Wisdom is the ability to allow a diversity of values and thoughts to emerge within your own mind, yet still be able to act despite them. […] The opposite is fanaticism. Fanaticism may produce confidence and relieve anxiety. But fanaticism is a tyranny of our internal mental order. It is when one belief or value pushes all other competing factions out of our consciousness.
But by … [ Read more ]
Author: Mark Manson | Subjects: Education | Scholarship, Personal Improvement, Wisdom
This, in a nutshell, is the genius of democracy: it’s built to accentuate rather than suppress diversity. And not just diversity of race, gender, or religion, but diversity of personality, interests, philosophies, and worldly pursuits. Democratic systems let the wisdom of evolutionary processes play out in the social realm. This is why democratic societies tend to be more economically innovative, culturally dynamic, and physically safer … [ Read more ]
Author: Mark Manson | Subject: Politics & Public Policy
One of the most useful things you can ever learn in your life is to figure out how to channel your negative emotions constructively.
Author: Mark Manson | Subject: Personal Improvement
Love can harm as much as it heals. It’s an amplifier. It makes a good relationship better and a bad relationship much worse.
Author: Mark Manson | Subjects: Love, Psychology | Behavior, Relationships
Confidence does not come from an expectation of success. It comes from a comfort with failure.
Author: Mark Manson | Subjects: Personal Improvement, Psychology | Behavior, Success / Failure
If you don’t decide who you are, other people will decide for you.
Author: Mark Manson | Subject: Personal Improvement
The most valuable things in life compound over a long period of time. I’m talking about health, wealth, knowledge, confidence, relationships. These things will frustrate you when you’re young because they are slow. But if you start building them from a young age and you don’t stop, by the time you’re in your 30s and 40s you will have an incredible life.
Author: Mark Manson | Subjects: Life & Society, Personal Improvement
Your relationship with others is a direct reflection of your relationship with yourself. Get right with yourself, get right with the world.
Author: Mark Manson | Subjects: Personal Improvement, Psychology | Behavior, Relationships
Competence is how good you are when there is something to gain. Character is how good you are when there is nothing to gain. People will reward you for competence. But people will only love you for your character.
Author: Mark Manson | Subjects: Character, Personal Improvement, Psychology | Behavior
Logic is the bedrock of pretty much all human knowledge. As such, philosophers have killed many trees over the centuries, analyzing and determining the principles that define logic and reason. Their ambition has been to determine what we can know to be true and what we cannot know to be true.
What most people don’t realize is that logical fallacies—that is, errors in judgment and reasoning—are … [ Read more ]
Author: Mark Manson | Subjects: Communication, Concepts, Education | Scholarship, Intelligence | Knowledge, Personal Improvement, Politics & Public Policy, Thought | Inquiry
Moral outrage, while strangely satisfying, gives people a sense of accomplishing something without actually accomplishing anything.
Author: Mark Manson | Subject: Psychology | Behavior
By giving voice to everybody, the internet unintentionally gave voice back to the uglier sub-cultures of society that were once barred from any mainstream attention: the bigots, the conspiracy theorists, and the cranks. In our idealism of giving the whole world a way to express themselves, we forgot that most people say really awful shit.
Author: Mark Manson | Subjects: Communication, IT | Technology, Life & Society
Humans suck. We are impossible to please.
We have so many conflicting needs and desires, it’s a marvel that we can
even wipe the correct ass.
I’ve long written about how humans evolved to be constantly dissatisfied in some way. I’ve written about how, in life, it’s impossible to escape suffering. In fact, in one of the most popular sections of my … [ Read more ]
Author: Mark Manson | Subjects: Happiness, Personal Improvement, Psychology | Behavior
If I ask you, “What do you want out of life?” and you say something like, “I want to be happy and have a great family and a job I like,” it’s so ubiquitous that it doesn’t even mean anything.
A more interesting question, a question that perhaps you’ve never considered before, is what pain do you want in your life? What are you willing to … [ Read more ]
Author: Mark Manson | Subject: Personal Improvement