Chapter 2: The Anthropocene (Homo Deus)
The Garden of Eden In the Garden of Eden myth, humans are punished for their curiosity and wish to gain knowledge. God expels them from paradise. But in the myth about Newton and the apple, nobody berates the…
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Psychology
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Myth 13: Individuals Commonly Repress the Memories of Traumatic Experiences (50 Great Myths of Popular Psychology)
Many people believe that traumas are the source of repressed memories. This idea is portrayed in movies like The Butterfly Effect* (2004) and Batman Returns (1995).
Rule 12: We are Powerful (Brain Rules)
Babies are born with a deep desire to explore the world around them. It is a drive in the same way that hunger, thirst, and sex are drives. They are a model of how we learn – not by passively existing in their…
Habit 5: Seek First to Understand, then to be Understood (The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People)
Many people are well-trained to speak and to write well, but few are trained in the art of listening. Covey tells us that empathetic listening is something that is seldom practiced and because of this, a barrier is…
Understanding Sublimation
What is Sublimation? We all have impulses to do socially inappropriate things, we have sexual fantasies, that if we manifest in public, would be less than ideal. A solution to this plight of ours comes through…
Jane McGonigal (Tools of Titans)
Jane is author of the book: [Reality Is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World](https://www.amazon.
Practice Risk Taking, not Risk Management
Nassim Taleb gave a brief interview on risk and made some good points. I summarize them below.
The Righteous Mind Summary (7/10)
The Righteous Mind by Jonathan Haidt is a book about the psychology of morality. Haidt argues that humans are intuitively moral, and that our moral judgments are based on gut feelings rather than reason.
Is there Wisdom in “The Paradox of Choice”?
The Paradox of Choice* Barry came up with the brilliant idea to create flavors that matched a lot of different people’s tastes. He created forty-five varieties of tomato sauce and visited several cities to test them out.
Myth 6: Playing Mozart’s Music to Infants Boosts Their Intelligence (Great Myths of Popular Psychology)
Many people are familiar with the idea that getting babies to listen to Mozart will turn them into geniuses. This news was also reported in China in 2001. But how did it start? A study in the early 90’s showed that…
The Undiscovered Self Summary (8/10)
The Undiscovered Self is a book that is written in a time of apocalyptic, dystopic visions, the iron curtain and the great division of the East and the West. Jung opens with a question.
Chapter 1: The Ottoman Empire (An Introduction to Middle East Politics)
Chapter 1: The Ottoman Empire and its Legacy in the Middle East The Middle East is the birthplace of three monotheistic faiths of Judaism (2000 BCE), Christianity (1st Century AD), and Islam (7th century CE). The…