Nikola Tesla is my favorite man from planet earth.
My life can be divided up into two phases: the time I didn't know about him and the time I did.
I did a fair amount of research about Nikola Tesla about 3 months ago. Naturally, so many of his quotes are worthy of listing but these two are among my favorites:
"If you want to find the secrets of the universe, think in terms of energy, frequency and vibration."
"The scientists of today think deeply instead of clearly. One must be sane to think clearly, but one can think deeply and be quite insane"
This last quote points to the reality of the cult of personality and the effects of operating from a faulty discipline.
Some of the most intelligent people I've met in life were also from the humblest stations in life: a Russian dishwasher and an outsider artist who lived in a mountain by himself named Leonard Knight. Having wealth and power does not make you above others, as our society would have you fooled. Having curiosity and intelligence mixed with a principled heart shakes the earth. My teachers all had this in common: humility.
I've written several articles about Nikola Tesla for the Interesting Engineering website:
http://interestingengineering.com/8-curious-things-nikola-tesla-probably-dont-know/
http://interestingengineering.com/10-unbelievable-facts-about-nikola-tesla/
http://interestingengineering.com/nikola-teslas-awesome-predictions-for-our-world/
http://interestingengineering.com/wi-fi-powered-electronics-nikola-teslas-dream-realized/
In addition to the information on The Tesla Society, I've listened to his book, My Inventions about 4 times in audiobook format.
I intend to continue listening to it as it has the strange and nice effect of reinforcing my thinking abilities.
Tesla was was very good at writing his thoughts and perceptions about the world. Most people study Tesla and only focus on his inventions. I study Tesla to learn how his mind operated.
Nikola Tesla was the hottest man on earth because he decided that his energies could best be utilized for the betterment of society, science and humanity. And I bet you didn't know that Tesla attributes his inventive mind not to his father, but to his mother. She was an inventor as well:
“My mother was an inventor of the first order ……she invented and constructed all kinds of tools and devices and wove the finest designs from thread.” We learn from Tesla's book that his mother descended from a long line of inventors.
Later on in his life he questioned his decision, but I think he was correct. Instead of getting involved with biological breeding and all the associated complications, he chose to put all of his energies into his inventions. This is hot. Yes, this is something that is worthy of admiring.
In our age of instant digital gratification, the number of people who choose to sacrifice their energies for the betterment of the world is shrinking, I believe. The distractions are simply too numerous. They ensnare a wide swath of humanity in their enticing spindles.
I struggle with this every day. But I struggle with it less than most, because I've been actively taking note of my brain's functions and attempting to redirect it. Everyone has some weakness that they try to overcome, or ignore. Even great inventors like Tesla had weaknesses. In his youth he was addicted to gambling and smoking. The cult of personality often leaves out this story, as we humans, like to idolize others who we deem to be greater than ourselves.
I think perhaps the greatest problem that prevents one from attaining self-actualization is attachment. Being attached to something: a Steemit article, an idea, a person, is by definition a form of suffering. You want that idea to be great, you want that person to love you, you want your Steemit article to make $2,399.00. When your article flops and ends at $22.39, you feel disappointed, sad. You start to feel like you might be a loser. Worthless, literally worthless, because now you have a dollar sign attached to your post. FIRST TIME EVER THAT YOU HAVE ACTUAL EVIDENCE THAT YOUR POST IS WORTHLESS. But do not despair. I have answers, later (that work for me).
When that person you love treats you like shit, you suffer. You don't know what was going on inside that person when they ignored you, all you know is that you hurt inside. You carry your love for that person inside your heart, and you give that love energy. When that person mistreats you, that energy is chipped away. I'm the last person to hand out relationship advice because I left the world of relationships 7 years ago. It's not even clear that I will have another love relationship and oddly, I'm 80% okay with that. My energy is best spent in other areas. I have had loves. It's not that important of a thing, at least that is what I think at the moment. There's always a sneaky thought at the back of my mind that thinks there's someone amazing in the world that I can't live without. But so far, I've not met that person. It's likely they don't exist, or they only exist as a thin ghost in my mind. This is ok. I've managed quite well for the past 7 years, so it wouldn't surprise me if I went another 7 in the same manner.
Relationships for me were only temporary blips in my solitary life. Many people in history have this same pattern, and I just learned that Lord Byron was similar. Friendships, though, are worth more to me that all the riches in the world.
I would be interested in going deeper with my Nikola Tesla studies, however. I realize that I've only scratched the surface of his inventions and I'm not sure what form my research would take. However, when I learned about his electropropulsive flying machine, my mind went nuts:
I wonder if anyone is working on this currently?
I sort of see my role in life as a synthesizer and a messenger. I learned this when I worked in California with an inventor. I was really good at spending weeks immersing myself in an unknown field (this field was post-antibiotic therapies, natural sulphur with respect to antibiotic properties, acidophilus) and then after fully grasping the scientific information, I could communicate this to others. Not so much a marketing whizz, but a communicator of important and somewhat arcane information that would otherwise slip through the cracks.
There's something about entering an unknown and exclusive world that just sets my brain on fire. I want it again, and again.....
I've committed myself to writing a full-length book about Steemit, I'll just go ahead and announce this. The research phase has begun, and as I get deeper and deeper into this world, the book will get better. i'm going to try and write it organically, the way an onion is constructed. Each chapter will plunge the reader deeper and deeper into the Steemit web. So, the first chapters will be overview-styled with easy to grasp concepts, and sort of status quo writing. As you go to the next chapter a new concept is introduced that brings the reader a deeper interpretation of Steemit. And perhpas the end chapters will be so arcane that many people will skip them entirely. This is pretty much how I read books these days anyway. It takes a rare writer to make me want to finish ANY book. I generally never finish books. But I do want to write it in such a way that an absolute beginner will be able to grasp everything.....(at least in first 5 chapters).
This is the man who introduced me to the inventor
Oh, about attachment and the problem of attachment:
Here's what helps me:
Once I feel that I'm too attached to an outcome, I step back, and do an assessment of value. I say to myself, "What value was I trying to add? What I trying to "get" something? Was my ego involved somehow? If my ego was involved, then I instantly detach and start over with something else. It's like I can erase my mind, view it as a failed experiment, then I start over. My next idea, I try to make it as universal and selfless as possible.
Or, if my energy for that day lies in confessing some deep thing about my life or experience, I go that route.
I divide up my energy in two distinct ways: 1. self-help via honest confession or 2. help towards others who are struggling with problems I've already solved in life. (I've been hoarding research)
I try my best not to impress, brag or otherwise shine a light on myself (I don't always excel at this, especially as I start to get to know more and more people in here). But I try my best to shove the reward system to the back of my mind and focus once again on these two areas. And i'm very conscious of click-bait style posts, and those I try to avoid like the plague. I want people to get enormous value from my posts.....