Earth Charter

Living guidelines for humanity

Source:

Earth Charter
Earth Charter Initiative

Korean Food

Seoul Photos

Date: 1 - 4 and 10 - 14 Nov 2007

Place: Around Seoul, South Korea

Experience: historic...

Andong Photos

Date: 9 - 10 Nov 2007
Place: Andong, South Korea
Experience: historic...

Gyeongju Photos

Date: 6 - 9 Nov 2007

Place: Gyeongju, South Korea

Experience: historic...

Soraksan Photos

Date: 4 - 6 Nov 2007

Place: Soraksan, South Korea

Experience: mountains, mountains, mountains... place of outstanding beauty.

Universals of culture

What are the aspects of daily life?

George Murdoch's universals of culture

1. Age Grading
   
2. Community Organization
   
3. Cooking
   
4. Cooperative Labor
   
5. Cosmology
   
6. Courtship
   
7. Dancing
   
8. Decorative Art
   
9. Divination
   
10. Division of labor
    
11. Dream Interpretation
    
12. Education
    
13. Eschatology
    
14. Ethics
    
15. Ethno-botany
    
16. Etiquette
    
17. Faith Healing
    
18. Family Feasting
    
19. Fire Making
    
20. Folklore
    
21. Food Taboos
    
22. Funeral Rites
    
23. Games
    
24. Gestures
    
25. Gift Giving
    
26. Government
    
27. Greetings
    
28. Hairstyles
    
29. Hospitality
    
30. Housing
    
31. Hygiene
    
32. Incest Taboos
    
33. Inheritance Rules
    
34. Joking
    
35. Kin Groups
    
36. Kinship Nomenclature
    
37. Language
    
38. Law
    
39. Luck Superstitions
    
40. Magic
    
41. Marriage
    
42. Mealtimes
    
43. Medicine
    
44. Obstetrics
    
45. Pennal Sanctions
    
46. Personal Names
    
47. Population Policy
    
48. Postnatal Care
    
49. Pregnancy Usages
    
50. Property Rights
    
51. Propitiation of supernatural beings
    
52. Puberty Customs
    
53. Religious Rituals
    
54. Residence Rules
    
55. Sexual Restrictions
    
56. Soul Concepts
    
57. Status Differentiation
    
58. Surgery
    
59. Tool Making
    
60. Trade
    
61. Visiting
    
62. Weather Control
    
63. Weaving
    

Source:
In the bubble
John Thackara
Page 134
MIT Press
ISBN: 0262201577

Ethnosphere

National Geographic explorer Wade Davis argues passionately that we should be concerned not only for preserving the biosphere but also the ethnosphere - the sum total of all thoughts and dreams, myths, ideas, inspirations, intuitions brought into being by the human imagination. It is humanity's great legacy. It's a symbol of all that we are and all that we can be as an astounding and inquisitive species.

Top 10 Believes

What are my top 10 believes now?

1. Nothing is permanent ( including this list ).
   
2. Things fail when it is not designed to evlove with changes.
   
3. One can reduces one's ignorance by learning more about oneself and the World around us.
   
4. Sharing what I discover about myself and the World around me is intellectual philanthropy.
   
5. There is power when one knows one can be wrong.
   
6. There is always more than one way of seeing and doing things.
   
7. Listen to people who have unpopular views.
   
8. Do one's own thinking.
   
9. If one does not make choices, choices make one.
   
10. Connecting the disconnects
    

What are your top 10 believes now?

Mother Teresa's definition of poverty

The hungry and the lonely, not only for food but for the Word of God; the thirsty and the ignorant, not only for water but also for knowledge, peace, truth, justice and love; the naked and the unloved, not only for clothes but also for human dignity; the unwanted, the unborn child, the racially discriminated against, the homeless and the abandoned - not only for a shelter made of bricks, but for a heart that understands, that covers, that loves; the sick, the dying destitutes and the captives - not only in body but also in mind and spirit; all those who have lost all hope and faith in life, the alcoholics and drug addicts and all those who have lost God ( for them God was but God is ) and who have lost all hope in the power of the Spirit.

Source:

A simple path

Lucinda Vardey, Mother Teresa

Page 30 - 31

Rider

ISBN: 0712674527

Generalize, don't specialize

Why should we generalize instead of specialize?

Sense from:

Operating manual for Spaceship Earth

Buckminster Fuller

Page 40 - 41

Arkana

ISBN: 0140194517

A type of bird which lived on a special variety of micro-marine life. Flying around, these birds gradually discovered that there were certain places in which that particular marine life tended to pocket-in the marshes along certain ocean shores of certain lands. So, instead of flying aimlessly for chance finding of that marine life they went to where it was concentrated in bayside marshes.

After a while, the water began to recede in the marshes, because the Earth’s polar ice cap was beginning to increase. Only the birds with very long beaks could reach deeply enough in the marsh holes to get at the marine life. The unfed, short-billed birds died off. This left only the long-beakers. When the birds’ inborn drive to reproduce occurred there were only other long-beakers surviving with whom to breed. This concentrated their long-beak genes.

So, with continually receding waters and generation to generation inbreeding, longer and longer beaked birds were produced. The waters kept receding, and the beaks of successive generations of the birds grew bigger and bigger. The long-beakers seemed to be prospering when all at once there was a great fire in the marshes. It was discovered that because their beaks had become so heavy these birds could no longer fly. They could not escape the flames by flying out of the marsh. Waddling on their legs they were too slow to escape, and so they perished.

This is typical of the way in which extinction occurs through over-specialization.

10 ways to reinvent your company

Here's a crash course from Keith Yamashita, cofounder and principal of Stone Yamashita Partners on the art and science ( mostly art ) of creating strategy and unleashing change.

1. Outlaw PowerPoint. Write down your vision as a story - with a beginning, middle and end - to clarify what must change first.
   
2. Don't rely on words alone. Bring your thinking to life: Create an exhibit, use diagrams, prototype ideas.
   
3. Make strategy an everyday act. The creation and re-creation of strategy shouldn't be a process that you undertake only when budgets are due.
   
4. Argue forcefully against your most dearly held hypotheses. Only then will you know if they stand up to scrutiny.
   
5. Make decisions, right or wrong. There's nothing worse than waffling.
   
6. Take over the TV station. Airtime is everything. Reinforce your messages in everything that you do. Use every ad, press release, store, package, and event to tell your story.
   
7. Embrace thine enemy. Make a list of the people who could legitimately stop your big idea from taking root. Befriend them. Convince them. Make it their responsibility to improve on your vision.
   
8. Don't hold meetings longer than two hours. ( Otherwise they're workshops, which require more planning. ) And don't walk out of a meeting without assigning a name to every item that needs follow-up.
   
9. Startle people. Break out of your comfort zone and do something unexpected. Run an offbeat ad. Institute casual-dress Tuesdays.
   
10. Don't throw anything out. Don't kill ideas that won't work right now. Someday soon, the world might be ready for them.
    

Source:

Keith Yamashita wants to reinvent your company

Fast Company 2002 Oct

Polly Labarre

What did I learn from Morrie

I am currently reading Tuesdays with Morrie. The book tells a story of a dying college professor ( Morrie ) teaching his last class to one student ( Mitch ). As I read, I become one of Morrie's students. His class is about the meaning of life and the lessons in how to live. 

1. Accept the past as past, without denying it or discarding it.
   
2. Accept what you are able to do and what you are not able to do.
   
3. As you grow, you learn more.  
   
4. Be compassionate.
   
5. Be fully present. Be with the person you're with.
   
6. Be more open.
   
7. Death ends a life, not a relationship.
   
8. Devote yourself to loving others.
   
9. Don't assume that it's too late to get involved.
   
10. Dying is only one thing to be sad over, living unhappily is something else.
    
11. Every thing is impermanent.
    
12. Everyone knows they're going to die but nobody believes it.
    
13. Forgive yourself before you die. Then forgive others.
    
14. Love always wins.
    
15. Love each other or die.
    
16. Love is the only rational act.
    
17. Once you learn how to die, you learn how to live.
    
18. Pay attention when your loved ones are speaking as if it were the last time you might hear them.       
    
19. Sometimes you cannot believe what you see, you have to believe what you feel. And if you are ever going to have other people trust you, you must feel that you can trust them too.
    
20. Take responsibility for each other.
    
21. The culture we have does not make people feel good about themselves. You have to be strong enough to say if the culture doesn't work, don't buy it.
    
22. The most important thing in life is to learn how to give out love and to let it come in.
    
23. What we take, we must replenish.    
    
24. When you are in bed, you're dead.
    
25. When you realize you are going to die, you see everything much differently.

Source:

Tuesdays with Morrie

Mitch Albom

Doubleday

ISBN: 0385496494

Little Bird

I am currently reading Tuesdays with Morrie. The book tells a story of a dying college professor ( Morrie ) teaching his last class to one student ( Mitch ). As I read, I become one of Morrie's students. His class is about the meaning of life and the lessons in how to live.

One of the lessons in the book is once you learn how to die, you learn how to live. How should we die? Read on!

Source:

Tuesdays with Morrie

Mitch Albom

Page 81

Doubleday

ISBN: 0385496494

"Everyone knows they're going to die," he ( Morrie ) said again, "but nobody believes it. If we did, we would do things differently."

So we kid ourselves about death, I ( Mitch ) said.

"Yes. But there's a better approach. To know you're going to die and to be prepared for it at any time. That's better. That way you can actually be more involved in your life while you're living."

How can you ever be prepared to die?

"Do what the Buddhists do. Every day, have a little bird on your shoulder that asks, 'Is today the day? Am I ready? Am I doing all I need to do? Am I being the person I want to be?'"

Chestnut Lodge

I recently read the book and watch the video - Tuesdays with Morrie. The video was as good as the book. It shows the main lessons to be learned in the book. It is a good addition to the book as not everybody wants to read. Video allows the book to reach more learners.

One event that I feel that is good to feature in the video but was not was what Morrie learn from working at Chestnut Lodge ( mental hospital ). He learn that people want someone to notice their existence and money cannot buy happiness.

Sense from:

Tuesdays with Morrie

Mich Albom

Page 109 - 111

Doubleday

ISBN: 0385496494

The Morrie I knew, the Morrie so many others knew, would not have been the man he was without the years he spent working at a mental hospital just outside Washington, D.C., a place with the deceptively peaceful name of Chestnut Lodge. It was one of Morrie’s first jobs after plowing through a master’s degree and a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. Having rejected medicine, law, and business, Morrie had decided the research World would be a place where he could contribute without exploiting others.

Morrie was given a grant to observe mental patients and record their treatments. While the idea seems common today, it was groundbreaking in the early fifties. Morrie saw patients who would scream all day. Patients who would cry all night. Patients soiling their underwear. Patients refusing to eat, having to be held down, medicated, fed intravenously.

One of the patients, a middle-aged woman, came out of her room every day and lay facedown on the tile floor, stayed there for hours, as doctors and nurses stepped around her. Morrie watched in horror. He took notes, which is what he was there to do. Every day, she did the same thing: came out in the morning, lay on the floor, stayed there until the evening, talking to no one, ignored by everyone. It saddened Morrie. He began to sit on the floor with her, even lay down alongside her, trying to draw her out of her misery. Eventually, he got her to sit up, and even to return to her room. What she mostly wanted, he learned, was the same thing many people want - someone to notice she was there.

Morrie worked at Chestnut Lodge for five years. Although it wasn’t encouraged, he befriended some of the patients, including a woman who joked with him about how lucky she was to be there “because my husband is rich so he can afford it. Can you imagine if I had to be in one of those cheap mental hospitals?”

Another woman - who would spit at everyone else took to Morrie and called him her friend. They talked each day, and the staff was at least encouraged that someone had gotten through to her. But one day she ran away and Morrie was asked to help bring her back. They tracked her down in a nearby store, hiding in the back, and when Morrie went in, she burned an angry look at him.

“So you’re one of them, too,” she snarled.

“One of who?”

“My jailers.”

Morrie observed that most of the patients there had been rejected and ignored in their lives, made to feel that they didn’t exist. They also missed compassion - something the staff ran out of quickly. And many of these patients were well-off, from rich families, so their wealth did not buy them happiness or contentment. It was a lesson he never forgot.

Tension of opposites

Life is a series of pulls back and forth. You want to do one thing but you are bound to do something else. Something hurts you, yet you know it shouldn't. You take certain things for granted even when you know you should never take anything for granted. A tension of opposites, like a pull on a rubber band. And most of us live somewhere in the middle.

Source:

Tuesdays with Morrie

Mitch Albom

Page 40

Doubleday

ISBN: 0385496494

Life Instructions

Source:

Making Happy

Chris Glass

Revenue Management

What is revenue management?

Terma

What are Termas ( Tibetan )?

Termas ( sacred texts or objects ) are hidden by enlightened beings to be rediscovered at the appropriate time in the future by realised masters who have the necessary mystical vision and karma to find them. Sometimes the termas are hidden in such unlikely places as a lake, the sky or even a disciples mind. These hidden teachings manifest at unpredictable times and places when sentient beings are in need of their wisdom. As such, the discovery of a terma always creates a fresh opportunity for spiritual renewal.

Source:

Synopsis of Hidden teachings of Tibet

Tulku Thondup

Wisdom

ISBN : 086171122X

Japan design concepts

Interesting design concepts of Japan:

1. Heisei - The peacefull mind
   
2. Kaizen - Striving for perfection
   
3. Kanso - Getting more with less
   
4. Kessaku - Creating masterpieces
   
5. Makoto - Building sincerity into products
   
6. Meisho / Deshi - Master / Apprentice approach
   
7. Mono-no-Aware - Things that touch the heart
   
8. Mushin - The power of the empty mind
   
9. Myo - The ultimate quality of beauty
   
10. Shibui - Eliminating the unessential
    
11. Shizenbi - Nature's standard of beauty
    
12. Zen - Recognizing reality

Source:

Elements of Japanese design

Boye Lafayette De Mente

Tuttle

ISBN: 978-080483749-1

Autobiography in five short chapters

Autobiography in five short chapters

by Portia Nelson

I

I walk down the street.

There is a deep hole in the sidewalk

I fall in.

I am lost ... I am helpless.

It isn't my fault.

It takes me forever to find a way out.

II

I walk down the same street.

There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.

I pretend I don't see it.

I fall in again.

I can't believe I am in the same place

but, it isn't my fault.

It still takes a long time to get out.

III

I walk down the same street.

There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.

I see it is there.

I still fall in ... it's a habit.

My eyes are open.

I know where I am.

It is my fault.

I get out immediately.

IV

I walk down the same street.

There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.

I walk around it.

V

I walk down another street.

One stick, two stick

Story:

One stick, two stick: the way of the old African kings

An old man is dying. He calls his people to his side. He gives a short, sturdy stick to each of his many offspring, wives and relatives. "Break the stick," he instructs them. With some effort, they all snap their sticks in half.

"This is how it is when a soul is alone and without anyone. They can be easily broken."

The old man next gives each of his kin another stick, and says, 'This is how I would like you to live after I pass. Tie your sticks together in bundles of twos and threes." He waits quietly as his family ties the sticks together. There are many bundles, some of two sticks, some of three sticks. "Now, break these bundles in half."

No one can break the sticks when there are two or more in a bundle. The old man smiles. 'We are strong when we stand with another soul. When we are with others, we cannot be broken."

Moral of story:

In our aloneness we are broken and in our standing with others we cannot be broken.

Source:

What dying people want

David Kuhl

Pg xxviii

PublicAffairs

ISBN: 1-58648197-5

Grieving

5 stages of grief

1. Denial
   
2. Anger
   
3. Bargaining
   
4. Depression
   
5. Acceptance
   

Source:

On grief and grieving

Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, David Kessler

Pg 7

Simon & Schuster

ISBN: 0743263448

Desire and fear

What is desire and fear?

Sense from:

Stillness Speaks

Eckhart Tolle

Page 58 -59

New World Library

ISBN: 157731400X

Most people's lives are run by desire and fear.

Desire is the need to add something to yourself in order to be yourself more fully. All fear is the fear of losing something and thereby becoming diminished and being less.

These two movements obscure the fact that Being cannot be given or taken away. Being in its fullness is already within you, Now.

World Cafe questions

Questions for all seasons

Here are generative questions that we and other colleagues have found usefull to stimulate new knowledge and creative thinking in a wide variety of situations around the World. Look at these questions to jump-start your own creative thinking about the most appropriate ones for your specific situation.

Questions for focusing collective attention:

What question, if answered, could make the greatest difference to the future of the

situation we're exploring here?

What's important to you about this situation and why do you care?

What draws you / us to this inquiry?

What's our intention here? What's the deeper purpose - the "big why" - that is worthy of our best effort?

What opportunities can we see in this situation?

What do we know so far / still need to learn about this situation?

What are the dilemmas / opportunities in this situation?

What assumptions do we need to test or challenge in thinking about this situation?

What would someone who had a very different set of beliefs than we do say about this situation?

Questions for connecting ideas and finding deeper insight:

What's taking shape here? What are we hearing underneath the variety of opinions being expressed? What is in the center of our listening?

What's emerging that is new for you? What connections are you making?

What have you heard that had real meaning for you? What surprised you? What puzzled or challenged you? What question would you like to ask now?

What is missing from the picture so far? What are we not seeing? Where do we need more clarity?

What has been your major learning or insight so far?

What's the next level of thinking we need to address?

If there was one thing that hasn't yet been said but is needed in order to reach a deeper level of understanding / clarity, what would that be?

Questions that create forward movement:

What would it take to create change on this issue?

What could happen that would enable you / us to feel fully engaged and energized in this situation?

What's possible here and who cares about it?

What needs our immediate attention going forward?

If our success was completely guaranteed, what bold steps might we choose?

How can we support each other in taking the next steps? What unique contribution can we each make?

What challenges might corne our way and how might we meet them?

What conversation if begun today, could ripple out in a way that created new possibilities for the future of [ our situation. . . ]?

What seed might we plant together today that could make the most difference to the future of [ our situation. . . ]?

Source:

World Cafe

Juanita Brown, David Isaacs, World Cafe Community

Pg 173

Berrett-Koehler

ISBN: 9781576752586

Canadian Rockies photos

Date: 15 - 19 May 2007

Place: Canadian Rockies, AB, Canada

Experience: mountains, mountains, mountains... place of outstanding beauty.

Hollyhock Photos

Date: 11 - 14 May 2007

Place: Hollyhock, Cortes Island, BC, Canada

Experience: seaside, sea view, Red Forest, nature, garden, meditation, Yoga, decent accommodation, delicious vegetarian food, great company from intellectual curious, peace of mind seeking, interesting people.

Top 10 reasons to work at Google

Top 10 reasons to work at Google

1. Lend a helping hand.

With millions of visitors every month, Google has become an essential part of everyday life - like a good friend - connecting people with the information they need to live great lives.

2. Life is beautiful.

Being a part of something that matters and working on products in which you can believe is remarkably fulfilling.

3. Appreciation is the best motivation.

So we've created a fun and inspiring workspace you'll be glad to be a part of, including on-site doctor and dentist; massage and yoga; professional development opportunities; on-site day care; shoreline running trails; and plenty of snacks to get you through the day.

4. Work and play are not mutually exclusive.

It is possible to code and pass the puck at the same time.

5. We love our employees and we want them to know it.

Google offers a variety of benefits, including a choice of medical programs, company-matched 401(k), stock options, maternity and paternity leave and much more.

6. Innovation is our bloodline.

Even the best technology can be improved. We see endless opportunity to create even more relevant, more useful and faster products for our users. Google is the technology leader in organizing the world's information.

7. Good company everywhere you look.

Googlers range from former neurosurgeons, CEOs and U.S. puzzle champions to alligator wrestlers and former-Marines. No matter what their backgrounds Googlers make for interesting cube mates.

8. Uniting the world, one user at a time.

People in every country and every language use our products. As such we think, act and work globally - just our little contribution to making the world a better place.

9. Boldly go where no one has gone before.

There are hundreds of challenges yet to solve. Your creative ideas matter here and are worth exploring. You'll have the opportunity to develop innovative new products that millions of people will find useful.

10. There is such a thing as a free lunch after all.

In fact we have them every day: healthy, yummy and made with love.

Source:

Top 10 reasons to work at Google

11 Forecasting Mindsets

11 forecasting mindsets

1. While many things change, most things remain constant.
   
2. The future is embedded in the present.
   
3. Focus on the score of the game.
   
4. Understanding how powerfull it is not to be right.
   
5. See the future as a picture puzzle.
   
6. Don’t get so far ahead of the parade that people don’t know you’re in it.
   
7. Resistance to change falls if benefits are real.
   
8. Things that we expect to happen always happen more slowly.
   
9. You don’t get results by solving problems but by exploiting opportunities.
   
10. Don’t add unless you subtract.
    
11. Don’t forget the ecology of technology.
    

Source:

Mind Set

John Naisbitt

HarperCollins

ISBN: 9780061136887

From interesting to truth

The truth isn't the truth until people believe you
and they can't believe you if they don't know what you're saying
and they can't know what you're saying if they don't listen to you
and they won't listen to you if you're not interesting
and you won't be interesting unless you say things imaginatively, originally, freshly.

Bill Bernbach

Source:
Creative Jolt
Denise Anderson, Rose Gonnella, Robin Landa
Page 79
North Light
ISBN: 9781581800111

View of life

Human life itself may be almost pure chaos but the work of the artist and the only thing he's good for is to take these handfulls of confusion and disparate things, things that seen to be irreconcilable and put them together in a frame to give them some kind of shape and meaning. That's what he's for - to give his view of life. 
Katherine Porter

Source:
Creative Jolt
Denise Anderson, Rose Gonnella, Robin Landa
Page 61
North Light
ISBN: 9781581800111

Meaning of life

Source:

Meaning of life

Lev Yilmaz

World Cafe etiquette

World Cafe etiquette

1. Focus on what matters
   
2. Contribute your thinking and experience
   
3. Listen to understand
   
4. Connect ideas
   
5. Listen together for patterns, insights and deeper questions
   
6. Play, doodle, draw

Source:

World Cafe

Juanita Brown, David Isaacs, World Cafe Community

Pg 167

Berrett-Koehler

ISBN: 9781576752586

World Cafe hosting principles

Source:

World Cafe

Juanita Brown, David Isaacs, World Cafe Community

Pg 174

Berrett-Koehler

ISBN: 9781576752586

Dr Doom investment observations

Dr Doom investment observations

1. There is no investment rule that always works.

If there was one single rule, which always worked, everybody would in time follow it and therefore, everybody would be rich. But the only constant in history is the shape of the wealth pyramid, with few rich people at the top and many poor at the bottom. Thus, even the best rules do change from time to time.

2. Stocks always go up in the long term.

This is a myth. Far more companies have failed than succeeded. Far more countries' stock markets went to zero than markets which have survived. Just think of Russia in 1918, all the Eastern European stock markets after 1945, Shanghai after 1949 and Egypt in 1954.

3. Real Estate always goes up in the long term.

While it is true that real estate has a tendency to appreciate in the long run, partly because of population growth, there is a problem with ownership and property rights. Real estate in London was a good investment over the last 1000 years but not for America's Red Indians, Mexico's Aztecs, Peru's Incas and people living in countries, which became communists in the 20th century. All these people lost their real estate and usually also their lives.

4. Buy low and sell high.

The problem with this rule is that we never know exactly what is low and what is high. Frequently what is low will go even lower and what is high will continue to rise.

5. Buy a basket of high quality stocks and hold.

Another highly dangerous rule! Today's leaders may not be tomorrow's leaders. Don't forget that Xerox, Polaroid, Memorex, Digital Equipment, Burroughs, Control Data were the leaders in 1973. Where are they today? Either out of business or their stocks far lower, than in 1973!

6. Buy when there is blood on the street.

It is true that very often, bad news provide an interesting entry point, at least as a trading opportunity into a market. However a better long term strategy may be to buy on bad news which has been preceded by a long string bad news. When then the market no longer declines, there is a chance that the really worst has been fully discounted.

7. Don't trust anyone.

Everybody is out to sell you something. Corporate executives either lie knowingly or because they don't know the true state of their business and the entire investment community makes money on you buying or selling something.

8. The best investments are frequently the ones you did not make.

To make a really good investment which will in time appreciate by 100 times or more is like finding a needle in a haystack. Most "hot tips" and "must buy" or "great opportunities" turn out to be disasters. Thus, only take very few investment decisions which you have carefully analyzed and thought about in terms of risk and potential reward.

9. Invest where you have an edge.

If you live in a small town you may know the local real estate market but little about Cisco, Yahoo and Oracle. Stick with your investments in assets about which you may have a knowledge edge.

10. Invest in yourself.

Today's society is obsessed with money. But the best investments for you may be in your own education, in the quality of the time you spend with the ones you love, on your own job, and on books which will open new ideas to you and let you see things from many different perspectives.

Source:

What every investor ought to know

Marc Faber ( Dr Doom )