Life
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The gateway to light is the eye
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1 min read
A short-term realist, a long-term optimist. Can one hedge against fear and doubt while simultaneously pushing for a better and brighter future? Most of us struggle in bear markets when confidence ebbs into despair. We can only permit pertinacity. What keeps one going is the light at the end of the tunnel, connecting the slightest…
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Alan Watts: The Story of the Chinese Farmer
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2 min read
Some of Alan Watts’s most influential lessons and ideas emerged from lectures he gave at universities across the United States, including the old folktale of the Chinese farmer. The story, recorded and transcribed below (after the jump), is also part of a collection of lectures entitled Eastern Wisdom, Modern Life: Collected Talks: 1960-1969. The Story of…
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The unique shall inherit the Earth
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1 min read
There are three ways to stand out and be remembered: Be so good that they can’t ignore you. Be so interesting that they can’t ignore you. Be so unique that they can’t ignore you. Talent is usually enough, but everyone can take a great picture. Technology and the internet leveled the playing field. Grabbing attention…
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Upgrade your human operating system
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1 min read
There is no doubt that the mind changes as it ages. You’ll be a different person in your 20s, 30s, and so on. For some, brain deterioration is genetic. While you can’t medicate mental problems away, you can upgrade your internal software by widening your perception and controlling your emotions to so-called triggers. The human brain…
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The chemicals between us
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1 min read
We all want to experience pleasure all the time. But it’s utility is temporary, the dopamine hit comes and goes. Addiction is the attempt to make it last forever. Spinning the social media wheel, again and again, is a prime example of its superficiality. Happiness, on the other hand, “is long-term, additive and generous.” It’s…
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Anxiety is a thinking problem
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2 min read
Anxiety is a thinking problem. It is a presence in flux, stuck in gear between looking backward and looking forward simultaneously. To better cope with the onslaught of worry, you need stronger cognitive tools or algorithms to live by. You need some cognitive presets and habits to inculcate them. For example, a basic tenet of…
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Making for the micro
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1 min read
People always made art. Now, we just make it and share it in abundance. But all the noise makes it impossible for aspiring creators to stand out. On the flip side, the bell curve is widening from the masses to the niches. We can build an audience around sub-genres at scale for the first time…
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Procrastinators can be finishers
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2 min read
We are told to ship it; release it before it’s finished, get it out of our hands so we can get the feedback we need to iterate and perfect our product. It’s a grueling process that fires up the anxiety. Is this thing going to work or go out to the void? In his latest…
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Alan Watts on the law of reversed effort
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1 min read
“When you try to stay on the surface of the water, you sink; but when you try to sink, you float’ and that ‘insecurity is the result of trying to be secure.” Alan Watts on the ‘law of reversed effort’, also known as the ‘backwards law’ when doing what’s right make things wrong (as featured…
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Stem the tide
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1 min read
Automatons are soulless; they operate on voltage levels. However, humans can also be cruel, drugging the thinking out of their mind. Evil is infectious; it spreads like a fungus. The only way to beat a moral coward is to drain their morbid curiosity with a thoughtful mind. The accumulation of progressive effort stems the tide…
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How to make up your mind and decide
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2 min read
Decisions are multi-faceted. They can be manifested as desires, little bets about how you want things to go. After all, all believing is betting. However, you can also decide against your best wishes. No one wants to put a sick dog to sleep. Difficult decisions paralyze people’s judgment. “Sometimes it’s not what I want to do…