To concentrate, you must first give up. The choice lies in setting priorities, and to overcome the limits of concentration, you must boldly let go of things of low importance according to those priorities. Greed hinders the act of giving up. Not giving up is not merely about intelligence; it involves morality, values, and a person’s character. This is also why human beings do not succeed based on knowledge alone. Even if you decide to give up, concentration exists in another dimension. Choosing something means also giving up or rejecting something else. At this juncture, a value exchange occurs between what is chosen and what is discarded. Thus, our greed is linked to comparative values. The next choice and abandonment depend on the values I already possess. - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”
In the 18th century, when the sun went down, people slept except for the rich man who could afford a candle. Humans lived in harmony with the natural rhythm. When machines created an industrial society and replaced human labor, people did not reduce their work but instead operated according to the machine’s working cycle. Charlie Chaplin criticized this phenomenon in his movie “Modern Times,” highlighting how mechanization forces humans to work with unprecedented intensity. Now, humans are concerned that artificial intelligence and robotic automation will diminish labor and lead to unemployment. What a contradiction! Rest is not an automatic benefit; it is a holy declaration of war that I must strive to achieve, not to disturb my rest on purpose. - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”