It was a hot summer day, and I was cooling off inside when my dad rang me up, asking me to meet him over at our neighbour’s place, in her back garden. When I arrived there, he pointed to a black steel frame, mounted on wheels. “You pick this side, I’ll pick the other side,” he said, as we moved it from the back garden, passing by her driveway, finally putting it down in front of her house.
Our neighbour, a lady in her fourties (recently widowed), said, “It’s all the rage nowadays, these type of closets. Retro is what they call it.” The metal skeleton turned out to be a closet. Didn’t expect that one, did you? What happened was, as she explained, she received it from another neighbour, and she was too polite to refuse. Soon she discovered the difficulty in moving it upstairs, to her chagrin. No wonder, I thought. It looked to be a little under two metres in height, and quite heavy – obviously built to last. This is where my dad came into the picture, as she needed someone’s help.
But we didn’t quite follow her original plan. See, my dad quickly figured he didn’t want to use the cramped stairwell to move this steel monstrosity upstairs, as she had originally planned. He had a better idea: move it to the front of her house, where we’d lift it up through the open window. To make our job a little easier, he used two ladders as a ramp, which we covered with sheets to avoid scratching up either the colossal contraption, or the window frame. We fastened some straps around it, went upstairs and started lifting. Mentally I’d already prepared myself to go all-out. Somewhat to my surprise, it didn’t take that much effort. The job turned out to be easy as pie.
Well, our neighbour was quite happy. She thanked us and said, “Preparation is key!” She sure has a point, hasn’t she? I mean, this was a pretty hot day, and I was already sweating doing nothing – let alone trying to lift this monstrosity through her stairwell. But once the groundwork was done, it was pretty easy.
The same is true for other areas in life. A lack of preparation shows itself, sooner or later. The same goes for a lack of proper foundations.
The past couple of years, I’ve been following this YouTuber. I won’t say his name, but he’s been around for a while. If you know him, you’ll figure it out. Anyways, he used to stick to business advice and motivational self improvement stuff. It was okay at best, as long as you didn’t dig too deep into his background. Huh? Well, here’s a guy who likes to play at being an entrepeneur, a so-called business man, while really running an MLM company – the type of business that constantly has to explain that they’re not a pyramid scheme. It’s an upside down funnel, right? Anyways, he cashed out his chips and sold his MLM business, for some reason – can’t imagine why. I know, I know, technically speaking its not illegal, but come on, the jokes write themselves.
Nowadays he has a podcast. About two or three years ago, he made a shift, deciding to finally speak his mind, bringing his conservative, right-wing political stance much more to the forefront.
I wish he wouldn’t have, not because I’m not open to healthy political debate and discussion, but because I’ve found myself baffled by some of his weak arguments. Some time ago, he invited a couple of youngsters, climate activists I believe. At one point in this conversation, he pulls out his trump card, the big reason why he believes climate change is way overblown. His reasoning comes down to: “The real estate and insurance industries are still spending money on beach front properties. They’ve got some pretty smart people, and there’s plenty of money involved, so they must’ve done the legwork and determined that climate change is a hoax.”
I’ve heard him make this argument before, but once again, I found myself stunned by it all. This is like that highschool jock copying the nerd’s answers on the test, trusting his wits over his own. Only, he doesn’t quite realise the nerd didn’t study for this one. And, let’s keep it real, if ’08 proved anything, it’s that intelligent people are perfectly capable of losing huge quantities of money. So, he spewed out his argument. At that precise moment I caught that ‘gotcha’ glint in his eyes, fully confident he’d made his point, game over. Beyond that, he pretty much stopped listening to what the kids said, believing he’d won the debate. He reasons by annecdote, this guy. It’s the same for many of his other standpoints; I won’t name them, but it’s quite predictable what other stuff he believes in.
The thing is, this type of superficial reasoning is pervasive amongst many podcasters nowadays. They lack foundational knowledge and critical thinking skills. Ironically, while these people tend to disparage the educational system, they are the ones who actually could use some education.
I’m not saying these people don’t read, by the way. The podcaster/business guru we’ve been discussing brags about how many books he’s read. Only, it’s mostly self help drivel and the popular business books, which he’s read by the hundreds. In reality, that means reading without thinking about it, accepting everything on blind faith – which makes the reader not much better than the average cult member.
The motivation behind all of this is easy: the desire for quick gains. It makes people susceptible to headlines making big promises, whether it’s in books, audio or video. And remember, the success gurus of this world would very much like you not to use your intuition. They want you to ignore that voice, telling you something is off. Just ignore that this guy looks like a sleazy salesman, they’d tell you. As soon as you do that, they’ve got you: you’re sucked into the vortex. Luckily, you can escape. It just takes mental strength and good foundations. And while I’m deliberately avoiding the topic of the political vortex too many people find themselves in nowadays, the parallel ought to be obvious.
So, how can we do better? I believe it comes down to preparation of your mind- which is a constant process. You need to possess an inquisitive mind, so you’ll go out and read a broad range of literature, both fiction and non-fiction. Make sure you question what you’re reading, viewing and listening to. Don’t take things on blind faith. That’ll set you apart. Food for thought.
Yours truly
Vincent J. Dancet