This is an After Effects project I created to demonstrate a profile piece. It took me longer than I thought and still plenty more to work on, but it was fun and the music in particular fit me.

I’m working with Tricia Wright on ZenDenLife.com . Tricia is a Feng Shui practitioner and this was a migration, re-design, and a part of complete, thought 2 profit business makeover for ZDL.

Digital Lifestyle Design- diglifedesign.com is a project focused on taking a look at bringing more personal identity, flow, and awareness into our relationships with the digital world. Each device, platform, product and service has real implications on our energy levels, stress, as well physical and mental well being.

Thought 2 Profit was first a blog of mine, where I’d share my ideas and exploits as they grew from thought 2 profit. It later became integrated into services and the tagline for Heroik Media. We build ideas from thought to profit.

Bring Your Own Bravery is a call to action we use at Heroik Media in many of our projects and interactions. A large part of my job comes down to inspiring others to cultivate courage, get heroik and to do that, they need to bring their own bravery.

After many years of Interdisciplinary study, I decided to pursue yet another degree of education and elected to create my own MBA program called the Heroik MBA. Among other things, it emphasizes:

• Information Economics – Studying Liquidity
• Globalization Issues
• Heroik Ethics-the cultivation and integration of a Tao or Way that transcends into all aspects life; removing the dualistic work/life issue and a good chunk of BS in Business these days.
• HRT Heroik Resilience Training- How to find meaning in failure, and learn to fail forward to ultimately succeed
• Gamification, Game Theory & Jedi Mind Tricks- Understand how these principles are being leveraged against you now and how to use them to your advantage
• Hacking – a Discipline or Mentality towards circumventing Bull Shit

Common hacking references I hear most often:

• The most popular usage of the term “hack” that I hear refers to customizing one’s life or digital lifestyle to suit their needs. Isn’t it sad that in order to customize what we engage in the most intimate of interactions we must overcome a wall of code and binary dictatorship? How is that prescription right or moral?
• Hacking your phone to add functionality/features/derive more utility to get what you paid for – Legality does not define morality, neither does honoring ToS. Fair is Fair. If someone walked up to you and said they hacked their phone, would you look down on or admire them? When someone tells me that they’ve hacked their phone to add more features and functionality or open up a marketplace, I don’t for a moment think of it as unethical behavior. How is programming code different than oral dictation? The difference or line is only drawn when we accept the abstractions and concepts, which is of course why hacker types refuse to view it as unethical?
• Life Hacking- Productivity/Happiness/ Efficiency. If digital lifestyles are a part of life, how are they not therefor under the positive umbrella of life hacking? Do you look down upon those who do not accept life as it is prescribed to them? Or, do you admire them? I think of hacking as an investigation of what is being prescribed for you, and from knowledge gained, overcoming obstacles to make something more usable to your individual needs. Why is it okay to hack life but not okay to “hack”? Is there really an overwhelmingly negative association with the phrase.
• Hacking to drive innovation and preserve/create free markets- e.g. Don’t you dare tell me walled in markets of iOS, Android and all across the web are open/free and good for consumers or even legal.
• Hacking requires investigation and often leads to rejection of what is being prescribed on the box. The result? Free market competition, innovation, change, upgrades, patches, in short: a lot. Check out  Steve Jobs’ biography where it is made clear that he and Woz were making and selling blue boxes to cheat the phone company (a federal crime I might add). The mindset for exploration, and contrarian adventure lead to the creation Apple, which has arguably been a more positive force for user centered movement (despite its best efforts to cripple it now).

If you support the philosophical standings of protagonists in films like The Matrix and Tron, and a zillion others, this is a hacker’s mindset that should be honored and expected to manifest into action.  How backward is it to suppress freedom in theory from freedom in practice?

I think, and feel free to counter me on this, those who still hold a negative notion of the phrase are those who complain when you don’t whole heartedly swallow the goods they are selling. I’m curious to know what others think about the issue. Am I such a fan of counter-culture that I am lost on this issue? Or is this a classic sign of our times,  ”the man” wants to keep you dumb and ignorant so they can remain fat and happy conundrum.Hackers, Life hackers, or what have you seem to share a particular attitude that businesses find offensive. They challenge, explore, exploit, bend and manipulate what is presented and prescribed. Isn’t that what most businesses do in the first place? Do they  not leverage knowledge and information to manipulate systems and markets in their favor? Why is it immoral to do so on an individual basis? Excuse me for refusing to be screwed over, manipulated and guilt tripped into accepting how you’d have me lead my life (e.g. under-utilization, blind-consumption, suffering, debt and torment).

I understand from a business sense why some complain about the notion, because a well informed customer, is often a very demanding one. They can be real nags, requiring a great deal of time effort and energy to appease. We call them power users, the few who, use more than 2% of the functionality in the tools they buy. Is it not intelligent and desirable to pursue greater utilization of the tools at our disposal.  The high TEE requirement means high cost. So power users, informed users, and those who lead the way (hackers), are looked upon as cost centers. Then again, however, in the enterprise world – Customer Service and Relationship Management are equally looked at with disdain and negativity as necessary though loathed, cost centers.

To hold a negative view of it comes across a hypocritical. If you’re a student of history and innovation, how can you separate the hacks from other innovations?  The litmus test for morality of the act simply because it was against the “rules” or “terms of service” doesn’t fly. It seems to me that the pursuit of knowledge, wisdom, and awareness are pursuits of freedom, and that those who repremand.

Obviously there is a line and a big raging gray area, but by no means is it as black and white as it once was.There are clearly people out there who have mal intent, your standard black hat hackers. They keep the cyber-security complex going. Yet these are the exception rather than the rule. Or is it? Do you think the term Hack, Life Hack, Hacker, Life Hacker, etc. are negative? How and where do you draw the lines? The moment it interferes with a business model is a ridiculous answer; as the pursuit of freedom and knowledge seem to be in opposition to many business models these days especially in an information/services dominant economy. So, again where do we draw the lines.

IMO, the criteria for good film is simple. I pay good money to have good experiences, to be inspired, enlightened, engaged,  uplifted and pulled away from my everyday. Most movies fail to do this and lately more than ever. I don’t know if it’s the times or my tastes that are changing.

Themes

1. Hey Jesus Freaks, Hollywood is coming for you. Higher Ground (where’s the emoticon for gag me with a spoon),  Salvation Boulevard, and uplift you with Courageous. These introduce topics long overdue for discussion and I can’t wait to see the dung heaps flying back and forth over it all.

2. Taking on illegal immigration  and 3rd world countries with Better Life, The Harvest, and Amigo. These films are taking on important topics, and showing us things we should probably take a closer look at. However, I can only hold so much guilt, be only so angry and go about my life. Prioritization is difficult but in this economy, I have plenty of challenges for myself, family and community without taking on all of the world’s problems. So these films will likely float at the bottom of the Netflix queue until things are so cheery I need something to bring me down or make me angry.

Movies I’m looking forward to.

Salvation Boulevard – Hollywood attacks Evangelicals with hwilarity

Detective Dee -Crouching Tiger meets Sherlock Holmes. Cliche movements but visually stunning.

Magic Trip – Ken Kesey’s magical bus tour to find a cool place. The lost footage- awesome.

Haywire – Bourne Identity for Girls only better than Salt.

I Don’t Know How She Does It – Sex in the City style with SJP- taking on life as a working mom. Interesting/funny.- worth a gamble?

Pirates! Band of Misfits- A claymation, mild mannered comedy, sans force-fed, laugh tracks. From the people who brought you Chicken Run. Nuff Said.

John Carter- A Disney Flick – hints of The Fall and Prince of Persia + possibly someone’s dream world. Why do we need to see someone else dream on screen- just show me the dream and let it stand for itself. Not interested in watching other dreamers. I go to the movies to become the dreamer.

Cowboys and Aliens- Can you have a more stereotypical Hollywood movie title? I’ll probably regret seeing it, but  I can’t help it.

The Devil’s Double – A based on a true story about Sadam’s murderous son’s reluctant double. Looks good.

Puss in Boots- Antonio Banderas is Zorr-oh I mean Puss in Boots. Hopefully this film has better script than Shrek 3.

A Good Old Fashioned Orgy – Zack and What’s her name make an Orgy-kinda- looks like a whole lot of laughs.

French Movies That Look Awesome

Special Treatment -Aging french prostitute meets therapist. Good times.

The Hedgehog – The lives of a Homely Shrek-like concierge woman and a dysfunctional, well to do family are changed via an intermediary. Fun. Feel Good. Inspirational. Trans formative. When will American Cinema return to serve its patrons the way these films do?

Upcoming Exception: Hugo- Okay- forget what I just said about American cinema. This movie might bring a little fun for everyone.

Point Blank – Man’s wife is kidnapped, man is framed for murder, and he must help someone escape police custody. Sound familiar? It’s in French.

Love Crime – Damages in one movie or less.

Lazy Sunday Movies

Vigilante- Some jack-ass painting over graffitti with wait for it, wait for it, silver paint- thinks it isn’t graffiti. Interesting Social Commentary.

Pearl Jam 20 – Great Band that’s lasted a while. Looks interesting. Background potential to say the least.

Life in a Day – HD mashup of National Geographic+ YouTube that will make us laugh and cry I’m sure.

Chasing Madoff – Required Watching for all you Heroik MBA’s out there.

Suing the Devil- Finally, Satan gets h is day in court- sued for causing all the world’s suffering. Hope he wins. Take some God Damn- Responsibility world!

El Bulli-Cooking in Progress – Documentary about one of the greatest restaurants and chefs in the world. Foodies of the world unite- in line to see it.

Redemption Road – Michael Clark Duncan, Luke Perry, and some other lesser known names in a story about blues and life and getting them right. Interesting.

Jurie’s Still Out

The Change Up – might be good- but not convinced.

Mysteries of Lisbon- can’t tell if it’s going to be a tragedy or not.

The Three Musketeers- How many will they make? Looks a bit over-produced and that is usually the sign of an underwhelming movie, but I could be wrong.

Movies You Can’t Pay Me to Go See- Save Yourself $100, 15 hours+ popcorn and soda money.

The Harvest- guilt trip about migrant farm workers- I have enough guilt already. Pass.

Amigo - American guilt trip from the 19th century- The Phillipines edition. Pass.

Paranormal Activity 3 – Can we get an IQ test or census for the audience here? I’m just curious about the break down.

Apollo 18- Paranormal Activity on the moon. Bad acting as well. Yawn.

The Future- This one might be good or it may inspire you to go home and start cutting yourself. Watching depressed people mope about- save for the cat narration- how is this different?

Glee 3d- I’m not even linking to it. OK Fine here.

Contagion – The latest apocalyptic fear mongering movie that will all keep us out of the airports w/o gloves. Boring old premise- in a movie with a lot of big names.

Project Nim – A horrible story about a chimp raised by humans. I read about this. Not- a happy ending- pass.

Phase 7 - From executive producer of Paranormal Activity – and it shows- not in a good way.

The Dream House- Daniel Craig, 007 himself in a movie reminiscent of The Shining about one or more fathers who killed his entire family. Who needs a new nightmare? Not I. Pass.

Hacking isn’t limited to computer activity. You can hack anything. Why do we do it? I believe we do it to work-around what we believe to be menial and boring and get to the activities or parts of the activities that we enjoy- (e.g. winning, completion, crossing the finish line, at all costs). Here are some examples that support my point- we’re born to hack.

Games

For every honest player, I bet there are at least 2 people eager to learn how to hack the system, and another person who actually does it.

1. Man has been breaking rules since the dawn of time. War Games and the simulations that were designed to mimic them have been hacked since the beginning. Kings used political pressure to ensure victory of a chess game. Big brothers under penalty of a pounding would coax little brothers and sisters into surrendering properties in Monopoly and so on (sorry).

2. Counting cards and the notion of beating the house qualifies as a hack. It requires you to cultivate a deep understanding of the system and exploit it’s weaknesses. This isn’t cheating, though many think that it is. It is just awesome game hack.

3. In the digital world, there are hacks of all kinds and this is perhaps the easiest to grasp notion. Players can exploit flaws and the system to see their opponent’s moves and goals and respond accordingly. In the political field, we do similar things across the globe with espionage, to the point of cyber war.

Health & Fitness

1. We’re constantly looking for magic pills to make us stronger, faster, thinner, and energized. We could focus on tapping into gifts we’re given, understanding and nurturing the natural flow of things but most of us don’t. After all who has the time. Steroids and drug use are prevalent in just about every popular professional sport, save for Soccer, which I guess isn’t that popular here in the states. Runners do all sorts of things to exploit their bodies to overclock and push them to the limit. In all of this, I can’t tell you at what point optimization ends and hacking/gaming the system (in the negative context) begins.

2. Obesity and weight loss is the biggest issue for Americans. I speak from personal experience and can say with confidence (as a former heavyweight turned athlete), that out of all the ways we hack, this is at the top of the list. It earns the top slot because we hack the hack. We have many diet and fitness programs that work, yet a majority of fat Americans will tell you they don’t. Why? Because they add the rationalization loop to make the hard work easier on the brain. They make excuses for caloric exceptions of cheesecake and burgers. We’re really good at hacking our motivations for food drives. Fitness classes work. Hagen Daas and Fitness Classes don’t work.  And when we hack the body hacks with mind hack rationalizations- the result is failure.

Mind Hacking- Rationalizing our thoughts and behaviors to avoid doing what’s necessary. We make excuses to work around our what our minds and bodies are telling us.

Politics, Law and Business

1. How many subtle linguistic tricks and work arounds do we have? Has anyone even attempted to map out the politcal correct speech dictionary in a big book of douchebaggery? It would take a lifetime for a team of people I’m sure.

2. If there’s one thing that we produce in the U.S.A. it’s Bull Shit, and what I mean by that is the mental and linguistic efforts to deceive, circumvent, any hindrance to any individual, group, or organization’s efforts, anywhere across every medium. We are really great at hacking society via Bull Shit. Most pretend to be value driven and proceed to rationalize and B.S. their way around holding themselves accountable to the same standards.

3. The latest layer of complexity in the murky brown BS world, is the notion that we will transform business into a video game for customers and employees. Great, because teaching everyone that work/life is one big game will remove any moral imperatives and encourage hacking on all sides of the consumer/business/employee structure. This is in fact, the way things are trending.

Conclusions & Discussion Points

If it is becoming like a big game,  The Game of Life:

Why should we fight our nature to hack the system?

At what point does hacking become immoral? At what point are we crossing the line between efficiency and optimization, playing to our strengths, exploiting the system, and doing something wrong?

The answer is a murky gray one. I’d love to know what others think on the subject.

The reality, in the Information Age,  on the cyborg lifestyle scene, I believe we’ve been life hacking at a whole new level for at least a decade, in pursuit of freedom from boredom and indentured servitude. It’s a required mentality to compete with innovation and globalization. I believe that pursuing freedom in this day requires a dedication to hacking your reality, your work and life to mold it the way you see fit.

Let’s accept the Matrix scenario as our premise, since many of the rules can be bent, others broken and accountability at just about every societal level is virtually non-existent, to the extent where we minimize suffering caused, why shouldn’t we hack our lives for our own personal gain?

Tell me why I should stop seeking to maximize the value of my time effort and energy? Explain why I shouldn’t delegate and automate my way into early retirement. Corporate citizenship is a bullshit moral imperative for sheep. Don’t get me wrong, I have principles, but explain to me the merits of accepting the gamified premise & rules of a societal game where those at the top, middle, and a few at the bottom aren’t even following.

Life is short. Make it what you want. Live with virtue and deep compassion for fellow man, but don’t hold societal premises and definitions too high. Corporate culture and many of societal rules are attacks or hacks on our sense of virtue and morality. They are designed to obligate, guilt trip and otherwise force you into submission. How is that fair or ethical?  Most of it is bullshit- built to hack.

-Nicholas