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Because Chinese people are not something from another dimension and just appeared in 1976.They knew what the life was before Mao.Millions of starved death was something annual normal, caused by systematic flaw in economy and politics, which means almost unsolvable. Oh, not only starving, folks can be killed randomly by epidemic, war, lynching, dystocia. etc, everything you can and can’t imagine.In the century before him, Chinese popultaion barely increased without any contraceptives, because the estimated life expectancy was 34.7 yrs.Then, here comes PRC led by Mao.Millions of starved death was an extremely rare thing under him, it took a load of natural disaster, foreign hostility and man-made fault to happen for that once. In the later half of his reign, starvation had never occured again.More, Chinese folk never again got randomly killed by civil war, warlords dogfight, foreign enemy invasion, foreign allies garrison, bandit, bilharziasis, malaria, smallpox, kangaroo court, or countless mob fights for a small portion of water and food.In last several years of his reign, with the resolute devotion in industry, China eventually managed to master full set of technique in producing fertilizer and pesticide. Working along with the great repair and expand of watering network, it freed Chinese people from the 3000-year-long Malthusian Trap, once and for all.Just after 27 years, Chinese population increased to 900 million. A Chinese person born in 1976 was expected to live more than 66 yrs.For people, his work guaranteed the right of surviving for Chinese people.For country, his work laid down all foundations a superpower requires.I feel very interesting for one thing. When discussing Mao issue, people can be so selectively blind and have very strange presumptions.You see, China was almost 200 years behind industry revolution, and had been literally shattered and tortured for a century. People just die in percentage every single year. This was a nation with fatal wound, in extreme poverty, and haunted by illiteracy and PTSD.What should normally happen in such a country?For a leader of such a country, what should the normal expectation be ?It can’t be anywhere optimistic, right?Then, here is the strange part: Why so many people assume that, all in a sudden, Chinese people were entitled to have long and happy life? Plus there should be absolutely no tragedy and setback while reaching it, really? Mr. Chairman couldn’t make it happen perfectly like fairytale, then it turns out to be his, emmmmm, “fault”?He “only” could double population and life, “only” transformed China from a dirt-poor withered agricultural country to an emerging industry powerhouse.The achievement is so “small”, so he should not be regarded as one of the greatest figure in human history.But he should definately be condemned for incapable to be Jesus or Yahweh himself, unable to perform some miracle like Five Loaves and Two Fishes while striving for those “insignificant” achivement.WTF logic is that? Isn’t that really weird?Mao simply did too well, so his achivements became his guilt.Before Mao, the mass of people were not really much more than 2-feet cattles, so even the most severe famine only worth 5 characters on history record - “大饥, 人相食(huge famine, people eat each other.)”. Just record “it happens”, details about how many life lost or how people suffering were not as important as words and deeds of emperors and officials. As long as the intellectuals and aristocrats were not affected - those who can read, write, and have a say in his majesty’s palace - there wouldn’t be any vivid memory about the pain of famine.However, Mao managed the country too well in first decade, so the starvation temporarily disappeared despite very low yield production of food. Thus, it magnified the impact when the famine comes again. Worse, he educated and empowered mass of people. Then, when natural disaster and malfunction of government hitted together in 1959, the famine was something that really affect millions of real “people”, never again only “number” or “phenomenon”.The bottom-level of people are always most engulved by the famine. The difference was Mao had made those people different, provided entitlement and intellectual capability to them. For the first time ever, their suffering and grief were marked, and counted as part of history. Then, it became a symbol of sorrow for that time, and used as a taboo by everyone who wants to attack him.Upgrade: WARNING! GRAPHIC UPCOMING!You know why Mao had given up his office as Minister of Propaganda in KMT, and picked up guns on September 1927? Because this was what happened, when CCP was ordered “not resist” on April.At first, they execute communists after trial.Then, they began to kill member of unions, both peasants and workers.Then, started killing without trial.Later, many less-professional persecutors joined the revelry of slaughter.Very soon the target turned to anyone with any sign of “revolution” or “innovation”.Do you know that, in late 1920s China, you may got killed because of your suit, your pen on chestpocket, your glasses, or even your haircut? Why? Because that’s not “traditional”, you must be a revolutionary!Now you have a better understanding to “宁可错杀一千，不可放过一个”(Mistakenly kill 1000, rather than spare 1 free), don’t you?You know what are these picture about?This was the 1938 Yellow River Flood, worst man-made one in history. Not surprising, there aren’t many chance that someone could deliberately debank a top 10 river on Earth. It directly killed 890,000, left more than 5 million homeless, more than 13 million affected.The flood completely destroyed the heartland of China. He’nan has always been the most populous province of China as well as one of the biggest source of food. The flood rampaged over it, all the way south to Huai River. The muddy water also ruined the drainage of Huai.You know how long it took before PRC could finally declare that the ecology, terrain, and agricultural infrastructure of former flooded region are fully repaired from the aftermath?Despite all those nonstopping “10,000-man battle in watering network”, “100,000-man campaign in conservancy system”, the government eventually announced “job done” in 1995.How could this happen?Because Chinese got an awesome government before Mao.In Lan-Feng Campaign (兰封会战), Chinese “Nationalist” government’s army outnumbered Japanese more than 7 to 1. However, general Gui Yongqing(桂永清) and Huang Jie(黄杰) led their troops fled in face of enemy, caused complete collapse of frontline. Then, in panic of Japanese would use captured railroad for next step invasion, KMT decided to debank the yellow river to flood the railroad, as well as, you know, some “collateral damages”.These 2 generals were never punished, both later promoted to Admiral rank. Gui even became Chief Commander of ROC Navy. Because they were favorite students from Whompoa Academy of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, but those troops they left to Japanese hands were belong to other warlords.So, as a civilian lived in midland then:You got government troops fled from battlefield to frame up friendlies for some faction nonsense.Then, this government decided to use flood to cover up their nasty innerfight.Hundreds of thousand troops were retreating, but they had neither informed nor evacuated you.All in a sudden, without any readiness, this came to you:“泛区居民因事前毫无闻知，猝不及备，堤防骤溃，洪流踵至；财物田庐，悉付流水。当时澎湃动地，呼号震天，其悲骇惨痛之状，实有未忍溯想。间有攀树登屋，浮木乘舟，以侥幸不死，因而仅保余生，大都缺衣乏食，魂荡魄惊。其辗转外徙者，又以饥馁煎迫，疾病侵夺，往往横尸道路，填委沟壑，为数不知几几。幸而勉能逃出，得达彼岸，亦皆九死一生，艰苦备历，不为溺鬼，尽成流民。因之卖儿鬻女，率缠号哭，难舍难分，更是司空见惯，而人市之价日跌，求售之数愈伙，于是寂寥泛区，荒凉惨苦，几疑非复人寰矣!”——《豫省灾况纪实》“Residents in flooded area had no awareness before then disaster, so they were completely caught off guard. The riverbank collapsed all in a sudden, then followed by the flood. House and farmland went away with water, with all properties. The rampant wave shook the earth, just as people’s crying shook the sky. Their sorrowful, terrified and anguish face made me unberable to recall. Occasionally some climbed up to roof or held on tree, survived only by luck. But survived only, they had no clothing nor food, terrified like their soul were not within body. For those fled as refugee, starvation and illness consumed their life. Their dead bodies laid on road or filled into gully, in number beyond count. Even some were lucky enough to escape and made landing to the other shore, 9 in 10 had already passed away. So much calamity they suffered, even they avoided to be drown ghosts, they were now refugee with nothing in hand. They had no choice but selling children and women. It was such a common view that families crying together before parted forever. The market price of human declined again and again, but more and more people were put into sale. The flooded area became no man’s land. The desolate and grieving scene made me question, am I still in human’s realm?” - <Documentary of Disaster Situation in Henan Province>And, the responsible people were not chased for accountability at all. On the contrary, they were promoted!At last, 15 million refugees altogether got 2 million Fabi Yuan as compensation. This was a currency which had a mindblogging annual inflation ratio, from 55% in 1934 all the way rocketed to 2,200,000% in 1949.I always feel greatly amused, almost laugh to my arse, when someone questioning “How could KMT lose depite it’s backed by US?” Hahahaha! You ask why they lose? Really?Was the life of people in city better? Sure, but never close to “good” in any common sense.This a cut of newspaper in Shanghai, 1940.Shanghai was the paradaise on earth for Chinese at that time, 4 million residence enjoying half of electricity of entire China.H A L F.This newspaper on Oct. 27th, 1940 said: the tempreture drpped to 39.9℉ (4.5℃), found 74 FROZEN DEAD, in 1 night, in 1 district.Shanghai had 30 districts at that time.It was Shanghai, more than half of the country and population are located North of it.It was the most prosperious paradise of 4 million people. There were 500 million Chinese lived out of it.It was only October, what about the coming winter?What about a hundred winters before the Liberation?Oh, as a city resident, you would have some “social service” that rustics don’t. Something like, your body would be picked up after you faint on ground someday and never wake up again.If you are vomiting, I’m sorry, I had warned about graphic things. Hope you’ll be fine soon.If you are still on your foot, please just let it sink in.You see, the sanitary worker was so used to picking up dead baby on street. He stayed cool and smoking, without any feeling of awkward. He even have a “Merciful-Help, Car for Body-Picking Service” label on his tricycle.Collecting bodies on city avenue was a COMMON BUSINESS.Now you know what life was in “Paradise”, tell me about a more cozy life for citizens.So, this was the country Mao took over.Maybe outsiders got too much things “granted” in their life, or they just deliberately hated Mao too much. I find that people tend to blame things on his thoughts and deeds, but intentionally neglect the objective condition.Most of you have no idea how difficult and low efficiency the pre-industry agriculture was, do you?On July 16th, 1949. The People’s Daily had a journal on its A page. The title was 《迁安、抚宁、卢龙等小麦亩产百余斤——丰收的象征》, which means “Wheat in Qian’an, Funing, Lulong County have a yield of 100+jin/mu, symbol of bumper harvest”.1 jin is slightly more than 1 pound. 1 mu is 666.67㎡, which means 0.164739226 acre or 0.066667 hectare.Do you have any idea what 750kg/hectare means? Such a pathetic production was a news big and good enough to be put on the flagship newpaper of the Party, and called as “symbol of bumper harvest” for Northern China.As for the richer places, let’s use Suzhou - the place used to compare with “Heaven” in ancient times - as example.According to the local annals:http://www.dfzb.suzhou.gov.cn/database_books_detail.aspx?bid=1&did=0“agriculture” is in book 27.After calculation it’s 427 jin/mu in 1949, which means 3200kg/hectare.That was the food production of “Heavenly rich land”, before the Liberation.In 1949, for crops yield, on richest land was about 400 jin/mu, on well-watered land was 300 jin/ mu, on drier and poorly-watered (which was absolutely majority) land was 100 jin/ mu.Put it all together, the yield was less than 200 jin/ mu.The total amount of farmland for Chinese was between 2-3 mu/ capita.Which means, without any disaster, without any attrition, the total food amount for every Chinese was about 400 jin/ year.I can buy you a 200kg mixture of crude wheat/rice/bean/potato, wanna try to live a year on it? Plus, you need to do heavy physical laboring everyday in 10 of 12 month. No?Why not? It’s not a big deal, really. It was a life much, much better than average of 500 million Chinese in 1949, since I haven’t put reservation, seeds, land rent, tax, attrition in processing, etc. into the count.If there was any fluctuation on climate, Chinese peasants would be ready to bury their toddlers into farmland, a must-take choice if they couldn’t sell them to human trafficker.Field Marshal Zhu De (朱德) had 5 younger sisters and brothers drown alive by his mother. So what? He was very calm and comletely understood while recalling it. “She couldn’t breed all fo us.” That’s it, nothing more complain or griefing.Before the mighty power of chemical and mechanical industry poured into agriculture, anyone who can’t do high-intense manual labour in the field was not considered as a fully-entitled human, in reality and moral standards of any culture.Dispose people incapable to work, and make it into a deified or sacred behaviour. Sounds savage? It was common everywhere.What was the 神隠し thing in traditional Japanese culture? Old man and kid disappeared in mountains to “be treated by fairy and ghost”, right?In Medival Europe, didn’t people burn incapable, old, or widowed women in the name of witch hunt?China had once been very advanced in agriculture skill, thus the relative abundance had led to a very rare ethic of respecting elders to preserve their experience. But we can still find some shadow in idioms, like “久病床前无孝子”(beside the sickbed, there is no son can keep filial forever), or “老而不死是为贼”(a man too old and don’t die turns into a thief).The new continent also had shared the same thing. In the starting place of Murica, NewEngland, the legal age of marrige is 14 and 12 in New Jersey even now, isn’t it? It’s just another piece of legacy from pre-industry era. When people die at their 30-40s, those who dare to care about “child marrige” or “freedom of love” were simply extincted.Now can you understand that why Chinese people, a nation has an everlasting custom of peasant uprising, didn’t rise up with arms in 1960?Because they were used to it. The “terrible food shortage” then, in general, was nothing worse than a “bumper harvest” year before the Liberation.That was the point I said about Mao’s tragedy.China eventually managed to break through the technology of producing fertilizer in 1970, and immediately started to widespread it into every single county in next 2 decades. So, between 1949 to 1971, there was a “faultage” between post-industry morality, and pre-industry productivity.It means CCP and Mao had entitled that everyone should be considered as a full human, at least have right of surviving and developing. But actually, the productivity barely could support everyone living.Given China’s condition at that time, it required great carefulness and state of art skill in governing just to keep people alive. They tried it very hard and indeed dealt the tremendous challange with great care. No mention they had simultaneously made a thorough enlightment movement plus the very largest industrialization in human history.Just have a think about the task Mao had on hand would be enough to make anyone feel black over eyes:How to balance the population between countryside and city?How to balance the resource collection between people’s livelihood and agendas of country?How to balance the investment in agricultural improvement and industrialization?How to use the bureaucracy system to carry out the top design, while preventing the distortion in execution?…It was a dance on point of a sword. Mao and his team had tumbled for only once, but they eventually finished it in an unprecedented scale and speed. It was not Mao opened the gate of hell. Insufficiency has been consuming human’s life since eternity. Mao was the one who finally shut it for Chinese. He put an end to Malthusian Trap in China, once and ever. Just within 2 decades, his work made “great famine” from a literally daily-common phenomena into a remote memory.And now many people keep talking about that tumble.Oh, where r thou before 1949?Where r thou in 1950–70, when China desperately waved chequebook for fertilizer and petrochemical equipments?Oh, maybe they just have a memory of goldfish. They just forgot that that US completely sactioned every single category of products to China, from precise machines to fertilizer and fishing net.Maybe they just have no idea that US government didn’t even blx when blocking China’s attempt to purchase food from Canada and France in 1960.Ambassador John Leighton Stuart had said that 3-7 million starved to death ANNUALLY during his career in China, where were those “caring” and “compassionate” foreigners before 1949?They treated Chinese as lesser being and slammed door at China’s face when Mao and his comrade was busy trying everything they can to keep food could outgrow population.Then, after the salvation was done, after they finally had to admit that blockade could not bring China down, after China had become world No.1 producer in agriculture, some foreigners began to say they feel so compassionate to how our fathers had suffered in some 3 years or 30 years, and want to enlighten us that the Founding Father of People’s Republic is a archcriminal caused all those misery.Besides, these outsiders consider that Chinese people regarding Mao as the greatest man ever lived is something abnormal.What a great kindness, I’m almost overwhelmed.Another Upgrade:I would go a bit in detail about “responsibility”.Q1: What and who should take account for people starved?A1: As I mentioned in previous Upgrade, from the beginning of our species to 1970, in most time, China was in insufficiency of agricultural production. It was not caused by wrong administration or climate, but simply the lack of productivity. Without the key breakthrough - fertilizer and petrochemial - all other efforts in agriculture won’t really help it fundamentally.That’s damn plain and simple science: every 100kg rice needs 2.2kg nitrogen for its protein, 100kg corn need 2.5 kg, 100 kg wheat need 3kg. Without the ammonium injected into soil, the crops just don’t have enough material to grow bigger. So, once, there had been an unsolvable shortage caused by lack of a vital elixir. The backward productivity made people vulnerble to disaster, this is the main background.Q2: What was the cause of 3 Difficult Years, natural disaster or man-made one?A2: Specifically on the Three Difficult Years, the climate was definately not pleasant at all.The Yellow River flooded in 1958 was the biggest one since 1919, the year scientific record ever begun. Prime Minister Zhou En-lai worked weeks along side the riverbank as front commander.At the same year, Hebei province suffered more than 200 days without a single drop of rain. Several hundreds kilometres away, Jilin had 1384 reservoirs drought up.The natural disasters did happen. Climate was terrible during 1958–62. Pre-industry agriculture is fragile in front of any climate fluctuation. Sadly, China in 1958 did not have an “industrialized agriculture”. Large area of crop failure indeed happened, in many places, the harvest was completely killed.But, a big BUT, honestly speaking, without the malfunction of government, the impact should not be so catastrophic. In China, the common conclusion (also acquiesced by party) is “三分天灾，七分人祸”, literally means “30 natural, 70 man-made”. Take that “30–70” as “some, but mostly”.Q3: So, what kind of responsibility the government should bear, and as for different level of peronnels? What role Mao was in this tragedy?A3: quite sleepy now… TBCSorry for the delay, I’ve written a long article about this but at last I found it turns to some long&dumb lecture about history and historical materialism.I deleted them all, i’ll try explain it in a simple way from start over.The economy growth in 1957 was lower than 1956. This was mainly because the stimulation of Soviet’s aid was fading, but CCP took the natural drop as a failure, and attempted to fix it.The conclusion of highest level was - the control better be LOOSE to release the eagerness of basic level. It lead to the Central Commission made the decision named “3 Red Banners”.However, the execution went wrong even before it went out of Zhongnanhai. The planner, promoter, organizer in highest level (Hereby I don’t say names to avoid expanding the topic too vastly, but I think Chinese people knew who I am talking about) pushed the whole thing in a wrong way.The “basic-level” officials, however, a lot of them didn’t really focus on how to produce more. Insead, as routine of bureaucrats, they went to PERFORM achieving communism and REPORT higher economy output. It turned into a clown fiesta of “launching satellites” (race of faking exaggerated report).That was called “共产风”, Tendency of performing like communism is achieved, and “浮夸风”, Tendency toward boasting and exaggeration. Where the disaster was began to creep.Then, after the fundamental order of production was ruined, farmers lost all enthusiasim for working. The natural disasters showed no mercy, caused massive crop failure. The officials were fiercely over-taxing because, 1. the state made overlarged plan based on their exaggerated report, 2. they need to cope with the examination to save their own bureau career. Thus these deceiving officials and cadres, who were desperately to cover up their deceit, put on the final straw. (In several extreme cases, local leaders even setup roadblocks to stop people escaping.)At last, people began to review their horrible life before the Liberation.Now, let’s talk about the paramount leader himself.Make it simple, Mao has responsibility, but just for being in that supreme position.Have you noticed that, I always call the reason caused the disaster a “government malfunction”, and I don’t blame this thing on Mao personally?Because, if one had enough reading in Chinese archives, he would find that in fact:Mao was a role of spiritual leader and theoretical mentor, but not an actual pilot of the state machine;Very soon, Mao realized the system is being dishonest (He was a farmer. He sent close cadres like Qi Benyu 戚本禹 to investigate the situation. He jumped onto his train and randomly stop it to inspect the fields.);Mao tried to stop such abuse of power, but only recieved cold shoulers.At last, because of his unmatchable charisma and renown, he was the only possible damper of people’s upset. Then, Mao took full responsibility himself to stop further unrests, internal and external of the party.It just reminds me those inconvenient history in 1920-30’s, when other CCP leaders kept messing things up, then ask Mao to clean it up, then persecute Mao afterwards for him disobeying them!Most materials of Mao’s effort of rescue in GLF were in “cold placement”. They are not confidential at all, but won’t be mentioned on any history class or official media. So, unless you have a clue and began to search things in this direction, you won’t know about them. Hereby I quote one piece of them on April 29, 1959.Sorry for only in Chinese, but I shall make a summary after it, you can skip if you can’t read.“《党内通信》1959年4月29日省级、地级、县级、社级、队级、小队级的同志们:我想和同志们商量几个问题，都是关于农业的。第一个问题，包产问题。南方正在插秧，北方也在春耕。包产一定要落实。根本不要管上级规定的那一套指标。不管这些，只管现实可能性。例如，去年亩产实际只有三百斤的，今年能增产一百斤、二百斤，也就很好了。吹上八百斤、一千斤、一千二百斤，甚至更多，吹牛而已，实在办不到，有何益处呢?又例如，去年亩产五百斤的，今年增加二百斤、三百斤，也就算成绩很大了。再增上去，就一般说，不可能的。第二个问题，密植问题。不可太稀，不可太密。许多青年干部和某些上级机关缺少经验，一个劲儿要密。有些人竟说愈密愈好。不对。老农怀疑，中年人也有怀疑的。这三种人开一个会，得出一个适当密度，那就好了。既然要包产，密植问题就得由生产队、生产小队商量决定。上面死硬的密植命令，不但无用，而且害人不浅。因此，根本不要下这种死硬的命令。省委可以规定一个密植幅度，不当作命令下达，只给下面参考。此外，上面要精心研究到底密植程度以何为好，积累经验，根据因气候不同，因地点不同，因土、肥、水、种等条件不同，因各种作物的情况不同，因田间管理水平高低不同，做出一个比较科学的密植程度的规定，几年之内达到一个实际可行的标准，那就好了。第三个问题，节约粮食问题。要十分抓紧，按人定量，忙时多吃，闲时少吃，忙时吃干，闲时半干半稀，杂以番薯、青菜、萝卜、瓜豆、芋头之类。此事一定要十分抓紧。每年一定要把收割、保管、吃用三件事(收、管、吃)抓得很紧很紧，而且要抓得及时。机不可失，时不再来。一定要有储备粮，年年储一点，逐年增多。经过十年八年奋斗，粮食问题可能解决。在十年内，一切大话、高调，切不可讲，讲就是十分危险的。须知我国是一个有六亿五千万人口的大国，吃饭是第一件大事。第四个问题，播种面积要多的问题。少种、高产、多收的计划，是一个远景计划，是可能的，但在十年内不能全部实行，也不能大部实行。十年以内，只能看情况逐步实行。三年以内，大部不可行。三年以内，要力争多种。目前几年的方针是:广种薄收与少种多收(高额丰产田)同时实行。第五个问题，机械化问题。农业的根本出路在于机械化，要有十年时间。四年以内小解决，七年以内中解决，十年以内大解决。今年、明年、后年、大后年这四年内，主要依靠改良农具、半机械化农具。每省每地每县都要设一个农具研究所，集中一批科学技术人员和农村有经验的铁匠木匠，搜集全省、全地、全县各种比较进步的农具，加以比较，加以试验，加以改进，试制新式农具。试制成功，在田里实验，确实有效，然后才能成批制造，加以推广。提到机械化，用机械制造化学肥料这件事，必须包括在内。逐年增加化学肥料，是一件十分重要的事。第六个问题，讲真话问题。包产能包多少，就讲能包多少，不讲经过努力实在做不到而又勉强讲做得到的假话。收获多少，就讲多少，不可以讲不合实际情况的假话。对各项增产措施，对实行八字宪法，每项都不可讲假话。老实人，敢讲真话的人，归根到底，于人民事业有利，于自己也不吃亏。爱讲假话的人，一害人民，二害自己，总是吃亏。应当说，有许多假话是上面压出来的。上面“一吹二压三许愿”，使下面很难办。因此，干劲一定要有，假话一定不可讲。以上六件事，请同志们研究，可以提出不同意见，以求得真理为目的。我们办农业工业的经验还很不足。一年一年积累经验，再过十年，客观必然性可能逐步被我们认识，在某种程度上，我们就有自由了。什么叫自由?自由是必然的认识。同现在流行的一些高调比较起来，我在这里唱的是低调，意在真正调动积极性，达到增产的目的。如果事实不是我讲的那样低，而达到了较高的目的，我变为保守主义者，那就谢天谢地，不胜光荣之至。毛泽东　　 　 　 　　一九五九年四月二十九日”Brief translation:“In-Party MessageTo all comrades in provice, region, county, commune, production team, production squad, levels:I want to talk about several problems on agriculture.Don’t give a damn to the target from top, only care about feasibility. 30%, 60% more yield than last year would already be excellent. What’s the point of boasting 400%? That’s impossible.”As for condensed planting, decide it by your own production team. Let old, middle-aged, young farmers hold a disscussion to set the standeard. Don’t give a damn to the inflexible order from top, it’s cutting people’s throat.Save the food! Preserve them well, build reservation for urgent use. We can’t afford any boasting and empty talk in at least 10 years.Plant and grow in large scale. High yield in small field is a long time vision! Not possible to reach it in at least a decade. In next 3 years, we must farm on larger fields.We should mechanize the agriculture in next 10 years. Set up research institutes for farming tools now. Fertilizer is a key factor.Speak the truth. Say the number you can really do. Do not pretend you can “do it with devotion and effort” when you actually can’t! Say the number of how much the harvest really is, please. There are so much lies caused by pressure from top. Top cadres boast and make empty wish, then give pressure to sub levels, making them feel difficult to deal with.If the reality is not as bad as I predicted, if a real and high harvest makes me a backward conservative, I’ll thank to heaven and earth and feel tremendous glory. ”Let’s check the boldened “reciever” of this message.At what time, the highest leader has to make a “to-all” broadcast to the whole system, instead of issuing order downwards level by level?When his order cannot pass through the system.Mao was in great pain of being sober in an insane carnival, but at last, he decided to take the responsibilities on the 7000-People Conferance because only he could burden it. He sacrificed his own renown to stop the blaming to each other. It was a written conclusion made by the Party’s conference, it was his wish, then I should just respect his choice.There is a not-so-common joke on Chinese web, here I use it as the end of this long passage:“Had any leader stayed cool during GLF?”“Sure, there were, the highest one among them is now hanged on the Tian’anmen Gate.”P.S.(sth irrelevant): I want to make it clear here, the Great Leap Forward itself should be a neutral if not good thing, the catastrophe was caused by “共产风” and “浮夸风”. When the bureaucracy system carrying out the proposal of top design, it completely distorted the real intention.In many other cases, under the calling of GLF, with responsible cadre teams, Chinese people actually achieved something really big, such as:大庆油田 (Daqing Oil Field), which made China self-reliant in petroleum in next 40 years.荆江段截弯 (straighted riverway of Yangtze River in Jingjiang part).淠史杭自流灌溉工程 (Pi-Shi-Hangbu River gravity irrigation system), all these deep red lines are major canals. Combined with all branch canals, that was 23984 kilometers of watering network made by hand tools within next 14 years. It made barren lands under Dabie Mountains become 580 thousands hectares of well irrigated farmland;淮河人工入海河道(man-made estuary for Huai River). Huai had been choked by slit for centuries, led to deterioration of civilization in its former drainage. The artificial flood in 1938 had worsened it to almost irremediable. Those crossing straight lines are canals. These released the choked river to the sea, thus revived the ecology and agricultural condition of 3 Provinces in its drainage.The GLF was a decision made by Central Commision of the Party, it was a reflection of overall and intense will of Chinese people. After 4 centuries of slow recession, after 110 years of humiliation, they roared “We shall make this country a better place ASAP.” Anyone, has any sense of conscience within, could not scold on such a wish.That unpleasant consequence was the price for being too unmature as an industry civilization. Mordern China was in a paradox of overdensed ark. Would you focus on numerous lives saved by the lifeboat, or focus on someone unfortunate which were shaken out and drown? There were many people passed away before that half-sunk ship could reach the shore, but could you deny the benevolence of the captain?

Sleep for 8 hours per day. Sleep regulates your mood. Your likely to be more agitated and angry when you don’t get enough sleep. If you're negative, the opportunities you will have to do great things greatly diminishes.At the beginning of each day write out what your main goal and no matter what happens, make sure you accomplish it. You need to have a goal for each day so you don’t get caught in the thick of thin things (pulled from fire to fire that seem important in the moment but are meaningless in the long term). The important things are easy to ignore, yet critical for longterm happiness and success.Make a schedule and stick to it. The power of compounding interest is not just a financial phenomenon. It also applies to your life. Do the right things over again and you’ll have amazing results.And if you miss something on your schedule, no do overs! If you skip a work out or miss an important event you can’t make it up later in the day. While you might have the time to, you shouldn’t because you’re teaching yourself your schedule isn’t important and can be broken whenever you want to. By teaching yourself it’s ok to break your schedule, slowly but surely you undermine your schedule and start breaking it regularly until the point you stop following your schedule completely.What you should do is not reschedule commitments you have made to yourself so you can feel the pain of cheating yourself. You need to know each commitment has a trade off and time can’t be reproduced. This will teach you to maintain a schedule and not veer from it.Learn to say no, or be prepared to say no to your goals.Remember the magic words, “This too shall pass.”If you’re asking a over worked important person a question via email, make it short, sweet, and easy to answer.At the end of each important meeting, take 30 seconds to write down what transpired in the meeting.Keep a journal.Track your predictions, record the outcomes, and reflect what led you towards your predictions so you can improve your outcomes.Talk to a new person everyday and focus on reaching out to people you haven’t spoken to in a while. Assume everyone in this world can teach you something, rich, poor, uneducated, educated, old young, and etc. The people you are speaking to you have a life time of experience that you will never have, focus on trying to pull out those pearls of wisdom from your conversations with them .When you wake up, think about someone who loves you or are has done something for you and email or call them to express your thanks.Fight the urge to complete other people’s sentences or hijack the conversations about yourself, no one cares about you.If you can’t focus on a conversation, let the person know up front and you can say, “Hey I really want to talk to you, but right now I have a few fires I’m fighting, would it be possible to talk later because what you have to say is really important and I want to provide you with my undivided attention.”If a friend introduces you to a new contact, after the meeting is over, email the friend to let them know how valuable the intro was.Limit your intake of news and focus your time reading books that teach you new skills or timeless information. Due to our 24/7 news cycle, the news has hit the law of diminishing returns. After a major event happens, each subsequent becomes marginally less important than the original story because the news companies need to fill programming slots. Minimize your intake of news, depend on others to fill you in so you can use your vital attention for your own life.When you can’t start a new project for any reason, find the smallest point of action and take that step.Become outcome independent. Don’t worry about how crappy your first piece of art is. You’re trying to develop a system of producing art and you’re not focusing on the output. But what’s weird is, the more you focus on producing, the better your output becomes. But if you just focus on the output, you will scare yourself into not producing anything.Break up your work in 25 minute chunks. I use the Simple Pomodoro®extension for this.Don’t try to impress people. We all know that person who has to brag about XYZ in their life. When we see this person walk up to you, you would rather talk to Jar Jar Binks than hear about how great this person is. When people talk about their accomplishments or always talk about themselves, they are exposing their insecurities and not validating the lives of people around them.Avoid pointless arguments! Values + Filtered Data = How You Believe The World Works, which means: How You Believe The World Works + How Someone Else Believes The World Works = Argument. We’ve all been there. We assume we see the world perfectly and have a better understanding on how it operates. But you’ll notice the places where most people argue is where their personal values conflict with someone else's. Our values provide us with a map for how we see the world. This map tell us where our minds can look for information, who we can trust, and what we should be worried about. Most importantly, this map is incomplete. It takes a lot of mental energy and time to expand the map, but as where the map stands, it’s good enough to allow you to function in your day to day life.Your life is a reflection of your thoughts and actions. It’s a tough pill to swallow, and a lot of us come from troubled backgrounds, but at a certain point in our lives, we become responsible for our present conditions (exceptions those who can’t protect themselves children, elderly, and the sick). Understanding this is a troubling and empowering feeling. It’s troubling because now you realize you are responsible for the lack of happiness, progress, or fulfillment in your life, but empowering because you have the ability to fix those issues.In order to improve our lives, sometimes we need to give up a known negative at the risk of the unknown positive. We all have or had negative people in our lives who have tried to hurt us. Yet, some of us don’t have the strength to let them go. The reason why they don’t let them go is that the negativity of this person is actually comforting in a strange sense. We get some sort of validation from this bad relationship. But when we do get the courage to leave this person we are scared because now we are leaving a known negative for the chaos and potential positivity of the unknown. However, if you don’t take this step and jump into the unknown, you will never grow. Some of us might fail while trying to make this jump, others will be successful. Either way, your life will be much improved if you at least try to step into the unknown because what’s on the other side is worth the risk.Be wary of “metooism” meaning, what’s good for someone else isn’t necessarily good for you. Going back to point 15 Limit your intake of news, hardwired into our DNA is our proclivity for herd mentality or as Rene Girard says mimetic desire. By spending too much time listening to all the distraction in the world you can lose your focus on what’s important for you and instead work on other people’s dreams. One aspect of being successful in this world is being able to quiet the distractions of the world and focus on your own works of art. That’s how you grow and create things that are in line with your true calling.Actions > Words. Judge people by their actions because talk is cheap. So many people talk a great game, but when the time comes for them to take action, they cut and run.Steel sharpens Steel (To be the best, hang around the best). I’m a retired semi pro gamer, I used to play Warcraft 3: TFT. I was ranked 22 on the 2v2 ladder on the west coast, but then retired because I had to “get a life” and I wasn’t about to screw up Santa Clara University when tuition was $100k for 2 years. Anyways, the reason why my skills improved was due to trying to find people who were always better than me. Once I found them, I would challenge them repeatedly, let them kick the crap out of me. Slowly but surely, the losses weren’t as bad, and eventually, I would start winning. Once I hit that point, I would move onto someone else who was better than me. What I learned from that game I applied to my life and I try to put myself around people who are better than me in X skill and learn from them. In order to do this, you must humble yourself, lose your ego, and start looking at yourself as……a video game character trying to level up. Throughout life you should always face near breaking points. Stress in certain situations at the job or life where you are being forced to stretch yourself. Some people can’t handle these situations or take it too personally, but if you look at these situations as places for growth, and part of the path towards making your video game character stronger. Then you will look at these situations as opportunities to gain experience so you can level up in life.Don’t cast pearls in front of swine (Don’t waste good advice on fools OR You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink). Many times you’ll meet people that have a plethora of issues. Being you’re good-hearted you want to help them by providing them with advice (preferably solicited advice, meaning they asked for it). Most people though don’t follow up on good advice because they aren’t ready to make tough decisions in their lives. If they don’t listen to your advice, stop providing them with advice. Find people who are willing to listen.Your attention is your most valuable resource. Don’t squander it! Remember your attention has value that’s why marketers pay so much to have it. Nearly every great creator completed their masterpiece in solitude, no one ever created a great work while they were hyperconnected on social media or playing around on their cellphone. Learn how to separate yourself from your technology and minimize the time you spend on social media.Be wary of the narcissist, odds are they are insecure, deceitful, and will betray you. These people are leeches. Many of them are in your social circles. They run huge personal development businesses or have written numerous books. The best way to spot these people are:Track how many times they mention themselves in conversations or turn the conversation towards themselves to talk about their accomplishments or problems.Look at their social media feed, how many times are they taking selfies? Are their social media pictures overproduced to make themselves look cool? If you check their blog how many times do they splash a picture of themselves onto their content? In the book Pre-Suasion: A Revolutionary Way to Influence and Persuade the author shows a link between how a narcissistic CEO is based on the size of his picture in the annual shareholder's report. The Enron CEO had to splash his picture largely on his annual shareholder's report when CEOs that weren’t narcissists would use much smaller pictures. They will take selfies with important people to use the Halo effect to associate what the society values (money, success, status) with their personas.Understand the push/pull dynamics of relationships. This one took me a while to understand. Sometimes we are so desperate to make friendships or relationships work we find ourselves trying too hard. A relationship is like trying to move a piece of furniture (Dudes lay off me I'm running out of metaphors >.>). If one side is pushing and the other side isn’t pulling, the piece of furniture goes nowhere. Such as a relationship, if one side isn’t trying to keep the relationship going, you need to take that as a cue that the relationship is not working out and you need to move on. Don’t waste your time trying to get something to work when the other party doesn’t want it o.Know that all things are temporary. Friends come and go. Loved ones are born and then they die. Mentorships begin and end. Understand that the only thing constant is change, and do your best to appreciate the precious time you have with those you love and the great experiences you have in your life. Also, when things are ending, do your best not to hold onto them, think about how lucky you were to have those experiences and how your life would be far worse without them.The world owes you nothing. In our society, work is rewarded. And sometimes even if you work hard, you won’t be rewarded. It’s a harsh reality of life, but also a liberating one knowing that if you build your life on hoping others will validate you, most likely that will never happen. So validate yourself and carve your own path.No one cares about your past Born black, white, yellow, brown, rich, poor, abused, not abused, tall, short, and etc. no one cares about your past. And believe me I know. In the end, people may state they are touchy-feely do-gooders, but in the end, when it comes down to promoting their lives or yours (in normal circumstances), they will choose to help themselves. And this isn’t a judgment about humanity, it’s how we operate. Understand this and realize that in our society you can choose who you want to be. Be the person you want to be, not the one others told you to be.Sometimes your best isn’t good enough. There are times where I have given it my all on projects. Worked all-nighters. Deprioritized family commitments. Worked multiple times zones. And still the project failed. Sometimes things aren’t meant to be. You have to accept that there are things outside of your control and you have to take your losses and move on.After a certain point, each additional person or opinion you incorporate into a project delays its release or quality (Diminishing returns ). You will never release a product that’s loved by everyone. For instance, the movie Schindler's List is for all intents and purposes is a masterpiece. Yet if you check the rotten tomatoes scores 3 critics said it wasn’t good. Luckily Spielberg didn’t show those people his script or he might have reworked it leading to a movie that wasn’t as good. Same as your work, you must expose your ideas to some people, but after a certain point, you need to stop taking in feedback and get started.As for adding people to your project, yes it’s important to add people to help you get work done, but if a project is already delayed adding more people to it actually SLOWS IT DOWN MORE. It’s called The Mythical Man-Month. Each new person added to the project needs to ramp up, which takes time. Then each new person is a new node in the project’s network that adds complexity and slows the project down. Or even worse the new person could try to take the project into a completely different area which will cause the project to slow down even more. So be careful when you add more opinions or people to your projects, every time you add either of the two you will eventually surpass Diminishing returns and hit the law of negative returns.Done is exponentially better than Perfect. Large organizations always fall into this trap. Each department is trying to optimize for their single use case because they see the world differently and are only graded on one aspect of the project. Up close this department thinks their function is the MOST IMPORTANT aspect of the project, yet in the grand scheme of things, their function does nothing to achieve the overall goals of the project. We all know of teams that do this to our projects, it’s very easy to spot them. But what is tricky is when YOU’RE THE TEAM that’s doing this. It hurts to realize it, but if you do, then you can figure out ways to compromise to move the project along. This is where you need a founder, PM, or someone who has skin in the game to override the concerns of the offending team so the project can move on.But let's say it’s not the inflated sense of importance for your job function, another issue can be risk. Every project in the world has a risk aspect. If you look at a large company now and compare it to when it first started, you would see that the risks the company took in its infancy would be considered insane by current management. And management wouldn’t be far off from the truth, but if it wasn’t for this risk taking the company wouldn’t be in its great position today. Every great success requires the ability to pull the trigger even when every possible permutation of risk is not known.“You have power over your mind - not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength." - Marcus Aurelius. Real talk. No commentary needed :)Have tough conversations sooner rather than later. The longer you hold off on tough conversations that need to happen, the worse the situation becomes. You have an issue with someone, talk to them, Get it figured out. Don’t mull it over or……If you have feedback for someone, tell it to their face, don’t speak to their managers. Now, of course, there are situations like sexual harassment, physical threats, and whatnot that require you to run to your nearest HR person to have a nice chat, but most of the time it’s easily solvable problems. By speaking around the person, you’re allowing them to blindly walk to their own career deaths. While you might think you’re doing the right thing on not being direct, this person is going to have a rude awakening from his manager weeks after the mistake was made.By not calling this person out for the mistake and nipping it in the bud, you now have created a delayed feedback loop that is going to hit this person like a ton of bricks, when they could have corrected this weeks ago. Assume positive intent with your colleagues, assume they want to do the right thing. I bet once your colleagues hear this advice, 99% of them are going to try to do their best to correct it and they will probably thank you for it.But better yet, now this person knows your boundaries. Maybe the person said something slightly inappropriate or did something that hurt your workflow, now they know where the boundaries are and they shouldn’t cross it again. If they keep doing this, and you’ve made it clear it’s hurting your work product, then it’s time to talk to your manager about it. But first, try to nip it in the bud before running to your manager.There’s a younger version of you out there that is working twice as hard as you to have what you take for granted.You need to have a clear hell you’re avoiding and a clear heaven you’re striving for.A piece of the pie is better than no pie. Yes, you might not get as much as you wanted by splitting the opportunity with others, but the odds of you achieving your goal increases with the right people. Compared to what other people do, they try to hoard the opportunity but lack the ability to execute upon it which causes the opportunity to be squandered.Stop thinking about which book to read from your library…and just start reading one. So much time is wasted over-optimizing for the perfect book……Which is silly because you never read the same book twice. Each time you read a book it changes because of your perception changes. You’ll never find the perfect book to answer all of your questions, it’s through reading a breadth of books you'll start assembling your own answers.The 80/20 rule is overrated, most of the important things in life happen in the 20/80.The 80/20 rule states that 80% of your results come from 20% of your efforts. Very true, but in order to hit 80/20 you must first discover what you’re looking to achieve.Most people have become addicted to the cult of 80/20. There are now talks of 80/20 parenting, 80/20 managing, 80/20 eating, 80/20 startups. They believe if we look for the 80/20 of everything we can have it all.Sadly, that’s a lie.Most of life happens in 20/80. It’s the unscheduled downtime you have with your family that helps build great relationships. It’s the random walk down the street where you come up with your next great idea. Without 20/80 time you’ll never be able to build meaningful relationships or develop new ideas. 20/80 is the time that doesn’t have a specific purpose so you can relax, be a human, and enjoy your life.Within the 20/80 is where you discover what you’re looking for, you play with new ideas, you let your mind rest and make connections to previously unrelated ideas that lead to massive breakthroughs.Share the credit with others. When you graduate, land a promo, win an award, or launch a project, make sure to thank the people around you who made it possible. No one is successful is a vacuum, it takes a village to be successful. Receiving credit for a victory is a critical moment to build bonds with the people who have helped you the most. If you don’t share the credit, people who worked hard for you might become bitter and envious.Control your cellphone addiction by having a clear reason why you need to use your phone before picking it up. Most of us habitually pick up our phone because we are addicted to it. Before you reach for our phone, ask yourself why do you need to use it. If you don’t have a clear reason for doing so, don’t pick it up. A good reason to pick up the phone would be to call someone, you’re reading a book, or you need to send an email to a client. If you’re just picking it up because you’re bored at an event, it’s a great way to show the people around you that they don’t mean much to you. Which reminds me…….there’s nothing wrong with being bored. Being able to sit and think is one of the reason why we have civilization. Don’t rob yourself of boredom. Thrive in it. Use your down time to relax and ease your addiction to constant stimulation.Less wants = happier life. Much of the things we want in life (more money, a bigger house, a promotion, a relationship, and etc) cause us more stress than anything else. Once we get what we want, we moved onto the next thing locking us on the hedonic treadmill. No matter how many wants we get, our thirst is never quenched. If you want to live a happier life, minimize your wants, and focus on what you have.Competition is for losers. Think of the times outside of sports where you have competed for something and were happy with the results. Maybe you fought hard for promotion by isolating your peers. Perhaps you lowered your commissions in order to beat another real estate agent to a deal. Or maybe you overpaid for a piece of property in order to close the deal. All of these scenarios result in a win in the short-term at the expense of losing the long-term battle. This is known as a Pyrrhic victory.Competing is a waste of time, it creates more enemies than friends, and leads you to focus too much energy on others, which causes you to recreate what everyone else is doing. Forge your own path and do your best to avoid competition.Heed the lesson of the yin and yang symbol (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yin_and_yang#/media/File:Yin_yang.svg). Inside the white portion of the yin yang symbol you will see a black dot and vice versa for the other side. One interpretation is that any strength (being extroverted, introverted, or any other personality trait) has rooted inside of it a weakness AND any weakness has a strength rooted into it. The next time you look at your own abilities and see weakness, see how those weaknesses can be seen as strengths. Also, for your strengths, think of the situations where your strength could be used against you as a weakness and think about what you can do to protect yourself.Another interpretation is when you a positive life event hits you, don’t assume this feeling or event will last forever. Eventually what was good will end, or what was positive could turn negative. On the flip side, when you face a bad situation don’t assume this bad situation will last forever ( in most cases it won’t). If anything, try to project how this experience could turn into a positive X years from now.Every relationship has it's place. Don’t ruin a relationship by trying to turn it into something greater than it is. Each of our relationships with friends, mentors, loved ones has a range of acceptable behavior, problems occur when we try to make a relationship into more than it is. We all know the example of trying to turn a friendship into a relationship and how that can fail. But we fail to realize that we have acquaintances or friendships that we try to turn into mentorships or deeper friendships that end of ruining the relationship. Some of your friendships are based on surface level interests and will never evolve into anything deeper, that’s ok! You need to understand each relationship has its place and when you try to push a relationship outside of its norms you put that relationship at risk.Don’t ruin your relationships by trying to turn them into more than they are. Enjoy them for what they are and if they naturally involve into something else, that’s even better.Not everyone will like you, and that’s fine. It’s ok if certain people don’t like you because that’s life. Not everyone is going to approve of your life decisions. But if your goal is to get everyone to like you, you will end up destroying yourself because you won’t be able to live your own life.Stop judging life’s events. What could be bad today, could turn out to be good tomorrow. What’s good today, could turn out to be bad tomorrow. This reminds me of an old story. One day in late summer, an old farmer was working in his field with his old sick horse. The farmer felt compassion for the horse and desired to lift its burden. So he left his horse loose to go the mountains and live out the rest of its life.Soon after, neighbors from the nearby village visited, offering their condolences and said, "What a shame. Now your only horse is gone. How unfortunate you are!. You must be very sad. How will you live, work the land, and prosper?" The farmer replied: "Who knows? We shall see".Two days later the old horse came back now rejuvenated after meandering in the mountainsides while eating the wild grasses. He came back with twelve new younger and healthy horses which followed the old horse into the corral.Word got out in the village of the old farmer's good fortune and it wasn't long before people stopped by to congratulate the farmer on his good luck. "How fortunate you are!" they exclaimed. You must be very happy!" Again, the farmer softly said, "Who knows? We shall see."At daybreak on the next morning, the farmer's only son set off to attempt to train the new wild horses, but the farmer's son was thrown to the ground and broke his leg. One by one villagers arrived during the day to bemoan the farmer's latest misfortune. "Oh, what a tragedy! Your son won't be able to help you farm with a broken leg. You'll have to do all the work yourself, How will you survive? You must be very sad". they said. Calmly going about his usual business the farmer answered, "Who knows? We shall see"Several days later a war broke out. The Emperor's men arrived in the village demanding that young men come with them to be conscripted into the Emperor's army. As it happened the farmer's son was deemed unfit because of his broken leg. "What very good fortune you have!!" the villagers exclaimed as their own young sons were marched away. "You must be very happy." "Who knows? We shall see!", replied the old farmer as he headed off to work his field alone.As time went on the broken leg healed but the son was left with a slight limp. Again the neighbors came to pay their condolences. "Oh what bad luck. Too bad for you"! But the old farmer simply replied; "Who knows? We shall see."As it turned out the other young village boys had died in the war and the old farmer and his son were the only able bodied men capable of working the village lands. The old farmer became wealthy and was very generous to the villagers. They said: "Oh how fortunate we are, you must be very happy", to which the old farmer replied, "Who knows? We shall see!"Stop burning bridges. Back in college I was upset about how a professor gave me a B+ in a class. I was so upset I wanted to give the professor a piece of my mind . A friend told me, “You need to stop burning bridges.” And I reflected on what she said and questioned if I had a complete understanding of the situation that upset me. I decided to not go through with my plan, which prevented me from ruining a relationship and brought me to my next point….When angry, don’t open your mouth OR give yourself time to process your emotions. As time passed, I reflected on that situation and realized that I was wrong and there was more I could have done to secure the A I desired. From that point on, I tried my best to give myself space before making a decision. By giving myself space, I was able to rationally reflect upon what upset me and proceed on a path that wasn’t based on my emotions at the moment.Opportunities are all around us, but we miss them because we don’t think they are the “right” opportunities. This reminds me of the story of the drowning man. A fellow was stuck on his rooftop in a flood. He was praying to God for help. Soon a man in a rowboat came by and the fellow shouted to the man on the roof, "Jump in, I can save you."The stranded fellow shouted back, "No, it's OK, I'm praying to God and he is going to save me.” So the rowboat went on. Then a motorboat came by. "The fellow in the motorboat shouted, "Jump in, I can save you." To this the stranded man said, "No thanks, I'm praying to God and he is going to save me. I have faith." So the motorboat went on.Then a helicopter came by and the pilot shouted down, "Grab this rope and I will lift you to safety." To this the stranded man again replied, "No thanks, I'm praying to God and he is going to save me. I have faith."So the helicopter reluctantly flew away. Soon the water rose above the rooftop and the man drowned. He went to Heaven. He finally got his chance to discuss this whole situation with God, at which point he exclaimed, "I had faith in you but you didn't save me, you let me drown. I don't understand why!"To this God replied, "I sent you a rowboat and a motorboat and a helicopter, what more did you expect?"The lesson here is just because an opportunity precisely fit your criteria, doesn’t mean you should pass on it. Sometimes we need to take opportunities that aren’t a precise fit in order to make it to even bigger and better opportunities. Humble yourself before the opportunity in order to achieve what you want in life.When dealing with difficult people, analyze what makes them difficult to work with and think about when you have acted the same way. Let that person serve as an informal teacher on how you can improve. One thing I'm practicing is if I see someone do something I don't like, instead of judging them to take the moral high ground, I reflect upon myself when I have demonstrated those actions and what I can do to improve myself. The difficult person becomes a teacher that helps me improve myself and now the difficult person becomes easier to deal with.A person’s character has a lot to do with their upbringing. I take into account that a lot of our psychology is programmed into us by our upbringing and most of us are running on autopilot so when someone does something that miffs us, I say to myself, "This isn't personal, this is just how this person is wired." It gives you a degree of emotional distance so you can focus on long term thinking instead of short term thinking.When someone gives you a gift, say thanks and for the love of God don't say “this is unnecessary.” By saying something is unnecessary you're undermining the person's charity and robbing them of the joy of doing something nice.No one cares about your past. Born black, white, yellow, brown, rich, poor, abused, not abused, tall, short, and etc. no one cares about your past. And believe me I know. In the end, people may state they are touchy feely do gooders, but in the end when it comes down to promoting their lives or yours (in normal circumstances), they will choose to help themselves. And this isn’t a judgment about humanity, it’s how we operate. Understand this and realize that in our society you can choose who you want to be. Be the person you want to be, not the one others told you to be.Life is always going to be a struggle, but your goal is to struggle well. Everyone on this planet struggles. Sadly most of our struggles are private because we fear to share our struggles with the community. We mistakenly tell ourselves we are doing something wrong because we are struggling, but struggling is a fundamental part of human life. Our quest for wanting something creates this struggle in us, having want isn’t a bad thing, it’s the burden we place on ourselves thinking we are flawed for struggling.How to accelerate your personal development and make new friends by turning people you don’t like into mentors.Your attitude will determine where you land in life.Building more horizontal relationships and vertical.Understand the difference between type 1 and type 2 thinking.Thank god all great people have flaws because if they had none, our flaws would discourage us from striving for something better.Thanks for all the votes, everyone! For every 25 votes over 550, I’ll add 2 more tips.Want to check out some of my top investing tips? Go here.Did you like this post and want to learn more? Feel free to check out a sample from my latest online course.

INFLAMMATION:Sleep between 7–8 hours; not less, not more, according to a recent research reported in European Heart Journal. Sleeping keeps you in approximately the same position for a long period encouraging inflammation. Force yourself to get out of bed especially when you just merely watching TV or reading.Chronic lack of sleep has been associated with a host of physical ailments, including heart disease, diabetes and memory loss. People who sleep less than five hours a night for five years have a 300 percent increased risk of hardened arteries. Once arteries are damaged, returning to a healthy sleep pattern is unlikely to heal them.Chronic inflammation slowly ages you. It is caused by conditions such as obesity, lack of exercise, prolonged sitting, diet packed with red meat and void of vitamins and fiber. You can minimize chronic inflammation and even reverse it by doing the following: Adopt a wholesome diet, get regular exercise, avoid or reduce excess weight, get adequate quality sleep, minimize stress and don’t smoke.Along with depression, sleep apnea might be the cause of sleeping long hours as you are trying to make up quality sleep. Treat apnea as soon as you can, as it takes a toll on your heart, is linked to Alzheimer's, erectile dysfunction, arrhythmia and high blood pressure. Apnea causes you to seize breathing for short periods and mostly robs your REM - the restful sleep. It shocks your system many times at night. People who are overweight and therefore have fat deposits in their wind pipe that blocks the air. Usually they snore loudly- produced by the air as it passes through the narrowing. This is called an obstructive apnea. Once treated, many describe that their depression goes away in about 3 months and the clarity of thinking improves. even ADD symptoms correct themselves. Unfortunately, many don’t know they have apnea. I’ve learned about mine during my knee operation. The surgeon noticed my interrupted breathing and referred me to a sleep study, I’ve learned that I was briefly ceasing to breathe 20 times per hour. In my case, I suffer from a different kind of apnea, the central apnea. My brain somehow “forgets” to breathe during sleep probably due to genetics. Central, obstructive and mixed apneas are treated by a CPAP/BiPAP machines.-about $4,000-paid by insurance. It took some time getting used to wearing one, but now I can’t sleep without it.Those who regularly take anti-anxiety medications such as Ativan, sleeping pills, Benadryl, Vistaril and some heartburn medications. (the operating word is “on regular basis”) should know that these medications have been been linked to dementia later in life. These meds should never be taken for a long period. A Group medications with anti-cholinergic effect - drying effect- example, meds with side effects of dry mouth., btw, dry mouth increases cavities and requires special gargles or medication to correct and save teeth. Nexium taken to relieve heartburn is such medication and should not be taken for more than 2 weeks at the time. If you suffer from frequent heartburn try to change your diet rather than pop the pill. The top offenders of acid reflux are caffeine and tomatos.To further avoid inflammation in your body, make sure you Interrupt sitting or laying position every 30–45 minutes with a walk or stretch for at least 2 minutes. This will help to get your heart circulate faster and prevents accumulation of inflammation in your body. Research consistently confirms that prolonged sitting is as harmful as smoking. Our body was not meant to sit. My doctor at Duke, uses a treadmill at a low speed with a computer attached to it. He charts for prolong period while walking at low speed.EXERCISE:If you exercise 1 hour a day and then remain sedentary, it cancels the effect of your exercise. So spread it through the day. The very minimum required to prevent sudden death is 4000 steps a day, calculated in recent study (search NY Times). Aim for 10,000 steps at day (about 35-45 minutes of walking). If you want to affect your heart, intentionally increase the speed for about 20 minutes. People with healthy hearts- from various Greek islands, for example-spend most of their day walking and working outside even nowadays: picking grapes, making cheese, lifting, bending, reaching up and down and so on. The very healthy societies usually spend daily activity equivalent to walking 17,000 steps per day. You’ll be surprised that it’s not as much walking as you may think. It requires short bursts of walking throughout the day.A very good friend of mine, comes from a large family-4 brothers, 3 sisters. All of his siblings about the same age in their 50–60. Everyone except him has a variety of chronic diseases such as diabetes, stroke, high blood pressure, CHF, high cholesterol. They are African American, and therefore have a higher risk. They all eat similar type unhealthy diets. What sets my friend apart, I believe, is the fact that he works as a busy massage therapist. For the past 30 years, while massaging Clients he stands on average for 6 hours for 6 days a week. At 60, he does not have a single chronic condition his family has; his cholesterol is low, and he is not taking any prescription medications. To me, this suggests that exercise counteracts negative effects of unhealthy eating and maybe even bad genes. There of course might be other factors, but if you look at Sumu wrestlers, in general they are healthy despite being overweight and eating high caloric diets. They do exercise daily.At least, twice a week, lift weights or otherwise stress your muscles for 20 minutes minimum. Muscles grow when you rip them by lifting, pushing them slightly beyond comfort. Make sure you get enough sleep as muscles grow while you are asleep. Muscles burn calories faster and it takes more calories to maintain muscles than fat. Besides, your heart is a muscle. We begin losing muscle mass in your 30’s.Do Kegel exercise regularly for your sexual health and if you are older to prevent incontinence.If you are older, try Tai Chi. It improves muscle tone, balance and is low impact. Balance exercises, including dancing helps to prevent falls. As you age, one of the outcomes of falling is a broken hip. The danger of breaking a hip for a senior person is death within a few years after the fall.HYGIENE:Brush your teeth at least 2x day and floss. Flossing is as important as brushing. The bacteria that’s harming your gums ends up in your heart. Very bad gingivitis has been known to infect your heart’s valves. I’ve met patients with heart attacks caused by by gum health. (of course heart attacks have more than one cause but flossing can’t hurt. Moreover, bacteria from you teeth can also end up in your lungs and cause access or pneumonia.DIET:It turns out that bad carbohydrates are more dangerous than meats and cause heart attacks and stroke. Bad carbohydrates are processed grains, sugar, white bread, white rice. Try to reduce them in your diet. You can eat more of them if your lifestyle is active, then they are burned with activity but definitely emphasize complex carbs. The issue with them, they have a very high glycemic index and spike your blood sugar very fast and damage heart and blood vessels by doing so. Healthy carbs usually have fiber and go into the blood stream much slower, which is what you want. From Walter Willett’s Eat, Drink and be Healthy-Harvard Medical School Guide to Healthy Eating.Diets rich in vegetables, nuts, olive oil, berries, fish, and whole grains (such as the Mediterranean diet or the MIND diet) have been shown to improve working memory and lower the risk of Alzheimer’s.WEIGHT LOSS:Obesity causes many of our ills including diabetes, strokes, poor sexual performance, and poor self-esteem. Most of a healthy diet should consist from a wide variety of vegetables and fruits. 2–3 times a week you should eat beans. 5 days a week eat nuts (especially walnuts, almonds), Eat mainly good sources of protein: poultry, eggs, fish, beans. If you must eat red meat, get the leanest you can find. Eat it in small portions and no more than once/twice a week or less. Mediterranean dieters eat red meat once a month.As it turns out, the canned fish are pretty healthy and probably better than fresh as they are usually wildly caught and freshly canned. In terms of mercury levels, a canned fish like salmon probably contains less mercury than fresh, because smaller-size fish, which carry less mercury than larger ones, are more likely to end up in cans. If you choose canned, fish canned in oil is more likely than fish packed in water to retain more omega-3 fatty acids, considered good brain food, because the oil helps keep the nutrients in the fish. Oil adds extra calories, but if packing in oil means someone will eat fish they wouldn’t otherwise, it’s worth it.McDonalds salad is a poor choice. Salad dressing is high in salt and saturated fat. It’s really a serving of salt with the lettuce on the side. Lettuce is just water and has a low nutritional value. However, other leafy greens are a much better choice. Kale, chard, spinach, collards. Spinach is great for your brain. Raw is better, but has to be washed well. Carrots and tomatoes are better consumed cooked to break the nutrients out of the cells. Tomatoes are better cooked or heated with fat (olive oil).Don’t eat butter in large amount and only use it for cooking/taste sparingly. At least 2 times a week you should eat fish. (Cold water fish as such fish has has Omega 3-fat fish uses to keep itself warm-For example, salmon, tuna, sardines, herring). Omega 3 protects our heart, stimulates our brain, and even improves our mood. Unfortunately more than 2 servings/week is not advisable as it contains mercury especially for pregnant women. It might surprise you that canned fish often is a better choice than fresh fish since they can them almost immediately after being caught.You must avoid trans-fats, the worst kind of fat. No processed meats like sausage and bacon-they are linked to stomach cancer. Eggs are good in moderation if you already have high cholesterol. It seems that some people are more sensitive to them than others-it shoots up your cholesterol. Others have absolutely no affect-you can experiment. Egg yolk is the source of cholesterol and fat, not egg whites. Eat plenty of olive oil (choose only virgin cold pressed, grape seed, avocado. They have plenty of Omega-3. They keep you satiated longer. Avoid or eat small amounts of palm and coconut oils. Not many know that they have contain high cholesterol content and clog arteries.Take a daily multiple vitamin. Especially if you are a woman or don’t get to be on the sun much, add milk for vitamin D and calcium. Tomatoes, for the best results should be eaten heated with olive oil as they contain fat soluble vitamins.. Drink plenty of water. Coffee and teas are good, just watch them sugar. And of course, don’t drink then 5 hours before sleep, depending on how sensitive you are.SODAS KILL-the worst garbage invented by men. Even diet sodas have been implicated in heart disease. Even one third of a can a day causes premature death. Fruit juices are as bad as sodas. All it is sugar water. They spike your blood sugar high for a brief period, not good for your heart.The latest research uncovered that eating in a short period of the day makes your blood healthy, decreases blood sugar, improves your metabolic health, reduces cholesterol. What this means is to eat only during 7–8 hours a day, but no more. It turns out the breakfast is not the most important food of the day. For example, I eat between 12–19:00 and fast the rest. It improved my skin tone, I sleep better, think clearer. Apparently, after 12 hours the body starts using stored fat. It is hard to do initially, but you can start gradually decreasing the time until you get to 8 hours. The results can be seen after about 4 weeks. In recent study, people on such diet lost 3 percent of their body fat after 8 weeks eating similarly. It appears they automatically ate 500 less per day, without watching calories. The only thing they were watching is the clock. See books by dr. Funk.Having said all of this, even bad stuff is ok in moderation, no one is perfect-if you are active, it goes out of your body quicker.SOCIAL CONTACTS FOR WELL BEING:Find groups, friends. Something positive happens to your brain when you are social. Socialization requires special brain exertion. Dance is another activity that requires undue brain usage. Pick up learning a foreign language. Anything that makes your brain to struggle a little, develops different brain passages that keep your brain in good shape. Exercise, at least 30 minutes a day freshens up your brain by washing off the byproducts. Really good is period training. After you are in better shape, stress your heart for 2 minutes, that means walk very fast, then continue walking at a slower pace to get the heart back to comfortable pattern. When you stress it this way, you develop heart muscle and let the blood cross the brain-body barrier and wash off your brain.Great way to stress your heart is to use stairs for as little as 30 seconds every day, until you are out of breath. Start this after getting in basic shape. This improves your heart and increases endurance.Anything that’s good for your heart is great for your brain. Exercise is one example. Do aerobic exercise almost daily. To get to the brain, you have to work harder so that the circulation can reach it. The speeding circulation washes off by products and bring nutrients to your brain. Exercise as as good as antidepressants for depression, but when you are depressed, unfortunately it’s very hard to get moving. Catch 22. People in initial stages of dementia are prescribed exercise.Participate in a team sport if you can. The best one is tennis, badminton, and soccer. For some reasons, these particular sports are the most beneficial in help to feel well and mentally sound based on research done in Denmark recently due to the social element. Try out any team sport you can do for your age. I once found a group of volleyball players in New York. Everyone was older than 50. After a few months of playing we bonded so close. Every Wednesday for 2 hours we bumping a silly ball around. Going home afterward to me felt felt like complete happiness. It helped that everyone was tolerant of each other’s mistakes as we played for fun, not to win an election.Dancing involves part of your brain that keeps your brain young and makes you happy. Benefits include exercise, social interactivity, and an increase in cognitive abilities.Excessive loneliness and stress can cause mild brain damage. Stress depletes your immune system.Specially designed video games like NeuroRacer have been shown to improve seniors’ working memory, even beating twenty-year-olds who hadn’t played the game. However, the best thing you can do for your memory is to move/exercise. Video games can affect specific feature in your brain, for example focusing. However, if you move briskly every day, you’ll affect the whole brain and improve various functions. Whatever is good for heart, is good for your brain. Even at the earliest signs of dementia, doctors recommend exercising.The best way to handle stress is with Mindfulness and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy technique. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is very powerful and fairly quick. Its effectiveness has been proven by much research. It works and works fairly quickly, usually 26 weeks. One can often succeed without a psychologist, on his/her own. It is effective for depression, social and other types of anxiety, anger issues, self esteem conflicts and so on. It’s based on the premise that our brain is not perfect and often operates with cognitive distortions. Events in your life down make you depressed. Your thoughts or the view you take of your situation affect how you feel. If you feel a negative emotion, your brain is thinking in an extreme or distorted way. Chances are that the thoughts are automatic and unnoticed by you. They seem so real, almost second-nature. With practice, (you must write it down), you can rewire your brain and make it think practically. For example, if you get burned badly by a hot stove, you are afraid of all stoves, even the cold ones. IT’s a distortion as the cold stoves don’t burn you. You must write it down, as you process things more objectively when you do. In case of the stove, you mindfully weight if it’s really logical to be afraid of the cold stoves if you automatically feel it. Then you test your hypothesis by touching the cold stoves for a period of time and see if they are dangerous. Then you rephrase your belief. The process takes about 15–30 minutes a day. After 4 weeks or so, you will begin to catch irrational thoughts and rewire your mind not be become upset. The best books of this method are Mind over Mood and Feeling Good. Both based on sound research. While medications, such as antidepressants, help the mental issues usually return after you stop them. On the other hands, the CBT inoculates it for long time., especially if you continue to practice it. Educated patients with college degree, for some reasons respond better to any therapy than those without.I heard an interview of a man in his 60’s who was a skate boards for fun. When asked, how he is able to fall and not get hurt he answered, “It’s very simple. I was a mediocre skater in my 20’s, but I never stopped!”