Human Insignificance

if you sum up all of the energy expanded by humans in all of history, it would probably not equal the amount of energy expended by the sun in 1 second. this just shows how insignificant anything that happens on this planet really is in the large scheme of things.

Stupid starbucks daytrader guy

people's stupidity never ceases to surprise me. i am sitting in starbucks writing stuff for my movie, and this guy and another guy are talking about stocks. they are clearly daytrading, thinking they can come up with some sort of system to win at stocks. so i ask him:

me:you trade stocks? 
him:yes
me: how long u been doing it? 
him: several years
me: whats your annual return?
him: i don't know.
me: you don't know? you trade stocks for a living and you don't know how much money you make?
well, if i make 1% a day, that is 250% a year (his exact words!)
me: you know the most successful hedge fund manager is soros and he only made about 40% a year
him: well, that's your opinion (annoyed, goes back to talking)

throughout the conversation, he gives me a look of a professor talking to a kid.

Facebook is a bragging machine

facebook has some useful functions, but it's main one is to satisfy people's insatiable appetite to show off and brag about things to each other. it's the same principle behind bmw and mercedes cars, expensive purses, huge houses. these objects, for the most part, serve not too much practical purpose, but are used as "showing off" tools. "bragging" in humans also satisfies the need and want to "put down" fellow humans, to establish that "i am better than you", "i have more friends than you", etc. it's really a crowd, high school mentality that serves to cure the inferiority complex that most people in america possess. they constantly have to prove to themselves that they are not "losers".

i personally conscientiously try not to show off, but have to confess that the urge is often there and i have to fight it

The culture of - look at all these people who have it better than you

i am tired of constantly being bombarded with images/stories of people who have it better than me. it's seriously what's wrong with humanity. people/tv/internet are obsessed with celebrities, sports figures, millionaires, and guess what, all this is making 99% of the world feel bad! and perpetuates feelings of inadequacy, depression, anger, hatred, you name it.

instead of thinking - why am i not a millionaire/pro athlete/celebrity, how about thinking - i am so happy i am not a bum, criminal, in jail, needing a kidney, etc etc etc. percentagewise, you are much more likely to be on the bottom, then you are on top, yet culture does not continuously make an impact on that.

if you look at tv - what do they show? constant shows about rich people who have everything - housewives, kardashians, musicians, dancing with the stars,etcetc. what they rarely show? shows about drug addicts, unemployed, uneducated, people at the bottom.

that's why i like watching russian news. they are not obsessed with BS, they show regular people, orphanages, bums, accidents, european news, etc, things that make me feel good about what i have.

Why are Hollywood movies so bad?

i recently wrote/directed my first film - the aztec box. part of the reason i did it is of how bad, in my opinion, hollywood films are. i thought - surely, i can do a better job with them. now, having some experience dealing with studious trying to sell the film, i understand why the industry is suffering. here are my gripes:

1) influx of new talent is severely limited by narrow vision of those who are at the gates.
 the people at the studious have a poor idea of what a good movie is, and even trying to get in contact with them is nearly impossible

2) lawsuits and legal stuff
 the fact that you can't even send a dvd or script for their review is ridiculous! you get a letter saying they don't accept unsolicitied submissions! if you are a studio, isn't it your job to find good new movies?? so you are just making your job harder by not even reviewing them!

3) people's negativity and unwillingness to help
 try to ask for a favor or a reference! 9/10 people will ignore you. why? i don't know. it doesn't take any effort on their part to do it, but since they've been treated like dirt, i guess they do it to other people now.

those are just 3, i could write more ...

Nature is inefficient

the world is the epitome of efficiency and inefficiency. the way nature designs things is far from good, and I literally do not see a particular purpose or reason in a lot of things. example - - people are born, spend half of their life studying, learning from their own mistakes, then maybe 20-25 years being productive. then they die, with all that knowledge, know how, experience.

then, in another generation. it starts all over again. while someone is studying, they are not doing anything productive really, just learning so they can use that knowledge later. furthermore, institutionalized education is difficult and, generally, not that pleasant.

wouldn't it be more efficient if people lived 500 years instead of 75 years? think about how smart you could be if you lived that long. or, if nature somehow designed a way to transfer knowledge to the human brain faster, and all newborns would already know every single thing that their parents did.

one can conclude that so called "achievement" that people place so much emphasis on, is not a truly important issue to nature, otherwise, nature would have designed things more efficiently.

The hiring process in most companies is HORRIBLE

it boggles my mind how SHITTY the recruiting process is at most companies. it just literally looks like no one gives a f$$k about whether it has any common sense about it.

People are the most important asset anywhere, and you are making it difficult for people to apply to your company? endless forms, logins, passwords that require god knows what in them. 

All you need for someone is to SUBMIT their resume, there is software that can take it apart and take all the info you need out of it. There is no quicker way to ALIENATE talented people than to make your application process long.

Smart companies like Google, Apple, Facebook, make application process very easy. Name/resume, thats it. This is what i did with my jobs site CBCJobs (at least jobs posted directly to it) just name, resume, zipcode.

Why does it always have to be done through the ass? Unbelievable. I don't even know what kind of people they hire there that can endure the bullshit that is the hiring process in most companies.