Consider the quote:
"The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results."
-Albert Einstein
Of course, that's not the definition of insanity, and Einstein didn't say it (despite the quote often being attributed to him). For those reasons, it sounds pretty stupid. But I would argue there is something wise about the quote and that it's worth paying attention to.
If we are in a situation that's deterministic and static - that is, nothing...
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reflection
Doing what you value as a life philosophy – an introduction to Valuism – part 1 in the Valuism sequence – what are intrinsic values and why do they matter?
By Spencer Greenberg and Amber Dawn Ace
This is the first of five posts in my sequence of essays about my life philosophy, Valuism - here are the second, third, fourth, and fifth parts. Featured image created using the A.I. DALL•E 2
Many of us struggle at times to know what to do. We are surrounded by conflicting advice about how to live our lives - from our parents, peers, and communities, from ancient philosophers, and from modern gurus and intellectuals. Faced with these con...
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The FIRE Framework: deciding when to trust your gut
Here’s a link to a recording of me giving a talk about this topic in 2019.
The idea that you should "just trust your gut" - that is, make many life decisions solely based on intuition (as opposed to based on reflection) - is obviously very popular. But I think that there are pretty much only four types of situations where we're best off relying on intuition alone: when a decision is Fast, Irrelevant, Repetitious, or Evolutionary (FIRE for short).
Case 1: Fast decisionsThere is no cho...
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Subtle Introspection
Here are ten subtle things it's easy to miss about yourself that you may find it valuable to pay mindful attention to:
Your natural posture when sitting at your computer → this may affect how your body feels in 20 yearsWhere emotions manifest in your body (e.g., I feel anxiety in my chest and annoyance as a twinge in my face) → greater awareness here may help you more quickly and accurately identify your emotions.The clothing you feel your best and worst in → this may lead you to dress in a ...
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Wanting While Not Wanting
Why do people who hate that they overeat keep overeating? Why do people who know that their girlfriends or boyfriends are bad for them keep taking these girlfriends and boyfriends back? Why do so many people who want to go to the gym never actually bother to do it?
These circumstances can be explained, at least partially, in terms of desires changing and conflicting with each other. What we want when we consciously reflect on a situation sometimes differs from what we want when we are actuall...
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