Food For Thought: What We Can Learn from…a Psychopath

Link to podcast to follow

Before any of you reports me to the police, let me just say that the above is not, surprisingly enough, a reference to me; after all, as I keep being reminded on a daily basis, the world does not revolve around of me.

Prior to reading on today’s entry, I should like to implore you to (skim) read the following excerpt from Kevin Dutton’s recent book, ‘The Wisdom of Psychopaths’.

<< http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=wisdom-from-psychopaths >>

Before we go on any further, I’d like us to briefly look into the definition of ‘psychopath’.

‘’psy·cho·path

A person with an antisocial personality disorder, manifested in aggressive, perverted, criminal, or amoral behaviour without empathy or remorse.’’

Right then; looking at the above, your…average…psychopath is definitely not what you might call a ‘role model’.

Nevertheless, what Mr Dutton aims to achieve in his book is to, once again, remind us that everything is rather subjective and, thus, subject to interpretation and distortion.

Looking at the above definition through his prism, one might be quite taken aback and startled (as was I) by the end product.

Firstly, it must be borne in mind that anyone who finds it difficult or tedious to converse with others might be said to have some, albeit miniscule, degree of ‘antisocial personality disorder’.

Having said that, then, when we refer to a psychopath, we must not automatically imagine a serial killer but, rather, someone who is pedantic about and obsessed with what he does.

Further to the above, Dutton notes, is it not a positive trait to be (moderately) aggressive? Aggressive people tend to be more decisive, know what they want and, most importantly, know how to get it.

In relation to the amoral behaviour, it is quite debatable as to what exactly that constitutes – whether it is one dictated by law or one imposed by society.

Should we adopt the latter, will it not be beneficial to be amoral when certain morals impede our personal and/ or professional development?

Finally, is it not true that most successful magnates and entrepreneurs these days brag about their ruthlessness and the fact that their complete lack or remorse and empathy has been instrumental to their success?

In his book, Mr Dutton goes on to argue that psychopaths are often very decisive, practical, pragmatic and, over and above all, incredibly resourceful.

Such characteristics do not, of course, translate into wisdom; nevertheless, I guess that the book, unlike the excerpt, will endeavour to demonstrate what the author meant by those strong words.

In the end of the day, it might well turn out that, although lethal in large quantities (as is, ironically, everything else), psychopathy might well, when in moderation, prove to be beneficial to our development as individuals and as species.

One problem, however, remains; human beings have always seen ‘in moderation’ as too difficult a concept to grasp.

Food for Thought: BitCoins or a Bit of Coins?

Link to podcast to follow

Look at the goat in the picture; about a month ago, it could have been yours for the measly sum of $ 241 USD or 2.009 BITS.

In fact, in would not have mattered whether you were based in Thailand or anywhere else in the world as it would seem that the seller could have shipped the…item…worldwide; all you had to do was to email him for a quote.

In the light of the above, the question that you should all be asking yourself right now should most definitely not be:

 ‘What has a goat have to do with coins?’

But

 ‘What, on Earth, does ‘BITS’ stand for and where can I get some of those so that I can get myself a Thai goat from EBay delivered to my home in New Orleans?’

You will be happy (arguably so) to know that the screenshot that I have attached to this article is quite genuine and that ‘BITS’ stands for ‘BitCoins’; a word that Microsoft Word still fails to recognise (as it does with my name, alas).

Although I have been aware of the existence of BitCoins for quite some time now, I must admit that I have never looked at it before in any particular detail.

All I knew about it was that it was a decentralised digital currency created in 2009 (or rather in 2008 by the mysterious Satoshi Nakamoto); a currency which was yet to take roots in international trade.

A recent conversation that I had with a friend of mine, however, made me look into the issue in some depth.

‘Have you thought that fact that’, my friend asked me ‘you don’t get taxed when you trade goods for goods and services for services until you make a financial profit as there is no passage of recognised monetary units?’

Quite obvious, I thought; so what of it?

‘Well did you also know that the Federal reserve is not bothered about the BitCoins at present and they are not recognised as a currency?’

I most certainly did not know that. To put two and two together, then, case might be that traders might avoid (mind you, AVOID, not EVADE) paying tax if they choose to trade through BitCoins as they have not yet been recognised as a monetary unit.

Initially, I thought that BitCoins were not used by many, mainly because of the volatile nature of their market value (going from $ 220 USD to $ 30 USD in a month, for instance).

Nevertheless, having done some research, I can assure you that, nowadays, BitCoins are becoming more and more popular by the day.

You can buy pretty much everything; from pizza to  a ready- made gun.

(See << http://www.businessinsider.com/what-can-i-buy-with-bitcoins-2013-4?op=1 >>)

Further to the above, the amount of BitCoins in circulation will be capped at 21million by 2140.

Initially, the above sound quite enthralling; it might sound even more so when I tell you that you can trade BitCoins for ‘real’ money as well.

(See << https://mtgox.com/ >>)

To conclude then, if you’re feeling adventurous enough to think that the emerging BitCoin ‘gold rush’ is not yet another bubble waiting to burst, you might want to think twice before you pay in cash for your next goat.

Food For Thought: Think Before You Ink…Your Company’s Logo

Link to podcast to follow

Research shows that, in the midst of the recent economic meltdown, employees find it increasingly difficult to approach their employers for a pay raise.

In fact, most people nowadays fear that doing the above will result in their being replaced by a more qualified, quiet and, well, low- paid person.

Alas, owing to the current state of the job market, such a concern may sometimes be justified.

If you were to look at some statistics, in fact, you’d probably establish that asking your boss for a raise had lately become trickier than asking your partner to marry you- it’d seem that, for some inexplicable to me reason, the former required a far greater level of ingenuity and courage than the latter.

In the end of the day, though, there’s no point in stating the obvious and whinging about it; after all, there must be a solution of some sort!

Well, it’d seek that a New York- based real estate company might have come up with a workable solution to the above dilemma.

Rapid Realty’s (‘RR’) owner, Anthony Lolli, has recently approached his 1100 employees and offered them a 15% pay raise if they were to ink themselves with the company’s logo.

(See << http://news.ninemsn.com.au/world/2013/05/02/09/34/staff-offered-pay-rise-for-company-logo-tattoo >>)

Talk about innovation, eh?

Granted, the above idea does initially sound somewhat loony; nevertheless, forty employees have already taken up the offer and have gained a salary increase of 15%.

Mr Lolli’s strategy has its ups and downs, namely:

Pros

• Quite innovative and bald; the former showing customers that RR can be fun and professional at the same time and latter showing the competition that RR means serious business
• Employer approaches YOU for a pay raise and not the other way around; further, 15% isn’t half bad
• Beneficial to RR’s reputation; apparently (as per the article above), other real estate agents have grown to respect RR employees as a direct result of their newly acquired tattoos.
• Tattoo can be anywhere; it does not have to be in a visible place.
• Helps bring employees together; makes them feel proud of what they do and who they work for

Cons

• Denotes (party, at least) that the tattooed individual BELONGS to the company
• Hurts (or so I’ve heard)
• Permanent which can turn into a bit of an issue if you decide to, well, ‘change allegiance’
• Not all logos look or as fashionable as you’d want them to be
• Might give others the wrong impression that that’s the only way in which you can get a pay raise

 To put in a nutshell, although the idea is quite innovative in itself, it can be easily misconstrued by the more conservative people and turned on its head by the competition.

In the end of day, it would seem that employers should think twice before asking their employees to think before they ink.

Or something like that.

Food for Thought: How About That Early Retirement?

Link to podcast to follow

People who have lived in England long enough have learned not to treat sunlight as granted but rather as a phenomenon that must be talked about, cherished and enjoyed at all cost.

That, of course, is a bit hard when you’re stuck in an office all day, staring at your computer screen, taking calls and…well, doing any work indoors, really.

In fact, I’ve always found it quite strange how they don’t have ‘sun days’ in England whereas children are off school and busybodies are off work. Surely, that’s some sort of unacceptable discrimination on someone’s behalf; I mean, they’ve got ‘snow days’ and, lately, the Sun’s been around a lot less than snow.

Now, don’t get me wrong; I do love my job- I love helping people, doing legal stuff, etc, etc. and, frankly, I don’t think I can live a normal life without doing that.

Yet, sometimes I do wonder…Let me tell you why.

My grandparents back home live in the countryside. They’ve got two goats, a dozen hens, a couple of roosters, a cow and a ginormous garden in which they grow their own fruit and vegetables.

They also have a small vineyard and make their own wine.

Consequently, they rarely ever go to the local corner shop (let alone to the city) to get anything- they do it all by themselves.

The other day (another unusually sunny day), my housemate came up to me and said:

‘Mate, if it was sunny more often, everyone around would be so much happier! I mean, everyone was joking about at work today, we all had lunch at this place’s roof terrace, stress- free and all that! Amazing!’

And then it dawned on me: wouldn’t it be awesome if I could get a small house somewhere, growing my own fruit and veg and making my own wine whilst enjoying the Sun?

A couple of days ago, I stumbled across the following article in the Independent:

<< http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/my-very-early-retirement-at-33-8583307.html >>

To cut a long story short, the above is about a journalist who, at the age of 33, decided to retire to a small house in the French countryside. The reason behind his decision was that he was wasting the best years of his life on what he calls ‘the rat race’, id est being stuck in an office, gazing at the screen all day.

Quite a marvelous story, I thought. I then, however, read on to find out that the said journalist had a flat in London which he rented out to create enough income to ‘live off’ in France.

The idea of (very) early retirement in today’s capitalistic world is, then, in itself somewhat utopic. It might be true that such a peaceful existence greatly reduces stress but it is also true that it might also cause a great deal of stress when your income/ savings start dwindling at the speed of love (no intention to infringe copyright, Coldplay).

My grandparents would, however, beg to differ.

Why would you need money, they’d say, when you had all the sun, fresh produce and peace and quiet you could possibly ask for?

What more could you possibly want?

‘Everything’, said capitalism.

Food for Thought: Open Pay- How Much Do YOU Earn?

Link to podcast to follow

If I had a penny for each time someone asked me how much I earned, I would have been able to go to the nearest Jaguar dealership and buy myself an XF using a ginormous jar of pennies.

I’d put exactly £ 24, 974.99 worth of pennies in and, just as the shop assistant had finished counting it all, I’d say that there was no point in making the purchase as there simply weren’t enough pennies inside and it was better for me to come back when I had the remaining penny.

Now wouldn’t that be fun?

But honestly, how many times have your colleagues asked you how much you earned and vice versa?

I’ve never done it, personally; mostly because I’ve not seen any positive value in such a piece of information.

In my view, a collegial ‘discussion’ on pay can only lead to an unhealthy blend of jealousy, childish questioning and soapy gossip.

Thus, my usual answer to such ‘friendly’ queries is ‘A LOT’. Even though it’s blatantly untrue, it makes people think twice before they ask you a similar question again.

But what if I didn’t HAVE a say in the above? What if my colleagues had the LEGAL right to know what salary I was on?

Would that have increased or decreased employees’ overall chances of successfully negotiating a pay raise?

Well, we might not have to wait too long to find out.

Behold:

‘’Senators Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) and Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) introduced legislation last week that would not only require employers to prove that differences in pay among workers are unrelated to gender or any other qualities unrelated to their employment, but keep companies from punishing workers who discuss salary information’’

(See << http://money.msn.com/now/post.aspx?post=730edf43-c6da-4ed2-b3e4-a9ab5511acc2 >> ).

The Paycheck Fairness Act has been lobbied as an equal rights issue; proponents have argued that it will only improve employees’ chance of successfully negotiating a higher salary by giving them a solid footing and arming them with some solid ‘facts’.

Several issues must be noted.

To begin with, it must at all times be remembered that, as Uncle Ben said, with great power, comes great responsibility. Knowing what your colleagues’ salaries are means that they, too, know yours is.

The disturbing bit about that, of course, is that some people will not stop at trying to get a pay raise. It might come as a nasty shock to you but there are some viscously malicious individuals out there; ones who will take greater joy in getting you a pay CUT rather than getting themselves a pay raise.

Further to the above, the best person to judge what you are capable of IS your employer (let’s be honest here…) and NOT yourself. I mean, let’s face it, you’re a bit bias when it comes, well…you.

Thus, would it be a great idea to give every single employee a carte blanche to challenge any decisions by the employer to curb or raise someone’s pay?

Probably not.

But, then again, that’s exactly what they said about mobile phones, tablets and peanut- butter chocolate Kit- Kat.

Food for Thought: It’s Not Over Until the Fat Lady Tweets

Link to podcast to follow

One of my best friends, who had been working as a recruiter for a large London company for quite some time now, called me up about a year ago and asked me whether I was using twitter regularly.

I replied, rather jokingly, that I wasn’t too keen on sharing what I’d had for breakfast with the rest of the world.

As you might probably imagine, rather than laughing at my joke (which, of course, wasn’t funny at all), he uttered a simple:

‘Well, start using it then. Now.’

He stressed so hard on the last word that it almost gave me the hibbi gibbies (Google it).

As I grew ever so curious, I one day decided to re- activate my twitter account and start using it again; I wanted to find out what on Earth was all the commotion about.

It was nothing special, really; granted, it did give you access to an unbelievably vast array of information and data in a somewhat structured and user- friendly manner.

Yet, I couldn’t stay on for more than five minutes and did not, at any point, feel like sharing a picture of what I had for lunch with the rest of the world.

As I was browsing the World Wide Web a couple of months ago, however, I stumbled across an article which struck me as quite unbelievable:

<< http://theundercoverrecruiter.com/how-disney-and-5-other-top-employers-use-twitter-to-recruit/ >>

To summarise the above, it would seem that, recently, the world had turned into a stupendously bizarre place. To be a bit more specific, it would seem that both recruiters and employers were now approaching potential candidates through Twitter.

It took me awhile to assimilate the above; at first, I was quite stupefied. I then went on to Twitter and did a quick search, the results of which quickly turned my mild stupefaction into fiery annoyance.

The result was as follows:

About thirty law firms had advertised available positions through their Twitter accounts; positions which were NOT advertised on their websites.

Frankly, I wasn’t annoyed at the firms or at Twitter; I was annoyed at the various career workshops that I had gone to since I first came to England.

Why hadn’t anyone told me that Twitter was so important, I wonder…?

After all, they must have known about it, surely; it was their job to know, was it not?

To be honest, at first, I thought that the article referred to above was some sort of hoax but it really didn’t take me that long to find out that I was wrong to assume that.

All I had to do was a quick Google search on the importance of Twitter and the reasons behind employers and recruiters using it.

Here’s what I found to be the most concise of them all:

<< http://www.careerealism.com/reasons-recruiters-twitter/ >>

Quite simple, really; people used Twitter because it was FREE. Furthermore, it showed one’s ability to successfully entertwine one's professional with one's personal self by providing the world with a 140- character summary of one’s persona.

Last but not least, it showed employers that one was up-to-date with current trends and able to make good use of the power that is social media.

( see << http://myveryownhell.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/food-for-thought-power-of-social-media.html >>).

In the light of the above, then, it is high time we all started using Twitter to enhance our online presence and improve our employability.

That’s the harsh reality, whether you like it or not.

Follow me @Loki_LLB for more pointless chatter.

Food For Thought: Which Social Class do YOU Fit in?

Link to podcast to follow

You can see what ‘class’ you are by taking the following ‘test’:

<< http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22000973 >>

‘Dearie me’, I thought whilst listening to BBC’s daily podcast this morning, ‘it would seem that we have, once again, been put in a small carton box that initially seems way too high to climb out of…’.

You might say that the cold weather and freezing gale have turned my brain into mash and, to be honest, I wouldn’t blame you for that.

Nevertheless, I am not, in any shape or form, trying to be original or philosophical; rather I am merely expressing my disagreement with the recent report by the Great British Class Survey.

Here, have a look:

<< http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/iv-drip/britains-7-new-social-classes-do-you-fit-into-one-8558145.html >>

Even though I can appreciate the play on words (Great Britain, thus Great British, haha, lol, rofl, etc.), I’d like to note that there is absolutely nothing ‘great’ about the said survey.

What it basically did was re- structure the social class system of the UK, thereby putting new and shiny labels on people.

There are, effectively seven new social classes. I shall adopt the definitions used by ‘www.express.co.uk’ as I find those quite ludicrous and easy to make fun of.

I shall helpfully provide you with a commentary underneath each and every one of them.

See << http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/389166/Britain-and-its-seven-new-social-classes-so-where-do-you-fit-in >>

THE ELITE

Most privileged group with savings of more than £140,000 and top university education. Their income is £89,000 and their home is worth an average of £325,000. They enjoy the theatre, art galleries, museums and jazz.

COMMENTARY:

How does going to the theatre and listening to jazz class you as being ‘elite’…? Also, what does the ‘most privileged’ group mean? Is the report referring to people who have inherited their wealth and, if so, is that more ‘elitist’ than accumulating a fortune on your own?

ESTABLISHED MIDDLE CLASS

Second wealthiest and largest group, with household income of £47,000 a year, a house worth £177,000 and savings of £26,000. A quarter of the population fall within its ranks and it might be seen as the comfortably-off bulwark of British society.

COMMENTARY:

Again, what on Earth is meant by ‘comfortably-off’? Does it refer to one’s financial or social status? Also, how can you define someone’s social status without saying what music he likes…? Finally, have those people been to university at all one wonders?

TECHNICAL MIDDLE CLASS

Prosperous but with little interest in social or cultural events. It makes up only six per cent of the population but is prosperous – earning around £38,000, with excellent household savings of £66,000 and houses worth an average of £163,000.

COMMENTARY:

So, lots of money but no life? Surely, the above refers to ever- growing population of online gamers who bathe in money on a daily basis.

I wish the above definition made some sense to me; honestly, I do…

NEW AFFLUENT WORKERS

Young group on moderate incomes, owning homes worth £129,000 with small savings. They prefer playing and watching sport, computer games and social networking to traditional pastimes. Few have been to university but most work in private sector.

COMMENARY:

I personally thought that watching sport and social networking has long been a TRADITIONAL pastime in the UK. I mean, we’re not in the 16^th century, right? Also, YOUNG groups; whatever do young groups consider a traditional pastime, I wonder…knitting, most probably.

What else can you do without a university degree, right…?

TRADITIONAL WORKING CLASS

Oldest group, with house values of £127,000 but with incomes of only £13,000. There are few graduates and traditional working class jobs like lorry drivers, cleaners and electricians are over-represented as are menial white-collar jobs like secretaries.

COMMENTARY:

Right then; the times has finally come when we put university graduates and lorry drivers on the same social level.

Just reading the above makes me want to weep for today’s youth and buy myself a lorry.

EMERGENT SERVICE WORKERS

New, young urban group with modest household income of £21,000, likely to rent and only having modest savings. They work usually in the service sector, for example, bar work, chefs, customer service occupations and call centre workers.
 

COMMENTARY:

Ah, yes, judging by BBC’s test, that’s the group that I belong to.

As you might have already notice, I usually work as a barman, chef and a call centre worker; alternate weeks, of course.

Leaving that aside, I am quite new, young and urban, yo.

THE PRECARIAT

The poorest class, with a household income of only £8,000, negligible savings, and likely to rent. Most deprived on all measures including social and cultural. They represent 15 per cent of the population and tend to be located in old industrial areas.

COMMENTARY:

The Precarious Proletariat. Incredibly offensive, utterly unacceptable. I don’t even want to comment on the above. Why would I comment on a social class that doesn’t listen to jazz music and has no savings…?

In the light of the above, I should like to mention that I am truly not a big fan of putting labels on people, putting them into boxes and then, somehow, expecting them to climb out on their own.

If you want to help someone up, you don’t look down on him.

The sooner we get that, the sooner we can rid ourselves of this precariously proletarian mentality that modern society has helped us develop.

Food for Thought: BRICS-a-brac- ANOTHER Development Bank?

 Link to podcast:

<< http://www.mixcloud.com/antonipeychev/food-for-thought-brics-a-brac-another-development-bank/ >>

 

A lot has been happening over the course of the last couple of weeks; most notably, the European Commission has agreed to a Cypriot bailout worth ten billion euros.

But I’m sure you’ve all read plenty on that; in fact, I’m so certain that you have that I have chosen to completely ignore the said (or sad?) topic this week and not comment on it at all as the mere thought of it all makes my blood boil.

Thankfully, my decision (as well as many Russians’ decision, I guess) to leave Cyprus alone did not result in my crying over the fact that I would not have anything to write on today.

Luckily for me, the BRICS block (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) had heard that it was my birthday yesterday and decided to formalise an agreement to set up a BRICS Development Bank.

Alas, they had clearly misread my birthday wish list; I don’t remember asking for ANOTHER development bank.

Prior to delving into any detail on the proposed arrangements to set up the first formal BRICS institution, it is worth mentioning that BRICS countries account for more than 20% of the world’s GDP and have a total population of 2.8 billion (40% of the world total).

Further, they’re on three continents and are, thus, a force not to be reckoned with.

And let us not forget that China is one of them; a country whose economy is predicted to become the world’s largest by 2020 (or earlier…).

Finally, a thing that BRICS countries have in common is that few of them are in the US fan base.

For instance, Russia recently introduced a law precluding American citizens from adopting Russian children.

See << http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/28/world/europe/putin-to-sign-ban-on-us-adoptions-of-russian-children.html?pagewanted=all >>

Also, the US has recently blamed China for spying on its news agencies and private companies and sabotaging their operations through Chinese companies selling hardware which can be ‘potentially hazardous’.

See re former << http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323549204578316413319639782.html >>

See re latter << http://www.nbcnews.com/business/chinas-huawei-zte-should-be-banned-us-lawmakers-1C6335293 >>

The above might, naturally, be mere speculations and simple misunderstandings; yet, in my view, they paint the picture quite well.

Going back to the initiative, however, it’s rumoured that the planned initial available operating capital of the future BRICS development bank will be some £ 33bln.

The role of the bank will be to ‘fund infrastructure and development projects throughout the developing nations’.

The only current outstanding issue that is pulling the project backwards is the countries’ inability to agree on their contribution to the bank’s capital.

It has been suggested that the capital contributed should be proportionate to the country’s wealth.

This, would, however, mean that China and India would have a significant advantage over the other three countries; something which might result in an imbalance in their influence on and control over the bank’s future affairs.

But something tells this author that a formal agreement will be reached sooner rather than later because, speculative as it may sound, there are those who have had enough of the ‘supremacy’ of the US dollar in the world’s markets.

In support of that statement, China and Brazil have agreed to a bilateral currency swap line which permits them to trade up to $30 billion annually in their own currencies.

Doing so moves almost half their trade out of US dollars.

See <<http://www.globalresearch.ca/new-brics-development-bank-announced/5328794 >>

In the light of the above, then, one might well be justified in querying what the true purpose of the BRICS meeting and the decision to set up a development bank to rival the World Bank is.

Time will tell, I guess. For now, it all looks too complicated.

That’s why we should all have a break; and have a Kit- Kat.

Food for Thought: Why do we dream?

Link to podcast:

<< http://www.mixcloud.com/antonipeychev/food-for-thought-why-do-we-dream/ >>

I somehow managed to, yet again, sleep for twelve hours last night. The result of that, for some inexplicable to me reason, was a huge- donkey (as I’m not, apparently, allowed to say ‘ass’) sequence of bizarre as Hell dreams.

The really perturbing bit was that I remembered most of them when I woke up today. For instance, in one of them, a friend of mine told me that someone had stolen his most prized possession- a fist- sized Faberge egg worth £ 2mln.

I then set fire to the said friend’s house (as that was, obviously, the most logical thing to do...) and called the police and the fire service, saying that I started the fire (again, ultra logical).

My friend then came in and, almost drowning in tears, told one of the insurers (whom I had apparently also called in...) that his Faberge Egg was destroyed in the fire.

‘Insurance fraud.’, I shouted. ‘I stole the egg last night, it couldn’t have been in the house when I set fire to it’.

I’m sure that all of you, at some point, have wanted to control your dream and what you were saying in it mainly to refrain from sounding like a complete idiot.(we CAN do that; it’s called a LUCID dream and can sometimes be controlled, see << http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sP_jzImhP8s >> )

 I mean, why would anyone DO or SAY any of the above things!? 

As a constable was telling me that I had the right to remain silent and that everything I said could and would be used against me, I interrupted him and said:

‘And I have a right to lawyer, right?’

‘Right...’, said the constable.

‘Ah, what a coincidence! I’m a lawyer. We’re all good then!’

At that point I woke up, covered in cold sweat and truly ashamed of the distasteful joke that I had attempted to make.

I then decided to finally find out why on Earth was I dreaming so often recently. Upon watching a couple of documentaries and reading several articles (in bed, under the covers, cheers flu...!) I was rather surprised to find out that there was not a definite answer to the seemingly simple question of  ‘Why do we dream?’

There are, however, several theories which are worth discussing, albeit briefly, namely:

Dreaming acts as an information sieve

The dreaming process sifts through all of the information accumulated throughout the day and discards those facts and patterns which are of no use to the brain (or at least to the way in which WE use our brain). That would mean, for instance, when dreaming, I should have forgotten all of the information on the topics that I had been writing for my blog as they had nothing or very little to do with my everyday activities, namely, law.

That, as you might probably imagine, has not, however, happened; I still remember every single piece I’ve written up for this blog.

This theory does not, then, work UNLESS I have somehow imbedded  in my brain that writing up my daily articles and retaining the information in those will assist me in my day-to-day activities (which, conveniently, now include maintaining a daily blog).

Dreaming helps us adapt and survive

Another theory is that we have nightmares as they prepare us for the difficulties that we experience in real life. For instance, if a wolf chases you in your sleep, it’s probably because one is likely to chase you on your way to work the next day.

But seriously; the theory states that our dreams most often include emotions such as fear and anger simply to show us that those can be dealt with in real life.

If that is the case, however, why is it that other negative emotions are being left out? Furthermore, do we not need to adapt to the positive ones, as well...?

Dreaming acts like psychotherapy

Dreaming is said to help you confront your greatest fears in a way which will not have any direct consequences in or impact on your real life. Furthermore, if you manage to learn how to control your actions whilst dreaming (LUCID dreaming, see above), you will potentially be able to choose ways in which to tackle and deal with the said fears.

Again, such a theory might be seen by some as quite farfetched owing to the fact that dreams are not the same as reality and even if you control them at all times, you are quite aware that it is a dream and are, thus, quite braver and often do things without caring about the repercussions that they might have; not so in real life.

The study of dreams is currently advancing quite rapidly mainly because scientists are on the verge of being able to record people’s dreams.

Whether this will help us solve the mystery or not is a different story; I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

Until then, eat all the cheese you want before to go to bed as it’s not true that it gives you nightmares; on the contrary, it helps you  go to sleep faster.

And it might help you dream about cheese; how cool would that be?