The New Investiment

As an aspiring businessman, I enjoy spending time simply planning things. Laying on my bed, lost in thought, and staring at the ceiling may not seem like an appealing past time to those who want to be out doing things (which is commendable), but I find that the ideas planned out as carefully as they are carried out are the most successful. As a student of economics, finite mathematics, and life in general, I enjoy applying the new things that I learn to my plans. Updating and improving ideas are essential to successfully completing them, and as I grow, so do my dreams.

As an example, one of the things I have learned from my experiences is that "no one is more invested in YOUR investment than YOU are." That is to say, no one cares more about the success of your ideas than you.

From that one statement I have learned that it is a wise businessman that can persuade his employees that his investment is their investment. Doing that is not as easy as it sounds, but it will be my goal to do so someday. To form a new investment for someone takes not just persuasive ability, but also generosity. If you want people to consider your investment their own, you must show them how they can benefit MORE if they perform their duties better. As I said, this requires more than just talk, it requires sacrifice. For instance, If I want my employees to finish building a road faster, I should offer a bonus if they can build the road the same quality as before, but with greater speed. It will cost me the bonus, but provide me with a road that much sooner (A principle of economic opportunity cost).

I hope that my plans can succeed, and with these small (but useful) philosophies, I expect that they will. Everyday I will grow in this capacity, and form new philosophies.

Perception

                A few weeks ago in my 2D design class, we talked about something that I never would’ve thought about discussing in art: psychology.  My teacher described to us the Gestalt laws, which are a set of laws about visual perception discovered by a German psychologist.  As I just finished reading a chapter for my psychology class, I found myself reviewing the Gestalt laws, this time outside of my art class.  My textbook described things I was already familiar with, such as the law of closure and the law of proximity, as well as things beyond the Gestalt laws that I had never heard about before.  It went into parts of perception that “visual artists master” to produce a three-dimensional illusion on a two-dimensional surface, such as the various monocular cues.

                Until seeing the overlap between my psychology class and 2D design, I had always considered my classes as separate and distinct.  I had my art classes, my elective classes, and then those other classes that I had to take to graduate.  I didn’t think that science or math and art could mix.  Now, though, I realize that much of art is psychology, and that it would be impossible to separate the two.

World in Chaos

           Every time I turn on the television to watch the news, there is some new chaotic situation happening. Between natural disasters around the world; and tragedies of people dying simply because of hatred, misunderstandings, gangs, drug cartels ,accidents, anything, you name it.
          Makes me wonder, what is this world coming to. Just last night in the news they were showing this small girl, 5 years old, in Kindergarten ,she was beaten by a fellow class mate. This boy, 6 years old caused her to have a concussion to her head and plenty of brushing around her eye. According to the girls parents he had been bothering her for few weeks. My question is; what is going on  with this boys life that at 6 years old he is already inflicting his kind of pain and anger on another child?, what is the reason for hating someone so much? What makes someone so young build this kind of anger and hatred? What is he growing up to be? If I generalize his actions at this early age, I would say that he is growing up to be a criminal or serial killer. To give him the benefit of the doubt, hopefully someone will step in to provide the help that he needs to be a good member of society. I do not have the answers to these questions, but I can only hope for a better future in which my children and grand-children can grow up and enjoy life to the fullest.

Overlap by Jamey Jones

I am always using my two science classes together to blog about. I love it, because subcategories in science almost always overlap at places, and psychology and biology do so a lot. This time, we have talked about genetics in both classes. In psychology, we talked about genetics and how they apply to a person’s psyche; in other words, how much of a person’s personality made up by genetics that are passed down from their parents and how much of it is interaction with their environment. For example, was Adolf Hitler genetically deranged, or did his environment make him the way he was? In all likelihood, it is probably a mixture of both for all human beings. In the case of biology, we discussed genetics on a more cellular level, talking about the structure of DNA, and the proteins that were being made based upon the different genes and alleles that an individual had because of their genetics. After we finished talking about it on a cellular level, we went to a much larger scale, and talked about it in terms of evolution and natural selection. We talked about how genetics gave different species of animals better opportunities to be successful than other species, which is essentially what natural selection is based upon.
I always find it fascinating when sciences overlap the way that they do. When we first start learning about it in kindergarten, the sciences seem totally separate one from another. It is only once we developed a greater understanding for the sciences that we could see more and more overlap. I love it so much, because I realize that we are getting closer and closer to understanding nature the way that God understands it. He understands everything under one science, or the laws of nature. In this way, I almost feel as if I am drawing closer to God as I study these things.

Epiphanies for Economics

I absolutely love my economics class and am constantly reaching new conclusions and having different realizations from what we learn in the class. The more I learn not just about economics but learn how to use economics, the more I've come to realize that economic principles can explain all aspects of life. In all sincerity I can honestly say that I've been able to apply an economic principle to every part of my life. Sometimes it will be applications to very trivial things and other times it can be applications to deep subjects of eternal importance. In economics we learned about negative and positive externalities. Negative externalities are goods produced that have adverse effects on the rest of society such as the production of steel and the negative effects of pollution on the ecosystem. In an economy without regulation, there will be more steel produced than is optimal for society because o the negative effects pollution has on that society. Regulation is needed to cut back the pollution and improve the overall condition of society. I thought about some negative externalities in my life and came to the conclusion that sins I commit are negative externalities because my sins have adverse effects on society as a whole and there are too many of my sins produced if there isn’t any “regulation” or repentance. Just as government regulation of polluting activities improves society; my personal repentance of sin through the Atonement will improve society because I am reducing the production of a negative externality. Positive externalities are goods produced that have beneficial effects on the rest of society such as the inoculation of some children which protects the health of all the children. In an economy without regulation there is too little of that commodity produced than what is optimal for society because if there were more immunization shots given then society would be healthier and better of as a whole. I applied this principle to my own life in that the service I give to my fellow man is a positive externality because it benefits society and I don’t provide enough of it. There are so many other applications I’ve found in my life for economic principles and I’ve truly enjoyed learning and expanding my horizons through the class.

Questions and Answers

As I sat in my Book of Mormon class I listened to my teacher speak and I became confused by something he said. We were reading in Mosiah, chapter 2, verse 34. In the middle of the verse he read, "render to Him all that you have and are" and, adding one of the twelve apostles words, "all that you have the potential to be". He concluded by saying that this made him very depressed to think about. I wondered, 'why would this cause him to be depressed?' I couldn't see anywhere in those words, what could have possibly brought about any sadness at all actually. So I went where I always go to when I have a question in need of answering: my knees. But one thing I've learnt from asking questions is that my answers don't always come in the most convenient ways.

A good amount of time had passed since I'd originally inquired of the Lord and it's safe to say that my question wasn't exactly on the forefront of my mind. A bit of advice: Don't ask a question without preparing yourself for the answer, especially when it comes from the Lord. I did just that, forgot about my question and when the time came for my answer, it was hard to receive it. All I could see was the trial that had been placed before me, not realizing that it was the answer to my prayer. Unfortunately, when I finally realized that this was His way of answering me, I had already taken the "long way around".

So why was my teacher caught up in such a sad state by this simple sentence? Because, ironically, he knew what it would take most of us in the classroom to go through trials similar to what I had just faced, in order to be able to "render all that we have and are and all that we have the potential to be". Now, there is just one thing I would like to add to his statement. After the depression and the heartache, and after I got a little taste of what it would take to render my whole self to the Lord, afterwards came an indescribable joy that made it worth it in the end. I learned that the harder things in life also have the potential of yielding the greatest rewards.

The power of family Traditions

One of the traditions in our family is the Sunday gathering for supper. This is always been a time to eat, talk, joke and mingle with one another. Now that our kids have grown and two of them have move out, it is a time in which we look forward to get together and enjoy each other. Now my oldest son comes with his wife,my youngest son brings his roommates from BYU, my parents always come, and it is a glorious time. Just tonight I stepped back and watch everyone enjoying theme selves, somehow while making homemade donuts my mother (70 years old) started a food fight and the kids were laughing and joking. When we are together you can never tell how things will go because we like to have fun and be happy. This are the precious moments that life is all about. I love the traditions we set because it tells others what we are and what we believe. Family traditions are the glue that holds everyone in the family together even when the children have moved out. Seems that only few years ago my children were tiny, today they are adults managing their lives. I thank my Heavenly Father for this moments in my life. I would never change it for anything in this world.