our passage through life consists of an effort to get the maps in our heads to conform to the ground on which we walk.” “Much of our difficulty in developing and sustaining personal relationships resides in our failure to recognize, in ourselves as well as in others, those personality characteristics that make someone a poor…More
Monthly Archives: January 2022
Religion for Atheists: Alain de Botton
“it must be possible to remain a committed atheist and nevertheless find religions sporadically useful, interesting and consoling – and be curious as to the possibilities of importing certain of their ideas and practices into the secular realm.” “we invented religions to serve two central needs which continue to this day and which secular society…More
Get to the Point!: Joel Schwartzberg
A point is a contention you can propose, argue, defend, illustrate, and prove. A point makes clear its value and its purpose. And to maximize impact, a point should be sold, not just shared or described. A surefire way to know if you have a real point—and successfully create one—is to apply a simple three-step…More
Algorithms to Live By: Brian Christian
Look-Then-Leap Rule: You set a predetermined amount of time for “looking”—that is, exploring your options, gathering data—in which you categorically don’t choose anyone, no matter how impressive. After that point, you enter the “leap” phase, prepared to instantly commit to anyone who outshines the best applicant you saw in the look phase. 37% Rule: look…More
The Conquest of Happiness: Bertrand Russell
I enjoy life; I might almost say that with every year that passes I enjoy it more This is due partly to having discovered what were the things that I most desired and having gradually acquired many of these things Partly it is due to having successfully dismissed certain objects of desire – such as…More
Four Thousand Weeks: Oliver Burkeman
The spirit of the times is one of joyless urgency,” writes the essayist Marilynne Robinson If I could get enough work done, my subconscious had apparently concluded, I wouldn’t need to ask if it was all that healthy to be deriving so much of my sense of self-worth from work in the first place the…More
Michael Nketsiah 