What Arthur Schopenhauer learned about genius at the asylum
‘Might not madness be a mere derangement of memory?’ What Arthur Schopenhauer learnt when he went into the asylum
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How to know what you really want
From career choices to new purchases, use René Girard’s mimetic theory to resist the herd and forge your own path in life
«These are people whose desires are in some sense intertwined with your own – they can affect your desires, and you can in turn affect theirs»
Slow down, it’s what your brain has been begging for
It’s no small task to live a life of sustained attention. So slow down, and give your brain a break to do its work
«Paying attention to the moment during a walk shifts focus away from the internally generated, anxiety-provoking scenarios, creating much-needed space.»
To meet your goals, forget willpower and fill your toolbox
Achieving your goals has nothing to do with willpower and everything to do with using the right mix of psychological tools
Dogs are symbolic containers of human hopes, desires and vices
In all its baroque and sometimes cruelly overbred forms, the dog is a paramount symbol of both human hopes and foibles
«As a rising middle class started to focus on their own family trees, creating an ‘elite’ from new money, so dogs started to be classified too.»
Empathic friends can provide the right kind of peer pressure
Research on empathy development in adolescents suggests an under-appreciated potential for positive peer influence
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Solitude is not loneliness. Here's the key philosophical difference.
Being alone can be the fertile ground of great creativity. For others, it's the door to a dark, spiralling depression.
«When we take time to ourselves, we give ourselves space to imagine. When our mind is not constantly bombarded with content, it can create.»
Deep Time Sickness
In Mexico, people who are “tocado” — “touched” — reveal that geological time can emerge through fissures in the land to alter the way we relate to our homes, cities and even ourselves.
The Boltzmann brain paradox
How do you know you’re a person who has lived your life, rather than a just-formed brain full of artificial memories, momentarily hallucinating a reality that doesn’t actually exist? That may sound absurd, but it’s kept several generations of top cosmologists up at night. They call it: the Boltzmann brain paradox. Fabio Pacucci explores this mind-numbing thought experiment.
Are Successful People Happy or are Happy People Successful?
It’s possible to become happy and successful. Just make sure the goal that'll make you successful is driven by your happiness and not the other way around.
«When you achieve that success, it isn’t the goal itself that makes you happy, its the fulfillment of your happiness through the attainment of the goal that does.»
Learning from people who I disagree with
Why talking with people whose views you hate can help you (and, maybe, them)
«omber. He had done a fair bit of research and made some initial contacts with the men who could arrange his travel and equipment. He was deciding between his options: sneak over th»