The Cynical Guru’s mission is to help people by explaining how Cynical Theory, Science, Logic, and Common Sense helps individuals survive and prosper in the Cynical Age. The Cynical Guru (TCG) is Gary Bozek’s alter ego and an evolutionary step as a writer.

History

You are your history.
- Gary Bozek (1999)

Everything that has happened to you in your PAST contributes to the person you are TODAY.

You are the accumulation of all the positive and negative traumas you’ve had throughout your life. Who you are today is a result of all the experiences you’ve had.

A self-aware individual recognizes that they are not the same person as a year ago. A truly self-aware individual also recognizes the significant events that have shaped their personality.

Self-recognition is the key to growth as an individual.

Overcoming our baggage can only transpire with the awareness of the profound influence past events had on our current personality. The weight of baggage varies by individual. Our capacity to carry, manage, and overcome baggage is directly proportional to the capability to face them directly.

Evolution

I have had a complicated history, so I am a complicated person.

There are two personalities involved in my story.

First, there is me as a person. Second, there is my alter ego, The Cynical Guru.

Gary Bozek

My primary personality traits are:
- Thinker
- Learner
- Experimenter
- Communicator

A significant part of my history is based on my personal and professional experiences as a knowledge worker. I worked for decades in the Information Technology (IT) industry.

Yeah, I’m a nerd/geek!!!

My working experiences meshed well with my personality (or overemphasized and strengthened the nerdier aspects).

I found immense joy in my work.

If you aren’t employed in the IT industry, you probably have an incorrect understanding of what software developers, testers, or quality control engineers do. You may not be aware of the many other roles such as team leads, managers, business analysts, database analysts, or project managers involved.

In my career, I’ve done it all (or any role that I haven’t performed, I understand well).

You may think that these jobs consist of doing nerdy technical things. There are certain aspects of the job where that is true.

But whenever I was asked to explain what I did, my response was, “I solve problems.”

That may seem simple and trite, but it was the underlying driver of everything I did. Technical problems, business problems, personnel problems, communications problems, problems of every shape and size. Every single day, I faced new problems.

I loved the challenge because it meshed with my key personality traits. Solving problems requires thinking, learning, experimenting, and communicating. I utilized problem-solving skills daily and honed my ability to see problems others couldn’t.

You may still think IT work is a technical pursuit, but it’s a people game.

Even though we may manifest solutions through technical implementations, people are involved everywhere - individuals at every level of an organization, with different roles, are involved. They all contribute to the final solution.

This led to an observation:

Everything is easy if it weren’t for people.
- Gary Bozek (1985)

In the 1990s I started to observe, analyze, and quantify behavior and human nature. Cynical Theory was the result.

Over the years, I tested and refined the axioms, but they have stood the test of time.

I had an obligation to share my observations with the world.

I found Medium and Substack in 2021. I followed conventional recommendations — I wrote to find my voice.

I FAILED!

I was not happy with the results — I had too many topics I was trying to cover. I failed to communicate in a satisfying style.

I had to step back and do some THINKING. I had to get clarity on specific topics to cover and my writing approach.

I returned to Medium in early 2023 with one goal: to reach 100 followers and prove that I could provide value to readers.

I SUCCEEDED!

I also found my voice and writing style.

The Cynical Guru

My alter ego, TCG, is focused on education based on Cynical Theory, Science, Logic, and Common Sense.

But I could see some of the problems with Medium (yeah, I can’t help myself). The platform was great for “readers,” but Medium is not a learning platform.

Since my goal was to teach, I had to step back and assess how to proceed.

I had to find a way to complement Medium.

The main challenge to teaching is setting the curriculum, that is, the order material is presented.

When teaching, I must ensure the student has the foundation to understand the concepts. Then, more and more complex topics can be added. A specific presentation order is required to provide an optimum learning experience.

Medium doesn’t provide facilities to do that well; it can be faked, to an extent, but the platform itself doesn’t support what I want to accomplish.

For example, I’ve used the concept of a “series,” where articles are linked together serially and read in a particular order. However, I can’t control Medium dropping a random article out of a series into someone’s feed (odds are that it won’t be the first article in the series).

That is a problem…

As a professional problem-solver, I applied Cynical Methodology to determine the requirements, implementation options, pros/cons, and the best solution.

The main requirement was to address the two types of audiences that I have:

1. Readers — Medium subscribers who are interested in my writing can use the existing Follower process to be notified whenever I publish.
2. Learners — who want to learn specific concepts or topics (whether they are Medium subscribers or not) require a curriculum to guide their education.

Obviously, I needed to create a learning platform that could supplement Medium.

My implementation, Gary Bozek ~ The Cynical Guru, transitioned into the beta testing phase on April 30th, 2024.

I invite you to visit and provide feedback on my journey to help people conquer the Cynical World.

My Promise

Whether you read my articles on Medium or GaryBozek.com, or whether you read for entertainment or education, I present a unique, insightful perspective on the Cynical World based on Cynical Theory, Science, Logic, and Common Sense.

Aside: A more personal and intimate history can be found in my previous About Me.