"I am a kind of paranoiac in reverse. I suspect people of plotting to make me happy." - J. D. Salinger.
Do you see the glass as half empty, or half full? Salinger obviously believes the latter.
In fact, I would like to coin a new OppThink word (OppWord) in honor of this quote:
Parayesia: The belief that people are out to get you (to a better place).
Showing posts with label quotes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label quotes. Show all posts
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Friday, May 15, 2009
OppThink Quote from Vince Lombardi on Winning and Losing
Vince Lombardi - "We didn't lose the game; we just ran out of time."
Another famous quote worth learning from.
Here, Vince took the OppBelief of what most people would have just accepted (that is, "We lost the game"); the opposite is, of course, "We didn't lose the game."
Vince could be very convincing.
But how could he possibly justify this OppBelief?
With a supporting belief. And he found one: "Time ran out."
This is true, time did run out.
In other words, Vince's team would've won the game if they'd had more time to play.
If the game was 5 quarters instead of 4, they would have won, for example.
So now he can truthfully tell his team: don't think of yourselves as losers today.
Think of yourselves as winners who just needed a little more time to prove it.
You're not flawed - the game itself is flawed (for being too short)!
A great shift in mindset, courtesy of a little OppThinking.
Thanks, Vince. You're still invincible.
Another famous quote worth learning from.
Here, Vince took the OppBelief of what most people would have just accepted (that is, "We lost the game"); the opposite is, of course, "We didn't lose the game."
Vince could be very convincing.
But how could he possibly justify this OppBelief?
With a supporting belief. And he found one: "Time ran out."
This is true, time did run out.
In other words, Vince's team would've won the game if they'd had more time to play.
If the game was 5 quarters instead of 4, they would have won, for example.
So now he can truthfully tell his team: don't think of yourselves as losers today.
Think of yourselves as winners who just needed a little more time to prove it.
You're not flawed - the game itself is flawed (for being too short)!
A great shift in mindset, courtesy of a little OppThinking.
Thanks, Vince. You're still invincible.
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Quotes: Hear Heraclitus and Alan Watts on Using OppThink to Appreciate Life's Pleasures
He didn't use the term OppThink as far as I know, but he seems to be embracing its usefulness.
He = Heraclitus, ancient smart Greek dude.
Here is a Heraclitus quote I like:
It is by disease that health is pleasant, by evil that good is pleasant, by hunger satiety, by weariness rest.
In other words, by experiencing X (in this case, something of no apparent value)
we can appreciate the opposite of X (something we do value).
Alan Watts is a more recent philosopher who gave many talks in which he too embraced the value of a thing's opposite. A great example he liked to give:
without rests in music, how could we enjoy the notes?
But we can go even further.
Not only can we appreciate musical notes thanks to the rests in between --
the notes cannot exist without the rests!
Without rests, how could we hear notes at all?
In fact, there are many things in our universe which only exist thanks to their opposite.
In the realm of physics, particles can be created only in pairs, with opposite charges.
In other words, one's creation depends on its opposite's creation.
He = Heraclitus, ancient smart Greek dude.
Here is a Heraclitus quote I like:
It is by disease that health is pleasant, by evil that good is pleasant, by hunger satiety, by weariness rest.
In other words, by experiencing X (in this case, something of no apparent value)
we can appreciate the opposite of X (something we do value).
Alan Watts is a more recent philosopher who gave many talks in which he too embraced the value of a thing's opposite. A great example he liked to give:
without rests in music, how could we enjoy the notes?
But we can go even further.
Not only can we appreciate musical notes thanks to the rests in between --
the notes cannot exist without the rests!
Without rests, how could we hear notes at all?
In fact, there are many things in our universe which only exist thanks to their opposite.
In the realm of physics, particles can be created only in pairs, with opposite charges.
In other words, one's creation depends on its opposite's creation.
Quotes: THOMAS EDISON, SHERLOCK HOLMES and the OppThink Path to Light Bulb Invention
Thomas Edison is considered by many the greatest inventor of all time. But the road to his most famous invention -- the electric light bulb -- was not Easy Street.
Edison failed time and time again while trying to find a filament that would safely burn for long periods of time. But how did he look at these repeated failures? With an OppThink attitude, of course, as evidenced by his famous quote:
“We now know a thousand ways not to build a light bulb.”
In other words, Edison took the belief most might have settled on ("I don't have a way to build a light bulb yet") and turned it into its opposite belief, shown above.
Not knowing something is knowledge in its own right. In fact, Edison's light bulb quote is related to one by fiction's greatest detective, Sherlock Holmes, who famously said:
Edison failed time and time again while trying to find a filament that would safely burn for long periods of time. But how did he look at these repeated failures? With an OppThink attitude, of course, as evidenced by his famous quote:
“We now know a thousand ways not to build a light bulb.”
In other words, Edison took the belief most might have settled on ("I don't have a way to build a light bulb yet") and turned it into its opposite belief, shown above.
Not knowing something is knowledge in its own right. In fact, Edison's light bulb quote is related to one by fiction's greatest detective, Sherlock Holmes, who famously said:
"When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth."
One can take an OppThink view of Edison's search for the light bulb and describe it this way: he eliminated the impossible filaments, and in the end, what was left was the filament that finally did work, and the truth of that successful filament's long lasting light changed our lives forever.
Quotes: BABE RUTH OppThinks Strikes
Babe Ruth struck out. A lot.
Babe Ruth struck out 1330 times over the span of his career.
Nearly twice as many strikeouts as homeruns, which totaled 714.
But the Bambino looked at strikes as opportunities.
In fact, he is known to have said:
"Every strike brings me closer to the next home run."
An excellent example of opposite thinking.
Babe Ruth struck out 1330 times over the span of his career.
Nearly twice as many strikeouts as homeruns, which totaled 714.
But the Bambino looked at strikes as opportunities.
In fact, he is known to have said:
"Every strike brings me closer to the next home run."
An excellent example of opposite thinking.
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