Change Your Focus, Change the Future
You Become What You Focus On
If you can change your focus, you can change your future.
Don’t spend a minute worrying about something that you can’t control. If something can’t be changed by you taking direct action, put it out of your mind.
Today’s society is overrun with useless distractions that misdirect your attention—life is filled with focus being wasted on the trivial and unimportant. If you let them, these distractions will sap your mental and even physical energy. They will exhaust you by chasing what amounts to sugar highs.
You become what you focus on.
If you’re breathlessly awaiting the next up or down tick, you’re telling your brain that is what is important, and when you do this, you allow your emotions almost full control because they live in the here and now.
Think of something you reacted emotionally to a few months ago—you’re far more likely to think, “What the hell was I thinking?” Because now, the emotions have drained away, and you can see more clearly once all the cortisol has cleared from your system.
Yet, much of our modern society is designed to elicit this emotional, short-term thinking and reacting. Look at media—especially those where you are a passive participant—and you will see daily attempts to stoke your fear and unmoor you.
In my lifetime, I have seen TV news go from being a relatively neutral 30-minute report of things that happened that day to 24 hours a day, 365 days a year of propaganda filled with narratives and talking points regardless of the dogma being sold. And they know what sells—fear:
“Humans are fear-based creatures. We are primarily emotional, and our ruling emotion is fear.” — Jed McKenna
Fear, according to Frank Herbert in Dune, “is the mind-killer. Fear is the little death that brings total obliteration.” Only by understanding this and letting it “pass over me and through me” can we defeat it.
And the volume just keeps getting turned up. The world is ending in 30, no 20, no 10 years. Panic. Let your fear and outrage flow. When we let this seep into our brains, it directly impacts the quality of decisions we will make, and in many cases, this cacophony of fear and outrage serves as a silent assassin to making good choices.
“I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.” — Frank Herbert, Dune
Chasing Phantoms
In a world filled with noise, we often end up chasing phantoms. We are all socialized from birth with a million spoken and unspoken rules of society. Our family, our friends, our schools and our religious affiliations silently but efficiently fill us with notions and beliefs that we almost never question. There’s no great conspiracy here; it’s just the way society has always functioned.
The point is, many of us believe things that we’ve never questioned or even considered questioning. And, like a computer operating system that is badly programmed, our humanOS keeps leading us to suboptimal choices and results.
We come out of the womb with the software fully installed. It’s always puzzled me that so many just accept the default settings. Some of them are very good and keep us safe in dangerous situations, but the advance of society/technology has left us with antiquated software.
If we don’t confront and challenge our obsolete programmed beliefs, we may find ourselves surrendering our agency to others, be they family, friends, governments or social organizations. Once we surrender agency, it becomes an easy step to see everything that happens to us as due to fate or some other entity outside ourselves. This is the hallmark of a victim mentality and robs you of controlling your own fate.
But how many of us truly challenge our embedded beliefs? William James said that “a great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.” We are given every incentive to remain members of the herd who think the same thoughts and have the same prejudices and beliefs as our fellow members of society.
We are basically mimetic creatures who loathe either being or appearing to be different from our fellow humans. And thus, we let the programming run unchanged.
“A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.” — William James
Breaking Free
I often cite the Zen story about a fish who was a Prince who asked his father to explain water to him. His father, the King, asked him why he wanted to know. The Prince answered he had heard land creatures talking about it and wanted to understand. His father responded, “You were born in the water, and you will die in the water. You live in it, and it flows through you and around you. It is so much a part of you that you are unaware of it.”
Swimming in our fear-driven, herd-following, phantom-chasing water, too many of us can’t imagine what lies upon the shore.
How can we change this? How can we break free of our environment? How can we harness the power of our focus and unleash it not towards darkness but towards the light?
The answer lies in a simple question: “Why?”
If we want to truly succeed, we must begin to dig deep into all our beliefs and assumptions. We must challenge each one, no matter how basic.
People who don’t ask questions don’t get answers. NEVER be afraid to ask a question, even if everyone you know thinks the answer is obvious. A question can uncover lots of bad beliefs if only you keep asking it.
When we look at history, we see that most beliefs and commonly accepted “truths” were, in fact, castles built on sand. Why should we be any different?
I have had a thesis for years now that the old business models are collapsing, to be replaced with something very, very different. I believe that the ways that society has conditioned us to believe that things “should be” or “just are” are about to be turned upside down (what I call the “Great Reshuffle”).
Just look at recent societal trends, such as remote work, the great resignation, and the rise of the creator economy. Combine this with the transformative power of AI, and it is apparent to me that a new world is there for the taking.
But, to understand and capitalize on the opportunities presented by our changing world, we must each find the courage and conviction to challenge the conventional wisdom.
This process is both hard and frightening. Those who embrace the “Why?” mindset risk being ostracized and labeled heretics and apostates.
OSV is here to change that.
“If you’re going to kick authority in the teeth, you might as well use both feet.” — Keith Richards
Unleashing “Why?”
This inaugural edition of OSV Quarterly is dedicated to exploring the multitude of ways we are unleashing the infinite potential of those willing to embrace the “Why?” mindset.
“The measure of a society is not only what it does, but the quality of its aspirations.” — Wade Davis
A multimedia project imagining a futuristic city, but one that is human-centric, technologically progressive, and ecologically sustainable rather than the dystopian skyscape we’re so used to seeing on our screens.
A series of investments in positive, practical, forward-thinking companies seeking ways to revolutionize their industries for the better.
A new media ecosystem designed to showcase the best of human nature, not the worst.
A series of equity-free grants to creators across the globe with transformational projects that traditional finance may have overlooked.
It’s an eclectic mix, a consilience of art, science, and business linked by a common thread: an unwavering focus on a future worth fighting for and a willingness to stare into the eyes of the prevailing wisdom and ask: “Why?”
My hope, and my belief, is that one of the projects mentioned in the coming pages will give you the seeds for a great idea of your own. An idea that embraces hope, not fear. An idea that you can focus on. An idea that can change the future.
Thank you for reading our magazine, and welcome to O’Shaughnessy Ventures.
Change Your Focus, Change the Future
You Become What You Focus On
If you can change your focus, you can change your future.
Don’t spend a minute worrying about something that you can’t control. If something can’t be changed by you taking direct action, put it out of your mind.
Today’s society is overrun with useless distractions that misdirect your attention—life is filled with focus being wasted on the trivial and unimportant. If you let them, these distractions will sap your mental and even physical energy. They will exhaust you by chasing what amounts to sugar highs.
You become what you focus on.
If you’re breathlessly awaiting the next up or down tick, you’re telling your brain that is what is important, and when you do this, you allow your emotions almost full control because they live in the here and now.
Think of something you reacted emotionally to a few months ago—you’re far more likely to think, “What the hell was I thinking?” Because now, the emotions have drained away, and you can see more clearly once all the cortisol has cleared from your system.
Yet, much of our modern society is designed to elicit this emotional, short-term thinking and reacting. Look at media—especially those where you are a passive participant—and you will see daily attempts to stoke your fear and unmoor you.
In my lifetime, I have seen TV news go from being a relatively neutral 30-minute report of things that happened that day to 24 hours a day, 365 days a year of propaganda filled with narratives and talking points regardless of the dogma being sold. And they know what sells—fear:
“Humans are fear-based creatures. We are primarily emotional, and our ruling emotion is fear.” — Jed McKenna
Fear, according to Frank Herbert in Dune, “is the mind-killer. Fear is the little death that brings total obliteration.” Only by understanding this and letting it “pass over me and through me” can we defeat it.
And the volume just keeps getting turned up. The world is ending in 30, no 20, no 10 years. Panic. Let your fear and outrage flow. When we let this seep into our brains, it directly impacts the quality of decisions we will make, and in many cases, this cacophony of fear and outrage serves as a silent assassin to making good choices.
“I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.” — Frank Herbert, Dune
Chasing Phantoms
In a world filled with noise, we often end up chasing phantoms. We are all socialized from birth with a million spoken and unspoken rules of society. Our family, our friends, our schools and our religious affiliations silently but efficiently fill us with notions and beliefs that we almost never question. There’s no great conspiracy here; it’s just the way society has always functioned.
The point is, many of us believe things that we’ve never questioned or even considered questioning. And, like a computer operating system that is badly programmed, our humanOS keeps leading us to suboptimal choices and results.
We come out of the womb with the software fully installed. It’s always puzzled me that so many just accept the default settings. Some of them are very good and keep us safe in dangerous situations, but the advance of society/technology has left us with antiquated software.
If we don’t confront and challenge our obsolete programmed beliefs, we may find ourselves surrendering our agency to others, be they family, friends, governments or social organizations. Once we surrender agency, it becomes an easy step to see everything that happens to us as due to fate or some other entity outside ourselves. This is the hallmark of a victim mentality and robs you of controlling your own fate.
But how many of us truly challenge our embedded beliefs? William James said that “a great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.” We are given every incentive to remain members of the herd who think the same thoughts and have the same prejudices and beliefs as our fellow members of society.
We are basically mimetic creatures who loathe either being or appearing to be different from our fellow humans. And thus, we let the programming run unchanged.
“A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.” — William James
Breaking Free
I often cite the Zen story about a fish who was a Prince who asked his father to explain water to him. His father, the King, asked him why he wanted to know. The Prince answered he had heard land creatures talking about it and wanted to understand. His father responded, “You were born in the water, and you will die in the water. You live in it, and it flows through you and around you. It is so much a part of you that you are unaware of it.”
Swimming in our fear-driven, herd-following, phantom-chasing water, too many of us can’t imagine what lies upon the shore.
How can we change this? How can we break free of our environment? How can we harness the power of our focus and unleash it not towards darkness but towards the light?
The answer lies in a simple question: “Why?”
If we want to truly succeed, we must begin to dig deep into all our beliefs and assumptions. We must challenge each one, no matter how basic.
People who don’t ask questions don’t get answers. NEVER be afraid to ask a question, even if everyone you know thinks the answer is obvious. A question can uncover lots of bad beliefs if only you keep asking it.
When we look at history, we see that most beliefs and commonly accepted “truths” were, in fact, castles built on sand. Why should we be any different?
I have had a thesis for years now that the old business models are collapsing, to be replaced with something very, very different. I believe that the ways that society has conditioned us to believe that things “should be” or “just are” are about to be turned upside down (what I call the “Great Reshuffle”).
Just look at recent societal trends, such as remote work, the great resignation, and the rise of the creator economy. Combine this with the transformative power of AI, and it is apparent to me that a new world is there for the taking.
But, to understand and capitalize on the opportunities presented by our changing world, we must each find the courage and conviction to challenge the conventional wisdom.
This process is both hard and frightening. Those who embrace the “Why?” mindset risk being ostracized and labeled heretics and apostates.
OSV is here to change that.
“If you’re going to kick authority in the teeth, you might as well use both feet.” — Keith Richards
Unleashing “Why?”
This inaugural edition of OSV Quarterly is dedicated to exploring the multitude of ways we are unleashing the infinite potential of those willing to embrace the “Why?” mindset.
“The measure of a society is not only what it does, but the quality of its aspirations.” — Wade Davis
A multimedia project imagining a futuristic city, but one that is human-centric, technologically progressive, and ecologically sustainable rather than the dystopian skyscape we’re so used to seeing on our screens.
A series of investments in positive, practical, forward-thinking companies seeking ways to revolutionize their industries for the better.
A new media ecosystem designed to showcase the best of human nature, not the worst.
A series of equity-free grants to creators across the globe with transformational projects that traditional finance may have overlooked.
It’s an eclectic mix, a consilience of art, science, and business linked by a common thread: an unwavering focus on a future worth fighting for and a willingness to stare into the eyes of the prevailing wisdom and ask: “Why?”
My hope, and my belief, is that one of the projects mentioned in the coming pages will give you the seeds for a great idea of your own. An idea that embraces hope, not fear. An idea that you can focus on. An idea that can change the future.
Thank you for reading our magazine, and welcome to O’Shaughnessy Ventures.
Max Reisner is a hardware engineer with a focus on electromechanical systems and a passion for the environment. He will use his grant to continue developing adaptable battery systems to simplify the process of incorporating renewable energy storage into products for small teams.
Justh is a singer-songwriter creating original Hindi songs with poetic lyricism as their backbone. He will use his grant to write new music and complete production work on his existing songs.
Akhil Tolani’s work focuses on building products that use experimental technologies like artificial intelligence for the mainstream audience. He will use his grant to continue working on CassetteAI, which fuses generative AI with music to democratize music creation, allowing everyone to create and listen to music they love based on their preferences.
Jack Oswald is a rocket propulsion engineer and entrepreneur dedicated to a human future in space. His startup aims to develop powerful electric propulsion on-orbit to make reusable spacecraft and enable Moon and Mars missions that aren’t feasible today. Oswald will contribute his grant to the proof-of-concept test of this technology.
Ben Reinhardt is the founder of Speculative Technologies, a new kind of research organization working to unlock materials and manufacturing technologies. Reinhardt will use his grant to continue building Speculative Technologies.
Change Your Focus, Change the Future
You Become What You Focus On
If you can change your focus, you can change your future.
Don’t spend a minute worrying about something that you can’t control. If something can’t be changed by you taking direct action, put it out of your mind.
Today’s society is overrun with useless distractions that misdirect your attention—life is filled with focus being wasted on the trivial and unimportant. If you let them, these distractions will sap your mental and even physical energy. They will exhaust you by chasing what amounts to sugar highs.
You become what you focus on.
If you’re breathlessly awaiting the next up or down tick, you’re telling your brain that is what is important, and when you do this, you allow your emotions almost full control because they live in the here and now.
Think of something you reacted emotionally to a few months ago—you’re far more likely to think, “What the hell was I thinking?” Because now, the emotions have drained away, and you can see more clearly once all the cortisol has cleared from your system.
Yet, much of our modern society is designed to elicit this emotional, short-term thinking and reacting. Look at media—especially those where you are a passive participant—and you will see daily attempts to stoke your fear and unmoor you.
In my lifetime, I have seen TV news go from being a relatively neutral 30-minute report of things that happened that day to 24 hours a day, 365 days a year of propaganda filled with narratives and talking points regardless of the dogma being sold. And they know what sells—fear:
“Humans are fear-based creatures. We are primarily emotional, and our ruling emotion is fear.” — Jed McKenna
Fear, according to Frank Herbert in Dune, “is the mind-killer. Fear is the little death that brings total obliteration.” Only by understanding this and letting it “pass over me and through me” can we defeat it.
And the volume just keeps getting turned up. The world is ending in 30, no 20, no 10 years. Panic. Let your fear and outrage flow. When we let this seep into our brains, it directly impacts the quality of decisions we will make, and in many cases, this cacophony of fear and outrage serves as a silent assassin to making good choices.
“I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.” — Frank Herbert, Dune
Chasing Phantoms
In a world filled with noise, we often end up chasing phantoms. We are all socialized from birth with a million spoken and unspoken rules of society. Our family, our friends, our schools and our religious affiliations silently but efficiently fill us with notions and beliefs that we almost never question. There’s no great conspiracy here; it’s just the way society has always functioned.
The point is, many of us believe things that we’ve never questioned or even considered questioning. And, like a computer operating system that is badly programmed, our humanOS keeps leading us to suboptimal choices and results.
We come out of the womb with the software fully installed. It’s always puzzled me that so many just accept the default settings. Some of them are very good and keep us safe in dangerous situations, but the advance of society/technology has left us with antiquated software.
If we don’t confront and challenge our obsolete programmed beliefs, we may find ourselves surrendering our agency to others, be they family, friends, governments or social organizations. Once we surrender agency, it becomes an easy step to see everything that happens to us as due to fate or some other entity outside ourselves. This is the hallmark of a victim mentality and robs you of controlling your own fate.
But how many of us truly challenge our embedded beliefs? William James said that “a great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.” We are given every incentive to remain members of the herd who think the same thoughts and have the same prejudices and beliefs as our fellow members of society.
We are basically mimetic creatures who loathe either being or appearing to be different from our fellow humans. And thus, we let the programming run unchanged.
“A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.” — William James
Breaking Free
I often cite the Zen story about a fish who was a Prince who asked his father to explain water to him. His father, the King, asked him why he wanted to know. The Prince answered he had heard land creatures talking about it and wanted to understand. His father responded, “You were born in the water, and you will die in the water. You live in it, and it flows through you and around you. It is so much a part of you that you are unaware of it.”
Swimming in our fear-driven, herd-following, phantom-chasing water, too many of us can’t imagine what lies upon the shore.
How can we change this? How can we break free of our environment? How can we harness the power of our focus and unleash it not towards darkness but towards the light?
The answer lies in a simple question: “Why?”
If we want to truly succeed, we must begin to dig deep into all our beliefs and assumptions. We must challenge each one, no matter how basic.
People who don’t ask questions don’t get answers. NEVER be afraid to ask a question, even if everyone you know thinks the answer is obvious. A question can uncover lots of bad beliefs if only you keep asking it.
When we look at history, we see that most beliefs and commonly accepted “truths” were, in fact, castles built on sand. Why should we be any different?
I have had a thesis for years now that the old business models are collapsing, to be replaced with something very, very different. I believe that the ways that society has conditioned us to believe that things “should be” or “just are” are about to be turned upside down (what I call the “Great Reshuffle”).
Just look at recent societal trends, such as remote work, the great resignation, and the rise of the creator economy. Combine this with the transformative power of AI, and it is apparent to me that a new world is there for the taking.
But, to understand and capitalize on the opportunities presented by our changing world, we must each find the courage and conviction to challenge the conventional wisdom.
This process is both hard and frightening. Those who embrace the “Why?” mindset risk being ostracized and labeled heretics and apostates.
OSV is here to change that.
“If you’re going to kick authority in the teeth, you might as well use both feet.” — Keith Richards
Unleashing “Why?”
This inaugural edition of OSV Quarterly is dedicated to exploring the multitude of ways we are unleashing the infinite potential of those willing to embrace the “Why?” mindset.
“The measure of a society is not only what it does, but the quality of its aspirations.” — Wade Davis
A multimedia project imagining a futuristic city, but one that is human-centric, technologically progressive, and ecologically sustainable rather than the dystopian skyscape we’re so used to seeing on our screens.
A series of investments in positive, practical, forward-thinking companies seeking ways to revolutionize their industries for the better.
A new media ecosystem designed to showcase the best of human nature, not the worst.
A series of equity-free grants to creators across the globe with transformational projects that traditional finance may have overlooked.
It’s an eclectic mix, a consilience of art, science, and business linked by a common thread: an unwavering focus on a future worth fighting for and a willingness to stare into the eyes of the prevailing wisdom and ask: “Why?”
My hope, and my belief, is that one of the projects mentioned in the coming pages will give you the seeds for a great idea of your own. An idea that embraces hope, not fear. An idea that you can focus on. An idea that can change the future.
Thank you for reading our magazine, and welcome to O’Shaughnessy Ventures.
To listen or watch, visit our Podcast Website or YouTube Channel
