Philosophy on Janusworx

Daily Writing, 56 – You Will Not Be Made Whole

feedback@janusworx.com (Mario Jason Braganza) — Mon, 03 Sep 2018 18:18:00 +0530

This from yesterday’s Daily Stoic newsletter.
I’m quoting it wholly, because short though it may be; it packs such a powerful punch.

Your Uber driver is delayed and you want a credit for the inconvenience. Your house is damaged in a storm and you want your insurance to pay for every penny of the repairs. Someone says something pointed and personal at you, and you want them not only to apologize, but to convince you that they never meant it in the first place.

In short, you want to be made whole. And in our service economy—where the customer is always right—you often can be. Complain to Uber HQ or Amazon, complain on social media, call a lawyer. Maybe it will work. They might even compensate you for your troubles and you’ll come out ahead.

The problem is that when it comes to life, this is a very bad precedent.
Because shit happens, and Fate does not have a customer service department.
If we expect the universe (or God) to make us whole every time, we will be sorely disappointed.

The key then is to focus on not feeling like we’ve been harmed in the first place.

#####“Choose not to be harmed — and you won’t feel harmed.
#####Don’t feel harmed — and you haven’t been.”
— Marcus Aurelius

Have you really been hurt by the fact that you’re a few minutes late? Even after paying for storm repairs, are you not financially ahead of the vast majority of the planet? Did someone else’s words really cause true damage? And on and on.

The answer is no.

To the Stoic, there is no expectation of being made whole, because the Stoic strives to reject the idea of a loss having been incurred in the first place.

The newsletter and the journal are my guides when it comes to navigating my day to day life.

You should check them out.
And to the folks at The Daily Stoic, you have my undying gratitude for such a wonderful project :)

Sapiens

feedback@janusworx.com (Mario Jason Braganza) — Mon, 03 Sep 2018 13:12:37 +0530

It’s a quake book.

It manages to fit a hundred thousand years of human life, into less than five hundred pages, filled with history, wit & philosophy.

Page for page, this is one of the most wisdomous books I’ve ever read.

This is how I imagine, Yuval Noah Harari acknowledging my compliment

Thoughts and Insights abound

I read past, before the impact of a line, two pages ago blinds me

Facts put in such simple terms, that make me wonder, why didn’t I realise this before?

“Each year the US population spends more money on diets than the amount needed to feed all the hungry people in the rest of the world.”

Will we ever be Kumbaya united as a whole human race?
Methinksnot.

“Evolution has made Homo sapiens, like other social mammals, a xenophobic creature.

Sapiens instinctively divide humanity into two parts, ‘we’ and ‘they’.”

and

“Tolerance is not a Sapiens trademark.

In modern times, a small difference in skin colour, dialect or religion has been enough to prompt one group of Sapiens to set about exterminating another group.

Would ancient Sapiens have been more tolerant towards an entirely different human species?

It may well be that when Sapiens encountered Neanderthals, the result was the first and most significant ethnic-cleansing campaign in history.”

Why is money so important? Because …

“money is the most universal and most efficient system of mutual trust ever devised.”

Masters of the land, are we?

“We did not domesticate wheat. It domesticated us.”

Happiness, what is it?

“Nothing captures the biological argument better than the famous New Age slogan: ‘Happiness begins within.’ Money, social status, plastic surgery, beautiful houses, powerful positions – none of these will bring you happiness.

Lasting happiness comes only from serotonin, dopamine and oxytocin.”

Perspective … need one?

“In the 300 years of the crucifixion of Christ to the conversion of Emperor Constantine, polytheistic Roman emperors initiated no more than four general persecutions of Christians. Local administrators and governors incited some anti-Christian violence of their own.
Still, if we combine all the victims of all these persecutions, it turns out that in these three centuries the polytheistic Romans killed no more than a few thousand Christians.

In contrast, over the course, of the next 1,500 years, Christians slaughtered Christians by the millions, to defend slightly different interpretations of the religion of love and compassion.”

I’m barely scratching the surface.

And all this, while nimbly skipping over events, places, geographies, and eons.

With the voice of a sad enlightened being, he concludes,

… humans seem to be more irresponsible than ever.

Self-made gods with only the laws of physics to keep us company, we are accountable to no one. We are consequently wreaking havoc on our fellow animals and on the surrounding ecosystem, seeking little more than our own comfort and amusement, yet never finding satisfaction.

Is there anything more dangerous than dissatisfied and irresponsible gods who don’t know what they want?

This is definitely something I’ll keep coming back to, so that I can learn something new, time and again.

Are We Really Here Just to Fulfill One Destiny?

feedback@janusworx.com (Mario Jason Braganza) — Mon, 03 Sep 2018 13:06:54 +0530

Susan Fowler on guys & gals that want to flit from flower to flower, to want to have and learn and do all the things that interest us

People tell me I can’t do all the things I want to do, and they are of course wrong, because I can and I do and I will.

But I still can’t ever reach my greatest, deepest, most secret goal, the goal I left off that list: to have a singular passion.

Maybe that’s ok.

Maybe my life will always be about running toward that unattainable goal, trying and loving everything I find along the way.

And maybe at the end, when I have to give an account of my life, I’ll say that

I never was anything, but I was everything.

The whole thing is inspiring! Go, read.

On Thinking and Learning and Learning How to Think (or The Uncomfortable Effort of Thinking)

feedback@janusworx.com (Mario Jason Braganza) — Mon, 03 Sep 2018 13:04:17 +0530

It took me nearly eighteen months of reading and watching and slogging and poring over Cal Newport, Barb Oakley, Anders Ericsson, and Daniel Kahneman to figure out what überprof Derek Muller explains in just 12 minutes of blockblucksterness!.

P.S. Just found out, it took Derek three years to make the video.
I don’t feel so bad now :P

Hats & Boas

feedback@janusworx.com (Mario Jason Braganza) — Mon, 03 Sep 2018 12:46:42 +0530

I might say that I read Meditations over and over, or that Morgan’s Run is the book that I love to lose myself in.

But the truth is that the pages that I’ve read the most, the quotes that shake me up the most, the lessons that I’ve learnt from the most, are from The Little Prince.

The book has serendipitously inveigled it’s way into my mind and heart over the years.

I was introduced to it through an excerpt in a school textbook.
And ever since then, I’ve run across its quotes and lessons in books, in film and through people.

Even as I child, I somehow knew that the story added up to more that what the explorer and the Prince went through.
I knew the story teller was saying more than he let on.

And as I’ve grown, the book has continued to delight and offer lessons (if I care to listen)

On responsibility
#

“People have forgotten this truth,” the fox said.

“But you mustn’t forget it.

You become responsible forever for what you’ve tamed.
You’re responsible for your rose.”

On innocence and seeing things for what they are
#

If you were to say to the grown−ups:
“I saw a beautiful house made of rosy brick, with geraniums in the windows and doves on the roof,”
they would not be able to get any idea of that house at all.

You would have to say to them:
“I saw a house that cost $20,000.”
Then they would exclaim:
“Oh, what a pretty house that is!”

On what truly matters … to You!
#

“If some one loves a flower,
of which just one single blossom grows in all the millions and millions of stars,
it is enough to make him happy just to look at the stars.

He can say to himself, ‘Somewhere, my flower is there …’
But if the sheep eats the flower, in one moment all his stars will be darkened …
And you think that is not important‽ ”

On the joy of effort
#

“It is the time you have wasted for your rose, that makes your rose so important.”

On looking past appearances to find true beauty
#

“The stars are beautiful, because of a flower that cannot be seen.”

I replied, “Yes, that is so.’
And, without saying anything more, I looked across the ridges of sand that were stretched out before us in the moonlight.

“The desert is beautiful,” the little prince added.

“What makes the desert beautiful,” said the little prince, “is that somewhere it hides a well …”

On sorrow
#

It is such a secret place, the land of tears.

On love and belonging
#

… said the little prince. “What does that mean –– ‘tame’?”

“It is an act too often neglected,” said the fox. It means to establish ties.”

“To establish ties?”

“Just that,” said the fox. “To me, you are still nothing more than a little boy who is just like a hundred thousand other little boys.
And I have no need of you.
And you, on your part, have no need of me.
To you, I am nothing more than a fox like a hundred thousand other foxes.

But if you tame me, then we shall need each other.
To me, you will be unique in all the world.
To you, I shall be unique in all the world … ”

“I am beginning to understand,” said the little prince.
“There is a flower …
I think that she has tamed me … ”

On death
#

“You understand … it is too far. I cannot carry this body with me. It is too heavy.”

I said nothing.

“But it will be like an old abandoned shell.
There is nothing sad about old shells … ”

Word for word, The Little Prince has given me more wisdom and comfort and joy, than any tome I have ever read, more than even a Seneca or an Aurelius; a Wu Hsin or the Bible.

And yet, it does all this, with a story so simply and delightfully told.
I laugh at my explorer’s drawings.
I cry every time the Little Prince has to go away.

And for all this, I’ve never appreciated it all these years.
Never again.

I’ll close with the same lines the comte de Saint Exupéry writes, to bring the story to its wistful end …

This is, to me, the loveliest and saddest landscape in the world.
It is here that the little prince appeared on Earth, and disappeared.
Look at it carefully so that you will be sure to recognise it in case you travel some day to the African desert.

And, if you should come upon this spot, please do not hurry on.
Wait for a time, exactly under the star.

Then, if a little man appears who laughs, who has golden hair and who refuses to answer questions, you will know who he is.
If this should happen, please comfort me. Send me word that he has come back.

Philosophy on Janusworx

Daily Writing, 56 – You Will Not Be Made Whole

Sapiens

Are We Really Here Just to Fulfill *One* Destiny?

On Thinking and Learning and Learning How to Think (or The Uncomfortable Effort of Thinking)

Hats & Boas

On responsibility #

On innocence and seeing things for what they are #

On what truly matters … to You! #

On the joy of effort #

On looking past appearances to find true beauty #

On sorrow #

On love and belonging #

On death #