Open source your life, if you’re up the the challenge . If one is completely open about everything, every time that one has the chance; if all businesses and governments had nothing to hide; and if all the world was a transparent book with black text, lying in the public library; then life would be a wonderful story. On the other hand, do you know what they say about people living in glass houses (let alone glass books)? … They shouldn’t take showers.

What is Open Source, As It Currently Is? (if you don’t already know.)

Back to Focus:

But what this article is actually about is life philosophy. If open source is applied to a person, or on a world-wide scale, everyone touched by it benefits. Basically, this is about a very simple idea: take open source and apply it to everything in life.

(I happen to think that a simple idea is a very good idea. Math for example: it’s really just based from 1 + 1 = 2. That is likely how it started — “Ugh! One rock and one rock equal two rock! Ugh!”. A simple idea that has the power to become a complicated concept or result is the best idea, in my view. These ideas aren’t really things that someone thinks up out of thin air — they are things that people learn from observing nature. Nature, as a system, is nearly perfect, so why not glean a few ideas from it here and there — would those ideas in turn not also be nearly perfect? I find it almost supernatural (and great therefore) whenever a simple concept has the effect of everything it touching turning to gold.)

Anyway, the rest of the article describes how the aspects of open source can be applied to a living philosophy.

Transparency:

The first and very important thing to take in about open source is the core concept that drives it — transparency. Since open source means that the way that something was created is revealed, in the life application of the philosophy, it would mean that everything that makes up who one is, is revealed. This, alone, has tremendous positive effect on a person, and the following is why:

So, first about what happens when one applies this to one’s self…

1) All flaws/hidden aspects are revealed. Naturally, people try and hide their negative sides, because who the heck wants others to know that one has a bladder problem? (This would be akin to hiding the dirty laundry when your friends come over.) Well, hey, this is who you are, isn’t it? If your friends are so shallow that they would turn their noses up at you when they find out that you have negative sides, then they are crappy friends. However, those friends that stick by you and still stand side by side with you are the friends that you want to keep — your true, close friends that you can trust and rely on; and they are generally nicer, non-pretentious people that are probably more fun to be near anyways. This also goes for your boss, family, etc. If your boss can accept that you hate being touched as encouragement, then both you and the boss will be happier — you wouldn’t be touched, and the boss knows that you’re not being ‘fake’ just because they are your boss. If your boss can’t accept your hidden nature, then that’s a bad boss and find a better job one if you can. If you can’t get another job at the moment, at least you’ll know more about the hidden nature of your boss.

Also, once your nasty flaws are known to all, then you should have the extra incentive that you need to fix them. Mental issues that you have will become clear to you (like fear of something, something that you’ve feared for so long that it’s become standard to avoid and hide it, to the point where you no longer consciously think about it), physical problems will become apparent, personality issues will become transparent to all — and then someone will tell you about them, and then you’ll know that if you no longer want that to be a part of your life, you have the choice to change it. If you’re always a bit flabby, but conceal it nicely so people don’t notice (like by wearing baggy clothes), make sure that you don’t hide it — then you’ll also want to fix the problem. Go the the gym and stop eating food made from recycled garbage by-products. In short: reveal everything, have people know you and accept you, and then fix your problems — you don’t have the choice of running from them any more. Maybe you’ll find that there are people who want to help you improve yourself (like me ).

2) Once you start giving out any information about yourself that you normally hide, you’ll also resolve another problem for yourself — paranoia. “Privacy issues” are gone — what are you afraid of others learning about your life at this point? They already know everything, and when I tell you about RFID, you’re not freaked out by the concept. People that worry about privacy, by nature have something to hide. (By the way, RFID — radio frequency identification — is an ingenious new technology that can be made to be roughly the size of a grain of sand. This piece of hardware serves one purpose: to transmit a radio frequency. However, the really neat bit is that it is powered by other radio waves in the air, so it has infinite power on the planet, in almost any location. These devices are also fairly cheap in bulk, so stores like Wal-Mart will use them (and currently Wal-Mart does use them) instead of the metal strips that are used to detect theft when you leave the building. But think about it this way: they could also be used in those products to track where the products go, and effectively track where a person is at any point in time.) But again, you should have nothing to fear from the abuse of these devices if you have nothing to hide.

Oh, and if you freely give out information about yourself, and don’t hide things, and are generally open and truthful, then people have almost no choice — they will trust you. They will tell you things about themselves and they will know who you are, and that means that they have leverage over you if you screw them over (or at least they’ll think that they do). That means that your friends will be closer friends and you will know more about them as well as yourself.

3) Also, revealing everything means revealing the more interesting bits of your character — your emotions, thoughts, bodily functions, scents, beliefs, and cheese preferences. Oh, and also your sexuality, lust, heat, desire, passion, love, need of someone, caring, and warmth towards someone. If you love someone, love openly (I recommend that link, it’s short). It’s in your nature: you were made to be a sexual being, and God came down to Abraham and said, “Yo, multiply. I’ll bless your ass if you do.” (but maybe not in those exact words…). We were also created with the ability to love and the desire to mate, so if this is the case for everyone on this planet, why do we take so many pains to conceal it? I can understand that modesty and need for business prevents one from walking around without clothes in their office, but if you’re in love with the woman next door, then tell her! If you’re in public with your girlfriend/boyfriend and you love/care for them, then don’t walk so far apart! Hold hands at least, or be even closer if you can manage to balance like that (it may prove trickier than you’d expect at first). Do you love your mother and/or father? Why not hold them in public? What, are you embarrassed about people knowing that you love your parents? If you don’t at all think that this would be a nice thing to try, you probably should. You never know — maybe both people would feel closer to each other and be happier. Open Mindedness — try new things out.

Also, if you think that someone is making a mistake, tell them so. Just don’t be a jerk about it, tell them out of desire to help them, and if you do, then perhaps they will change. (Remember, though, people don’t change unless they want to.) If you feel sad because of what someone does, don’t feel ashamed to act sad. If you really need to go pee, then why do you spend 10 seconds saying, “Oh, please do excuse me for a few moments, I need to go use the rest room, and I shall be back soon.” You need to go pee. Badly. I think you can say that in fewer words. Anyways, I hope that you understand the idea — don’t hide who you are, and especially don’t hide the bits that are perfectly natural. (This doesn’t mean be crude about them either.)

4) Once you reveal everything that there is to know about you, you may realize that you can keep living a full, and probably even happier life than before. You aren’t lying about who you are, you don’t hide your emotions, your desires, or your tastes in cheap beer. Heck, I’d say that you should wake up in the morning and feel good about your life, eh? You should think: everyone likes me for who I am! (Because those that don’t, you wouldn’t associate with anyways, and those faults that really need fixing would be being fixed, as mentioned before. Also, people generally like people who are true to themselves.) Basically, you should be feeling confident in yourself, who you are, and your life. Great!

And this is what happens when others around you become Open Source People…

1) No need to fear others, for they are completely transparent too. They have no nasty surprises in store, they aren’t hiding from you the facts of their dark and mysterious history, they aren’t going to kill you in your sleep. (This is kind of like how you aren’t worried about open source software, because since the code is available, people can make sure that there are no viruses or nasty surprises in the code, or even errors.) You can also take pride in knowing that your friends are who you think they are, nothing less, and that they trust you too.

2) Companies, governments, and products (such as AT&T, the USA, and Windows) would have all their information available for those interested. That means that if this were the case (although it seems like it may only be a dream — but hey, maybe one day), governments would not pull off stupid stunts and try to hide it, because they couldn’t. Overall, less mistakes would be made since the making of the decisions would also be open, and all views would be seen. Companies like Enron wouldn’t be able to pull off fraud and go bankrupt because of it. For computing, it would mean more good software/hardware for cheaper prices.

Also, as an example, if you know your computer history, Apple was, a long time ago, the king of the computing world. The reason that IBM won (for a while) was (amongst other reasons) that they had open machines, allowing other companies to build hardware for them and sell it independently. Eventually this meant that a ton of hardware was made under the same standard, and IBM was the best at it. (While Apple kept things closed, and eventually fell behind.) Popularity rose, and IBM was king of the computing world for many years.

Opening up of companies/products would also mean that consumers could choose the best/most moral/cheapest product because they know how the product works, and what went into making it. It also means that rather than everyone trying to make the best product and hide how, the best product could be made, then copied and improved by a variety of companies. This means the speeding up of technical advancement, and the weeding out of features that people never really wanted from the product. The prices of products would also be driven down drastically, because it would come to a point where every company could make the same thing, and whoever could improve it the most/sell it for cheapest would become the victor. This also would likely solve the problems of having massive companies that monopolize the market, and bully competitors out of existence. Monopolies are illegal in the USA. For the best example of why this is terrible, and just how much damage it does, please read this about Microsoft (may be a slow link). (And yeah, I know that Microsoft won’t like me for posting this, and I know how much trouble they go through to upkeep their image and 80+% profit margins, but I don’t really care: my server is hosted on Linux, and I don’t use MS Office or Windows at home.)

3) Next, judgement is jeopardized when people judge others based on appearance alone. This problem should be greatly reduced when you can learn anything you want about a person and who they really are. You learn what they are capable of, and why you should be their friend, employer, or employee (or not). Some of the biggest, burliest, beaded, bully-looking people I’ve met are also some of the most talented, fun, cool, kind people that I’ve seen — and if you walk down the street with one of these guys, no one is going to mess with you . (This is part of open source as well, because on the Internet, a lot of the time you don’t see someone’s picture until after you see what great things they have done!)

Realization of Length:

I’ve noticed that this article is starting to get quite long… so I suppose that it would make things more manageable for everyone if I were to break it apart into a couple to several smaller articles, about this length. (Easier to link to the part you like, easier to digest, easier to write/edit, etc.)

So, please stay tuned for the continuation of this article, if you like where this is going. Visit often , you might just find out something new that you didn’t know before, or open your mind to a new world of wonders right next door. (Especially if you live next door to an Thai restaurant .)

Conclusion The First:

So, if one open sources their life, and makes who they are transparent, then they already would feel happier. Their friends would be closer to them, people would know who they are, privacy issues would disappear, flaws would be fixed, and in general, you would have nothing to hide, and no reason to. If the rest of the world open sourced their lives and organizations, then the world would be a more secure, less scary, and more pleasant to live in — and you and I and everyone would take showers in our glass houses.

Stub/Summary: “Open source your life — hide nothing. If everyone (or just you and I) does it, things are great, and everyone is happier.”

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 13th, 2006 at 9:17 pm and is filed under Open Source, Human Nature, Easifying Life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.