The Nature of Happiness
Tara Brach (Book: Radical Acceptance, Podcast: iTunes)
Rick Hansen (Books: Hardwiring Happiness, Buddha’s Brain, Newsletter: Just One Thing)
Alan Watts (Book: The Wisdom of Insecurity)
Each person has a baseline level of satisfaction which can vary in the short term but returns to the baseline over time. We can gradually shift our baseline dispositions by taking advantage of neuroplasticity and by accepting the nature of reality.
→ Read my notes on happiness tools
Vipassana Meditation (I went to a center in Kelseyville)
I sat in the woods for 6 days without speaking and gained a valuable tool from the experience. Warning: May cause existential crisis.
Productivity and Staying Inspired
David Allen (Book: Getting Things Done)
Eric Ries (Book: The Lean Startup)
Alex Osterwalder (Book: Business Model Generation)
Podcasts are a key tool for staying inspired. (Radiolab, This American Life, TED, 99 Percent Invisible)
“Schooling” is bullshit. Learning is what we need. Schooling dumbs us down by training kids to quell their creative impulses and instead master obedience.
→ Read my post on compulsory K-12 schooling
Fitness and being in nature are also key. Working out and running around at the beach lead to better sleep, better mood, better focus.
Behavioral Patterns
At age ~30, people start caring more about other people
“After the age of about thirty they almost abandon the sense of being individuals at all — and live chiefly for others” — Orwell
Notable people who have talked about a tendency to become more sympathetic and less selfish in one’s thirties: George Orwell, Oliver Sacks, Thom Gunn
Criticism is about their shit, not your shit
Any positive or negative feedback you get from someone else is usually 99% about their own insecurities and only 1% about you living out your personal truth. I REPEAT: Everyone you meet is a mirror into your own deepest fears. And everyone is projecting their own fears onto you. We tend to like people who don’t stir up our fears and we dislike people who do stir up our fears.
For example: A lover says to her partner, “You’re always sitting around the house. You should go out with your friends more.”
The real translation of that statement could be: “I’m worried that I’m boring you. I’m worried about what people will think about me if you don’t have friends. My mother didn’t have many friends and I’m scared that you will become like her. You make me feel like I go out too much in comparison.” (Take your pick from any number of fears.)
Gender Dynamics
Gender roles according to David Deida:
Stage 1. The submissive housewife and the macho breadwinner
Stage 2. The working girl and the sensitive flow boy
Stage 3. The radiant goddess and the warrior of love
Most Exciting Knowledge Discovered
Brains can shift old programs and learn new ones
The discovery of neuroplasticity tells us that our brains are not fixed machines with their functions cast in stone. Through the birth of new neurons and the shifting of neural pathways, functions performed in our brains can change at any age. This means that we can recover from injuries as well as hack our own brains! We can add new, previously unknown sensory inputs to our brains and if neurons are exposed to a coherent signal, our brains can decode and make use of that new data stream. (Book: The Brain That Changes Itself)
CRISPR can edit genes quickly and cheaply (Podcast: Radiolab)
Finding Moral Purpose
Links: Bill Nye, Neil deGrasse Tyson
I believe that the highest moral purposes are:
- Reduce suffering — If you agree that maximum suffering of conscious beings is a “bad” thing, then your first purpose should be to reduce the amount of suffering experienced in the world.
- Promote love — To me, this means nudging people around me toward more connection, self-understand, compassion, empathy, and away from judgement, anger, lizard-brain reactions, fear, and insecurity.
- Contribute to the acceleration of the overall development of the human species — This means that humans become more self-aware, cooperative, forward-thinking and peaceful, and less destructive toward ourselves and each other. I believe that scientific discovery and critical thought are forces that advance humanity. I want humans to accomplished great things in both the next 100 years and the next 10,000 years. This may mean the end of war, disease, poverty. This may mean colonizing other planets. Bill Nye and Neil deGrasse Tyson are role models for promoting two important things to the general public: critical thinking (scientific process) and excitement about our future achievements (e.g. exploring the solar system, understanding how the universe came to be, curing cancer, etc.)
‘Personal Mythology’ (or ‘Personal Religion’)
I also believe it’s useful to write a narrative arc (complete with scenes, characters, and artifacts) that describes how you, the hero of your own journey, enforces your code of ethics to overcome challenges and live your personal truth.
TO BE ADDED:
- Swimlane theory
- Tara Brach: Sorry, Thanks, Love meditation
- novelty = more memories = slower time
- conscious marriage vs. unconscious marriage
- Rick Hansen’s arrows
