society
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A catalog of emotions
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1 min read
We live with a catalog of emotions, whipsawing between highs and lows. Most of the undulation is due to poor internal weather. We are not neutral, pushed inside and outside by competing forces. One minute we’re a lover of rule-breakers with scrupulous indifference; the next, we’re just another lemming, a sheep jumping through hoops. We…
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Together as spiritual completeness
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2 min read
It is human desire to share. It is also human desire to compete. The two — cooperation and competition — bleed into each other to test human resolve. One excels in their particular field to consume another’s comparative advantage. As soon as those walls close down, trouble is lit. Every man for himself, absolute freedom,…
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Divided by tribes, sprinkled into individuals
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2 min read
Every mass system eventually morphs into tribes, balkanizing in the form of nation-states, denominations, political parties, and social media cliques. Those unproselytized, perhaps charged with individualism, eventually convert one way over the other. Even crypto enthusiasts suffer from waves of hyper-transmission. With high fives and pats on the back, bitcoin maximalists scream ‘up only’ to…
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The social variant
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1 min read
Nothing is understood in isolation – people make ideas boom or bust. Our orientation is social in nature. Most people dismiss new forms of thinking. They don’t want to wreck the status quo, doing everything they can to buck the fear of being uncomfortable. Unfortunately, we’re all too connected to prevent the spread. It’s all…
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Unentangled preferences
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1 min read
Unentangled from our preferences, we run free to drift back and forth between disparate thoughts. After all, that is free will, the ability to hop like frogs on lily pads between choices — even rejecting the one we want on purpose. The predetermined life is pretty dull, as any imagined utopia where patterns materialize to…
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Beyond logic, beyond greed
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1 min read
Beyond logic, stuck on wishful thinking, bias, and irrationality — it’s no wonder the world divides into tribes. The internet allows us to handpick the information we want and spit it back out to like-minded folks who amplify it. The curator — the finder and organizer of information — shares as much power as the…
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Don’t adopt other people’s anxiety
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1 min read
We rely on other people’s testimony. It’s no wonder, therefore, that their anxiety becomes ours. We then cognize every piece of information to fit our nervy narrative. Worries spread like viruses. And they provoke an unwarranted shock into mass health scares, money problems, and job pressures. Humans are a strange and contradictory animal who can…
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The script, the story
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1 min read
How many of us are just acting our way through life, adapting to different settings like chameleons? Situational elasticity lends its hand to the collaborative truth, that people inject each other with signaling serum. The slightest twang, the tinkle of dimples, the cleanest tucked-in shirt, belt, and Prada shoes – we try to demonstrate to…
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A mirror on information
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1 min read
Journalists focus more on catastrophes than progress. They’re hard-wired to follow tragedy than highlight the good. Bad news and sensationalism sell eyeballs. Good news is ephemeral, quickly consumed and forgotten. When an avalanche of information aligns with a consumption-based based society, all becomes a blur. Knocked unconscious, we assemble identities that exceed the brain’s three…
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The bullshit detector
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1 min read
You know it when you see it. Bullshit rings like a magic lantern, giving artificiality a spotlight. More people are susceptible to believing bullshit than ever. Politics is mostly bullshit, as is mass marketing. The irrational tries to take all the mystery out of life. When storytelling becomes manipulation, people lose their heads. Evil spreads…
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Why people deny the facts
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1 min read
Everyone gets it. That rush of blood to the head when something or someone reconfirms your beliefs. You just knew it! But how often is that perspective the result of wearing blinders? The partisan brain is real and nonsense. Say and hear anything enough and of course it’ll feel true. Such mimetic behavior even dupes…