Posted under: Life, Relationships, Thoughts

(Does not exist - for you math nerds)

So I’ve been reading Freakonomics as a class textbook (one of two, don’t worry) for a while and it got me really thinking about the things that people do.

It basically all summed down to the point where people do what they do because of the incentive. People lie because of many reasons, but it’s mostly for some sort of good result (though there are cases that would refute this statement of mine). People lie because they don’t want to hurt anybody, they lie because what they are doing will hurt somebody, they lie because they don’t have the heart to tell the person what is really going on.

I remember as a child, I would try and disobey my father by being sneaky. Well, he was sneaky too because he would always find out, but he would wait for the right time to catch me in the act instead of confront me. I always remembered that although what I was doing was a bad thing (or something that he didn’t want me to do), he was more disappointed at the fact that I had to lie. That was my father, always ashamed that I had to resort to such things.

What I remember most about what I’ve read so far is how far people go for incentives. Teachers have been known to cheat, sumo wrestlers included. Real Estate agents have been known to use their expertise to their advantage, withholding information that might be valuable to a potential buyer or purposely creating manipulative ads.

People do so much to lie, but is it really worth it in the end? Now, I’m not saying that there’s someone out there that doesn’t lie and I have been known to do my fair share of distorting or bending the truth, but there are just some things that a person should not withhold from another, you know? But how can you judge or measure the severity of a lie? Does it depend on how upset it makes you feel? Does it depend on the act that was covered up? Or is it just the lie in general that is awfully damaging?

Either way, I think that although it may hurt the person to tell the truth, it’s better to say it upfront and from you than for the person to find out from another person or through another means. It always hurts more when the person or people you care about are lying to you.

Tags: cheating, deceit, deceive, games, lie, lies, Life, lying, People, reality, truth

Posted under: Thoughts

What’s yours?

I mean, everybody once in a while wants to escape reality, right? But we can’t always due it or fly to wherever it is we want to go, so how due you turn your mundane world into your escape?

For me, I choose books, movies, and games. Basically, I get lost in entertainment. I get lost in somebody else’s life so I don’t have to deal with mine. Sometimes, it’s not even a necessary escape for me; sometimes… well, it’s entertaining.

Lately, I feel that I’ve had the need to read more, to watch more, to get lost more. I know it’s not the greatest defense to deal with my problems, but it helps me stay calm. It helps me find my own way to cope.

Is there a chance you could ever get so lost, you can’t get back out again? I don’t know really… maybe it depends on the escape, right? My escapes aren’t that damaging to life, or at least I think so. But other people have different escapes, may it be drugs, alcohol, thrill-seeking, etc. So for those people, how do they know when it’s time to stop faking and time to start dealing? How does anyone know? Do you wait for it to get that bad?

I don’t know really. If you haven’t realized by now, I like to pose questions that have many answers, some of which are clear and some of which are not. But, that’s life right? Sometimes it’s clear and fun and other times it’s all muddled up with shit. Oh well, deal we shall.

Tags: books, escape, games, Life, movies, reality