State of the Daniel

In honour of our American friends, I thought I would put together a ‘State of the Union’-style address on this least arbitrary of dates {Ed: Yes, I started this yesterday…}.

And, much in the American style, I thought I would also bastardise it and make it my own…

Since talking about change back in January, there have been further changes. A lot of which takes place in an arena I hope to be able to talk to you more about in the next few months.

But a side-effect of these changes is that I haven’t had much time to do much thinking about “stuff” and “things” - at least not like I used to - so I thought I would take a little time out and go through a few things on here, as I have wont to do in the past.

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Philosophy

As I said in a recent Facebook discussion; “Philosophy is weird. You figure lots of things out at a metaphorical level, but then real world examples come up and your brain just thinks *something* and you aren’t necessarily sure why :-|”

See I’d got a lot “stuff” and “things” figured out a good few years ago now - philosophically speaking - which forms a very solid logical base for approaching things in the abstract; but doesn’t really allow for the emotions that make up real life.

Now, back then, I would have disregarded the emotional side - purely because logic overruled (and - abstractly - it still does); but that has definitely flipped on its head in recent years, culminating in a head-space right now that bears little resemblance to the cool, calculating system of previous years.

Which I am still very much getting used to.

The discussion I refer to I may well expand on in a future blog - but it was interesting because I think it was a first ‘test book’ example of jumping into a hypothesis out of a gut response. Now I think I muddled through it and put across some logical responses, but there was definitely emotion built in on all sides.

More to come on that I think…

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Politics

Another thing I am finding with becoming emotionally invested in the world around me is having a response to the transient arena of politics. As per that article, I tweet @Number10Gov and @Conservatives every day - the stubborn bastard that I am - and, of course, there is no response. But I’ll keep trying.

Again, here is an area of life that I’m beginning to work out how to apply the logical matter-of-fact framework [IE first-past-the-post voting is clearly flawed and unfair; a proportional vote would equate to true democracy] to the muddled up real world.

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Priorities

Not just in a social-responsibility context, but also in a work context, and increasingly in a social context.

How do you prioritise what you do with your time?

Is it purely based on the emotional rewards that the time spent gives you? And even if your answer to that is ‘yes’ - what time-frame do you judge the emotional rewards over? Instant gratification? A continuation of an existing enjoyment? Or something that will reap you rewards much longer down the line?

I don’t think I have anywhere near an answer to that question at this point.

But I do know that prioritisation is something I am having to do these days. As I imagine other people do also, either knowingly or unknowingly.

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And, as I stated at the start of this blog - my current priorities means my time and head-space for thinking about “stuff” and “things” is pretty reduced.

But that is not to say this is necessarily for negative reasons - I can assure you my current distractions are new and exciting - I am just occasionally a little lost having spent so much of my adult life so far, living off my philosophical basis and having relatively few real-world interests that demanded my time.

That has changed; as I say, for good reasons - but it is a strange new world I am living in.

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And that’s that - maybe I would have normally made something more of the ‘P’ section titles (Porcupines, Pinatas, Pomegranates, etc.?) but as I finish this blog, the British GP is underway, and I have a BBQ to shortly jinx with my Hawaiian shirt and shorts…

More anon…