Grand Models Our mental models are the real space we occupy. We can live in the exact same geographical location but are separated apart by endless oceans when it comes to how we perceive the world. To be able to function properly, we need to update our mental models regularly by responding to unexpected changes. … Read more
“I care not so much what I am to others as what I am to myself.” – Michel De Montaigne Self-Determination Theory When something is intrinsically motivating, you don’t care about the external reward. If you intrinsically enjoy playing music, you will do so even if you are not paid to and there is no … Read more
What Stops You From Doing What Matters Most? Incomplete Advice There’s a book about entrepreneurship called “Millionaire Fastlane”. Mind the corny title, it’s actually a good book packed with a lot of insights about what’s required to become successful and sobering realizations about how society is set up, and how most people aren’t … Read more
The most painful death is the ego death. It requires you to take stock of who you are and what you believe in and make a conscious effort to destroy the fundamental constructs of your mental models about the world. But what is the ego? Unlike the Freudian definition – which situated the ego as … Read more
Character to Personality “We are social creatures” – true, but what happens when we care too much about what people think? In her book Quiet, Susan Cain describes how the US moved from being a character culture to a personality culture. Qualities such as honor, hard work, and loyalty were common ideals, but eventually were … Read more
‘He who fights with monsters should be careful lest he thereby becomes a monster. And if thou gaze long into an abyss, the abyss will also gaze into thee” – Nietzsche An archetypal truth is like a law of nature in that it describes a pattern that eternally repeats. It is hardly wise to classify … Read more
“Time is more valuable than money. You can get more money, but you cannot get more time” – Jim Rohn As one stage in life ends and another begins, you will think about how fleeting time is. It will occur to you that there are things you could have done, that will have made the present … Read more
Chaos is defined as the unknown, the dangerous, and the unexpected. Jordan Peterson talks about chaos as the central theme of the hero’s journey. The hero, trying to restore order and safety to the world, ventures out into the chaotic abyss and encounters dangers and challenges. Maneuvering through the maze of chaos is the fundamental … Read more
The Singularity is Near I recently watched “Transcendent Man”. It was entertaining as well as thought-provoking. The documentary forced me to appreciate the complexity of the world we live in, and how we can easily develop systems that go out of our control. Some people, like Sam Harris, have gone on to say that it’s the … Read more
The Problem with Voting “The animals listened first to Napoleon, then to Snowball, and could not make up their minds which was right; indeed, they always found themselves in agreement with the one who was speaking at the moment.” Animal Farm, George Orwell In a friendly conversation with a stranger at a bar, it occurred … Read more