"It matters a lot who you surround yourself with. If you're surrounded by conventional-minded people, it will constrain which ideas you can express, and that in turn will constrain which ideas you have. But if you surround yourself with independent-minded people, you'll have the opposite experience: hearing other people say surprising things will encourage you … Continue reading How to Think For Yourself
Tag: life lessons
How Many Summers Are Left?
"I ask Grant Heslov about his friend's decision to step back from acting, to direct and otherwise live his life. 'This is how he put it to me when I was trying to do something during the summer recently,' Heslov says by way of an explanation. He says Clooney proposed an exercise. 'Let's sit down … Continue reading How Many Summers Are Left?
Apocalypse is the Suburb of Utopia
The land of the possible has many paths, and we can know only one. Everything's stochastic and impermanent. Our lives are packed with luggage, the vast majority of which would be best left at the side of the road. Utopia is a place with kind and reasonable people using coalition-building, science and determination to solve … Continue reading Apocalypse is the Suburb of Utopia
Zuihitsu: 2020-06-16 to 2020-08-08
You can’t learn anything with your mouth open.Is it complex or merely complicated?Use the right tool and the tool will do the work.Always respect the task.It’s easy to make things difficult. It’s difficult to make things easy.Don’t put it down, put it away. Think fast and talk slow. Listen, analyze, evaluate, prepare a fallback strategy, then … Continue reading Zuihitsu: 2020-06-16 to 2020-08-08
Coffin, Cage or Cocoon?
Imagine being put in a box. Is it a small prison cell? Is it so small that you cannot move, a torture technique out of the middle ages or some 9/11 black site of torture? Imagine dying, and being reborn in the same box. Imagine a life that is a dying and an awakening and … Continue reading Coffin, Cage or Cocoon?
Oliver Burkeman’s Last Column: The Eight Secrets to a (Fairly) Fulfilled Life
There will always be too much to do – and this realisation is liberating.When stumped by a life choice, choose “enlargement” over happiness.The capacity to tolerate minor discomfort is a superpower. The advice you don’t want to hear is usually the advice you need.The future will never provide the reassurance you seek from it.The solution to imposter … Continue reading Oliver Burkeman’s Last Column: The Eight Secrets to a (Fairly) Fulfilled Life
Sweet Enough
"It’s not how much you have. It’s the difference between what you have and what you spend. If you have more than you spend, you’re rich. If you spend more than you have, you’re not. If you live cheaply, it’s easy to be free."—Derek Sivers, "How I got rich on the other hand." sive.rs. October … Continue reading Sweet Enough
Why Does DARPA Work?
"DARPA PMs need to think for themselves, be curious, and have low ego. Why does this matter? When you are surrounded by smart, opinionated people the easy option is to either 100% accept what they’re saying because it’s eloquent and well-thought through or reject it outright because it sounds crazy or goes against your priors. Thinking … Continue reading Why Does DARPA Work?
Some People Are Toxic, Avoid Them
"You can only work for people you like......Some people are toxic avoid them. This is a subtext [to working for people you like]. There was in the sixties a man named Fritz Perls who was a gestalt therapist. gestalt therapy derives from art history, it proposes you must understand the ‘whole’ before you can understand … Continue reading Some People Are Toxic, Avoid Them
Zuihitsu: 2017-01-01 to 2020-06-15
I've been collecting little ideas and sayings for the last few years. It's turned into a fairly large list. I've wanted to incorporate them into a series of essays on various topics, but it is an unruly mass of ideas. However, today, I was reading Warren Ellis' newsletter that referred to a blog post on … Continue reading Zuihitsu: 2017-01-01 to 2020-06-15
cafebedouin.org 