Category: Blog

From time to time we use memes or catchphrases to make jokes.
They’re funny and they work.

But what if we’re removing dialog and expression? What if we’re oversimplifying life?

I think they are nice if they are spot on, if they are used at the right moment in a contextual manner. As a continuous repetition? I dunno if they would be so perfect, although they work for some people (but not for me).

I think abusing them is a way to reduce life to other terms instead of living it fully. I’m not judging it, but I wonder if at the end of the day all those phrases will be worth it or not.

One thing I really loved learning is how James Altucher use words at his best. He thinks that he only has 1000 words PER DAY to use, so he prefer to stay silent and use them wisely.
It’s one of the things I’ve loved about his book (although the book is really “american” in the way he presents things and regarding goals and vision. Still a great book btw).

You look at MSQRD and you think “Oh my god, such a stupid idea got so many millions in $”.

Stupid ideas are good ideas? This might sound like something worth thinking about right?
As always, it depends.

In an ever-changing social mood, things like MSQRD are needed by the social networks. They seek, as their primary goal, new ways to keep your attention by entertaining you.
It doesn’t matter if what you create is fake or not, it’s important that it entertains and keep you on the social.

Seen this way, the acquisition of MSQRD is smart and needed because Facebook wanted something like Snapchat but probably didn’t want to spend their time creating it when a product already had both the features and some users.

Does this mean that every stupid idea is good? Absolutely not. It was stupid (from a point of view), and it was at the same time a benefit needed by some.
What I think a discussion like this is missing is “What you’re after?”

The whole social business revolves around your attention span, your entertainment.
It’s quite normal if it has non-serious evolution given the context of social networks.

If what you’re after is money and the things that make you envy the MSQRD result is that, then you might as well give it a try and try doing “stupid” things.
But what if you’re more into making a change, leaving a trace?

MSQRD is a mood. In 10 years it could be gone and nobody would even remember it.
Right now in Italy they are dismantling the old telephone booths and the children from these years won’t even know they were there. But those booths lasted way more than 10 years.

In social network a feature could last much, much less. So in 10 years MSQRD could be gone e nobody will remember it nor feel nostalgic about it.

Making a change requires a different perspective and also requires you to work in different fields.

Yes, the MSQRD result is fantastic and something many people will envy, but is that result you’re after?

When you don’t know self help you expect it to be like “Some guys being over positive”.

Then you make your fist encounter. It’s exciting, you never saw so much energy in someone. You realize you envy them a little bit. You envy their success too.

They got a solution you think.
And they sell you that solution.

Now the selfhelp is no more a simple overpositive guy, but it’s a guy who’s name is alex that has a solution for you.
And you like that solution.

But that is only the tip of an iceberg. Soon enough you’ll find that there are many alex in the world, and all of them have the perfect solution for your life.

Each of these solutions will change your life forever. And some of them might really do it.

But you know what? Your solution is a work you must do.
Self help is just a starting point to learn some basics, but from there on it’s up to you.

Self help doesn’t cover introverts for example. Either you’re extrovert or you’re out.
And what about people that don’t want a super-big success? not for them.

We are all different, and we do need different solution.
But there’s nobody that can help us aside from ourselves.

You can fight, but you will always find yourself a bad moment and you will fail.

From that, what you do is up to you. You can either step up the game and learn, or lower it down and behave like you always did.

They teach us that competition is good, that we must overachieve, that results are key for a successful life.

They teach that success is based upon money, respect, a still many people in the world continue to seek inner peace, something outside the very definition of success.

In our world success is defined by what you have outside and not inside. It’s not defined by how you react, how you think, how you live inside your mind and your heart, but instead of how many things you own and you conquered.

It may sound zen, because when we talk about our inner self there’s always this prejudice, but it’s much more complex than that.
What we leave for our legacy won’t be money.

Money won’t continue our dream, money won’t leave a trace, but an idea, a way of life will, if that way of living is beautiful.

If that way of living is honest, profound and empathic then it might leave a trace in other people and then continue to build its legacy.