Brent Mused in Food for Thought | November 22, 2023

Choose carefully

~~Goals~~ Traps	Goals
Bigger house	Autonomy
Fast car	Health
Followers	Friends
That job title	A job with meaning
Earning more than…	Contentment

Take your time

I can’t help but feel like we’d all be a lot happier if we hit reply a lot slower.

Time and New Things

You’re a time billionaire

A million seconds is 11 days. A billion seconds is slightly over 31 years…I feel like in our culture, we’re so obsessed, as a culture, with money. And we deify dollar billionaires in a way…And I was thinking of time billionaires that when I see, sometimes, 20-year-olds—the thought I had was they probably have two […]

A crack in everything

There is a crack, a crack in everything
That’s how the light gets in
Leonard Cohen

Hustle Pornstars

I think the hustle porn stars (…) have convinced the whole world that success in the digital world is about screaming look at me, look at me, look at me. They’ve perpetuated this thing we call the me disease as though people give a shit about what you had for breakfast on Instagram. People care […]

Desire knows no bounds

The 15 characteristics of the self-actualized people.

Good perception of reality Acceptance Spontaneity, simplicity, naturalness Big problem solving vs. personal problems Enjoy isolation Autonomy, cultural independence Renewable appreciation Mystical experiences Sense of community Interpersonal relationships Judge by character Moral; means driven vs ends driven Humor not at expense of someone else Creativity Transcendence of culture Source

Love Ravens.

Ravens parallel great apes in physical and social cognitive skills – the first large-scale assessment of common ravens compared with chimpanzees and orangutans found full-blown cognitive skills present in ravens at the age of 4 months similar to that of adult apes, including theory of mind. Read More

Koi No Yokan

There’s a Japanese phrase that I like: koi no yokan. It doesn’t mean love at first sight. It’s closer to love at second sight. It’s the feeling when you meet someone that you’re going to fall in love with them. Maybe you don’t love them right away, but it’s inevitable that you will.
Nicola Yoon

Comparison is the thief of joy.

Relative deprivation, the belief that your situation is worse than others, or that others are doing better than you, can trigger anger and resentment, and is associated with risk taking behaviour like gambling. Having hope for the future is protective against this. Read More

Birds vs Income

Biological diversity evokes happiness in people – More bird species in the vicinity increase life satisfaction of Europeans as much as higher income. 14 additional bird species raise the level of life satisfaction at least as much as an extra 124 Euros per month. (n=26,000) Read More

The Internet.

It’s an interesting thing; The internet isn’t about having a good time, it’s about showing people you’re having a good time. When you gout to bars and clubs, nobody’s actually dancing or enjoying themselves; They’re all taking photos of themselves at the bar so that later on they can say, “I was there, wasn’t it great?” It’s crazy.
Daniel Radcliffe

The view that humans are morally more important than animals appears later and may be socially acquired.

Is the tendency to morally prioritize humans over animals weaker in children than adults? In two preregistered studies (total N = 622), 5- to 9-year-old children and adults were presented with moral dilemmas pitting varying numbers of humans against varying numbers of either dogs or pigs and were asked who should be saved. In both […]

I think this law needs a name.

I’ve often noticed how the real state of the relationship is inversely proportional to the projected state of the relationship on social media. I think this law needs a name. u/j_karamazov

Proofreaders’ Marks

Killdozer; let me tell you a tale.

On a futon at 30?

Realize that sleeping on a futon when you’re 30 is not the worst thing. You know what’s worse, sleeping in a king bed next to a wife you’re not really in love with but for some reason you married, and you got a couple kids, and you got a job you hate. You’ll be laying there fantasizing about sleeping on a futon. There’s no risk when you go after a dream. There’s a tremendous amount to risk to playing it safe.
Bill Burr

Pink Steering Wheel

A group of automobile engineers were sick of the upper management making major changes to their cars after they would put their heart and souls into making these cars. So they came up with making a bright pink steering wheel idea and submitted the car to management. Management obviously said they must remove the pink […]

If somebody is rude to you, ask them to repeat themselves.

“Sorry, I missed that?” “Excuse me, what was that?” “Can you please repeat what you said?” In a calm confused tone. Works a charm.

Self is a Victim

A new personality construct has been defined that describes people who persistently see themselves as victims within interpersonal conflicts. The research was published in Personality and Individual Differences. Study authors Rahav Gabay and team describe how the social world is satiated with interpersonal transgressions that are often unpleasant and seemingly unwarranted, such as being interrupted […]

He got you Deepak

Even more gold.

Funeral Plans

Buy a Tesla?

Confidential data from maritime industry insiders based on engine size and the quality of fuel typically used by ships and cars shows that just 15 of the world’s biggest ships may now emit as much pollution as all the world’s 760m cars. Low-grade ship bunker fuel (or fuel oil) has up to 2,000 times the […]

Turn down an invite

I’m sorry, I won’t be able to make it. I really appreciate you inviting me.

Jungian Cognitive Functions

Where Am I?

When you are giving a presentation, always include in each slide not only its number, but also the overall number of slides, for instance, 11/25. That makes it much easier for the audience to understand the flow of your talk and gives them the feeling of a better control over the situation.

The Law of Triviality

People likely spend too little time on big decisions (like buying a house), and too much time on small decisions (like buying a pen). Big decisions require more time to be considered and there is more chance to stop early by mistake. Read More

Immersion in fictional worlds allows us to own our dark side

Do you have a dark side? If so, do you feel comfortable exploring it? Some research suggests that the answer might be a resounding ‘no’. We strive to see ourselves as ‘good’ – indeed, people generally feel that, deep down, they are fundamentally honest and moral. In line with this, we tend to avoid the […]

Healing Grid

This is a healing grid. If you stare at the center, the irregularities start to heal themselves because your brain strongly prefers to see regular patterns.