When hope is so strong that it altogether drives out fear, its nature changes and it becomes complacency or confidence. And when we are certain that what we desire will come to pass, even though we go on wanting it to come to pass, we nonetheless cease to be agitated by the passion of desire which caused us to look forward to the outcome with … [ Read more ]
Author: Rene Descartes | Source: The Marginalian (Brain Pickings) | Subjects: Concepts, Fear, Hope, Psychology | Behavior
The mere fact of thinking that a good may be acquired or an evil avoided is sufficient to produce the desire for this to come to pass. But when, over and above this, we consider whether our desire is likely to be satisfied or not, the idea that it is likely arouses hope in us, and the idea that it is unlikely arouses fear, of … [ Read more ]
Author: Rene Descartes | Source: The Marginalian (Brain Pickings) | Subjects: Concepts, Fear, Hope, Psychology | Behavior
Hope — a faculty decidedly different from and far more muscular than optimism — remains our most potent antidote to the passivity and resignation of cynicism. The great humanistic philosopher and psychologist Erich Fromm admonished against the common laziness of optimism and pessimism, but he extolled the counterpoint to both — active hope that empowers us “to think the unthinkable, yet to act within the … [ Read more ]
Authors: Erich Fromm, Maria Popova | Source: The Marginalian (Brain Pickings) | Subjects: Concepts, Hope, Psychology | Behavior
We all are learning, modifying, or destroying ideas all the time. Rapid destruction of your ideas when the time is right is one of the most valuable qualities you can acquire. You must force yourself to consider arguments on the other side.
Author: Charlie Munger | Subjects: Education | Scholarship, Intelligence | Knowledge, Personal Improvement, Thought | Inquiry
Across the animal kingdom, dominance hierarchies inform the way social creatures interact. And while people might think that our more evolved brains and advanced social dynamics put us above the kinds of behavior seen in dogs or apes, our actions are still very much steered by primal drives.
Authors: Deborah H. Gruenfeld, Kevin Cool | Source: Stanford University | Subjects: Life & Society, Sociology | Anthropology
Knowing that people value hierarchies, one of the most important skillsets I would say that human beings have is to figure out where they belong and how to contribute in a way that’s valued so they can be part of the group.
Author: Deborah H. Gruenfeld | Source: Stanford University | Subjects: Life & Society, Sociology | Anthropology
We are desperate to belong in groups… many individuals prefer lower ranks in a hierarchical group to not being in the group at all. So, they accept those positions. It is oddly a strange source of security to know who’s responsible for what, who’s going to lead, who’s going to follow. And it gives everyone a script to follow so they know how to behave … [ Read more ]
Author: Deborah H. Gruenfeld | Source: Stanford University | Subjects: Life & Society, Psychology | Behavior, Sociology | Anthropology
One of the ways in which we are like animals is that we need to organize ourselves in order to survive. It’s not intuitive because we have this sense that in modern civilized society people have a tendency to prefer equality and egalitarian kinds of organizing structures to more hierarchical ones.
But what you find when you look at how people behave despite what they say … [ Read more ]
Author: Deborah H. Gruenfeld | Source: Stanford University | Subjects: Psychology | Behavior, Sociology | Anthropology
Time baffles us with its elasticity, the way it slows down when we’re afraid and speeds up as we age. It harrows us with its stagnancy, the way waiting twists the psyche. It haunts us with its demand for meaning. Time is the breath in the lungs of life, the marrow in the skeleton of space, the substance we are made of… But while we … [ Read more ]
Author: Maria Popova | Source: The Marginalian (Brain Pickings) | Subjects: Life & Society, Personal Improvement, Productivity & Time Management
So much of life isn’t about intelligence or luck but putting yourself in a position for success. The cash-rich investor thrives in crashes. The well-rested athlete outperforms the exhausted star. The student who studies daily aces the pop quiz. The employee who leaves early gets to the meeting with the CEO on time while the other person sits in the unanticipated traffic. All seem lucky, … [ Read more ]
Author: Shane Parrish | Source: Farnam Street | Subjects: Life & Society, Personal Improvement
True curiosity is an open wonderment at what something is and how it works without emotional attachment to the outcome of observation and experiment. It is only when we cede emotional attachment that we can be truly free from judgment, for all judgment is feeling — usually some species of fear — masquerading as thought. And when we judge, we cannot understand.
Author: Maria Popova | Source: The Marginalian (Brain Pickings) | Subjects: Education | Scholarship, Intelligence | Knowledge, Personal Improvement
Grievance identitarianism — be it of the left or the right — impedes the very thing a student is attending university to do: namely, think and learn. It turns a person into a tribalist, someone who, rather than thinking for oneself, outsources one’s thinking to the group.
[…]
Remember that the criticism of a belief (or a practice, faith or lifestyle) is not a personal … [ Read more ]
Author: Robert P. George | Source: The New York Times | Subjects: Education | Scholarship, Politics & Public Policy
Men trust their eyes rather than their ears; the road by precept is long and tedious, by example short and effectual.
Author: Seneca | Subject: Education | Scholarship
Empathy is innate among humans, but it often takes an immersive real-life experience to bring it to the surface.
Author: Deepa Krishnan | Source: strategy+business | Subject: Psychology | Behavior
We say, “Alright, the only way I can live with inequality is to see it as the fault of those who have failed to do as well as I.” To do otherwise leads to a dangerous idea: that the system itself fosters inequality.
Author: Stephanie Coontz | Source: The Atlantic | Subjects: Economics | Economy, Life & Society, Politics & Public Policy
Democracy was established in part as a reaction to the notion that there should be any preset order to the world, with rich and poor, sovereign and ruled. But, especially when paired with capitalism, democracy still creates winners and losers. The resulting dissonance between the ideals of democratic life and the reality forced new explanations for inequality.
Author: Brian Alexander | Source: The Atlantic | Subjects: Economics | Economy, Life & Society, Politics & Public Policy
We promise according to our hopes and perform according to our fears.
Author: François de La Rochefoucauld | Subject: Psychology | Behavior
Reliability is essential for progress in life.
Author: Charlie Munger | Subjects: Personal Improvement, Success / Failure
A human being is a living constellation of contradictions, mostly opaque to itself.
Author: Maria Popova | Source: The Marginalian (Brain Pickings) | Subject: Psychology | Behavior
The average marriage contract is made by the Child, which understands love as something you feel and not something you do, and which sees happiness as something you pursue rather than a by-product of working toward the happiness of someone other than yourself.
Author: Thomas A. Harris | Subjects: Love, Psychology | Behavior, Relationships