These aren’t polished essays or tidy aphorisms. They’re scraps I’ve carried around this month—half-heard thoughts, borrowed lines, sudden recognitions—that refused to be forgotten. Zuihitsu literally means “following the brush,” and while my version is shorter and scrappier than the classical form, the impulse feels the same: to catch what drifts across the mind before it … Continue reading Zuihitsu, 2025-12
Tag: wisdom
Wisdom vs. Intelligence & The Shaping of Values
Read Paul Graham's essay: Is It Worth Being Wise? this morning. It occurs to me that I value wisdom more than intelligence. I love living in a time where genius has more opportunities to express itself, but I also recognize that I'm not a genius. In the end, while we, as a community of beings, … Continue reading Wisdom vs. Intelligence & The Shaping of Values
Wisdom is Truth that Lasts
"There is no need to know everything, to do everything, to see everything, to hear everything, to know everyone, to go everywhere. In fact, there is much truth in realizing that knowing less and doing less, and seeing less and hearing less, and so less all the way down the line, is perhaps the beginning … Continue reading Wisdom is Truth that Lasts
World Wisdom Map
"The World Wisdom Map is a unique project to document the life lessons and stories of people from each of the 195 countries in the world. This consciousness project combines visual, and wisdom anthropology that exists in the world and further sparks awareness about the diversity of lifestyles, as well as the coping mechanism that … Continue reading World Wisdom Map
Abdiel’s Party
"In my case, I found that my interest was most vividly caught by the meaning of the temptation-and-fall theme. Suppose that the prohibition on the knowledge of good and evil were an expression of jealous cruelty, and the gaining of such knowledge an act of virtue? Suppose the Fall should be celebrated and not deplored? … Continue reading Abdiel’s Party
Pace Yourself
Open Question: What does it mean to "pace yourself" in modern culture? Does it mean staying with something long enough, over time, to truly develop a relationship with the material and love it? "There’s a willingness, there’s a faith, there’s a very, very magical alchemy that happens when somebody looks at something with enormous love … Continue reading Pace Yourself
Not Everyone Makes It
Charlie Munger USC Law Commencement Speech
Open Questions – Gwern.net
"Why do humans, pets, and even lab animals of many species kept in controlled lab conditions on standardized diets appear to be increasingly obese over the 20th century? What could possibly explain all of them simultaneously becoming obese?" "Why does writing in the morning (anecdotally so far) seem to be so effective for writers, even … Continue reading Open Questions – Gwern.net
Against Ageism
"The day old age strikes, our lives appear comfortable, even privileged, but our hearts are numb with permanently thwarted desire, our throats choked with longing for things we will never have again, and our future, we are sure, is too bleak to contemplate. We stare in terror into the abyss and ask ourselves: Who am … Continue reading Against Ageism
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