In the following passages, I delve into the core philosophies that have steered my life's journey: hard work, dreaming big, the importance of history, and the joy in the minutiae.

In the following passages, I delve into the core philosophies that have steered my life’s journey: hard work, dreaming big, the importance of history, and the joy in the minutiae. These are not just beliefs but the bedrock of my daily living, sculpted through years of experience from fencing arenas to the digital world of web development.

Hard Work and Determination Always Pay Off

Hard work and determination always pay off. This is the fundamental principle that guides the decision-making process in my life. At its core, it’s just the idea that the more time you spend working on something or a craft, the better it, and you, will become. This philosophy, this guiding principle, helps me structure my free time. If I have any, I should be spending it learning, growing, and challenging myself because if you don’t put in the time, you will not see the kind of growth you generally desire in life.

When I was a teenager, my mother enrolled me in fencing classes — fencing as in sword fighting. I found it to be fun, rewarding, and challenging all at once. Previously, I had been practicing yoga for a year or two, but fencing offered a more communal experience. I naturally started attending regularly, which soon turned into six days a week: Monday through Friday after school, and then Saturday mornings. Eventually, I was traveling for tournaments across the United States. I’m very thankful for this time spent because I saw myself improving quickly and becoming a strong competitor. I was determined and I put in the hard work. That’s all there is to it, but it was this discipline that I was able to take and apply to music later.

Later in life, I taught myself how to play basketball, a sport I hadn’t been exposed to at a competitive level when I was younger. I put in the time, was determined, and had fun while getting a great workout. I even coached for two years, which is a whole other story.

Then there was the time after I finished school and had been working as a teacher for six years, feeling unfulfilled. I knew it was time for a change. That’s when I began to study web development. Through hard work and determination, I was able to transition into a new career and found, once again, that I was enjoying it and having fun.

The act of learning, if one can even call it an act and not a response, is something I find great joy in. Taking areas of complete mystery and, after some time, transforming them into understanding through the persevering pursuit of dedication and hard work, will yield results.

Follow Your Dreams

It is paramount to your success as a human being to first and foremost dream and have aspirations. If you do not have any aspirations, many of my principles will not resonate with you. I know for a fact that at one point, everyone has created dreams for themselves, and at one point or another, they let those go because of some barrier that has manifested in the physical world.

The preservation of one’s dreams can be attributed primarily to having a good attitude, a growth mindset, and understanding that the world is knowable; it just takes time and energy to unlock those unknowns.

Dreams can be pursued doggedly, at the risk of damaging or bending the world around you, or they can be pursued with a compassionate understanding that, although you are where you are now, you are still continuing to take steps towards your ultimate goal of achieving your dreams.

When I reflect on the goals and dreams in my life and their connection to me, a few examples come to mind. My first dream was to create computer games. As a child, they were the primary narrative in my life, with dramatic highs and lows and epic stories of adventure and impossible challenges to overcome. This dream has not been realized yet, but it has remained at the forefront of my mind as I’ve progressed through life. I now appreciate video games as a special kind of art form, especially since studying computer science, and my continued passion for music and storytelling.

In a way, I know I’ll circle back to this topic again. This dream is one of my favorites because I’ve always felt like I’ve been slowly approaching the problem from all angles as I’ve progressed through life: studying yoga, swordplay, the liberal arts, anthropology, sociology, psychology, sports, and experiences along the way. Performance arts and programming somehow got in there too. I think I will return to this dream in the near future, or maybe not at all, but it seems I’m doing a pretty good job of scoping out that project.

Another dream I’ve had is to be a music producer, to be a member of the community, and to help people fulfill their visions of art, especially in songs and songwriting. This dream has become a reality and has brought me a unique richness and fulfillment. I often don’t take a lot of time to discuss my fervent passion for music. To me, music is art and science; it is nature; it is the universe captured into a unit of time. Sound, time, and space are intertwined. Sound is a unique property of our existence, given the environment we live in—a unique chamber of air pressure and chemicals known as the troposphere, where all known life exists. When we strike a drum or ignite the air with electric guitars, we are amplifying our world in this very unique, special place in the universe. When you combine that with the human experience and the art form of songwriting, you get a topic worthy of its own blog. But to circle back, one of my dreams is to be a music producer.

Other examples of dreams, to give you context, include creating a space for humans, artists, and thinkers to come together in a stimulating environment. In today’s economy, that translates to having a nice house, which is no easy task.

All of these dreams are simple examples of a person finding something to pursue in the future, guiding all those little actions from day to day—the minutiae. Bottom line: follow your dreams. Don’t be afraid to dream.

Study the Past

If there’s one thing uniquely special about humanity, it’s that we have collective learning backing us up. Collective learning is basically the entire body of knowledge that the human experience has put together, and if you’re not leveraging that to have a more productive and successful life, you’re really doing a disservice to all of mankind.

Using collective learning is basically having respect for what has come before, understanding that through humans’ unique powers of pattern recognition, we can learn from the past to affect the present, to change the future so that it more appropriately aligns with our dreams and aspirations.

There are literally thousands, upon hundreds of thousands, of stories about humans and all of their different trials and tribulations and successes in the form of collective learning. If that doesn’t get you motivated to go out and pursue your dreams, then we need to work on your attitude.

Collective learning can also be applied not just to deep time but to recognizing cultural trends in society. By recognizing cultural trends in society and then applying them to even personal encounters with friends, we begin to see patterns emerge, and we can work hard to recognize potential issues that may arise and solve them before they become a major problem.

Examples I have of the benefits of studying the past start from a technical perspective. In web development, technologies are always changing rapidly, which is quite exciting. However, despite the rapid changes, trends tend to come full circle. This observation leads one to consider the lurking variables that influence these patterns. In web development, software engineering, and computer programming, it’s about choosing the right tool for the job without overcomplicating it. This approach depends on the unique set of needs or the use case of the project. Having this mentality has given me an appreciation for all approaches to software engineering and development. I’ve learned there is no single right or wrong way to do anything, and at the end of the day, many other variables come into play.

Another example of the benefits of studying the past is the understanding of large-scale human geography, or anthropology. It involves taking a step back from oneself and placing oneself in the context of a much larger society. This task is not as easy as one might think. It’s challenging to imagine a world without oneself or to not focus on personal needs, as this is counterintuitive to survival. However, knowing about the past can help one weather, predict, or avoid not just physical situations in the future but also mental anguish or issues related to mental health.

This understanding can be taken even further if you consider the cosmos, the universe, and the galaxies, all of which are governed by a set of fundamental rules. With this knowledge, the world, the universe, and the galaxies become a bit more knowable. This bit of understanding about the expansiveness, and at the same time, the insignificance of it all, can help to release the self and broaden one’s perspective.

Fundamentally, I believe you can become very excited about the magnificence of our universe, and there are times when it can make you feel very insignificant. However, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It provides a dynamic range of experiences to explore, which can bring a sense of peace and a deeper connection to those around you by opening up to the moment and understanding how unique and special our existence is.

I wish there were a better way to see what my ancestors looked like just a few hundred years ago. I’m looking forward to the digital archaeology of the future and the insights we will be able to gain about ourselves by studying the past.

Enjoy the Little Things

No matter how intense and dramatic life can be, or the great achievements you may receive, the real essence of life lies in the finer things, the details. This is why, for the last philosophy I’ll discuss today, I suggest you begin to appreciate the little things.

No pun intended, but my favorite little thing to enjoy is my pet dog, Dayzee. She’s a Shih Tzu and very sweet. She likes to go for walks and loves fresh white chicken with a little rice mixed into her dry food. She enjoys sunbathing, sniffing the grass, and wandering around the yard. The time I spend with her might not move mountains on a geopolitical scale, but it has the power to move my heart and helps me find appreciation in all things in life.

Enjoying the little things can lead to a broader level of contentment. You’ll find contentment in sitting outside in the sun, walking your dog, taking a drive, sipping coffee, surfing the web, learning something new, or finally reading that book you’ve always wanted to. There are many amazing aspects of our world, and everyone deserves to enjoy the little things.

Stewardship

I know I mentioned that I didn’t have any more philosophies, but the appreciation of the little things has led me to another philosophy I have: stewardship. At our core, in our relationship with the planet and especially with our unique perception of the universe, we, as humans, should see ourselves as stewards and guardians of the planet. If we have the ability to watch over even just a small piece of it, we should take comfort in maintaining our surroundings because fundamentally, this will mean future generations will inherit a rich tapestry of life. Stewardship is one way we can pass on a rich existence to our future, whether through raising children, maintaining homeostasis with our ecosystem, gardening, landscaping, or building. However, it should always be done with a connection to avoiding excess and maintaining balance in the land. Stewardship can even be as unique as caring for your friends and taking the time and effort to do so.

The best example to start with is gardening. Plants are our siblings on the tree of life; we have grown with them. To view them as anything less than living—hell, even non-sentient—is to not value them enough. They may not be Shakespeare, but they are tall, strong, and can provide shelter, resources, protection, color, rustling noises, and air to breathe. Come to think of it, they might be better than Shakespeare. It’s a shame that many of us raised in cities don’t spend as much time with nature. Working with the land may be a harder life on the body, but it’s much more in tune with the realities of our world. If you can’t have a garden, just start with one plant—a jalapeno plant, perhaps. You’ll be very satisfied.

Another example of stewardship is if something breaks in your presence, and it involves the place where you live, you should try to fix it. I have a strange life; I’m a renter in a beautiful home that I probably will never own. It’s old, and the landlord is even older; things tend to break. I could ask him to fix a couple of tiles in the bathroom, but he’d probably say no. To be honest, I’m not much of a handyman. However, I have a great appreciation for order in a world of chaos. I do think the world is in a constant state of deterioration; chaos rules. But by us caring for something, no matter how small or insignificant, we bring order to a world of chaos. The simple act of caring and taking the initiative to try to fix something, or at least give it the attention it deserves, will come back to you with great rewards. As Benjamin Franklin once said,

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

What is stewardship? My definition is to care for the world around you—to care for the plants, the animals, the people, and the community.

In Conclusion

This is my first attempt to reflect on the life I’m trying to live and to transcribe it into text so that others may share a glimpse into my mindset. Trust me, there will be plenty more philosophies as I start to practice the delicate art of revealing my mind.

Articulating my thoughts has been a reflective exercise, enhancing my understanding of my beliefs and highlighting the need to address universalism and inclusivity. I hope my insights have resonated with you and encourage you to also explore and record your own fundamental principles.