Ethos, Logos and Pathos: What is your favorite means of rhetoric?

According to the Greek philosopher Aristotle, there are three means of persuasion, namely Ethos, Logos and Pathos.

Ethos refers to the credibility of a person. A person with higher credibility is perceived to be more trustworthy and is also more convincing to the audience due to authority he or she commands. For example, a university professor's statement on a subject will probably face less scrutiny than a statement made by yours truly, especially if the topic is unique and unconventional.

Logos refers to logic, and the use of reasoning to persuade. Often time, facts and statistics may be used as supporting tools for making a convincing persuasion.

The last but most powerful form of persuasion is Pathos. Pathos refers to the emotional appeal. If a person can connects with their audience at a personal emotional level, then he or she would have succeeded in persuading the audience EVEN if it is illogical.

Writing...

Lately, I've realized that I've been having writer's block. Why don't we suffer from "talker's block"? We never wake up one morning and realized that we lost the ability to talk.

Could this be due to lack of practice? When we talk, we don't spend too much time arranging the words before allowing them to leave our tongue. As such, I've decided to undertake this opportunity to commit myself into another "long term" commitment.

An article a day. On any topic as long as I never stop writing. Hopefully this will also improve my grammars.

Personally, I think my standard has been deteriorating pretty badly. I wonder why....

Money is Debt

Situation: 

• You and Me are in a sealed room. 
• There is only $100 in the room, and I owns it.

Today:

• I loan you that $100 with a daily interest of 1%.
• You take the money.

Tomorrow:

• You pay me $100 and you still owes me $1.

Scenario 1. 

• You print $1 to pays me (effectively creating money out of the thin air) or...

Scenario 2.

• You declare bankruptcy...

Conclusion:

In the world today, we have countries that are both in scenario 1 and 2. Effectively, every countries are in debt globally. If I am in debt and you are in debt,... where does all the monies go to?

It takes courage!

If prosperity were easy, everybody around the world would be prosperous.
If freedom were easy, everybody around the world would be free.
If security were easy, everybody around the world would be secured.

THEY ARE NOT!!!

None of these are going to be easy.
But this is life.
It takes an extraordinary effort.
It takes extraordinary commitment.
It takes extraordinary strength.

Put your head down and get it done.

I'm switching to a Standing Desk

A standing desk is a desk conceived for writing and/or reading while standing up. Apparently, Wikipedia mentioned that in the 18th and 19th century, these desks were popular among the rich. Many famous people uses a standup desk such as  Donald Rumsfield, Gina Trapani, Marco Arment, and me. :)

Yes, starting today, I've decided to convert my home desk into a standing desk. Why am I doing this? I guess I'm "tired" of sitting on my bum the whole day both in the office as well as at home. I've done some research via Google and realized that it's a growing trend nowadays. Some even installed their desk over a treadmill.

What I've found so far is fairly positive. Firstly, sitting is the most "efficient" form of resting. This become a problem because you don't use as much energy as those who spend more time on their feet. This makes it easier to gain weight, and prone to health problems. Don't get me wrong. I'm still as lazy as ever. I just decided to insert an obstacle into my lazy life routine and "force" myself to lose weight. Hence, compared to standing, you have to tense your leg muscle, engage the shoulder and back muscles and often shift the leg from one to the other. All these burn energy.

Anyway, I've adjusted the height for the "desk" to be just right (whereby my elbow is 90 degrees bent when I rest my hand on the "desk").... and typing this article while standing up. Yes my leg is beginning to ache...

What are you willing to die for?

As part of the samurai bushido honor code, the ancient Japanese practiced Seppuku (also know as Harakiri) as a form of ritualistic suicide: to die in honor rather than submit to their enemies. These warriors are willing to exchange their life to defend their belief.

Beside Seppuku, there is also another ancient practice that was considered common practiced around the world even in today's modern world: self-immolation. This form of suicide by fire is often committed for political or moral reason as a form of protest. Self-immolation gained notoriety in 1963 when Thich Quang Duc, a Buddhist monk immolated himself in protest of the Vietnamese regime. As he burned he never moved a muscle, never uttered a sound, his outward composure in sharp contrast to the wailing people around him.

In 2011, a 26 year old man named Mohamed Bouazizi immolated himself in front of a Tunisian government building to protest the seizure of his livelihood (an unlicensed fruit cart). This Tunisian man's action has sparked a revolution around the nation forcing the nation's leader, Ben Ali to go into exile.

He'll never know he changed the world.

Putt's Law

"Technology is dominated by two types of people: those who understand what they do not manage and those who manage what they do not understand."



The above quote is from the book on the left. This seems to describe lots of manager in the world today. It seems that the competent person would rather continue doing technical work - hence they do not manage. Whereas the incompetent, who have already had to develop certain "skills" to mask their incompetence (otherwise they would have been discovered that they dunno nuts), find that those very skills are highly appreciated and rewarded as a manager in a technical organization.


This is street smart vs book smart. Nonetheless, this quote reminds me of HI.P.P.O. which stands for Highest Paid Person Opinion (in the room). Next time, take note of the person who make the decision in the room. Often time, they're the highest paid in the room. Complement this with Putt's Law, this would mean that they're also the least competent person making decision.