Six fresh takes on wisdom to help you become wiser

August 1, 2023

Becoming wiser seems like one of the most important things we can aim for. Yet, there's something extremely odd about wisdom: nobody agrees on what it means. Here are six thought-provoking definitions of wisdom that l find it useful to reflect on: 1) Wisdom as self-consistency: Wisdom is an equilibrium where you find alignment between all combinations of your: • values • beliefs • actions Inspiration: Justin Shovelain and Elliot McKernon 2) Wisdom as cau...

The enduring wisdom of a disabled man born into slavery nearly 2000 years ago

March 1, 2022

Imaginary portrait of Epictetus. (Imagine is in the public domain https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Epicteti_Enchiridion_Latinis_versibus_adumbratum_(Oxford_1715)_frontispiece.jpg)

This is a cross-post from my post on the Clearer Thinking blog (from March 1, 2022). The post first appeared on this site on December 3, 2022. Epictetus, born ~50AD, was a disabled man born into slavery in Phrygia (present-day Turkey). Nothing that he wrote down survives; we know about him only through the words of other scholars. But he was so wise that his ideas reverberate through society today. This article summarizes some parts of his incredible life and the impact that he had on the wo...

11 Types of Thinkers and Intellectuals (a little framework)

August 23, 2020

1. Ideators: generate novel ideas Ex: Einstein Strengths: creativity, insight 2: Investigators: vigorously investigate a topic in order to understand it Ex: Curie Strengths: truth-seeking, curiosity, systematicness, persistence 3. Provers: demonstrate that the ideas of others are sound, explore their limits, strengthen or work out the implications of existing theories Ex: Singer Strengths: consistency, logic, rigor, bullet-biting 4. Appliers: explo...