The pseudo-intellectual manifesto; Or, a letter to my future self

        I'd say hello and ask nicely how you're doing, but since we're essentially the same entity I figured I could get away without shelling out that pleasantry. Unfortunately, this doesn't seem to be a two-way correspondence, and I could only guess the answers to the questions that I would ask. Under these circumstances, I only imagine that it would be possible to try and give you something useful, give you an epiphany, a blast from the past, etc. In that case, I would have to blindly guess which questions you might ask me, so pardon if you find some irrelevant information. Ironic, isn't it, that I'm writing this letter? What could your past self possibly give you but outdated information? In this letter I will attempt to form you into the perfect being, the one that I aspire to be; well rounded, kind, etc. This letter will be an additional pressure aiding your constant desire to achieve perfection. If I were a perfect being, then this letter would not be necessary; one, however, has to recognize their own faults, and I am no exception. I will remind you of the ideals that you once had, in an attempt to get you to conform to them. Perhaps this is not for your good but mine, but my current mindset has driven me to this path of action; I may not be as wise as you, but from here this is the best thing to do.
        Of course, right now, I am, or rather you were, a shame-less, flaming liberal. I would harbor no contempt if your rational reasoning drove you down a different path in the future, but know this: I would not allow you to compromise your utilitarian ideals. The greatest good for the greatest amount of people, the maxim goes. Don't let any perturbation of this infect your reasoning, know that pleasure and pains of different kind have weight, and that the greatest ideal is freedom to, though freedom from must not be forgotten. I have driven past the destitute, the poor disheveled masses, and the bankrupt all too often, and I have no doubt that I will continue to do so. Perhaps you will have more willpower than I, I suppose I can only hope for the sake of many that you will. It's easy enough for me to sit here preaching to you, I have to acknowledge my own shortcomings or else I won't be credible. But I ask you this: are you perfect?
        I sincerely hope that you haven't been driven to madness to the point where you could reasonably answer "yes." On the topic of madness; do not let any force, human, substance or otherwise, to cloud your mind or distort your reason. With the utmost clarity you can discern even the most elusive truths of this world. Sleep on all of your serious decisions where time is on your side. Above all, and I can't emphasize this enough, DON'T BE A DUMBASS. All of those people didn't call you a smartass for no reason. Let reason shine through your being, and at least be a mirror for the ideals that you're trying to stick to. There is a lot of distinction between you and all of the idiots in this world, and don't forget it. That's no excuse to lump everybody into that group; know that often others are guided by the same set of logics which you operate on. Never forget that there will always be more intelligent people than you, and use that as an inspiration to stomp every trifling barrier in your path to greatness. Know, also, that greatness is just a plus, and it should not be your ultimate goal.
        Know that you are just as much a human as that burger-flippin' 40 year old or the president o' the United Friggin States. You can believe that you're better than everyone, but you should never delude yourself into believing that you could logically show it, or even give anything other than weak evidence to support it. Know that everyone is at the focal point of their own universe, and that you can't force yourself into another's space. This is a central tenet of my philosophy, and I hope you see its value. This is one of the reasons why romances often go astray; humans are self-serving creatures. You should not judge anyone for following their own self interests, because at heart you are hoping to do so as well. Perhaps you will never find romance, but don't let disappointment cripple you. If you want something badly enough, go get it. Of course you shouldn't forget your morals, but I suppose that goes without saying. Oh the irony. Oh, and as a bonus favor for me, keep your love of satire and learn to take a joke or a personal attack with grace. Know that words are just such; they only carry meaning if you give it to them.
    Never let your value for human life be compromised. Know that to harm another is to harm yourself, albeit indirectly. Remember that it is only by pure chance that you were not born to be on the receiving end of a bad deal. When seeing a tragic event, remember the phrase "there, but for the grace of god, go I." You are the one you hurt, and the one you help. I don't believe in karma, but at least have some respect for the human condition. That homeless man once had pride, and you can be damn sure that he'll have it again if you get him back on his feet. You can only hope for someone to do the same for you, but if everyone lived by this philosophy it would be a given.
        I leave you with this note: know that you can always improve, and that every goal that you set, every material possession, and every other person on the face of this gloomy world has a weight that you give them. Moral equivalence cannot be proven, but remember that it cannot be refuted. You cannot avoid living your life selfishly, but know that it is better to act selfishly in the name of the human race rather than for yourself. You may believe that you're above the entirety of the human race, but never forget that you're a part of it. Take from this letter what you will, and go with my blessing.

On the value of practice

        I'd like to say that my recent life has seen massive paradigm shifts in how I view the idea of practice, due to the fact that I occasionally like to be overly dramatic in my writing. However, to stay as true to reality as possible, I will attempt to refrain from assigning undeserved importance to small events. Oh dear, I seem to have left you with the all-important question: "What's your point?" I would like to talk about practice and how recent developments have altered my view of it, dear reader. I'm not referring to the arcane definition involving lawyers and a mountain of legal terms, but the process of becoming better at any given activity.
        To begin with, I feel the need to distinguish something between the popular definition and my own. Practice is often called so because the activity is being done for the sole purpose of improving the participant's skills. Most people, for example, wouldn't consider a soccer championship match "practice" explicitly, though the weekly meetings to complete drills and related activities would be thought of that way. I would like to think that the term "practice" encompasses so much more than its popular meaning does.
        No matter the circumstances, when you are doing something, you are getting better at it. How much fun you are having and the enjoyment you reap from doing something matter not, and paradoxically the importance of the activity is irrelevant. Every moment of the championship game is preparing you for the next one, albeit silently. While playing any video game, you come to discover that you do better on subsequent playthroughs (I'm somewhat of an expert on that subject, being a video-game fiend of at least 11 years). After doing anything you come to realize that you could do it better next time. Hindsight is 20/20, as the saying goes. Anything and everything you do may be considered practice from this viewpoint, and thus we come to see that the popular definition is rather narrow.
        Taking this into account, we may find an important fact: everything that you do can be thought of as practice and thus may be considered inherently worthwhile. Working through a terribly hard mathematical problem will give you insight into the next one, like lazily sorting papers or working on a hard program all day will eventually make you the resident office wizard. Because the importance of the activity and the satisfaction you draw from doing it are irrelevant, they do not determine (or even affect) the inherent value of practice. In simpler terms, just doing something is at least a little worthwhile whether you hate to do it or not.
        At this point you may be wondering what the "recent developments" I mentioned earlier were. Well, recently, I was tasked with reading a book titled Outliers that talked heavily about the subject. A magical rule called "The 10,000 hour rule" came to my attention, and it went something like this: in order to become the very best at a given activity, of world-class quality, you must spend at least 10,000 hours doing it. At first I thought that notion was silly, but then the author brought up a valuable point: none of the exceptional people mentioned in the book were exceptions to this rule. With such a powerful body of evidence, I could hardly disagree. This rule had an unusual corollary when coupled with the fact I mentioned earlier: if you could possibly value becoming a world-class participant in any given event, every drop of effort you pour into doing anything is worth it to some degree.
        Perhaps more important than the random bits of information presented in my dissertation is this idea. Interestingly enough, this notion has another corollary: If everything you do is worthwhile, there is no need to feel sad for being lazy, because you are in fact working towards something by playing badminton with friends, or in my case playing League of Legends. Perhaps the limits of my style or writing skills will prevent me from conveying just how impactful this new-found philosophy is, but I will leave you, my reader, with the information presented here in the hopes that it will be as beneficial for you as it was for me.

On the merits of blogging

        Twitter. Tweets. The ubiquitous Fail Whale. You'd be hard pressed to find someone who didn't know the meaning of any of these in today's society. Why have they become so popular? Are the services that they're offering or the ideas they're symbolizing really that valuable? Above all, who would pay attention to, or even care about what Taylor Swift is eating today? If she isn't even in my Monkeysphere, why should I care about Taylor Swift at all? The answer lies in the fact that we live in a celebrity-worshiping culture.

        Of course, the knowledge of the going-ons in the life of a particular figure have no intrinsic value. Yet, tweets have become some sort of commodity as of late. Think of them as some sort of social currency; we dredge the schedules of celebrities from their public pages so we may share them with others in exchange for more gossip. The supply is in the social network, and the demand is in the heart of the general populace. Social economies of scale thrive upon the adoration of the public for its leading figures. But, if economic theory is applicable here, we must face the grim reality that some day there will be a market collapse.

        Consider Black Tuesday. People were reaping enormous profits off of the stock market. As news of this spread, more and more people joined with the belief that profit was just a moment and a dollar away. As more and more people were buying random stock on a whim, the markets became more unstable. When the stocks began to devalue, everyone panicked and dumped their shares onto the market. People lost a large amount of money and our nation was launched into the great depression. People and families suffered.

        Consider Akon. His managers were all the rage at parties because they could tell pretty much anyone what the star was up to. Others, wanting to gain similar status, started gathering information about celebrities with breakneck speed, believing that popularity was just a talking point or a click away. But many of these socialites failed to realize that not all of the information they had was important, and at some point people would tire of hearing their hapless chatter. This is the way the Twitter ends. This is the way the Twitter ends.

TL;DR: don't invest in gossip, it's worthless and it'll cause a social market meltdown. </rant>