Life: job selection, tangocynic video

I was talking with my wife about choosing a job.

My very basic notion of a "job" is based on the premise that you provide some value and you get paid for it. So not everything we do can be a job. Even if you love a video game and are good at it, it doesn't warrant a job for you. Someone else has to see value in what you do highly enough to pay for it. 

To be valuable,  your skills for a particular subject matter. Good skills to get the job done well are important. 

Yet we do not always live only for doing what is necessary. We tend to do what we love to do, and tend to run from doing what we do not love to do. We better take it into account.

So here is my very basic notion for choosing a job. It is a quadrant system and is summarized in this table.

For this quadrant system, there are two major questions.
(I) Do you love what you do?  and
(II) Are you good at what you do? (in other words, can you provide value with your skills?)

If your job is in quadrant 1, you are good. Keep up the good work.

If what you do is in quadrant 2, you keep it as your hobby, or work to gain skills. Students and interns may belong here.

Jobs in quadrant 3 may not be perfect for you, but you are still getting paid for your skills and usefulness. Toast to "jobs that pay the rent." (The Devil wears Prada)

I don't see a reason why you would want to keep doing what you're doing in quadrant 4 under normal circumstances. You are not even doing good service there. Get out of there for the sake of everyone including you.

A job can migrate from one quadrant to another quadrant over time. It would be helpful to see where what you do belongs.

Some people have many loves for which they also have good skills. In this case, time is the restraint and they may choose a main "job" then take up a second "job."

The "job" may or may not be a BIG thing that makes you very rich. Sometimes what you love and are good at is not the type of work that gets you very rich. Bigger money is associated with bigger value, so if you are after money you need to take it into account additionally.

Also, nowadays even highly skilled and motivated people can lose their job and have a hard time finding another position. It's just like that. We may not always get to choose what we do for a living, but it is more rewarding to do what you love and are good at.


On a different topic. Someone in my Facebook posted a link to this YouTube video, and I found it quite hilarious. The maker(s), tangocynic, knows this Tango business very well.

"So you want to learn Tango?"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=JQ2u-xLu-QI


Disclaimer: This is not my video, I don't know the maker(s), and I don't have vested interest in them. All rights belong to them.

Dance: Pilobolus

We went to watch a performance by Pilobolus last Tuesday. Pilobolus is a contemporary dance company and is traveling the world showing their dances. They've won many awards.

Last time I watched live performance by Pilobolus was in 1999 or early 2000 in New York. Impressed, I bought a T-shirt. The shirt lasted for about 12 years before it started to tear and I threw it away. The T-shirt had a series of silhouette figures of their dance. One day a friend of mine, Rebecca, said, "the one on the upper left looks like a penis". After her comment, the dance silhouette suddenly looked that way. Rebecca passed away in 2011 in her 30's after a battle against breast cancer, and this episode is a reminder of her direct and funny ways of saying things.

Later I bought a DVD featuring collaborative work between Pilobolus and late illustrator Maurice Sendak of "Where the Wild Things Are." The film is called "Last Dance."

This time they traveled to Edmond, Oklahoma for a performance in a College. The tickets were sold out and their dances were great. The performance reminded me that what dancers can do if they push their athleticism and creativity to a higher level. 

Dance can be a very, very athletic act. However, for most partner dances and ballet, at one point in their advancement, dancers start trying to make the dance look easy and show no sweat. The performance by Pilobolus made me question the pretense. I am not saying that Pilobolus people sweat all the way, showing their sweats and efforts. I am saying that the pretense may be limiting some aspects of partner dance, or that some people who want to take "no sweat" pretense far below their ability limit.

That also made me think that I got to work on my own body and mind conditioning more. Hannibal Lecter said in the Silence of the Lambs, "No. We begin by coveting what we see every day." His comments are insightful, and that's one of the reasons the serial killer character is so memorable. Inspiring, or making us covet, some good arts can influence us.

I'll go to their performance again, if there is a chance.




The new kitten Deja has been doing typical kitten stuff. Active for some time, scratching and chasing anything that moves and what doesn't, then he falls asleep purring. Repeat this a dozen times, and this day is over. Let's do this tomorrow..... Life of a kitten looks simple. 

Life: Our new cat Deja; It is love

A few days ago my wife surprised me with her plan for getting a black cat. Apparently she had planned it for a while and already found a potential cat for adoption on Craigslist. So we went to check out the cat yesterday, and got him. He is a young, 8-week old male.

My family used to keep cats. The first one I remember came to our home when I was in junior high. He was a black-brown-white tri-color. He was with us for a few years and disappeared, presumably he got involved in a car accident or something. Too bad.

The next one, a yellowish brown-white female, was with my parents for a long time. She came to our home as an adopted kitten while I was in high school, and stayed with my parents even after I left the house for school. She lived for about 20 years.

While I was away from my parent's home, I did not keep animals. I had a fish tank with tropical fishes and water plants instead. I had to give it away when I left Kyoto to move to New York, though. The tank went to a coffee shop.

By that time, my sister seemed to acquire a taste for keeping cats. She started keeping two grey-blue American Short-hairs. They were twins. When my mother and I visited her place in Tokyo, they were still young and very active at night. They were not vocal at all, but they were running around almost all night, like a couple of Ninjas. Some time ago I heard one of them got sick. I wonder how they are doing.

While I was in my previous apartment in Oklahoma City, there was a neighbor's black cat. He was friendly. We nicknamed him Noisy and played with him (or he let us play with him. He was a cat, after all). 

Sure, cats are not as useful as dogs for practical purposes like as security guards. My wife pointed out that cats may be useful for keeping mice and wasps in check. I am not certain I was fully convinced of the usefulness. But I love cats for their independence.

Since we are adopting a black cat (my wife's personal favorite), after much debate we named the cat Deja (full name Deja Vu) after our favorite movie the Matrix. Other finalist names included Chess (after the Cheshire cat), Tango or Gotan (after what we do, and after a Japanese song (Original Italian) Kuroneko no Tango [Black Cat Tango]), Nero (Italian for black), Kuro (Japanese for black) and Merlin (wizard for King Arthur).

It is still in an acclimation period, and we have to teach him to behave. For now, he seems to be an adorable good cat and we are very happy. Today we went to buy some more supplies.


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In the last entry I wrote about the market and people. The notion that we people are in the marketplace and in competition is somewhat hallowing. Especially when we realize that we (or some of us) occasionally see other people as mere services or a product. But competition in the market is not all.

What is the something else? It is love.

Love is something that makes us overlook or forgive small (or sometimes big) flaws in us. With love, we see a person as a whole package and do not see him/her as a service or a product.

Let's take a "job" to illustrate this point. Let's say we apply for a job opening. In this case, the premise is that the most qualified, able, "get the job done" person gets the job. It is a competition in the market, fair and square. Someone wins and others lose.

But in reality, not all jobs are filled by the most qualified, able and competent person. Think of a family business. The job is filled by a family member, who can get the job done adequately, but is likely not the very best or the most competent in the world. 

To find a job, people use connections. "Connection" is a way of referring to an applied form of love.

The religious claim I mentioned in the last entry, "equality before God", is another way of telling people about the love. My understanding of the Judeo-Christian command "Love your neighbor" is that we should love our neighbor in this sense [i.e. overlook or forgive small (or sometimes big) flaws] and live in peace.

In life, we go for competition. Yet, there is always someone better in competition. Market inefficiency ("I am not competing in the market with him") and love ("It doesn't matter whether I win or lose in the competition. They still love me and I still love them") are two major ways to cope with the inevitable loss we encounter in life now and then.

Love gives us comfort and a sense of acceptance. Competition motivates us to improve, to step out of the small comfort zone we live in and achieve something better. Competition is not all bad. Competition helps us to achieve our best.

Knowing these two principles operating in our lives ("Competition in the market" and "Love") helps us to live with peace in mind. It is a matter of balance, or knowing which one to use and when.


While writing this entry, I realized that Love is like Money (see my previous thought about money in http://beginningargentinetango.blogspot.com/2013/02/life-creation-of-value-and-money.html). You can either be a giver or a taker, and it is better to choose to be a giver. In that way you will likely get more love in return.

Life: People and markets

Recently I bought some stuff from ebay. It is fun.

Ebay is a true marketplace. You can find a variety of products from all brands and non-brands. 

Sometimes, it is hard to see the difference between expensive brand products and lower priced non-brand products. A tie from a well-known Italian house, priced $147, and a dirt cheap import from China, priced $2.99, can look equally good. That makes me wonder what really determines the value and price in a market.

When everything competes in an efficient market like ebay, the justification I give to myself can be very arbitrary.

When I look for something but don't have much time, sometimes I just rely on the brand's name. But if I have time to look at many products, it is an opportunity for education. I come to realize what I like by going through many. I am acquiring education and experience virtually. I can move from being naive to having my standard very quickly. And it is good.


Some time ago, I heard a theory that many people apply the same process to people. To them, other people are a service or a product. Although it does not sound ethical or good, I see the point in the theory. The theory fits well to another more accepted "incentive theory", which is saying many people ask "what's in it for me" in order to make their decision. 

If you see it that way, dating service websites and job matching sites are basically ebay for people.  We tend to try to differentiate ourselves. We want to be "good" or valuable in the market in a certain way. All this personal branding is effort to increase his/her value in the market.

The problem is, you cannot be good at everything. That's why we use strategies, consciously or not, to increase our value. A usual strategy is to choose a market, or set up your own standard and limit your competition in the market of your choice. Introducing inefficiency to the market you are in, so to speak. For example, if you cannot beat a guy in a boxing match, just don't box with him. So you can effectively avoid competition with him in the "boxing" market. Do something else that you can do better.

I see there will be a desire to counter this trend. A desire for equality and anonymity. Many religions cater to the desire by claiming "all men are equal before God". I am certain the claim is soothing  to many, especially to the people who strongly feel they are not very competitive in the general market. They would like to interpret the claim as there is no need for market competition, or the winning or losing there does not matter.

This line of thought may explain, at least in part, why a large segment of religious people are the poor, the weak, the old, the ordinary, the under-educated, the unsuccessful and the losers. They are tired of the competition in a general market (where they don't win), and they choose to operate in a new market, namely in their church/temple, where they are evaluated only by how well they follow their religious teachings and dogmas. Success or failure in the general market does not matter there. The standard, the rule of the game, is different there. This may also explain why some religious people are so eager at enforcing their religion and their rules to others. It is with vengeance and it is personal. Phew.

Above is just a hypothesis that applies only to a segment of people. Unfortunately I cannot tell you how many people fit to the theory. Most likely they don't want to admit it even if it is true to them. Also, this hypothesis can be controvertial enough, and I don't really wish to confront heated or angry argument at this moment (or any time). I will leave this hypothesis to the people who find it interesting.