to think or not to think, mans mind is his only tool for survival

THINKING

All thinking is a process of identification and integration. Man perceives a blob of color, by integrating the evidence of his sight and his touch, he learns to identify it as a solid object; he learns to identify the object as a table; he learns that the table is made of wood; he learns that the wood consist as of cells; that the cells consist of molecules, that the molecules consist of atoms. All through this process, the work of his mind consists of answers to a single question: What is it? His means to establish the truth of his answers is logic, and logic rests on the axiom that existence exists. Logic is the art of non-contradictory identification. A contradiction cannot exist. An atom is itself, and so is the universe; neither can contradict its own identity; nor can a part contradict the whole. No concept man forms is valid unless he integrates it without contradiction into the total sum of his knowledge. To arrive at a contradiction is to confess an error in one’s thinking; to maintain a contradiction is to abdicate one’s mind and to evict oneself from the realm of reality.

AYN RAND; ATLAS SHRUGGED

If devotion to truth is the hallmark of morality, then there is no greater, nobler more heroic form of devotion than the act of a man who assumes the responsibility of thinking.

AYN RAND (Ibid.)

Now that you know the meaning of the word “think” as I see it, it does not take place in the minds of people who work in the outdoor industry in my opinion.

The first report published about the products being shown contain the following: waterproof/breathable materials in jackets and footwear, polyester insulations and down insulating in quilt through constructions with weights of 60 grams (about 2 ounces) for winter jackets, wool socks, wool insulations, and knitted base layer garments generally all wool.

If these people were actually “thinking” about the history of products that were made for the past 40 years with all of these same materials that have not worked they would not be making them today. But when you do not think about what you are doing you repeat yourself.

All of these materials that they have adopted are contradictions to what they claim them to work for. They do not acknowledge their errors, and as a consequence have “abdicated their mind and to evict oneself from the realm of reality”.

These people just don’t get it because all of the materials that I refer too just do not function as they profess. You can sit with any one of them and demonstrate all of the flaws in each and every material and they will not accept the truth about these materials. My opinion is total lack of independent thought!!! The generation that they are a part of was never taught to think in the first place.

I note each day when I receive a list of job openings in the outdoor industry listed and see the same jobs listed over and over again, why; because nobody is applying, and why not; because they do not have the necessary knowledge to do the job. In some instances when I read what the applicant is supposed to know in order to be considered it is mind boggling. What it shows me is a simple truth the person looking for an applicant does not know what to ask for in the first place.

So the end result will continue to be the same non-functioning products being shown next year only the colors will be different.

So much for new products being shown at the OR show in 2018.