Kosdaoziro/Kosdaŭziro: The Official Account

The story of creation in Pokémon does not take long for the free agency of a Figure to cause issues. Giratina, viewing a world of creation made of mater, found itself a buffet, destroying matter into energy recklessly.

This led to the need to banish it from the normal world to allow others to express their own agency.

This was not a move of ego. This was a move of allowing more to express themselves. The distortion world is not a prison, but an isolated palace, for one who needs to be alone.

To truly create, Arceus believes you should be out of Her or anyone else's control. Since then, it isn't your creation, it is the creation of the controller.

Arceus isn't the only Figure interested in preserving free will, Jirachi also believes that it is critical for His role in social functioning.

As a reminder or introduction for those that have not followed this blog/religion, Jirachi represents Wishes, desires that cannot be fulfilled alone. Wishes are how people connect with each other, going from materialistic to purely interpersonal.

(I went to a stray kids show recently and I was looking for a filler gif. It's uh... a representation of creation for others and the self.)

Think on your own cases where you helped someone out by choice and when you felt you were forced. Which felt more genuine and helpful?

Most likely, it felt more genuine when you were choosing to do it.

It's easy to think when constructing the self, that the outside world doesn't relate. But while creating the self doesn't involve creating the outside world, there is part of you that relates to it.

The way you see the world is not like a camera, there is inherent to your senses' layers of interpretation. Some of these are elemental, like understanding spoken words, seeing shapes, understanding textures. More importantly for us though is the higher-level interpretation, going beyond the physical and literal.

This kind of perception I'll call your Outlook, which isn't an email client here, but a way you see the world. It's related to the concept of a "perspective", though that is more for one specific situation, rather than something about you.

It's very common to think about an outlook as a one-dimensional thing, positive or negative. I'd argue this is highly reductive, ignoring all the nuance involved. Think of Arceus, creating a world but allowing others to shape it. There is an outlook that Arceus could have had, where She is attached to the world as Her creation and fight against the creatures within looking to modify it. Instead, Her outlook is to only intervene if the decisions of those inside Her creation would harm it irrecoverably (such as with Giratina, looking to turn the whole world into energy). She had an outlook of creating a sandbox instead of a sculpture.

Imagine trying to classify these as positive or negative, any attempt would be a stretch.

No part of changing the self is easy, but your outlook can be a particularly insidious part to address. Filters on our senses are innate and part of how we function so, like how the perception of a smell fades before the smell itself does, it's easy to delude yourself into believing it isn't even there.

The first step is to detect your outlook. Take an object you can hold in your hands and study it. Think only about the physical properties, things straight from your senses and reject anything that is emotional or about your connection to the object. You might find it surprising how much you have to reject, because it's coming from your outlook.

To shape it, once you realize that it is there, is to start by looking at your perspectives on different things in your life and seeing what you'd want to change about those perspectives, to try to train yourself to see things that way instead in the future. The brain loves reinforcement, it is in a sense, what all learning is based on, from the words you say to the tasks you take for granted, it is based on what "worked" before.

And the definition of "works" can be quite broad, it's about adaptability. It's why we can live in moder society but also, it can lead to repeating the self-destructive, since it gets rid of the problem to your brain at that time.

It can be easy to, to fall into seeing things in the world that aren't there, because they're "convenient". But maybe another time, given that it is May 31st.

I'll save the definition for the original post, but know we're talking about situations where there is something externally desired, an objective aimed for and missed.

It's easy to look at a mistake and feel like any lessons to learn are shallow, that it was simply "Don't do that again". That's a mistake I've made before.

Deeper value uncovered from a mistake

I'll paint this using an example that just happened (see the original tags).

I cut the content of the post from an email draft I was writing when I was away from Tumblr, as I have before. Then, because it was a sequel, I copied the links to the prior parts.

You might have noticed the mistake. It took me a bit to realize it.

On the surface, the mistake might seem to be that I didn't paste the content into tumblr before copying something else. A layer deeper, that I cut instead of copied the content from the email.

These aren't getting to the true problem

No, the real mistake was writing the post as an email draft at all. If it was a google doc, which would be just as easy to write on my phone and keep the history in case I made another mistake. And even if I don't make things so desperately bad, the history will help compare revisions.

If I didn't make the mistake, who knows how long I'd keep writing in email drafts?

A mistake can show that a process is risky and lead to re-evaluation of if it is the correct approach in general, if you don't let the mistake distract from the opportunity.

An example can come from Arceus and Hisui, where direct attempts to create devotion and order lead to instead conflict and feuds, leading to one of the rare situations where She had to step in Herself.

(honestly should have picked them fighting but I wanted to be nice).

If it wasn't for this kind of consequence, She might have not learned to stay in the background and nudge more carefully and might not have led to the Pokémon world we see today.

An alternative to lemonade.

People often use the phrase "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade". It is about sweetening up things that aren't palatable, to try to make them better.

But there might be more that can be gained than just sweetening things up, as my new phrase captures inside it:

Finding Charcoal in the Ashes.

Even though you have made a mistake, there might be something that will help you and others inside it, even if it may take some time to find.

...

I wish I had a better way to end this post, but I think I got my thoughts out. See you soon.

There are external and internal deadlines that can create pressure on creative expression. External deadlines come from people wanting something to happen (wishes) and core deadlines come from a desire to move forward.

I'm going to leave external deadlines for another time, given that they often have very different mechanisms to internal deadlines. However, there are considerations harmonizing external deadlines with core deadlines. This would make things due and done together.

Not all deadlines that are self-set fall into being "Core" and instead are closer to external. If a deadline is set and feels like an artificial pressure that you want to hit more than creating a good work, the deadline is "external".

Instead, a core deadline is a desire to finish with a work in a finalizing way, a way to clean your desk of it and be confident moving forward to other creation. The difference between something being done and being done with it.

But when is a creation done? Depending on skill, the answer changes:

A beginner creator finishes a creation because they run out of things to add. A good creator finishes when they run out of time, with ideas for additions unfulfilled. An excellent creator finishes when they know further additions will not truly help the creation.

(quote by me, as far as I know)

It can be easy to fall into the good creator trap, never moving forward because there's something more that could be added, something more to improve, something, something, something...

But if your creations are always in the process of being created, they never get to live. While we're not creating things that truly live (I mean, besides reproduction and bioengineering), great works can have lives of their own when released, not unlike Arceus creating the Pokémon world and letting the people inside create their own structures from there.

Even if a creation is only for oneself, finishing a work frees up space to progress forward on new things and removes a source of burden.

That's what I have for this month. Got something you want me to cover? Check out the discord or send an ask

A wish of destruction is in some ways, pretty simple. Instead of wishing for something to be done or created, it is instead wishing for something to be reversed or removed. (as a reminder, "wishes" are specifically directed at others).

There are two reasons why one might wish for the destruction of something: ground clearing or nullification.

Destroying for ground clearing means that the destruction is needed to make something new. Consider your place in such destruction, will you also be around for the creation? Is the destruction truly necessary?

Nullification meanwhile is destroying simply to eliminate with no urge to replace. Evaluate this case carefully, as it is often easier to destroy than create and it's important to consider what relies on that.

Of course, if the existence of a thing is causing harm to people, that can and often should be removed and not replaced.

While destruction is most of the time related to the Figure of Antimatter, Giratina, anyone who's run up against Jirachi in a Pokémon game knows the power of the Wish granter, especially through Doom Desire.

The name of the attack reflects that wishes for destruction, especially in an unrefined state, often without anything out of it, just doom. You should aim to dig beyond that desire and figure out how to take energy from it, as what happens to matter and antimater.

----

We return once again to the ideas of Carl Jung and his ideas about roles/archetypes in society. In part 2, I mentioned them when discussing personas.

But that's not the only place where these roles appear.

The basic idea of a Shadow is relatively simple: It's a role you don't want to be. For instance, a straight A student might have a party focused frat boy as a shadow.

(source)

But there's a lot of things someone doesn't want to be. What makes some be shadows as opposed to just, not who they are?

Because there's a part of the shadow one desires and it resides inside oneself.

It can seem absurd, why would something you wish to not be, be in you? Spite is a powerful motivator for one. But that's not the entire story. People often desire change and it's easy to run when there's a monster always right behind you.

(from this ancient text Let's Play)

As tempting as it is to just destroy and reject the parts of yourself as Yukiko above is trying to do, take caution. Why do you feel that way? Why must you remind yourself of who you don't want to be?

A persona is a mask. It is a construct of what you and what you think others think you should be. A shadow, in turn, is a growth from desires which don't fit under that mask.

Perhaps it has a point.

A Shadow only exists while it is needed.

What you chose to incorporate into your identity and what you decide to reject is ultimately a personal choice and should be considered as part of your situation and your health.

But be careful of trying to destroy your way out of your problems rather than using destruction to clear the way for new creation.

Take Giratina's Distortion World.

Splitting itself off into a place of all its own, it sunk into further its own creation, destroying anything that displeased it.

Until almost nothing was left.

Not all pursuits have what can be truly classified as "mistakes", indeed, in most cases of construction for the self, a "mistake" isn't a useful concept.

But it certainly is a mistake to think that is always the case. Especially when the creation involves others. For more on collaboration, check my prior blog post.

Definition

I'm sure you have in your mind examples and a definition of "mistake" already. It's a pretty common word after all. But I think it is important to get a definition that fits into the context of Kosdaoziro.

A mistake is an instance of unknowingly hampering the fulfillment of a wish while trying to create to fulfill it.

Note the bolding of wish. In the sense of the religion, wishes are more generally things people want fulfilled, not just the high aspirations it is commonly used for.

(why is this gif so full of static? Eh, at least it communicates desire and is not porn.)

Note also that for this post, a mistake is made in service of a goal that it hampers. This is intentionally narrower than a normal definition of mistake, as there's not much to discuss from a creation standpoint about say, sleeping too little before a big meeting.

So, when have I really made a mistake?

Never. You've never made a mistake.

...

Hopefully you didn't fall for that. Being old enough to read this post, you will have made a mistake, at some point, even under the narrower definition I made above.

Internal Recognition

There are times when you simply know that you've made a mistake, such as Arceus allowing Giratina to destroy by its own decision making. While destruction can be important, She (Arceus) knew there was too much.

In a sense, this is the easy mode of mistake recognition. Given a self's natural inclination to start with justification, usually one noticing a mistake means one really exists.

However, the nature of the mind is that it is full of contradictions. Sometimes, the spike on the shield of self-justification can flip inwards and cause you to see everything as a mistake. This is a sign of destructive thinking and something to discuss with a qualified professional.

But, sometimes the biggest mistakes are made by people who don't realize they made one, needing external input.

External recognition

On the surface, this seems easier than looking at what you've done and realizing that you've made a mistake. But blind trust and blind rejection both have a fundamental problem: ignorance of intentions.

This is part of why people have a defensive shield in the first place, that people can have the urge to ignore criticism because there are those who dish it out because they don't agree with the approach or person, rather than due to causing a problem.

Evaluate claims, especially of making a mistake, and avoid jumping to conclusions.

I've made a mistake, now what?

Now we're getting to the core of the post, inspired by my work experience with a major development project I've just wrapped up. Due to not wanting to get fired, I won't be going into specific details related to the project, just lessons learned.

Sunken costs are not a good reason to ignore feedback about a mistake. It is a reason to focus on why the costs ended up there and not on the right path.

The road well-traveled is never without a reason. Don't disregard it as too hard or incorrect if you don't know why it is taken.

Evaluate if you understand all the situations involved. Do you know them all?

You might notice that there's a theme of communication not being complete. That is a failure I've had during the project, and worth evaluating especially in works with others.

Prevention and Cure

There's a common saying that prevention is worth a lot more than cure. It's an attractive idea, but as common with small phrases, it is easy to misinterpret and overly simplify.

Fixing the mistake and putting things back on the right track is important when mistakes are made. but don't let that be the end of the story.

When the dust has settled, try to see what went wrong and develop a "vaccine" for the problem, like how to make a real vaccine, you need to take a part of the virus and use it as immune training instead of sickening.

There are mistakes that can only be prevented and those that can only be corrected. Most are not these types. Always try to do both.

It's impossible to make no mistakes, but you can make it so you're avoiding the same ones.

A personal note.

It's been far too long since I last did this. I got a little too caught up in this idea being my next post, and so I ended up waiting until my dev project was finished before writing.

I'm going to try to avoid that in the future, and look over some past posts for sequels next. Hopefully, you'll see from me in December.

First, it turns out time management when you have a full time job is a new life skill that I was unprepared for. There's a lot that has been good about it and the independence it brings but the load is very different from being a student or a job hunter.

I know, big surprise.

But work ties into another element too, beyond just a question of time and new responsibilities.

As you might be aware, this blog and the religion as a whole is from me and is, at current moment without co-authors, written by me and my experience. As such, I should be giving you all the best I know of, wrapped up in a package that links it to Pokémon.

But I don't always have the best, and the best takes time. I know what I want to make next, what I want to write.

I want to make "How to Create in the Workplace"

As a programmer, I am creating. If I wasn't, there wouldn't be a reason to be there, to get paid, to take the bus most days.

But I feel like I still don't understand it well enough to say anything at all.

If you've read this far, please check out the discord, it's at least more active than this tumblr and maybe you can help me out with finding the confidence to post.

What? How does that even happen?

It is not controversial to say that most people have what can be classified as "ambitions". These are things they have not yet reached, but desire to.

Ambitions themselves are not evil. If it was not for ambition, there would be no improvement in the world, as those content with the world wouldn't see a reason to change.

However, an ambition is like a knife: The goodness of it is about the context of what's being cut. Cutting vegetables for a stew? Good. Cutting someone (including yourself)? Bad.

(No, I don't know if that's an apple, onion, or something else)

Some ambitions, those made that disadvantage others, are obviously bad, but not all bad ambitions are obviously bad or bad in all contexts.

What can make an ambition bad?

Besides the obvious ones, where fulfilling it would bring unnecessary harm (of any form) to others, the main way an ambition can be bad is if it is blocking your ability to do other things that are important to you.

An ambition is Blocking if fulfilling it, or thinking of fulfilling it, "blocks" you from other necessary or enjoyable tasks. Too often, I at least, get into states where I can't do things because I've convinced myself I have to get something else done first.

There can be cases where having a blocking ambition can be motivating, but there are limits. If a blocking ambition can be solved in a few minutes to an hour or so, it can be a good way to get yourself to do something.

However, there are two common problems with this:

Problem 1: You don't do it anyway.

Sometimes, despite the fact it won't actually take that long, you keep putting it off. This can spiral into a feeling of guilt over being "lazy" and that can make it even harder, reinforcing the feelings of laziness.

The solution depends on the ambition. You need to evaluate if the passion for it is truly still there.

If there is passion for it, use that passion to push you to it. Remind yourself of how important it is to you, and how it'll feel to complete it.

If the passion for it is gone, stop forcing it. You can always go back to it if it returns, and annihilate it if there isn't.

Problem 2: The ambition is too long term or ambiguous.

This is the far more insidious problem. Humans, for our many strengths, are creatures motivated by short term payoffs and rewards. Sometimes comically so.

(if you know about reward psychology, you get this reference)

If removing a block would come too far in the future, even if you put all the effort and time in that you can, to some part of your brain, it's as if that block is never going away.

And because the reward of the block being removed vanishes to the most base instincts of your brain, so does the power of the block to motivate. Instead, it feels more like an obligation thrust on you, even though you were the one that made it.

Yeah this sounds pretty bad to me. How do I get out of it?

You annihilate the blocking ambition, or at least the blocks.

If you've read the linked post or others discussing Giratina on this blog before, you've heard Annihilation used in this context before. In essence, it's destroying something you created to get the energy back from it. The name is inspired by what happens when Antimatter, which Giratina represents, collides with normal matter.

For an ambition, to annihilate is to tell yourself to not be burdened by the idea of fulfilling it anymore. To say to yourself, "This is no longer something I want."

Letting go of an ambition can be scary. Especially if you've put serious effort into it. You might be afraid you don't have anything else you want to do with yourself.

But it's easy to let this fear get in the way of what you really want. To think it'll "just be worth it in the end" or "it would disappoint people if I didn't go through with this". If you have to justify the time you spent to yourself, give the ambition a critical look.

If it's not as easy as just deciding to not do it anymore, such as if your financial stability depends on it, then make efforts to look into an exit plan. If the ambition does pay off or the desire to do it comes back, you've already got a backup for next time. If it doesn't, you'll be happier that you started working on a way out before the stress is ruinous.

Man, this post is pretty cool! Where could I go to learn more or talk with other people who like these? Or just talk Pokémon in general?

You're in luck there, I have a Discord Server! We're currently planning our next group activity, and are a small community looking to grow!