to be. Not every at bat is going to be a homerun. But the only way we can ever hit a homerun is by having the courage to keep stepping up to the plate.

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Where does your core sense of fulfillment come from?

Does it come from money, materialism and external judgments? This is the most hollow and unsustainable strategy. You will spend life forcing yourself to do things that aren’t you to acquire more stuff. And live in perpetual envy of those who have more.

Does it come from always needing to have a stable romantic partner? This can change rapidly. People change. People grow apart. People pass away. There will be a constant struggle to hold on and try to make something permanent in an impermanent world. This is a recipe for forcing things, jealousy, dependency, arguments, trying to change someone against their will to fit our own selfish image of them, and other unnatural fear based actions. If all of one’s happiness depends solely on having an impermanent and constantly evolving other person in their life, the immense fear of loss will weigh heavily upon their mind and actions at all times. This is light years better than money, but is still incomplete.

The most stable and sustainable form of happiness is that which is derived from our own personal vision. It is an internal thing. What does my ideal world look like? What changes need to be made to create this transformation? What is my role in contributing to all of this and serving the greater good of all? No matter what else is going on in one’s life, once it is discovered, this inner core and vision can never be taken away from them. 

When we discover what our mission is, it teaches us how to put our lives in perspective and understand what this journey is really all about. Rather than spending all of life trying so hard to force things to go a certain way to avoid being alone, we can accept that wholeness is our default state of being. We can fully accept and embrace it, and discover how happy we can be within our own skin; simply by existing and utilizing our gifts for the greater good of the whole. 

When we walk down our own true path, all that is right in the universe seems to walk with us. A constant flow of new amazing people who share our vision and naturally understand us better than anyone else will emerge along the way. The paradox is that by letting go of the need to be fulfilled by others, we find others who can help us find even more fulfillment.

As we learn to truly become whole and love ourselves, we become so full of positivity that we learn how to truly love others and accept them for who they are without attachment or expectation. This is the healthy foundation that allows us to bring our highest selves into each interaction without the neediness of an impure agenda. This is how we can develop the most fulfilling friendships and relationships, and enjoy them to their fullest capacity while they last.

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[Article via the recently created Project Free World Quora blog]

The world is in flux right now. Despite the astounding level of technology we have in this day and age, too many of our brothers and sisters worldwide continue to see their basic survival needs being systematically ignored. As a fellow citizen of the human race who has been extremely lucky to have grown up in one of the wealthiest countries in recorded history, I cannot in good conscience justify utilizing anything less than my full creative abilities to attempt to solve the complex challenges we face.

This is an experiment to determine just how powerful the Quora platform and community of approximately ten million members can be when we come together for a philanthropic higher purpose.

Let’s take this opportunity to shine a giant spotlight on the unheard and unseen. Let’s attempt to better understand how those in poverty around the world live, and examine what’s working to successfully empower people in order to be better equipped to address the issues that cause it. Let’s examine this from every possible angle: the macro level, the micro level, and everything in between.

Here’s how it’s going to work:

Using the Quora platform, we are going to ask a set of questions. Using Indonesia as an example, these questions can be along the lines of:

1. What is life like for poor people in Indonesia?

2. What resources or policies would empower the impoverished people of Indonesia?

3. Who are some of the local organizations that are doing a good job of alleviating poverty in Indonesia whose models can be replicated?

4. What can concerned global citizens do to help the impoverished people of Indonesia rise up and break out of poverty?

(*Note: I had originally combined many of these questions into one single question, but was informed by Quora moderators that this goes against the terms of service of the website and was causing problems for other users. If you were one of those affected users, I do apologize. Moving forward, in order to do this in a way that is Quora-friendly, we must properly divide up separate questions as I’ve done above. Come to think of it, it’s probably better this way anyway for the sake of untangling all of the complexity involved in these issues.)

If you think asking how to end poverty in a country with as large a population as Indonesia sounds very broad, you’re right. It is. This is just a starting point to be able to see things from the macro level. Don’t worry. We will continue to go deeper. 

This is where the Quora community is going to be of vital importance in executing this plan. We are going to go five levels deep.

I’ve added a diagram below to show how we can break this problem down into bite size pieces:

For each level, we will need to ask (some version of) the above four questions for each specific area. So, using question #2 as an example: 

Country level: What resources or policies would empower the impoverished people of the United States?

State level: What resources or policies would empower the impoverished people of New York?

City level: What resources or policies would empower the impoverished people of Brooklyn, New York?

Town level: What resources or policies would empower the impoverished people of Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, New York?

Neighborhood level: What resources or policies would empower the impoverished people of Brooklyn’s Marcy Projects?

Breaking it down in this manner can create great opportunities for friendships to be born, mentorship, crowdfunding projects, local volunteer outings, and much more. If you work with a large NGO, the macro level information may be more useful for you; but the micro levels allow every single one of us to do something to create a better world. No matter who is interested in getting involved and helping, there is something for all of us to do. The major advantage of utilizing the Quora platform in doing this project is that we can get real answers and first-hand information from people living and working in these areas; rather than only receiving general second-hand accounts from policymakers or mass media outlets.

In order to keep all of this information organized, we are going to need more volunteers to step up and create their own Quora blogs to manage it. This current post you are reading right now is the part of the newly created Project Free World (PFW) Quora blog. As shown in the previous diagram, this post connects with all of the questions on the country level. I’ve included links at the bottom of this post to those questions for every single country in the world.

You can create your own Quora blog (or join one as a contributor if someone else has already made the one you’re interested in) on one of the five levels. You can then begin writing, answering, promoting and linking to some of the questions for that particular region. For example, we will need someone to create a PFW United States Quora blog, link back up to this one and then also link down to the ones on the next level (PFW California, PFW Texas, etc.). 

The PFW California Quora blog creator will link back up to PFW United States, and down to PFW Los Angeles, PFW San Francisco, and so on. This will make it very easy for people to connect with the relevant contributors at each level, access the right information, and understand the flow of this project.

(*Note on choosing topics for each blog and question: Be sure to add the Project Free World, PFW, and PFW [Location] topics so that you can be found more easily by those who want to start a discussion or contribute answers. Also, be sure not to use topics that aren’t directly related to the question. This has the potential to get very big very fast, and we do not want to have a bombardment of these questions show up in the news feeds of uninterested individuals so that they can peacefully enjoy Quora in their own way.)

The important thing to remember is that this is open to anyone who has the right intentions and wants to get involved. Don’t wait around or ask someone to give you permission. If you have an idea that will improve the knowledge base or the lives of people in your local area, self-organize and make it happen. There are no set in stone hard rules, only guidelines. Have fun with it, innovate, build upon it, share it, and contribute to this vast pool of human knowledge. Take initiative and be a beacon of light for others.

If this all seems very complicated, feel free to disregard all I’ve said so far and start from scratch. It’s better to focus on action rather than getting stuck in paralysis of analysis. In one sentence, here is a summary of what we can do:

Let’s ask poverty-related questions to Quora’s massive user base, and organize people locally to implement the solutions we can think up together. 

That’s it.

Feel free to message me if you have any further questions, and I hope to see you take part in this much needed global effort!

Sincerely,
Jordan Phoenix

To get more people involved:
[Use your Quora credits to promote the post]
[Follow Project Free World on Facebook and Twitter]

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Country information

Answers have now come in for over 45 countries on six continents! 

Here are some of the countries that have received responses thus far (★ designates very informative set of answers):

Africa
Cameroon ★
Gabon
Liberia
Madagascar
Malawi
Nigeria
South Africa
Zimbabwe

Asia
Bahrain
Bangladesh
India ★
Indonesia ★
Iraq
Israel
Jordan
Kyrgyzstan
Malaysia
Mongolia
Nepal
Philippines ★
Saudi Arabia
South Korea ★
Sri Lanka
Turkey
United Arab Emirates

Europe
Bulgaria
Croatia ★
Finland
France
Georgia
Italy
Lithuania
Malta
Poland
Romania
Ukraine
United Kingdom

North America
Costa Rica
Guatemala
Mexico ★
Panama
United States

Oceania
Vanuatu

South America
Argentina
Bolivia
Brazil

Here are some additional external resources.

Project Free World External Resources:

PFW Critical Areas Map - Map that gives an index score from 1-100 (unstable to stable) for various metrics for every country, highlighting the most critical areas

PFW Crowdsolving Tools - Page that highlights some of the most innovative organizations that are helping to provide the proper food, rights, education, and environment to people around the world

PFW Main Blog

This is the full list of questions for each country, by continent: 

*Note: This list includes some disputed countries, regions that are battling for their independence, and territories (i.e. French Guiana, Greenland, Hong Kong, Kurdistan, Palestine, Taiwan, Tibet, Western Sahara). The purpose of this article is not to dispute who does or does not deserve their own independent status. The purpose is to better understand what life is like for some of the impoverished people of our world, in order to better empathize with them and do whatever we can to help solve the issues that create these conditions. If there is a disputed area that you believe should be on here, message the administrator of this blog, Jordan Phoenix.

Africa
Algeria
Angola
Benin
Botswana
Burkina Faso
Burundi
Cameroon
Cape Verde
Central African Republic
Chad
Comoros
Congo
Democratic Republic of the Congo
Djibouti
Egypt
Equatorial Guinea
Eritrea
Ethiopia
Gabon
Gambia
Ghana
Guinea
Guinea-Bissau
Ivory Coast
Kenya
Lesotho
Liberia
Libya
Madagascar
Malawi
Mali
Mauritania
Mauritius
Morocco
Mozambique
Namibia
Niger
Nigeria
Rwanda
São Tomé and Príncipe
Senegal
Seychelles
Sierra Leone
Somalia
South Africa
South Sudan
Sudan
Swaziland
Tanzania
Togo
Tunisia
Uganda
Western Sahara
Zambia
Zimbabwe

Asia
Afghanistan
Bahrain
Bangladesh
Bhutan
Brunei
Cambodia
China
Hong Kong
India
Indonesia
Iran
Iraq
Israel
Japan
Jordan
Kazakhstan
Kurdistan
Kuwait
Kyrgyzstan
Laos
Lebanon
Malaysia
Maldives
Mongolia
Myanmar (Burma)
Nepal
North Korea
Oman
Pakistan
Palestine
Philippines
Qatar
Russia
Saudi Arabia
Singapore
South Korea
Sri Lanka
Syria
Taiwan
Tajikistan
Thailand
Tibet
Timor-Leste (East Timor)
Turkey
Turkmenistan
United Arab Emirates
Uzbekistan
Vietnam
Yemen

Europe
Albania
Armenia
Austria
Azerbaijan
Belarus
Belgium
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bulgaria
Croatia
Cyprus
Czech Republic
Denmark
Estonia
Finland
France
Georgia
Germany
Greece
Hungary
Iceland
Ireland
Italy
Latvia
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Macedonia
Malta
Moldova
Montenegro
Netherlands
Norway
Poland
Portugal
Romania
Serbia
Slovakia
Slovenia
Spain
Sweden
Switzerland
Ukraine
United Kingdom

North America
Antigua and Barbuda
Bahamas
Barbados
Belize
Canada
Costa Rica
Cuba
Dominica
Dominican Republic
El Salvador
Greenland
Grenada
Guatemala
Haiti
Honduras
Jamaica
Mexico
Nicaragua
Panama
Saint Kitts and Nevis
Saint Lucia
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
Trinidad and Tobago
United States

Oceania
Australia
Fiji
Kiribati
Marshall Islands
Micronesia
Nauru
New Zealand
Palau
Papua New Guinea
Samoa
Solomon Islands
Tonga
Tuvalu
Vanuatu

South America
Argentina
Bolivia
Brazil
Chile
Colombia
Ecuador
French Guiana
Guyana
Paraguay
Peru
Suriname
Uruguay
Venezuela

Let’s use our knowledge and resources to enhance this open-source research database. Let’s share it with NGOs and concerned citizens looking to start local grassroots projects to make change. Let’s pick up speed and move closer to the day that poverty becomes a thing of the past.

Follow Project Free World blog on Quora

Human beings long for a sense of connection and adventure. We tend to value experiences that are real and make us feel something over the uninteresting and boring, even if they’re extremely painful to get through at the time.

For many people who live in advanced civilized societies, the typical daily struggles for food, shelter and immediate safety are no longer an issue. However, the people still yearn for that sense of connection and adventure. People need to feel a sense of excitement, a sense of purpose, a sense that life is more than just a set of meaningless, repetitive, robotic motions in the name of self-preservation.

This yearning is what gave rise to the concept of “first world problems.” People feel unfulfilled, and long to feel raw emotions again. They feel unsatisfied because they feel disconnected from the grand parade of life, but they don’t know exactly why. So they nitpick and search for increasingly trivial things to be upset about, which seems so unnatural that a set of memes mocking this phenomenon appears all over the Internet.

The solution lies in putting things in their proper perspective. The world is not going to end if the barista put half and half into your coffee instead of skim milk. It’s not a big deal. Drink it and be happy. It doesn’t matter if the person down the street has heated leather seats and a fountain in their apartment lobby that you can’t afford. It’s unwise to make this vain competition the focus of one’s life, because it’s a competition that you can never win. Someone will always have more unnecessary material goods and more impressive personal accolades.

The solution is to remove ourselves from this childish game, and stop competing with everyone else. If we want life to feel like it has a real purpose, then we need to find something real to focus on. Something real like child poverty. Or human rights. Empowering students. Cleaning up the environment. Reducing others’ pain and making people feel happy. If we feel disconnected from life, it’s because our life goals are disconnected from the satisfaction of other living beings. To feel something real again, we need to recognize that life is bigger than us, and utilize our efforts for something bigger than we are.

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