What is metaverse?

Metaverse is a frictionless integration of various technological components that include virtual reality, as well as augmented reality and videos. All intended to create a digital world, which users can exist in. This allows the user to be almost anywhere they want, but of course, digitally.

Companies like Meta (formerly known as Facebook), Microsoft, Roblox, Epic Games and more are already looking into building this immersive experience and creating this digital world of tomorrow. As impressive as it sounds, to what extend does it stop being glorious and fascinating and only contribute to decay our society?

The metaverse brings us closer to the dystopian future we’ve until now, only heard and read about. A world where users are free to create any identity they please through characters and virtual possessions. Making it easier to escape reality.  It is highly possible that individuals will use this as a way to escape their real life, avoid the problems and emerge into a state of ignorance. They will want to completely immerse themselves in this virtual world as it much nicer than real life. It can distort our sense of reality. We will grow to become unable to perceive reality, lose the ability to talk to people and all in all, become lazy and unimaginative. Kill our creativity and lose our sense of curiosity to explore the real world and our openness to new experience. As we allow algorithms to do their magic, collect data and perfectly curate personalized suggestions for us. Basically, letting our past dictate our future. Users will gladly accept this false reality a third-party fabricates.

It’s also bound to make us more anxious, irritable and paranoid. We are already slaves to our devices. Indulging in a system that makes it even harder to step away from and have real-life interactions will only make us more miserable. Social isolation is inevitable, when one can create their own personalized individual bubble. It will create a vast divide.

“You’ll be able to hang out with friends, work, play, learn, shop, create, and more. It’s not necessarily about spending more time online — it’s about making the time you do spend online more meaningful,” – Meta

But? What’s wrong with the way we already do those things? The only difference is true quality is snatched away and replaced by a sense of distorted glory.

Technological advancements are an integral part of our future and the reason for it is to make our lives easier, simpler, better. Of course, there are domains that benefit wonderfully by these advancements. For example, using VR for training pilots or using integrated virtual augmentation system to train the soldiers is a great economic and efficient way to tackle insurance of quality training. If used properly technology is a great tool. But it is just as easy to drown in it’s quicksand.

Do you know, What is the easiest thing to do in the world? Think a bit. What is the easiest thing to do? It is to say these two words,”I Quit”. A few decades ago. There was a young man, who saw a big dream. He wanted to climb, the world’s highest mountain. The mighty Mount Everest. Everyone told him, it cannot be done. It was impossible to climb Mount Everest. No human has never done it before. However, the young man was determined. His name was Edmund Hillary. And on 29 May 1953.. he achieved his dream. Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay became the first humans to reach the top of Mount Everest.People across the world, lauded their triumph. They both accomplished what was the earlier called as ‘impossible’. But what happened a few days later puzzled the newspapers. Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay had taken 7 weeks to climb Mount Everest. But can you guess. How many weeks they took to climb down from the to pand return back to the base? They took… 6 weeks? 5 weeks? Or 3 weeks?”NO”. They took only 3 days to return to their base camp. A 7-week journey while climbing up. Was done in mere days, while they were coming down. Few journalists were shocked.How is this possible? How they came back in just 3 days? Edmund Hillary replied…The most important factor of him reaching the top and returning early, was not climbing. It was “MOTIVATION”. In his 7-week journey, here were days he felt scared. There were days, he doubted himself. He thought about, what others had told him before, How Everest was unconquerable. But, amidst all this internal turmoil. He did one simple thing. He kept himself motivated to keep on moving forward. Even with all self-doubts, and all the fears. He didn’t stop. And once they reached the top, all the fears and doubts, went away, As their mission was now complete. While coming down, the journey which took 7 weeks to climb up was reduced to only 3 days not only because now they were climbing down,But also because, now they were climbing down without the burden of fears and doubts. They were climbing down without the burden of failure. In our lives, we also carry the burden of fear and self-doubt. That burden makes it harder… to continue.

That burden makes us want to say..”I Quit”.

But let me tell you one important fact from my own life experience. We often quit by justifying to ourselves, that there were obstacles, there were the problems and I had to quit. But the fact is, No obstacle has the power to stop you. No problem has the strength, to make you stop. Before leaving just remember , this simple life lesson.It is very easy to Quit anything. But real courage is when even after facing all the challenges you stand tall. Real courage is when even after facing failures again and again, you keep on trying harder. Real courage is  when you DON’T STOP moving ahead. That’s real courage. So please.. DON’T STOP.

“Only you can stop yourself. If you continue, you might fail or succeed. But if you stop, turn back from your goal you will fail 100 %.”

Far away, there was a village, A “CURSED” village. It was known to everyone that whoever will cross this village boundary will “DIE” instantly. Generations passed, and no one crossed the boundary of the village. One day an innocent little boy mistakenly crossed the village boundary. His mother screamed at the sight of losing her beloved child. Hearing the scream all the villagers gathered at the spot and they were all SHOCKED. “There they saw the little boy was standing across the boundary and he was safe and smiling back at them. That was the moment, they all realized. There was no curse on the village.” It was all a LIE. But in reality, there was one CURSE on their village. The curse, which made them FEAR the unknown. The CURSE which TRAPPED each of them inside the village. That curse was only in their MIND and Nowhere else. Your MIND is a symphony of thoughts. Your MIND is the valley of wonders. It can visualize your greatest dreams. It can conceive the greatest ideas and make the biggest discoveries. But sometimes, It also LIES to you. It scares you makes you afraid. Your mind tells you, you are wrong. Your mind tells you it cannot be done. It tells you, you are NOT GOOD  enough. It tells you to STOP and quit. Your mind wants you, to not take any chances. To never try anything new. It tells you, you will FAIL if you will hurry. You will FAIL if you take action. Your mind DEMANDS you to take time. To achieve perfection, even before trying. You know one thing, Your mind is LYING all along. Not because it is our enemy. But because it is filled with fear. It is fearful of all failures that might come. It is fearful of what others might say. It is fearful that your hope and dreams shall be shattered. It wants to stop you from taking any action. Because if you don’t act, you will never fail. It wants an existence without pain, grief, and failures. But what’s life without taking action towards your dream. What’s life without tears and joy. What’s life without its ups and downs.

 So tell your mind NOT TO WORRY. Tell your mind to NOT TO SCARED. To NOT OVERTHINK your worst fears. “Just take ACTION towards your goal and BREAK FREE from the clutches of your fearful mind. “

“If you spend too much time thinking about something.. you’ll never be able to make it, a REALITY.”

Once upon a time, a psychologist was teaching stress management to the audience. She raised a cup of water and asked everyone. How heavy do you think this glass of water is? Expecting another half- full/half empty questions, The crowd gave various answers from 50 gm to 400 gms. But she said the absolute weight of the glass doesn’t matter. It actually depends on how long I hold it. A minute won’t be a problem. After an hour, I might feel a dull ache. If I hold it a day, my arm would feel paralyzed. But, The weight of the water never changed the longer I hold , the heavier it felt. Then she said, the stresses and worries of our life are just like the cup of water.Think about them all day and you’ll feel paralysed and helpless. It’s important to remember to let go of your stresses. Don’t carry them for hours and days and months. Remember to put down the glass!

Moral:”Think about them for a while nothing happens. Think about them longer, it starts to hurt.”

Mr.Chris Myler, an elderly carpenter who was ready to retire. He told his employer of his plans to leave the house of building business to live a more leisurely life with his wife and enjoyed his extended family. He would miss the pay cheque each week but he wanted to retire. The employer was sorry to see his good worker go and asked if he could build just one more house as a personal favour. The carpenter agreed and started working on the last project of his life. Since it was his last project, he worked half-heartedly. He said goodbye to overtime. He did not consider to find the best cement mixture. He did not consider having a  swimming pool in this project. He did not use quality wood for doors. The furniture was not good quality. The employer called the carpenter in his office and gave the keys of this newly built house to the carpenter saying, “ This is my gift to you for your such a commendable service over 15 years. The carpenter was shocked. What a shame! If he had only known he was building his own house, he would have done it all so differently. So it is with us. We build our lives a day at a lime, often pulling less than our best into the building. Then, with a shock we realise we have to live in the house we have built. If we could do it over, we would do it much differently. But you cannot go back, you are the carpenter and every day you hammer a nail, place a board or erect a wall. Someone once said, “ life is a do-it-yourself project”. Your attitude and the choices you make today, help build the house you live in tomorrow. Therefore, build wisely!.

Unless you take risks. Nothing. Nelson Mandela said: “ There is no passion to be found playing small, in settling for a life that’s less than the one you’re capable of living. I am sure in your experiences in school in applying to college. In picking your major, in deciding what you want to do with life, people have told you to make sure you have something to “fall back on”. Make sure you got something to fall back on, honey. But I never understood that concept have something to fall back on. If I’m going to fall, I don’t want to fall back on anything except my faith. I want to fall forward. I figure at least this way I’ll see what I’m going to hit. Full forward, this is what I mean. Reggie Jackson struck out 2600 times in his career the most in the history of baseball. But you don’t hear about the strikeouts. People remember the home runs. Fall forward. Thomas Edison conducted 1000 failed experiments. Did you know that, I didn’t either because 1001 was the light bulb. Fall forward. Every failed experiment is one step closer to success. It’s good for you to go take your place in the world, have some ambition; have a vision; have a goal; have a strategy. Try to be a good person and not because it’s your duty precisely because that’s the proper way to live. We’re in danger of undermining all of that. And it’s not good for people. One of the things that I’ve really learned, for example, recently, is that learned to articulate better is that there’s a very tight relationship between aspiration and responsibility. So let’s say, well, the first question might be do you need to aspire to something? An answer is, well, yes, because you have to do something. If you just sit there, you’ll die. You can’t just sit there. You have to go act out in the world. Ok, so act towards what? Well, that’s whatever your aspiration is. You have to have an aim. Ok, well, what should the aim be? Well, it should be something worth doing, let’s say. Why do something that you don’t feel is worth doing? What do you think’s worth doing? Well, if you watch other people and you judge when they’re doing something worthwhile, usually judge them positively, if you see that they’re taking responsibility at least for themselves. What do you want to be completely useless so other people have to take care of you? That’s pretty pathetic and may be you could get your act together. So you’re taking care of yourself and your family and maybe you could even do better than that and your family and your community. I know I’ve gone on stage infront of 10000 people and I thought I should have more PowerPoint. I should have more reminders, and I just remember walking out and saying, I’m here to help rise these people up, to give them capabilities to change their life. It’s my vision, it’s my goal. It’s my obligation to use my unique ability to just help these people and live for my heart. All I think is changing these people’s lives. And when I got out there, I wasn’t perfect on stage. I wasn’t robotic and say the right things, and I didn’t have the crisp, clear PowerPoint. But when I spoke from the heart, it overcame all of that and I get to be one of the best presenters wherever I go because I speak from the heart. Now you might say that, Deen that’s your unique ability and may be that is. But I know for you in life there are circumstances where you have to prepare. You have to do a PowerPoint, you have to do presentation and I want to tell you passion and from the heart. Always wins over over prepared and thinking from the head. Well, let me just ask you something right now in the crazy presidential race, the GOP race. You know, Ben Carson is probably the smartest guy when it comes to Booksmart out of the whole group. And I don’t watch the news a lot, but I just read a lot. And somebody said this the other day and it just hit me. Someone said, Man, Ben Carson is probably the smartest guy in that GOP race that’s going on. Whatever I’m going to share my opinion. But you know that, the guy said when he was done, he’s like, We all know the smartest guy never wins. And I was like, Wow, we all know that the smartest guy never wins. And what does that mean. And it’s kind of what I’m sharing today. I’m not saying you shouldn’t be smart. I’m sure, so many of you were probably way smarter than I am. But what I want to tell you is enthusiasm and passion and living from your heart. To me, one hundred percent of this time. Outweighs being over-prepared and robotic and trying to think what to say. I hope I’m getting the right message across today. I’ve had this question from so many people. How are you so easy to talk on camera on stage? And I never have a good answer, and I really fought through it. And that’s the answer. I am here right now doing this video for you because each week I want to delivery you a nugget that you can just place into your life and make a tiny shift towards a better life. So I don’t need a teleprompter. I don’t need a script. I come here and just want to deliver, and it’s coming from your heart. Now I have practise. I’ve been on video for 15 years. I’ve been doing these for 7-8 years, and maybe that’s not what you do, but you’re still going to have these circumstances where you have to talk to your children, talk to your owner, talk to your employees and talk to your employer. And if you get stuck in your head, that’s when you get worried. That’s when you try to remember what to say and you leave and go, Oh, why did I say that? Or why didn’t I say more? Well, if you can go in and say, Why am I going in and live with passion and have it come from your heart, then that’s truly you, and you’re giving the answers you’re supposed to do from the real you, not the facade that sometimes life makes us where. One of the challenges I think many people have is really the discernment of information. It’s really difficult to know what’s the truth anymore just because information is so accessible. And I used to say that in an age of information, ignorance is a choice. And now we have to confront a whole another level and that is the information that we’re getting. It is actually supporting us or is it something that really is an incentive to to cause us to make choices? So for me, I think the biggest challenge has been ust really an awakening to what kind of information I want to expose myself to. And I think it’s now more than ever a challenge for a lot of people in the world. You don’t have to be perfect to inspire others. You can inspire people by how you deal with your imperfections. Don’t feel that you have to have it all. Know it all to make an impact? You don’t. You just need a soul full of desire and compassion, right? It was Martin Luther King who said, “ You don’t need a college degree to serve. You don’t need to know how to fill a sentence to serve. All of you need is a heart full of soul, right? And a half and have compassion. That’s all that’s needed. That’s what we need to focus on. Let’s not be limited by feeling. We need other resources apart from love and compassion to make an impact. Because we don’t right? You actually don’t need them. We are going to create a baseline for ourselves that’s based on intention. This is around 1989, when I’d read Gary Zuka book called The Seat of the Soul, and that book was life changing for me because in it, he talked about the power of intention and that cause and effect. What goes out comes back is determined by your intention. The energy of your intention is what determines your life. Most people don’t think about their intention, they just think about what they want to do. Most people don’t think about why they want to do it, but what’s going to come back to you? The energy that’s going to come back to you is the real why of why you did it. And so I then said to my producers, we’re not going to do any shows that are intentional. So don’t bring me an idea. Unless you have an intention for the show that you want the outcome to be, and we’re going to strive to see if we can live up to our intentions. And so around the late 80’s, we started a pre-show to talk about what the intention was. And then it polls show, after every single show to say, Did we fulfill that intention? And that’s about the time I realize this is bigger than me.

A book beyond the principles of judgment and society, barring the barriers of age, this masterpiece will remold your soul towards the kvetches in your life. A man called Ove, Created and written miraculously by Fredrick Backman, is a thin but infinitely everlasting book that will always stay with you once you turn the last page. As described on the cover page, it is a story about a man called Ove, and the short but satisfactory chronicles of his life. Being a cranky curmudgeon, he has a big habit of floccinaucinihillipilliphication. Big word, isn’t it? Google it (secretly gushing). He basically thinks every new technological thing that he cannot understand is paltry. His neighbors, His friends, everyone thinks he is an old trout. Well, when you are always seen with disgust and disappointment searing in your eyes, you wouldn’t expect much. But if you get to know the man who is called ‘the sorehead’, there is something irresistibly beautiful about Ove.

The story starts with a pouty old man who is seen buying an IPad or at least trying to buy an IPad, with a ‘you just broke my most precious possession and now I am going to kill you’ look. At that moment, the bewitching chronicle takes its first step into a beautiful tale about love, lived and lost.

Ove is a man who believes in practicality. Inaccuracy. In reality. Having a mighty adoration for tools, he was a straightforward man with no tolerance for nonsense, contrasting opinions, or even a happy sunshiny personality. Even after all this, there were so many things about Ove that were magnificent and adorable. That man’s life was simply great, he was arrogant, but down to earth. A man with a heart too big.

You’ll only feel the inklings of dismay and somewhat a sigh as the right side of the gem grows thinner page by page. The words start to reach the deepest core of our hearts, the dark noir on the crisp paper seems like the only world to exist. This little infinite tale will make you laugh out loud, and cry till you can’t breathe. My heart goes out to the author who has created such a magical fable, such an everlasting magnet of love and appreciation. Thank you. Fredrick Backman. Well done. Overall, I recommend this book to you, and I will do it again and again. Believe me.

it is worth it.