It just happens that every single time they play there are 2 goal frames with a net, which makes it obvious when a goal is scored. However, last Thursday looked just like any other Thursday, full of people starving to play soccer, but this time there was no goal frame with a net, there was no goal frame at all! They searched for it, but no luck. Some people even left. Majority stayed and got creative by improvising, creating the ‘goal frame’ with shoe and backpack in one end, and shirts tied up in the fence in the opposite end made the 5 feet wide goal space.

Seven  on each side, whoever left waiting as usual, ball rolling, and with the improvised goal frames – problems raised. Most of the time the ball was kicked to the goal, comments like “It didn’t get in!” “It went too high!” “The ball went over the shoe.” “Hey this goal is smaller” was common. Not every player had objections, 2 to 5 would argue over the situation until whoever spoke more and louder won. The common agenda was too play, so the common decision was not count the goal, until the people waiting got frustrated and also wanted to be heard. They almost started a fight. Corruption was clear. The game was disorganized. Players became greedy. More people left. The experience wasn’t fun. It ended early.

As I saw it, I immediately connected this event to corruption and disorganization to get things done in underdeveloped countries. One little thing, in this case the goal frame with a net, made the whole difference. It draw a clear line between corruption and integrity, organization and disorganization. It dawn on me, that most people in any government or any pick-up soccer game lack true leadership skills, and disaster is waiting to happen if there’s no solid system where people can plug in to.

The question is – what is the ‘goal frame with a net’ in a underdeveloped countries? Whatever it is – a shoe, a backpack, and shirts tied up in a fence isn’t working and worse – inviting corruption. It has to be replaced with a real goal frame with a net. So it is clear when goals are scored, and everybody have a chance to play.

Dan, a mid-20 student and gymnastic trying out for the Olympics, is lost and disturbed by his current life situation; by developing a relationship with Socrates, an old wise mechanic working at a gas station, he finds many answers to his questions.

Being on the same category as Karate Kid, Tuesdays With Morrie, Dead Poets Society and Matrix in my film library, Peaceful Warrior, based on a true story, is a refresher of life’s most relevant philosophies. It isn’t possible to watch these movies and not have a different outlook on life, among many incredible insights following is some of the most eye opening quotes I captured:

“Wisdom is doing it”

“There’s no higher purpose than serving”

“Everybody tells you what to do, they don’t want you to find your own answers”

“Stop getting information from outside, and start getting it from inside, it’s the only place we find what we need”

“The trash is everything that’s keeping you from everything that matter, this moment, now”

“You have to lose your mind to come to your senses”

“When you become a warrior, you learn to meditate in every action, let go of attachments”

“All you have is right now”

“You are a jackass, when you let your emotions control you”

“The first realization of a warrior is not knowing”

“Habit is the problem, all you have to do is to become conscious about your choices and responsible for your reaction”

“The ones that are hardest to love, needs the most”

“A warrior doesn’t give up what he loves

“Life is full of choices, you can choose to be a victim”

“A warrior acts, only a fool reacts”

“There’s no stopping or starting, there’s only doing”

“When you don’t get what you want – you suffer, when you get what you want – you suffer, because you can’t have it forever”

“Don’t surrender the dream, surrender the thing you will never have or never will – control”

“Keep a sense of humor, especially about yourself, it’s a strength beyond all measure”

“Journey is what bring us happiness, not the destination”

Well, if you want to sing out, sing out
And if you want to be free, be free
cause theres a million things to be
You know that there are

And if you want to live high, live high
And if you want to live low, live low
cause theres a million ways to go
You know that there are

Chorus:
You can do what you want
The opportunitys on
And if you can find a new way
You can do it today
You can make it all true
And you can make it undo
You see ah ah ah
Its easy ah ah ah
You only need to know

Well if you want to say yes, say yes
And if you want to say no, say no
cause theres a million ways to go
You know that there are

And if you want to be me, be me
And if you want to be you, be you
cause theres a million things to do
You know that there are

Chorus

Well, if you want to sing out, sing out
And if you want to be free, be free
cause theres a million things to be
You know that there are
You know that there are
You know that there are
You know that there are
You know that there are

Stars shining bright above you
Night breezes seem to whisper “I love you”
Birds singing in the sycamore tree
Dream a little dream of me
Say “Night-ie night” and kiss me
Just hold me tight and tell me you’ll miss me
While I’m alone and blue as can be
Dream a little dream of me
Stars fading but I linger on, dear
Still craving your kiss
I’m longing to linger till dawn, dear
Just saying this
Sweet dreams till sunbeams find you
Sweet dreams that leave all worries behind you
But in your dreams whatever they be
Dream a little dream of me

Difficulties didn’t stop William. Although hungry and without school, this ambitious young man felt a burning desire to reverse his situation and help his community. He went to the local library daily to learn science, since English wasn’t his forte, he got by by looking at graphs and images and got inspired by a windmill. Being called crazy by family and friends, he used scrap material like tractor fan and PVC pipe to ingeniously build a windmill in his back yard providing his family with water and energy. Now, that’s a success story!

These moments of thin slices are tough to understand logically where they comes from, because the body sends weird signals. For example scientists lined up 4 decks of cards – 2 blues and 2 reds in a gambling setting. The blues cards made money, the red cards lost money. After turning 10 cards the gambler’s hand started to sweat, but it took 40 cards so he could understand the pattern to choose the money making cards. George Soros, a billionaire using the stock market, often changed his positions on the market because his back started killing him. Besides sweat glands, and back pain, faster heart rate, stomach feeling wrong, curious ringing in the ear, being struck by momentary depression can be other signals of the unconscious working mysteriously.

The problem with thin slicing is that it doesn’t dig below the surface, sometimes leading us astray. The unconscious crunches all the date it can from experiences we’ve had, such as people we’ve met, books we’ve read, places we’ve been, movies we’ve watched, lessons we’ve learned, and so on and it forms an opinion. Sometimes our opinion can be bias, specially when it comes to gender and race. The book calls it ‘the Warren Harding error,’ because Warren Harding was one of the worse presidents in the USA history, however his looks (white, tall, and strong) and demeanor suggested that he would be a great president. Also in a research setting, it was noticed that women and black people are offered higher prices while buying the same car than a white man, reinforcing the idea that woman and black people are unconsciously labeled as ‘suckers.’ You’ll be surprised to know that you probably also have this disturbing unconscious programming. See it for yourself: https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/

The best to way to have unconscious decision making working in our favor is to engage in hours of highly repetitive and structured practice. When experts make decisions under pressure, they don’t logically and systematically compare all available options, it would take too long, they just know what is right (most of the time) intuitively. The book talks about a person that has been around tennis his whole life (first as a player, now as a coach) that can predict when a player would hit a double fault precisely 16 out of 17x. There are also sportsmen examples of being on the zone, where they don’t hear the fans, the games feels to be in slow motion, and things just happen right.

Whenever we have something we care about, that experience and passion fundamentally change the nature of our first impressions. This doesn’t mean that when we are outside our areas of passion and experience our reactions are invariable wrong, means they are shallow. For example, while every single music expert thought a new musician called Kenna was going to be a big hit, when they put his songs to test, they surprisingly got a feedback below expectations. The same is true with tasting food and drinks, the book shows examples of average people not knowing the different between the taste in Coke and Pepsi, margarine and butter, different brands of brandy, and so on. In a matter of fact, experiments showed that the way the product was displayed payed a more important role in average people’s opinion about the product than the actual taste, like finding that ice creams sold in round containers sells more than the ones in square containers. Of course, food and drink experts have a more esoteric and complex taste buds being able to differentiate real tastes rather than being fooled by designs.

Unconscious decision making is one of the most complex and fascinating abilities of human beings. No doubt it played a major role helping humans to survive and reproduce over time. In today’s age it’s still very useful, and perhaps it’s importance has been dimmed by the easy access to unlimited information to make any type of decision. Blink is a mind refresher that reminds us of our innate ability that allow us to do great things. The lesson is clear – the more we engage in highly repetitive activity and structured practice, the more likely we will be able to make precise quick decisions. As we are a product of our past experiences, we must be wary of flaws that are embedded in our culture fabric, such as having negative associations with black people. The challenge Blink proposes is to see people, things, and situations for who they really are. The solution is to control the environment in which rapid cognition takes place so then we can control rapid cognition. Many things will change, such as “the way wars are fought, the kinds of products we see on the shelves, the kinds of movies that get made, the way police officers are trained, the way couples are counseled, the way job interviews are conducted,’ and so on.

I was watching Johnny, Lizzy, and Maribel (fictitious names) play with a Brio train set. Johnny and Lizzy are best friends (according to Johnny’s mommy) and almost 2 years old each. Maribel doesn’t know them, but is very social for a 4 years old. Although very quite and concentrated while moving the train on the track, Johnny has aggressive moments – first, kicking the track where Maribel was playing and running, second, hitting mommy in the face, when she was talking to him . Bad! Bad! Bad! Needless to say, Johnny’s mom wasn’t very happy and had him sit on a chair while he cried profusely. His ‘best friend’ felt his pain and immediately ran after him to console: ‘Are you okay?’ (Johnny is crying) ‘Are you okay?’ (Johnny is still crying) ‘Are you okay?’ Lizzy insists (Johnny is crying less now) ‘What’s the matter, Johnny?’ (slight crying) ‘Are you okay?’ (no more crying). Johnny ignores Lizzy and go back playing with the train, totally ungrateful as if nothing had happened, while Lizzy walked away with a feeling of accomplishment toward her mom in the other room.  After the situation has calmed down, Maribel who was watching the whole show turned to Johnny’s mom and said: “Boys are really gross. You should buy a girl next time.”

Johnny showing signs of dominance, independence, and calculated thinking while Lizzy showing signs of care, concern, and empathy at 2, and Maribel showing signs of social intelligence and consumerism at 4 was mind boggling.