I first read the 48 Laws of Power, and since then, I have read the other five books that he wrote and have summarized them. Understanding Greene The reason why I enjoy his work is because they are written in a simple way, and while there is some degree of pretension, his outlook on human … Read more
The Psychology of Joker Joker, starring Joaquin Phoenix as Arthur Fleck, provides the backdrop for the life of the famous Batman villain. The movie touches on key psychological themes that relate to Jung, Freud, Nietzsche, and Dostoevsky. Arthur has a problem; he sometimes loses control of himself, and bursts into fits of laughter. While working … Read more
Sam Harris and Jordan Peterson have engaged in a series of debates that included Bret Weinstein and Douglas Murray as moderators, in addition to two podcasts. One in which they famously debated the nature of truth for over two hours. London , Vancouver, Dublin The Steelman Jordan Peterson There is beauty, art and poetry that goes … Read more
To what extent can experiments in a laboratory inform us about the human mind? The replication crisis in the social sciences suggest the answer is “to some extent” but not much more. Brian Nosek estimated the reproducibility of 100 studies in psychological science from three high-ranking psychology journals.[40] Overall, 36% of the replications yielded significant findings (p value … Read more
“The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man.” George Bernard Shaw This quote leaves a powerful impression on people, because it is very counter-intuitive. Progress, if it is at all possible, we are taught, can only come from rational … Read more
Nassim Taleb’s Ergodicity is the idea that you cannot judge the egalitarianism of a system based on a static representation. You cannot say that inequality in a country is high because at this point in time, a minority of people own the vast amount of resources. But rather, you must take into consideration what happens … Read more
Background Freud is the author of several influential books including Civilization and its Discontents and Totem &Taboo. But he was a medical doctor, not a psychologist. This explains the controversy around his ideas. But he was the first to systematically study the unconscious. His ideas led to the Neo-Freudians (Jung, Horney, Adler, Erikson). id, ego, … Read more
The Trade-off of the 21st Century “But I don’t want comfort. I want God, I want poetry, I want real danger, I want freedom, I want goodness. I want sin.” Brave New World, Aldous Huxley In his book, Homo Deus, Harari discusses the trade-off between power and meaning, essentially saying that in the 21st century, … Read more
In Beijing, a debate took place between billionaires Jack Ma and Elon Musk. There was no moderator, it was just two unrestrained egos dueling. Some moments were awkward, almost comedic, but inadvertently so. The debate was about the future of jobs and life: what skills are going to be needed, and what we should be … Read more
The earliest instance of this quote is found in Virgil‘s Aeneid: “facilis descensus Averno” (the descent to hell is easy). Fundamentally, it is a quote about inadvertent error – consider cases in which you acted with good intent, but found yourself opposing people in your struggle, or think of times in which you had the backing of … Read more