When you mention the word “value,” most people think of money, as that’s the most common way we use to measure something’s value – how much it costs. But we’re often conflating the two. Money is not value. Money is merely a measurement of value. Sure, in a capitalistic system […]
Month: August 2021
Clairvoyance
We’d like to think that we were clairvoyant, and able to see the future before it happens. After all, who doesn’t love certainty? But at the end of the day, all we can do is maximize the amount of information and make better predictions. Certainty is an illusion, and the […]
Absolutism
While there might be exceptions, in general, the more something leans into absolutism, the more likely it’s going to be incorrect. Assumptions about broad categories of people will often be wrong, especially the larger the category is. Things that work for some people, especially if it doesn’t acknowledge entire systems […]
Intent Vs Impact
It’s easy to hide behind the consequences of your actions when the intention was not malicious. “It’s just a joke.” “Oh, I didn’t mean it that way.” But that doesn’t mean that the impact of one’s actions was any less than if the intent was, in fact, malicious. If we […]
Don’t Condone, Empathize
I think something that confuses a lot of people is that they think empathizing with someone else means to condone that person’s actions or beliefs. They are not the same thing. We need more empathy to help us bridge the gap between their beliefs and ours – but just because […]
The Cost of a Goal
When thinking about goals, we usually focus on the outcome that we’re looking for. We focus on shaping the goalposts in our mind, and perhaps even trying to visualize us in the champion’s circle. However, everything comes with a price, even if you can’t see it. To meet your goal, […]
Personal Record
Last night, I set a new personal record in Skee-Ball. The interesting thing about a personal record is that at its core it is completely devoid of any external comparison. Sure, you can make it about who has the highest personal record, but external comparison is something you can always […]
Lessons Learned From A Year Of Daily Writing
Today marks the 365th post of blogging/writing daily. Hold up. Sorry, I shouldn’t conflate the two – let me clarify. I started writing daily in April of 2020 and wrote every day for six months. I’ve since laxed a bit on the daily writing, as I’ll occasionally write a few […]
Peak-End Rule
There is a cognitive bias known as the Peak-End Rule, which states that we have a tendency to qualify past experiences or events by the most emotionally-charged moment and the end of the experience, rather than the overall average of the event. Meaning, if you have a terrible week, but […]
Problems with Authority
I have a huge problem with authority for authority’s sake. Without a reason to follow authority, it makes no sense to listen – “Because we said so” is the worst justification for anything ever. But if we’re willing to rebel against a system, we need to understand a few things […]