1) At the photon/atomic level – yes, I believe light is affected by friction. This is exhibited by refraction, which is the effect you see in fog (as well as causing magnification in denser media such as water and glass). If you dive you learn that the different frequencies of light fade out, which is why you lose colours underwater.

2) Amazing how many people I know who aren’t (very) self-aware. At some level we need to have sentience to have consciousness I guess, but it’s more likely to be a spectrum than binary. Is this spectrum affected by friction I wonder?

3) Not very. No genius has innovated anything without the help of a team, support of a spouse, and previous discoveries of others. There was a case of a girl raised by dogs in the Czech Republic (I believe). She was discovered at 13, and never learned to speak or walk properly.

I agree with Catherine on her last two points. Everything is by design, at some level, and much design is certainly the antithesis of magnanimous. Even design in tool creation has an ethical bias (I had to study this in my Masters in IT and Ethics). A gun is designed with an ethical bias to kill or destroy at large distances, and a scalpel has an ethical bias to incise precisely.

Cheers
Rog42

@Catherine White
Catherine, can you elaborate on your comment a bit further?

I believe in serendipity and fate (to a small extent) and believe you can set out to live your life ‘by design’. Yes, some peoples’ designs may be malicious or something that does not work out for the benefit of everyone. I’d go back to the 3rd question (can it be done alone) + 1st observation (I’m here to help until you damage the relationship). If someone’s design is not serving more than themselves, how long will they last in relationships?

If I’ve missed the mark about your comment…let me know

i found this decently-worded summary of what is a complicated topic :
“In reality, the speed of light never actually slows down. It is just
delayed as the photons are absorbed and re-emitted by atoms in the
intervening space. When a light beam exits a transparent medium into
a vacuum, it continues traveling at the same rate as when it originally
entered, without any added energy. This shows that slowdown is merely illusory.”

so, no, light doesn’t exhibit friction, per se. not sure if this what the gist of your question though!

(b) non-self-awareness:
ummm, if you don’t have self-awareness, then you’re an object that has little or no self-determination & are largely a tool for use by other entities?

(c) if by “this world” you mean “civilisation” as we know it, then not very far at all. for “short” periods, sure, we all can make progress through the world with little or no input from others, but in the long haul i don’t think you don’t get very far at all without engaging with people.

although, if you’re abandoned as a child & raised by wolves, then you might have a different perspective on the question :p although i guess having wolves for family doesn’t qualify as being on your own…

and learnings…
i love the way y’all have expressed yoursleves! it’s so easy to take (interpret) stuff from other people personally (& oh so common on twitter!). i keep learning that ‘friction’ with other people is more often nothing about or to do with me, just stuff in their head, and which they may project onto me, almost always inadvertently. AND vice-versa, me onto them. it’s a daily challenge to see past yourself, your own shit, and see the person in front of you with your own ‘filters’ minimised, before you can start to see through another’s filters, to see them.

and i love walking in the rain .

1) creative friction intensifies light, destructive friction diminishes light

2) probably very comfortable in
life

3) surprisingly further than those whose who join with others would like…

In all seriousness, loved the post and really enjoyed the responses and the learning through e-dialogue. Thank you:-)

You are right – not everyone who crosses our path WILL or WANTS to help us – there are those out there who will want to TAKE whatever we can give, and even with those people there’s a learning experience to be had. My thinking is that ultimately we do need others to succeed, and you are right – both positive + negative are there to help us in some way, as long as we can see the lesson and not take it personally (as Tony said).

@Tony Hollingsworth
The “fighting their own battle” line is more in reference to understanding that whenever 2 people meet, they both bring along their experiences, prejudices, and burdens. Sometimes, these will affect the quality/nature of the interaction or exchange, but it helps taking a step back to ask whether this is the ‘true’ nature of the person or is it something akin to them having a bad day. It’s difficult not to take things personally when the exchange isn’t healthy or happy or everything you want it to be.

One of my goals in life is to find out more about the people I interact with – I love hearing peoples’ stories and enjoy connecting with them on more than a superficial level. Catherine, I know you are wonderful at stories, and one day soon I am hoping to tap into you a little more and find out more about what you do/who you are….same goes for you Tony (although you know I’ve started that ball rolling already .

Robin (aka ‘Mr Sketch’), I’ll be knocking on your door soon as well!

Now, here’s an interesting tie-in – when I started this post the first 4 points were (in my mind) loosely related – now, having had other thoughts (both yours and mine) I can see they’re all related to each other a little more than I originally gave credence….By design or coincidence?

Catherine’s points particularly resonate as through experience we learn the truth that not everyone we work with wants us to succeed – Andrew you allude to this with your point that everyone we meet is “fighting their own battle” Very true, and as a result, it is important not to take things personally.

Personally – I strive to help people – I just enjoy it – only today my daughter and I were on a bus together – a young mother and child were getting on with pram – we assisted – she was grateful – my daughter (12) got to hold the baby while the mother folded the pram – I felt fantastic helping the mother and child. Its the same online: its so easy to give help (like @iconic88′s tweets) and mainly we don’t know the effect it is having. I am pretty confident the effect is positive though.

Extrapolate to our business lives: as you say Andrew, we can’t become successful on our own. We need others around us to be inspired: we need to lead. Leaders inspire others to success. I count you all as part of that team – leading me to be better at what I do, and more successful.

Bring on more discussions like this.

Cheers
Tony Hollingsworth

Even so, pardon me asking this question in these terms. Could we be a little naive operating from a position of believing everyone wants to help me?

Or let me put it this way, if we are trusting the force to which we subscribe, the Universe or God, isn’t it safe to believe the people that cross my path today have been destined to help me?

From which position, whatever the experience, negative or positive, then everyone in our life is there to help us.

While I take the point of difference in terms of the definition of help, I’m not convinced everyone that crosses my path today want’s to help me.

For instance it would be reasonable to assume there would be very few people going through customs at LA Airport, prepared much less willing, to help me.

Interesting discussion …