#powerinall

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Blog response#2

Texts are a very special phenomenon, they are a very rare thing which can do so much like help us humans escape from our current reality, make us less ignorant, and entertain us. Basically, texts have a lot of power to influence human behavior, either for good or for bad. However, there is still one thing that texts can do, and this is that they have something to do with our lives. This is something incredible, and perhaps the finest of all qualities that texts possess.  As I was reading through the text: "Essay on Knowledge is Power", I was surprised due to the amount of ideas the text shared that had something, either large or small, to do with my life.

As the title of the essay says, “knowledge is power”, the concept of knowledge is highly emphasized throughout the text, however, this same concept has a lot to do with my life. Basically this relationship consists on the fact that I always pursue knowledge and for me there “There is no end to the gaining of knowledge”, as the text states. In contrast to the text, I do not pursue knowledge for power like the text claims that knowledge is power. Rather, I pursue knowledge to progress and grow as an individual, and hopefully with this growth I can come up with efficient solutions to problems present in our present day. One of the many problems that I plan to fix with my knowledge is simply the lack of knowledge or ignorance that prevails in our society, and I will use my knowledge to help these people so that they can also acquire knowledge and be able to think on their feet.

In a particular part of the text the author states: “He settled near rivers and took up agriculture. The settlements soon transformed into villages. Soon villages transformed into towns, and  provinces and later cities and countries.” This quote refers to what mankind can do with it’s knowledge. After reading this segment, I immediately thought about my country, about how much I want my country to progress, just as the quote shows how man progressed. Throughout my life I’ve frequently heard the following about my country: “We have a lot of potential, but we do not use it.” This is something that really worries me as my country has a large potential to thrive, only that it does not uses the knowledge that it possesses, and something that I plan to fix.

Power and knowledge are not being used for good in our present days, rather some have used these two to their advantage like the text states: “He interfered with nature and disturbed the ecological balance. He has polluted air, land and water”. Knowledge and power have been abused by some, for example, nuclear energy has been used to create nuclear weapons, such weapons pose a threat to humanity, however those who possess such artifacts do not seem to care. I am completely against this, against of this misuse of power and towards the future, I plan to fight against this, as one of my goals is to stop this abuse of power and do with them as the text states: “It should be used for peace, prosperity and growth.”

In conclusion, texts are very special, but perhaps what makes them special is their unique quality of having such relevance to our lives. After reading: “Essay on Knowledge is Power”, I encountered a wide array of ideas that had so much to do with my life. These ideas were very related to my current views of concepts such as power, knowledge or identity, and it even reminded me of what I have planned to do for the future. This particular characteristic of texts is an amazing feature and it is what connects the reader with the text.

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Blog Response #4

“What Makes People Powerful” is an article that displays the main qualities and skills of powerful people like Steve Jobs.  The article demonstrates how these qualities make powerful people by showing a wide range of real-life examples from powerful people whom possess these qualities. As I was reading through the article many of my views on the qualities of powerful people were challenged, as I was exposed to new ideas related to this. However, these new perspectives  also allowed me to  learn new things.

It did not took long for my views on what really made people powerful to be challenged, as in the second paragraph I encountered an idea that challenged my views on what made people powerful. I always thought that the qualities of powerful people were a high I.Q., lots of money and especially charisma. Charisma for me is the main quality that makes up powerful people. This is something that I’ve learned through reading texts like “The Tragedy of Julius Caesar”, where one of the main characters, Julius Caesar, is a very powerful person who at same time is very charismatic, and after seeing this I thought that charisma made up powerful people. However my views on what made people powerful, especially the one of charisma were challenged after encountering the following quote on the text: “Pfeffer’s argument is that there’s a crucial skill set that separates alphas like Steve Jobs and Google cofounder Larry Page from the omegas–and that potentially matters more than I.Q., charisma, and even hard work.”  After encountering this, my views were really challenged because, as I said above, I thought that high I.Q., money and charisma made powerful people, but this segment from the text was proving me wrong.

Aside from the previous point of challenge, there were still other segments in the text that led my viewpoints to be challenged. After reading the following quote: “Worry about spending too much time with people you know, as opposed to meeting new people in unrelated areas.”, my views were once again challenged, as I had never thought about this as a quality of powerful people, mainly because my idea of or image of powerful people is one of somebody who cultivates relationships with people in his area, but none or very little with people in other areas, so this was why that segment challenged my views.

Apart from there being points of challenge and disagreement throughout the text, there were also several points in which I agreed with what the text stated. One of these points which I agree is that powerful people acknowledge that they are “under constant public scrutiny”. Basically I agree with this because I also believe that this is true, that powerful people acknowledge that they are constantly being examined due to their position. I also found a point which strengthened my views, mainly that charisma was one of the qualities of powerful people. The text stated: “Bill Clinton, Nancy Pelosi … [they] got to where they are because they understood how to get other people to sponsor and support them,”. This shows how their charisma has helped them to become powerful people, therefore this is why this served as a boost to my views. There is also a real-life experience which I can connect to this. While I was at my P.E class, our instructor asked the entire class to fit in a small circle all together. It was a disaster, but it was then fixed thanks to some of my classmates whom were able to motivate us after we thought that it was impossible(charisma), and after the exercise, our teacher gave praise to those students, because they were the real leaders that motivated us and proposed a solution to the problem.

In conclusion, the text provided several points that challenged my views on what really made people powerful, however the text convinced me through it’s real-life anecdotes of people who posses the qualities that the author states and at the same time are powerful people. One of these anecdotes is the following:“There’s a woman I talk about in this book who went to work for a financial management firm in San Francisco,” says Pfeffer. “The firm would have discussions about their blog strategy. Everyone else was too busy, but she took it on, and eventually she found herself a job in a big Internet conglomerate, because people read her blog.” Eventually, these same points that challenged my views contributed to my learning.

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Texts and Goals(Action Plan)