Reputation is a Weird Concept
Here I am, Shanghai 2:25 am on a Tuesday morning. I either can’t sleep or I don’t really want to, I’m not quite sure which it is at the moment. I don’t really care either. I’m quite happy to be blogging again.
I was in the grocery store today with Add. He does most of the shopping and I wander around thinking. It makes no sense but at least I keep him company and pay for half of the food.
I have this “problem” where I’m always thinking. It’s good to be able to think but it’s bad when you don’t know how to turn it off. You just keep thinking and thinking. Well, today I was thinking about “reputation” and how weird of a concept it is. I started doing little “thought experiments” with myself. This is a term that means you imagine an event and everything else that would happen if that event happened. You basically just imagine certain situations.
I was thinking about how easy it is to brainwash people. Total mind control. We believe anything and we are too lazy or busy to check for ourselves. Think about Harvard University for a second. I was trying to imagine how Harvard would lose it’s reputation. I’m sure it’s still a good school, one of my closest friends went to law school there and told me all about it. We all know the school and every society has some kind of blind respect for the place. We keep hearing things like “it’s a great school”. We start to believe it and accept it as fact. This reputation is so strong that it will stay for a long time. How would Duke go about surpassing Harvard in reputation if it really deserved it? It would take a long while. Old traditions and thoughts “die hard”, they take a long time to go away or die. I’m not saying anything bad about Harvard, I’m just saying that it’s amazing how much respect people have for a place they’ve only heard a little about. If you say “I went to Harvard Medical School” people will start to respect your intelligence much more. “Maybe you guys don’t know this about me, but I chose not to go to Harvard Medical school”. There, secret is out, now do you respect me more than before? I hope not. It should be the same. You should use the quality, or lack there of, to judge my thinking. I should do the same to you and everyone else too.
Google is starting to get this same kind of reputation in the West. I know for example the Koreans use Naver.com and Chinese use Baidu.com, but Google is still the world’s search Giant. For years it’s been said to be “the best” search Engine. It probably is, but it’s an easy story to sell. Back in the late 90′s, these two “math Geniuses” from Stanford, another amazing school, dropped out of school to start Google.com. The idea was basically that these super “math brains” could easily use logic and intelligence to beat out Yahoo.com and other popular search engines at the time. They did, but now we believe it today as if nothing has changed in the past 13 years. Now we are in 2011 and Google still has this reputation in the West. The problem now is that people trust this too much. If you use Google now you will use it tomorrow. You probably won’t try out Bing or Yahoo just to see which is better. There is so much “blind trust” in what we already think is true. This trust comes from the past only and very rarely from present day experiments or findings. Our world still has huge problems in judging other cultures based on past experiences. It’s hard to just look at the realities of today. Brainwashing is very possible and we’re all victims of it. We need to be careful.
I seriously love reading your comments so please don’t be all shy and lazy this time. Write something for a change. Let me hear from you. Change up your normal routine of just reading and then not sharing your thoughts. Let the world see what you have to say. If you often comment, please do more… It’s always great hearing from all you guys.
March 29th, 2011 at 9:54 pm
I totally agree with you! I feel nowadays that all this marketing and also the society impose in our minds exactly what we have to do, what we should like, what to wear, etc… People don’t dare to be different, to think outside the box – they’re afraid of what others might think and say.
These people don’t want to be different and think for themselves – they rather have other people thinking and they just pass the message…
For these people, only the ideas of others and what’s accepted in the society are valid. Poor people!
I just want to be unique, in my own way, caring about others, but not allowing them to control and Dictate my life! I want to be who I am with no reservations!
March 30th, 2011 at 4:01 am
The reputation of Mc Donalds has been undisputed in decades. They used to leave many of their competitions in the dust as well as be the 1st place in the field of fast food industry for many many years. But now, that 1st place has been taken over. A couple of weeks ago, I heard on radio that Subway had passed em to take the 1st. It seems to be true because the line up in front of a Subway recently is very long, especially in a lunch time. It makes others in the same place, included ours, green with envy.
How about Apple, they have gradually built up their reputation in early 21st century. And they have speeded up in the last 2 years with new Ipod, Iphone, Ipad, Mac book,… App are kind of blowing out their competitions in a big way.
They are head and shoulder above the others. I really love all kind of App’s stuff, I stick with my Ipad almost of my free time.
All above are my personall opinions. I am just writting casually without any purpose or main idea.
Very sorry if I screw you guys up.
March 30th, 2011 at 5:45 am
Hi, Andy.
And definitely we have the undisputed respect to everything that made in America. But I should say, that the European clothes and cars are often better, the Korean and Japanese electronics are better (It’s my guess about electronics, I’ve never had them, maybe it’s another propaganda and I’m it’s victim:) And food… Our countries all have so wonderful national food, and we keep eating in Mac Donald’s even though we know that their food is less healthy, less natural and less delicious (Forgive me, fans of the fast food). I’m a fan of the mom’s soups, pies, fried chicken, cakes….
I am happy you made it again, wrote another talented piece of writing.
You know, the problem, which you brought up today, is very complicated. I perpetually astonished how people here on Eurasian continent have the blind trust in everything American. It’s just weird. But it’s so true, especially here in the developing countries where I live for example. If our citizen knows that someone lived or even simply have been in the USA he/she begins to look at this person with such the awe, as if this person is a cosmonaut and have been on the moon
And we love American music and movies. I definitely do, some of them. Our countries, unfortunately, lack the same good quality in these areas.
But we must stop trusting blindly in everything we hear or see. We should trust ourselves and our own experiences and thoughts. We have our own our own opinion, don’t we?:)
And also about thinking, I’ve almost not been able to sleep this night trying to stop thinking, but I couldn’t. I must to make very important decision about the job and keep thinking about it again and again. I think if my decision is right or wrong. It’s awful feeling….. I hope everything will be OK in the near future.
Thank you for your post again,
~Valerie
March 30th, 2011 at 2:38 pm
yes, I agree with you. When we have one proved solution and it is somhow good, we don’t even mind to search other options. So it is true, that “often Good is the biggest enemy of The Best” (Stephen R. Covey)
I appreciate your English lessons, and your free thoughts, please simply keep on doing!
April 5th, 2011 at 1:14 pm
You’re right about universities stuff, the same thing happens here in Chile, if you don’t go to a ‘cool’ place to study you’re almost nothing, but if you’re going to an expensive one you are awesome. It seems it doesn’t matter wheter you get good grades or not (you could be a complete idiot being there), as long as it’s a ‘high’ place, everthing is fine..
What I don’t agree so much with you it’s about ‘google’, I think google has been famous and respected above the others because it is more simple and easier to understand and adapt, it’s not that somebody else has told us to use it, it’s just (as you said) easier for us to use simple things instead of wasting our time on getting used to other ways to do things like a search.. I mean, Isn’t that the idea of all our technology? is it? To simplify life?
As always it’s a pleassure to be reading your blogs and stuff, they’ve really simplified my english learnings. And still are.
Keep it up!
April 6th, 2011 at 2:01 pm
Dear Andy,
I totally agree with you. Sometimes people define things based on their imagine or just hearing from others. “Werid Concept of Reputation” sometimes also due to people settled in their ways to a great extent. If we keep this kind of thinking we will never be able to be exposed to the new & high tech things. JUst open our mind and brainwash ourselves to be better!
April 9th, 2011 at 3:20 pm
I’m thinking about why or how there are guys all over the world making gazillon of money and have whatever life they want it to be. But, in my case, I’m still struggling with the most hated job I have with the lowest salary. That’s sad and frustrating.
October 3rd, 2011 at 1:59 pm
good day, high-minded blog on suety loss. said helped.
March 21st, 2012 at 2:16 pm
One thing is the fact one of the most typical incentives for utilizing your credit cards is a cash-back and also rebate supply. Generally, you’ll receive 1-5% back with various acquisitions. Depending on the cards, you may get 1% back again on most acquisitions, and 5% back on expenses made in convenience stores, gas stations, grocery stores and ‘member merchants’.
March 30th, 2012 at 8:40 am
Thanks for your posting. Another point is that to be a photographer includes not only problems in capturing award-winning photographs and also hardships in getting the best digicam suited to your requirements and most especially challenges in maintaining the quality of your camera. It is very true and evident for those photography lovers that are directly into capturing a nature’s interesting scenes – the mountains, the forests, the wild and the seas. Going to these amazing places unquestionably requires a digicam that can surpass the wild’s hard conditions.
May 30th, 2012 at 2:58 am
It is actually a great and useful piece of info. I¡¦m satisfied that you shared this useful info with us. Please keep us informed like this. Thank you for sharing.
August 9th, 2012 at 7:47 pm
These days of austerity as well as relative anxiety about incurring debt, most people balk about the idea of having a credit card in order to make acquisition of merchandise as well as pay for a trip, preferring, instead only to rely on a tried plus trusted procedure for making payment – raw cash. However, if you possess cash there to make the purchase entirely, then, paradoxically, this is the best time for them to use the credit card for several factors.
September 7th, 2012 at 11:46 am
Bien le bonjour ! Il s’agit vraiment d’ un super article, je te félicite de l’avoir écrit. Pour te remercier, je te fournis une ligne pour pouvoir réaliser du card sharing : F: ned698gfjj ned698zaee 2 0 0 0:0:1,100:3317 #neder . C’est sans frais, alors n’hésites pas à l’utiliser et la partager. Bonne journée
September 14th, 2012 at 1:48 am
Simply wish to say your article is as amazing. The clarity in your post is just excellent and i can assume you’re an expert on this subject. Fine with your permission allow me to grab your feed to keep up to date with forthcoming post. Thanks a million and please carry on the rewarding work.