A Dialogue Unless you are terribly honest with yourself, you will not question the real reasons why you are avoiding something. But assuming you are someone who is honest, and there is something that you want to do, for example, starting a business or ending a relationship or making a lifestyle change but don’t, then … Read more
To know that there is a clear difference between intelligence and wisdom, one must simply ask themselves if one can exist without the other. Can you be intelligent without being wise? Can you be wise without being intelligent? The answer to both these questions is yes. Intelligence without wisdom is less clear to see. But … Read more
The Courage to Trust Others Don’t trust others because you’re naïve, trust them because you’re courageous. You should expect them to have the capacity to hurt you, but you should be willing to take a chance anyway. That is the foundation of society. Some people are too disagreeable, they refuse to be naïve about anything. … Read more
The Ying-Yang symbol has its roots in Taoism. If you look at the symbol, you will notice that the white half has a black circle inside of it, and the black half has a white circle inside of it. The philosophical connotation, according to Peterson, is that the world is divided into chaos and order, … Read more
To be proud of your insufficiencies is arrogant and foolish. Peterson recalls a conversation he had with a student who was a bad writer, in which the student asserts that she is not actually a bad writer, but that she has a unique style that is difficult to understand. Instead of graciously taking advice to … Read more
It’s something that for generations, has been constant. It’s a message. It’s in some of the most popular songs recorded. It’s what many religions discuss at length. It’s what psychologists and philosophers have been debating for centuries. It’s what the self-help industry tries to sell you at every moment they get the chance. What is … Read more
What is the point of philosophy? It is not to get rich (clearly). It is not about truth (how do you define truth anyway?), it is not about wielding power, or sharpening the axe, or impressing people, or making a difference. The point of philosophy is to escape. The personal dialogue you have with yourself … Read more
The Mind is an Excellent Servant, but a Terrible Master Robin Sharma The David Foster Wallace graduation speech comes to mind when I read this quote. The message is that your mind represents your automatic, default setting, your mind does whatever it is biologically wired to do, and part of this wiring requires to be … Read more
Pleasure and Rationality In trying to understand human nature more deeply, I have read what some philosophers and psychologists have had to say, to get a starting point. To understand what man is, it is first necessary to understand what he wants, and more crucially, what he does not want. One of the first ideas … Read more
On September 14, 2019, a drone hit two oil facilities in Aramco. The Houthis in Yemen claimed responsibility, proclaiming that the strike was revenge for the hostilities they are facing on their own soil, in a civil war against a Saudi backed government. The strikes cut Saudi Arabia’s oil production by half. I was reminded … Read more