TMT - Scene #9

Hello everyone! Welcome to this week's update: Scene #9

In 2018, a man from? New York tried to cross the US-Canada border with a Burmese python in his pants. He was later caught and arrested for illegal smuggling of exotic reptiles. Apple is going to allow iPhone users to download app stores from competitors starting this March in the EU. Companies like EPIC games will be allowed to have their app stores on the iPhone.

Stray?

Last Sunday, I and a close friend of mine decided to catch up for lunch. It had been a while since just the two of us had hung out. We had a lot to talk about. We spoke about how our lives have been lately. The distractions, motivations, and plans that life had for us in store were all points of discussion.

Before either of us knew it, we had spent most of the day together and had discussed human evolution, philosophy, psychology, social media, podcasts, and our personal lives. At some point during our conversation, we stumbled upon the concept of motivation and what it means to a pair of 23-year-olds like us. As members of Gen Z, we spend a lot of time being exposed to an overflow of content and social media that are meant to make us feel motivated and want to achieve our goals, succeed in life, accumulate wealth, and so on.

As we continued talking, we started to see how the self-help industry has become overly saturated with “feel-good” content. The irony is that while the world shows us what we could be through social media, it also reminds us about what we aren’t. There is a constant pressure to be better, that we aren't enough. Very often, this idea of “better” is a feeling. One that can be very easily satisfied by the false sense of motivation that the majority of us buy into. After which,we end up spending more time feeling motivated rather than actually being productive.?

I truly believe that this is a huge problem for the Gen-Z population. Being unaware, we are constantly sucked into a whirlpool of strong emotions such as desire and envy which often amounts to nothing. Our discussion ensued and then all of a sudden it became clear to us that the reason people feel this sense of false motivation is not because of online gurus or Instagram. It is because most of us have the wrong definition of motivation.

In the pursuit of looking for things and words that might motivate us, we have become ignorant of the fact that our approach might be entirely wrong. We look for a reason to be motivated, maybe it's the fancy house you’ve always dreamed of owning, a really fast sports car, or even something more modest and genuine like the happiness of our loved ones.?

It isn’t the motivator that is a problem as much as the timing of when that motivation occurs. It isn't that any of the things I listed earlier? aren’t good enough to keep us motivated. The problem is that motivation is a post-activity effect. It doesn’t feel as good to think of having a sports car while you aren’t doing anything. It does when you are actively putting in effort towards your goals.?

A great example is how most people feel before and after going to the gym. Very few of us can disagree that it is often tough and not a very “motivational” feeling to wake up at 6 in the morning to work out. If you haven’t yet, I suggest you notice how much more motivated you are after your workout. This is true with most of everything in life. We don’t get very far by thinking about the nice things we want. We feel motivated by reality when we are putting conscious efforts towards making what we want more attainable. Find motivation after you’ve taken a few steps. Expect motivation to enter your life at the right time. Sitting around and waiting to feel the feeling of being in a Ferrari is not going to make it happen.

Cardinal

Most people who are interested in vehicles or manufacturing, in general, know the contributions made to the Supply Chain industry by Toyota. To this day, Toyota has always topped the market in the number of cars sold every year. Toyota did something that changed manufacturing for good but I will leave that for another day. Today, I wanted to talk about Hyundai and how it became the third-largest automaker in the world over the past few years.

With the rise in electric vehicles being introduced to the automotive market, Hyundai plans to continue innovating to stay ahead of other automakers. Hyundai has been known to venture into spaces that most other carmakers tend to avoid and hence is considered more often a technology company rather than just an automaker.

With Its focus on EVs, over the next couple of years, Hyundai plans to deploy its EGMP or Electric Global Modular Platform. In the past, Hyundai has faced a lot of obstacles and also manufactured cars of questionable quality. Starting in the early 2000s, Hyundai began to benchmark its quality and prove that its cars were just as good if not better when compared to those made by their competitors. In 1998, Hyundai expected a masterstroke of sorts. They offered their consumers a 10-year, 100,000- mile warranty. This helped gain the confidence of their customers and proclaim the reliability of their cars. Unfortunately, this wasn't the last of Hyundai’s problems. A few years later, their cars became victims of theft and were accused of not having enough security and safety features.?

Nevertheless, Hyundai has been relentless in its efforts to keep competing in the market and stay at the forefront of technology. Its work is often closely linked to science fiction.

Lexicon

Foofaraw - Fussing over something very insignificant.

Kvetch - The action of complaining.

Lugubrious - Gloomy or in dismay.

Lummox - Someone who is clumsy.

Rhythm

Sleepyhead