If you wanted to find the antidote to bullshit, look not further than the fine craftsman. Each product designed by the craftsman is as it should be. At no point does he relax his thoughtful self-discipline, even for parts of his work that aren’t immediately visible. But he does not do this to impress others. … Read more
Bullshit is not a recent invention. It is difficult to know exactly, when the first instances of it were recorded, but it is safe to say that the phenomenon of bullshit predates the internet by many many years. In The Red Queen (summary), Ridley details the many ways animals deceive each other. The tricks of … Read more
Naked Lunch Title: Naked Lunch Author(s): William S. Burroughs First Published: 1959 The reader follows the narration of junkie William Lee, who takes on various aliases, from the U.S. to Mexico, eventually to Tangier and the dreamlike Interzone. The Biology of Desire Title: The Biology of Desire: Why Addiction Is Not a Disease Author(s): Marc … Read more
Atomic Habits by James Clear is a concise guide to breaking bad habits and implementing new ones. It is essentially a compilation of psychological tricks that you can use to help you in your fight against yourself. How to create a good habit? 1. Make It Obvious Fill out the Habits Scorecard. Write down your current … Read more
In The 37 Percent Rule, the basic idea is that you have a series of candidates you are interviewing for the role of secretary (this thought experiment originated in the 1950s). You interview each candidate one by one and must decide on the spot if you will stop your search there and hire the candidate. … Read more
There have been multiple articles warning about the dangers of tech addiction, from publications like The Washington Post and The Atlantic, that note that smartphone addiction has resulted in higher rates of depression and suicide among teenagers. There have also been alarming behavioral shifts. Children and teenagers these days seem to be less interested in … Read more
Tulip Mania is known as a primary example of a bubble. The Beginning of Tulip Mania It all started in Holland, in the seventeenth century. Years before (in 1593), a botany professor from Vienna brought to Leyden, a city in the Dutch province of South Holland, some unusual plants from Turkey. The Dutch were fascinated … Read more
The problem with deciding or cutting off, is that it is not sensitive enough to the requirements of trial and error. If there was a list of things you had to do, and some of which, you perceived as more or less important than others, then you can, in an orderly way, rank each item … Read more
Truth is ever to be found in simplicity, and not in the multiplicity and confusion of things – Isaac Newton One book that I have read, by Baudrillard, fits this category. The entire book, and his entire line of thought (which include multiple books) can be summarized in a few sentences. Essentially, we create representations … Read more
One of the most important physicists who ever lived, Isaac Newton, told us, that “Truth is ever to be found in simplicity, and not in the multiplicity and confusion of things.” After him, Albert Einstein wrote, “Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler.” Physics is a very complicated subject. Newton and Einstein are … Read more