Something I explained to my 11 yo: The biggest division in work may be between jobs that involve making new stuff (science, engineering) and those that don't (administration, sales), and you'll be a lot happier if you end up on the side you're suited for.
Something I taught my 11 yo: Practice teaches you how to do things without having to think consciously about each step. So even when you “already know how” to do something by making a conscious effort, you can often reach another level of knowing how to do it through practice.
Parenting trick: invent a gesture that means “I love you.” 2 yos like it as a game. 8 yos like it because they can use it in public.
'The last thing one settles in writing a book,' Pascal observes, 'is what one should put in first.'
In the wise words of Carson, the butler of Downton Abbey, “The business of life is the acquisition of memories. In the end that’s all there is.”
Society isn’t about maximizing the collective it’s about free individuals coming together to produce rules so that we can enjoy the benefits of collective action while still living in a diverse society that respects individual rights, beliefs, and ways of living.
The more I study religions, the more I am convinced that man never worshiped anything but himself.
Most big, deeply satisfying accomplishments in life take at least five years to achieve. This can include building a business, cultivating a loving relationship, writing a book, getting in the best shape of your life, raising a family, and more.
Five years is a long time. It is much slower than most of us would like. If you accept the reality of slow progress, you have every reason to take action today. If you resist the reality of slow progress, five years from now you'll simply be five years older and still looking for a shortcut.
Good news is the the hell doesn't exist. The bad news is that whatever people can imagine they can create.
Installing Slackware and getting it to work with my modem and connect to the internet was an endeavour full of frustrations and annoyances but what I didn’t realize at the time was that I was building up a core understanding a UNIX environment and how to manipulate it.
There is a wing of the environmental movement that wants to punish consumerism, individualism, and America more than they want to solve environmental problems so they see an innovation agenda as a kind of cheating. Retribution is the goal of their practice.
If Crowley had said, “Do what I wilt shall be the whole of the law,” he wouldn’t have sounded any different from all the other religious nuts of past and present. Because he actually said, “Do what thou wilt shall be the Whole of the law“, he is known as the worst Monster and Madcap in the history of mysticism. Whatever else this proves, it clearly indicates that most people are desperately looking for some Authority to tell them what’s right and wrong, desperately afraid of taking that responsibility for themselves.
If you listen to seemingly dull people very closely, you'll see that they're all mad in different and interesting ways.
As Korzybski said, nothing is conclusive, and every sentence should end with an et cetera. Or perhaps Woody Allen said it better: “Not only is there no God, but you can't even get a plumber on weekends.” The answer to that, of course, is to become your own god and your own plumber. That may be the fundamental secret of the Illuminati.
It is a great privilege to be conscious in this universe. Those who understand, shine like stars.
Of course, I'm not complaining – part of the humor of living on this backward planet is listening to the hominids rationalize their predations.
As Colonel Greene pointed out in Mutual Banking, all the money could disappear tomorrow morning and the wealth of the planet would remain the same. However, if the wealth disappeared – if squinks from the Pink Dimension dragged it off to null-space or something – the money would be worth nothing.
I also read at least one periodical every month by a political group I dislike – to keep some sense of balance. The overwhelming stupidity of political movements is caused by the fact that political types never read anything but their own gang's agit-prop.
As Tucker said, “There is nothing sacred in the life of an invader.”