Selected Thoughts On Human Development

By Vladimir Poklad

Why doesn’t higher education, even one obtained from an elite institution, guarantee success or happiness? Why do jocks often succeed in the world of business, and nerds fail? Why is modern life the way it is? In fact, why does mankind exist at all? And why can’t anyone - neither science, nor religion, nor any purveyor of esoteric teachings - help me answer these questions? Where do I turn?

Like many other people who strive to think things through, I’ve asked myself these questions for years. I sought answers in my college education in Russia but found none. I began to study philosophy and religion; they gave me some glimmers of insight but no answers and no thorough understanding of any issue. Then I entered the Masters of Business Administration program at the University of Chicago. I learned a lot there but left with more questions than I came in with, chief among them being ‘Why do things that work in America not work in Russia?’ After getting my MBA, I returned to Moscow and joined McKinsey, a leading management consulting firm. Working there also saddled me with new questions, ones that insisted on being addressed more urgently.

For a while I began to look for answers in conspiracy theories. However, upon closer examination the ‘theorists’ themselves turned out to be even more unpleasant than the ‘conspirators’ they were decrying. Some of them did impart tidbits of useful knowledge to their followers, but they still communicated by instilling fear rather than teaching joy or promulgating any real understanding of life. I joined some esoteric circles, with similar results. One heard a lot more about joy and happiness there, but the gurus themselves often didn’t follow their own teachings and were neither especially happy nor successful.
As I collected these tidbits of useful knowledge wherever life took me, I began to examine and aggregate them, piecing together a large-scale picture of the world. I was also starting to discover answers to a lot of the questions that bothered me. Initially, I worked only to advance my own understanding, but after attracting some attention and curiosity from acquaintances, I decided to write this book. I do not consider my beliefs to be one hundred percent accurate, and I certainly don’t fancy myself any kind of guru or prophet. Rather, I’m looking to share some personal thoughts in order to learn what other people think about them.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Vladimir Poklad
• Release date: Jul 3, 2012
• ISBN: 9781476450469

Vladimir Poklad

Graduated from The University of Chicago Booth School of Business, worked in McKinsey and KPMG.

Book preview

Selected thoughts on human development

Vladimir Poklad

Published by Vladimir Poklad at Smashwords

Copyright 2012, 2013 Vladimir Poklad

This book examines the proverbial meaning of life, which I take to mean developing individual self-awareness and self-sufficiency. It also addresses the role of temptation in the process of this development, as well as becoming conscious of the near boundlessness of one’s opportunities. The book also analyzes the five main conditions of the human mind (slave, Servant, Master, Warrior, Priest) and behavior typical of people in these conditions as they go through life participating in various organizations, societies, and their own families.

The book is intended for people interested in philosophy, psychology, sociology, management, and esotericism, as well as those looking for self-improvement. Don’t think of it as a treatise on spirituality; rather, it’s a systematized collection of thoughts that I would have been appreciated hearing in my youth, or maybe even in my childhood.

Disclaimer: the content of this text represents the author's own thoughts and opinions, drawn from his personal experience. Author assumes no liability for any action taken by the reader based on this content.

©Vladimir Poklad

Translated from Russian by Anna Zaigraeva

Moscow – Novaya Kakhovka, 2013

Table of content

1. Foreword

2. The meaning of life

2.1 The birth of the Universe: self-sufficiency as the primary Creative attribute

2.2 What is good, and what is bad: the Earth as the playground for mankind's development

2.3 The Regulator of man’s Creative development

2.3.1. Who is the Regulator?

2.3.2 Sweetness of sin: choosing development consciously

2.3.3. The role of the Devil in religions

2.3.4. Motivational mechanisms of the Devil and his Servants

2.4. Why vanity is the primary sin, and how the Devil plays with chosenness

2.5. Self-sufficiency and self-awareness: East vs. West

3. Human's state of mind

3.1. Foreword

3.2. Defining the states of mind: slaves, Servants, Masters, Warriors, Priests

3.2.1. The slave

3.2.2. The Servant

3.2.2.1 Mechanisms for creating and maintaining the state of Servitude

3.2.2.2. Revolutionary and evolutionary roles of the 'meroplankton': the Servant avant-garde

3.2.2.3. Meroplankton's pathways of development

3.2.2.4. On current social ideas

3.2.2.5. Some more on meroplankton’s possible evolutionary role

3.2.3. The Master

3.2.4. The Warrior

3.2.5. The Priest

3.3. How to spot slaves who mimic other states of mind

3.4. Romantic relationships between people in different states of mind

3.4.1 Commentary

3.4.2. Possible romantic relationship dynamics between people in different states of mind

3.5. States of mind considered at macro level: community and society at large

3.5.1. Introduction

3.5.2. The Servant - the state of mind created by contemporary civilization

3.5.3. Contemporary economic theory: limited resources for slaves and Servants, boundless world of creative opportunities for all others

3.5.4. The struggle: the Priests and the Warriors versus the Masters

3.5.5 The real meaning behind social structures: creating the conditions for development of the creative human mind

3.5.6. Alternative social systems

3.5.7. Social structures in USA, China and Europe, in brief

3.5.7.1. USA

3.5.7.2. China

3.5.7.3. Europe

3.6. State of mind considered at micro level: the workplace

3.6.1. Master-centered workplace

3.6.2. Priest-Servant workplace

3.6.3. The problem of slaves in the workplace

3.6.4. Competition: busywork for slaves, training and review for Servants, unlimited creative opportunities for higher states of mind

3.6.5. Workplace management and states of mind

3.6.5.1. Some thoughts on how workplaces function

4. How to cease being a slave: personal experience and thoughts

4.1. Introduction

4.2. External plan of action

4.3. Internal plan of action

5. Conclusion

1. Foreword

Why doesn’t higher education, even one obtained from an elite institution, guarantee success or happiness? Why do jocks often succeed in the world of business, and nerds fail? Why is modern life the way it is? In fact, why does mankind exist at all? And why can’t anyone - neither science, nor religion, nor any purveyor of esoteric teachings - help me answer these questions? Where do I turn?

Like many other people who strive to think things through, I’ve asked myself these questions for years. I sought answers in my college education in Russia but found none. I began to study philosophy and religion; they gave me some glimmers of insight but no answers and no thorough understanding of any issue. Then I entered the Masters of Business Administration program at the University of Chicago. I learned a lot there but left with more questions than I came in with, chief among them being ‘Why do things that work in America not work in Russia?’ After getting my MBA, I returned to Moscow and joined McKinsey, a leading management consulting firm. Working there also saddled me with new questions, ones that insisted on being addressed more urgently.

For a while I began to look for answers in conspiracy theories. However, upon closer examination the ‘theorists’ themselves turned out to be even more unpleasant than the ‘conspirators’ they were decrying. Some of them did impart tidbits of useful knowledge to their followers, but they still communicated by instilling fear rather than teaching joy or promulgating any real understanding of life. I joined some esoteric circles, with similar results. One heard a lot more about joy and happiness there, but the gurus themselves often didn’t follow their own teachings and were neither especially happy nor successful.

As I collected these tidbits of useful knowledge wherever life took me, I began to examine and aggregate them, piecing together a large-scale picture of the world. I was also starting to discover answers to a lot of the questions that bothered me. Initially, I worked only to advance my own understanding, but after attracting some attention and curiosity from acquaintances, I decided to write this book. I do not consider my beliefs to be one hundred percent accurate, and I certainly don’t fancy myself any kind of guru or prophet. Rather, I’m looking to share some personal thoughts in order to learn what other people think about them.

This text contains a fair amount of religious and esoteric terminology, which I used where scientific language proved inadequate. I consider myself an advocate of the scientific method, i.e. learning about the world using facts and logical reasoning. Nevertheless, I believe that there are some important aspects of our lives better described by the language of spirituality.

I will be the first to admit that the book is rather raw and unpolished, and that it might put some readers off with its categorical statements and peculiar concepts. Nevertheless, the thoughts relayed in it are the product of many years of personal experience and reflection, and I hope that they provide you with some fresh perspective on a few fundamental questions.

2. The meaning of life

2.1. The birth of the Universe: self-sufficiency as the primary Creative attribute.

One recent gray October morning, I was sitting in a Moscow Starbucks waiting for yet another pointless interview with yet another so-called successful manager, and I began to wonder just what I was doing there All around me, things were not working out, and projects were going sideways. The people around me rubbed me the wrong way, and the work was not agreeing with me. Suddenly, I had a vision of the birth of our Universe. Imagine the gray concrete morning and all the office drones around you disappearing, and there is nothing at all left, just empty vacuum at absolute zero. And now imagine Someone (or Something) becoming so overfull