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
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
The founder of Amazon, Jeff Bezos, once came up with a heuristic to make decisions called The Regret Minimization Framework – the idea is to project yourself into the future and look back on your decision from that perspective, to know what you should do. After Bezos popularized this idea, many writers have used it … Read more
The simulacrum is never that which conceals the truth–it is the truth which conceals that there is none. The simulacrum is true. Ecclesiastes In a world increasingly mediated by technology and awash in data, the notion of “reality” seems ever more elusive. Jean Baudrillard, the French philosopher and cultural theorist, brought this paradox into sharp … Read more
The idea of the superorganism by Howard Bloom, answers the question posed at the end of this article: Do nations embody the same psychological characteristics as individual human beings do? According to Bloom, every nation is a superorganism, a cluster of billions of cells, that attempts to gain power, whenever an opportunity presents itself. And … Read more
What is the root of conflict? For background, see: Girard’s Mimetic Theory: The Origin of Conflict Hegel’s The First Man and The Battle for Pure Prestige. Sigmund Freud thought that all human goals are manifestations of two opposing drives: Eros and Thanatos. He did not think these drives had a progressive character that tended to … Read more
Man is a social animal, directed by others, but his sociability does not lead him into a peaceful civil society, because at the root of sociability is conflict. In trying to unmask the root of conflict and desire, I have drawn from the ideas of Rene Girard, Hegel, and Fukuyama. See “Mimetic Theory: The Origin … Read more
The problem of self-discipline concerns each person, no matter what their beliefs or background. There is no need to expand on why self-discipline is important. Naturally, many approaches to practicing it have developed with time, each with its own ideological slant. Throughout history, different types of individuals have emerged, each a product of their own time. First, … Read more