If our time is a commodity that we exchange for biochemical impulses that we have as much chance resisting as a drug addict his cocaine, or an alcoholic his whiskey, then we need to think again about the real constraints that being imposed on us by technology. It’s not that the Buddhist appreciates his time … Read more
Sam Harris debated Scott Adams on his Waking Up podcast. They mostly discussed Trump, but they also went through a lot of the ideas that Adams writes about in his books, “How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big” and “Win Bigly”. Scott Adams is the author of the famous “Dilbert” comic. Before that he worked … Read more
An Actor’s Life for Me All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances, And one man in his time plays many parts – William Shakespeare In Disney’s Pinocchio, the song “An actor’s life for me” is sung by the fox, luring Pinocchio into … Read more
What are Myths? In The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Campbell shows us what the myths of the past have in common. He identifies an archetypal story structure that explains the patterns most great myths and folk stories follow. He describes the role of the archetypal characters within the story and what they symbolize. The … Read more
The Tricks of Sisyphus The myth of Sisyphus has become analogous to working futilely at an arduous task forever. But how are we to interpret to the punishment he received from the gods? Many have reached different conclusions of what the punishment of pushing a rock up a hill eternally means, and some are more … Read more
The Sam Harris Cookbook Example Ricky Gervais once appeared on Stephan Colbert’s show and had a casual debate about the existence of God. Colbert (a Catholic) asks Gervais (an atheist) how something could come from nothing. Gervais was momentarily stumped, and then referred to scientific facts for support – but Colbert pointed out that Gervais didn’t … Read more
The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, long I stood And looked down one as far as I could To where it bent in the undergrowth; Then took the other, as just as fair, And having perhaps … Read more
What is the Difference Between Intelligence and Wisdom? One of the great equalizers of life is: intelligence does not necessarily beget wisdom. In fact, the two are often incompatible, much to the dismay of the hyper-intellectual. In the business world, many are familiar with the dictum that “good managers know how to do things right” … Read more
We all need to make big decisions. It might involve our career or relationship or location or tweet. And usually – when we make these decisions – we do our best to think rationally. But what does it mean to think rationally? That’s not an easy question to answer. You might think that whatever … Read more
Reconciling our Irrational Beliefs with Happiness One of the central questions to life is: How can be happy? That’s not a straightforward question, of course. What does it mean to be happy? How do we reconcile our irrational beliefs with our desire to be happy? And what exactly is our definition of happiness? Dan Gilbert, … Read more