On great minds and great men Great minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, small minds discuss people. I used to like that quote because it was often effective in stroking my ego. My natural inclination has always been to debate ideas, to devalue stories, and to detest gossip. Oh, what a great mind I must be! Yet what disposition of curiosity is actually revealed here? Apparently, I'm highly interested in abstract thinking, less interested in concrete events, and least interested … [Read more...]
When Reason Needs Emotion: The Problem of Rational Foresight
You are on a good path in life when you do your true will (what you truly want), leading you towards eudaimonia (long-term well-being). Your rational true will aims at a goal and listens to reason, which calculates the outcome probabilities of actions. You use reason to estimate how potential actions will affect eudaimonia, and then you choose the path of action with the most desirable consequences. This is how you make good life decisions, right? Well, not quite... The problem of rational … [Read more...]
How to Get on Your Path and Stay on It
Do you sometimes have goals, but not enough drive and motivation to achieve them? Do you sometimes have plans, but not enough grit and perseverance to go through with them? Do you sometimes have dreams, but not enough guts and energy to make them reality? How can you get on your path and stick to it? Know that whenever you quit or even fail to start, you didn't want it badly enough. That's a simple truth. So it seems that all you can do is to fatalistically accept your state of will, whatever … [Read more...]
How to Establish Trust: Be Consistent and Aware of People’s View of Humanity
Trust as Perceived Consistency Whether I trust another person depends on three factors: what I think his goal is, what he says his goal is, and what his actions say his goal is. The more consistency I see between these three things, the more trust I feel for the person. For example, I do not trust a businessman who talks to me about my interests. Since I assume that his goal is profit, what he speaks is inconsistent with what I think his intentions are, and that creates … [Read more...]
The Lies Introverts Tell Themselves
What is an introvert? Someone with a natural tendency to spend much of his time alone, to be quiet and reserved in social situations, and to reflect his opinions deeply, to analyze all the time. An extrovert, by contrast, is more inclined to be outgoing, to socialize and make new friends, and to express his opinions freely, to talk all the time. Introversion is simply an inclination, a tendency to behave in a certain way. Any personality is essentially just that—a set of behavioral … [Read more...]
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