Are you a Romantic or a Libertine?-Peck M. S

Dr. Morgan Scott Peck was born on 23 May 1936 in New York City was an American psychiatrist who focused his work on reassessing certain human conduct in social interaction. From the excerpt Are you a Romantic or a Libertine from his best-known book, The Road Less Traveled, Peck wrote his opinion on the feeling of love between human being and is this mutual attraction a real love and romance or just for manipulating the romantic code.

Love and romantic

Love is not something that can be simply defined as everyone has their own believe on how to define love. Based on the excerpt, love is a feeling of affection, fondness towards an individual. As love is hard to define, people can only feel love as a symptom and feeling of fondness and affection, with strong longing to be with someone or something that they loved. Yet, love also may come based on unexpected and insensible feelings that one has over another person.  

Romantic can be defined as a common sense of attraction in the love affair. Romantic is necessary to begin the feeling of affection between lovers. Romantic is something that the lovers can give to convince and attract their beloved to be mutually attracted. Romantic is needed in one relationship to show appreciation, to impress and definitely, to establish a relationship.

Libertine

This type of person use love to attain their needs and personal delight. The Libertine totally has no concern about their beloved’s feeling and they only put their personal feeling first. Libertines have the ability to manipulate and trick their target, and have effective strategies and tricks to persuade and exploit them. 

Eventually, people will experience being in love and they will decide whether it is meaningful or a bad luck for them.

We do not have to love. We choose to love-M. Scott Peck

The Steve Jobs Nobody Knew-Goodell J

Jeff Goodell who was born and raised in Silicon Valley is an American author, an editor at Russian literary journal and a technical writer at Apple. He graduated from University of California in English and has MFA in Fiction Writing from Columbia University. From the article The Steve Jobs Nobody Knew, he wrote his opinion about the inside look of Steve Jobs, a technology visionary. 

The inside look of Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs was remembered as the man who brought the greatest invention to human’s digital world and he turn out to be one of the greatest visionaries of our time. However, did he become a great human in his personal life similar to his professional life?

Those who worked with him and knew him closely would described him as harsh, unapologetic person and he had a cruel management of driving his employees to satisfied is own needs and satisfactions in works.  

As the Apple ascended, Jobs fully changed. He became more hot tempered and he treating people around him badly. Jobs denied his paternity when his longtime lover, Chrisann Brennan gave birth to his daughter, Lisa. He refused to provide any financial help to Chrisann and he became a distant father to Lisa. He continued to be stubborn and deny paternity until it was confirmed by a DNA test.

Jobs was a perfectionist and demanded perfection and originality in every detail. He only believed in himself and he was the only one who was right in all situation and decision. Consequently, he was fired in 1985 because he hijacked a team that was working on another project to create the first Macintosh computer.

Because of the company's own desperation, he was brought back to the company even he was still felt indignation with what happened at Apple. Eventually, he felt even bitter when his old enemy, Bill Gates was on his way to becoming the richest man in the world because of the operating system that Microsoft has modeled on the Macintosh.

We may not know the real Steve Jobs before reading the Goodell’s article and even after reading it. But, even how bad he was before, he was the one who recognized as the charismatic pioneer of the personal computer revolution and electronics fields, that benefits the mankind.

Fickle Friends-Weir K

Kirsten Weir, a science writer and editor, has experience over a decade writing for newspapers, magazines, website and books covering topics from neurobiology, climate change and evolution. Weir is skilled at translating tough topics into article that will entertain, educate and inspire her readers. From the article Fickle Friends, she wrote her opinion about how frenemies can be bad for people and ways to understand these mentally difficult relationships can make them less painful.

Ambivalent friends

No friendship is perfect, but frenemies are consistently imperfect. Ambivalent friends have mixed feelings towards their friend; which describe a complicated friendship. In their friendships, qualities such as understanding and warmth are accompanied by jealousy, rejection and criticism. These problematic friends or frenemies can encourage others and can bring them down for any possible reasons in any time. However, some of us do love our friends and do not want to lose them, no matter how much we are in pain and difficulties in having them as our friends.

Frenemy include

• A person who give a hand and leave everything when his/her friend needs him/her, but in the end he/she criticizes and gossips about his/her friend.
• Give support and encouragement to his/her friends when times are tough, but he/she cannot take pleasure in their friends’ successes.

Quality over quantity

Humans are a social species; their life include interaction and communication with lots of  people. But, a person with no friend because he/she afraid cannot manage the frenemies, may get other taxing effects, including depression, hypertension and cognitive decline. People who have ambivalent friends also tend to get high blood pressure, heart rate and stress.

Apparently, if one want to be happy (and healthy); having lots of friends is much less important than having good ones. It is because, people are not really concern about thoughtless comment made by frenemies than one made by someone who are supportive or loved by that person.

In conclusion, ones may not need to give up on their frenemies if they know how to manage the friendships and control their own behavior, needs and try being the kind of friend they want the others to be.   

   

Thinking Folly-Tolle E

Eckhart Tolle, a spiritual teacher who was born in German wrote his opinion on his book ‘The Power of Now’ about how thinking can affect continuous conflicts and problems to the thinker and consequently separate one’s creativity and illusion from reality on their life.

Thinking create complex world with continuous problems and inner conflict

Thinking needs ones to live in a complex world with full of puzzles and conflicts. Thinking creates a wall of words, judgments and images that blocks all true relationships. Apparently, thinking has become a disease for all human being; people either use their mind wrongly or not use it at all. Human will not realize that their minds have taken over them as they believe their minds are what they are. 

Imagination is more important than knowledge

According to Einstain, he values imagination more than knowledge as knowledge is limited to be known and understand while imagination embraces the entire world. Scientists, for example, create something that benefits mankind from a place of no-mind, from inner stillness. Einstain believed to create or make something, imagination will lead to the ideas and knowledge.

In conclusion, it wasn’t through the mind or thinking that miracle was created. Imagination does create miracles and dreams which is greater that the mind can work. Only then, people will believe that love, joy, peace and beauty arise from beyond the mind.

Men and Women are Merely Players-Greene R

A well known American author, Robert Greene wrote his opinion on role played by every human being in order to survive and gain power in their world. This review is based on an excerpt, Men and Women are Merely Players from one of his best-seller books, ‘The 48 Laws of Power’.

Actors who perform better in real life instead of theatrical life

Most of us may not agree with this statement but the truth is, everyone tend to appear nice, fair, civilized and decent in order to gain and achieve their own ambition and interest. Generally, these people only show their positive and good values to everyone but inwardly, they are charming, seducing and brilliant with a lot of tricks and strategies that can swindle their opponents and even friends to achieve things that benefits them. Apparently, these ‘actors’ are able to make people obey to their will without their realizing what the actors have done.

Innocence is the least innocent of all

Naïve and innocent people can be the best player among all class of people as they often exhibit their weakness and lack of power. They tend to show the good side and image to get others sympathy and attention. Making a show of one’s weakness is actually a very effective way, subtle and deceptive in the game of power to manipulate other’s mind.

In conclusion, each of the roles everyone performs is various and depends with the situation they have to experience. It is important to not to be to rigid and strict when playing their roles or else, these people will be controlled with greediness and pretentiousness in their life. People also must consider people around them have different intentions and behaviors, depend on how they view others.

‘Any man who tries to be good all the time is bound to come to ruin among the great number who are not good’ -Machiavelli