Hero

It was another one of those dinners after sunday basketball. Time to pay for the dinner, usually, someone will pay the full amount first for everyone (good will) and then collect the balance from individuals, or collect from everyone first then pay..whatever.

As usual, I am not the one doing it, and as usual my friend will ask me to start doing the "dirty job" of counting and asking for money.

It's never easy to convince a guy who hates to work to do a job like this, then A said "don't you want to be a hero?"

I replied almost immediately and firmly "Why be a hero?" they were a little shocked by this strong change in tone from the lazy man's tone.

Hero. How would most people define it?

Someone with superior ability? Like superman? Spiderman?
Someone doing something to benefit many people? Like Newton discovering gravity?
Someone with unique vision to bring a country with third world to first world?
Someone who sacrifice his life for a greater cause without any gain?

I admit, when I am young, i want to be a hero too. everybody does. superman, astronaut, policeman, scientist etc etc.

Only when i was older, do I understand what it takes to be a hero. and thanks, i do not want to be one.

For me, a hero is sacrificing his life (must be) for a greater cause without any gain.

Why?

a "real" hero only exists in the movies. In real life, it's hard to distinguish if someone doing something in the name of greater good is not trying to get some credits. and usually, the greater the good, the bigger the conspiracy.

What newton did was just doing what he likes to do, science. it just so happens that what he likes to do also contributes to mankind. his first motive is just "hey, apple falling is interesting, i want to find out more on why it happens". it's the same as a kid saying "not going to school without being find out by my mum and teacher is cool, i will find out more on how to do that"

It just so happens what the kid is thinking of doing does not contribute to mankind like gravity.

thus to me, Newton is not a hero. although i do appreciate that he did find out about gravity. He did become wealthy i suppose so...you know.

Politicians, who always like to give a lot of credits to themselves are certainly not heros. Be it you are able to drive a country to fight with their lifes in the war or bringing a 3rd world country to the first. the reason is simple, he could be doing it with a motive for wealth, power, or getting his face printed on his countries' currency.

have you seen any successful politician that is not rich? i doubt so. (I am not gonna buy the story i heard about the china premier only earns 3000RMB/month) Unless he somehow is able to let no one ever finds out about what he "contribute", then i would say he really do it for the sake of your country without any gain. he can claim he did not want people to find out what he did for the country, but that could be because he WANTS TO BE KNOWN as the great guy who do not ask for anything return for the great things he had done. On the contrary, if he really manage to be the invisible santa claus, then no one will ever know right?

even if he is the only one who knows about his help/contribution/donation, if its within his ability, he's not a hero too. a billionaire donating a hundred thousand to charity is nothing, its within his ability. morever, it IS HUMAN nature to help others WITHIN your ability. Even for a selfish guy like me, i can spare my old clothes to the poor, because thats WITHIN my ability and it doesn't hurt. however, i do appreciate people who DO help/contribute/donate within their abilities, because there are rich people who do not donate a cent.

So, that means a real hero is either some guy who contributes whatever he does BEYOND his ability, and never ever lets people find out

OR

People only finds out after his death, either he died on the spot with witnesses (like losing his life while saving a drowning kid) or after years have passed, thereby not allowing him to gain any fame, wealth or any other materialistic gains

If the above two definitions are the only two definitions i can accept for a hero, i will never want to be one.

Call me selfish (thanks), but as you can see, most of the time, "beyond one's ability" usually means death, or getting into a dire straits.

To be a hero....too much for me. I am just an ordinary guy with ordinary rationals. although i can foresee donating/helping others within my abilities when i am more well to do (no, that's not a hero), dont expect me to jeopardize more than 5% of my possesions/ability to help others. call me selfish (thanks again) but i am sure i am better than people who donate to have their name read out over TV shows, helping others to be able to climb up the political ladder etc.

Let's just leave the word "hero" in the movies...before it gets ugly.

LUCK

In this country that I spent most of my time growing up, a lot of people believes in luck tremendously.

They buy 4D, TOTO, pray to deities for “lucky numbers”, copy down car plate numbers of vehicles involved in accidents etc etc.

People like to talk about today is their lucky day (or unlucky day), some people are successful because they are lucky, some people fail because they are unlucky.

Well, I don’t believe in luck…at least I try not to. I have various valid reasons.

People resign themselves to luck because it is convenient and easy. It is definitely easier to bet your money on a game of dice than to do extensive research on an industry to start your own business after saving up for a few years. It is always easier to blame on an unlucky job interview with someone who supposedly don’t like your face than to reflect on the mistakes made and learn from them. It is easy to spend 2 dollars on a 4D ticket than to use the money and time spent on thinking entrepreneurial ideas. I can go on and on but I am sure you got my point. PEOPLE GET LAZY. “Luck” is a very good excuse to “want” to be successful doing the least work, or a very good thing to blame (or push your blame away )when you fail. You will become a less active man if you are a man who believes in luck.

Next, luck is often associated with something happening although it has a very small probability. Eg. Guessing 7 numbers from 40 numbers in TOTO, being the only graduate in the co-horde to get a manager position, surviving a lightning strike etc…

Well, what is the probability that an albino male mosquito stinks you on Christmas eve night?

Albino mosquito – one in every 100 (prudent example)
Male mosquito sucking blood – one in every 100 (male mosquito usually do not suck blood)
Christmas eve – one in 365 days (prudent, it can be seen as a particular day of your life time to a mathematician)

So probability is 1/100 x 1/100 x 1/365 = 1/3650000.

While I am not sure what is the probably of someone winning TOTO, let just say it’s the same as this figure, which to many is next to impossible.

Would you call yourself lucky or unlucky?

Lucky? Because not many people get a close encounter with such a mosquito.

Unlucky? Because whatever the case, he stunk you and cause itchness on a festive day.

For me, I don’t care. I probably would not even pay attention to what kind of mosquito stunk me. I will just curse when the itch comes.

Because in this case, you don’t see yourself losing or gaining anything that is important according to your upbringing, lifestyle, etc.

But it may be seen as a lucky thing to a research scientists doing albino studies. He may have his skin examine for anything left behind by the mosquito.

My point is, given the same probability of different things happening, it is seen as lucky or unlucky or ignored depending on various people values and point of view.

For a guy who loves army life, going to commandos is lucky, for a guy who hates army life (me), that would be the worst day in my life. For an army cook, getting posted to a combat unit or service unit means nothing to him. He just cooks.

If something unlikely happens and is beneficial to you, you are lucky. Something else with the same probability happens and it compromises you, you are unlucky.
So really, luck is only in your head.

My last reason, for refusing to believe in luck is I believe given enough time and effort, we can understand how everything happens…thus, luck plays only a very very small role in the whole process.

Everything happens for a reason, why Mr X is strike by lightning and not Mr Y. Why someone always get the sack and not someone else. Why are there always more accidents happening on a certain road.

Why do you find money on the floor? Because someone drop it, and it so happens to be worth your while picking it up (I don’t think you will pick up everything people drops)

If no one drops it at the place you will pass by, if the society do not inculcate you what is money, you won’t pick it up. Thus, I believe if we put enough effort in understanding, everything can be “played” like a game.

Eg. NBA basketball. Every player has a statistics, on assists, field goals, free throws, three points etc. Did the coach leave everything to chance? No! he made use of this statistics as well as the opposing team’s statistics and draw up different game strategies. Why do people prefer fouling Shaq than let him shoot?

You might ask, so how do you get statistics of people dropping money, and thus go find the money? I would say the statistics or the research I did shows finding money on the floor is the least profitable (Expected income = probability x average income from finding money on the floor), thus I chose other means to do that. That is also using probability =P.

But definitely no one can ever get the probabilities, statistics of everything right? Well, I would want to believe that we can, maybe certain things are still unexplainable, unresearchable with today’s technologies, but we are evolutionary. That is how we don’t believe in lightning god anymore and stay away from tall tree in a lightning rainy day.

However, luck is often said for politically correctness, and that I can’t complain. You don’t expect some young actors, directors, sportsmen winning some big awards and not mentioning they are lucky. Well, they have to, or they will be seen as very cocky. At least for me, I know they have done their homework to know how to link themselves to where they are now, just like how people perceive money is link to someone dropping money is link to someone else picking it up.

So next time you wanna say you are lucky or not lucky, think again. You are just not using your brain enough.