When I read, I am looking for works of biological potency. These are the books I have found to meet the case. 1. The Beginning of Infinity, by David Deutsch In the fullness of time I suspect that this book will be considered more important than ‘On the Origin of Species’ and ‘Wealth of Nations’. It’s a quietly…

Your mind is the greatest source of your pain. This essay is for those who have already suspected this to be true. Life has not provided enough time to work through all the caveats and counterexamples, for each caveat and counterexample will spawn its own discussion, ad infinitum. The mind…

On human nature, love, creativity, and priorities. — “I feel that there is nothing more truly artistic than to love people” — Vincent van Gogh Humans are knowledge creators. We are the only species that creates explanations, the form of knowledge about the physical world that is neither programmed into our genes nor derived from experience. Humans are…

There is a rule of productivity that says: avoid “open loops.” If a task is left half finished, you’ll be distracted, subconsciously tracking it all day, will waste energy, get little else done. In life, the question creates the path. Writing as an art form is the exploration of a…

What in the mind affects perception? The insight that the NOW is where the relevant information is. To focus on something, you must be non-focused on other things. You can’t be thinking of the errands you need to do later. The human system seems to require an element of repetition…

Have you ever really asked yourself why your mind can entertain contradictory beliefs? Or why you sometimes believe things when you would rather not? Here’s why: Belief is a conditioned response to a stimulus. The “stimulus” of televised debate -> political opinions Hostile look -> “I am not likeable” Vague…

IQ, Big 5, and other psychometrics do more harm than they’re worth — I was initially slow to understand exactly what my problem with Psychology was. I used to like it. I got what (at the time) seemed like decent self-understanding from the Big 5 Personality scale. Then I had to study Psychology for a Psychiatry exam (the latter can prescribe medication). Some…

Beware of “the only British restaurant in Palo Alto” syndrome. In ‘Zero to One’ the entrepreneur Peter Thiel argues that when you look beyond the attempts to project uniqueness, most business ideas are negligible alterations of previous ones. Thiel imagines a billboard saying “we’re the only British restaurant in Palo…