RELATIONSHIP HACKS:<\/p>\n
1: It is remarkably difficult to have an unproductive argument while you’re walking together, and\/or holding hands.\u00a0(I think it subconsciously primes you to remember that you’re on the same team.)<\/p>\n
2: Talk in the third person, pretend to be a friend. It’s very therapeutic and allows you to clear a lot of misunderstandings.<\/p>\n
INTELLIGENT DISSENT<\/p>\n
Find more pleasure in intelligent dissent than in passive agreement, for, if you value intelligence as you should, the former implies a deeper agreement than the latter.
\n– Bertrand Russell<\/p>\n
MASSIVE BEAST<\/p>\n
It’s kinda astounding to watch how when The Rock or Lady Gaga posts something on Facebook and you see the Likes and Shares and Comments catapult into the hundreds and thousands within seconds… reminds you that we’re all part of this massive beast of Humanity.<\/p>\n
BOOKS NOT DEAD<\/p>\n
\u201cFor books are not absolutely dead things, but do contain a potency of life in them to be as active as that soul was whose progeny they are; nay, they do preserve as in a vial the purest efficacy and extraction of that living intellect that bred them.\u201d
\n\u2014 John Milton<\/p>\n
WHERE’S THE VISION?<\/p>\n
While our leaders built a system that was exceptional at filling buckets, they themselves must have been internally driven. They were passionate about what they were doing.<\/p>\n
After all, they were educated and accomplished- they could have just left Singapore for greener pastures elsewhere.<\/p>\n
But they chose to stay and make something of this place. Why? The only explanation I can think of is passion. Vision, too.<\/p>\n
Both of which our education system systematically weeds out. What is school for? No, what is it\u00a0really<\/em> for?<\/p>\n GETTING OUT OF MARRIAGE:<\/p>\n “But choices have expressive functions only to the extent that we can make them freely. For example, consider the marital vow to stay together “for better for worse… till death do us part.” If you have no way to get out of a marriage, marital commitment is not a statement about you; it’s a statement about society.<\/p>\n If divorce is legal, but the social and religious sanctions against it are so powerful that anyone who leaves a marriage becomes a pariah, your marital commitment again says more about society than it does about you.<\/p>\n But if you live in a society that is almost completely permissive about divorce, honouring your marital vows does reflect on you.”<\/p>\n – Barry Schwartz, The Paradox of Choice<\/p>\n ===<\/p>\n SUPPOSED MULTIMILLIONAIRE ON REDDIT<\/p>\n “I have a business degree from the University of Washington. Business school does not teach you how to run a business, they teach you how to be a good employee for a hedge fund or a bank.”<\/p>\n “avoid loans at all costs. If you graduate debt free you are already ahead of your peers that graduated years before knee deep in loans. you’d be surprised how much more wiggle room you have and how much more confident you are if you have no debt.”<\/p>\n “every dollar you earn, pretend you only have 25 cents.”<\/p>\n “persistence, you have no idea how many times things didn’t work out for me and I was ready to give up. I kept telling myself that if I keep trying the odds will be in my favor. I hate to say this but a lot of it has to do with who you know and what kind of life you are born into. I was given a lot of opportunities by my family. I think the message you should get across to your students is that no matter how many times they fall they should get back up and try again. I admit i’m not the best person for an example but I hope that they all find their path.”<\/p>\n – Multi-Millionaire on reddit<\/p>\n ===<\/p>\n WHAT IF CENSORSHIP WAS ITSELF OFFENSIVE<\/p>\n censorship is banning whatever might offend or mislead people, right? to protect them?<\/p>\n what if people are offended or misled by censorship?<\/p>\n because censorship IS offensive; it insults the intelligence and maturity of our people, and it makes us believe that we’re dumb and need to be mollycoddled when we not. the attempt to protect us is hurting us by preventing us from developing a healthy immune system<\/p>\n censorship is damaging to society and a dangerous, offensive idea that should be banned (lol)<\/p>\n ===<\/p>\n DARTH VADER AND THE PAP<\/p>\n Substitute “humanity” with “Singapore” and “Darth Vader” with “PAP” and it gets interesting and quintessentially relevant.<\/p>\n Joseph Campbell ===<\/p>\n ON IMMIGRATION AND FOREIGNERS:<\/p>\n \u201cIf it’s okay to enrich ourselves by denying foreigners the right to earn a living, why shouldn’t we enrich ourselves by invading peaceful countries and seizing their assets? Most of us don’t think that’s a good idea, and not just because it might backfire. We don’t think it’s a good idea because we believe human beings have human rights, whatever their colour and wherever they live. Stealing assets is wrong, and so is stealing the right to earn a living, no matter where the victim was born.\u201d ===<\/p>\n LANGUAGE WAS A SINGULARITY:<\/p>\n “Singularities have happened before: Language was a singularity! This rich inner world with symbols, etc… The pre-language hominids could not have imagined how language was going to change the operating system of the brain!”<\/p>\n
\n“Star Wars deals with the essential problem: Is the machine going to control humanity, or is the machine going to serve humanity? Darth Vader is a man taken over by a machine, he becomes a machine, and the state itself is a machine. There is no humanity in the state. What runs the world is economics and politics, and they have nothing to do with the spiritual life. “So we are left with this void. It’s the job of the artists to create the new myths. Myths come from the artists.” Joseph Campbell, interviewed by Chris Goodrich, Publisher’s Weekly (1985)<\/p>\n
\n\u2015 Steven E. Landsburg<\/p>\n