About
James' Mindset
I am pragmatic, preferring bottom up learning and navigating. Understanding first principles allows me to derive what I need to know on the fly rather than relying on my memory.
This allows me to relax.
Inspiration Station
Inspiration Station
Inspiration Station
A great way to get to know somebody is to learn about the things that inspire them
Values
Inspiration Station
Inspiration Station
Inspirations are linked to values. Doing things that I value and find inspiring leads me to a fulfilled life.
Strengths
Strengths
Strengths
How I go about solving problems (aka tactics). My top 5 strengths per Gallup/Clifton Strengths assessment results
Inspiration Station - click pictures for more context
Inspiration Station Takeaways
There are no mistakes
only lessons learned
There are no justified resentments
We should seek to understand and humanize each-other, no matter the faults or grievances
Life is playful
Like music, or dancing - the point is to do it and have fun, not to end up in any particular spot or to get to the end as fast as possible
Be true to yourself
and by extension, the rest of the universe
Values
Learning
Making mistakes is inevitable, we must learn from them to learn how to avoid them. I enjoy teaching and learning from great teachers.
"We either learn from the past, or run from it"
- Rafiki to Simba - The Lion King
I know that by teaching I become stronger in the subject myself, and I am happy to make my team stronger in the process.
Authenticity
I have learned to care about truth - it's foundational for every functional relationship. I value honestly, especially with myself. I care that the data I present to others is validated factual and accurate. I scrutinize and test my own beliefs rigorously and strive to be paradox free, internally.
Is your gut telling you not do something, or "why am I doing this!??" --> LISTEN TO IT --> Dig deeper. Yes being true to yourself means you don't have to go to that birthday party you don't want to go to (hold your color), but is also means having a courageous conversations from time to time, which is often required to be a good ally to yourself (and others).
Efficient Communication
I appreciate (and find beautiful) excellent use of language, info-graphics, charts, tables, business processes, etc.. This includes all forms of art and music, and the ancient wisdom of our ancestors and standing on the shoulders of the great giants.
That feeling when your brain realizes more and more from something that looks simple at first - it makes me smile every time I see it, and producing that feeling for others is one of my favorite aspects of my professional experience (e.g. through. reporting/analytics and documentation/design artifacts).
Self-care
I think making the world a better place starts with accepting who you and honoring exactly where you are at, every day - because where else could you be? If you can't humanize and empathize with yourself, then you end up taking it out on other people. It is self-harm to want to change the past.
Have a healthy self-care routine, and don't feel guilty for engaging in it or for protecting that time.
Teamwork
One person can't do it all, you need a team to get any kind of worth project done (with exception to Cave Story).
It's a strength to:
- understand your own weaknesses
- understand the strengths of your team members
- know when to ask for help
Identity
I value people, music, art, etc, that spreads the idea of interconnectedness. I value shifting between different valid frames of reference, including one where I am the universe, aware of itself locally in this thing called James Price.
Top 5 Strengths
1. Learner
- I have a great desire to learn and want to continuously improve. The process of learning, rather than the outcome, excites me.
- I see learning as a moral/ethical responsibility – Bad things don’t happen to us; the universe just gives us learning opportunities.
- I think in terms of skills, which allows me to humanize and understand anyone (i.e.every ‘miss-deed’ can be boiled down to a lack of skills/knowledge, e.g. compassion, that the individual hasn’t had the chance to learn yet)
2. Strategic
- I create alternative ways to proceed and quickly spot the relevant patterns and issues. My work is resilient and reduces, rather than increases technical debt. I understand the big picture, before building anything.
- I prefer first-principle thinking that lets me derive what I need to know on the fly rather than memorizing the end-facts.
- Pragmatism and adopting Occam’s razor is what led me to challenging (and dismantling) the status quo of the ego à this grew connectedness as a strength without me realizing until 10 years later when I took the Gallup/Clifton strengths assessment
3. Connectedness
- I have faith in the links between all things, and know every event has a cause, in deference to causality.
- This is part of what makes me excellent at debugging code and creating reports between any two tables or systems, as well as what gives me the security and peace of mind to have Command, strength #4.
4. Command
- I have presence, and I can take control of a situation and make decisions (I’m proactive)
- I trust my gut. When I do make mistakes, I own up to and learn from them studiously
5. Intellection
- I’m introspective and appreciate intellectual discussions.
- Physics and philosophy are a big part of what inspires me: see my ‘Inspiration Station’ for more info (1 pager) (full version)
- Learning is central to my morality and ideology, which I can talk about at length, and have already written about (links to my writing are in my above inspiration stations)
What is an Ideology?
Your Ideology is your internal map of the world. Refining it, is about navigational prowess.
Some languages are well suited well for one task, maybe not so for another.
Language represents truth, collective knowledge. It helps us all be efficient.
Large increases in knowledge demand an update of Language in order to reduce complexity.
James' Ideology
It comes down to letting go of control - doing this paradoxically gives you more control/power than before
The diagram above is my own personal opinion - it's how I see the world.
Two key points here
- we are free to conceive and achieve our own goals - i.e. we transform the world around us (this is where I see our power as humans)
- we are not free to decide what is is that we want to transform (yet believing so leads to a drastically different, and harmful view of the world)
If you take for example your favorite color, or food, or who you love.. you must admit you don't consciously choose those things, they are determined by a lifetime of events/history. If you look closely, you'll find it's the same way for everything else.
I wrote about this in 2020:
Alan Watts said it most profoundly
"What this is saying then is, that:
Just as you don't know how you manage to be conscious, how you mange to grow and shape this body of yours, that doesn't mean to say that you're not doing it.
Equally, you don't know how the universe shines the stars, constellates the constellation, and galactifies the galaxies. You don't know!
That doesn't mean to say, that you aren't doing it (i.e. being the entire universe), in just the same way as you are breathing without knowing how you breathe"
Videos to Check Out (I'm not alone!)
Disorientation - Katie Mack
Get comfortable with getting uncomfortable
The Freedom of Being Nobody - Ram Dass
The most precise walk-through of the interpretations of reality I have ever seen, using an analogy of flipping through channels on your reality goggles.
How to be Completely Carefree - Eckhart Tolle
Suffering is a choice, or as Sage Francis said, "We're all born free, we die with the shackles that we adopt"
You are not your thoughts. You are more than than the ego.
The Best Kept Secret in History - Brian Muraresku
"If you die before you die, then you won't die when you die"
Hint: the first death is the death of the ego
Unlock the Sunlight Within - Zach Bush
Measurable benefits to internal coherence - what happens when you stop working against yourself (trying to control everything)
Is Change a Blessing or a Curse? - Ram Dass
Faith is: when you have come to the edge of al light you know and are about to step off into the darkness of the unknown, faith is knowing one of two things will happen:
- there will be something solid to stand on
- or you will be taught how to fly
Living in Survival vs Creation - Dr. Joe Dispenza
Effects of constant stress on the body.
Get out of survival mode; learn to relax, and create.
Placebos & Nocebos - SciShow
A deep dive into "attitude is everything" in 3.5 min
Time Adventure - Rebecca Sugar
[Verse]
Time is an illusion that helps things make sense
So we are always living in the present tense
It seems unforgiving when a good thing ends
But you and I will always be back then
You and I will always be back then
[Bridge]
If there was some amazing force outside of time
To take us back to where we were
And hang each moment up like pictures on the wall
Inside a billion tiny frames so that we could see it all, all, all
It would look like: will happen, happening, happened
Will happen, happening, happened
And there we are again and again
'Cause you and I will always be back then
You and I will always be back then
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