Anyway, this idea came from the Schrödinger cat experiment, but instead of a cat, we replace the content with a man. The life of the man is in the hands of the one conducting the experiment, unlike the cat, which could not really care for itself. The man could create a safe space for himself within the box and maybe take care of the cat as well. TADA! A small E-Sekai for those within your box. It might be a little bit cramped, but at the very least, there is peace there.

Acceptance and tolerance are two different things, on one hand acceptance is embracing the differences while striving for ideals; on the other hand tolerance allow for the decline of ideals. Often times that is the challenge, especially if there are different ideals. So how do we see the world in a better light if we can only see the decline in to dystopia. That thought lingered through my head as I banged my face against the wall, is it all futile? Honestly, until I was given a new life, I only saw the world through rose colored glasses. I guess its not any different now, its just that I acknowledging that there was a view that I did not really consider. Truly, I cannot change all things nor bend things towards what is ideal, but I can start somewhere, the best place to start is at home and with myself to set in order things within my grasp. Is it possible? Yes! but that requires cooperation from all those around us, we can only do so much and we are often limited in time, so we must build upon things that would last beyond our life time, to be able to say that we have done the right things in pursuit of the ideals that was entrusted onto us.

While this is applicable to certain scenarios, using it as a catch all can be detrimental. My though about this is, in this world we were meant to serve each other and the higher up we are in the chain, then we have a bigger role to play. To be called “vital” should not be self serving rather it should serve the interest of the people. The world really isn’t in an ideal place right now, arguably people shift things towards their advantage. In this world, certain things are needed in order to move things properly and accordingly, this hurts because often times the interest of one view does not justify the interest of other another’s view. This is similar to what I wrote about earlier in the “Trolley Problem“. The “vital few” often times need to take care of the own tribe first which can be contradicting to the bigger picture. Power and control also play a part, because often we can be persuaded by different things depending on the situation that we are in.

What happens if we are on the other side of the Pareto principle. Do we just stay still and wait until the 20% dictates what should be done? Maybe yes, if we believe in them even if it complicates all the things in our lives. Maybe no, if we want to move on our own way. In life there are certain boundaries, and we don’t necessarily have the means to cross those boundaries, I mean chance happens to all of us after-all. I think what matters is what we do with what we have, it doesn’t mean we don’t try to broaden our horizons, rather it just means that we hold on to the 20% so that we could better serve the 80%.

I then looked back at how ineffective work turned out for me in the past. These created a lot opportunities for improvement but most of all it created something that we could strive for. Going through processes gave chance to get to know working on the other side. Getting a chance to chat about the work, the trouble of how to get things to move. Asking for small work favors in order to get done in a timely manner. Having heated discussions about how bad current process is and what we could do afterwards. I did grow a lot through the years though, I matured to a point where I came to accept certain things while trying to grasp everything that is still under my control. The thing with effectiveness, is that systems become easier and people come to accept status quo. We find little to nothing to improve thus we become relaxed deferring improvement to the hungrier generation. Often times we neglect the fact that the guidance would be coming from us anyway and most of the time the younger generation still looks up to the ones before.

Work becomes stale, lacking the connection from chance encounters and small talk from asking small favors. We do not get to know the people we are working with and trust fails as soon as we encounter problems. Intention gets misinterpreted and we become more defensive, which causes more disruption than work.

While the results sound so dire, being effective is also part of who we are. Striving and finding ways to make things easier and effective can help us cause less friction in work and creates better opportunities for people inside and outside the company.

Another test is the cookie experiment, here the kids are given a cookie in front of them and the scientist suddenly needs to go somewhere and requests the child to hold off from taking a bite from the cookie. If you were in the child’s shoes, would you wait or would you eat the cookie.

In both scenarios, there is no clear reward. Our only basis for what to do is what the scientist told us or their “authority”. That is hard for anyone, because we do not like giving up control, our view is often limited to something that is tangible, something that we want in the moment. Yet we are still given much freedom in those scenarios, we can roam around the room, we can rest or other we can find something else to pass the time. The focus doesn’t necessarily need to be on the actual experiment rather we can just do different things so long as we are within certain bounds. Given that on the first thought our choices are dictated by another, would you rebel and choose to not be part of the test? or would you trust that what ever happens it would turn out for the best for you.

I think that certain things require trust especially on 50/50 scenarios when we are given little to no choice. Cliche as it may seem, it would always be good to not focus on the problem but rather what we have control on. Maybe we end up getting punished or rewarded, and there might not be a good solution to it. In the end, we are still subject to this weird experiment and while others might not agree with me, I think it is best to keep lane and make sure we don’t mess up the “work” that they are doing.

It is funny that we often hide ourselves in our emotions. Emotions are for sure part of our personality, but it rarely is who we really are. Think about it, when we speak with someone in anger, what shows up is the spirit of anger. We convey things in a fiery manner and utter words that we come to regret later, but what if we come to a conclusion that anger is part of our personality. It becomes deeply ingrained that we don’t even notice it. It becomes a justification, that creates a different persona from who we are normally. Severing the connection from our higher self, the one that sees everything from a wider view.

Conversation happens two ways, its either we keep a higher trail of thought or we devolve into the same level as the other. Like water trickling down, we fill conversations with thoughts that helps the discourse to bloom into a meaningful garden of words. It tries to link both head and heart together so we could speak freely and openly about things that satisfies our needs. It gives and it takes, so we do not feel taken advantaged of and we do not feel heavy afterwards. To be lifted up instead of being brought down.

Though as I was thinking through this, I realized that sometimes we also need to go down to the same level in a conversation. A heated discussion can bring out deeper thoughts and concerns that normally won’t happen in a objective talk. Balancing out the fire with an arbiter and or rules can probably help us create a healthy space to speak out. However, this depends both people respect the rules and bind themselves to them.

Overall, hiding oneself is a defense mechanism… We just need to learn how to uncover, hidden things or concerns that we have. Being direct requires trust and a certain degree of understanding, knowing who you are speaking with and being attune to certain realities can help build either a beautiful garden or a cold chat.

Imagine you have a dream, simple yet true and readily achievable, however for some reason, you are unable to push through with it, as if stuck in a rut as all your options slowly dwindle down. Creeping like darkness in dusk, then finally you are in the middle of that abyss with just a lamp as your source of light. Nothing left, except a lamp to comfort you since without it you will be forced to journey in pitch black nothingness with no way to trudge through towards your goal. In my head that is what nihilism is, a swallowing up of all things hoped for, with no other thing left to pursue.

In that meaninglessness, it is easy to find our minds wandering into a spiraling despair. Finding no drive and purpose to this very existence. So now what, how does the other world give meaning to this life? We assume that the other world is true and we should go prepare for it? Ehhh, does that mean I need to save a life so that I can benefit in the next life, the classic save a little girl from dying from a speeding truck so that we could get rewarded in the next life? That could very well be the real meaning of living, how we could save up for the next life.

So should it be a heroic act or an undying self sacrifice? I think it is more than that, its about trying to reach out, trying bring something to the table, trying to fill a role in more that one aspect. Knowing that somehow things will move accordingly and appropriately. Trying to shift purpose in order to fill in the void for another person in the hopes that it will also fill in the missing pieces in our lives and ultimately collect enough credit for the next world. It doesn’t need to be grand or extravagant, rather it should just fulfill a role that is needed in the right moment.

The same logic applies for growing a person, we plant the right seeds in their mind and heart, then we nurture them so that they would grow into the person we want them to be. On the flip side of things, we allow nature to take place and just have them learn things for themselves and nothing more, often this way creates a wild growth that could lead to an unintended direction.

This is quite similar to tending to a house or a dungeon or even a pet. Without proper admin or knowledge, these would be neglected and not be up to standard of the owner. Then again often times the owners themselves do not know what it is they want, so we try to present them possibilities and ways to reach the desired goal. Now, we all know that depending on the person viewing the requirements, they all get to imagine a unique outcome to what the owner wants. Having all sorts of ideas can have positive or detrimental effects to the product because we either complicate things or we diverge from the original plan. Thus, sometimes it is good to come back to the owner to check if we are close to what it is that they want.

Eliminating complex things and trying to make sense what the original goal is, helps us figure out if we really need nurture or nature to move things forward.

Though the plot of Re:Zero is a little bit gruesome or romanticized. This kind of thing happens to us on a regular basis. In order to build yourself up then part of you dies, it maybe a bad habit that you give up on or an outdated way of thinking or maybe just choosing a better alternative. Either way, this “death” creates a new person, one that tries to do better in order to proceed with his life in meaningful way. This is the healthier, way to improve because it does not try to shift your environment in order to adapt to you rather, we shift our attitudes rather than focusing too much on things that we have little to no impact on.