A trip of mind

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Managing Partner
Phenomena Communications

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Dr. Ali Anani - Managing Partner
Dr. Ali Anani : As General Manager, Dr. Ali Anani heads and supervises a team of
talented young professionals, and manages the overall brand strategy - ensuring
the cohesiveness and creative parts of each campaign for all Agency clients.
Dr. Ali Anani holds a PhD from the UK (1972). He has a wide experience in many
fields. His accomplishments include the writing of more than eighty publications in
international journals, the writer of three printed books in Arabic and one E-book in
English. He has written widely for the media and presented a TV program and
many radio programs.
Dr. Anani main credit is his creativity thinking where he scored among the top %5
creative people worldwide. Dr. Anani is an invited lecturer for more than fi y
international conferences and an author of many business slogans. Moreover, he
has travelled to more than fi y countries as an invited speaker and consultant and
has consulted for many international agencies including UNIDO, Atomic Energy
Agency, UNDP, ESCWA, private businesses and governmental agencies.

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A Trip of Mind 6
A Trip of Mind (2) 8
A Trip of Mind (3) 10
Network Sharing Based Marketing 13
A New Path of Thinking 16
Instant Times and Emerging Habits 18
A Challenging Writing Metaphor 22
We Have Bad Habits at Home and
Work- 2 Rules to Deal with 25
Sour Feelings and Sour Food-
inspirational ideas 29
We Plan and Destiny Laughs 32
Emotional Marketing- New Perspectives 35
Thinking On the Edge of the Box 38
The Black Side of Recruiting Talents 41
The Poorly Understood Fear 44
The More We Know, the Less We Know 47
Thinking Fast and Assuming Faster 51
We Are Value Throwaway Societies 54
The Adjacent Opposites 57
The Journey to Finding My Purpose in Life 60
Lean Management of «Emotional Wastes» 63
index

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A Trip of Mind
Ali Anani, PhD

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A Trip of MindThis is a random trip that took me to new ideas and inspirations. I decided to
share it with you how they gave birth to new thinking..
I randomly selected one word from my last LinkedIn post and it turned out
fearful. The first idea that occurred to me is to check the opposite of fearless. I
got this list:
cowardly, afraid, fearful, meek, shy, stupid, timid, uncertain, unintelligent,
unsure, weak, apprehensive
My eyes fell on the word weak. What is weak? I wrote weak personality and
weak structure. WOW! From the two the idea of personality structure surfaced
out. This prompted me to Google this term. The first thing my eyes spotted was
a reference showing the iceberg of personality structure (Freudian Psychology
and Psychoanalysis). As much as this reference is important, I didn›t feel hooked.
So, I marched on with the trip of my mind taking me into directions that I didn›t
plan for.
My search trip took me to a nice idea that I wish to share with you. “If you feel
lost, disappointed, hesitant, or weak, return to yourself, to who you are, here
and now and when you get there, you will discover yourself, like a lotus flower
in full bloom, even in a muddy pond, beautiful and strong.”
― Masaru Emoto, Secret Life of Water, That is an illuminating idea. It is not river
with no return. It is returning to myself that shall keep me strong. But I defer this
idea for later.

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I continued my mind trip with eagerness. Nice ideas along the way encouraged me to
continue. My eyes fell on this lovely quote: How Anxiety Can MakeYour Legs Feel Like
Jelly? Overly stressed people may feel they have jelly legs that can hardly support
them or keep their balance. Because most people don›t realize this is a temporary
problem they worry and this in turn complicates further their suffering from having
jelly legs. It is like a fire feeding itself with fuel and the burning intensifies.
The question that came to my mind is if the increased stress among employees is
causing a phenomena that is not visible, which is having weal personality structures
among employees would lead to having jelly organizations that feed their anxiety
onto themselves rendering them weaker. Do employees with weak personality
structures infect their organizations and weaken their «standing» structure because
of having jelly legs?
How Anxiety Can Make Your Legs Feel Like Jelly? the answer is because many people
find that their fight or flight system is activated all the time, without anything that
should cause them to feel that reaction, and one of the symptoms of this problem
is weak legs, or «jelly legs.» Fight or flight are two opposites that if we swing rapidly
in between we may suffer from jelly legs. This is kind of «emotional stress». Is this
any different from thermal stresses in which if a material is heated, dipped into ice
and again and again it shall weaken because of thermal stress. Alternating rapidly
between hot emotions and cold emotions may as well lead to having jelly legs, which
tends to intensify.
many people find that their fight or flight system is activated all the time, without
anything that should cause them to feel that reaction, and one of the symptoms of
this problem is weak legs, or «jelly legs.»We live sometimes in a hesitant way that may
infect us with jelly legs. We do that when we are caught between two alternatives
such as will people like it or not. We swing between yes and no so fast and strain our
bodies.We are not returning to ourselves and are seeking the approval of others.This
is straining and self-feeding that we should try to stop.
So what is the solution…that I shall cover this in the next post

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A Trip of Mind (2)
Building on my previous post and how
to manage emotions the idea that
emotions are very complex means that
they are simply unmanageable. What
we observe are emergent phenomena
and they end up in -8wave movements.
I showed previously how emotions in
boththestockmarketandmountaineers
follow this -8wave movement (see Slide
10 in particular).straining and self-
feeding that we should try to stop.
So what is the solution…that I shall
cover this in the next post
No matter what we do, our emotions settle in an attractor that has this wave shape.
In fact, moving in between two emotions such as rapid swing from greed to fear
still follows this wave shape as we have a fractal movement of emotions.
My mind trip took me to the inquiry if there would be an experimental proof for this
observation. My research lead me to see if pendulums (representing pendulums of
emotions) would show similar behavior.WOW! I found this great video in which the
springs were arranged as follows (this is a screen shot from the video)

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Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVkdfJ9PkRQ
The great amusement is that upon moving the balls they generate guess what?Yes, it is
waves as the screen shot below shows:
Source:
https://www.youtube.com/
w a t c h ? v = y V k d f J 9 P k R Q
The above findings made we wonder if
our emotions are arranged similarly so
that they produce the emergent wave
structure that we experience.
I wonder where my imagination shall carry
me. An imagination that is fostered by the
wavystructureoficeonsand*background
image of this post)

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A Trip of Mind (3)
I thought my trip of mind ended till Sara Jacobovici made a mind-engaging
comment on my previous MindTrip (2) post. In her comment Sara wrote «… space
between emotions like, do the waves give off vibrations and/or frequencies…».
This comment stirred my mind and took my mind to this trip.
The Emotional Guidance Scale discusses the emotional vibrations as is shown in
the figure below. It proceeds from low frequency emotions to higher frequency
ones. This is a widely known scale of which I have some concerns.

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In this scale it is much easier to move in steps. For example, if you are in the fear state,
try to move on to one above (insecurity) than it is to go all the way up to joy. This is
consistent of recent studies that I shared a while ago.
The real value of this scale is the mind-opening opportunities it provides. There are
many studies pointing out that if fear is combined with ignorance the result is hatred,
which is above fear in the Emotional Guidance Scale. Yet; it is hatred that is ascribed
to many social problems. Under hatred in the scale is jealousy this meaning that
jealousy is a precursor to hatred. If fear goes all the way to hatred and this builds up
so what would happen?
Just think now for a minute. remember a story in which somebody was jealous of
somebody else for long times. You shall find that this jealousy turned into hatred.
Mounting hatred intensifies to unthinkable acts like mass killing. The question that
clouds my mind is why fear doesn›t lead directly to mass killing and it goes first to
less evil emotion of hatred? The answer to this question may be because fear is a
paralyzing inward feeling. It doesn›t lead to direct violence because of its passivity.
A fearless heart is frozen and is incapable of action. It is when fear and combined
with ignorance and wrong understandings that it turns outward and hatred to
others. Hatred is energizing and therefore leads to vicious actions. prolonged hatred
progresses to bitterness, which intensifies the desire to hurt others.

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The above image may be combined with Maslow›s Pyramid of Needs so as to expand
it and make it more functional. In this pyramid, a basic human need is feeling secure
and free of fear.This should expand on the utility of Maslow›s Pyramid to storytelling
I know of two ladies who came from too different backgrounds. One of them came
from a very rich family. In contrast the other lady suffered from poverty. As she did
extremely well in the high school exam she was offered a scholarship in a good
university. There she met with the rich lady. They became friendly. Post to their
graduation the rich lady got engaged. In her engagement party her friend met with
the brother of the man who got engaged to the rich lady. That turned the rich lady
furious and didn›t accept that her poor friend has the same social status. That refusal
turned into hatred and shame that ended in the rich lady killing the poor lady. It is
amazing how hatred may develop into bitterness with all the fatal sequences it has.

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Network Sharing Based
Marketing
The changing landscape of business is bringing about many new changes. Even
though marketers are responsible for finding a fertile soil and salespersons
will be in charge of selling in this discovered soil; yet it is not that simple. One
driving reason for that is that customers are not only a source of cash; they
are growingly becoming a source of referrals, of mouth-advertising, of free
promotion, of idea generators and many more roles. Can we market or sell
using old methodologies?
The advent of social media with its massive power to network on all levels
and the use of this new platform to communicate without serious barriers has
shaken the landscape and the volcano of possibilities erupted.
A business would consider new strategic thinking to cope with these changes.
Strategic questioning may help in shaping out our strategic thinking. Examples
of questions to be asked include:
How to build a solid network and what creative metaphors would help?
How t link a company network with those of its customers and friends of
customers?
How to create a symbiotic relationship between a company›s network and
those of customers?

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Asking unconventional questions lead to unconventional thinking and strategies.
Upon writing this post the picture of fungi roots network entangling and forming a
mutuallybeneficialsymbioticrelationshipwiththeirhostjumpedinfrontofmyeyes.
Fungi bodies consist of masses of thin threads known as mycelium. These thread-
like networks connect to the roots network of near plants to exchange information,
nutrients and even to repel predators. Estimations are that around %90 of land
plants are in mutually-beneficial relationships with fungi. plants provide fungi with
food in the form of carbohydrates. In exchange, the fungi help the plants suck up
water, and provide nutrients like phosphorus and nitrogen, via their mycelia. Is it
surprising then that fungi are called The Natural Internet?
The more we learn about these underground networks, the more our ideas about
plants have to change. For example, the fungi colonizes the roots of plants. In return,
the plant releases defensive chemicals that help the plant stay healthy and ready
for microbial attacks. Simply plugging in to mycelial networks makes plants more
resistant to disease.
Now, consider the customers networks as the substitute for the fungal networks.
Think creatively how to create a symbiotic and beneficial relationship to both
parties. Let the customer benefit from referring to you, from recommending you,
fromwritingaboutyou,fromsharingandlikingyourpostsandfromrecommending
you. Know what your customers› desires, wants and needs are and provide them
whenever possible. Share their posts, congratulate them and create ideas that
nobody thought of to please them.

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More than that your customers have their networks that give them different
exposure than what your business has. Their threads reach places that you might
not be able to. This varying exposure will make your customers a rich source for
new ideas. Feed on those ideas. Acknowledge the customers who benefit you.Write
an E-book about them, or whatever they like. Entangle their network with yours. Is
there a better way to hook them.
That is not all. Remember that some plants have aerial roots that expose them to
light. So, are some of your customers who might build networks in the air. They are
your source to the unconventional ideas. They tend to clean your reputation and
defend you. They release good words about you. Extend the chain of gratitude and
the degree of entanglement. Do you remember the story of the rabbit and tortoise?
The tortoise carries the rabbit in water and the other way around on land. Carry
your customer and the customer shall be available to carry you.
There are three primary functions of roots: (1) to anchor the plant to a substrate, (2)
to absorb water and dissolved minerals, and (3) to store food reserves. Make your
customer as source of anchoring,, stabilizing, information- provider and backup for
difficult days.
«We can›t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we
created them.» - Albert Einstein. I would extend this thinking with a twist to say that
we can›t do business on the same level with our creation of new business landscape.
We need network type of thinking to align with the fact that we do business in
a landscape based on networks and their connections. It is a reciprocal business
climate and we need to make it beneficial for all parties.
I dedicate this post to Vishwanath Krishnamoorthy who made so many deep
comments on my posts that enriched my mind.
You may find a visual and modified presentation of this post here.

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A New Path of Thinking
My mind was ready to write a post when my eyes fill on a LinkedIn post by the
thinker Brad Fergusson. The post reads as follows:
I found myself immersed in this post and taking a different path by writing a different
post.
The story begins like follows: the performance of an employee may be estimated
from the following equation
Performance - Desirability X Ability
But are all people with enough levels of ability and desirability equally successful? In
some cases they are not. So, what is wrong? What is the missing piece of this logo?
The above image gave me the clue to answer this puzzle. It might be commitment

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that is the missing piece. Is there an evidence to support this postulation? And on a
discovery mission I started my sailing. What are the components of commitment? Is
there an equation for estimating commitment I was blessed with a quick finding of the
equation of commitment and the details of its components.
You shall be committed if you:
Treasures--the rewards you get from pursuing the relationship or goal.
Troubles--the difficulties you experience. remember that Troubles have five times
more weight than Treasures- a point that I shall explain later.
Contributions--the time, energy, and tangible resources you’ve devoted to your
relationship. and
Choices--the options you do or don’t have- the more options you have, the less
committed you shall be.
For example, a new mother will contribute her time, and energy to look after her
newly-born baby. However; if she has a twin her contribution to each one of them will
be less because she has two options for the same resources of time, energy and other
attributes.
You have figured it out. The equation to commitment is:
Level of Commitment = (Treasures – Troubles) + Contributions – Choices
People will perform not only if they have the ability and desire, but also if their level of
commitment is high because of limited options and treasures that outweigh troubles
and where they feel their contributions are making the difference.
Now, I even understand better my previous post on Network Sharing Based Marketing.
The fungi and host plants share information and nutrients. They have been doing that
for ages. And they are still committed. The fungi has limited choices for some basic
nutrients and so are the plants. They have few options to depart company. They are
willing to contribute because if the plant dies, so will the fungi and vice versa. It is
survival at stake. They are exchanging food and regardless of the troubles, if any, this
exchange would cost.
Rod King, Ph. D developed the ratio of (Delight/Pain). I believe it is that we may increase
pain so that customers would stay committed. As I outlined in my last post building
a networks of known deficiencies so that a business would get hurt as the customer
would get hurt by departing is the way to keep customers. It is the creative approaches
that shall find ways of doing that because we limit options and make the cost of the
troubles so high that both parties couldn›t part company and even if they wanted to.
Thank you dear Brad Fergusson - PBP for the Inspiration

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Instant Times and
Emerging Habits
We are living in instant times- instant coffee, instant capturing of images, instant
calls, instant services from coin machines and many other forms. Instant triggers
allow you to divert your patterned thinking and move into new space of thinking.
I find myself opening few windows simultaneously to check ideas and probe their
worth. Instant emerging tweet triggers that send you in pursuit of fresh news are
among the detracting forms of the instant societies we are turning into. Social
media mirror these phenomena. Instant messengers, instant reply, e-mail alerts
and instant sharing of images and videos and the instant possibility of connecting
with others all exemplify the way our societies are turning into instant ones. You
need more examples, just download a video and see how patient you are with the
downloading rate.

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The more we get into the habit of instant services and information, the more
we expect to get things delivered in no time. If we advertise we expect instant
rewards. We are getting more impatient with waiting times. Where would all this
emerging habits lead us to?
Emergence brings changes with it. The explosion of information is one example.
Just Google any search items and in few seconds you shall get million of citations.
Which ones to read? Mostly, you shall be in an instant decision-making situation
based on many attributes such as: the title, random selection, eye-capturing
image, video with a nice thumbnail, order of the citations in the page or other
factors. You need to be creative in capturing the senses to make people read your
stuff.
Creative solutions are emerging. Twitter, for example, is rewarding ads with many
clicks by lowering the fees of these ads. As the lifetime of tweets is decreasing you
need to add fresh tweets quite often. Shrinking times and more work is required
reflecting the mounting stress placed on our shoulders.
Realizingwhichmaterialstravelfastandattractreadersmayfurnishtheopportunity
of using this material as a «carrier». For example, a tweet that is retweeted with
very short cycle times are candidates to for you to retweet and meanwhile use the
tweet as a carrier like a dandelion uses the wind to «carry» its seeds. This is kind of
parasitic advertising.

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Mentioning the dandelion brings a second issue into this discussion. Have you
ever watched Seeing how things grow like a dandelion. Growth takes time and
only when we see the full cycle of growth we enjoy it and observe development
as they look backwards on the growth process. This is a serious issue as we may
not see things instantly.We need time to do that. It is surprising how impatient we
are getting. The dandelion video took time to produce and the process is shown
in less than two minutes video. Yet; some viewers move the video forward to skip
frame and see how it ends. This is tempting me to conclude that:
Observation is going to be a victim of the emerging instant habits. One
observation that captured my eye and is worthy of observing is shown on this
video on Time lapse - whole gecko eaten by ants in just a few hours! If you watch
the video or the screen-captured frame below (if you don›t have time to watch
the video) is of ants feeding on the gecko in great numbers, and yet I have not
seen two ants colliding. It is amazing how ants do that and what lessons we may
derive from them.

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Is this due to the ALEE Effect in which Allee was able to demonstrate that conclude
thataggregationcanimprovethesurvivalrateofindividuals?
It occurred to me to offer the idea of new classification system for postings on
social media. It is derived from ACFOR. is an acronym for a simple, somewhat
subjective scale used to describe species abundance within a given area It is the
easiness and almost time free ease of publishing that mey tempt us to flood the
internet with posts.
A– The species observed is «Abundant» within the given area.
C– The species observed is «Common» within the given area.
F– The species observed is «Frequent» within the given area.
O– The species observed is «Occasional» within the given area
R– The species observed is «Rare» within the given area.
Should we classify our posts accordingly? How will this affect our frequency of
posting? We don›t fly- but time flies. It is getting more difficult to catch time than
to catch your shadow?
I look forward to your feedback.

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A Challenging Writing
Metaphor
The number of publications is growing rapidly. Readers have less time to read and
look for quick «injections» such as solid synopsis, talking images and reflecting
keywords.
Why do you want to write? Do you have a unique idea to publish so as to get
feedback? What is a unique idea? Is there a metaphor to help us in writing with
uniqueness?
These questions were bombarding in my mind. I went back to the ACFOR Scale
and tailored it to reflect on ideas.

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I could also project ideas on a Long-Tail Distribution (or, I should I say Long- Neck
Distribution, or as in this image it is both long-neck and short-tail combined)?
The Long-Neck Distribution of Ideas
Ideally, we are looking for an idea that is rare as it has not been discussed on a
wide scale with the simultaneity of having high value for the reader.
Idea seeds what comes to my mind next. What seeds are rare, sold at profitable
prices? Why such seeds are rare and do they serve in for high-value added
ideas? I started my journey that ended on landing on the Wasabi seeds. Wasabi

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is a rare plant that grows in limited areas of Japan. To grow, these seeds have
strict condition of limited temperature zone tolerance, very specific exposure
conditions to sunlight, correct nutrients and watering procedure. Being rare
apparently comes from the unique growth requirements. Do you have a rare
idea? Why is it rare and very few people thought about it?
So, rare writing ideas require growth under specific conditions. Too much
exposure to sunlight, flooding them with many divergent thoughts might hurt
the «idea crop». Not only that as wasabi seeds require long times to mature.
Seeds of great ideas are similar and need time to mature. being rare also means
their acceptability shall be low at the beginning. As banks are reluctant to fund
startups wasabi projects so are readers of rare ideas they not accept rare ideas
with open arms. Endurance is the secret in following up on a writing ideas that
are rare, take time to crystallize out under strict conditions only to find out that
they are not welcome! Writers must stick to their vision and pursue it because
they realize these limitations.
Planting wasabi seeds is challenging and need hand-on expertise. You need to
try, and only to find the result is a dead plant. Writers may try repeatedly to grow
the rare seed of their ideas only to find that the art of writing is rewriting. A writer
is not writing on a normal idea and rare ideas need specific writing conditions.
harvesting of the wasabi plant require different procedures than what farmers
are accustomed to. It is a challenge to change the habits of farmers. It is even a
more difficult task for a writer to find people who would change their habit of
accepting a new harvest that requires new harvesting mentality.
Will rare ideas continue to be as rare as rare nutrients? The supply of rare ideas is
limited, but their demand is limited to.What a waste!
I dedicate this post to all writers who generated rare ideas of quality, but were
not received with the attention they deserve.

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We Have Bad Habits at
Home and Work- 2 Rules
to Deal with
It amazes me how some seemingly relevant phenomena pass unnoticed because
of procrastinating on reporting their relevance or because of shortsightedness in
observingtherelevance.Weallsufferfrombadhabitsathomeandwork,emerging
bad societal habits and bad habits of some customers. See this and this. So, how
to handle them. This post offers two rules to deal with bad habits.
We have live example of long-standing experiences on how to infuse habit
changes. Equally, we have experiences in changing habits of birds and animals
that may benefit us in managing changes of habits. I am sharing few examples
with you and charting out two rules based on these experiences.
Chicken have the habit of eating their own eggs. Once a chicken tastes a broken

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egg and enjoys it develops the habit of eating eggs. This is a costly habit to the
owner. How to change this habit?
A quick suggestion would be to kill the egg-eating chicken. This is an easy
solution; however if other chicken develop same habit would the owner kill
them all? There must be better solutions
A far better solution to change a habit that is also extensible to humans as I
shall explain later is following 1st rule, which I formulated as follows»If a person
or animal has the habit f doing something you don›t like then force that person
or animal into actions they don›t like».
Letmeexplainthisbyexamples.Inthecaseoftheegg-eatingchickenfillingthe
egg with a repulsive filling material to the chicken will stop the chicken eating
the eggs. Keep repeating this action for few days then the chicken behavior of
avoiding eating the eggs shall progress into a habit. Once the chicken develop
this habit you don›t need to do fill the eggs with the pungent material anymore.
This rule I am suggesting has been tested. For example, in a female secondary
school the girls used to print the mirrors in the restrooms with their lipstick.The
cleaners had to clean the mirrors frequently each day. Nothing worked to stop
the girls from their acquired habit. The above-mentioned rule worked: the girls
were doing an action the headmaster didn›t like. Then force the misbehaving
students with an action they dislike. The female students were invited to a
session to see how the cleaners cleaned the mirrors. Guess with what they did
anactualcleaning?Withthetoiletwater-thatwasenoughtostopthebadhabit.
A nice story testifies for the applicability of this rule. A man used a donkey to
carry sacs of salt to the other side of a water stream. The donkey had to cross a
small wooden bridge on its way. On a hot day and as the donkey was crossing
the bridge few naughty boys were around and they pushed the donkey into
the water below. The salt melted and the donkey felt relieved from the blazing
sun. Next day the donkey voluntarily threw itself in the water and next day. It
then developed the habit of doing that on an autopilot.The owner didn›t know
what to do. He consulted many people and the winning suggestion was by
applying the rule I am suggesting here. I hope you guessed the answer. Don›t
jump for it and leave the habit of jumping. Well, find an action that the donkey
dislikes. Instead of carrying salt- make it carry clay. When the donkey threw

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Youhaveacatathomethathasthehabitofjumpingatfurnitureandyouwonder
if you able to apply the rule I am suggesting here? Well, little knowledge helps
here. To apply the rule you need to know what cats dislike. Cats hate sticky
materials and cold water. Spray the cat with cold water each time it jumps onto
furniture. Do that frequently because the pleasure of jumping shall soon be
offset with the pain of feeling cold. The bad habit shall end soon.
You have a problem with your son because he doesn›t like to study? A problem
with an outstanding employee who has the habit arriving late to work?You can
apply the previous rules to change these bad habits?
Oursocietiesarebecomingdistractedoneswithpeoplegettingdistractedfrom
work, friends, conversations and active life by constantly «playing» with their
mobiles. We need to know why. cats start to scratch when feel neglected. They
have this habit. his is a strong emotional trigger. cats are not only hungry for
food, but also for emotion. They need some attention. Do that, but not on the
itself in water the clay absorbed water and became heavier. The owner kept doing
that till one day the donkey stopped throwing itself in water. That time the owner
put again salt sacs because a donkey doesn›t know what it carries.

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expenseofannoyingyouiftheyfailtogetwhattheywant.Therapidlygrowing
habit of distraction needs special care to deal with. Habits Substitution Or
Purposefully Distraction- Habit Substitution would help. for example, if you
have no time to give emotion to a cat find something for the cat while you are
out that keeps the cat happy doing something it likes with the simultaneity
of being less-attention demanding from your end. If the cat enjoying kicking
balls give her a place to play with them. By the time you come home the cat is
not bored and is exhausted from playing and thus demanding less attention.
The2ndrulehereis«Don›tpunishhabitsbasedonneedyemotionaltriggers-
ratherrewardthemwithlikablesubstitutions».
There are more rules. For now, I say it is not always Rule 1 or Rule -2 it could
be both together.

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Sour Feelings and Sour
Food- inspirational ideas
The question that occupies my mind these days is whether sour emotions and
sour food have something in common. Would our bodies receive sour food the
same way it receives sour news?Would then sour food be a physical metaphor for
sour news and sour feelings?
let me address the question in a different way. If you eat sour food what feelings
follow? Likewise; if you hear sour news what do you feel? Or, when we eat sour
food how do we feel like? Recent studies show even facial expressions reveal our
feelings towards the food we eat. Facial expressions towards bitter tastes reflected
in frowning, turning up their noses, opening their eyes wide or screwing up their
eyes. Different tastes show different facial expressions.
A very interesting research has established that feelings share some very real
biochemical links with our nervous, endocrine, immune and digestive systems.
This great link throws light on how our bodies talk to our minds by revealing

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some puzzling findings. It is the information carrying molecules that cause
our arousals to feelings- apparently regardless of their origin.These molecules
perform a vast range of functions. They travel through our extra-cellular
fluids and hook up with specific, highly selective receptors located on cells
throughout the body. Once attached, they impart molecular messages that
can dramatically impact our physiological functioning at the cellular and
systemic levels.
It turns out that biochemical reactions to mental and emotional stimuli – your
everyday thoughts and feelings – occur not just in the brain but also, often
simultaneously, in virtually every system of our body.
If you are writing a story and you want to be consistent in expressing the inner
feeling- then watch somebody who has is eating a type of food with a taste
that resembles the feelings of the person the writer is describing. A writer can
even go a step forward- by showing how a character›s negativity advances
to positivity, to give one example. Like sweet milk that may turn into a sour
one so are some characters who receive sweet news only to turn them sour.
Watch that and record the facial expressions to reflect the visual changes of
the character to give an honest description of this change of feelings. Tastes
generate feelings and different feelings show different facial expressions.
But more than that is how same material may produce different tastes. Back
to sweet milk, we may produce different tastes from it depending on how we
treat it. By adding lemon juice or vinegar to it produces different grades of
sour milk. Novel characters may be as sweet as sweet milk, but adding drops of
sour incidents might ferment in their bodies to different feelings and different
behaviors accordingly.

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Great leaders are few in numbers.
I have a new definition for them. Great leaders are those leaders who make
you feel the sour sweet.
ThereisarareAfricanplantthatifyoutakeitgranulesandstickitonthetongue
and roll it around for about a minute so that every surface of the mouth is
coated then you take sour lemon you shall taste it sweet. Great leaders and
heroes know how and when to produce «granules of sweet news» so that we
feel the sour sweet.
A lemon shall only give lemon juice- it is how you change the juice creatively
that makes us different. It is also up to us to give sweet juice or a sour one. We
might excrete inside us acidic feelings that turn the sweet juice into sour one.
It is stress, worry, procrastination hatred, envy and other negative feelings that
turn our sweet life into sour ones. People might look for a coating «shield» to
protect themselves from the sour breath of negative people.

32
We Plan and Destiny
Laughs
Human relationships are complex and the complexity builds up as emotions have
a prominent role in initiating, prolonging and terminating relationship. Adding
sweeteners, salty materials, kneading, stretching and folding of the dough and
having a doubtful attitude on the dough represent a metamorphic picture of the
human relationship.
Flourbehavesdifferentlywhenmixedwithwater.Thereasonisthattwomolecules
in the presence of water build a relationship by cross-linking their chains. The
resulting protein is the ill-famed Gluten. Upon kneading or stretch and folding
Gluten produces elastomeric strands of Gluten. Fermentation of starch, a major
componentofdough,carbondioxidegaswhichistrappedbythestrandsofGluten
and thus increasing the volume of bread.This is a good example of «cooperation»

33
between two chemicals to produce a voluminous dough with some order resulting
from the oriented strands.
Order coming out of Disorder
Stretching and folding has been used extensively to represent chaos. If you place
two adjacent marks on a dough and stretch and fold the dough few times the two
dots separate widely. This is a disorderly and complex behavior. I dare say that:
For every disorder there is an order acting in the opposite direction. For every
chaotic human relationship there exists the possibility of finding an orderly
possibility within this chaos.
Like two molecules that produce resilience from the cross-linking of chains of two
cooperating molecules, can›t we then build same within the extended dough of
the human relationship?We need chains of people to have their interests cross-link
so that chaos may breed order. No, we need majority to do a useful action that the
chains may trap like starch producing gas, which are trapped by the strands to give
resilience to the whole system while increasing its value.
My dear friend Dr. Vincenzo de Florio is a prominent researcher on resilience. His
wonderful publications testify to what I am saying. I don›t know if this idea shall
appeal to him. I know for example, we may increase the resilience of asphalt by
adding rubber to it. Far better would be producing resilience in situ, whereby
members of a human network would find interests that they may cross-link to each
other that act as a resilience-building relationship.
We have always associated the flour dough with disorder. May be this is one reason
that distracted our attention of the way order emerges from building healthy
relationships with this order.
I mean here building using the chaotic dough of relationships as a carrier to
order-building.
The flour dough is amenable the timing of adding a new material. I f you want to
prevent gluten formation then you need to add a barrier to prevent two molecules
that cross-link by changing their behavior. Adding butter as a first step will coat
the two molecules and this eliminating their ability to cross-link. Small things
that change the behavior of components and the behavior of the whole system
accordingly. We may do that in life. Just find the people who shared interests to
cross-link each other and stop them doing that.You may change a society because
of small actions. And we are doing this without noticing. The strong anti-gluten
campaign are mounting and gluten-free products are invading the markets.

34
There are no conclusive proofs that gluten is harmful except for a minority of
people. New industries are emerging based on freeing your food completely
from gluten. The dough is showing the Butterfly Effect. A minority of people
who suffered from Gluten are spreading a hostile attitude to all products that
contain gluten. Truly, the dough is retaining its reputation as an example of
chaos. A food with a negligible amount of gluten next to one with claims of
%100 gluten-free. Very minor differences that shall sway their marketability on
different trajectories even though they are very near on the starting dough.
We plan and destiny laughs. Can we build in-situ resilience in the chaotic
human emotions?

35
Emotional Marketing-
New Perspectives
Two real stories come to my mind and arouse me to write this post.
The first story is recalling my days at the glorious University of East Anglia (UK)
where I did my PhD. I went there to do post doctorate research. It was summer
time and one of my students attended the university. He was newly married. On a
beautiful summer day we were in the open green yard of the campus exchanging
memories. Suddenly, my students› wife saw from a distance a man walking his
dog. She turned reddish and said «dogs scare me». As the dog got closer to us she
lost nerves and became really scared. Suddenly, the dog ran loose and headed
directly to her. It was miraculous that the dog didn›t bite her. What message did
the lady send to the dog that she was afraid?
The second story is one that I am moved by, but don›t remember where I read it or
the exact wordings. A blind man has a signboard saying «I am blind. Please help».

36
Few passersby donated money. A lady passes by and wrote on the backside
of the signboard «Please help me enjoy the spring as you do». WOW! as many
people donated money.
These two stories show how emotions bring actions and how they may
increase the rate of action. In the first story a dog «locks» itself to a definite cite
(the lady) and not people accompanying her. In the second story emotions
reaching their «transition states» and giving the product: action of donation.
The AIDA Loop is constitutes of Awareness, Interest, Desire and Action.
Emotions triggered the dog to act and the passing by people donate. Will
Emotional Marketing then lead faster to actions symbolized in purchasing?
New research findings throw much light on answering questions related
to emotions and how they act. Emotions causes certain message-carrying
chemicals to be excreted in our bodies. For example, people donated more
money when they watched images of a patient›s cells infected by cancer.
Their bodies produced a hormone connected with empathy and feelings with
others and so they acted by donating money.
But there is more to this story. People donate when feeling emphatic, but why
do they go to a specific cite and lock to it? Why the key of donation finds
its properly shaped lock? These people would still donate to other deserving
parties, but why this case in particular? To answer this question I find the
work of Enoch Tan extremely illuminating. In his post titled Awareness locks
Reality and Emotion attracts It he discusses two laws. In the first one «The
law of attraction says that what you focus on with your consciousness will
be caused to manifest in your experience of reality». This explains what the
lady experienced in the first story I mentioned earlier. The second law is The

37
Law of Freewill bases itself on awareness. Images increase our awareness and
our freewill will lock our choices to donate to a particular choice. I would add
here that commitment reduces options. The freewill based on knowing and
being aware of a particular issue increase the commitment, thus reducing the
options and for actions then to be locked in one place.
Recent research opens the field of emotional marketing wide open. Science
is now showing us with increasing clarity that our feelings and thoughts can
help make us sick (or well) in a variety of ways that are definitely not“all in our
head.” Contrary to all previous understanding that emotions are dealt with in
the brain might not be true and that our whole body is involved.Thanks to new
imaging technologies, research scientists have now been able to demonstrate
how thoughts and emotions cause distinct neuron-firing patterns within
various parts of the brain. They can also observe how these patterns coincide
with chemical releases and reactions throughout the body.
Theseresearchfindingsshallleadtoimprovingourunderstandingofemotions.
Marketing to be successful must end up with action.This wave must propagate
to action. I therefore prefer to draw the AIDA Loop as a wave. How to make this
wave «attract» similar waves and have visual representation of these waves to
enhance the freewill of customers is a wave worthy of riding.

38
Thinking On the Edge of
the Box
I am not n the mood to write, but a post saying Think Outside the Box aroused
me. Do we really need to do that.? Creativity has many definitions, one of which
is change the familiar into unfamiliar and vice versa. So, think inside the box is the
opposite. But this is going to the other extreme. Then how about thinking on the
edge of the box? It is where tension of keeping the balance is a dominant player.

39
Thinking in the box is like staying in your comfort zone. You experience no
challenges, changes are limited and the driven for creative solutions is dim. You
are happy the way things are going and you are devoid of real challenges.
Companies that focus on their inner core strength and are happily building on this
strength end up as losers. Kodak is a striking example of in-box thinking, which
led the company to where it is now. Building on strength without taking care of
the changing world outside is a recipe for bankruptcy.
Thinking outside the box may expose our minds and hearts to the tension of rapid
changes that stress us because we have no control upon these changes. We feel
helpless to the degree the outside environment. We become like a sheet of paper
going where the blowing wind takes it. Rapid changes impossible to control.
Creativity becomes an impossible dream. You are lost of your core roots and have
no direction to follow. Helpless minds are helpless in generating creative ideas.
I still remember when a lecture I was giving sometimes ago. I gave one example of
SInger, the sewing company. One trainee commented that Singer manufactured
fridges as well. I was surprised for always Singer meant quality sewing machines.
Moving away from deep core strengths because of market needs will not work
in the long run. We have to see a tree yielding many different fruits at the same
time. Why then some companies insist on having many different products from
the same tree?
We all have experienced moving from a dark zone to suddenly into the bright
sunlight. Or, when driving getting confused by the bright sun and we rush to the
sun screen for help. This is what we encounter in sudden moves of our thinking
from the darkness of the in box thinking to the bright sun of out of the box
thinking. So, what is the solution? It is on the edge of box where we may still care
for our core strengths and improving them. Let us go back to the tree example
and ponder on its image below:

40
The tree is exposed to varying conditions in its air surroundings and its roots are
exposed to changes in the soil composition, fungi growth, nutrients and water.
You notice that the tree has leaves that are in direct exposure to the outside world,
whereas other leaves are less exposed to the environment. This gradation helps
the tree adapt.
Organizations must be exposed to the outside world to see new trends and
envision the future. They are in contact with their external customers to get ideas
from them and complaints. These inputs are circulated to the inner departments
who in turn adapt. This is a continuous process.
It is on the edge of chaos that creative self-organizing happens. Likewise. it is on
the edge of the box that great things happen. It is the edge of choices, of ideas, of
adaptation.
It is because of our familiarity that we keep drawing the box in a cubic shape.
How about drawing it in a tree-like shape? Strange attractor shape? Or, are we
happy in thinking outside of the box while using a conventional shape of the box?
Or, are we thinking of a void box? How about filling it with a tree?
We need to be creative?We need to change our familiarity with the out of the box
thinkingfirst.
Brad Fergusson- you know that one of your posts triggered the idea of this post.
Thank you.

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The Black Side of
Recruiting Talents
Talents are rarity and companies are in a race to employ them. I believe one
beautiful aspect of employing talents is the beauty they have in their hearts for
whatever they do. They are productive because they have the lights in heart to
photosynthesize their ideas so as to germinate great flowery plants. The talented
inner beauty might not be observed by every manager.
Talents Need Talented Attention
Because talents are a rare breed, they need special attention. The productivity of
talents vary with many factors including the «make up» f the talented person, the
work environment and the surrounding environment. Talented people produce
seed ideas that may show different germination patterns. Rare talents produce
rare seeds of ideas that may behave differently from normal idea seeds. Equally
important is the environment in which idea seeds are planted. Like real plant
seeds which grow in deserts some seeds have very special requirements such as

42
they shall only bloom if rainfall arrives at the proper time and that a winter freeze
occurs before they will bloom. A talented manager realizes that not all seeds
behave similarly.
Recruiting Talents Could Be Risky
Talented people have the inner beauty in their hearts that helps them be
productive. It is this inner light that may bring risks to businesses. Like a rare plant
hosting a parasitic plants, so rare talents may bring along problems of employees
benefiting while hiding from the talented employees. They are like the plant
Rafflesia arnoldii, which is a rare parasitic plant. This parasitic plant is capable of
producing one of the largest flowers ever known. But how does it produce this
flower that may draw attention away from the host plant with its size and rotten
smell? It is because this parasitic plant has no roots or leaves. It is hiding in the
host plant and It only becomes visible when its buds emerge through the host
bark and develops into the large, fleshy flowers.Talents may become a rich source
for providing ideas filled with nutrients to some people to grow secretly and then
to flower and spread the place. Only, later for talents to leave.They are the ones
who did the work and the talents become obscure from light and the light in their
heart dims.We see this in life. One example is a soccer match. A talented player
comes up with a creative idea to score goals. And who gets the credit at the end?
Most likely the «idea seed generator» is forgotten.
Many parasitic plants don’t have the chemical that is needed for photosynthesis.
They depend on host plants for their food. One example is broomrapes. It does
not have chlorophyll and therefore in order to germinate, grow and flower it must
get its nutrients from the host plant. Talented people have lights in their hearts
and minds and they are capable to feed who might be undeserving to grow.They
have the built-in light to synthesize ideas with the risk of doing that for the wrong
staff.

43
Thismightbeadaringarticle.Butthinkingofanundoubtedtalentinsoccerlike
Maradona and why he thrived in Napoli and not Barcelona throws questions
on why talents leave. A study published in Forbes showed ten reasons why
talents leave. lack of appreciation and disrespect to the person they report to
were prominent factors.
Talents do bring added value, but with the cost that they also attract non-
performers. Truly, in life we don›t get anything for nothing.
It is not enough to take care of the talented requirements, but also what risks
their recruitment bring as well.

44
The Poorly Understood
Fear
A simple question: what is the opposite of fear? This is an important question as
we behave between opposites such as strength and weaknesses. If one pole is
fear then what is on the opposite pole? If you answered courage then you fall in
the same trap that I fell in for long times.
Fear varies in intensity and types such as fear of heights, fear of plants, fear of
the unknown, fear of loss, fear of beauty and fear of failing are just few examples.
Some fears we understand, but some fears like fear of plants are still ambiguous.
Long-standingfearmayalsodevelopintootherpassivestateosenseslikeshyness.
There is a neurobiology of shyness. At least three brain centers that mediate fear
and anxiety orchestrate the whole-body response we recognize as shyness. Think
of it as an over-generalized fear response. So fear may appear in different faces.
State of Senses and Actions

45
if you sense a food as distasteful then your action would be to stop eating it.
By the same token if you sense fear your action would be to fight or flight.
Fear is not an action: it is a sense. Fear of something you don›t know or know
littleaboutcreateshate;whichinturnleadstoviolence.fearcouldalsoleadto
folding into oneself.This reminds me of the Shy Plant.This plant, scientifically
known as, Mimosa pudica is a creeping annual often grown for its curiosity
value: the compound leaves fold inward and droop when touched or shaken,
defending themselves from harm, and re-open a few minutes later. To see
what action «shyness» does to this plant I strongly advise the reader to visit
this link. It is mesmerizing.
The Opposite of Fear
So, what is the opposite of fear? It is not courage as courage is action whereas
fear is a state of your sense. We have different views on this issue, but aren›t
in contradiction. In one case the author sees peace is the opposite of fear.
According to this post, the opposite of fear is a sense of state the author
named is peace. You are in peace with yourself when you are almost free of
fear. In another post, the author states that the opposite of fear is trust.When
there is trust in self, fear disappears.

46
We have to remember that opposites always co-exist. The overwhelming on
one should not obscure the fact that the other exists. I covered this topic in my
presentationtitled:CoexistenceofOpposites.So,whilewesufferfromfear,wemust
stay assured that trust/peace are there to help. It is purging those «sleepy» senses
and tilting more towards them that helps. It is putting oneself in the positive state
of senses. If we stay in one state of sense then most likely we develop this sense as
a habit. I call this «Senses Habits». These states become our zone of comfort even
though they hurt us.We need to balance the opposites states of senses so that we
don›t get addicted to one on the expense of another.
A second approach would be to change your actions if you are in one state that
leads to a repeated action. I have a friend when angered by his wife he would
break anything. How to change this habit or alleviate its consequences, his wife
asked me? I applied Rule 1 s stated on my post on LinkedIn titled «We Have Habits
at Home and Work:
«If a person or animal has the habit f doing something you don›t like then force
that person or animal into actions they don›t like»
I suggested to her to buy a false crystal glass and pretend it was terribly expensive.
The husband later threw the glass and it shattered. His wife started complaining
about him breaking a «piece of her memory». Since then, then husband has the
habit of asking his wife before breaking anything of asking «is it expensive? . That
gives the wife the few seconds `to calm my husband and make him feel peace
within».

47
The More We Know, the
Less We Know
Look at the fractal below and sense what emotions you feel. Look at the same
fractal again in presence of others and see if your emotions vary. Look at different
times at the same fractal and check if you still have the same emotions.

48
Did you experience same emotions? Mixed emotions? Did you find that the «social
emotions»arecontagioustoyours?
Looking at fractals is a beautifying experience. Some of us will get hungry to know
more about fractals.This hunger turns to enthusiasm, which translates into action.
If a group of us are present and started doing the same action what would happen
if there is only cone pc available to the group to check the internet? May be we
experience some emerging patterns. I draw this conclusion from my experience
watching the lovely video below.
Thevideoshowssixhungrypuppiesmovingrandomlywithalmostnointeractions
among them. However; when a limited amount of milk is poured in a bowl their
hunger made them enthusiastic to act and push each other to reach the milk. An
emergent behavior emerged: circling the bowl in a pinwheel pattern.
The sequence may represented as follows:
Hunger> Enthusiasm> Action> emergent behavior.

49
Fish schools initiate from fear of swimming alone. This drives the action for fish to
swim together. This action in turn generates a sense of feeling safe. It is turning the
emotion from fear to safety that prompted their collective swimming action. Or, may
be.
Could anybody speculate this behavior? We know now that a pattern exists, but we
find that we are deeper in the unknown. We know more to know less.
Our Hunger for Knowledge
Hunger for knowledge drives us to satisfy this hunger. What if we have the opposite
emotions? We have experienced this . The missing love among most students to
math and statistics make the students repel the idea of learning these two subjects.
How do emotions evolve? What do we now about them so as to improve the missing
appetite of students learning these two subjects or any other subject we don›t like.
There is a great study on the reaction of students to learning. In this research the
researchers first clarified how the role of affect, and more specifically emotions, in
mathematics learning and problem solving can be conceived. I quote the following
from the research document «Students’ mathematics-related beliefs, but especially
their self-beliefs related to math (e.g., their expectancy and value beliefs), have
been shown to be influential factors determining the interpretation and appraisal
processes constituting their emotions». That is to say emotions and beliefs feedback
to each other.
Emotions change fast. In the case
of students trying to solve the math
problemsshoweddifferentemotional
developments, as I summarize in the
image below:

50
Emotions vary and so will our beliefs and actions. Our emotional experience
have their own landscape that is affected by the society around us, our beliefs,
emotions,
The Emotions Butterfly Effect
There is a great study on the reaction of students to learning concluded that small
differences in the knowledge and beliefs as well as in the specific characteristics
of the local social context that determine the initial appraisal processes, result in
significantly different emotional experiences of, for example, anger or fear with
possibly different behavioral consequences. Is this different from our reactions to
seeing the fractals, the puppies video or us taking a task that we don›t like. It is
amazing how leaders may try small changes that may enhance the performance
of employees and send them in flying colors, or vice versa.
If the complexity of the previous discussion is not enough, then how about the
recentdiscoveryof threenewemotionsbyHallmark? Thefirstemotiontheproject
successfully isolated was «requiapathy,» the combination of relief and guilt that
comes with the sudden realization that you no longer miss a dead loved one.That
discovery quickly led to the uncovering of «seprudity,» the feeling of appreciating
a coworker›s dedication without fully understanding his or her job function, and
«trepatiousness,» a synthesis of rage and jealousy, though more muted and often
accompanied by a sensation of weighlessness.
Notice that emotions are like chemicals as they react. Relief and guilt generates a
new emotion, named requiapathy, pertinent to losing a beloved one. I believe DR.
Edward Lewellen must have a special interest in this new finding. There is a very
interesting studies on the combination of emotions. Emotions Mapping is very
demonstrated and it shows how emotions react with each other.
Learning Organizations
Yes, indeed learning, but how to manage emotions towards learning that drives
actions when the emotions of learning are varied among employees? In recent
work environments in which the cycle times of new products is diminishing,
the need to innovate rapidly new products, the need to understand customers›
emotional drive are just few examples of how much more we need to know.
We are living in a fractal world of discoveries that is leading us into a larger fractal
of our lacking-behind knowledge. But the more we discover, the less we find that
we know.Will this spur our emotional drive to learn? Or, will it subdue our drive to
learn for we find that we are chasing an impossible dream?
I would rather know how much more I need to know.

51
Thinking Fast and
Assuming Faster
Is fast thinking healthy all the times? If you say yes then I invite you to read this
post in full.
Let me start by showing the images below.

52
In the upper part the water is quiet and you can see below the water surface. In
contrast, the lower part shows turbulent waters and it is very hard to see below
the water surface.
Our brains consist of around %73 water. Our hearts are similar. Our brains and
hearts are essentially water that we fill with ideas, emotions and imaginations.
Ideas come fast and emotions may be running high. These ideas and emotions
are like wind and they may make the water in our bodies turbid. These are the
moments when we should stop and smell the «ideas and emotions». Ponder and
take a breath. We are then only seeing the surface and you don›t know what is
going under our «heart and brain». We must stop and allow the water to calm
and then restart.
Failing to do so results in costly actions. Look at the stock markets everywhere
when the volume of trading increases rapidly. Like the waters of a river that
becometurbidwhenrunningfastsoarethewatersofstockmarkets.Theybecome
turbid, investors see only the turbid surfaces. They feel lost, become irrational in
their thinking and rush fast to finish their dealings. What investors actually is that
they make the water more turbid for themselves. They make the bad worse and
no wonder few people make profits in the stock markets.
We are all investors. We invest our times and energy in doing what we do. As I am
writing this post I am thinking how many posts shall be shared today. The rate
of publishing is increasing so rapidly that the «waters of publishing» are turbid.
We perplex readers with so many different posts running at the same times. Are
authors making the waters more turbid for the readers?
The rate of change is getting so fast that it makes me wonder how many theories
are there on change management that are wrong. They assume that change is
slow and the waters of change are quiet. No change management is possible
unless we make the waters of change less turbid.
It is so easy to grow your social networks and very fast.You are like me constantly
receiving offers (which I decline) to add few thousand followers immediately for
less than ten US dollars. Yes, grow your network fast and make the waters of your
social network turbid and become unable to see what goes underneath.

53
Keeping pushing the waters in our hearts and minds higher and higher
will only lead to turbulent hearts and minds. Are our societies turning into
«confusedsocieties»?Isoursocialcapitaleroding?whenwaterrunsfastwemake
assumptions about people and we believe them- only to lose. fast changes may
lead to fast assumptions that are wrong.
We are limited in time and space. Rapid growth of posts, technologies or
whatever is bound to reach levels beyond our capacities. At that time either we
self-organize or go into deep chaos and more chaotic than turbulent waters.
Turbulent waters hit a rock and lose energy to get quieted. What rocks shall we
hit.
I dedicate this post Magdalena-Maria GROSU to for her relentless efforts to build
a healthy social capital.

54
We Are Value Throwaway
Societies
TheWorldBankwarnedthatglobalsolidwastegenerationwasonpacetoincrease
70 percent by 2025, rising from more than 3.5 million tons per day in 2010 to
more than 6 million tons per day by 2025. This is a continuing trend and we need
different thinking to deal with issue. These facts coupled with the increasing
tendency to make convenient throw-away products such packages will ensure
that the waste throwaway trend shall keep gaining momentum.
There is a fundamental question before addressing this issue. This question is
pertinent to our view of wastes as cheap materials not worthy of keeping. This is
regardless the costly impacts of throwing away wastes on our ecosystems. What
we do is turn a waste into a major harm.

55
Theincreasingtrendofbadthrowawayhabitsstemsfromournegativethinking
and attitudes. If we just change the attitude to: we have cheap resources of
materials- how to turn them into useful and marketable products? This way
our perspective changes from low-quality wastes to opportunity-providing
wastes.
Examples Testify the Previous Claim
Baby napkins are thrown away with the gel sacs inside them. These sacks help
babies stay dry as the gel absorbs water more than 50-40 times its volume.
A creative mind found a use for this gel in container gardening. The gel helps
the plant in the container to retain water, repel insects and keep it fresh for
long times.The container might be another waste such as shopping bags.This
way we may even grow plants in arid areas. What a wonderful idea that is!
Combining two wastes to produce nice fruits and variety of plants. Somebody
might say it is repulsive to use gels taken from napkins. Well, there are many
gels used in pharmaceutical packages, electronic packages and in all packages
that are sensitive to water. Wouldn›t it then be a great ideas to show your
family how two waste products combine to make valuable applications? You
can even teach the family in-house how to select the container and the plant
within a thoughtful strategy. Strategy is knowing your direction. What plants
to select? What are the requirements of those plants (you may change the
plant for customers want)? What space requirements? What are the water
requirementssothatyoumaydeterminetheamountofgeltouse?Whatsoilto
use? what are the critical success factors? For example, a slight contamination
of the gel with salt might reduce the absorbing water capability of the gel by
a factor of eight. This fact teaches us a lesson: contaminants might be low in
ratio, but their negative action is drastic.
The gel mostly used I acrylic. The same material that w may use in decorating
pools and in the manufacture of the coating of fiber optics. It is similar to the
material used as an adhesive in the sticky notes papers. Sticky note is mostly

56
yellow.The reason is that initially the adhesive gel was applied on yellow waste
water. Again, a genius example of using waste.
I remember when I was a kid (that was long times ago) my teacher asked a class
how could they hold water in their hands. Few students answered by freezing
it to ice first. One student was smart enough to answer and also by adding salt
so that the ice so that it wouldn›t melt easily. My late brother, Azzam, answered
«I don›t have to do anything- I can simply hold the water easily in my hands».
The surprised teacher asked ironically «but how». My brother showed him his
hands.The fingers were attached to each other with flesh in between like those
of a duck. You might mock about the ideas in this post, but remember they
might have a hidden value and we may hold them without difficulty. This is
precisely how the gel works and holds water. It has a holding capacity because
it forms waterlocks through internal bonding.
We need «Idealocks» so that we may hold new ideas instead of throwing them
in the waste basket.

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The Adjacent Opposites
Some comments send the author into new lands that he has not even thought
they exist. One comment did that to me. Martin Jay commented on my discussion
thread titled Self-Organizing Is a Form of Emerging Rewards by saying «I found
«Thinking Fast and Slow» by Daniel Kahneman an amazing recommendation by
renowned thinkers. I have just got the copy. Might take time to complete this.
I would love to hear about its relevance to Dr. Ali›s thought provoking post».
Thinking, Fast and Slow is a best-selling 2011 book by Nobel Memorial Prize in
Economics winner Daniel Kahneman.
It is amazing how changing names changes perspectives. We are familiar with
the notation that our brains have two parts: the left half is for logical thinking,
whereas the right part is for imaginative and creative thinking. Logical thinking is
slow because it requires reasoning. In contrast, creative thinking may take no time
as it comes as a spark. The two opposites are neighboring each other. However;
too much use of one may subdue the other.

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We may go on and change the names of the two parts of the brain. For example,
the energy-consuming half and the relaxed half. This change of names also
create different references in our minds and new ideas may emerge accordingly. I
wonder if I call the two haves the relaxed versus the energized would still have an
effect on us. Would I dare to name the logical part as the conversion half and the
right brain as the divergent half? I have already dared. Diversion and conversion
next dor to each other. One half of the mind focusing and the other sending us
on a journey of creative imagination.
I still could go on and call one part the habitual part as we tend to go in our
comfort zone of repeating what we are familiar with.The other half of the brain is
theinhabitualorinfrequentpart.Again,twooppositesadjacenttoeachother.Are
we living in the struggle of the opposites or their synchronization? Reverting to
using habits is a form of fast thinking. Imagination is faster than logical thinking.
So, when it comes to habits are we experiencing two fast thinking operating
simultaneously?

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Would I be right to call the two halves of the brain the fearless and the fearful
halves? Or, may be better, the focused and orderly thinking half of the brain
versus the unfocused and disorderly part of the brain? One part of the brain that
generates chaotic ideas whereas the other half tries to suppress chaos by trying
to put idea-generation into order.
I could go on and name the left brain the tree and the right brain the forest. The
left brain focuses and sets up orderly steps for logical thinking. The right brain
sees the broad picture, the whole landscape and then may generate divergent
ideas. Our minds are in the struggle between seeing a focused possibility or lots
of them. This is similar to instructing a cook to use curry spice versus instructing
him to use a spice of his choice. In the first case we focus his attention to one
choice> because of having the habit of eating curry-spiced food we know the
outcome and logically it is something that we like. In the second scenario we
are giving the cook the choice, but we are not sure of the outcome. May be the
food would taste good or not.There are doubts, adventure, discovery and hidden
costs if we opt for this scenario. We are not in the comfort zone of selecting a car
as long it is black. We are taking our option of selecting a color that we may later
regret or not.
There are people who tend to use logical thinking much more than imaginative
thinking. And there are people on the opposite tending to use imaginative
thinking than logical thinking. And there are people who switch between the
two opposites. Who are happier? More productive?
I dedicate this post to my friend Martin Jay who provoked my mind to go astray-
hopefully to find my way.

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The Journey to Finding
My Purpose in Life
Amazing are the definitions of many words that we use daily such as strategy,
leadership and purpose. So many definitions that send our minds in different
directions and varied experiences accordingly.
My purpose for life is a question that clouds my mind quite often. What to do that
I am passionate for? Will what I do have a value for others? Have I succeeded in
finding my life purpose? Is it my purpose or copied from someone I admire?
I come from a scholar family (six PhDs) all spurred by educated parents. My late
father Ahmad Anani was a renowned author. He wrote a book in English on The
Early History of the Gulf Arabs. He influenced us by rewarding every one of us
with nice presents for every book we read and summarized correctly.This way my
brothers and I became addicted to reading.

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As much as I liked reading, my mind loved chemistry and reading chemistry
books. Even though I never scored less than a full mark in math; I hated to study
engineering. I still don›t have the passion to draw engineering diagrams. I used to
buy test tubes to experiment with preferring that to buying ice cream. I enjoyed
the discovery and the uncovering of the unknown. It is the revealing of mysteries
that grabbed my heart and hooked my mind.
I finished my PhD in chemistry and went on with my passion for discovery that
resulted in more than 80 research papers in international journals..Then one day I
asked myself if doing more research was my purpose in life. I increasingly started
to enjoy writing, but I felt I was writing for chemists only. I found my passion
bifurcating in two directions: doing research or writing on topics of my choice. I
realized my need to focus. Having many choices or passions is distracting. It is like
having a TV with hundreds of channels. You end up watching almost none.
The question that changed my life was why use what I call separation thinking?
Why does it have to be this or that? Why not both? Why not use my scientific
background to tackle social issues and write about them? Since then my life took
a different course and I have been engaged in doing that. I wrote four e-books and
three printed books in Arabic.This is a tiring, but extremely enjoyable journey. Life
is not what you take; it is much more what you give. Like a plant it takes the toxic

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carbon dioxide and produces Oxygen- without which we cannot survive. I need
to live a life where I feel I am contributing to the world and not to myself. What a
wonderful life I enjoy when I am able to turn a toxic idea into a life-enriching one.
Isn›t this a noble chemical reaction that is worthy to write about and expose to
the world?
I keep asking myself as days roll by this question: if a pot oozes what it contains,
then what I would like to ooze and what shape of a pot I wish to be? Creative
ideas that link distant fields together to help people see different perspectives
of the familiar is my answer. That is what I want and love doing. Find creative
ideas and share them.What comes next is beyond my control and shouldn›t really
bother me. My concern is re-fill the pot with more ideas, act on them and then
share them. This loop shall take me to new levels without me noticing. A new me
might emerge.
Who has a greater value in life: one who discovered a drug that relieved millions
of sufferers or money-rich person who kept boosting about his wealth? It is our
choice to be this or that. My purpose in life is to give people something of value.
If I succeed that is great. If I fail at least I tried and I have the opportunity to learn
and develop.
I dedicate this post to Dr. Edward Lewellen who wrote a message for me yesterday,
which spurred me to write this post.

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Lean Management of
«Emotional Wastes»
Amazing are the definitions of many words that we use daily such as strategy,
leadership and purpose. So many definitions that send our minds in different
directions and varied experiences accordingly.
My purpose for life is a question that clouds my mind quite often. What to do that
I am passionate for? Will what I do have a value for others? Have I succeeded in
finding my life purpose? Is it my purpose or copied from someone I admire?
I come from a scholar family (six PhDs) all spurred by educated parents. My late
father Ahmad Anani was a renowned author. He wrote a book in English on The
Early History of the Gulf Arabs. He influenced us by rewarding every one of us
with nice presents for every book we read and summarized correctly.This way my
brothers and I became addicted to reading.

64
Amazing is the number of citations on emotional wastes. Google produced more
than staggering (62) million citations on emotional wastes. It occurred to that
our experiences on lean management might be extensible to lean management
of emotions. The combination of Six Sigma and Lean Manufacturing produces a
combination of five rules that work extremely well together. Emotional wastes
are known to exist. See, for example the article entitled “Emotions- It is a Terrible
Thing toWaste”. It is valid, therefore, to apply the combined rules of Lean Six Sigma
(LSS) to the manufacturing of emotional waste that we produce such as those
experienced by investors in the stock market.
The main idea of using these laws is to increase overall speed and enhance
customer satisfaction by focusing on improving the flow and speed of work
processes. LSS has five approaches that are most efficient to reduce waste while
maintaining speed. My idea is that the flow of emotions and the speed with which
emotions flow are subject to the same LSS laws. The examples are extracted from
the emotions prevailing in the stock markets; yet they are extensible to all forms
of negative emotions whenever they are experienced.
Overproduction of Emotions
Manufacturing Overproduction

Emotional Overproduction
Overproduction: Refers to producing more than what is required. This results in
wasted products and labor

Investors in the stock market tend to overproduce emotions asymmetrically . The
production of fear is faster than the production of greed
Excessive Transportation of Emotions
Manufacturing Excessive Transportation

Emotional Excessive Transportation

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Excess Transportation: Refers to transportation costs that add to customers costs,
but do not add value to the end product.

Investors in the stock market carry their feelings to each other, which results in
herd behavior. When this exchange of feelings flows rapidly, chaos initiates.
Overproduction of Emotions
Manufacturing Overproduction

Emotional Overproduction
Overproduction: Refers to producing more than what is required. This results in
wasted products and labor

Investors in the stock market tend to overproduce emotions asymmetrically . The
production of fear is faster than the production of greed
Excessive Transportation of Emotions

Excess Transportation: Refers to transportation costs that add to customers costs,
but do not add value to the end product.

Investors in the stock market carry their feelings to each other, which results in
herd behavior. When this exchange of feelings flows rapidly, chaos initiates.
Excess Inventory of Emotions

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Excess Inventory: Refers to having more inventory than what is required to
finish the project

Someinvestorshaveahighholding–capacityfortheirfeelings.Theseinvestors
need to avoid excessive storage of their feelings because they become costly
and unsafe as they lead to bursting.
Excess Inventory of Emotions
Excess Processing

Excess Emotions
Excess Processing: Refers to using more labor force than what is needed.

Investors tend to overreact emotionally to the fluctuations of stock prices.
They tend as well to mix their bad feelings into worse ones. For example, when
investors mix anger and sadness together they have an experience known as
depression. Refer to the map of Mixing Feelings for more details.
Correction of Emotions
Manufacturing Correction

Emotional Correction
Correction: Refers to wasted time fixing a problem because it was not done
correctly the first time

Some investors need to avoid having to correct the wrong expression of their
feelings because they can not correct the spill-over effects of other investors

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Motion of Emotions
Manufacturing Motion

Emotional Motion
Refers to wasting time to run errands like pick-up parts

Avoid wasting energy collecting pieces of left memories. People tend to
remember the last and peak events. Likewise; investors tend to build on their
last experiences and the previous peak experiences. They tend to pick-up old
memories to build future scenarios
Are emotions amenable to treatment as industrial products?

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A Trip of Mind
Ali Anani, PhD

A trip of mind

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