“Money is what makes a man not funny”.

Just saw Niall Ferguson interviewed on the Colbert Report. He says “anything can be money”. True that. But I’d like to clarify what money is. Money is energy. If that sounds a little “New Age”, forgive me. I’ll give it legs. Wait. Let me stop real quick to eat a hand-full of nuts.

…2 minutes later.

Ah, that’s better. You see, I can’t think straight if I’m too hungry. The little mouse in the wheel in my brain doesn’t have enough energy to run. So I need to eat - recharge the batteries with food. And food, is of course, energy. Not just “converted to energy”, it is energy. Einstein’s Theory of Relativity states that mass and energy are interchangeable. In the example of food, let us not forget that the food we eat is digested and broken down into sugars which act as a sort of fuel for our bodies. Coincidentally, fuel is a form of energy… How do we get food? How do we get fuel? We buy it, with money, which is energy. 100,000 years ago there were no grocery stores and no gas stations. So, people had to hunt and gather for food. And they had to gather dried wood to burn fires. And you bet they were hungry after all that hunting and gathering. Damn straight. All that work takes a lot of energy… They didn’t have money, but they had energy (which they got from food, which is also energy). Manual labor is energy. Farmers harvest crops and then sell them to me for money. I would harvest them myself, but I don’t have the energy or the time. Now time is not energy. It is a forum where energy plays out it’s roll - a stadium, if you will, where energy sings its set of rock ballads. What were we talking about? Oh yeah, money.

Money is Energy
People constantly fight over money. Coincidentally, they also always fight over energy, over power. There is a never-ending and continuous power struggle going on in the world. All human interactions on every scale are ultimately power struggles, fights for energy. They become harmonious when the parties involved both perceive they are getting more energy than they are putting into it. And it’s entirely possible that both parties are getting “richer”. Life is not a zero-sum game. But if one or both parties perceive they are losing energy, a fight will ensue. Don’t believe me? Try this. Guys: don’t go to work for the next month. And gals: don’t cook dinner for the next month. If you’re horribly offended by these two stereotypical examples from 1953, feel free to substitute anything you do with regularity that your spouse or partner relies on. It won’t take long before your significant other brings this failure to your attention. If it lasts too long, you’ll get a fight - a fight over commitment and responsibilities. But what lies underneath is energy. If you don’t go to work, there is no money and the two of you will take a step back in life. Why? Because money is energy and you are trying to accumulate (and then dissipate) energy. If dinner is not cooked, then you may not eat. If you do not eat, then you lose energy… Get it? So both parties are trying to gain energy and rely on the other to help them along. Otherwise, why are you together? You may very well enjoy each other’s company, but once the courting phase is through and the deal is sealed, the work begins. And just like in a business, if the one party is not living up to the agreement, there will be an issue. And relationships ultimately have lots of issues. That’s OK. The good relationships get those issues resolved.

Everything is energy
I’m not going to pretend to be a physicist, but most accounts seem to agree that matter (excluding the dark kind) is made up of molecules, which are made up of atoms, which are made up of particles, and on and on until you get to these ridiculous scientific entities like quarks and shit. For more info, see here. Fah sho, there is much the average person does not know about physics, yet physics governs everything you do. Ultimately you can’t understand yourself until you understand physics. And I am sad to say, we will probably never really understand physics. It’s just too complicated. It dangles on the outskirts of human intelligence. The smartest motherfuckers in the world don’t understand physics completely - and they’re physicists. No matter. (Pun was not intended, but it just goes to show: there are some freebies in the universe). The point is, everything you do is somehow tied to the Laws of Physics. It’s just a question of connecting the dots from The Laws of Thermodynamics to “buying a lottery ticket”.
Tis true that everything (ie, matter) is equal to energy only through the eyes of Relativity, not Newtonian physics. But try throwing out the distinction and looking at everyday things as if it were energy. What do we “have” which could be thought of as energy, or even as money? What things, other than money or goods, can be valuable? Think about this: Money is only valuable in relation to what you can do with it. It’s just paper. Gold is the same. Everything is the same. If you have a million dollars in the bank and then inflation goes up 10,000%, you can no longer do much with that million. So the value is not inherent in anything, the value is in the ability to do something with it. Nothing has value unless you can do something with it*.   The value of money (or anything) is strictly related to your ability to dissipate energy with it.  And you can dissipate energy with money, but also with other things. Let’s take a look at some more energy dissipaters…

Thoughts
Yes, some good thoughts are worth money. A good idea may be worth money. In effect, the song American Pie was nothing more than a “good thought”. Keith Richards, and numerous other artists, claim that songs just “come to them” - they “found them”, or God writes them and they just heard it from him. Like finding a pretty stone on the beach. That stone may be worth money. So is the riff to Satisfaction. In that sense we see a thought as having value, having energy.

Thinking styles
Thinking style can be very valuable. It is shown that certain ways of thinking lend themselves to greater output and effectiveness. And yes, an effective thinking style is something you can acquire. Something you can invest in - put energy into in hopes to get more energy back. And something you can transfer - both positive and negative thinking styles will rub off on those around you. These italicized words ringing any bells? That translates to green, my friend.

Belief systems
An empowering belief system also pays well these days. The belief system that includes “you can accomplish anything you put your mind to” won the editor’s choice award over long-time rival “life’s a bitch and then you die”. Believing one over the other will have a profound effect on your effectiveness. This belief system is not tangible, yet it translates into tangible things: money, a good job, a good relationship, a good life. What’s more, it’s one of the few things of value you can pass on to future generations which is not taxed. Think of it: invest now in an empowering belief system and watch your value (your GPP) go up and you can treat it as a tangible asset which can be passed on to your kids (kids largely take on the belief system of their parents) so they can enjoy the benefits as well.

Status
Have status will travel. Any son of a former president can attest to this. Status, just like any other form of energy, can be increased or it can be wasted. Win the World’s Strongest Man contest and your status will increase, and you’ll be able to do more. Doors will open up for you, people will buy you dinner, athletics companies and shampoo brands will offer you sponsorships. All these perks serve one goal only…(dissipating energy - just checking in case you are totally missing the theme of this article, and website…). Get caught backstage injecting steroids with your Swedish rival Hans and your status may fade.

Location
Locations too have energy. You can do more in New York City than in Muncie, Indiana. And big cities dissipate tons of energy. By the sheer fact of being in a city, you have more value than by being in the middle of nowhere. Want to increase your wealth? Take a bus to New York. I always feel great to go to a city and feel re-charged when I leave. There is so much going on and you feel the power and the vibe and you feel like you can do anything. And indeed, you have a better chance of doing anything in a big city.

Now there is a slight twist to this: being in the majestic arms of nature also feels good. It feels good because there is a lot of energy being dissipated and you feel connected to it. It is indeed a spiritual feeling. You may not be doing the dissipating, but it’s happening all around you…and it’s wicked cool.

Potential vs Kinetic Energy
As you may recall from 8th grade science class, energy takes on two forms: potential energy, energy being used; and kinetic energy, energy stored up waiting to be used. The examples above are all potential energy - they give you possibilities to dissipate more energy but they do not necessarily do so. What still bothers me in this whole theory is the transferability of it all. See, in life, you dissipate energy, then you die. Money can sit in a bank account as potential energy, and when you die, it will maintain its energy level. Thoughts and belief systems too can be transferred to the people around you. They can be transferred to your children, and in that sense, they too maintain their energy level. But what if you have thoughts with high energy levels but die before you do anything with them? Is the energy gone? Can’t be. Energy can’t disappear, it can only be transferred. Sure, you will rot, and that’s an exercise in energy dissipation, but you will not rot any better than someone with dumb ideas. Any help out there? I’ll try to answer my own question. All these things have a certain potential value, but since something is only valuable to the extent that you can do something with them, they hold little value at the moment they are in your head. Taking them to the outside world is when they really gain value. Maybe that’s why it’s such a “high energy process” to write, or to share your thoughts with someone. They’re all nice and safe in your head, but the real guts come from bringing them into the world. I was very nervous the first time I wrote a blog article. It felt very strange and vulnerable. But my thoughts gained value once they were shared**.

Ergo, money is everything. To say that money is simply an exchange for goods or services is missing the real story. If thoughts and skills could be transferred with money, they would be. You may freak out at the idea of “downloadable mind-sets” 200 years from now where high school basketball players can upload Michael Jordan’s game face, ie his set of thoughts as he plays. As technology progresses, the distinction between energy and money will slowly disappear. We all can imagine a time in the not-so-distant future when money disappears all together, and a new form of currency will have to take its place and the value of everything will be determined by how effectively it will dissipate energy.

* That Picasso hanging on my wall is valuable since I get to look at it. And somewhere in the process of evolution, someone deemed this a high-energy activity

** Yes, we can all debate the actual value of these thoughts. Remember, “good and bad” are fictitious connotations. There is only valuable and invaluable. Some thoughts may be good but if nothing is done with them (maybe nothing can be done with them) then they have no value, even if they are pulled out of your head and into the world.

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People seem to be having a harder and harder time keeping their heads financially above water in today’s society. Why is there so much opportunity and so many maxed-out credit cards?

Evolution and natural selection have often been associated with a fight for resources. As your average “Joe the Plumber” (sorry, I couldn’t resist) tries to make ends meet, he is fighting the competition for his slice of the pie. Animals do this and it is called natural selection - the ones who get their slice of the pie get to pass on their genes. In life, it is called competition. But it is ultimately the same fight for resources, and since it is the same process, it leads to the same thing: evolution. Animals and ecologies evolve (biological evolution) and life for humans evolves (cultural evolution).

And just what is the result of all this development over thousands and thousands of years? What has been the result of cultural evolution? Coincidentally, some very cool things. Democratization, technology, freedom, integration, and decentralization are some of the big ones - and they’re really all related. But democratization especially is causing the problems in your wallet.

The fruits of Cultural Evolution
As technology increases and spreads and the ability of the average person grows. Democratization means that power is spread more evenly over a society. This implies increased competition. The more equal people become the more people are able to “fight” for resources. Increased competition often means less profits, since companies with similar resources are forced to lower prices to make themselves more attractive to potential clients. “Can’t they just create more features and functionality to their products and services?” Yes, but the point of democratization is that their competition has greater means to do the same. The famous “moat around the castle”, ie “barrier to entry” which every business strives to create to fend off competition is getting harder and harder to maintain. This is not just for businesses, this is for individuals as well. Individuals have also entered into a situation where there is less of a gap between rich and poor*. This means that there are more people around to buy the same things. We compete as consumers. This is easy enough to see in the housing markets. Prices continue to go up with only brief periods of price decline. More people have similar amounts of money and want to spend this money on houses. Supply and demand ensures that house prices thereby increase (not now, obviously, as the bubble has popped). The same is happening on the other end of things in the job market. Thee are more and more people who are able to do similar jobs. Employers care less about specific skills and expect more and more to train new employees on the job. Since differentiation between employees is lower, in general, relative to 20 years ago, the salaries are pushed down -> increased competition. So we have increased competition for the goods we want to buy and higher competition for the salaries we want to pay for them. No wonder you can’t make ends meet! Add to this whole mix the individual’s desire for a bigger and better lifestyle than his neighbor (yes, competition for lifestyle) and you have people with less money to throw around throwing around more money.

Money and energy
To be fair, it is harder to effectively manage one’s finances these days. There are many who would say that money is really just a form of energy (I’m one of them, but won’t go into the details here). But as we progress we get better at dissipating energy - that’s what evolution ultimately is looking to do. Getting better at dissipating energy means there is more energy, ie more money - more coming in and more going out. It can be a bit frenzied at times. It was much easier to manage your finances when you made $200 a month and only had 4 things to spend money on in that time. Can you see that as a low-energy situation comparable to a small pool of bacteria-filled sludge some 3 billion years ago? Now you could compare us to an earth teaming with complex and varied life forms some 100,000 years ago. See the difference in energy levels? The difference  between your personal finances and life on earth is who is managing it - you are managing your finances, whereas life on earth is managed by the Laws of the Universe. They have a great track record, tons of experience, and is not at all swayed by emotion.

So, what to do?

1. Work on autopilot
Acknowledge that all your conscious will power ain’t worth a damn. Sometimes you need to operate on an unconscious, unemotional, habitual level. This means putting systems in place which rule you - not the other way around. Here are some prime examples.
- automatic savings - arrange it with your bank to have money put aside every month. You can start out small, really small if necessary, just to work your way up. It’s about the forming the habit initially, not about how much you’re actualy making. Better to take a year or two to build up a good habit that will last the rest of your life.
- health habits - don’t just join a gym, join a club - where you are expected to show up and participate. This can be a work-out group or a healthy cooking group, or yoga lessons, meditation classes, etc.
- education - school is no longer a place you need to go to from 8AM to 3PM. There are tons of classes available online and, if you really want the classroom experience, you can even attend classes at a nearby college. Don’t need to get any degrees, just some new fuel for the motor in your head.

Example of being a slave to the system: personally, I’m too lazy to work out on my own initiative. Luckily I can admit this to myself. What I need is a group or scheduled activity where I am coerced into working out regularly. And guess what - I work out regularly. Don’t always want to, but almost always do. The system rules me. And as a result, I am 34 and thin.

2. Get creative
Innovation is the key to overcoming the “shortage”. As economist Paul Zane Pilzer expresses, “there is no shortage [of resources]”. He means that technology itself helps create new resources through innovative ways of using current resources. Individuals who try to compensate for an increase in competition by working harder are doomed to failure. It’s the equivalent of depleting existing resources. You want to innovate - create new and better ways of accomplishing more than you were before, and ultimately more than your competition.

3. Have faith
As we know, it is our belief system which determines our reality in this life. Believe that nothing you can do will help, and you will behave accordingly, the world will treat you accordingly and indeed, you will make this belief a reality. Conversely, believe that somehow nature takes care of those who follow its wishes and you will easily align yourself with natural, evolutionary principles, feel the power of the current, act positively in your daily experience and indeed you shall prosper and enjoy the process. It’s called a “leap of faith” because you go from one place to another in an instant. It may mean unloading lots of baggage, and that can be scary and time consuming. But the leap is quick and painless. Again, is the universe really caring for you? It doesn’t matter. As long as you believe it, with every bone in your body, then you will have the same power in you.

* I know, I know, everyone thinks that this gap is increasing. While it’s true that the richest one percent increases their wealth more than the rest of us, the remaining 99% (or 90% or whatever) have never had less of a variance in their net-worths than in any time in history.

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There’s something about chilly cities and dense populations that lend themselves to progress and sophistication. Let’s take a look at how cooler weather and higher population density have helped some countries progress well and how the same principles can be applied to progress you.

Hot in the City
It may be cliché but warmer climates trigger the lazy gene in people. When it gets too hot things start to slow down and not much work gets done. There’s a certain energy involved with work and progress and it has to take long breaks when it’s hot. It’s all on a macro level, but it’s just like an individual brain on a hot day - slow and lethargic. With no real constant flow of progression in warm societies, people have to stop and rest and try to start back up again - a most inefficient way to go. Contrast this with the cold. I hate the cold, but it’s been much easier to heat things up then cool them down in the past 5000 years. We’ve had fire to heat rooms for thousands of years and outside in the cold we have coats to warm us. The best you could do to cool off up until 100 years ago was to strip down, or if you were lucky enough, go for a swim. Ever try working in a swimming pool? Some say this is how the Beach Boys fell apart. People also work best when they can focus on the task at hand. Environment plays a big role in this. Cooler, milder climates put little in the way of progress. The wind blows lightly and even the insects die in winter. Working indoors has been historically easier up until about 80 years ago. Working outdoors still is easier and more effective in cooler climates.
 

Closer to the heart
Historically, you’ve had to be next to someone to communicate with them. People work best together when they can communicate well. Even today with the internet and cell phones, physical proximity provides societies with efficiency in their endeavors. There will be a lot of useless, irrelevant, and downright negative communication, but over time, the more people communicate, the better things get. It’s not only communication of information that’s important; it’s also transactions – exchanges of energy. I use the term energy, because it’s at the core of those things we associate with transactions, namely money, services, and goods. Ultimately they are all forms of energy and they can be exchanged. As the universe dictates, all exchanges in energy over time, on a large enough scale, will result in an increase in local energy*, ie a good investment. If every transaction of money, goods, or services can be seen as an investment, over time these exchanges result in good investments for the society. The more investments a society makes, the better off it will be. And the closer the proximity, the easier it is to exchange these goods and services making it easier to invest. Societies with large distances between people have had a disadvantage in all this - like a race car with two suitcases in the trunk.

Moral of the story 
What does all this have to do with you? I didn’t forget. We see two principles here in action: 1. communication and exchanges of energy and 2. a favorable environment.
1. communication and exchanges of energy
And communication is really just exchanges of information – which could just as well be seen as a “service”.
People are social and you’ll see in the course of evolution that the size and power of our brains is largely attributed to the social aspects of being human. If we lived on our own and didn’t see other humans much, evolution would never have needed to make us so smart. Being social is elemental to being human. Want to see an increase in happiness and productivity? Be social. Get out there and talk to people. Network. Make new friends. Sometimes I know I want to talk to someone but I’m not sure what I actually want to get out of the conversation, but I know that the best thing to do is to just dive into a conversation and things will become clear either during the conversation or afterwards. If you’re stuck in life, go out and talk to people. Remember that people like positive, friendly individuals, so always try to be conscious and aware of your emotional presence in a conversation. The ultimate goal being to have a large, “highly energized” network which you interact with frequently.

2. a favorable environment
One of the tips on being effective in your homework as a student is to create a favorable environment - comfortable, but not too comfortable, quiet, free of distractions, etc. I’d like to make a generalization about the perfect environment to live in, but I think it’s best to see what your personality requires. Again, no need to get it perfect right away, just try to develop an awareness of your surroundings and if your environment is facilitating you in what you are trying to do or holding you back. Do you need external pressure, quiet, variation in your environment, positive people, no people, Mozart in the background, etc. Take 10 minutes to jot down what the best environment would be like and you’re already way better off than you were when you started.

* Ok, ok, energy is not increasing, but our ability to dissipate it is increasing. The basic principle of the universe is that energy is dissipating, so investing is not so much as increasing the level of energy of an entity, but increasing its ability to dissipate energy. Bill Gates has lots of money and therefore has a lot of options for dissipating energy. Yes, he has more energy (money) now than he did when he was 20, but what really increased was his ability to dissipate energy.

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We have a winner. By applying principles of evolution and systems theory, we conclude that the Jews are set up for success. 

I am not a Jew, nor do I necessarily favor the Jews as a people. I simply find them and their success on this planet fascinating and in this article I’ll apply the principles outlined in this site to the Jews and their existence on this planet. And in doing so, they fare quite well. The Bible is full of metaphors and so I’m just taking a “page out of their book” in calling the Jews “God’s Chosen People”. I don’t personally believe God consciously chooses anything. Whether you believe in God or not, you may be able to imagine that nature favors some characteristics in things and individuals over other characteristics. Biology teachers will call this process of favoritism “Natural Selection”. Not all characteristics are created the same: some will do well in the world and some will not. And of course, some characteristics are doing neither great nor horrible, and just hover in the realm of “getting by”. And, when looking at the Jews in this article, I’m looking at their potential and not only their current state - much like a baseball scout is looking at a prospect’s potential and not only how well he is doing at the moment.  But they are, in fact, doing well and looks like they have what it takes to do even better.

The Jews as a people have several characteristics which make them more fit for success in this world than other peoples. The suspense must be killing you:

Decentralization and team work
Jews are historically everywhere. Dispersed yet united. I can’t escape the biological analogy of a bunch of cells working for a common goal. And, of course, other religions are also dispersed, but somehow the lack of a homeland has given the Jews an extra motive for maintaining togetherness. The history of suffering has only added to this motive. When the Jews finally did get a homeland in 1948 in the form of Israel, they transformed from a set of cells to one big cell with a nucleus. Ironically, the strife they still face may be serving the “togetherness” motif which has been integral to their success. Imagine Israel was as big as Texas, held 95% of all Jews and was in complete harmony with its neighbors. They would be just another country, just another people. Decentralization and team work are characteristics favorable to successful goal-oriented systems. They work for businesses and they are working for the Jews.

A defined operating plan
The Jews are a people, but then, so are the Irish. But when we define “people” as pertaining to a religion, they hold the advantage of having a code - i.e. a way of living and operating that everyone can adhere to. Research shows that businesses with a mission statement tend to do better than those without. Now, countries sort of have a mission statement, but democracy tends to water it down. You just don’t have everybody on the same page in a democracy as you do in a religion. Not saying one is better than the other, but when it comes to coordinating efforts on a large scale, it helps to have as many people as possible agreeing on what has to be done.

Freedom and Flexibility
Despite that Jews adhere to Judaism, they are known for their flexibility in their belief. Obviously, Orthodox Jews are not, but your mainstream Jew on the street can get through life with a lot less guilt than your average Catholic or Muslim. Their code seems less specific and stringent than other religions, making them the masters of the system instead of the slaves. If religion is a path to be followed, they have paved a wide road to allow for greater inclusion and possibilities. Again, the rabbis may not admit to this, but it is the reality of the modern Jewish people. Contrast this with the average Muslim, who also comes from a strict religion, but feels an increasing push to actually adhere to it much more than his average Jewish counterpart. This lack of flexibility will eventually mutate and strangle the Muslim community whereas the Jews will be able flourish in their approach.

The Jewish Trinity - confident, passionate, and able
Somehow confidence is built into the Jewish existence. Despite being teased on the global schoolyard, these people have unshakeable faith that they can do anything. Of course, there will be individuals who have no self-esteem, but I’m talking in general terms with graphs and large numbers of people. The Jews believe. And they have the muscle, cultural intellect and capability to deliver. Attribute it perhaps to the togetherness and a possible need to be one step ahead of the game in a hostile environment. Passion is in there too. They want to be there and they want to do well. Put all this together and it makes for a powerful group. Other peoples may share some of these characteristics (the Arabs are passionate too and the Swedes are very confident) but the combination makes them fairly unique in the world.

Employing other people
The Jews have done a great job ensuring that the rest of the world cares about their welfare. Sure parts of the world still openly deny the Jews their place in the world, but in large, most countries and peoples are sympathetic to the Jewish cause and help out where they can. This is a rare feat and one that does not go unrewarded. Imagine how much more successful a person is who has other people supporting his endeavors. Guilt has certainly helped win over support but so has a strong image.

They’re inside you
The Jews are also notorious entertainers and artists, as good art needs all the traits the Jews possess - passion, confidence, and ability. Coincidently, modern film and television have found them indispensable and the Jews have been able to put their cultural stamp on much of the information we receive via the television. This has been crucial to the success the Jewish people have seen since the Second World War. We all know how important information is. You can imagine the Jews inhabit a small piece of every American’s brain in the form of Barbara Streisand, Steven Spielberg’s films, Woody Allen, Mel Brooks, Ben Stiller, Jerry Seinfeld, Jon Stewart, and Ross & Rachel Geller. Few ethnic groups can claim to own the same proportion of mental real estate in the world’s psyche. To top it off, we’re all quite happy to have them there. Of course, I have yet to feel a strong Jewish presence on the Internet - the mother of all information systems. Is it potential proof that Jewish success is not a planned and calculated effort or are the Jews simply not in a position to hold a disproportionate presence on the internet?

All these points mentioned above contribute to the success of any system. Businesses understand this and do their best to employ all of these elements. And somehow, they are all built into the Jewish existence. Lucky them. I say “lucky” since I don’t see it came about from some conscious initiative - that’s just how the Jews have evolved. Of course, we can all learn something from this, but we won’t since we - whatever people you belong to - are not led by conscious decisions and actions. But we can use logic like this to get an idea of which people will have a hard time in the coming centuries and which ones will effortlessly flourish and expand. Best of luck to all of you.

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Radiohead just released an album. Yes, we’re all a-tingle and anytime Radiohead does anything, it’s a big deal. But what’s notable about this release is that it’s being posted on the internet for free download and fans pay what they want to pay. The theory goes like this: like it a lot = pay a lot, like it not = pay nothing. I haven’t heard the album, but I’m expecting them to do pretty well. What a cool place we’re at in time where products and services are paid for via donations. And that’s what this amounts to - some communist business model where you pay what you feel like paying. No hard sticker price, just your conscience guiding you. Lots of blogs are doing it these days. People put their time and energy into something and then put their faith into the world that there will be some form of gratitude.

This site too bases its business model (if you can call it that) largely on donations. I like the idea that everything is potentially free. There are ads too, which people can either look at or ignore - but, of course, that is another business model. To understand donations better, it’s a good idea to understand why people make donations. This can be largely explained by the phenomenon of altruism. Altruism exists in two forms: 1) reciprocal: i.e. “you owe me one” and 2) kin: “I win when you win”.

In reciprocal altruism, you do something for someone and they are obligated to do something back for you - whether this obligation is enforced by an iron-clad contract or a passive-aggressive guilt trip. This, of course, only works when both parties know of the other’s existence. Donations based on reciprocal altruism may not have such a bright future. With a donation, in this definition (via the internet and largely anonymous) recognition of the donating party is fairly vague. They gave you five bucks, you know their email address, but a feeling of reciprocity is not very strong. You assume they got something out of your product, site, or service and are simply showing their appreciation. A system is not in place which would make this true reciprocal altruism. They could have just as well not paid you five bucks. The end result in terms of your feelings towards them is practically the same when measured in terms of reciprocity. So, just expecting to post good stuff and get money for it from donators may not work out in the long term.

Kin altruism may be the saving grace. We know from evolution that altruism is stronger towards those sharing a higher percentage of our genes (i.e., you’ll be more altruistic to your siblings than to your cousins, statistically). We also know that beliefs and values, not genes, are the currency of cultural evolution. Therefore, by the same mechanism, altruism is stronger towards those who share a higher percentage of our beliefs. For instance, if two people were drowning and you could only save one, who would it be - the one who loved your favorite band or the one who hated your favorite band? Now substitute the word “band” with “religious figure” and you see how strong this stuff really is. Donations should theoretically come easier from those who share your beliefs and values. The more web visitors you attract who believe what you believe and the stronger they believe it, the more money you should theoretically make through donations. A lot of people like Radiohead and their fans are pretty fervent, so by this logic, I would expect Radiohead to do relatively well with this initiative.

How to increase donations
For altruism to really flourish, a few things need to be in place. It may be worth trying to work these elements into your website and/or business.
 - donor identification - altruism doesn’t work as well when the donors are anonymous. Get their names recognized somehow - preferably publicly. Everyone likes other people to know they gave something for nothing. I know what you’re thinking, “doesn’t that make it more of an ad than a donation?” Maybe a little, but in this sense they are both agreements (”I do something and you do something in return”)- just in slightly different forms.
 - do something a lot of people like and feel strongly about - this would explain why there is so much content related to religion, George Bush, and the war in Iraq. Virtually everyone feels strongly about these subjects.
- present a good, positive image for your business/website. Perhaps contrary to logic, people who have a lot of money will tend to receive more donations than those who have very little money. This is the reciprocal altruism again - you give to people who you expect will be able to help you in the future. Poor people would have a harder time doing this. Present yourself well and people will be more likely to give.
- convince people you are helping them - by doing whatever you’re doing in your business, point out the benefits the donator will be receiving (and they should certainly be receiving something beneficial). Radiohead can say that they are providing good music. You should accentuate the great content you’re enriching lives with.

Notice how these four things sound a lot like campaigning - and indeed you’ll see them all in bloom in the upcoming US election. Give them some thought for your website/organization. Hope it works out…. And in a no way ironic gesture…

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Yes, this is a gross generalization and no this is not based a specific scientific study and yes, I was going for the catchy title. Taste is a matter of opinion, not something quantifiable. But guys can attest, most women have bad taste in music. Enough guys have bad taste in music, but over a large population, men tend to listen to more artistic, intricate, and authentic music than women do. Guys like The Police and women like Sting. Get it? Why is that? Let us explore.

Music?
First off: what the hell is music anyway? I mean, why do humans take different sounds and put them together in an organized whole? Answer: because we can. Some things in life are inherently impressive. Nature is impressive. The way the sun sets or the trees turn color. It shows organization and harmony, things we naturally like because of the “power” they symbolize - and we like power because without power there is no advancement. Whoever made it must be powerful and capable and someone we want to be friends with. Many people call this God which is why God is so revered. People also make impressive things. Buildings, art, weapons, food… Men, in particular, make things to impress women. It’s in our genes as well. “Show them what we can do and they’ll want to hitch up with us”. Music, like any other form of art of cultural creation, is symbolic of what we can do. It is a status symbol. The head of a deer in the entrance hall to your hut used to work fine some 100,000 years ago, but as humans developed, so did the things they did and made to impress women. Music, art, cuisine, and culture ensued and somewhere in the course of evolution, music got associated with sex.

The Non-Manly man
Men are natural born musicians. Birds make music for the same reasons - to attract females. It’s in the blood. Not all men are musically talented, but there is a tendency in men to be musical, or at least to appreciate music. And one can distinguish the more musical types of men. Like I said, the deer’s head worked well in impressing the ladies, but not all guys are the type to hunt deer. If they were, there would be nothing but brutish, dominant males running around engaging in continuous struggles with each other. Evolution had to find a balance and some men had to bow out of the fight. The testosterone-challenged men had to find other ways to impress the ladies, and art provided an opportunity. The trend is quite clear today - the gangly, the ugly, the slight effeminate, make the best musicians (again, a gross generalization). Want me to name some? Jimmy Page, Joe Jackson, David Bowie, John Lennon, George Harrison, (sorry Paul, you’re not ugly enough), Mick Jagger, Kurt Cobain, Rick Ocasic, Bill Corgan, Alex Turner, Keith Richards, Pete Townsend, Jack White, Craig Nicholls, Elvis Costello, Michael Stipe, Perry Farrel and so on… What other choice did they have in this world accept art? Over the course of thousands of years, evolution provided them with an alternative to brute masculinity.

How women listen to music
Many men seem to have “music friends” - other people with whom they share musical tastes. And most often these are other men. I personally have rarely found other women to really bond with musically. There seems to be something missing. And indeed there is. Women, by nature, are not into making music but are more into listening to music (yes, there are some great female musicians). And what’s more, they’re listening to it not for how well it is made, but for how it makes them feel - either through the sounds or through the lyrics, or both. The feeling they’re looking for is one of quiet comfort and total devotion. Jack Johnson and James Blunt provide this quite well. “Yes, you are beautiful. And that’s why it is you who will get the profits from my record sales”.

How men listen to music
Men might listen to music at times for how it is made - like they can learn something from it, or rip it off so they can make some music for the ladies. And though initially men made music for women, somewhere along the line men took it to the next level - not only out to impress women, but out to impress other men as well. Impress enough men, and respect, money, and women tend to follow. The tone of the music would then start to appeal to the male character and not the female character. Easy examples of this would be blues, heavy metal and grunge. Loud, a bit edgy, and not typically romantic. Relatively speaking few women like Buddy Guy, Metallica or Nirvana, yet these artists have been heralded by critics and earned their share of respect and money. That puts these guys in some primo positions for passing on their genes, not that they were ever consciously making music for that reason.

What the music says to a woman
Women tend to like the crooners - it’s in their genetic predisposition. Singers like Jack Johnson who aren’t really doing anything too interesting with the music, but sing a certain way or say certain things that women like. Things like “I’ll be with you forever” or “I love only you”. Which, from an evolutionary perspective may as well be “You can count on me providing a nice life for you forever” and “All my resources will be focused solely on you.” And it’s natural that women are turned on by this - whether it’s true or not. But we see from this example that women are slightly more focused on what is said and the complementary feeling of how it’s said rather than the detailed nuances of beat and melody behind it.

How it says it
Again, it’s a feeling thing. Women are often (subconsciously and indirectly) asking musicians to “calm me down and make me feel safe”. It can be a cut-throat world out there and it’s a natural tendency in women to look for someone to take care of them. The lyrics can imply this but so can the music itself through gentle rhythms and soothing melodies.

Power in the music
Not like “power-metal”, but more like capability. “You’ve promised all these things, but can you deliver?”. If he’s on the radio, he’s got a better chance. If he’s making good music, it shows he’s probably ahead of the curve in capability. It’s not often that women like no-name musicians or that guy playing on the street corner or you doing your best to impress her with your one-man-band routine. The music needs power behind it to make the promises in it believable. Sometimes there are no promises, just capability (and the success it leads to) and that’s good enough to turn the ladies on as well.

This article has no objective other than to further the understanding of the sexes. Understanding ultimately acts as the foundation for acceptance and tolerance and finally: blissful harmony.

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Brian Tracy and now the movie, The Secret talk about the Law of Attraction. This says “like attracts like”. That is, you attract into your life the people, ideas, and experiences that are in line with your most dominant thoughts, feelings, and perceptions of the world. Sounds great and I believe it, but I want to give it some credibility. Often these self-help gurus declare these laws and use them as the basis for their methods but give little to no evidence that they are laws at all. And that, of course, is one of the major complaints of the whole self-help movement. Law of science? Law of the State of
Kentucky? They don’t really say, and scientists are quick to brush them off as speculation and non-sense. And of course they are right to shoot down statements with no scientific basis. But I believe some statements do have a scientific basis to them. Let’s see if we can explain this one.

Let us first take a quick look at human behavior and the behavior of systems. It is well known, but often forgotten, that humans behave largely on a subconscious level. The fact that we forget this is a funny little reminder of this conclusion. I mean, if we were constantly aware of it, it wouldn’t be true - we would be living consciously all the time. But most of the time, we’re on auto-pilot. Dealing with the infinite number of stimuli around us is just too much for the conscious mind to handle. Systems have been put in place millions of years ago to allow us interact with each other in order to help us survive and pass on our genes. The subconscious mind is simply a grouping or “individualization” of these systems. Evolution is a marvelous system put in place to see that our genes are passed on to future generations. Even though evolution occurs on the gene level, for simplicity’s sake, let’s assume it occurs on an individual level - as if an individual is trying to pass on all it’s genes, not that a gene inside an individual is simply trying to get passed on (which is actually the case). Imagine two people, one who is an achiever and one who …is not. The achiever has everything he can ask for in life and continues to produce and achieve and feels supreme confidence in his ability to continue this way. The non-achiever is the opposite - can’t seem to achieve anything, is non-productive and unhappy. May have wishes to do things but has a lack of self-confidence in achieving the things that he wants (or says he wants). Evolution says these two people will not have anything to do with each other. The achiever, in the long term, is in a better position to have his genes passed on. Having healthy kids takes effort and resources, and the achiever has more at his disposal. Again, this is long term or over a large statistical population. Of course, any non-achiever can have kids and pass his genes on to future generations, but take a large population of maybe 1000 achievers vs. 1000 non-achievers over many many generations, and you will see the achievers doing a better job of passing on their genes. Yes, I know it’s hard to test this in a lab, but computer simulation programs actually do a pretty good job of proving this type of phenomenon.

How would they interact together? We are social beings and much of our gene passing is done with the help of other members of society. The non-achiever will want to hitch on to the coat tails of the achiever. “Friends in high places” so to speak. This is a natural tendency to want to be friends with powerful, successful people. The achiever on the other hand, will experience the non-achiever as a burden, and would want to avoid interaction. This is a simplistic view, but you can see how the achiever would want to hang out with other achievers, and the non-achiever, is left no choice and will have to pair up with other non-achievers to, just like everyone, find strength in groups. All these tendencies are hard-wired into our systems and operate at a subconscious level. This is not to say that successful people never socialize with non-successful people, but the tendency for like to be with like is a part of nature. We tend to be attracted to people like ourselves as an adaptation. Unsuccessful people are also attracted to successful people, but the relationship takes on a different tone. Not one of equals but rather one party trying to profit and the other trying to maintain his position. And since the bell-curve dictates that there will always be many more unsuccessful people than successful ones, the unsuccessful have some lobbying power by the size of their numbers, so the powerful do have to stay friendly with the masses or risk being ousted all together. Is this recognizable?

But what about this successful guy? Has he always been this way? Or did he make a decision somewhere? Perhaps either one. But in either case, at some point, he felt some internal feeling of success and other people saw him as such and treated him as such. Maybe by giving him a good job. Maybe by entrusting him with a certain task. Or maybe even by giving him something in exchange for his attention, association, and knowledge on success itself. He will have a tendency only to engage in any of these activities with people or groups which he sees as equally or more successful. Doing so with less successful people or groups would go against nature. Like attracts like. And what about the unsuccessful, non-achiever. Was he born into this circumstance? Or did things simply go wrong for him somehow? Again either way, at some point, he had internal feelings of being less and manifested this by poor and irresponsible behavior, and other things which would show others that he was not interested in achieving. And others would treat him as such. They would not trust him with responsibility, and not want to be around him in a professional setting. So where does he turn? On a professional level, he will associate with others like him. Not because the successful people are jerks, but because of the tendencies nature has built into us all. “If you have resources and potential, see to it that you keep them. If you do not, try getting some from those who do - failing that, group together with others who will associate with you…other non-achievers”. We see examples of this everywhere. Hollywood stars who can only really hang out with other
Hollywood stars - because everyone else is trying to milk them dry. Rich people who only hang out with other rich people. And on the other side of the spectrum, gangs in poor neighborhoods who work together to achieve a level of power which they lack as individuals. Same with soccer hooligans.

So, we see here the natural tendency as built by evolution itself. These mechanisms, again, are all done on a subconscious level. If you want to be a part of the successful people, then you will need to start acting like one. Adapt their attitude, their ways, their confidence, and their values, and they will entrust you with their resources.

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