What to read, How to choose

To the avid and addict reader, books, blogs, newspapers and magazines are heroin. You will find them trying to read stuff off the cheap newspaper covering of the thrift market purchases common men and women choose to buy often. We live in a world of information explosion. The deepest secrets of the past and future are clearer to us every day on our screens. Really, it excites me sometimes. You might find it inconsequential because you have eased into it too well. I can’t help but wonder at the wonders I’ll see trending tomorrow morning. Among all this comes another thing that begs my concern. And yours incidentally.

Ever heard of the term “Ubiquitous Assimilation?” It literally means to consume and put together random pieces of information to build a complete new belief system, working 100% of the time. As a tough piece of a jargon that sounds, it is in fact the one basic thing we have all been doing all our lives. It is true. Any people with experience or knowledge with NLP (neuro-linguistic programming) methods can swear to it. They just have to connect an imagined experience with a gesture, a symbol or a product and you will associate the feeling with that particular thing all the time. Why do you think all the people in those ads seem so goddamn happy all the time.

A little baby is often open-eyed, alert and energetic all the time because knowledge and skill of living among humans is the foremost requirement of their survival. It is an inert habit, the one habit that acts as a mother to all. Authorities ban all the explicit things online or put an age bar on media because of it. Often because all forms of mental disease originated because the bad stuff was as easily available and more lucrative than the good stuff. You are doing it when you watch violent scenes, surf into porn sites, enjoy conversations with hideously foul-mouthed people. The power it wields on your life can turn you into a psychopath or a saint. But the discretion has to be yours.

In all things you read, watch, hear or enjoy a presentation style is evident. It can be as happy and bright as Disney or as gothic and shady as Warner. Be it funny or scary, ultra-realistic or fantastical, hard-hitting or heart-touching, What you must understand is that every piece of media is helpless if it does not generate an emotion. Be it fear, desire, power, love, expression, discovery or recovery. It must leave a lasting impression if you are to think about it, talk about it, or better yet, buy it again.

Why do you think I add the pictures of a bungee jumper when speaking of individual freedom? Why does a movie have a background score? Why is there so much ceremony behind all religious or militarily organisational activities and daily rituals? Why do bloggers spend all their time and money designing the perfect theme and choosing the best possible name? Yes and yes. Emotion is the impression. If it’s dark and painful it’s easier to believe in (most people are pessimists) if its bright and pleasing it is easy to love (the rest are naive babies). Striking a balance between the two is what sales are all about. And then there’s subliminal messages.

There are other more obvious and a lot vulgar examples online.

Little hints of information or suggestions hidden within the ordinary looking things. It is ridiculously easy to miss. You might have heard about these in viral online posts. But the effects of this little slight of hand are stunning. Personally speaking, I felt sucker punched when a documentary on subliminal messages tricked me into choosing milk over water to quench my thirst. You can only imagine how easily people can be made to buy things they do not need. I literally hate this trick so much that I love it. I have now been using the same trick all over in my lifestyle to motivate me to be a better person.

So how do we choose the good stuff?

Essentially there are four ways I noticed people communicate what they want others to know or do. There maybe more, I have still much to learn.

1. Storybook Narrative- Once upon a time…(Makes you open to emotional stimuli)

2. Gym bros aggressive- Do it, you pathetic *****!! (Very basic fear and rage motivation)

3. Researcher assertive- With careful observation over — days we have found…(appealing to the intellectuals)

4. Friendly expletive- Chill pal, here’s what you gotta do! (Used with the reasonable common people)

I do not ask you to choose one over another. I ask you to learn and discriminate among different sales methods. Learn to categorize their methods, this will help you discover more methods. Honestly speaking, the time when convincing people and selling things was an art is but gone. It has become a ritual, a repeated method proven by science that has no joy of discovery or human interaction in it. Most people repeat the easiest methods because what they nowadays care for is but a steady paycheck. Which is sad even if I choose to detect the slightest manipulation to me or other people. And yes, it does work to the advantage of the most alert among us.

We can recognize patterns and understand lies well practiced and extempore. You will notice that some things are so hard-wired in our minds that as soon as we lie, hide or try to mislead, we make that impression. Professional poker players call it a “tell.” The honestly beneficial messages are as easy to notice. They will not push you to do something. Nor they use negative adjectives and exaggeration when asking to avoid something. They will tell you a method, a reason, a result and their entire presentation leaves you with a feeling of well-being and a burning internal motivation. There are many good stories, products, services, guidances out there that exist to help you and the world.

The first step is to hang that pessimistic attitude to all things everywhere and adopt a mindset of intelligent search for the better choices. Oh, they are there. Beyond the trending favourites, standing the test of time. Dripping with good intentions and positivity. Look for them. And always believe that you deserve only the best.

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