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kob131 · 4 years

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You know Hero Hei, it’s hard to feel sorry for you (or even try to be neutral towards you) when you’re still pulling the same manipulative bullshit.

Shocked face, overexaggerated title, contrasting colors, aggressive language- I’m pretty sure if Trump’s Political ads had thumbnails, they’d looked identical to yours (and I only say Trump because every other politician follows an older version of your formula.)

‘This is a follow-up to Neath Oum’s hitpiece on me-’

There you go again. Hit Piece is defined as a disingenuous article or similar such piece of media designed to turn public opinion against a person. Issue is- this is not a public article, it’s a fucking tweet thread and it’s not made to turn people against you (and consider the replies to his tweet, it wouldn’t even slightly change public opinion of you), it was made to explain why he doesn’t like you.

We can actually see how a hit piece would sound like IN YOUR VIDEO, as Neath forgoes a lot of the manipulative techniques you use in your videos to get an emotional reaction out of his audience before even beginning.

‘I have nothing but respect for Monty Oum-’

Your numerous videos slandering his friends when the man outright told people to stop watching his show for saying one of his friends was a lesser voice actor than two others in ONE instance says otherwise.

‘*insert a bunch of sarcastic stuff here*’

I wouldn’t bitch too much but this video is only 6 minutes and 13 seconds long and about half a minute passes without him saying of substance. And I’m keeping his shit vague because it’s meaningless and just meant to rile his audience up.

‘It won’t negatively affect me at all.’

Cool...and Neath is never shown to intend it too. Here’s the tweet thread that Hero Hei is talking but never sources (https://twitter.com/neath_oum/status/1307345624958812160). Not once does he ever say anything about exposing Hero Hei and ends it by reiterating it’s about explaining his blocking.

Also of note-

Because his lies exacerbate conflict or generate controversy where none existed

Neath says this in his chain. Now consider Hero Hei portraying this as an attack against him...when he never says to spread his thread, use manipulative language like you do or use the attention grapping tactics you do. And now you’re just proving him right when you could have stopped this 40+ second monologue, made a title like “I respond to Neath Oum’s Twitter Thread” and used a different thumbnail.

(Note: I am skipping from 0:37 to 1:22 because at 0:44 he says to skip that segment as it’s a catchup and I’m trying to give him some benefit so I’ll just skip it and assume he gave a neutral recap.)

‘He begins hyping this thread up and being really suspicious and vague about it!’

You mean like what people said about your original video on the subject which you dismissed and mocked them for?

To paraphrase you Hero Hei-

‘Read beyond the first sentence.’

‘In my opinion, this means nothing and so i will not comment on most of this.’

You mean opinion of the target of the so-called ‘hit piece’ who would have every reason to downplay what is being shown. After I having already seen for myself that you’re a damn liar and the very first part of the ‘hit piece’ is talking about how you lie by omission? You clearly do care because you made (an admittedly low effort) video on it and yet you can’t even address it properly? Speaking as someone who has had hit pieces made on him, you’re an idiot.

Also your ‘if you want to read the whole thing, you know where to find it!’ shit is inexcusable. It’s a known fact that audiences likely won’t seek out something that would discredit their subject. They’ll be far more likely to just accept whatever you say, especially if say...their emotions and tribalistic instincts were being played on by portraying Neath as inherently wrong and using emotionally charged language to elicit a certain reaction out of them.

“Most of this stuff is from a year ago anyways!’

Stuff which you yourself bring up before to make and support your points.

‘This isn’t really worth my time, it’s desperate.’

I have literally heard politicians pull this, how is everything out of your mouth killing your credibility?

‘*tries to portray Neath’s beginning statement as aggressive towards people asking for proof* Well I dunno why anyone would be upset you accused someone without proof but okay-’

A. ‘ Finished some stuff earlier than expected. For those who (civilly) asked for info and proof about hero hei, here you go.’

That is Neath’s opening sentence. This is not being aggressive or dismissive or at all negative towards the people asking for proof. I can’t think of a way to be more neutral than this.

B. Funny considering you accused Pedantic Romantic of being a stalker and yet never provided actual proof, just out of context screenshots (effectively lies which is WORSE.) So clearly you don’t care that much.

‘Funny that he says he found additional evidence about this when he retweeted a thread made a month ago by another twiiter user that I debunked in another vide Man this is some worthless stuff.’

Gee Hero Hei, I’ve noticed that you like to portray this as irrelevant without saying why, continuously using those kinds of terms. Kind of like news outlets when bitching about someone they don’t like, all using similar terminology as if to subconsciously reinforce an idea in the viewer’s head. Also funny since those same news outlets ALSO tend to rely on the reader’s bias...

‘See, he even admits that he’s taking this from someone I debunked!’

Well actually, you just pointed out one single mistake that wasn’t connected to their point but sure.

‘This is so lazy Neath!’

Hero hei, you literally just take what other people say and vomit it out- You do the same shit.

‘Animelog is by Toei actually!’

No Hero Hei, it’s not. Toei justed signed up for them. It’s still operated by AnalyzeLog...which is funded by Net 10 ventures, the company Neath CITED.

Benjamin Grubbs is the founder of AnalyzeLog. In 2018, AnalyzeLog was founded with seed funding from U.S. venture capitalist Next10 Ventures. In December 2019 AnalyzeLog Digital struck a deal with Toei Animation. Shogakukan followed Toei animation deal in April 2020, and just last month it signed a collaboration with animation studio Shin Ei Animation, creators of “Doraemon” and “Crayon Shin-Chan”.

‘He tries to compare Toei being a founder of Daisuki to it’s massive investment in AnalyzeLog!’

... Hero Hei. When you found something like a business, you are INVESTING in that business. Jeff Bezos fundamentally invested in Amazon when he started it up because he had to use his own money to make it happen.

... Do you think your audience is brain dead or something?

‘*covers Neath’s screenshot of his video titles*’

Hm, pretty sure that’s the definition of ‘suspect’ Hero Hei.

‘So this vice president of Rooster Teeth did horrible things to his wife and Neath is defending this or something-’

*grabs Hero Hei by the collar*

Nuh uh, you ain’t getting away with that shit.

First, short one about Rooster Teeth, the lies I am talking about were lies of omission. These screenshots show the titles of some of his videos. Titles and screenshots are what drives viewers when deciding what videos to watch. In the titles, he used "Rooster Teeth Vice President". Using "Rooster Teeth Vice President" evokes the image of the second highest ranking person at Rooster Teeth. However, he used "Vice President of Product and Engineering" in the video description, so he knew what the person's full rank was but omitted it from the titles. By seeing the actual rank, viewers would know that the terminated person was not the second highest ranked person at Rooster Teeth. Not including information in a title to give viewers the wrong impression amounts to lies of omission.

Some will argue that he didn't lie since the full rank was given in the description, it's just click bait and no big deal. That's fine but omitting information from the beginning warps first impressions and are still lies, even if small. That said, continue reading for more of his overt lies.

This is the full set of what he said in regards to RT. Notice something? Yeah- HE’S NOT DEFENDING THE MAN. Hero Hei just shoved that shit in. With NOTHING to indicate such a thing...you know other than ‘he dared to speak out against me!’

‘He seems to be complaining about the video title-’

TITLES (multiple) which comes up NUMEORUS times in his thread but sure. And you clearly agree with him since you bitched about his opening thread (just you know, effectively lying about it.)

‘*quotes an out of context sentence from the above quoted set* No I wasn’t trying tyo give people the wrong impression!’

Funny how context CHANGES things, like showcasing Hero Hei lying AGAIN.

‘I didn’t say that because Youtube has a 100 character limit for video titles so i couldn’t fit in!’

Yeah it does have 99 characters in it...

Except here’s the thing: you could have cut 33 characters from it even with inserting ‘of Product and Engineering’ easily.

Rooster Teeth RT Vice PRESIDENT VP of Product and Engineering ARRESTED, allegedly BEAT his WIFE Numerous Times and LAUGHED about it!

There, 66 characters and I made your video title better (by cutting out needless details) and more truthful.

I don’t trust you enough, especially with the shit you’ve already pulled in this video alone.

‘*mocks Neath for bringing up the Vic stuff from over a year ago*’

Hero hei, your channel has permanent ‘ISWV’ merch being advertised.

*doesn’t even bother to address what is said, just mocking the use of names.*

“Neath Oum s-said mean things about me mommy, make the scary man with 2/3rds of my audience stop mommy!’

See how stupid that sounds?

In fact, let’s stop here because he says NOTHING of worth and Hero hei killed his credibility (along with any chance of me even giving him anything beyond basic human respect) at this point.

Considering the very little he DID cover ended up being just shit flinging from him AT BEST- he actually made Neath look pretty damn good. Because HH in comparison really does look like the embodiment of that ‘crying behind a smug face’ meme.

So congrats HH. I actually though the comparison was the result of personal bias against you and felt uncomfortable about. I now see it was entirely DERSERVED...if I choose to ignore how you implied Neath was defending a man BEATING HIS WIFE because he pointed out your clickbait bullshit.

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michaelsongrace · 4 years

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nilesheron · 7 years

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The Boogeyperson (Notes on Failure)

“I'd love to tell you that this [email, sent 3-weeks later than it should have been, without the article you’re hoping would be attached,] isn't indicative of the way things have been going over here, of late, but this is supposed to be an Op-Ed on failures, right?”

I wrote Model D’s Editor on July 7th at about 12:15 AM. The email is a long-winded amalgam of self-deprecation and shame – an attempt to explain why I was so late delivering this article, and how that played into a perspective on failure that has plagued my life and career, and how I’m trying to change my mindset.

The cliff notes: “Failure,” too often, is a warped looking-glass; an inappropriately binary, self-assessment.

The idea of a looking-glass self, paraphrased and adapted, is that when we see ourselves (in our minds), often it is as we expect other people see us.

We look at the rubrics and standards we’ve fallen short of (or, I suppose, exceeded, but this is my article and I don’t personally know what it’s like to exceed a standard I’ve set).

In our mirrors, we are the weight that shouldn’t be hanging from our bodies, the skin that’s oily, teeth that are not perfect and straight and white, the things we said wrong yesterday, things that are too big, things that are too small – we see that we aren’t millionaires at 30 like we told our high-school classmates we would be. We’re closing in on 35, now, and it seems less and less like we’ll be able to retire immediately thereafter, as was our original plan. We have failed all of the past-versions of our projected future best-selves.

Failure, for everyone I’ve met, is a reflective property.

I’ve never in my life heard someone use the word “failure” to describe another person who actually tried to do something -- that is, of course, outside of caricature representations of slightly-shady-tough-loving aunties going off on main-plot characters on silver screens… And even then there’s usually a reconciliation point later in the script where they explain “it’s not that you’re a ‘failure,’ you’re just not giving yourself a chance to succeed – because you’re acting stupid. Stop holding yourself back.” Then they hug, and nephew/niece has a self-betterment montage on the way to their eventual “win scenario.”

In real life, people say all kinds of messed up stuff about us, but it’s usually not “look at this failing failure of a human being.” That’s not to say that we always (or ever) know how to help and support each other – especially within our economic decisions – but, you have to work really hard to generate active naysaying… and to the literal point I’m making here, not even your haters – I promise – no one is sitting at home or elsewhere calling you “a failure.”

No, no, beloved: “Failure” is a title you judged, juried, executed, and decided to carry around with you all by your onezie (I’m speaking to myself, here).

(Maybe I’m just a crazy person. It’s cool. You can stop reading if none of this resonates…)

So why are we so obsessed with failure. Why are we so terrified by it?

Easy answer? Because we’re narcissists, and somewhere, it’s just easier to think about ourselves outside of the reality that at any time, each of us is one of seven or 8 billion people currently living on Earth. We are obsessed with the idea that not only are we each snowflakes, but that some snowflakes are “objectively” better than others. And whether or not we admit to ourselves that this is a race, we all tend to embody the immortal words of Ricky Bobby -- we want to be first, not last. (This is a whole article in itself, but let me get back on track, here…)

At this point, I’m convinced that we are dealing with a word misunderstood – which is especially problematic because it’s also a word we almost exclusively use internally – and inappropriately constrain to a point of binary evaluation. We use the word as though our life is a pass/fail course. I mean, I suppose at end-of-life you could force an objective net-positive/negative evaluation to determine that someone was or wasn’t a failure, but it’d be really tough (case in point: Is our president a failure?). In any case, it’s certainly damn-near impossible to evaluate while your lungs are working. And yet, we do. Constantly.

I dropped out of high school. I dropped out of college. I started writing a book (I stopped writing the book). I started recording an album (I stopped recording the album). I started a company (it didn’t work). I started another company (it didn’t work). I lost a promotion opportunity (and the job all together) because I had never gotten my GED. I got a GED (at 26). I started another company. It went really really really well, until we got buried in cease and desist orders by the state of Michigan alleging we had committed umpteen securities violations (we proved that we hadn’t; it then didn’t work).

I turned 31 in June. I’ve pretty much set most of my romantic relationships on fire (#foreveralone), and have some honestly-not-terrible-but-totally-anxiety-inducing debt to show for the various entrepreneurial attempts and adventures I’ve made and been on.

My crowning achievement, most days, seems to be the fact that I haven’t starved or actually fallen on an actual sword throughout my adult life-to-date.

I give you this self-immolating recap of my past 13-14 years because despite the fact that by so many objective metrics I feel justified in considering myself a failure, I actually can’t think of anyone who would describe me as that. That’s not a humble brag. I can think of lots of people who don’t like me, much. But on the long list of warts and flaws, I just don’t think (hope, pray, and please don’t pop my bubble) that anyone would call me a “failure,” no matter how much feeling like one has defined my life.

This article is actually appropriately timed (God tends not to make as many mistakes as it feels like we do). I’ve been thinking a lot about the things that happen to us when we are consumed with fear, especially within entrepreneurship – and often within a low-to-moderate income demographic filled with people of color (read: Detroit).

Much more interesting to me, despite what the long-winded pre-amble above might lead you to believe, is the fact that thinking about failure as a binary, death-sentencing, singular event has a problematic impact on the way we look at success and ourselves. For the purposes of this discussion, I’m looking at my fellow entrepreneurs of color, but the theory generally applies much more broadly.

Especially as people of color, we are trained to make safe choices. We are conditioned to survive (or succumb) to flagrant school-to-prison pipelines, presumptions of guilt, police encounters, and implicit biases in job interviews (and most other places, too). We are taught that when you have a “good thing” like food, and shelter, and clean water (depending on what county you live in), that you should double-down, and protect it. We are taught to be risk-averse, and the ugly beast of a boogey-person who lurks on the other side of risk is named Failure.

We are taught not to dream big, not to quit stable jobs, not to concern ourselves with building new wings, and not to jump off cliffs, because – and it is implicit in the wary knowledge passed down from the ancestors – that we will fail (and die, or otherwise fall victim to a world not built for us).

We are taught, frankly, that risk is for white people (there are skydiving and board game jokes, here).

We are taught lies.

(To be fair, it’s not only black folk who are given these constructs, I would just argue that we suffer more from the systematic integration of them.)

Yes. Lies. All of them.

And maybe the most damning of all is the often-unchallenged notion that the entrepreneurial problems, hurdles, setbacks, set-ups, pitfalls, fall-throughs, and plain bad luck are all close kin to our aforementioned boogey-person homie Failure.

But wait… The fundamental purpose of a business is to bridge a gap, or solve a problem, right? Entrepreneurs succeed by “fixing” market failures at a level of proficiency worth paying for (as opposed to a theoretically more arduous status quo). Rarely do businesses create something truly “new,” but rather, they solve a need that has been solved before, but in a “better” way. It, therefore, doesn’t take much logical deduction to realize that fundamentally businesses exist to address failure – if your brain is spinning, it’s because we haven’t really given ourselves many easy “wins,” here, logically speaking. The point, here, is why would we assume that the thing built to solve the problem can’t have problems of it’s own? It’s as if we think we’ve failed as soon things become less than a cake walk, or smooth flight.

I’m about to deliver the let-down of the century. I know, I’ve built this up. But here it goes: I don’t have a solution, for you. But I do hope that sharing some thoughts of my own regarding how I diagram the problem in my personal life has helped you do the same.

One positive step that I have taken, of late, has been to just speak some of this stuff to myself, aloud, in hopes of forcing my brain to recognize the subtle differences in language we can use to frame ourselves (and our ventures). Our language, so often, informs our thought processes around faulty assumptions that we don’t even realize we are reinforcing.

I remind myself of these regularly:

Words and specificity matter. It is far (far) easier for a business to fail than a human to fail… A business failure is simple: There is no more resource to pursue “the things.” You ran out of steel for the bridge or some other metaphorical mettle that it would have taken to finish / float / fly. It’s okay. It happens. There are entire articles (books, sub-genres) about people who have failed in businesses on the path to eventual success that came before you, and if you’re lucky, there will be articles about your failures for the folks who deal with these same dilemmas in 20 years.

Every business (and person) has problems. Great businesses find ways to solve those problems, which for the most part are not unique, in new ways that give them advantages over the other people who have tried to do it. So stop being shy about them. They are NOT indicators that you are failing, or a failure. Seek help, talk to people, get advice, talk to more people -- this is the job. These problems are what will make you great, and these problems are to be expected (read: not an indictment of you, just what comes next).

If this were easy, we would all be millionaires.

Trust yourself -- and this one is huge -- logically, you couldn’t trust a failure, so the sooner you can remind yourself that you’re not a failure, the sooner you can get back to trusting your greatness.

Repeat the affirmations and positive steps outlined in 1-4.

The take-away, I hope, is that by recognizing failure to be what it is (internal motivation), hopefully we can distance ourselves from the fears, and start making better choices regarding our businesses and lives. Entrepreneurship is a lonely, boobie-trapped path along the side of the jagged cliff that we jumped from. We are carrying our wings and dreams as we descend into a canyon, before -- if we are among the few -- we can climb back up the other side and tell people “we made it.” Just like all of the successful entrepreneurs before us, we’ll tell people how hard it was, we’ll tell people that it didn’t work, but they won’t remember the part where we tell them about how we didn’t fly across the gaps, but that we fell down and then climbed back up. We will tell them that it doesn’t work the way you plan it…

They won’t listen. None of us do. We are dreamers. They will just hear that we built wings, and it worked out okay in the end (that we weren’t failures, like they fear they are), and they’ll build their wings and walk up to the cliff.

The best thing we can do -- now and then -- is welcome the questions, embrace the problems, and hope that somewhere, someone, will listen to us when we say (over and over and over again) that we are here to listen and talk to them through the things that scare them. We will tell them to hire consultants, and rely on experts, and use their networks. We will try to create as many success stories as possible from the group of people who follow us, if only because it will mean there are that many more survivors available to answer questions like for the next batch.

And if we’re lucky, we can help them unlearn their fears.

In the words of someone smarter than me:

“Failure, if it is anything, is about not trying, not about not succeeding.”

This article originally appeared in shorter form on www.modeldmedia.com. This was the original version that I wrote, but it was (as you might see) long as shit, so it had to be paired down. Thanks to the editorial staff over there for helping me get this in at a word count that was postable, but for anyone who wanted the full-text, I wanted to share.

Be great.

-Niles Heron

#Notes on Failure #NilesHeron #ModelDMedia #OpEd #Detroit

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jaidentmul749 · 4 years

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Photo editor for PC can additionally bring in freeze frames coming from video, aside from diverse data. And when you are actually really feeling a bit lazy or it is simply ordinary ignorant concerning just how to use a few of the devices, an assistant may support you adjustment the basics just like illumination, concentration, different colors, and sharpening of photos. For those who love their photos in wide scale editions, the program application supports you effortlessly produced pictures to generate a picturesque picture.

And when it is actually time to printing off your photography skills, you can choose among the graphic package design templates to automatically print all of them in a details measurement.

Convenient photo editor for PC

Brand new photo editor for PC for amateurs to simple crop a picture

This photo editor is actually well for enthusiastic students along with a great deal of opportunity in their workflow to determine the as well technological functions that would certainly fear away initial opportunity photo modifying users. It similarly come got ready with a 360 degrees view system. Most likely the glossiest gem in the bundle would certainly be the lovely skin layer effect, which does away with red spots and also evens out the skin layer hue. While there is actually no automatically color fixing alternative somewhat critical to repair the lousy lighting very most electronic cams drawback, there are actually the key features of draw in photos.

Either the most misunderstood components of digital photography is what takes place after you take the photograph as a matter of fact modifying your picture. That's the time where you edit the pictures you have taken, to produce the final product. Editing your photos is the equivalent of the darkroom from the time very long time back. We are going to be discuss some ideas for editing and enhancing your images, from the fundamentals like warp photos and also colorize photo, with a lot more difficult actions.

The crop item enables you to transform the dimension of your image, as well as also to change the facet ratio. As an example, you can chop a picture from a rectangle-shaped form to a triangle shape. There are many reasons you would desire to crop, including for posting in different layouts and also facet relations. Contrasted to the initial, I have actually chopped the image with photo editor for PC to remove the colored component of the right-hand side of the picture and also recomposed making use of the rule of one-third. It makes the lightning bolt much more the emphasis of photo shot. You might wonder why I did not just compose appropriately when taking the picture. So in this case, I was actually organizing an extensive presence shot without needing a cam stand, so had the electronic camera stabilized on the side of the sidewalk for security. That extremely much restricted my capacity to completely frame the moment, so I simply photoshoot bigger, knowing I had the ability to chop the photo shot appropriately as a result of the reality. In this both cases, chopping is very simple and also it is just involves you selecting the crop tool and afterwards choosing the location you desire to maintain with your computer mouse. After that you use the changes as well as your brand-new cropped image is prepared to go.

Photo editor for PC for novice and pros for practical scale an image or easy photo orientation

Whenever the horizon band in an image is certainly not degree, a specific of my own scratch inconveniences in photography is. Occasionally whenever we are captured up in the second, this fundamental guideline is forgotten however the bright side is such modifying your pictures with the photo editor to make them degree is also really manageable.

Leveling the camera on the corner of the pier indicated that the picture was not level this is especially visible to the vision when the picture has a clearly defined perspective line, like the ocean.

This leveling item becomes part of the cropping method, and also you can easily simply rotate the picture to match. As soon as you utilize the pointing tool, a grate can appear to help you become the placement correct.

Focusing an image is a truly basic task that will certainly take simply a number of ticking, leading to a far more aesthetically pleasing picture.

From time to time if we make a photo, parts of the photo might just wind up being normally gloomier than we desire. I refer to the brighter areas of the photo as shadows, and the intense spots of the photo as highlights.

Contrast has to do with accentuating the difference between the lighting and darker parts of the picture. Raising the contrast of a photo can drastically improve the graphical effect in which has, by making the boundaries between those light as well as dark areas clearer.

Color modification is one other useful component of the photo editor. You can change photograph color in all kind of ways, starting with changing the whole warmth of the image such as exactly how red or green it shows up, to separately changing the shade and also interpenetration of certain shades within an image. We only intend to go over a few really useful color scheme modifications you can easily use to make your pictures simply a bit a lot more aesthetically amazing. The most effective technique to adjust the color in regard to a photograph is definitely with the hue method from the photo editor. That adjusts the appearance of any shade within a photograph to produce it extra or even less condensed. As with numerous styles, the key is to get a great harmony too much shading the photos often tends to look instead not naturally made. Color pictures can easily be really useful, and also of program black as well as light is a fantastic option for almost all type of situations, particularly, portraits, and specific panorama pictures.

Scale pictures is easy with the photo editor for PC

Photo editor for photographers for easy resize images or professional selective color change. Get more information about Photo editor for PC to very easy photos gradation and functional invert pictures. In certain cases there certainly can be a single thing in an image that you absolutely do not desire to be certainly, there, just like an annoying acne breakout on anyone's forehead. This is simple to get rid of in all the significant photo editor.

It is normally uncomplicated to get rid of any sort of things out of a picture however the photo editor functions most ideal on distinctive, small objects that are bordered by uniform color schemes. This is since the heal device has to replace the area you want to remove with something else, and this works finest when it has an area close by that looks comparable. So for example, a red point on a face is bordered by a great deal of likewise colored skin, so the recover device can conveniently determine what to replace the dark spot based upon the surrounding location.

This specific is for the photo editor for PC needs to change out the area you want to remove along with another thing, and that works most ideal if it has a sector nearby that looks the same. Photo editor has become very complex as well as helpful and it is feasible to manipulate images so they turn into completely different out of the initial. There are definitely loads of photo editor for PC and plenty of means of getting the exact same or very similar end results.

My intent very most for a lot of photos I post procedure is definitely to make all of them appear as natural as you possibly can. I have no doubt this is a good point to make a beginning, even if you wish to continue on and also produce even more surreal looking pictures. Shade array in a picture is generally one of the most important priorities. The human eyes are able to usually see a wider range of shade than your cam can record.

The meaning of image editing and enhancing is the process of changing an image, put simply. Yet this is oversimplifying a case which is more or less complex. You can typically carry out simple picture editing and enhancing strategies such as sharpening rather conveniently and promptly but complicated techniques and digital editing may need photo editor as well as more years of experience.

Photo editor is a helper which anyone can use to adjust and beautify images. Due to the fact that images come with a boosting variety of usages, increased firms are discovering techniques to reutilize pictures as well as utilize them on different media.

#easy photo editor for pc

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samuelfields · 6 years

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2018 Investment Outlook For Stocks, Bonds, And Real Estate: The Last Easy Year

Before you read my investment outlook for 2018, you must first understand my financial situation and my biases. Our biases often warp our reality by anchoring us to past situations.

Permanently left work in 2012 at the age of 34

Net worth got crushed by ~35% in 2008-2009

Small business owner who will benefit from the new tax plan

New father with a spouse who is a full-time mom

Favorite asset class is real estate with three physical properties in CA, one in HI

Worked in equities for 13 years at a couple large investment banks

Have significant investment positions in stocks, bonds, and real estate

With this background information, I believe 2018 will be the last year of “easy money,” where assets remain relatively stable as they track historical returns. Let’s discuss each asset class in a little more detail.

Stock Market Outlook: One Last Hurrah

According to the U.S. Small Business Administration, small businesses account for 48% of national employment. In number, they represent 99.7% of all businesses in the country. In other words, it is the guy with the plumbing store or the gal with the digital online marketing agency who make up a massive part of the American economy.

Based on my interactions with other small business owners, everyone I’ve talked to is extremely excited about lower taxes and potentially less red tape. It’s really “less red tape” that most owners are looking forward to, and not so much the 20% deduction of qualified small business income.

As business owners, we hardly EVER feel the government is on our side because we’ve got to: 1) pay license fees, 2) pay special small business taxes, 3) pay both sides of the FICA tax, 4) pay an accountant to figure out our more complicated taxes, 5) wonder why we can’t collect unemployment after our business goes under, and much more.

With the passage of the new tax plan, there is finally hope the government is now on our side. Having a tailwind feels so much nicer than facing a headwind while climbing a hill – which is often what running a business feels like. As a result, I believe there will be a natural inclination to reinvest in our respective businesses and ultimately grow revenue. Higher revenue growth equals higher profits and higher company valuations.

Publicly traded companies are just a larger reflection of privately owned small businesses. And I think the mood in the boardroom is as bullish as ever with a 21% permanent corporate tax rate.

When there is business euphoria, as there is now, valuations matter less. The chart below is the S&P 500 Case Shiller P/E ratio as of January 2018. Instead of investors now thinking 33.27X is too high, investors are now thinking there’s another 10X multiple higher to go until we reach 2000 peak bubble levels.

Investors aren’t really thinking we’re going to get to 44X, but it’s nice to know we still have this historical valuation buffer before everything blows up. After all, corporate cash balance sheets are massive compared to 2000, rates are accommodative, taxes are lower, and earnings are still growing.

Given we’re now in the final stages of a blow off where it’s liquidity, excitement, and FOMO driving the markets, I expect to see the S&P 500 breach 3,000 in 2018. If we get back to 2000 peak level valuations, we’re talking ~3,600 on the S&P 500, which ain’t going to happen. I expect downside risk of 10% for an even risk / reward ratio. I’m buying the dips.

Related: The Proper Asset Allocation of Stocks And Bonds By Age

Bond Outlook: Lower Interest Rates Forever

I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again: we are in a permanently low interest rate environment. The 10-year bond yield has been going down since the late 1980s due to information efficiency, globalization, and policy efficacy. I expect interest rates to remain accommodative for the rest of our investing lives.

For 2018, I’m looking for another sub-3% level for the 10-year bond yield, and more likely an average of 2.6%, despite a couple more Fed Funds rate hikes expected this year. In other words, I expect bonds of all types to at least provide a total return equal to their coupon return as principal values hold rock steady.

With the Fed raising the short end, and longer term rates staying steady, the yield curve is flattening. Historically, a flat or inverted yield curve portents an imminent recession as higher rates on the short-end choke off credit growth, make existing credit more expensive and curb excess reserves, thereby slowing the economy.

But if the Fed is really going to cement itself as an inflation fighter, then this belief gives confidence for bond traders to invest in longer duration Treasuries at lower yields because no accelerated inflation is expected. Hence, I’m confident investing in 20-year municipal bonds that pay a 3.5% – 4% tax free yield for the low risk portion of my net worth.

We will know the end is near if the Fed raises the Fed funds by 1% and the long end remains flat. That’s when inversion occurs and should have enough time to reduce our risk exposure by then. I expect downside risk of half the coupon bond yield. I’m buying muni bonds whenever the 10-year bond yield goes above 2.6%.

Related: The Case For Bonds

Real Estate: A Tale Of Two Cities

Remember how I said in June 2017 that the rental market was soft in San Francisco due to a large supply of new condominiums and nose-bleed level rents that far outpaced wage growth? From 2H2015 to May 2017, I rented out my house for $8,800 – $9,000/month. When I tried to get prospective new tenants to pay the same rent in May 2017, I got zero takers, despite aggressively marketing the house for 45 days. The best two offers I got were for $7,500 from a divorcee with an unstable startup and from a family of six with a dog. So, instead of going through the pain of continuing to be a landlord, I sold the house for a little over 30X annual gross rent.

The numbers are finally showing up in the data. Check out the rent prices for one bedroom and two bedrooms in December 2017 according to Zumper. If there was a three bedroom segment, I’m sure the numbers would look even weaker. Like stocks, real estate prices should trade on earnings fundamentals. With a decline in rent in so many of the most expensive cities and new negative tax laws in effect, real estate prices should remain weak in the most expensive markets.

Take a look at NYC housing market data from Douglas Elliman. Sales volume and prices headed down in 4Q2017 as buyers took a wait-and-see approach regarding the tax plan. Now that the tax plan has passed, it is worse than most people expected due to the $10,000 SALT cap and the $750,000 mortgage cap for interest deduction.

Real estate investors should view NYC and SF as “leading indicators” of what should be expected for other expensive real estate markets. Now that prices are softening, you should be in no rush to buy. Be picky about what’s likely going to be the largest purchase of your life. Focus on location and expandability, the #1 way to increase your chances of making money in real estate. If you can build for $200/sqft and sell for $400/sqft, you win. And most of all, run the numbers to see if valuations make sense.

With the slowing of coastal city real estate, it’s only a matter of time before non-coastal real estate slows as well. But figuring out the timing of when the slowdown will occur and by how much is the biggest conundrum. Three to five years tends to be a good lag, so we can make an educated guess that between 2019 – 2021 is when the data will appear. Let’s just say 2H2020 to be more precise.

I don’t think there will be more than a 5% – 10% correction in coastal city or non-coastal city markets over the next couple of years because the economic engine is still quite strong. Further lending standards have tightened since the last financial crisis. Therefore, if you’re buying a home to live in for the long term, you should be fine.

Some folks have questioned the wisdom of my $810,000 investment in real estate crowdfunding outside of San Francisco. Understandable, given the absolute dollar amount sounds large. But I had a $2,740,000 position in a single SF property with a $815,000 mortgage where rents are declining. Therefore, I’ve reduced risk exposure while diversifying into 12 different non-SF properties where rents are stronger. Further, I keep my alternative investments to no more than 10% of my overall net worth and still have three California-based properties to manage.

Enjoying One Last Year Of Great Times

As a business owner, I haven’t been this bullish since 2007, when I got promoted to Vice President at my banking job. Of course a year later, shit hit the fan and I saw a 35% destruction to my net worth in a matter of months. If a downturn happens again, I’m better prepared because I’ve got far more passive income streams, a variety of defensive investments, and a much lower debt to equity ratio.

If one can get a 10% return in stocks, a 4% return in bonds, and an un-levered 5% return in real estate without much volatility, I say that’s pretty easy money. If I can get these types of returns, perhaps I’ll finally be satisfied with a blended 2% – 3% guaranteed rate of return in retirement.

If you haven’t done so already, run your investment portfolio through an investment analyzer to see what your latest exposure is to the market. Then carefully analyze your net worth composition and make sure you are comfortable with its construction. I wasn’t entirely comfortable about my net worth composition in 2017, but now I am for 2018.

Sample Investment Analyzer by Personal Capital

Readers, what are your thoughts about the stock market, bond market, and real estate market? How are you positioned for 2018? Please also share your background and biases. As always, do your own research and invest based on your own risk tolerance.

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clearintorspection4all-blog · 7 years

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10 “Spiritual” Things People Do That Are Total Bullshit

No one ever told me spirituality could be a self-sabotaging ego trap.

I spent about three years reading about spiritual teachings and incorporating them into my life before ever learning that spirituality has a dark side.

Naturally, I was taken aback. I felt kind of betrayed.

How could something that seemed so pure and good be harmful?

The answer has to do with something that psychologists call spiritual bypassing. In the early 1980s, psychologist John Welwood coined the term “spiritual bypassing” to refer to the use of spiritual practices and beliefs to avoid confronting uncomfortable feelings, unresolved wounds, and fundamental emotional and psychological needs.

According to integral psychotherapist Robert Augustus Masters, spiritual bypassing causes us to withdraw from ourselves and others, to hide behind a kind of spiritual veil of metaphysical beliefs and practices. He says it “not only distances us from our pain and difficult personal issues, but also from our own  authentic spirituality, stranding us in a metaphysical limbo, a zone of  exaggerated gentleness, niceness, and superficiality.”

Painful Realizations: My Own Spiritual Bypassing

In Robert August Masters’ groundbreaking book, Spiritual Bypassing: When Spirituality Disconnects Us From What Really Matters, he writes:

“Aspects of spiritual bypassing include exaggerated  detachment, emotional numbing and repression, overemphasis on the positive,  anger-phobia, blind or overly tolerant compassion, weak or too porous  boundaries, lopsided development (cognitive intelligence often being far ahead  of emotional and moral intelligence), debilitating judgment about one’s  negativity or shadow side, devaluation of the personal relative to the  spiritual, and delusions of having arrived at a higher level of being.”

“My vibration is so high, man. My chakras are so aligned. Fuuuckkkk, I’m a spiritual beast, bro.”

I encountered the concept of spiritual bypassing for the first time in Masters’ work. Although I was reluctant to admit it, I immediately knew on some level that this concept applied to me.

As I continued to reflect on spiritual bypassing, I noticed more and more shadow aspects of spirituality, and I realized that I had unknowingly been enacting many of them at one time or another.

Though painful, these were some of the most important realizations I’ve ever had. They’ve helped me to stop using a warped form of “spirituality” as an ego boost and to begin taking greater responsibility for addressing my psychological needs and the issues that arise in my life.

10 “Spiritual” Things People Do That Sabotage Their Growth

The best way to understand spiritual bypassing is through examples, so now, it’s time for some tough love.

I’m going to go into detail to describe ten specific shadow tendencies of spiritual people.

Caution: Some of these may hit pretty close to home.

Remember: You need not feel ashamed to admit that some of the items on this list apply to you. I suspect some of them apply to everyone who has ever taken an interest in spirituality. Most of them applied to me at one point or another, and some I’m still working through.

The goal here is not to judge, but to increase self-awareness in order to progress toward a more honest, empowering, useful spirituality. Let’s get into it.

1. Participate in “spiritual” activities to make themselves feel superior to other people.

This is probably one of the most pervasive shadow aspects of spirituality, and it takes many forms. Some people feel superior because they read Alan Watts. Or ride their bike to work. Or refrain from watching TV. Or eat a vegetarian diet. Or use crystals. Or visit temples. Or practice yoga or meditation. Or take psychedelics.

Note that I’m not saying anything about the value of partaking of these activities. I love Alan Watts and think meditation is quite beneficial. What I’m saying is that it’s alarmingly easy to allow your spiritual ideas and practices to become an ego trap—to believe that you’re so much better and more enlightened than all those other “sheeple” because you’re doing all of these rad #woke things. Ultimately, this sort of attitude toward “spirituality” is no better than believing you’re better than everyone else because you’re a Democrat or a Lakers fan. This dysfunction actually inhibits genuine spirituality by causing us to focus on one-upping other people, rather than cultivating a sense of connection to the cosmos and feeling poetic wonder at the sublime grandeur of existence.

2. Use “spirituality” as a justification for failing to take responsibility for their actions.

The essence of the point is that it’s very easy to twist certain spiritual mantras or ideas into justifications for being irresponsible or unreliable.

“It is what it is.” or “The universe is already perfect.” or “Everything happens for a reason.” can all function as excellent justifications for never doing much of anything and never really examining one’s behavior. I’m not commenting on the truth or un-truth of the above statements. I’m just saying that if you’re consistently hours late for appointments, if you frequently neglect your close personal relationships, and your roommates can’t count on you to pay rent, you might want to stop telling yourself, “Whatever man, reality is an illusion anyway.” and start becoming someone others can depend on.

In a similar vein, it’s surprisingly easy to deceive yourself into thinking that anytime someone has a problem with your behavior, it’s because that person “isn’t honoring my truth” or “just needs to grow spiritually.” It’s much more difficult to acknowledge the moments in which we act brashly, selfishly, or thoughtlessly and inflict suffering upon someone else. It’s much more difficult to admit that we too are far from perfect, and that growth and learning are never-ending processes.

3. Adopt new hobbies, interests, and beliefs simply because they’re the latest “spiritual” fad.

Human beings want to fit in somewhere. We all have a deep need to feel that we belong. And we form groups of all kinds to satiate this need. Spirituality is one interest area around which people form all sorts of groups. This is potentially a great thing, but it also has a shadow aspect.

For many people, “spirituality” is little more than a hip thing that a lot of people seem to care about. These people get the idea that they want to jump on the spiritual bandwagon, so they start practicing yoga, wearing New Age fashion items, going to music festivals, drinking ayahuasca, etc., and they tell themselves that this makes them “spiritual.” These “spiritual scenesters” dilute the significance of genuine spiritual inquiry, contemplation, experience, and realization. They also, in my experience, tend to be the “spiritual” people who are using “spirituality” as a reason to feel superior to others.

4. Judge others for expressing anger or other strong emotions, even when it’s necessary to do so.

This is one of the first patterns I noticed in myself after being introduced to spiritual bypassing. I realized that when people became upset or angry with me, my response was to say things like, “Getting angry doesn’t help anything.” or “I feel we would have fewer problems if we could remain calm.” Internally, I would silently judge the other person, thinking, “If only they were more enlightened, we could avoid this drama.” In many situations, this was my way of avoiding deep issues that needed to be addressed.

When you become interested in spirituality, one of the first quotes you’re likely to encounter is: “Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of harming another; you are the one who ends up getting burned.”

This quote is commonly misattributed to the Buddha, though it’s actually a paraphrase of a statement made by Buddhaghosa in the 5th century. The subtle point of the quote is that we shouldn’t hold on to anger; we should feel it, express it if necessary, then let it go. However, it’s very easy for the lay person to assume that this means that anger, in any form, is a sign that one is unwise, un-spiritual. This is untrue. Anger is a natural human emotion and a perfectly justifiable response to many situations. Often, anger is an indicator that there are serious issues that need to be countenanced within oneself or one’s relationships.

Ironically, many spiritual people repress all “non-spiritual” emotions and artificially heighten “spiritual” emotions/traits such as compassion, kindness, and equanimity. This leads to inauthenticity. One struggles to constantly present oneself as calm, gentle, nice, and in a state of perpetual peace, and ultimately ends up looking and feeling like a fraud.

5. Use “spirituality” as a justification for excessive drug use.

A lot of people, myself included, believe that psychedelic drugs can occasion mystical experiences and enhance (secular) spirituality. That’s all fine and good, but some people take this realization too far, using it as a way to rationalize self-destructive patterns of drug use and to blind themselves to the dark sides of various substances.

In the most extreme cases, “spiritual” people end up “performing cannabis ceremonies” during all their waking hours; taking psychedelics too frequently or in unsuitable contexts; and completely denying that these substances have any negative effects. Now, HighExistence tends to be pro-psychedelics, but let me give it to you straight: Psychedelics, including cannabis, have a definite dark side. If you’re irresponsible or simply unlucky, stronger psychedelics such as LSD or psilocybin mushrooms can occasion traumatic experiences with long-term negative ramifications. And cannabis, a mild psychedelic, is a seductively habit-forming drug that will subtly cloud your mind and erode your motivation if you indulge too much, too frequently. Respect the substances, and utilize them wisely.

6. Overemphasize “positivity” in order to avoid looking at the problems in their lives and in the world.

“Just be positive!” is often employed as a deflection mechanism by “spiritual” people who would rather not do the difficult work of confronting their own internal issues, wounding, and baggage, let alone the problems of the world. The “positivity” movement has exploded in Western culture in recent years. The Internet is overflowing with seemingly endless memes and articles repeating the same inane messages: “Think positive thoughts!” “Just be positive!” “Don’t focus on the negative!”

Though there is surely value in cultivating gratitude for the many marvels of the human experience, this movement seems to overlook something critical: The darker aspects of life do not disappear, simply because they are ignored. In fact, many problems in our individual lives and on the global scale seem only to worsen or complexify when they are ignored. In the same way that it would seem absurd to offer a heroine addict the phrase “Just think positive!” as a solution to their problem, it is absurd to believe that positive thinking offers any kind of solution to major global issues such as climate change, poverty, industrial farming, and existential risks.

This is not to say that we ought to take the world’s problems onto our shoulders and feel shitty about them all the time. It’s healthy to recognize and feel optimistic about the fact that in many important ways, the world is getting better. However, we need to balance that optimism with a willingness to confront real issues in our personal lives, our communities, our world.

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7. Repress unpleasant emotions that don’t fit their “spiritual” self-narrative.

“No way, I can’t possibly be depressed or lonely or scared or anxious. I love life too much, and I’m too [Zen / wise / enlightened] to allow that to happen anyway.”

I ran into this issue when I moved to South Korea to be an English teacher for a year. I thought I had cultivated an unflappable chill, a Lao Tzu-esque ability to just “go with the flow” and float, bobber-like, atop the rising and falling waves of destiny.

Then I experienced culture shock, crushing loneliness, and acute homesickness, and I had to admit to myself that I wasn’t some kind of Zen master after all. Or rather, I had to realize that the ability to “go with the flow” and accept whatever is happening is perennially valuable, but that sometimes that will mean accepting that you feel like a steaming pile of shit.

It’s easy to delude oneself into believing that spirituality is going to make life feel like endlessly floating upon a cloud, but in practice, this is not the case. Life is still full of suffering, and in order to really grow and learn from our experience, we need to be honest with ourselves about what we’re feeling and let ourselves feel it fully. In my case, my desire to always be “Zen,” to “go with the flow,” and to project an image of inner peace to myself and others prevented me from seeing the truth of various situations/experiences and taking responsibility for dealing with them.

8. Feel deep aversion and self-loathing when confronted with their shadow side.

I noticed this in myself pretty quickly after learning about spiritual bypassing. I saw that my narcissistic image of myself as a wise person who had attained “higher” realizations was causing a ridiculous amount of cognitive dissonance. I judged myself scathingly and felt colossal, crushing guilt over any less-than-virtuous decisions.

When you become interested in spirituality, it’s easy to idolize people like the Buddha or the Dalai Lama, and to believe that these people are Perfect Humans who always act with complete awareness and compassion. In actuality, this is almost certainly not the case. Even if it’s true that some humans reach a level of realization at which they uphold “right action” in all circumstances, we need to acknowledge that such a thing is reserved for the very few. I personally suspect that such a thing does not exist.

In actuality, we’re all fallible humans, and we’re all going to make mistakes. The deck is stacked against us. It’s virtually impossible to live even a few weeks of adult human life without committing a few blunders, if only minor ones. Over the course of years, there will be major mistakes. It happens to all of us, and it’s okay. Forgive yourself. All you can do is learn from your errors and strive to do better in the future.

Paradoxically, the seemingly spiritual lesson of self-forgiveness can be especially difficult to internalize for people interested in spirituality. Spiritual teachings can leave one with stratospherically high ideals that result in immense guilt and self-loathing when one fails to live up to them. This is a major reason why it’s so common for spiritual people to deflect responsibility—because being honest about their shortcomings would be too painful. Ironically, we must be honest with ourselves about our mistakes in order to learn from them and grow into more self-aware, compassionate versions of ourselves. Just remember: You’re only human. It’s okay to make mistakes. Really, it’s okay. But admit to yourself when you’ve made a mistake and learn from it.

9. Find themselves in bad situations due to excessive tolerance and a refusal to distinguish between people.

This is me, 100%. For a long time, I’ve taken very seriously the idea that every human being deserves compassion and kindness. I don’t disagree with that idea nowadays, but I’ve realized that there are numerous situations in which other considerations should temporarily override my desire to treat every other human compassionately.

In multiple foreign countries, I’ve found myself in potentially life-threatening situations because I was overly trusting of people I did not know or overly kind to people who I should have recognized as shady characters. Luckily, I’ve never gotten hurt in these situations, but I have been robbed and swindled several times. In every case, I wanted to believe that the people I was interacting with were “good” people at heart and would treat me with kindness if I did so for them. That line of thinking was terribly naive, and I’m still trying to re-condition myself to understand that in certain contexts, being warm is not the answer.

The sad fact is that although you might be insulated from it, the struggle for survival is still very real for vast numbers of people on this planet. Many people have grown up in poverty, surrounded by crime, and have learned that the only way to survive is by preying upon weakness. The majority of people worldwide seem not to have this mentality, but if you find yourself in a city or country in which poverty is fairly prevalent, you should take certain common-sense precautions—basic things, like:

1. Don’t walk anywhere alone after dark. 2. Try to stay away from vacant areas. 3. Don’t stop to engage with people who try to sell you things. 4. Make distinctions between people; let yourself know that it’s okay to trust your brain’s highly evolved pattern-matching mechanism when it tells you that someone looks like they’re on drugs, deranged, desperate, or dangerous.

10. Want so badly for various “spiritual” practices to be correct that they disregard science entirely.

There’s a pretty heavily anti-scientific streak in a lot of the spiritual community, and I think this is a shame. It seems to me that many spiritual people become hostile toward science because certain beliefs and practices they find valuable are considered unproven or pseudoscientific within the scientific community. If a belief or practice is unproven or pseudoscientific, this only means that we have not yet been able to confirm its validity through repeatable experimentation in a lab setting. It doesn’t mean that it isn’t true or valuable.

The scientific method is one of the best tools we have for understanding the mechanics of the observable universe; it allowed us to discover the profound truth of biological evolution, observe the far reaches of space, extend our lifespans by decades, and walk on the moon, among other things; to discard it entirely is to lose one of our most powerful lenses for understanding reality.

Probably our most badass tool for understanding existence. [Source]

As Carl Sagan memorably put it:

“Science is not only compatible with spirituality; it is a profound source of spirituality. When we recognize our place in an immensity of light years and in the passage of ages, when we grasp the intricacy, beauty and subtlety of life, then that soaring feeling, that sense of elation and humility combined, is surely spiritual. So are our emotions in the presence of great art or music or literature, or of acts of exemplary selfless courage such as those of Mohandas Gandhi or Martin Luther King Jr. The notion that science and spirituality are somehow mutually exclusive does a disservice to both.”

Bonus: Miss out on material success because of a belief that money and capitalism are evil.

A lot of “spiritual” people sabotage their own ability to succeed materially. This is because they are seemingly allergic to wealth, associating money with greed, impurity, and general malevolence. Capitalism is viewed as an engine of inequality and corruption that must be dismantled.

I used to hold a version of this view myself, so I realize how seductive it is. If you’re drawn to spirituality, it feels natural to scorn “materialism.” In truth, though, this narrative is too simplistic. The truth about capitalism is complex. Yes, capitalism has some very real downsides, but in many ways, regulated capitalism has been a force for tremendous good, spurring massive innovation and pulling billions of people out of poverty globally. In 1820, 94% of the people on Earth were living in extreme poverty. By 2015, that figure had dropped to a mere 9.6%, largely thanks to economic growth catalyzed by regulated capitalism:

Perhaps the most uplifting chart in existence. Source: Our World in Data

Furthermore, let me give it to you straight again: There’s nothing inherently wrong with wanting to make money. Money is an amazing tool. Billionaires like Elon Musk and Bill Gates who are using their wealth to help the world in momentous ways prove that money can be used benevolently or nefariously. Consider also the 139 billionaires and hundred-millionaires who have pledged to donate a total of $732 billion to charitable causes in their lifetimes. We actually need more compassionate people to gain substantial wealth, so they can use it effectively and altruistically to improve the world.

Meme disclaimer: These memes are not meant to have any connection to an actual person. This person should be considered an actress posing as a spiritual bypasser.

To clarify, I am in favor of regulating/refining capitalism to make it work for everyone and the planet. For example, I think regulations need to be in place to protect the environment and to prevent abuses like rent-seeking and regulatory capture. Ultimately I am in favor of an economic system which incentivizes innovation and entrepreneurship while also being sustainable and meeting everyone’s basic needs. I am not sure of the best way to meet these lofty aims, but our current forms of capitalism are doing a better job than many people seem to think, given the immensity of the challenge.

I’m all for further methodical, data-driven work to refine and improve our economic systems, but let’s be sure to notice and acknowledge all the things capitalism does really well before we dismiss it. If you’re curious to think more about this, I highly recommend this extremely balanced, incisive lecture by Jonathan Haidt, exploring the pros and cons of capitalism.

We’re All Learning…

I think that in order for the various interconnected global spiritual movements to be maximally impactful and useful, they need to address their shadow aspects.

In this essay, I have attempted to illuminate some of the blind spots that seem to be prevalent in the spiritual community. As I’ve said, most of the items I discussed applied to me at one point or another. It’s decidedly easy to fall into some of the traps of spirituality and to harbor various limiting beliefs and behaviors while feeling like one has reached a “higher” level of being.

The lesson here is that growth and learning are unending processes. If you think you have nothing left to learn, you’re probably sabotaging yourself in a number of ways. It can be profoundly difficult to admit that for a long time one has been incorrect or misguided, but the alternative is much worse. The alternative is a kind of spiritual and intellectual death—a state of perpetual stagnation in which one endlessly deludes oneself into thinking that one has all the answers, that one has reached one’s Final Form. In a rapidly changing world, continual learning is of paramount importance.

At its best, spirituality is a force that can help humanity realize our common identity as sentient beings, gain ecological awareness, feel connected to our cosmos, and address the most pressing issues of our time with compassion, ingenuity, equanimity, and what Einstein called a “holy curiosity.”

At its best, spirituality is a force which propels us toward a more harmonious, cooperative, sustainable future. Here’s to refining our collective spirituality and co-creating a more beautiful world.

#Re-posted from http://highexistence.com/10-spiritual-bypassing-things-people-total-bullshit/

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