Pinker starts with pointing a hypocrisy that exists across all religions, but in particular, Christianity. Modern day Christians pay lip service to the Bible as their moral guide, but their morality really comes from other sources. The saints that are celebrated in Christianity all died in gruesome ways. They went through extreme forms of torture … Read more
“Hard times create strong men, strong men create good times, good times create weak men, and weak men create hard times.” The quote is from a post-apocalyptic novel called “Those Who Remain” by the author G. Michael Hopf. One could be tempted to say that things must be this way – it is the circle of life. If such a cycle did not … Read more
In simple situations, a physical object will follow the path of least resistance, among a set of alternative paths. The way in which water flows is an example. A similar idea is the “principle of least effort” which applies to human behavior.
The Secret of Long Life Lead a good life. Two things bring life speedily to an end: folly and immorality. Some lose their life because they have not the intelligence to keep it, others because they have not the will. Just as virtue is its own reward, so is vice its own punishment. He who … Read more
In Acting or Refraining, weigh your Luck. More depends on that than on noticing your temperament. If he is a fool who at forty applies to Hippocrates for health, still more is he onewho then first applies to Seneca for wisdom. It is a great piece of skill to know how to guide yourluck even … Read more
It is typical, that in times of political and economic uncertainty, for each person to imagine themselves a head of state, and to devote significant energy into trying to conceive of alternate systems of governance, a new social contract, or a better economic system. Without the constant renewing and vitalizing supply of progressive thinking and … Read more
To know yourself and to know others is useful because you will be better able to conduct yourself in the world. Without error, you don’t learn. But to learn, you have to undergo the painful experience of destroying previous conceptualizations of the world. Error is unpleasant but necessary. If you don’t err, and you get … Read more
Andrew Carnegie once said, “As I get older, I pay less attention to what men say, I watch what they do.” Today, people use a shorter version of it. If you want to know about the intentions of others, don’t listen to their words, but pay attention to their actions. Authors such as Jordan Peterson … Read more
Let’s Get Digital is a book about digital publishing, it includes good information about the online publishing industry, and outlines some way an aspiring novelist can market their content. Royalties How much do writers make in traditional publishing? Not much. Below is the distribution of revenues by most large publishers. $25 Hardback $8 Paperback Trade-Published … Read more
In The Longevity Diet, Longo recommends we use multiple sources of information when going on a diet, rather than to trust the latest fads. There are hundreds of theories of how and why we age. Many are partially true and overlap. One, the popular free radical theory of aging proposes that oxygen and other reactive … Read more