my thoughts on anything related to philosophy.
Knowledge is not understanding. We are better at inventing tools than understanding how to use them wisely. Globalization, genetic engineering, nuclear technology, artificial intelligence, machine learning are advancements that are not only proof of the greatness of the human intellect, but its capacity for self-destruction. Wise people cannot be sufficiently educated and educated people cannot … Read more
Your time is finite, and it does not care about how you choose to spend it, or which attitude you choose to have towards it. This leads to the paradoxical state you find yourself in. Despite how important your attitude towards time is in shaping your life, you rarely recognize it. Society has conditioned you … Read more
A meme is a collection of ideas that spreads through people. But it does not spread indiscriminately, it relies on skillful narration and delivery on the part of the person propagating it. A talented orator and a highly connected medium are the perfect vehicles for a meme to survive. A successful meme is invariably copied and transferred … Read more
Alfred Adler was an Austrian psychologist, famous for discovering the “inferiority/superiority complex” and the effect of birth order on personality. But most importantly, Adler differed from his contemporaries, Freud, and Jung, by focusing on the present rather than on the past. Adler’s idea was that the past did not determine an individual’s destiny, there was … Read more
“We greatly overestimate what we can do in one year. But we greatly underestimate what is possible for us in five years.” Peter Drucker It is not necessary to wait for five years before seeing the truth of this idea. We tend to overestimate what we can do in a short amount of time, and underestimate … Read more
Forget the saying, ‘the mind is a terrible master but a great servant.’ The mind can be a terrible master and a terrible servant. Not only does it not know what it wants, but it is bad at doing what it does want. If you have ever struggled with breaking an old habit, or building … Read more
In the West, there has been a movement towards a society that is orderly and rational. Historically, the roots of this movement can be traced to the Enlightenment, when a fear of human intuition, emotion, and superstition led to a hyper-rational ethic that persists till this day. But this ethic can be a barrier towards … Read more
Chess grand masters win because they don’t make a mistake. Poker players win because they don’t lose their stack. Investors get rich because they don’t go broke when others do. Athletes become stars because they don’t get injured. It is wiser to follow advice that warns you of what not to do rather than tells … Read more
In a memorable graduation speech, the writer David Foster Wallace explained the real purpose of a liberal arts education. It is not to download literary and historical data into your brain, but to teach you something much more fundamental: to give you the power to choose what you want to think about at every moment. … Read more
“Some things are in our control and others not. Things in our control are opinion, pursuit, desire, aversion, and, in a word, whatever are our own actions. Things not in our control are body, property, reputation, command, and, in one word, whatever are not our actions.” Epictetus These words by the Stoic philosopher Epictetus closely resemble the Serenity Prayer from … Read more