Yeah that’s right; you heard me… I’m talking to you… I’m calling you out.

I’m looking you in the eyes, (ok well, not really since you are probably reading this article, but figuratively, I am burning a cyclops type hole in your face right now) and telling you that you don’t stand a chance.

I’m telling you that if you can read this article, look through this list and not claim it as your own, then you should be a little worried.

Actually, you should be very worried. You should drop everything and immediately question your existence on earth. You should find a mirror, look yourself in the eyes, raise your hand and slap yourself in the face.

Got it? Now repeat that until you come to your senses and continue reading whenever you’re ready.

I’m Talkin’ ‘Bout Street Skills Son!

I’m not talking about the: study hard, party light, graduate top-of-your-class skills.

I’m not even talking about the: slack-off, skip class, smoke weed, drink and party but still graduate, skill-set your $50,000+ diploma has lead you to believe you have.

“I’m talking ’bout, step out your door, make some moves, and get-some-shit-done, kind of skills! Some, move out your mama’s house, quit your job — say “fuck the world” — and then actually go do it, kind of skills”.

The kind of skills you develop in the real world, outside the bubble of your parents protection or the ideological indoctrination that has overwhelmed our entire educational system.

Skills that can be had by anyone willing to pay the price to get them. Skills that are quickly becoming extinct.

I’m talking about skills that cannot be taught in a classroom or in a textbook. Skills you can only learn by doing; by learning how to fly after jumping off the cliff.

Skills that can only be developed when you find your true self. When you put yourself on the line or otherwise expose yourself to the possibility of failure.

The skills you can only develop when you are willing to risk it all in order to do that one amazing thing.

Skills that up until now, you thought you had.

“Basically, what I am trying to tell you is that, in this game called life, you don’t stand a chance…

1 :: Because You Have Not Failed Enough

Because you are comfortable in your mediocrity; because you choose not to try.

Because it is easier to talk about learning that new (programming?) language as opposed to actually learning it.

Because you think everything is too hard or too complicated so you will just “sit this one out”, or maybe you’ll, “do-it-tomorrow”!

Because you hate your job but won’t get a new one; because it is easy to reject rejection.

Because while you’re sitting around failing to try, I am out there trying to fail, challenging myself, learning new things and failing as fast as possible.

Because as I fail, I learn, and then adjust my course to make sure my path is always forward. Like the process of annealing steel, I’ve been through the fire and pounded into shape. The shape of a sword with polished edges and a razor sharp blade that will cut you in half if you are not equally hardened.

2 :: Because You Care What Others Think About You

Because you have to fit in.

Because you believe that being different is only cool if you’re different in the same way that other people are different.

Because you are afraid to embrace your true self for fear of how the world will see you. You think that because you judge others, this means that those people must, in-turn, be judging you.

Because you care more about the stuff you have as opposed to the things you’ve done.

Because while you’re out spending your money on new outfits, new cars, overpriced meals or nights at the bar, I’ll be investing in myself. And while you try to fit in with the world I’ll make the world fit in with me.

Because I will recklessly abandon all insecurities and expose my true self to the world. I will become immune to the impact of your opinion and stand naked in a crowd of ideas; comfortable in knowing that while you married the mundane I explored the exceptional.

3 :: Because You Think You Are Smarter Than You Are

Because you did what everyone else did; you studied what they studied and read what they read.

Because you learned what you had to learn in order to pass their tests and you think that makes you smart.

Because you think learning is only something people do in schools.

Because while you were away at college, I was studying life; because instead of learning about the world in a classroom I went out and learned it by living.

Because I know more than any piece of paper you could ever frame from a university. Because smart is not what you learn, it’s how you live.

Because I might not have a degree but I challenge you to find a topic that I can’t talk to you about cohesively.

Because I could pass your tests if I had to, but you couldn’t stand for a single second in the face of the tests that life has thrown me. Tests that are not graded on a bell curve or by percentages; tests that are graded by one simple stipulation: survival!

4 :: Because You Don’t Read

Because you read the things you are required to read or nothing at all.

Because you think history is boring and philosophy is stupid.

Because you would rather sit and watch “E!” or “MTV” instead of exploring something new, instead of diving head first, into the brain of another man in an attempt to better understand the world around you.

Because you refuse to acknowledge that all the power in the world comes from the words of those that lived before us. That anything you desire can be had by searching through the multitude of words that are available to us now more abundantly than ever before.

Because you are probably not reading this article even though you know you should.

Because the people that are reading this already know these things.

Because you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink.

5 :: Because You Lack Curiosity

Because you get your news from copy-cat members of the state-controlled media.

Because you are unwilling to ask this simple question… “What if it’s all a lie?”, and accept the possibility that maybe it is; that just maybe, the methods of mass media are under direct orders to: keep you distracted.

Because you call me a know-it-all but refuse to call yourself a know-nothing-at-all.

Because I thirst for knowledge, regardless the topic.

Because while you’re busy playing Candy Crush, or Megalopolis, I am reading about string theory and quantum mechanics.

Because while you waste your time with Tosh.o I am learning how to edit video, build websites and design mobile apps.

Because if we were to go heads-up in a debate, I would crush you. I would make it a point to defeat my own argument; from every imaginable angle; in order to understand everything you might be able to use against me.

Because I would dedicate myself to understanding both sides of the argument so thoroughly that I could argue your side for you and win; even after having just handed you a defeat in the same debate.

6 :: Because You Don’t Ask Enough Questions

Because you do not question authority.

Because you don’t question yourself.

Because you don’t understand the power of properly placed questioning in life, respectful disagreements and standing up for what you know to be right in the face of someone telling you otherwise. Unable to question reality; stuck in a self imposed survival strategy within a matrix-style monotony.

Because I know that you will give me all the information I need to destroy you by letting you talk.

Because I study human behaviors and you ignore everyone but yourself.

Because I watch how you say the things you say just as closely as I listen to what you say; and you say way too much!

Because control comes, not from spewing your ignorance like some incurable case of logorrhea, but from properly structuring the context of your questions.

Because I study the premise of your argument and destroy it from the ground level before you even get a chance to establish your ideas.

7 :: Because You Can’t Handle The Truth

Because you refuse to admit that you don’t even know the things you don’t know.

Because there isn’t an article online that would make up for all the time you have wasted in life.

Because even if I told you everything could be different tomorrow you would wait until then to begin doing anything about it.

Because even when you think I’m not, I’m aware of my surroundings.

Because you think that since I have not acknowledged you, it means that I have not seen you.

Because, you walk around with your head up your ass, oblivious to the world around you. Blissfully ignorant of the reality that sits so close to your face that if you stuck your tongue out, just once, you would taste it and realize how delicious the truth actually is.

Because you would become an instant addict. Unable to pull yourself from the teat of truth. Finally able to understand your lack of understanding, and then you would see; then you would know that the only thing holding you back from doing something truly amazing, is you.

Raymmar Tirado

If You Could Have Any Super Power, What Would It Be?

I love to ask people this question.

It allows me to understand their creative and philosophical perspective while getting to know a little bit more about them as an individual.

I used to do a lot if interviewing for a sales and marketing firm, and this was a question I would ask every candidate I interviewed. It was a fun way to dig into the psyche of the applicant while disarming them and making the conversation instantly interesting.

It was always interesting to watch them react because it is not a question anyone expects to get asked during a job interview.

It is not something you prepare for, and definitely not a question you expect to answer at an interview for a sales job.

That’s What Makes It A Great Question

If asking someone where they want to be in 5 years is a regular interview question, then asking them about an imaginary super power is a super question.

It allows me to immediately gauge how they react to the unknown.

It allows me to understand how quickly they can run through their creative decision making process as well as letting me see how creative they can actually be.

Letting them pick a a super power is never enough though. I always follow up by asking why they want that particular superpower.

The Beauty Of This Question Is Always In The Why…

I am not interviewing you for a job, but I am challenging you with the same question. If you could pick a superpower, what would it be? What would you do with it?

Why would you pick that superpower?

Would you use your power for good or evil? Do you want to fly so that you can see the world, or do you want to be invisible so you can sneak into the girls locker room undetected?

I know you aren’t all out there thinking about saving the world with your super powers so be honest with yourself. You know you have those dark thoughts inside of you. The ones that make you do all the shit you hate about yourself. The ones that you cannot control at times, even though you mostly do.

No sense in lying here. It is not like your job depends on it. And we are just thinking in our own heads, so why lie?

Me? I think about stopping time so I can rob a bank.

I think about it all the time.

I probably think about robbing banks more than anyone should. I have imagined detailed get-away plans, high-speed chases, and complicated cons for how to maximize the score and diminish the potential of failure.

That doesn’t mean it will ever happen. It doesn’t mean I am going to ever execute the plan but there is something that comes with understanding that part of yourself that is vital to claiming your real world super power.

Understanding and embracing this side of my brain has allowed me to understand my thought process It has allowed me to understand myself. My true self. Not the pretend me that I so often project to the world.

Is This Dude Really Talking About Superpowers?

I meet people with real life super powers every day.

I even see people who think they are average when reality is that they have just not yet discovered what the extent of their true super powers really are. Unable to understand that we all have a super power hidden inside us. Something we each have to discover on our own.

Let Me Explain

Have you ever met anyone with real life superpowers? Someone who seemed to be bullet-proof, always on the right side of fortune and amazingly efficient in their daily tasks. Never sad, hurt, angry or annoyed. Just calm, alert, prepared, and able to adapt to anything that comes their way.

The guy that always has the right answer, always knows what to do next. Ready at a moment’s notice, to run off and fight the villains of life.

The guy that gets all the girls. The girl who owns the sales floor, the quarterback who makes all the throws…

You look at these people and wonder how they do it, how they get it all done. How do they outperform you at work, on the court, in the gym and at life in general?

For some reason, no matter how nice you are and how good you live you just can’t seem to crawl out from under your rock.

You feel like no matter how hard you try or how good you become at whatever you do there will always be someone better than you so you do not push. You do not strive for excellence.

You think the world is always one step ahead and always out of reach.

You think that the system is holding you down so “why bother?”.

Well… I say “fuck that”! I say “forget about those people and quit comparing yourself to them”.

Quit thinking that anything in life is fair, or supposed to be easy. Quit thinking that you will be successful, simply because you are a good person or because you deserve it.

Quit thinking anyone owes you anything, should buy you a present, do something for you or even care about how you feel.

It is up to you to decide when, where, why, and how you take off the tie, rip open your shirt and strip down to your tights, because until you can look at yourself in the mirror and love what you see you will never have a chance at being happy.

No one can ever truly love you because if you do not love yourself, they will never have a chance to love you. They will have fallen in love with your facade and when it vanishes, so will they.

Shame On You…

For holding other people up as more than human.

For thinking that you are not capable of doing everything you dream you can do. Everything you know you can do. From unleashing the monster inside you. The monster that the world might hate but you might love.

The monster you feel inside of you. Stirring. Waiting for you to set it free. Begging you to give in and let it help you become the person you always wanted to be.

For thinking that because someone has a little more money than you or a little more opportunity handed to them here and there, that they are somehow better than you. For giving up hope in the fact that you can go and create value in this world and change your circumstance.

For forgetting that this is still America.

For forgetting that this is still a place where risk, hard work and determination are still rewarded. That this is a place where the underdog always has a chance and where the little guy is always the crowd favorite.

I don’t care what color you are or where you come from, if you wake up each day and bust your ass for something you believe in then no one can stand in your way.

You can still go out and make a difference in your own life and the lives of the people around you.

You can go be anyone, or anything you want to be; so quit acting like a little bitch and grab your damn cape!

The Mutations

I can’t tell you where to find your super power or what specifically it is but I can guide you with examples of super powers I have encountered in this game called life.

When you finally discover your super power you will wonder what the heck took you so long and how you ever got along without it.

Control Time

No one is punctual anymore. Seriously… whats up with that?

It used to be a social taboo to show up late and now it seems that being late is the norm.

Some of my friends call it BPT which stands for Black People Time but we used to joke about Puerto Ricans always being late long before I found out what that was. My dad (born Puerto Rican) was adamant about us

being on time. He used to tell me how much he hated people being late, especially other Latin people. It was a matter of pride. It was a matter of him honoring his word. That always struck a chord with me and has stayed with me to this date.

No matter what your race or what your excuse, being late is something you CAN control. Don’t give me the “I just can’t help it” excuse, because you and I both know it’s full of shit.

I get it. You slept in, forgot, or whatever but just fess up. We all do it. Don’t make a habit of it and make an effort to maximize the time you do spend working on your dream as well as for others.

And for gods sake, when you are with someone, make them feel like you are with them. Not in another galaxy, on your computer or on your phone. I know we can all say amen to that!

Fly:

So many people restrict their ability to succeed in life by throwing hurdles in front of themselves.

We all know someone like this; I am sure of it. That person who has all the potential in the world but never seems to be doing anything with it.

The person who always has an excuse for why things are not going their way. Maybe they need to “go back to school” or they “need an investor to fund their idea”.

These people will never fly because they are always looking at things from a negative light. They are always looking for reasons why something will not work as opposed to looking for the things that will work.

If you want to fly, you have to look for opportunities. You have to look for opportunities to try as opposed to focusing on the reasons why you will fail. Just go do something. Google it. YouTube it. Learn a new skill. Pick up a new hobby. Create something from scratch.

You will be amazed at what you can learn for free these days and if you really want to fly, then set yourself free. Don’t listen to the people around you who are weighed down with the same self imposed constraints that you are trying to leave behind.

Become A Shape Shifter:

The easiest things to break in life are rigid. Think glass vs Plexiglas. Why do you think they put rebar in concrete? So that the structure can flex and not crumble. It adds flexibility to reinforce the concrete.

“You must be shapeless, formless, like water. When you pour water in a cup, it becomes the cup. When you pour water in a bottle, it becomes the bottle. When you pour water in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Water can drip and it can crash. Become like water my friend.” Bruce Lee

Being flexible in life allows you to change and adapt. As an individual, you have something that the large organizations can never have; the ability to change strategies and turn on a dime. With this skill you can learn, adapt, perform and grow on the fly. Always one step ahead of everyone else.

Become Bullet-proof:

Walk free in the world, by becoming comfortable with your flaws.

Quit hiding them from yourself and your friends.

Quit pretending you are perfect and then you can finally quit expecting the world to see you that way.

We give the people around us so much power over our lives by letting their opinions influence our decision, buying behaviors, sexual experiences and personal relationships. Learn to stand up for yourself. Learn to think for yourself.

Learn to love yourself because without that no one can ever love you. Sure you can try and it will feel good for a while but it always comes out. We always crack.

You know what I am talking about. Maybe you are there right now. Maybe you feel like a house of cards, waiting for the whole thing to come crumbling down. Waiting for the straw that breaks the camels back.

Maybe you cant see it. Maybe you are clueless to the possibility of collapse, which is the worst of all possibilities, but be warned, the world is trying to break you.

The world will put you in the corner and beat on you until you tap out or come out swinging.

There is no referee. There is no bell; no buzzer to save you from this beat down.

But you can fight back. You don’t have to just sit there and take it.

You can protect yourself. You can grab a shield and defend against the constant attack of your self worth.

You can claim your super power.

You can say to yourself that you will no longer stand on the sideline and watch as our culture is destroyed.

Come On Man, Get Real!

I know people don’t really have super powers (I love me some X-men though).

I know that humans will probably never (not in my lifetime at least) be able to shape-shift, fly independently, travel through, or control time.

I just want you to see that more often than not, success comes through hard work and dedication. Not luck. Not government, not Jesus, not Allah and not your mamma!

It is up to you!

Why wouldn’t you want to achieve something with your life. Why shouldn’t you have dreams and goals? Why shouldn’t you learn how to live with nothing in order to understand the value of having it all.

Being given nice things might feel good and living in wealth is definitely appealing but I have to imagine that creating wealth is much more fulfilling. I have to believe that building something for yourself, something that you can call your own has to be exponentially more rewarding.

It’s Never The Idea; It’s The Execution

Going out and setting your mind to something and then getting it done is definitely something to get excited about. It is something you should be rewarded for. Who are we to set a cap on that reward?

Who are we to judge anyone else for what they have; to pretend like we know what it took for them to get it.

Who are we to covet their possessions; to force upon them your perception of what a fair share should be when you are unwilling to contribute any share at all.

Why not use their success as inspiration towards the next level of success in whatever it is that defines the boundaries of your life.

To conquer one thing in life and then pick something else. And then something else. And on and on, until you are a transformer of talent. A candidate so unemployable that you have to start your own company.

Because you will always feel undervalued when you finally discover what you’re actually worth.

What Are You Waiting For?

You never know what you might inspire someone to do if you just did a little more yourself.

If you stopped worrying about the rest of the world and just worried about you.

You might just use one of your super powers to save someones life. One day at a time.

You might just be the very reason why someone else is living their life, so how dare you give up on yours?

I’ll Ask You Again…

If you could have any super power… What would it be?

How Covert Agents Infiltrate the Internet to Manipulate, Deceive, and Destroy Reputations

By Glenn Greenwald24 Feb 2014, 6:25 PM EST 1,094

Featured photo - How Covert Agents Infiltrate the Internet to Manipulate, Deceive, and Destroy Reputations A page from a GCHQ top secret document prepared by its secretive JTRIG unit

One of the many pressing stories that remains to be told from the Snowden archive is how western intelligence agencies are attempting to manipulate and control online discourse with extreme tactics of deception and reputation-destruction. It’s time to tell a chunk of that story, complete with the relevant documents.

Over the last several weeks, I worked with NBC News to publish a series of articles about “dirty trick” tactics used by GCHQ’s previously secret unit, JTRIG (Joint Threat Research Intelligence Group). These were based on four classified GCHQ documents presented to the NSA and the other three partners in the English-speaking “Five Eyes” alliance. Today, we at the Intercept are publishing another new JTRIG document, in full, entitled “The Art of Deception: Training for Online Covert Operations.”

By publishing these stories one by one, our NBC reporting highlighted some of the key, discrete revelations: the monitoring of YouTube and Blogger, the targeting of Anonymous with the very same DDoS attacks they accuse “hacktivists” of using, the use of “honey traps” (luring people into compromising situations using sex) and destructive viruses. But, here, I want to focus and elaborate on the overarching point revealed by all of these documents: namely, that these agencies are attempting to control, infiltrate, manipulate, and warp online discourse, and in doing so, are compromising the integrity of the internet itself.

Among the core self-identified purposes of JTRIG are two tactics: (1) to inject all sorts of false material onto the internet in order to destroy the reputation of its targets; and (2) to use social sciences and other techniques to manipulate online discourse and activism to generate outcomes it considers desirable. To see how extremist these programs are, just consider the tactics they boast of using to achieve those ends: “false flag operations” (posting material to the internet and falsely attributing it to someone else), fake victim blog posts (pretending to be a victim of the individual whose reputation they want to destroy), and posting “negative information” on various forums. Here is one illustrative list of tactics from the latest GCHQ document we’re publishing today:

Other tactics aimed at individuals are listed here, under the revealing title “discredit a target”:

Then there are the tactics used to destroy companies the agency targets:

GCHQ describes the purpose of JTRIG in starkly clear terms: “using online techniques to make something happen in the real or cyber world,” including “information ops (influence or disruption).”

Critically, the “targets” for this deceit and reputation-destruction extend far beyond the customary roster of normal spycraft: hostile nations and their leaders, military agencies, and intelligence services. In fact, the discussion of many of these techniques occurs in the context of using them in lieu of “traditional law enforcement” against people suspected (but not charged or convicted) of ordinary crimes or, more broadly still, “hacktivism”, meaning those who use online protest activity for political ends.

The title page of one of these documents reflects the agency’s own awareness that it is “pushing the boundaries” by using “cyber offensive” techniques against people who have nothing to do with terrorism or national security threats, and indeed, centrally involves law enforcement agents who investigate ordinary crimes:

No matter your views on Anonymous, “hacktivists” or garden-variety criminals, it is not difficult to see how dangerous it is to have secret government agencies being able to target any individuals they want – who have never been charged with, let alone convicted of, any crimes – with these sorts of online, deception-based tactics of reputation destruction and disruption. There is a strong argument to make, as Jay Leiderman demonstrated in the Guardian in the context of the Paypal 14 hacktivist persecution, that the “denial of service” tactics used by hacktivists result in (at most) trivial damage (far less than the cyber-warfare tactics favored by the US and UK) and are far more akin to the type of political protest protected by the First Amendment.

The broader point is that, far beyond hacktivists, these surveillance agencies have vested themselves with the power to deliberately ruin people’s reputations and disrupt their online political activity even though they’ve been charged with no crimes, and even though their actions have no conceivable connection to terrorism or even national security threats. As Anonymous expert Gabriella Coleman of McGill University told me, “targeting Anonymous and hacktivists amounts to targeting citizens for expressing their political beliefs, resulting in the stifling of legitimate dissent.” Pointing to this study she published, Professor Coleman vehemently contested the assertion that “there is anything terrorist/violent in their actions.”

Government plans to monitor and influence internet communications, and covertly infiltrate online communities in order to sow dissension and disseminate false information, have long been the source of speculation. Harvard Law Professor Cass Sunstein, a close Obama adviser and the White House’s former head of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, wrote a controversial paper in 2008 proposing that the US government employ teams of covert agents and pseudo-”independent” advocates to “cognitively infiltrate” online groups and websites, as well as other activist groups.

Sunstein also proposed sending covert agents into “chat rooms, online social networks, or even real-space groups” which spread what he views as false and damaging “conspiracy theories” about the government. Ironically, the very same Sunstein was recently named by Obama to serve as a member of the NSA review panel created by the White House, one that – while disputing key NSA claims – proceeded to propose many cosmetic reforms to the agency’s powers (most of which were ignored by the President who appointed them).

But these GCHQ documents are the first to prove that a major western government is using some of the most controversial techniques to disseminate deception online and harm the reputations of targets. Under the tactics they use, the state is deliberately spreading lies on the internet about whichever individuals it targets, including the use of what GCHQ itself calls “false flag operations” and emails to people’s families and friends. Who would possibly trust a government to exercise these powers at all, let alone do so in secret, with virtually no oversight, and outside of any cognizable legal framework?

Then there is the use of psychology and other social sciences to not only understand, but shape and control, how online activism and discourse unfolds. Today’s newly published document touts the work of GCHQ’s “Human Science Operations Cell,” devoted to “online human intelligence” and “strategic influence and disruption”:

Under the title “Online Covert Action”, the document details a variety of means to engage in “influence and info ops” as well as “disruption and computer net attack,” while dissecting how human beings can be manipulated using “leaders,” “trust,” “obedience” and “compliance”:

The documents lay out theories of how humans interact with one another, particularly online, and then attempt to identify ways to influence the outcomes – or “game” it:

We submitted numerous questions to GCHQ, including: (1) Does GCHQ in fact engage in “false flag operations” where material is posted to the Internet and falsely attributed to someone else?; (2) Does GCHQ engage in efforts to influence or manipulate political discourse online?; and (3) Does GCHQ’s mandate include targeting common criminals (such as boiler room operators), or only foreign threats?

As usual, they ignored those questions and opted instead to send their vague and nonresponsive boilerplate: “It is a longstanding policy that we do not comment on intelligence matters. Furthermore, all of GCHQ’s work is carried out in accordance with a strict legal and policy framework which ensures that our activities are authorised, necessary and proportionate, and that there is rigorous oversight, including from the Secretary of State, the Interception and Intelligence Services Commissioners and the Parliamentary Intelligence and Security Committee. All our operational processes rigorously support this position.”

These agencies’ refusal to “comment on intelligence matters” – meaning: talk at all about anything and everything they do – is precisely why whistleblowing is so urgent, the journalism that supports it so clearly in the public interest, and the increasingly unhinged attacks by these agencies so easy to understand. Claims that government agencies are infiltrating online communities and engaging in “false flag operations” to discredit targets are often dismissed as conspiracy theories, but these documents leave no doubt they are doing precisely that.

Whatever else is true, no government should be able to engage in these tactics: what justification is there for having government agencies target people – who have been charged with no crime – for reputation-destruction, infiltrate online political communities, and develop techniques for manipulating online discourse? But to allow those actions with no public knowledge or accountability is particularly unjustifiable.