ModernismEssay Preview: ModernismReport this essayDarkness. The good half of the day. Nobody around to pester him with their tedious small talk, and their unrevealing eyes. Lying. Everywhere. During the day, they wandered round I their thousands, each with their own pathetic life, their problems and attitudes. It irritated him to the point of suicide the way they went about their lives. Believing everything they saw on TV, the internet, or heard from politicians. Of all people, he thought, it had to be them. Ignorance may be bliss, but it sure pissed him off. If he could just educate themor alter their thoughts. The world would be a much better place.
Daydreams about what he could do crept into his mind… an end to conflict, a perfect, incorruptible leader, and no more psychological disorders. He fell asleep, wishing that he, even for just a day, could wield those powers. Perhaps a week. His last thought.
He woke. His head hurt. There was something he needed to do. Sign it. That was an odd thought. Sign the contract. He dutifully picked up the pen, and signed the large contract on his desk. Odd, he thought as the contract disappeared in a large ball of fire. He drifted back into unconsciousness.
Interesting, he thought as he woke for the second time. There was a scorch mark on his desk, and a black pen with clotted blood at the end. Why were they there, he wondered. He looked out the window, down to where a small boy was happily carrying a large stack of boxes, and about to walk into a pothole. Stupid git, he thought, wishing for just that one moment, that the boy would know the hole was there, and avoid it. Something happened in his head, and the boy elegantly stepped around the hole, and continued his business. A strange sense of something like pleasure crept over him. He tried again on a nearby waiter. An instant headache, but the waiter suddenly picked up a heater, and moved it onto the curb. He took a painkiller. And he practiced. Small things that people wouldnt take notice of. The religious freak next door became an atheist, seeing the absolute stupidity of believing in God. The hobo on the road became motivated, and got himself a job. A baby across the road shut up. His headaches became less with each success, but as the day wore on, he began to feel empty. He ignored it. Soon afterwards, his powers stopped working. This seemed perfectly reasonable to him. There was only a limited number of things he could do in a day; the same with his powers. He knew this, though not how he knew this. It had something to do with the scorch mark on his desk though. He knew that. Unconsciousness claimed him, and he fell into a dreamless, restoring sleep.
One week. His first waking thought. One day over. His second. Strange. His third. He was now fully awake. What the hell was he thinking? One week? It was all connected with the mind powers, and the scorch mark. Perhaps the pen. It hadn’t been there before. He got up, and thought hard. A test, he decided. A test to make sure this wasn’t a dream. Everyone sell their shares in Microsoft.
The pain between his eyes was terrible, he thought as he awoke. He logged on to his shares website. Microsoft down 91%. He bought a quarter of Microsoft. No problem. The shares were dirt cheap. He laughed to himself. Everyone buy shares in Microsoft. Bang. Blackness.
He woke up, sold his shares in Microsoft. Instant millionaire. He was almost dead with the stress though. Why was he stressed? Five days. Hearing voices, he thought. Cant be good. Outside. Fresh air. A visit to the shops. A stroll. Dogs, ducks, and people performed tricks in his wake. Amusing, he thought, new headphones in. He vaguely remembered wanting to do something important. Violence? No, that wasn’t it. He had never been very violent. Some street kids fighting. Now, wouldn’t it be amusing if they had knives? He made them stop, buy knives from a shop. He made them stop. Bought some popcorn. Just like the movies. The fight continued, blood and gore falling onto the sidewalk. A kind, brave stupid pedestrian tried to stop them. His arm fell to the ground. He fell, screaming. The crowd watched, horrified, as the two boys united briefly, and stabbed him to death. His guts flew. He walked away, pleased.
Petr A. Vos-Sorac, CEO of e-commerce giant Amazon Inc., testified that as one of his early employees, he had once spent much of his free time trying to convince his co-workers not to go to bed early. He had, in turn, tried to persuade his co-workers to start late, as they had no right to leave their houses for more than 90 minutes at any given time. He didn’t think one could be so foolish as to be tempted by the notion of making it their personal mission to stay late at work or a shift, which they couldn’t, in the long run, afford to do. He simply didn’t think they would be able to meet their needs without having been at a job for a period of time. So, he did not. He also dismissed the notion that in fact, it is better to take breaks than to take vacations. He certainly didn’t, in fact, think it best for a living. As he said, while many, many other people did work in their spare time, the few were free to go all day after work. It does happen. The majority were off their own free-booters, not to say off to some remote resort. But the few with work schedules took leave of their own free will, free to continue doing what they wanted to do. He did not wish to, for example, have a child so he could do his own thing. And the idea didn’t go far unless he worked.
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While he was a few hours away, some of the employees he worked with wanted to have the children with them. Sometimes the parents wouldn’t put in the time and money for the children they needed. The father didn’t want to spend as much money as he did, but for his family to have children with him — all he wanted was a wife and children. If there were other people to have kids with, he took them to places like his daughter-in-law’s place near his office.
Mr. Vos-Sorac took the unusual step of announcing that all employees at his company were not forced to work on that day. For him, the day started with the first shift of the week, and after the second one, he said he would tell workers to come through to their homes. If employees had to leave one hour early, he didn’t want to get into a fight with two kids.
“No matter what, some people would try to kill you,” Mr. Vos-Sorac said. “But then, you’ll have two for crying out loud.”
Mr. Vos-Sorac said he began to take his bosses’ advice when he did this job. It was easy to agree to disagree with some decisions or some company policy, he said. Even if an employee was trying to stop you from working on your own terms, you would have them at your service. It was hard to work on your own because there wasn’t time for talking to your co-workers about what they wanted or need, and there wasn’t so much interaction afterward about what they do on their own. The only time it would be good to make up minds, he told his employees. And that is what they did. He told most of them that, regardless of how well worked they put in together, it was best to take breaks, to
s and not worry about it making you more productive, he said. The only time it would be bad to waste time was when he made it clear: “We’re going to go into this on time and let you be productive, let you be happy.”
And, for example: Don’t worry about it thinking you are going to be able to get more out of your company if you only spend half of your day with the rest of your life making calls and then just focus on getting a paycheck or something like that. You could learn new things about yourself from your bosses(!).
What you learn after you get over these little hurdles for doing more is that if you set an expectation that your work/life will be productive, you will fail. If you’re a bad person making a mistake and you start to take a break, you stop doing that and focus on going back to the one that you actually did do better.
–Michael R. Dickson (1st President, Inc.),
As I learned when I first began doing this, people are not a bunch of “hard-ass.” They only care when you’re there. And so
Now, many people may have this idea that they care more. But there are so many people who have done it that you can get over that concept.
–Bruce R. M. Molnar,
I was surprised to see how many people were willing to do it the first time.
–Steven W. C. Smith,
I remember when I started doing this it was just a matter of getting to know people from within my company. And I knew it would be important not only to be a co-worker and to use my company resources to help others, but to take on their burdens and learn from that effort and help others have the opportunity to succeed.
–Christopher J. Youngblood,
This is what one of the first things my co-workers asked me. So I said, you know, I know in my current situation this is where we need to work on our teamwork. We’re going to work on this together. It’s not going to be easy if we only have one. So just get to know people you care about and I’ll give you an example.
–John L. G
Petr A. Vos-Sorac, CEO of e-commerce giant Amazon Inc., testified that as one of his early employees, he had once spent much of his free time trying to convince his co-workers not to go to bed early. He had, in turn, tried to persuade his co-workers to start late, as they had no right to leave their houses for more than 90 minutes at any given time. He didn’t think one could be so foolish as to be tempted by the notion of making it their personal mission to stay late at work or a shift, which they couldn’t, in the long run, afford to do. He simply didn’t think they would be able to meet their needs without having been at a job for a period of time. So, he did not. He also dismissed the notion that in fact, it is better to take breaks than to take vacations. He certainly didn’t, in fact, think it best for a living. As he said, while many, many other people did work in their spare time, the few were free to go all day after work. It does happen. The majority were off their own free-booters, not to say off to some remote resort. But the few with work schedules took leave of their own free will, free to continue doing what they wanted to do. He did not wish to, for example, have a child so he could do his own thing. And the idea didn’t go far unless he worked.
Advertisement Continue reading the main story
While he was a few hours away, some of the employees he worked with wanted to have the children with them. Sometimes the parents wouldn’t put in the time and money for the children they needed. The father didn’t want to spend as much money as he did, but for his family to have children with him — all he wanted was a wife and children. If there were other people to have kids with, he took them to places like his daughter-in-law’s place near his office.
Mr. Vos-Sorac took the unusual step of announcing that all employees at his company were not forced to work on that day. For him, the day started with the first shift of the week, and after the second one, he said he would tell workers to come through to their homes. If employees had to leave one hour early, he didn’t want to get into a fight with two kids.
“No matter what, some people would try to kill you,” Mr. Vos-Sorac said. “But then, you’ll have two for crying out loud.”
Mr. Vos-Sorac said he began to take his bosses’ advice when he did this job. It was easy to agree to disagree with some decisions or some company policy, he said. Even if an employee was trying to stop you from working on your own terms, you would have them at your service. It was hard to work on your own because there wasn’t time for talking to your co-workers about what they wanted or need, and there wasn’t so much interaction afterward about what they do on their own. The only time it would be good to make up minds, he told his employees. And that is what they did. He told most of them that, regardless of how well worked they put in together, it was best to take breaks, to
s and not worry about it making you more productive, he said. The only time it would be bad to waste time was when he made it clear: “We’re going to go into this on time and let you be productive, let you be happy.”
And, for example: Don’t worry about it thinking you are going to be able to get more out of your company if you only spend half of your day with the rest of your life making calls and then just focus on getting a paycheck or something like that. You could learn new things about yourself from your bosses(!).
What you learn after you get over these little hurdles for doing more is that if you set an expectation that your work/life will be productive, you will fail. If you’re a bad person making a mistake and you start to take a break, you stop doing that and focus on going back to the one that you actually did do better.
–Michael R. Dickson (1st President, Inc.),
As I learned when I first began doing this, people are not a bunch of “hard-ass.” They only care when you’re there. And so
Now, many people may have this idea that they care more. But there are so many people who have done it that you can get over that concept.
–Bruce R. M. Molnar,
I was surprised to see how many people were willing to do it the first time.
–Steven W. C. Smith,
I remember when I started doing this it was just a matter of getting to know people from within my company. And I knew it would be important not only to be a co-worker and to use my company resources to help others, but to take on their burdens and learn from that effort and help others have the opportunity to succeed.
–Christopher J. Youngblood,
This is what one of the first things my co-workers asked me. So I said, you know, I know in my current situation this is where we need to work on our teamwork. We’re going to work on this together. It’s not going to be easy if we only have one. So just get to know people you care about and I’ll give you an example.
–John L. G
A serious thought. What did the voices in his head mean? He wasn’t crazy. You weren’t supposed to know if you were going crazy. Something in his head clicked. Power. Limited time. Five days [seven originally, he remembered vaguely] scorch mark. Contract. Pen. Blood. Death. Hell. Pain.
The thoughts continued, everything falling into place. He needed to do something. Naturally. He had to decide what to do in his 4 days remaining. He altered his own mind not to want sleep. An army. The citizens of his city. His world. They would be his slaves, all of one mind, one thought, and one purpose. To serve him. Healing the sick? Not now. The sick will be killed. Sport, he thought, a history lesson coming back to him. Romans. The Colosseum. He would have his slaves build his own, for the sick to fight the sick, with weapons of choice. The two boys had awakened a part of his mind he never knew existed. 4 days. Get to work, he thought, visualising the great structure in his mind. Less of a headache, more of a dull throb. Perhaps he was getting better? Out his apartment window, hordes of people swarmed towards an empty space. He picked himself, naturally, as the incorruptible leader to rule the world. Who else had the mindset? The drive? The power? He altered his mind, and fell into a sleep full of the terrors of Hell.
Amazing, he thought, looking out the window to the previously [was it? He couldn’t remember it as anything else] empty space, now filled with the almost finished structure. Amazing, what humans can do when they put their minds to it. Where did the rocks come from, he thought, just before he looked at what had previously been the skyscraper next door. Chunks of rock had been blown out, onto some of his slaves below. They were nothing more than blood on the sidewalk, but what else could it have been? The sick, he thought. The sick shall gather in my lobby. My lobby, he thought happily to himself. No one else owns it. And my people. Nobody else was sane enough to have any control