harsh musings (a blog by harsh shah)

The really important kind of freedom involves attention and awareness and discipline, and being able truly to care about other people and to sacrifice for them over and over in myriad petty, unsexy ways every day. That is real freedom. That is being educated, and understanding how to think. The alternative is unconsciousness, the default setting, the rat race, the constant gnawing sense of having had, and lost, some infinite thing…It is unimaginably hard to do this, to stay conscious and alive in the adult world day in and day out.

Imagine there’s no countries
It isn’t hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace…
You may say I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
I hope someday you’ll join us
And the world will be as one
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world…
You may say I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
I hope someday you’ll join us
And the world will live as one

I haven’t learned a lot more about investing or making money since I was 25 years old. But I’ve learned a lot about human behavior. Let’s play a game. If you had to pick 1 classmate, and you would earn 10% of what they will earn for the rest of their life, what would go through your mind? Their IQ? Their grades? What school they went to? Who’s the best on the dance floor?… Or is it who’s the most effective human being. Who do people admire and love to work for. Who is able to inspire and willing to give credit to other people for their successes.

If you had to short 1 classmate 10%, who would that be? What traits turn you off?

You’ll realize that the qualities in the people you want are behavioral, not born in. You want someone who doesn’t keep score, like ‘I cleaned your room, now you clean mine.’ You want someone who people want to do things for.