The Mobile Lifestyle Project: Can you carry everything you need to live well?
Six months ago I was living in San Diego. I had been working at a tech company doing a programming internship in the research and development department for a project based on augmented reality. Things were going well and I was considering staying for a full-time job. Then I found out the company I was […]
Read more from the Simplicity category. If you would like to leave a comment, click here: 3 Comments. or stay up to date with this post via RSS from your site.
The Problem with Goals
Conventional wisdom tells us that we should strive to be goal-oriented, and to most of us this sounds like good advice. There are things we want and setting up goals will keep our efforts focused on achieving those things. It’s true that goals will help you focus your efforts and thus aid you in attaining […]
Read more from the How to Live category. If you would like to leave a comment, click here: 9 Comments. or stay up to date with this post via RSS from your site.
The Paradox of Hedonism
Human motivation is governed by two genetically-programmed features: the pleasure/pain mechanism and the illusion of ego-persistence. The pleasure/pain mechanism is here to be understood in the broad sense of the “pleasantness”, positive or negative, of present experience. The illusion of ego-persistence is the programmed assumption that we have to be concerned about the future experiences […]
Read more from the Positive Psychology category. If you would like to leave a comment, click here: 7 Comments. or stay up to date with this post via RSS from your site.
An Interview with Ayn Rand
The following interview is fictitious, but is based entirely on quotations by Ayn Rand herself (see citations at the end). To the best of my knowledge, none of the quotations are taken grossly out of context. cspice: Your philosophy of Objectivism is based on self-interest. Would you say then, that you are a type of […]
Read more from the Ethics category. If you would like to leave a comment, click here: 13 Comments. or stay up to date with this post via RSS from your site.
The Desperation Cycle
Many Eastern philosophies advocate the reduction of desire in order to prevent suffering. The logic goes that if you desire little, there will be much less to disappoint you, and this is true. If you care about nothing, not even your own life, then what could possibly upset you? But by the same token, what […]
Read more from the Positive Psychology category. If you would like to leave a comment, click here: 3 Comments. or stay up to date with this post via RSS from your site.
The Dilemma of Self-Revision
Our genes endowed us with a great power when they gave us an independent consciousness. Unlike probably any other species, we can use thought to change the program that we run during life. Other animals may be capable of some form of experience, but I think it is very unlikely that any non-human animal has […]
Read more from the Philosophy of Mind category. If you would like to leave a comment, click here: 3 Comments. or stay up to date with this post via RSS from your site.
The Psychology of Insecurity
Feelings of insecurity arise from a lack of control and confidence. When you have control of a situation, you aren’t so likely to get upset. If someone is giving you a hard time, you can just utilize your power to deal with it. But if you are relying on the cooperation of others in a […]
Read more from the Positive Psychology category. If you would like to leave a comment, click here: 10 Comments. or stay up to date with this post via RSS from your site.
Future Worship
Religion is usually defined by its promotion of belief in some supernatural power. But more fundamentally, we could define religion as a system of morals and beliefs that skews one’s ability to properly compute their life-quality maximization function. According to this definition, there is a subtle and insidious religion thriving in modern society that is […]
Read more from the How to Live category. If you would like to leave a comment, click here: 5 Comments. or stay up to date with this post via RSS from your site.
The Principle of Non-Arbitrary Distinction
Absolute principles do not contain arbitrary lines. Here, the word “absolute” means that the principle is based on objective reasoning rather than the personal prejudices of its creator. So we can see why this statement is true because if there was a line being drawn in the argument for an absolute principle, there would have […]
Read more from the Logic category. If you would like to leave a comment, click here: 3 Comments. or stay up to date with this post via RSS from your site.
Understanding Zen
Zen is a system of beliefs and practices deriving from Buddhism. It has two primary purposes. From Buddhism it inherits the goal of ending mental suffering through the refinement of thought patterns. In addition to this, Zen incorporates the goal of counteracting “oversocialization” with its own set of techniques. Oversocialization is a term borrowed from […]
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