Ordo Ab Chao

Following a recent conversation with some friends about how easily the written word can be misinterpreted I started thinking about the implications of this in world where increasingly communicate using emails, text messages and other forms of textual communication. Communication is a risky but worthwhile business! In Neuro-Linguistic Programming-based counselling the subjectivity of most communcation is demonstrated by the asking the client to think of some simple illustrative phrase like "the cat sat on the mat". The therapist may then ask the client to describe cat, mat and their environment. It quickly becomes obvious that we appreciate to differing extents the biases within our interpretation of even a simple phrase. In person-to-person spoken communication we consciously and subconsciously ignore a whole range of possible interpretations by trying to focus on the emotional intent of the other person. Are they lying? Do they have my best interests at heart? Was that an insult? (if it was I don't want to get them to repeat it and give them the chance to insult me again!). Several perceptive friends of mine have referred to a peculiar property of email we call "emotional amplification". This is a property of email relating to:

• Speed of communication. Many emails, particularly those used in professional communication are sent with the expectation that the subject matter will be understood and acted upon, upon receipt. Therefore there is pressure on the author to convey logical and emotional intent of the message immediately. Conveying emotional intent immediately (like "this is EXTREMELY urgent") can lead to overstatement


• Its half-duplex nature. You don't get immediate feedback to each point so a long email that expresses many points can find itself in an emotional cul-de-sac where the reader becomes more and more irritated with each point.

When most words are written, they become, of course, a part of the visual world. Like most of the elements of the visual world, they become static things and lose, as such, the dynamism which is so characteristic of the auditory world in general, and of the spoken word in particular. They lose much of the personal element...They lose those emotional overtones and emphases...Thus, in general, words, by becoming visible, join a world of relative indifference to the viewer – a word from which the magic ‘power’ of the word has been abstracted.
Marshall McLuhan in The Gutenberg Galaxy (1962), quoting J.C. Carothers, writing in Psychiatry, November 1959.

Following a recent conversation with some friends about how easily the written word can be misinterpreted I started thinking about the implications of this in world where increasingly communicate using emails, text messages and other forms of textual communication. Communication is a risky but worthwhile business! In Neuro-Linguistic Programming-based counselling the subjectivity of most communcation is demonstrated by the asking the client to think of some simple illustrative phrase like "the cat sat on the mat". The therapist may then ask the client to describe cat, mat and their environment. It quickly becomes obvious that we appreciate to differing extents the biases within our interpretation of even a simple phrase. In person-to-person spoken communication we consciously and subconsciously ignore a whole range of possible interpretations by trying to focus on the emotional intent of the other person. Are they lying? Do they have my best interests at heart? Was that an insult? (if it was I don't want to get them to repeat it and give them the chance to insult me again!). Several perceptive friends of mine have referred to a peculiar property of email we call "emotional amplification". This is a property of email relating to:

• Speed of communication. Many emails, particularly those used in professional communication are sent with the expectation that the subject matter will be understood and acted upon, upon receipt. Therefore there is pressure on the author to convey logical and emotional intent of the message immediately. Conveying emotional intent immediately (like "this is EXTREMELY urgent") can lead to overstatement


• Its half-duplex nature. You don't get immediate feedback to each point so a long email that expresses many points can find itself in an emotional cul-de-sac where the reader becomes more and more irritated with each point.

When most words are written, they become, of course, a part of the visual world. Like most of the elements of the visual world, they become static things and lose, as such, the dynamism which is so characteristic of the auditory world in general, and of the spoken word in particular. They lose much of the personal element...They lose those emotional overtones and emphases...Thus, in general, words, by becoming visible, join a world of relative indifference to the viewer – a word from which the magic ‘power’ of the word has been abstracted.
Marshall McLuhan in The Gutenberg Galaxy (1962), quoting J.C. Carothers, writing in Psychiatry, November 1959.

I've discovered a new law which seems to govern most of human desire and explains a great deal about many social interactions. It's kinda ironic too! I call it Shane's law of Empty Plenty and it goes like this

Past a threshold of desire the probability of obtaining something that you want appears to be inversely proportional to your desire for it. The greater the desire the less chance there is of successfully realising it.

It's Christmas time and as usual books are on the wish list. I was reading through an old Paolo Coehlo book recently and stumbled across the following great quote. Definitely words to inspire

"A warrior accepts defeat. He does not treat it as a matter of indifference, nor does he attempt to transform it into a victory. The pain of defeat is bitter to him; he suffers at indifference and becomes desperate with loneliness. After all this has passed, he licks his wounds and begins everything anew. A warrior knows that war is made of many battles; he goes on. Tragedies do happen. We can discover the reason, blame others, imagine how different our lives would be had they not occurred. But none of that is important: they did occur, and so be it. From there onward we must put aside the fear that they awoke in us and begin to rebuild." The Fifth Mountain - Paolo Coelho

Great events come from small moments

"Cease to listen and you will hear reason, close your eyes and you'll see the truth." - (modification of an old Taoist proverb)

"When the heart speaks, the mind finds it indecent to object." Milan Kundera - The Unbearable Lightness of Being

Three quotes from the emminently quotable and deeply insightful Richard Bach today. Very pertinent to my life at the moment.

• "Avoid problems, and you'll never be the one who overcame them."


• "It's okay is a cosmic truth."


• "Our soulmate is the one who makes life come to life."

I don't have a religion category to post under as I don't believe that any religious debates on this site would be constructive. They tend to boil down to "my god is bigger than yours" type arguments where fundamentalists, moderates, gnostics and atheists all declare their own particular beliefs to be the most rational, sensible, godly etc. Each to their own personal nirvana. While I'm not a fan of many of the teachings of the current patriarch of the Catholic church, Benedict XVI, I find some of the vitriol thrown at the new pope to be disturbing. Like all good commenters should but rarely do I'll nail my colours to the mast. I was raised a catholic but haven't practiced in many years. I'm more gnostic than atheist but I like to think that I can respect all views and the milieu within which they exist. Don't we all ?

In 1981 JP II made Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger the prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith which is the oldest of the 9 congregations of the Roman Curia (Roman Court) and is historically associated with The Inquisition. Many of his publications during his tenure raised eyebrows amongst non-catholics and more liberal catholics alike.
In 2000, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith issued a a document entitled Dominus Iesus, which created a lot of controversy. Some religious groups took offense to wild claims regarding the document, that supposedly stated that "only in the Catholic Church is there eternal salvation." This statement appears nowhere in the document. The document condemned "relativistic theories" of religious pluralism and described other faiths as "gravely deficient" in the means of salvation, which is understandably insulting to other denominations. It's worth acknowledging, however, that hysteria has diverted from the purpose of the document which was primarily aimed at reining in liberal Catholic theologians like Jacques Dupuis, who argued that other religions could contain God-given means of salvation not found in the Church of Christ. It offended many religious leaders. Jewish religious leaders boycotted several interfaith meetings in protest. I suppose we could take it as a direct statement from the Catholic Church that they view themselves as a competitor to other religions, whose theologies are so "gravely deficient"However, put in context, Ratzinger's statement is little more than a reaffirmation of the catholic dogma Extra Ecclesiam Nulla Salus
To quote from a more authoritative source

"Outside the Church there is no salvation" is a doctrine of the Catholic Faith that was taught By Jesus Christ to His Apostles, preached by the Fathers, defined by popes and councils and piously believed by the faithful in every age of the Church. Here is how the Popes defined it:

• There is but one universal Church of the faithful, outside which no one at all is saved. (Pope Innocent III, Fourth Lateran Council, 1215.)


• We declare, say, define, and pronounce that it is absolutely necessary for the salvation of every human creature to be subject to the Roman Pontiff. (Pope Boniface VIII, the Bull Unam Sanctam, 1302.)


• The most Holy Roman Church firmly believes, professes and preaches that none of those existing outside the Catholic Church, not only pagans, but also Jews and heretics and schismatics, can have a share in life eternal; but that they will go into the eternal fire which was prepared for the devil and his angels, unless before death they are joined with Her; and that so important is the unity of this ecclesiastical body that only those remaining within this unity can profit by the sacraments of the Church unto salvation, and they alone can receive an eternal recompense for their fasts, their almsgivings, their other works of Christian piety and the duties of a Christian soldier. No one, let his almsgiving be as great as it may, no one, even if he pour out his blood for the Name of Christ, can be saved, unless he remain within the bosom and the unity of the Catholic Church. (Pope Eugene IV, the Bull Cantate Domino, 1441.)
  

Already in 1987, Cardinal Ratzinger had stated that Jewish history and scripture reach fulfillment only in Christ – a position critics denounced as "theological anti-Semitism," although it is very much in the general tradition of Christian views of the Old Testament and the Jews. Despite this, groups such as the World Jewish Congress commended his election as Pope as "welcome"
and extolled his "great sensitivity".

The last communication revolution was the invention of the Gutenberg printing press in 1450. This, as most historians are aware, directly contributed to the last great schism in the catholic church. Before its invention, reproduction of literature was an expensive business generally practiced by scribes in the service of ecclestiastical or regal courts, communication was controlled by church and state. The printing press enabled catholic dogma to be openly and widely challenged. A quote from Martin Luther himself reveals his indebtedness to the invention.

"God's highest and extremest act of Grace, whereby the business of the Gospel is driven forward" (Quote by Martin Luther, in Elizabeth Eisenstein, The Printing Revolution in Early Modern Europe, p. 150)

"Oh the times, they are a' changin"

Recently R has been reading one of my favourite books, Milan Kundera's (pictured) Unbearable Lightness of Being

The greatest weight. -- What, if some day or night a demon were to steal after you into your loneliest loneliness and say to you: 'This life as you now live it and have lived it, you will have to live once more and innumerable times more; and there will be nothing new in it, but every pain and every joy and every thought and sigh and everything unutterably small or great in your live will have to return to you, all in the same succession and sequence--even this spider and this moonlight between the trees, and even this moment and I myself. The eternal hourglass of existence is turned upside down again and again, and you with it, speck of dust!' Would you not throw yourself down and gnash your teeth and curse the demon who spoke thus? Or have you once experienced a tremendous moment when you would have answered him: 'You are a god and never have I heard anything more divine.' If this thought gained possession of you, it would change, you as you are or perhaps crush you.

• Events in nature are probabilistic with predictable probabilities (P).

"And once more I see him the way he appeared to me at the very beginning of the novel," Mr. Kundera says of one of the characters, who is described standing at a window and staring across a courtyard at a blank wall. "This is the image from which he was born. . . . Characters are not born, like people, of woman; they are born of a situation, a sentence, a metaphor, containing in a nutshell a basic human possibility . . . the characters in my novels are my own unrealized possibilities. That is why I am equally fond of them and equally horrified by them. . . . But enough. Let us return to Tomas."

A quote from one of the great figures of the 20th Century.

• In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.- Martin Luther King Jr.

People always talk about reputations...

• "Regard your good name as the richest jewel you can possibly be possessed of - for credit is like fire; when once you have kindled it you may easily preserve it, but if you once extinguish it, you will find it an arduous task to rekindle it again. The way to gain a good reputation is to endeavor to be what you desire to appear." - Socrates

OK, I'm in a very contemplative mood here and NO I'm not about to give away all my possessions but sometimes it's important to put material gain into perspective.

• "The ideals which have lighted my way, and time after time have given me new courage to face life cheerfully, have been Kindness, Beauty, and Truth. The trite subjects of human efforts, possessions, outward success, luxury have always seemed to me contemptible."- Albert Einstein

OK, more of the non-technical and soppy stuff that readers of this blog have come to like, often in spite of themselves...
R is away at the moment but I know she'd like these quotations understanding that I'm not implying for one second that she is anything less than perfect :-D

• "Love is missing someone whenever you're apart, but somehow feeling warm inside because you're close in heart." - Kay Knudsen


• "We come to love not by finding a perfect person, but by learning to see an imperfect person perfectly" - Sam Keen

When storms tire of swift yet futile rage I find myself standing in her shelter with peace & warmth unthinkable. The more I have to lose the more I've gained. Fear will not shackle me for she has set me free. Two singers, a single song, an ode to joy, hope and omnipotence of youth. Oscillating and undulating til they reach their inexorable damburst of resonant rhyme. Each molecule stirring in sympathy with touching, tingling, tangled souls. When the heart speaks the mind finds it indecent to object. When the soul sings the mind hums in blissful harmony, free at last... free at last...

The death of the mercurial soccer legend George Best was particularly sad. To many, myself included, he was the greatest footballer of any generation. An iconic figure who's talent gave joy to millions. He played the people's game with an unsurpassed flair and elan that made it truely beautiful. Yet he also ushered in the modern era of superstardom, wealth and excess. True genius walks a fine line...

• "I have known no man of genius who had not to pay, in some affliction or defect, either physical or spiritual, for what the gods had given him." - Max Beerbohm


• "Every true genius is bound to be naive." - J.C.F von Schiller

Clement Clarke Moore wrote the poem "Twas the night before Christmas" also called “A Visit from St. Nicholas" in 1822. It's the first historical association of Saint Nicholas, reindeer & sleigh. For children, young and old, it has come to define Christmas and it's a tradition in many english-speaking households around the world to read the poem on Christmas eve.

Twas the night before Christmas,
when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that St Nicholas soon would be there.

The children were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads.
And mamma in her ‘kerchief, and I in my cap,
Had just settled our brains for a long winter’s nap.

When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter.
Away to the window I flew like a flash,
Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash.

The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow
Gave the lustre of mid-day to objects below.
When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,
But a miniature sleigh, and eight tinny reindeer.

With a little old driver, so lively and quick,
I knew in a moment it must be St Nick.
More rapid than eagles his coursers they came,
And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name!

"Now Dasher! now, Dancer! now, Prancer and Vixen!
On, Comet! On, Cupid! on, on Donner and Blitzen!
To the top of the porch! to the top of the wall!
Now dash away! Dash away! Dash away all!"

As dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly,
When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky.
So up to the house-top the coursers they flew,
With the sleigh full of Toys, and St Nicholas too.

And then, in a twinkling, I heard on the roof
The prancing and pawing of each little hoof.
As I drew in my head, and was turning around,
Down the chimney St Nicholas came with a bound.

He was dressed all in fur, from his head to his foot,
And his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot.
A bundle of Toys he had flung on his back,
And he looked like a peddler, just opening his pack.

His eyes-how they twinkled! his dimples how merry!
His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry!
His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow,
And the beard of his chin was as white as the snow.

The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth,
And the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath.
He had a broad face and a little round belly,
That shook when he laughed, like a bowlful of jelly!

He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf,
And I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself!
A wink of his eye and a twist of his head,
Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread.

He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,
And filled all the stockings, then turned with a jerk.
And laying his finger aside of his nose,
And giving a nod, up the chimney he rose!

He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle,

And away they all flew like the down of a thistle.
But I heard him exclaim, ‘ere he drove out of sight,
"Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good-night!"

Merry Christmas from R & I and everyone at Gaisan. May god bless and keep you always and may your Christmas wishes all come true.

I get quite a few emails about the title of my blog. These range from the curious to the downright bizarre. I'll post something more detailed about this in due course as I'm getting many hits from people in search of divine wisdom, universal truth or someone to persecute. Some other sites with a similiar name revolve around the recent fixation with free-masonry and illuminati sparked by Dan Brown's books. Some of these are conspiratorial, overly literal & bordering on lunatic. Therefore I'll give my interpretation of Ordo Ab Chao when I get the chance.

This blog entry is prompted by reading Richard Waghorne's commentary on the imprisonment by Austrian authorities of "holocaust revisionist in chief" David Irving. I'm a big of Richard and I despise Mr. Irving so my biases are now on the table. Having thought about it for a while now, I must agree with the Austrian government's actions. It's a very difficult judgement to make when trying to protect a democratic state from subversion through pseudo-historical arguments. Indeed Richard's own arguments could be turned against him, particularly when he quotes the fascinatingly named Charles Krauthammer:

Call it situational libertarianism: Liberties should be as unlimited as possible -- unless and until there arises a real threat to the open society. Neo-Nazis are pathetic losers. Why curtail civil liberties to stop them? But when a real threat -- such as jihadism -- arises, a liberal democratic society must deploy every resource, including the repressive powers of the state, to deter and defeat those who would abolish liberal democracy.

Perhaps too much of a religious statement for some but sage
words that some day I'll heed.

"God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.

Living one day at a time;
Enjoying one moment at a time;
Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace;
Taking, as He did, this sinful world
as it is, not as I would have it;
Trusting that He will make all things right
if I surrender to His Will;
That I may be reasonably happy in this life
and supremely happy with Him
Forever in the next.
Amen." --Reinhold Niebuhr

"You can't get to overexposed, without going thru filthy rich first." - Scott Adams (creator of Dilbert)

After reading Sicilian Notes today I started thinking about the contrasting ideologies of socialism and capitalism. Generally I believe in free market capitalism but I'd like it to have a caring and compassionate side where the haves assist the have-nots through direct (charitable work and donations) and indirect (redistribution of wealth through taxation) means. I think this is compatible with a free market and it is suitable democratic and egalitarian that altruism should be greatly and freely practiced.
I think most socialists secretly aim for such a society but are wary that with capitalism comes the most dangerous set of beliefs ever conceived; meritocracy...
A meritocracy is an organisation or society where rewards and status are achieved through open competition and where the achievements of the individual are therefore deemed to be deserved. The term was originated by Michael Young in his 1958 book the "Rise of Meritocracy" about a dystopian future in which a controlling elite are overthrown by the masses who feel that their lack of merit directly correlated with IQ and effort has rendered their opinions and lives meaningless. Much of altruism action is possibly based on guilt and a belief that someone is fortunate to be in the position to help others. Meritocracies denounce fortune so guilt and hence altruistic actions are greatly reduced. Indeed, the US which firmly believes itself a meritocracy tolerates a massive divide between rich and poor as, with effort and application, there shouldn't be any poor , right? Wrong, social inequality is a fact of life and needs to be addressed in every society to ensure that opportunity is truely equal. Something that in the land of the free, it most certainly is not. Alexander de Tocqueville pointed out in his hugely influential work "Democracy in America" that associationalism spreads democracy. Unfortunately, it also spreads meritocracy and the very things which empower and inspire people to achieve their dreams, make it so hard for them to be achieved. As someone is always richer, smarter, more attractive etc., judging people on merit goes against Kant's humanist principles and makes them into means rather than an end in themselves. For those living in the suburban slums of Paris, it's a moot point whether unthinking socialism is worse than uncaring capitalism but you can be sure that it will take the compassion and altruism of both individuals and societies to improve matters.

"The world is like a ride in an amusement park. And when you choose to go on it you think it's real because that's how powerful our minds are. And the ride goes up and down and round and round. It has thrills and chills and it's very brightly coloured and it's very loud and it's fun, for a while. Some people have been on the ride for a long time and they begin to question: "Is this real, or is this just a ride?" And other people have remembered, and they come back to us, they say, "Hey, don't worry, don't be afraid, ever, because this is just a ride." And we kill those people". - Bill Hicks.

It's been a long time since I posted anything more contemplative than "gee, I really must update this blog." Well I'm feeling a little stressed at the moment for a whole range of reasons so the following quotes seem appropriate.

• “Will this matter a year from now?” - Richard Carlson


• “Stress is nothing more than a socially acceptable form of mental illness” - Richard Carlson

"Disappointment proves that expectations were mistaken." - Mason Cooley

All too true but hope and expectation go hand in hand.

Today I've a quote from one of my favorite public figures of the late 20th Century and the greatest president that the US almost had. Robert F Kennedy. I hugely admire him for his contribution to civil rights, his considered approach to political decisions and how he overcame a background of immense priviledge to become, at the time of his death, the most popular political figure in America and a true champion of the poor and disenfranchised. He wasn't perfect but he radiated decency and hope. The qualities we look for in our leaders and would hope to find in ourselves...

"Laws can embody standards; governments can enforce laws--but the final task is not a task for government. It is a task for each and every one of us. Every time we turn our heads the other way when we see the law flouted--when we tolerate what we know to be wrong--when we close our eyes and ears to the corrupt because we are too busy, or too frightened--when we fail to speak up and speak out--we strike a blow against freedom and decency and justice." - Robert F Kennedy

Here's another one on Bobby's favourite theme, moral courage.

"Fear not the path of truth for the lack of people walking on it." From his last speech after winning the California state primary on June 6th 1968.

If you're going to learn anything, learn to question everything.

People in this world look at things mistakenly, and think that what they do not understand must be the void. This is not the true void. It is bewilderment. - Miyamoto Musashi, The Book of Five Rings

When thinking about the year to come I started musing on my favorite poem. This is not the lateral leap it may seem as I'm afraid due to my increasing banality :) it's The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost. In particular the last few lines of the 3rd verse

Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

Beware knee-jerk reactions and consider consequences.

"All bad precedents begin as justifiable measures."
— Julius Caesar (100-44 B.C.)

If you haven't seen this on gawker or youtube yet then you're in for a treat. Now, I'm all for expressing unpopular beliefs (popularity is overrated) if you can provide a rational argument for them but if you fervently (WRIT LARGE) believe in something to the point of wild-eyed and frothing enthusiasm then an honest person has to share that with the world at large. Especially so if you view that you're the "only person who can help" when you see an accident or that your religion is the "way to happiness". More problematic is the anti-psychotherapist propaganda and the IPR protection of much of the Scientologist belief system. All "religions" seem to think they're the way to happiness anyway. I guess what I object to about this is that people can have all the unsubstantiated beliefs they want but, at the minimum, theit tenets should be publicly available (not for cash) and publicly expressed, So, with the presumption that Mr Cruise is "extremely serious" he should be giving public interviews about all his beliefs. Even if his career nose-dived it's not like he needs the money. He's rightly afraid of ridicule as the Brooke Shields incident proved. Mother's are movie-goers too! Still, if he's so serious... ?

I guess I'm a religious committment-phobe. I'm comfortably agnostic but determine the existence of an unknown creator is low in probability based on our current knowledge of the universe. Still, I can't know so I can't even fully commit to agnosticism or atheism. Maybe it's labels. I don't want my psyche to be branded (or trademarked). I'm not sure I could commit to any religion that wanted me as a member, only kidding :S Gee that sounded smug, maybe I should make an informercial :-D

I reject the idea of "supernatural", I just believe we can't explain some things yet but we should be careful about forming belief systems about things we don't understand. This applies to science aswell. As our knowledge of the physical world expands we better appreciate how neat formulaic beliefs don't always hold (e.g. at the sub-atomic scale) and we appreciate that our beliefs are essentially heuristics which have a utility and should be measured as such. Bit cold, bit dry but there ya go :) Still, a lot of rules and regulation in the major religions of the world have practical social value. Don't eat meat that's rotten, don't fight your neighbour, don't steal, kill etc.
It's important to consider their context rather than blindly dismissing everything. Marx claimed that religion was the opium of the people. So, he replaced it with a new drug, just as powerful and stupefying.

I guess most people would chose certainty over ambiguity, destiny over happenstance and heaven over oblivion.

“A life lived with integrity - even if it lacks the trappings of fame and fortune is a shining star in whose light others may follow in the years to come.” - Denis Waitley

If only more people believed this the world would be a better place. Unfortunately they don't. It's too common in today's society to attack those whose opinions differ from our own instead of considering their side. It's often easier to defame and decry than to be fair. I'm lucky I guess as I met R who is a decent and honourable human being :)

Steve Jobs is the CEO of Apple, the largest independent shareholder in Disney and one of the most influential technologists for around 30 years. He's also a brilliant public speaker which is probably why he was chosen to give Stanford's 2005 graduation address. Stanford hold all copyrights on the clip and have made it available on YouTube.

In the context of 4 simple stories about his life Jobs provides some key insights into what motivated his success and the resilience required to get to and stay at "the top". The most important advice he gives is that anything worth doing is hard so "you've gotta love what you do". You must keep searching for it and "don't settle". This seems to be the key to a life less ordinary.