Quotes and cool shit to read for the last post

"Stop going for the easy buck and start producing something with your life. Create, instead of living off the buying and selling of others." - Wall Street (film)

I'll touch on this one again in a later post, cause it's not totally accurate - true creation in finance does exists and benefits all the stakeholders involved, but the general idea is correct, and true financial creation clearly hasn't been around much lately.

Sam Sheridan has this to say at the end of his book "A Fighter's Heart:"

"I do not believe that men were meant for games, that that is their highest purpose. Work is nobler than play. I believe that men were meant for work, that their highest calling is to build, not destroy or even protect. Learning to fight, trying to embody the virtues of the hunter and the warrior - these things are useful and important, even essential. But don't be content with being a warrior, be a builder as well. Make something. The true calling of a man, real manhood, is about creation, not destruction, and everyone secretly knows it."

"As artists and professionals it is our obligation to enact our own internal revolution, a private insurrection inside our own skulls. In this uprising we free ourselves from the tyranny of consumer culture. We overthrow the programming of advertising, movies, video games, magazines, TV, and MTV by which we have been hypnotized from the cradle. We unplug ourselves from the grid by recognizing that we will never cure our restlessness by contributing our disposable income to the bottom line of Bullshit, Inc., but only by doing our work." - Steven Pressfield, The War of Art

Laborem Excercens - Catholic assertion that our work likens us to god in that we've earned our daily bread to live off of, and that we create stuff

Objectivism - kinda the same, that we actually are our gods though, and the world and resources in it exists for us to manipulate and improve

Howard Roark's speech at the end of The Fountainhead

You are what you do - Ryan Clark Holiday; and 90% of everything else hes written.

Success and Motivation - Mark Cuban

In Praise of the Artist

In Praise of the Artist - Nemo vir est qui mundum non reddat meliorem.

A buddy of mine just moved into his first house, and over beers he talked about all the little projects he'd been working on - assembling furniture, fixing bath fixtures, generally building or improving little things around his home. All those projects you got to help your father with as a kid, he gets to do on his own for the first time. We talked about how rewarding it feels to successfully to complete things like this - to acquire tools and materials, the resources around you - then to add the most important piece, your own labor. To stand back and look at the fruits of your efforts and say, before my work, my input, this creation didn't exist. And now, because of its existence, the world (that I've defined) is better than it used to be.

The latin quote for the title literally translates - A man is nobody, who does not give back a better world. You cant get all kinds of eloquent with the meaning, in Kingdom of Heaven (a hugely underrated movie) Orlando Bloom as Bailin of Ibelin says it's "What man is a man, who does not make the world a better place?" As we begin to enter a period of financial instability that my generation has never seen anything close to, the importance of this sentiment rings truer than ever if we don't want this sort of thing to happen again. As tons of college sophomores switch their majors from finance and econ to marketing and basket-weaving, we'll have to rethink a lot of our old assumptions. And so many more recent graduates will fall into this fallacy. I'm not advocating quitting every business job and reverting to some fuedal, hippie-style, greenpeace, screw technology, self-sustaining farmland nonsense existence. Rational self-interest is still the most important virtue or ideal you can pursue, but it has to create some sort of world utility that's bigger than yourself. Ask yourself if what you're doing is really the work you owe the world. If it's not, figure out what's wrong, understand why, and work to change it. It really is that simple.

Artists and engineers, they figured out all of this much more quickly than the rest of us. Da Vinci was a total badass. Throughout history, every positivie cultural, technological, or physical improvements have come from giving in to this innate calling. Nearly every technological innovation we now utilize and often take for granted came about because some entreprenuer acted in his own self-interest. The fact that society gained some utility from it and he got paid off is merely a nice and well-deserved corrollary. The desire to create and improve is innate - everyone feels it. The greatest tragedy, is going through your entire life having fully given into the Resistance, and never proffering the world whatever creativity you have inside. Do your work and add value to the world. Anything else you might want; family, fame, money, power, women, whatever, all that will follow accordingly.

Race - Below the Hard Deck

Every year the town next to us hosts an annual Thanksgiving Day Road Race. It's fun as hell, people get dressed up in all sorts of ridiculous costumes, the non-runners go to the bars that line the course at 9am and get a good buzz going to cheer us on, and New England weather remains its unpredictable self - some years it's 60 degrees and sunny, some years it's six inches of snow and still falling. It's been a fun tradition for my family, and it now includes my east-coast-converted cousins. But, it's especially important between Sean and I, as were the most competitive of the entire group.

Every year, a few months before the race, we start shit-talking on facebook, placing bets, demeaning each other's athletic abilities, calling each other bitches, etc. And unfortunately, while am I much better at smack-talk, I ALWAYS lose the race. Like, always. And it's usually not even close. I always claim that I didn't try, or that I didn't actually care and wanted to hang back and run with a friend or something, some bullshit to make his win seem less important. But in reality, I always do that "acquiesce to defeat" shit before it even starts. I know I can't beat him, so I don't actually try to run fast. Here's the excuses I hide behind:

While we are both good athletes, Sean is more of a natural runner; tall, lean. Sean has actually run for his athletic career: cross-country, basketball, soccer, etc. Contrast all that to me, I'm shorter, stronger, more of the mesomorph-type body. My sports were always along the lines of football and wrestling. Short explosive bursts, rather than prolonged running. Certainly not ideal to win in a five-mile race. (In the subsequent family pick-up football game and wrestling matches during the day I kick his ass, but those are like exhibition events.)

So, this year, it's different. I'm actually going to train to run. I've done some running in the past, never a lot, and never stuck with it seriously enough for any real gains, though. This time will be different. I will post everything in this semi-public forum, so that way I have a lot more accountability to stick to this. I will post my training and times and whatever else, all throughout from now until Nov. 27th. Sean can do the same, or just comment occasionally, it's up to him. And, of course, we will talk a lot of shit along the way. Should be fun, feel free to offer any encouraging, destructive, or helpful tips along the way.

Since this isn't really what this blog is about, it will be on a seperate side blog, the title of which is the ultimate comeback to anyone who's said they won. Below the hard deck does not count.

Movie Review: The Dark Knight

B. Pike - youngest of the pike brothers, movie buff, and the one and only reader of this blog has a guest post with his review of the The Dark Knight, and it's awesome - my response to come at the end. [Spoilers like woah, but if you haven't seen this movie yet, stop reading and go buy a ticket.]

Movie Review: The Dark Knight

Christians regained faith in god after watching The Passion; I regained faith in god after watching The Dark Knight. To describe the experience I had on July 18, at 12:05 AM, is nearly impossible, but I will make a feeble attempt at doing it justice. Roughly 1 year ago, I began reading the buzz on a sequel to what was the greatest Batman movie of all time, Batman Begins. Christian Bale was returning to don the cape and cowl, Michael Cane the cummerbund, Gary Oldman the badge, and Morgan Freeman the bowtie. We then learn that the role of Harvey Dent will be played by Aaron Eckhart, to which the “internet” responds rather kindly, but now the question jaunting movie-buffs’ and fanboys’ minds is who will be staggering into the purple suit of the clown prince of crime. Throughout the web, you could read the suggestions of those who believe they know so much more than the professional casting directors, Crispin Glover, Paul Bettany, and you could even read “If Jack Nicholson doesn’t reprise his role, I’m boycotting the film.” Everyone was so set on who they wanted as the Joker and despite all the blabber; Christopher Nolan made the decision that slapped all those jackasses right in their pimply faces, Heath Ledger.

The moment his name was mentioned, the internet was in flames: “Brokeback Batman, 10 Things I Hate About Gotham" and many more unoriginal fooling statements. I read the decision and mulled it over in my mind for some time, before finally IMing (remember when AIM was cool?) my eldest brother “R. Pike” and we were in agreement that Heath's portrayal had the potential to be awesome, but also the chance to be disastrous. How wrong we were, we should be lashed for having even a shadow of a doubt, but there is some light within my shame, that all those naysayers castrated themselves after downloading the pirated version (I both love and despise the internet).

Ledger’s performance was something I had never seen before on screen, the 'mis en scene' that was created was remarkable, because every time he walked into a room there was an uncomfortable feeling in your stomach, whether it was a new tale about his scars or the eerie and unsettling score by Hans Zimmer. Unfortunately for his fellow thespians his astounding presence left them in shadows of greatness so vast no one could shine. I've even heard ludicrous accounts that Bale was overrated, and that he was nothing compared to Ledger.

You simply cannot compare Ledger and Bale, because he's playing Bruce Wayne with everything the character has to offer, while The Joker has innumerable layers and facets of his psychosis to delve into; which is something no popular cinematic character has ever had. If Bale was playing The Joker it would have been fantastic as well, he's a phenomenal actor, and he simply had exhausted all of the resources of his character. Aaron Eckhart was great at playing the political idealist, and when he is presented to us, you can't help but believe in him, he's a political Batman, and he's not hiding in shadows. He's also very aware of the risks of his job, yet still performs his duties to the fullest, he is truly The White Knight, but white is easily stained.

Dent's catalyst SPOILER ALERT is the death of his one true love, Rachel Dawes. After this moment everything Dent had was lost, she was the thread that held his life together, and when it was plucked he fell into madness, which proves he was weaker than Bruce Wayne, who managed to keep himself together after the death of his parents. The Joker explains to Dent that his plan to defeat crime and injustice was impossible, because chaos is a basic and necessary part of nature. The question now left buzzing around my head is did the Joker win, ultimately Dent's reputation was saved due to the sacrifice of Batman's, yet Batman still broke his one rule he, intentionally or unintenionally, caused the death of Harvey Dent, who had to die to remain pure, but nevertheless Dent’s blood is on his hands.

Needless to say there were some errors in the means of telling the story, the main one being the confusion between Batman going to save Rachel and winding up saving Dent, which I have surmised to be The Joker playing with his mind and switching up the addresses. There are also some mistakes with how they convey how many people Dent killed, Gordon claims it was five, I count four maybe three, Detective Wuertz, one of Maroni's bodyguard, which you can quickly see Dent dispatching of before Maroni gets in the car, Maroni's driver, and I'm assuming Maroni. Like most movies - and always with comic book movies you have to suspend disbelief to enjoy it. This comic book movie just happens to have the most real fantastical premises we have ever seen. Simply because a movie has flaws, does not mean it can't be the best of all time. Perfection in art is impossible. But its progress, (the pursuit of perfection) can be marked and measured easily. Clearly, The Dark Knight has gotten us one step closer to that unreachable goal. Hopefully all of the flash will be trimmed when this bitch gets released on DVD, I can't wait, seeing as I've already seen it 5 times and counting.

What Do You Celebrate?

St. Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Society of Jesus, has one of most interesting stories of all the saints. His "Spiritual Exercises" is a brilliant and profound process that the Jesuits still practice today. As a young man he served as a courtier and soldier for a Duke in 16th century Spain. The definitive account of his lifestyle during this time remains under some debate, but scholars and historians widely agree that he wasn't exactly a man of God. Womanizing, boozing, fighting, and adventure-seeking with the military held the most of his interest. Often described as feral, he would even grow out his hair and fingernails to maintain a more fearsome presence on the battlefield. A self-proclaimed sinner, he obsessed with the notions of glory and military victories, and his leadership and diplomatic skills far exceeded those of the men around him. Despite his ferocity, he managed to avoid all manner of injury yet still participating in many battles. All in all, he was a badass. Until one battle, a French [mother-effers] cannonball rocketed through his legs, taking a calf from one and shattering the knee of the other.

True to his nature, as he lay bed-ridden and bored, he elected to undergo some very painful surgeries, but infection set in and the doctors deemed his death imminent. Somehow, miraculously if you like, he recovered within days. Now faced with months of rehabilitation and a goal to regain his ambulatory ability, he called for his books of romanticism and tales of chivalry, but none were found. Instead he'd been given religious texts on Jesus and the all the saints of the time. He began to see these men through the prism of his own competitive spirit and emulous nature, and he competed against the men in the pages from his own bed with thoughts of "I could fast longer than he..." or "I could live more frugally than this pilgrim in his desert." This motif, the idea of overcoming one's former self in service to something greater, resonates through his "Spiritual Exercises" and exists as his concept long before Nietschze and his notion of the "Superman" and the "Will to Power" ever came along.

The Examen process serves as the most renown and purposeful of the Jesuit exercises, and can be performed in minutes, even multiple times in a day. The abridged version holds these three steps: "What brings me closer to God? What drives me further away? Where am I now in relation to Him?" As you continue the process, in days, weeks, months and years, your answers grow more plentiful to the first question, and fewer to the second, all serving to bring you closer to God.

For the sake of the other like-minded atheists or moderate agnostics we proffer this secular version:

What do I celebrate?
What do I disdain?
What must I do to rid my world of the former and move toward the latter?

What do you celebrate?

Stringer Bell, Chicago School of Economics

Adam Smith called smugglers heroes - men who sought to offer the price of their goods without any added expenses for whatever regulating body tried to get involved. Less costly from the supplier, less expensive for the buyer, and therefore more goods to be bought and sold at a fair price for all parties included. With no middlemen (who don't add any value) creating useless additional costs, the smuggler offers the truest and fairest price of a good or service.

All throughout the hit show the Wire, Stringer remains the most business smart, calculating man in the series. A’s on his microeconomic courses, likens himself to a CEO, discusses markets and strategy with his professors, has to explain shit all the time to his subordinates. Even after his death, McNulty finds a copy of A Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. But the coolest part, is his true adherence to principles of the Chicago school. Straight up, no bullshit, neoclassical, conservative, Chicago school econ. (The conventional definition of conservative, not Milton's. Friedman, accurately, always called himself a liberal.) While he’s had no remorse in eliminating business threats through violent means (hostile takeovers,) after his empirical analysis, he does generally shift toward a total Laissez–Faire, market-forces-only operation during the co-op period with Proposition Joe. He tries to use those increased profits to look into some legitimate business deals under the direction of the senator Clay Davis, but sheeeeeeeeeeeeeit, he becomes frustrated with the highly regulated, bureaucratic process of these legit ventures. Lo and behold, he gets hoodwinked by a corrupt politician. (Every conservative economist's nightmare.)

On the streets, interestingly enough, the blood-thirsty, bellicose, power-hungry Avon Barksdale is actually the liberal, in favor of larger government, increased regulations (by his own weapons and ferocity) that fuck up natural market forces. Avon's interference with the market equilibrium destroys value, when there’d actually be larger real societal gains (more drugs and money for all) if he left it alone.

But still, ya know, drugs are bad.

Guy Ritchie Called, He Wants His Soul Back

Guy Ritchie: "Hey Ryan, it's Guy."

Ryan: "Fuck you. What do you want, guy?"

Guy Ritchie: "Did you just call me 'guy?' Like, lowercase?"

Ryan: "Yeah I did, buddy."

Guy Ritchie: "I'm not your buddy, friend."

Ryan: "I'm not your friend, jackass, and I'm hanging up now."

Guy Ritchie: "Wait. I'm sorry."

Ryan: "For what? Marrying Madonna? Revolver? Swept Away? All the ways in which you've squandered your artistic gifts since 2001?"

Guy Ritchie: "Right. All of those."

Ryan: "Cause you know she's fucking A-Rod right now, right?"

Guy Ritchie: "Right. Yeah I know. But, I wanted to say..."

Ryan: "Like she had talent when she sang 'Crazy for You' in Vision Quest. But that four minutes shit with Justin Timberlake? Seriously dude, are you just like on a huge bender and have permanent beer goggles..."

[audible stifled beer tears]

Guy Ritchie: "Yes. Look man, I'm sorry, but I'm here to make amends."

Ryan: "Go on."

Guy Ritchie: "Well I wrote and directed a movie and it's pretty great. I realized I need to get some real pussy again, so I decided to create some real art."

Ryan: "Word. Good to hear. Statham? Some women?"

Guy Ritchie: "Nope. Fuck Statham, he's old news. And yeah, the women are gorgeous - the chick from MI-2 and Crash, and the latest Bond girl. But the main characters are pretty badass."
[finally excited]

Ryan: "Who motherfucker?!"

Guy Ritchie: "Ludacris, Carmine Falcone from Batman, and that skinny dude who looks like a chick in Sweeney Todd."

Ryan: "Fuck y.."

Guy Ritchie: "Oh yeah, also ARI GOLD, KING LEONIDAS, and STRINGER MOTHERFUCKIN' BELL."


FUCK MOTHERFUCKING ROCKNROLLA FUCK AWESOME MOTHERFUCKER- FINALLY-GOT-HIS-SHIT-TOGETHER!