Psychology
The Narcissistic Personality of Our Time: Narcissus spent hours staring at his reflection until he turned into a flower, or so the Greek myth goes. Today, we think of narcissus as the man who is too interested in how they look, are entitled, admire themselves too much, lack empathy, and have an excessive need for admiration.
Between Pleasure and Pain: The Story of the Sacrificial Animal: In trying to understand human nature more deeply, I have read what the philosophers and psychologists of the past have had to say, to at least get a starting point.
The Psychology of Joker: Joker touches on key psychological themes that relate to Jung, Freud, Nietzsche, and Dostoevsky.
What the Story of David and Goliath Tells us About Introverts and Extroverts: An epic fight took place between David and Goliath that would decide victory for their respective armies – the Israelites and the Philistines.
A Psychology of Work: Work is the source of anxiety, pain, exhaustion, and stress – yet without work, we would lose our sanity and ability to sustain ourselves.
Remembering, Experiencing , and the History of Happiness: Alexander the Great went to visit Diogenes of Sinope, and promised to grant him whatever wish the philosopher desired, to which Diogenes replied, “Stand out of my light.”
The Narrative Fallacy, Confirmation Bias, and Being a Rebel: “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
The Hard Problem of Psychology: To what extent can experiments in a laboratory inform us about the human mind? The replication crisis in the social sciences suggest the answer is “to some extent” but not much more.
The Psychology of Debate: Debates can be illuminating, or they can be a waste of time.
Philosophy
The Revival of Stoicism: Ancient Greek philosophy was far from homogeneous. There were many competing schools of thought, and they all saw the world in fundamentally different ways.
Hunting Scapegoats: “The search for a scapegoat is the easiest of all hunting expeditions.” Dwight D. Eisenhower
What Philosophers Have Been Doing: 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.
Power vs Meaning: The Trade-off of the 21st century?: 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).
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 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).
The Doer vs The Thinker: There are many ways of categorizing people according to their personalities, but a simple and effective one is into doers vs thinkers.
How Ergodicity is Informed by Hegel: You cannot say that inequality in a country is high because at this point in time, a minority of people own the vast amount of resources. But rather, you must take into consideration what happens over time.
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.
The Difference Between Intelligence and Wisdom: One of the great equalizers of life is: intelligence does not necessarily beget wisdom.
The Singularity: Artificial Intelligence will eventually be infinitely better than us at every conceivable task and would outsmart and out-think us.
Don’t Try: Charles Bukowski, today known as a celebrated author, found success only in his fifties. In his twenties, he wrote hundreds of short stories. Two of these were published, both of which barely sold any copies.
Business
The Best Articles on Entrepreneurship: “We will have to learn to develop ourselves. We will have to place ourselves where we can make the greatest contribution. And we will have to stay mentally alert and engaged during a 50-year working life, which means knowing how and when to change the work we do.” – Peter Drucker
Should You Start a Business?: “True freedom is impossible without a mind made free by discipline” – Alfred Adler
The Passion Debate: “Don’t follow your passions, follow your effort. It will lead you to your passions and to success, however you define it.” – Mark Cuban