TED Community » Ignas Rubikas

More About Me

I'm passionate about

Buddhism, meditation, neuroscience, flamenco music, sociology, politics.

An idea worth spreading

Thinking is not enough; it takes hard practice and direct effort to fulfill your dreams. Thoughts can only guide you in the right direction.

People don't know that I'm good at

Making words into actions :)

My TED Story

Got hooked a few years ago. Been translating and commenting occasionally since then.

I come to TED when I run out of ideas. There's no better place in the world to do this :)

Comments

• TEDCred score: +57.10 TEDCred reflects your contribution to the TED community.

• +1

  A reply on Talk: Susan Cain: The power of introverts

  Mar 4 2012: I think You have misunderstood Richard's point. It is not about introverts in general, but rather about those "unsuccessful" introverts who fail to stand against the social pressure (mentioned in Your article).
  
  Richard simply offers an alternative way of getting around this problem. While Cain's talk heavily relies on the expectation that society will finally come to appreciate introverts (at some indefinite future), up until then introverts will still be pressured to fit in if they don't want to be excluded of the social situations, most of which are biased against them.
  
  That will remain a problem for a long time still, and a realistic approach that Richard offers is that introverts realize the perpetual cycle that they get themselves in by avoiding the unpleasant situations, and get over it by some deliberate effort and overcoming their fears. That always, however, remains their choice as to whether they want to do this at all.
• +1

  A reply on Talk: Susan Cain: The power of introverts

  Mar 4 2012: Quotation marks are exacly why it shouldn't be considered a hate crime.
  
  Quotation marks are used for referential speech where speaker aims to detach from the phrase quoted and make a comment on it.
• +1

  A reply on Talk: Susan Cain: The power of introverts

  Mar 4 2012: I think what Richard really meant to say is that introverted people are much more susceptible to becoming shy and phobic about social situations, because of the privilleged and dominant role of extroverts in our society.
  
  Maybe it isn't always "childhood traumas", but every experience where an introvert is marginalized in a social situation due to his/her way of communication invokes fear of speaking, which then makes it even harder to get into conversation next time.
  
  This creates the perpetual cycle where introvertism induces social phobia. Many introverts, as You, for sure, find people to talk to, sooner or later, or realize that it is not their problem, and thus can re-learn this conditioned fear. But some are not lucky enough.
  
  I am also a "former introvert", and I can say I was just lucky to get to a good school where pupils were tolerant enough to accept me as I am, which I could not expect to happen in my first school. Hell knows how I would be today if that didn't happen.

• A reply on Talk: Emiliano Salinas: A civil response to violence

  Jul 4 2011: Can you elaborate on Emiliano Salinas' childhood and his past works and actions? I'm sure there are many non-Mexican people who are not aware of these, so they are unable to evaluate the speech fully, including the possible implicit motives of the speaker as well.
  
  Also you should bear in mind that not always children go by their parents' feet. Usually, but not always.

• A reply on Talk: Emiliano Salinas: A civil response to violence

  Jul 4 2011: I think it was not Salinas' intention to redirect blame from corrupt government to people, not at all! As far as my impression goes, his primary aim was to move people to act. And in order to do that, he had to show that the people are the most important ones here, that the country and its well-being (and, for that reason, unwell-being also) is ultimately in their hands. Blaming (government, corruption, in general - others, not yourself) is a passive position, and it justifies this passiveness - why should you struggle, if it's not your fault? Whereas only when you accept YOUR responsibility, you can perceive yourself as an active participant of the civil movement. Not otherwise.
  
  Moreover, he said one very good thought: "we are more than them", and that's why the criminals and corrupts will fear the nation, the people of Mexico, if they protest and start civil movement. Ultimately, it's the people of the nation that is the main participant of nation's life. How the people acts, thus the country will be. This should be very clear.
• +1

  A reply on Conversation: Should Governments start to measure what really matters to people - their happiness? Or should they stay out of such a private matter?

  Feb 16 2011: OK, but what if we combine happiness index with increased direct democratic participation? Then there will be not so much power left for the government to exploit it for its own needs.

• A reply on Conversation: Should Governments start to measure what really matters to people - their happiness? Or should they stay out of such a private matter?

  Feb 16 2011: Yeah, the best government is invisible government, truly. But be realistic: most people are no more able to conduct a good, happy life by themselves due to external pressure. Mass media, consumerist values etc. are affecting us so much that if people are left exposed to all this, in the meantime they will be dumbed-down completely. Indeed, the popular culture is becoming more and more immense and penetrating, and few people are able to stand completely against this. That's our endorsed capitalism and libertarianism :)
  
  New index of happiness might be able to partially prevent this or even reverse - it would account for these "non-governmental" factors and thus provide strong, substantial grounds for limiting negative media's effect on people's lives.

• A reply on Conversation: Should Governments start to measure what really matters to people - their happiness? Or should they stay out of such a private matter?

  Feb 16 2011: But this problem is no different than the problems that politicians face with determining the economic guidelines and policies. If it was left for the society to decide, surely everyone would increase their wages, unemployment benefits, make education, healthcare free, etc. It's the task of politicians and policy-makers to foresee possible future implications of such actions and choose the ones that will serve people the best in the long-term. Quite similar principle can be applied to happiness.
• +1

  A comment on Conversation: Should Governments start to measure what really matters to people - their happiness? Or should they stay out of such a private matter?

  Feb 16 2011: The failure of capitalism and its values will naturally and inevitably demand that new measures of happiness are implemented. However, this will be a difficult task for the world's governments. New methods will have to be tested, and subjects of these experiments will be us.
  
  Now, the problem I see is that there are few governments that are genuinely devoted to increasing people's welfare. Usually, it is the balance between corporate lobbyists' and society's demands that politicians have to find. The measure of happiness is intended to shift the weight to society's side, increasing its welfare. However, at the moment there's so much uncertainty as to the definition of the happiness, its measurement etc., that this uncertainty can be easily exploited /against/ the welfare of society, of course in the most covert and subtle ways.
  
  The challenge, therefore, will be to find definitive and unambiguous indicators that will truly represent people's rates of happiness and leave no place for negative exploatation. This strict operationalization can be very difficult due to relatively elusive nature of happiness, where subjective criteria is unavoidable. However, it's only important that the subjectivity will remain with the people being surveyed, rather than with the politicians and lawyers devising the legislation.

• A comment on Conversation: Neuroscientific studies of Enlightened human beings

  Feb 16 2011: The broader idea of investigating meditation techniques and effects on brain activity is not at all new, Mind and Life Institute, for example, has been doing this for years ( www.mindandlife.org ). However, neuroscience is a rigorous science, and even simple meditative practices produce complex and holistic changes in the brain which are difficult to investigate. Not to mention highly realized meditators who tap into the level of experiential metaphysics by their practices.
  
  Another thing is that it will be long before neuroscience could possibly benefit somehow the meditative practices, although the reverse is not true - there are numerous benefits that study of meditators provide to the understanding of human brain.