Joseph's "Just My Thoughts"

Being in debt means using up the future in the present. Essentially, it’s about how we manage our time. Therefore, the most valuable resource for debtors is time, and it depends on which side time favors. Paying off debt is like repaying borrowed future time early. When the ability to generate wealth over time decreases, the future time becomes a burden, and the debtor faces the pain of bankruptcy. Taking on debt is costly. It may seem like borrowed money is repaid with money, but the irreplaceable resource of time is also returned along with interest. With the rise of postpaid credit cards as a common payment method, we’ve become less sensitive to the associated pain and cost. There are two ways to spend money: using present time or future time. The costs and pain are much higher when the future is spent as if it were the present. - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”

Humans believe they are thinking, but they cannot artificially interfere with their thought processes. This means you cannot deliberately manipulate human consciousness. While memory can be artificially altered, thinking processes cannot. If it were possible, the individual might be a psychopath. Human consciousness is governed by the unconscious. So, if you want to solve an unresolved problem, don’t focus on it directly; instead, briefly use your consciousness, and then the unconscious will handle it. Over time, at the right moment, the unconscious offers a solution to the conscious mind. Inspiration occurs at this point. Therefore, don’t get too caught up in it. Also, give your brain a rest. That’s why sleeping and sometimes being dazed are so important for creative inspiration. - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”

The human brain is controlled by the unconscious mind. Voting to increase US school funding usually gains more support in schools than in churches. Conversely, votes on abortion in churches are often more opposed than in schools. When asked if the location affected their decision, voters often dismiss it as nonsense. Humans don’t realize that their behavior is driven by the unconscious. For example, if someone is holding hot coffee during a meeting, they are more likely to see me as warm. If they have iced coffee, they might see me as cold. This is based on studies in cognitive psychology. We are motivated by the unconscious, even if we don’t admit it. - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”

One of the purposes of commerce is to build strength. Gaining wealth gives us power, which is the ability to influence others. There are three main types of power: first, power gained through coercion or threats; second, power obtained through payment or inducement; and third, power gained through attraction. The power obtained through coercion, threats, payment, or inducement—that is, force or tactics—is called ‘hard power,’ while the power gained through ‘attraction’ without using force is called ‘soft power.’ Additionally, the ability to effectively achieve your goals using coercion, payment, and attraction is known as ‘smart power.’ Depending on the situation, we may need all three types; however, soft power is something that everyone admires. - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”

One of the most common misconceptions is that people mistake cause and effect as interchangeable. A cause is often seen as an effect, or an effect is mistaken for a cause. The most well-known phenomenon demonstrating this is the halo effect — a situation where specific characteristics of an object influence how we judge other traits. For example, you might like that person’s character because you like one of their qualities, not because you like the person as a whole. This misunderstanding is a common causal error. If you like someone, you tend to think everything about them is good; if you don’t like someone, you might overlook or dislike everything about them. It’s not that you dislike the person for one reason and like them for another—it’s simply how the human heart works. Gaining someone’s favor, therefore, can be an arduous and painful process. - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”

In the West, human thinking has primarily developed through formal logic. In formal logic, truth and falsehood cannot coexist. However, in Eastern thinking, it is seen as possible. Some Western dialectical ideas were already recognized in the East. Three main dialectical concepts are: first, reality is constantly changing, so what is true now can become false later (the principle of fluctuation). Second, due to this ongoing change, contradictions always emerge, and these contradictions drive further change (the principle of contradiction). Third, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, and each part relates to the whole (the principle of relationality or holism). This is reflected in yin and yang in Eastern philosophy and Taoism. Eastern thinking regards contradictions, confrontations, and change as natural phenomena. This mindset difference also influences management and investment. If the economy improves, Westerners tend to believe it will keep improving, while Asians often ...

The cultural differences between the East and the West sometimes stem from the natural environment, but they are generally believed to arise from differences in thinking. In other words, Asians tend to understand relationships and similarities by grasping the context of certain events and situations, while Westerners often focus on rules and categories by concentrating on objects. Therefore, Asians believe that even beings far apart influence each other, and Westerners believe that a certain phenomenon occurs only when they are in direct contact. However, the irony is that the West, not the East, has communicated over long distances using invisible magnetic fields or radio waves. The consistency of phenomena does not always produce the same results as expected. - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”