Table of Contents
Staring into the Abyss
‘He who fights with monsters should be careful lest he thereby becomes a monster. And if thou gaze long into an abyss, the abyss will also gaze into thee” – Nietzsche
The Reasonable Person Adapts Himself Meaning
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 thought. This is how the world is structured. The economy does not reward irrational behavior,
The Paradox of the Social Animal
There is no denying that belonging to a group brings with it many useful skills and knowledge but being too enmeshed in a group prevents us from thinking clearly.
What Philosophers Have Been Doing
What Nietzsche is saying is that we all have impulses. These impulses are aimed at different things. We have an impulse to play, to conversate, to fight, to argue, to love, to entertain. Philosophers think that they are being impersonal and objective in their writing, but this is very far from the truth. They are simply reflecting the most dominant impulse within them.
A Summary of How to Become an Original Writer in 3 Days (Ludwig Borne)
In How to Become an Original Writer in Three Days, Ludwig Borne tells us about the importance of thinking for ourselves, and deliberately freeing ourselves from the influence of others – because that is the only way to create something truly great, and more importantly, it is what the world needs.
Power vs Meaning: The Trade-off of the 21st century?
In his book, Homo Deus, Harari discusses the trade-off between power and meaning, essentially saying that in the 21st century, we have allowed technology to move us away from the realm of meaning (religion) and into the realm of power (technology).
The Singularity
Artificial Intelligence will eventually be infinitely better than us at every conceivable task and would outsmart and out-think us. The doomsday prediction is that instead of controlling AI’s to advance our interests, AI would control us to advance theirs. This is analogous the Terminator series as well as a number of other pop culture references to this morbid, yet inevitable destiny.
The Myth of Sisyphus – What is the Worst Punishment?
And as Camus said, most people enjoy the climb to the top more than being at the top anyway, and so the challenge of pushing a rock up the hill could theoretically provide them with at least some pleasure. But Sisyphus was not “most people”, to him, the joy he had in life was not in pursuing something, but in manipulating others by using his cleverness and inventiveness.
The Road to Hell is Paved with Good Intentions
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 everyone that mattered, but still, the end result was not what you desired.
What do you Really Want?
Of course, there is nothing original about the question itself. But there was wisdom in the way Alan Watts addressed it. He talked about several concepts worth reflecting on.
It was a Musical Thing
In Sapiens, Harari mentions Buddhism a couple of times, as a means of escaping the absurd mission of our lives: the constant chase of positive feelings and repression of negative feelings.
The Science as Falsification Problem in Philosophy
Science as Falsification by Popper defines the way the modern mind approaches theories but there is something profound (pun intended) that is lacking in that approach.
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” while “leaders know how to do the right things…
When Yuval Harari Warned Daniel Kahneman of the Future
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.
Peterson’s Logos Argument, or Why Atheists Aren’t Atheists
Many months ago, “logos” was re-popularized by Jordan Peterson, who has used it as a weapon against atheists. To Peterson, “logos” proves that atheists only think they are atheists – they are just fooling themselves. In a debate he had with Susan Blackmore, Peterson said that “secular” societies are built on top of Christian foundations like true speech and the sovereignty of the individual.