I am not a very smart guy, but what still fascinates me is the ability to learn something new. Everyday. Over the course of countless days I have devoted to reading online, here are a few ideas that really stuck with me and I would like to share them with you, but please do take everything with a grain of salt.
I’ll try and expand the string of my thinking to vast scales and bring it back to reality. Lets go!
Question everything!
Dogmatic thinking is intellectual poison. It closes our minds to possibilities and prevents human flourishing. Remaining skeptical forces us to accept the universe as it is, not as we would like it to be. Being connected to reality allows us to ask interesting questions, to challenge the status quo, and to lead meaningful, moral lives.
Read (Books!), question, argue, debate and change your mind when your intellectual integrity depends on it. Notice when your ego is crushed and be profoundly grateful for those moments.
We all have blind spots in our thinking, tiny cracks of irrationality that play havoc with our decision making ability. It’s worth continually dedicating a portion of our lives to refining our thinking abilities.
Connect with the paradox of life
Along with everything in the universe we are in constant flux. Recognizing the impermanence of everything allows us to choose when to question, and when to simply experience the present moment as fully as we possibly can.
Against a 13.8 billion year backdrop humanity is a vanishingly small speck in a vast cosmic ocean. We are bits of talking meat spinning on a tiny wet globe adrift in incomprehensible vastness. However this polarity between insignificance and complete connectedness is precisely what makes our existence precious. We can stare into the void with awe, gratitude and wonder, or we can gaze at it with fear — make no mistake that the choice is ours. In a universe so infinitely vast there is no objective meaning (umm Nihilism), but this frees us to create meaning in any way of our choosing, and it allows us to let go of a childish need for absolute certainty, the type of which authority and religion often promise.
Do things that interest you
Come on , should I really explain that to you? Here is a cookie :)
Get uncomfortable
Take risks. Be brave. Make mistakes. A full life isn’t possible without challenge. And challenge isn’t possible unless we are willing to fail. Personal growth is proportional to our ability to step into the unknown, and like all abilities, it is a trainable skill.
Many of our fears are illusions born from the fictional stories we tell ourselves and we can erode fears by challenging them by overcoming that which holds us back we create the momentum towards positive future experiences. When you stop failing you stop growing. I’ve had some huge losses and some amazing wins, and I hope OUR future is spiced with more of the same.
Be grateful
In a deterministic universe there is no deserve. You didn’t construct your own brain, you didn’t set in motion the dominoes which produced you, or the things you’ve done, good or bad. Free will is an illusion, but understanding that is also a liberating truth.
Someone you love will die, or get sick, or leave. Or you’ll lose the ability to do something you loved to do, or your heart will get broken in some other cruel and very usual way. That will happen to you, trust me. And when it does the only thing to cling to is the gratitude that you’re here to experience anything at all. Gratitude is available to us in any moment we choose to connect with the miracle of our existence, but it’s most needed when it’s least obvious.
Have opinions!
I meet so many new people , and the ones I remember the most vividly are the ones who had opinions. There is something inexplicable to a working brain, the aura of rational thinking.
Give to others
Earth to earth , ashes to ashes. Spare some time and money for those who are unlucky to have it. Donate. Aid. Grow together!
Always give more than required & sparkle a bit of humour here and there
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This is an incomplete list, E&OE, for now which shall suffice. I plan to write more in the future on topics like Technology, Economics and Social issues.
Thanks for reading!
