July 2, 2012

Suits are nice but ties are ridiculous

Tie on a child — Silly kid, ties are for grown-ups.

By: Pavel Konoplenko

Picture a stylish, fashionable man dressed to impress.

What’s he wearing?

A suit, nice belt, shiny shoes – and a tie.

Why a tie? Ties are pointless – absurd really. If your argument is that ties help cover the buttons then you’re missing the point. (And why cover the buttons? Buttons are nice.)

Ties just dangle from your neck, and dangling isn’t classy. Just look how sad the POTUS is:

Novelty ties aren't novel either — Dangling in the wind

We have to call a tie for what it is: a superficial status symbol ingrained by popular culture over many decades.

Now so we’re clear, I don’t hate ties. I use the popular example of ties to demonstrate how mired our beliefs, ideas, and perceptions of society are in arbitrary symbols and connections. We associate jewelry and ties with success, sandals and socks with bad fashion, and ice cream with happiness (ok that’s just me). By themselves, these arbitrarily defined symbols are not a problem.

The problem starts occurring when we fail to realize that these connections are meaningless and that they’re based on a myriad of separate societal and cultural phenomena. For example, society has done a good job at conditioning itself to associate money with happiness. This monetary connection to happiness leaves little room for more important pursuits like passion and fulfillment.

To maintain our focus on the things that are truly important to us, we must learn to stop perceiving our role and value using societal standards which are oftentimes skewed away from personal fulfillment and growth. To achieve this, we must learn to view the world using our own vision. Not only will it help you grow, it will allow you to transcend the everyday complacency of society.

When we worry about ties and how it reflects our place in society, we begin to lose a sense of personal value and identity. We begin to cloud our own personal view – a view imbued with the humanity of self that would allow us to connect with the world around us and make it interesting again. Ideally, we are driven to create a mark on our world and fill it with novelty. However, before we create novelty within our world, we must create novelty within ourselves.

Steve Jobs said think different, but let’s take it further and be different and be novel. You have to embrace your own novelty before the world can take notice of your contributions.

When you embrace your novelty, you’ll finally be able to see the world as it appears and appeals to you. Everything should be ultimately centered on you, because you are in control. Embrace your novelty, embrace your you-ness, and embrace your person-ness. Everything in society is ultimately people-centric. From technology to institutions, major functions of our society ultimately derive their power from people. Why should you willingly give that up?

To understand where you are and where you want to be in life, you must understand the complex dynamic between people that make up society. A lack of a clear understanding can undermine you. Without a vision, you’re just chasing empty symbols and dead connections. To see the world for what it is and navigate it, you must see it a novel way. First, you must see yourself in a novel way.

(Famous example: Neo saw the world in a novel way — just don’t try to dodge bullets)

I’m not selling you the idea that you are a unique snowflake in a winter wonderland of society. No. I’m selling you the idea that you have the ability to create your own connections between yourself, ideas, and other people. From there, you become more free to choose your own path following self-defined success. Once you understand your path and your place on it, you’ll be able to position yourself in the most favorable situations. You’ll be able to more clearly understand your strengths and weaknesses, and spot opportunities and threats on your self-determined path.

This blog is dedicated to understanding and rediscovering your power by invoking passion, novelty, and curiosity in our world and in ourselves. Writing is a great form of self-discovery, and I wish that this blog will inspire you as much as it inspires me.

Elle

This is a wonderfully written and enlightening piece, which I highly agree with. More people should be inspired to view the world in a novel perspective, and strive for better opportunities. I gladly await and welcome future postings.
- http://thenovel.me Pavel
  
  Thank you Elle for your awesome support You know it means the world to me. xox
http://caseypalmer.com Casey Palmer

Interesting first post, sir What’s missing, though? What defines YOUR success? What anchors YOU to a sense of being that says “Okay, I’ve made it”?

I want to see the personal connection and learn more about the man whose writing I’m reading!

And no Disqus OR LiveFyre! …interesting!
- http://thenovel.me Pavel
  
  Thank you brother! You certainly raise very interesting questions – questions that I will certainly explore in my future posts. But just to touch on an answer, I believe that a magnanimous vision is what will ultimately bring you success. Success isn’t rooted in material, financial, or physical possessions. Our success is rooted in our relationships with other people. The give and take of ideas between people is what gives one the ultimate fulfillment of success. I’m going to explore these ideas in the future, and especially touch on how they have affected me or influenced me in my thinking.
  
  And I use wordpress.com and there’s sadly no Disqus or LiveFyre support as far I know. I don’t want to get wordpress.org yet simply because I’m still getting used to blogging and working. I actually have been involved with social media and all type of techy stuff for only 5 months now (will be 6 at the end of July) that I don’t want to put too much on my plate. Before that, I was just caught in a peer group lacking any ambition, which I sadly adopted too. But that’s a story that I’ll share in my post. I’ll get wordpress.org soon tho, and you’ll see Disqus soon!
  
  Thanks for taking the time out to comment man, I really appreciate the support you’ve been giving me.
  - http://caseypalmer.com Casey E. Palmer
    
    Sorry man, I didn’t notice that it was a wordpress.com site or I wouldn’t have made the comment That’s totally fair — get used to getting your feet wet in the “real” world and be sure to let me know if you need any help with anything!
    
    You’re pretty much looking at life the same way I do — we are the sum of our experiences, and that includes the people that we share them with Keep that in mind and I’m sure that you’ll do JUST fine in WHATEVER you do
    
    Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to try and sort my thoughts out and hopefully come across another epiphany that’ll make for good blog material
- http://thenovel.me Pavel
  
  Also, would you know why my avatar isn’t showing up? My Gravatar profile is set up and everything
  - http://caseypalmer.com Casey Palmer
    
    Yeah, I was wondering that, myself! Did you set it up only recently, or have you had it a while? Is it set up on the back end of your wordpress.com account?
    - http://thenovel.me Pavel
      
      I had my Gravatar up for a while. I think I’ll just email them for support. Thanks though
  - http://thenovel.me Pavel
    
    Well I got my picture up finally!
http://twitter.com/afmarcom Angelique (@afmarcom)

Have you tried wearing novelty ties?
- http://thenovel.me Pavel
  
  Thank you Angelique for taking the time out to comment! I guess I’m not really living until I get one haha.
  
  The idea of novelty ties though speaks against what novelty truly is. Novelty ties simply change up the message on the ties and that by itself isn’t enough. The medium is the message, and with novelty ties, the medium is still a tie so the message is the same. Digging deeper, I’m calling for real embrace of novelty and identity of self; not simply a variation of the same thing.