Here’s your weekly dose of timeless ideas to sharpen your mind, make smarter decisions, and live better.
Quotes
I.
I was never ruined but twice: once when I lost a lawsuit, and once when I won one.
― Voltaire
II.
If you don’t get everything you want, think of the things you don’t get that you don’t want.
― Oscar Wilde
III.
The reasonable man adapts himself to the world around him; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.
― George Bernard Shaw
Ideas
I.
Perhaps a more uncomfortable emotion is at the source—such as envy or paranoia. You need to look at this square in the eye. Dig below any trigger points to see where they started. For these purposes, it might be wise to use a journal in which you record your self-assessments with ruthless objectivity. Your greatest danger here is your ego and how it makes you unconsciously maintain illusions about yourself. These may be comforting in the moment, but in the long run they make you defensive and unable to learn or progress.
Robert Greene in The Laws of Human Nature
II.
I discovered that it is much more effective to act like a nice guy and be “reasonable” if you prove willing to go beyond just verbiage. You can afford to be compassionate, lax, and courteous if, once in a while, when it is least expected of you, but completely justified, you sue someone, or savage an enemy, just to show that you can walk the walk.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb in The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable
III.
Built into the very structure of the egoic self is a need to oppose, resist, and exclude to maintain the sense of separateness on which its continued survival depends. So there is “me” against the “other,” “us” against “them.” The ego needs to be in conflict with something or someone. That explains why you are looking for peace and joy and love but cannot tolerate them for very long. You say you want happiness but are addicted to your unhappiness. Your unhappiness ultimately arises not from the circumstances of your life but from the conditioning of your mind.
Eckhart Tolle in Stillness Speaks
Articles Worth Reading
I.
T Ryan Byerly | Psyche
We need others’ help to figure out what and how to think. Many issues are just too complex for us to tackle on our own. They’re often the subject of bewildering and vociferous debate, and it’s not always easy to know whom to turn to as a guide. We have to make difficult decisions about who should influence our thinking. Given these circumstances, it helps to have an idea of the kind of person we should allow to aid our deliberations. That’s where philosophy comes in handy, as it helps us to establish a set of heuristics for whom to trust with our intellectual lives.
II.
Noelle Faulkner | The Guardian
We’re experts at masking symptoms. We form habits by mirroring the social behaviours of those around us. You think imposter syndrome sucks? Try keeping it together when your brain is a wind-up puppy doing backflips while singing the chorus of Ricky Martin’s The Cup of Life – for no apparent reason. And don’t ask what the obstacles involved in dating or starting new relationships might be! Burnout is what happens when the mask slips. Your entire world comes crashing down, and you don’t have the executive function to figure out which way is up.
III.
Confessions of a Failed Self-Help Guru
Michelle Goodman | Narratively
With coachology comes great responsibility. Responsibility to offer advice you know works, preferably advice you’ve put to the test yourself. Responsibility to rise above bullshit artistry. Responsibility to not try to solve people’s problems you are in no way equipped to fix. Advising others on how to steer their professional lives and livelihood was a job I no longer wanted. This wasn’t just a crisis of skills or cash flow; it was a crisis of conscience.