Читать книгу How to Become Rich - Petr Krylov - Страница 4

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.6

Back in kindergarten, right before nap time, the crafty teacher would announce to the kids:

– Whoever falls asleep first gets to not sleep!

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So, in the last chapter, we came up with three simple safety rules for learning the Stalking of Denarii.

Some people will follow these rules, some will break them—same as always. But as Pontius Pilate said: “Look, good citizens of Yerushalayim, I asked you three times to do this for me. My conscience is now totally clean, and I’m washing my hands of the whole business.” Hand me the bowl of water.

And now, to keep moving toward that oh-so-tempting, shiny future, let’s clear something up—what exactly is learning, and how do we fight it?

Anyone faint of heart or overly sensitive should go ahead and stock up on Corvalol, because all the other circus tricks, we’re doing together. But hey, nothing too scary—it’s all virtual anyway, right? What’s the safest kind of sex?

Right—over the phone, by text!

Let’s take an unbiased look—purely in our heads, of course—at the following example.

There’s a flashy BMW X5 SUV parked in the yard (if this happens to be your SUV, you can stop reading right now—self-help is powerless in your case). Let’s get a little closer and inspect this ride. What do we see?

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Basically, we see the following:

A really coolооооооооооооbig car.

The familiar BMW badge, right where it always is.

The color is solid—meaning black.

Those are some seriously massive wheels.

The windows are tinted.

The body’s all shiny.

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Well, that’s pretty much it.

Anything about our observations bothering you? Conscience not keeping you up at night? Not even a twinge of shame for all those wasted years?

How does that even happen? I mean, right here in front of us is an entire BMW X5, and we managed to describe it in less than ten lines. Something doesn’t add up.

Let’s take a closer, more thoughtful look:

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Hmmm, yeah, it’s big—which means it’ll haul a ton, the cabin’s roomier, and the owner’s probably not a dwarf either. Wow, such far-reaching—dare I say, deeply philosophical—conclusions, when it seemed like these things weren’t even related.

…Mmmmmm… Those chunky ‘peasant shoes’ for wheels and that massive hood are quietly hinting that it takes one seriously beefy engine to spin them—and there’s no way that engine is going on a gas diet anytime in the next five years.

Black paint—in the summertime, that thing’s basically an oven. Without AC, only someone with a death wish would get in, so of course it has air conditioning—that’s a given. ооооооооооооооYeeaaah.

But then again, sneaking around the city at night and picking up young nymphs is super convenient—the car is basically invisible in the dark, which is a definite plus. ооооооооооооооtааааааа.

The windows are tinted, you see—so sitting in this jeep, you don't really have to worry about being honest. No one can see what you’re up to with the nymphs anyway, and honestly, it’s easier on them too—private lives are protected by law, after all.

The body’s all shiny, so you can bet it’s lacquered, which basically means it’ll last forever—unless, of course, some jerk decides to scratch it.

Well, would you look at that! Nicely done! Turns out if you give those brain cells even a tiny push, suddenly everything starts coming into focus.

Still feels kind of awkward, though—like it’s just a bunch of wild guesses.

Let’s whip out a handy reference book. What do you mean—how’d I end up with a reference book in my pocket? I always have a reference book on me—my trusty iPod. With 3G and Wikipedia, it can pull up anything you want (except a hundred-dollar bill). No iPod, huh? Sorry to disappoint, guys—no bananas here.

Alright, let’s check Wikipedia:

http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/BMW_X5

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Mother of mercy, just look at that—what a madhouse—360 horses! That’s not a jeep, it’s a low-flying plane. And the fact it has no wings and all-wheel drive, well, that’s just the designers messing up—they missed that bit, the rascals! The body’s obviously aluminum, I’m telling you—it’s a plane!

Oоооооооо…

Uuuuuu…

Yыыыыыыы…

Aliveууууууууууууv in lюююююююdиииииииии…

Dааааааааааааааааааааа…

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Well, well, who’s this grumpy King Kong headed our way?

Nooo, chivalrous? That's definitely not me…

Nope… and I have no idea who is…

Nah, I'm just admiring the car—what a sweet ride…

That's what I'm saying, it's awesome…

Seriously, for real?

Nice…

All I need is to save up a bit more (like two hundred years) and I'll get myself one just like it… If they're still making them, of course…

Worst case, I'll pick one up as a classic somewhere…

Phew, he's gone. I told you, not a dwarf, but who knew he'd be that huge and terrifying.

By the way, this guy tells some pretty interesting things about this gadget—not a word about that in the manuals.

Turns out, this thing is so loaded with smart microchips that flipping it over on the road is basically impossible, even if you’re totally drunk and dead set on ending it all. Now that’s what I call inside info!

So, did you check out the original? Now, let’s take a break from the harsh realities of life and get back to our marvelous little theory.

You know, sometimes we just really want to get close to something like a BMW X5. But it’s outrageously expensive, the damn thing. Still, you want it so much—really, really want it. You want to have it, to own it, to turn it over in your hands, to stare at it, to philosophize while looking at it—heck, just to play with it!

But there’s simply no money for such a big toy. A toy like that costs a ton of money.

Still… you want it—so much… And they say there’s always a way out of any situation.

So how can you actually resolve this contradiction in real life?

In practice, there’s only one way—go out and buy yourself a very tiny, but remote-controlled BMW X5!

And don’t spit at your monitor—you might still need it.

Let’s look at this purely hypothetically; nobody’s forcing you to blow your last nickels on a ‘useless’ toy. (Not so useless, by the way—you could (editor’s note: removed)… just enough left for a real BMW andmmmmmmmhyeaaaa…)

…But I’m getting sidetracked—let’s get back to the remote-controlled ‘toy.’ So, what is this ‘toy,’ scientifically speaking? It’s helpful to remember that the ‘toy’ is usually a remote-controlled REPLICA, at 1:50 scale. In other words, this pint-sized model is a COPY of a real BMW X5.

And the higher the class (and the price) of the replica, the MORE ACCURATELY it COPIES a real jeep—and it doesn’t even have to be an X5, or a BMW, or sometimes even a car, period.

But what if, say, we don’t need such a huge copy? No problem—there’s another scale for replicas, 1:200. Sure, it’s rougher and has fewer details, but at least it’s even cheaper and simpler.

Okay, but what if we need a more accurate replica?

Go for 1:8! Sure, it’ll cost you more, but it copies pretty much everything!

But what if you can’t be bothered with models at all, and don’t want to overpay for them either?

So what should you get then?

Well, at that point, at least grab a copy of ‘Behind the Wheel’ magazine—it’s quite affordable.

Wait, is this even a copy?

Oкккккккf course it’s a copy.

But here’s the kicker—the pictures and photos in the magazine are just a 2-DIMENSIONAL COPY of the real car.

In other words, they only have two dimensions—width and height. I mean, really, what meaningful features can a photo have besides width and height? The photo’s thickness is irrelevant, and as for color—every photo is, well, colorful, which just means it looks “natural.”

So what dimensionality does the actual car have, then?

Let’s take a close, nitpicky look—in other words, let’s actually think for a change. However many ways you can measure an object, that’s how many dimensions it has—plain old common sense, really.

A real car comes with width, height (just like a photo), and—surprise!—length! Three measurements in total, so the object is three-dimensional.

But wait, here’s a minor oversight: a real car exists not just here and now, but yesterday, the day before, tomorrow, the day after, and so on… meaning you can also measure its LIFESPAN—the period when it actually exists. So, a real car is 3+1 (width, length, height + lifespan), which means—yep—a 4D object!

Like, honestly, every real object in our world. (Shhh… quiet… I know, don’t confuse them, they’ll get tangled up all by themselves…)

So, all 'real' objects are 4D, and a photo is 2D—we’ve cleared that up. So what, then, is a video of an object?

It’s just a stack of frames, one after another—so, photos lined up over time. That’s 2+1 (width, height + a time queue)—a 3D object.

Tired yet? Well, we’re almost done; the bright future is just around the corner…or maybe just behind fences. Tall ones. With guards.

Alright, let’s keep going.

So, what about the magazine article about that very same car? What’s its dimensionality?

What can you actually measure in a text? Just which letter comes in which place—so basically, a text is only one-dimensional!

So what does that tell us, folks?

A radio-controlled BMW X5 is a 4-dimensional COPY of the real BMW, and it’s already guaranteed to have mistakes.

A video clip—it’s not even four-, but three-dimensional. One dimension’s already missing, so no wonder commercials are full of nonsense; they’re just taking advantage of that missing dimension.

And those glossy magazine photos—those are even worse, just two dimensions! No wonder the girl looks gorgeous in the picture but, in real life, is more of a crocodile. She just knew which side to shoot from, taking full advantage of the shortage of dimensions.

But the truly terrifying part—an utter catastrophe—is how the text gets chopped down to even fewer dimensions!

Text is stuck with only one dimensionality, but the real thing has four. But if you think about it, text is basically just another copy of reality, like a model, a video, or a photo.

But if a girl in a photo can fool us just by taking advantage of two missing dimensions, imagine how much text tricks us—when it's missing not two, but three dimensions?!

It's downright terrifying when you think about it!

But even that's not the worst of it, folks.

Hang in there.

Stay brave.

I hope everyone’s got their Corvalol and their will, signed by a notary, close at hand?

But that’s not the scariest part.

The truly terrifying thing is HOW we think about the world around us.

Get it? UNDERSTAND?!

That’s right—with words, with text. In other words, with good old one-dimensional speech.

Now let’s think for a second: WHERE does this one-dimensional speech live, no matter how smart or logically airtight it is?

And WHERE’S the real four-dimensional world, with all its quirks, rules, and laws?

Pop quiz: what are the odds that your brain will spit out a QUALITY—not to mention OBJECTIVE—copy of REAL objects and processes?

Look, I get it—you have an off-the-charts IQ, three diplomas and a baseball card, you’re basically a kung fu master, and yes, a driver’s license counts too.

But still?

Do you honestly think your one-track logic will help you figure out how to make a million? Let’s take a look around: what are all these sciences, philosophical and religious teachings, political movements, and fancy doctorates, anyway?

Because if you really think about it, these are just the same old COPIES—little MODELS of the real world we’ve already seen a hundred times.

And all of them have the same fatal flaw: the DIMENSIONALITY of these copies is ALWAYS LESS by 1, 2, or sometimes even 3 dimensions than the original!

Which means—not a single one of these COPIES has ever even come close to the truth or the REAL WORLD—not even as a neighbor!

And the worst part is, we’re usually stuck OPERATING with these copies strictly at the level of LOGIC—that is, good old ONE-DIMENSIONAL speech!

I mean, our thinking is so far gone from reality, there’s honestly nowhere left to go.

Scared?Knees trembling yet?

But unless you spot the bars of your own ignorance, you’ll never figure out where the latch is.

So what does that tell us?

It leads to a pretty obvious thought: the standard logical way of thinking is so out of touch with reality, only a very naive Chukotkan teenager would seriously expect to make a million that way.

…As long as Abramovich is governor.

So, what exactly do you have to do to become a millionaire?

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But that's a whole different story—which, as you might have guessed, comes up in the next chapter.