TROM: Valuable Without A Value

So, here you are.

Born on Planet Earth.

You spend a few years with your parents, but you won’t remember;

you are too little.

You grow up and start kindergarten.

You learn a few songs and a few animal names,

and that’s pretty much it.

Your parents are at work for most of the day.

You get to see them for a few hours daily when they come home from their jobs,

and you from yours.

A few years pass and you go to school.

You learn that the school schedule

is something you MUST respect and follow, or else...

and that competition is the basis of the world.

You start to compete.

The more you grow the more things you become obliged to learn.

You don't question.

You listen,

memorize, and perform.

You spend more time studying than with your friends.

You see your parents less often.

They must continue working.

You finish school, and now a sheet of paper that proves you are ready for the world

is the only thing you have.

You feel that the training lasted too long,

but you are still optimistic.

A few years pass and you get married with one human being from billions of others.

You swear of your love and have a few kids.

You are forced to find a job.

You and your family depend on it now.

Some more years pass,

and you realize how old your parents have become.

They had finished their duty on planet Earth.

Now, they are too old to do anything.

They wait.

They die.

You become them.

You follow in their footsteps.

What happened?

Why are humans spending all of their life training and working?

What is this race all about?

Is this journey of life even worth the effort?

What did you really achieve?

TROM: www.tromsite.com "Valuable Without Value"

We live in a world where people value money

more than mostly everything you can imagine.

There are amazing people, with amazing ideas and projects with great potential,

that are never discovered or given credit to

because of the money based world we live in.

On the other hand, there are humongous amounts of money

being pumped into almost only nonsensical ideas and projects.

When I created TROM, a 14-hour documentary,

and provided it for free on the internet,

everybody around me asked how much money I made out of it.

They weren’t even interested in what the documentary is about,

but only its money value,

although the documentary presented ideas about how to improve everyone’s life

through the application of science and technology,

and attracted many thousands of online viewers.

I come across similar situations all the time.

For most of my life, I was that guy who repaired your computer.

If you had a problem with your computer, you called me

and I would come and fix it for you, for free.

From such small gestures to projects that reached hundreds of thousands of people,

I’ve always done everything for free.

As a result, I’ve suffered when I needed money

because, well, I had very little of it

and in this world everything has a cost.

If I go to a dentist, he won't say,

“Ah, you are that guy who made that documentary/website/etc, your treatment is free!!”.

No, that will never happen!

Nor will I be exempt from taxes because of my good deeds.

These kinds of actions, that we all do in our lives,

are not paid in the society we live in.

Meaning, from a monetary perspective,

or let's say from the society’s perspective,

they are not ‘valuable’.

This is one of the major problems with the monetary system we live in.

It will not value something that is valuable for people;

it will only allow some “valuable actions/ideas” to be sold,

if properly marketed.

If I help people by repairing their computers,

maybe I should sell that service and ask for money next time they ask for help.

This not only makes me an awful friend

by not helping my friends without asking for a monetary profit,

but it would also destroy my kindness and motivation

by shifting my purpose to an egocentric pursuit.

You will never be paid for being a good parent,

a good friend, or just in general a good human being.

If I create a documentary and then try to value it in the monetary system,

how can I do that properly?

How could I measure the books I’ve read my entire life,

documentaries I’ve seen, articles I’ve read,

people I’ve interacted with, all of which helped

form who I am and helped develop my ideas towards making this documentary?

Trying to value human creativity in the monetary system

is like trying to map the entire universe by taking a single picture of the sky.

You will not be able to do that just by picking a single snapshot of a particular moment.

In the monetary system, a mother is not rewarded for taking care of her kids

for the rest of her life.

The little interactions, acts of kindness, sacrifices, and so on.

I know of nothing in the monetary system that rewards such acts.

If you watch illegal content online,

download pirated movies or other digital downloads,

or even access websites that are supposedly illegal,

you can be accused and prosecuted of piracy or possession of illegal content.

There are many people of law who are actively hunting you down for that

and spying on people to search for that kind of behavior,

which they punish drastically.

Do you ever wonder why there aren’t people spying on you

to see if you do acts of kindness,

and then reward you for that?

Or spying on you and, if they see you watching many documentaries about space,

they come to your door saying

“Hey, we see that you are interested in space.

We are offering you a free education to this university to study it even more!”.

After all, if they catch you downloading pirated movies,

they will label you as a “pirate”,

and come to your door to arrest you.

Then why aren’t they labeling you as an “astronomer”

if you watch many documentaries about space?

It seems that they are only looking to punish people,

but not reward them for good behavior.

Being paid to do something is such a normality in this world

that the word “volunteer” seems to be more of an antonym.

This is why people will look odd at you

if you say that you are doing things for free.

In addition, because volunteering is such a rare act among ‘normal’ citizens,

it emphasizes the false importance that money appears to give to things.

This is why the documentary that I made had no value for my friends;

because it made no money.

I am sure that if I had a huge money revenue coming from it,

a screening in multiple cities, red carpet and all,

they would have been extremely impressed.

It actually had around six thousands viewers on the day that I released it.

Imagine if all these people would have come to an opening in the town I was born...

and of course, paid a ticket fare to be there.

Man, wouldn't I have been a documentary producer and a big money maker?

This is why, if an asteroid dangerously approaches Earth in the future,

I suggest to NASA that they make a short 3D movie,

with cool special effects and great background music,

to let people know about it, otherwise people won’t pay attention to it.

We live in a world of eyecandy,

used in nonsensical movies, music, shiny colors, 3D images, brands,

and pretty much everything about the package wrapper,

but not what is inside the package.

Is it any wonder why science is so often regarded as boring and not cool?

I mean, people are more interested in Matrix (the movie)

rather than their own life movie,

which is at least one trillion times more complex

than one billion Matrix movies combined.

This is a result of “what sells best, sells best”.

It has nothing to do with the real value of things.

People pump lots of money to promote anything that can produce more money,

and the more money they produce, the more “cool” and “known”

what they sell becomes.

Unfortunately, this is also why people like those things.

Because they are exposed to them for so long

and learn to think of them as ‘great’, ‘fashionable’, and ‘entertaining’.

That explains why many people are not impressed

when they see news about a new treatment for cancer,

a new exoplanet discovered,

or a new type of material invented,

and are instead more impressed and curious when they see a “celebrity”

doing or saying something stupid on tv.

It all depends on what makes more money and,

therefore, what is promoted more in the media.

You know…there are so many homeless people who are great human beings,

yet they starve in the streets because they do not fit in an obsolete system.

[Danny McGlashing]
Brother you got to tell them the story man about where you're from.

[Maurice Johnston]
Oh If you want

[Danny]
Oh my buddy is from Cleveland.

[Maurice]
I live in Ohio.

I came to Boston to start a new job.

When I got here it was given to someone else.

So now I'm staying in a homeless shelter.

I've been looking for work since November.

And I've come very close several times

but they usually want someone younger

and probably not black, but I don't know about that.

Never, not in Boston

but Boston... it's not a surprise.

I'm finally getting some responses to my resume

and I got 14 voicemails on my phone right now.

Hopefully some of them are job offers so...

But you have a PhD in Aeronautics?

Physics.

PhD in Physics.

From Dartmouth College and a Masters in Electric Engineering from Purdue University.

How does someone who has that end up...

It gets blown me away!

darn it

It was the sacrifice I did to take care of my parents

And one of the problems was when my father died

my house was going to be foreclosed

so I had to liquidate everything I owned to save the house.

My mother had Alzheimer's.

The last thing she needed was to buy a new home.

We found a new place but she didn't know where she was at that time anyway.

So I said...

They paid my way through school.

If it takes 10 years I'm gonna make their final years safe and comfortable.

So I sacrifice everything I had.

All my electronic stuff, my car,

all my savings...

And I paid off the house.

So when I paid for their house and they passed out,

I was set to go back to work and the economy tanked.

And that's what happens.

Where I used to work there used to be 30,000 engineers

I worked for Lockheed in California.

Now there's 3,000.

So where are they going?

Boeing's laid off, Northop laid off,

so where do we would go?

I had a friend that worked for NASA in Texas.

He got laid off too.

Yeah...

I applied for a NASA contract when I was in Cleveland.

Then the contract was canceled.

That was like three months ago.

So it was just simply bad luck

and when you have no money...

...it's very difficult to start over.

Yeah it is.

And frankly staying at the shelter's been an experience

I don't want to repeat ever in my life

for a lot of people too...

I'm hoping to find something very very soon.

I've got some contacts so I'm very...

I know it's going to be tough in the winter.

No one hardly hires in the winter.

And now that warm weather is coming...

things are beginning to happen

but it's frustrating.

I had a position here teaching at a school near northeastern

teaching mathematics four months...

they only offered a thousand dollars for the four months!

I can't live off of that.

Another company in San Francisco begged me to come out there

a startup company who are developing a product, which is great,

I've done that before.

They only offered 15 hours a week.

I said "In San Francisco?

That's the most expensive city in the country outside of New York."

Thousands to rent there.

They said "Well, you can have to come out here on your own

or interview out here someone else and hitch a ride..."

I went "go away...

that's not going to happen"

So with the economy this bad it's difficult.

The politicians aren't doing anything about it?

They just get reelected get their big salaries

and they sit there and do nothing.

But I just want a chance.

Science would be great, teaching to be great.

There's nothing greater than teaching.

Teaching physics would be a blast!

So I'm available.

Let's see what happens.

Brother thank you so much.

I appreciate the insistence.

Absolutely!

Today, with the use of the internet and its billions of users,

we are all doing things for free

that are not rewarded in the global monetary system.

From comments, to posting videos and sharing thoughts & ideas,

the internet is a huge place where people do stuff

and get few or no monetary reward.

I have seen many YouTubers who make great science shows,

but are desperate to make money because they can’t continue their work otherwise.

Of course, they are just a random example out of millions out there.

This system is like a pair of underwear that doesn’t fit anymore;

they are too small and they crack every day.

We try patching them and it seems to work, but it feels damn uncomfortable

and you know that one day they will crack to the point of no repair.

I think it’s time we get a new pair of underwear or wear none at all.

In today’s monetary system,

you can have great ideas and come up with great inventions

that could improve everyone’s life,

and yet starve to death if you don’t know how to sell them.

In a saner no-trade worldwide society,

no one has to sell their ideas.

Their ideas are a direct, immediate contribution

to the global society and themselves.

All acts of kindness, all the small help you provide to others,

everything you do is a direct value

and does not need a ‘worthless’ price tag.

[One Day - Matisyahu]

Sometimes I lay

Under the moon

And thank God I'm breathing

Then I pray

Don't take me soon

'Cause I am here for a reason

Sometimes in my tears I drown

But I never let it get me down

So when negativity surrounds

I know some day it'll all turn around because...

All my life I've been waiting for

I've been praying for

For the people to say

That we don't wanna fight no more

There will be no more wars

And our children will play

One day, One day, One Day

One day, One day, One Day

It's not about

Win or lose

'Cause we all lose

When they feed on the souls of the innocent

Blood-drenched pavement

Keep on moving though the waters stay raging

In this maze you can lose your way (your way)

It might drive you crazy but don't let it faze you, no way (no way)

Sometimes in my tears I drown (I drown)

But I never let it get me down (get me down)

So when negativity surrounds (surrounds)

I know some day it'll all turn around because...

All my life I've been waiting for

I've been praying for

For the people to say

That we don't wanna fight no more

There will be no more wars

And our children will play

One day, One day, One Day

One day, One day, One Day

One day this all will change

Treat people the same

Stop with the violence

Down with the hate

One day we'll all be free

And proud to be

Under the same sun

Singing songs of freedom like

One day, One day

One day, One day

All my life I've been waiting for

I've been praying for

For the people to say

That we don't wanna fight no more

There will be no more wars

And our children will play

One day, One day, One Day

One day, One day, One Day

Sometimes in my tears I drown (I drown)

But I never let it get me down (get me down)

So when negativity surrounds (surrounds)

I know some day it'll all turn around because...

All my life I've been waiting for

I've been praying for

For the people to say

That we don't wanna fight no more

There will be no more wars

And our children will play

One day, One day, One Day

One day, One day, One Day

One day, One day

All my life I've been waiting for

I've been praying for

For the people to say

That we don't wanna fight no more

There will be no more wars

And our children will play

One day, One day, One Day

One day, One day, One Day

Discover a new kind of world at:
www.tromsite.com