Month: August 2019

• August 14, 2019

  What Wisdom Is

  The word wisdom is thrown around a lot these days, especially in business circles. This person is wise; that was a wise thing to do; what wise leadership; such wise counsel indeed. The explosion of interest in philosophy in Silicon Valley (I’m thinking of Stoicism, Buddhist philosophy, and to a lesser extent Aristotelianism but also of philosophically minded people like Paul Graham,…
• August 13, 2019

  This Is Contemplation

  “Always,” he said,”I’ve got to do this or that.” “Always,” he said, “what is next and what is next.”  “Always,” he said, “when I finish this or that, then I say to myself that I’ll be fulfilled.” “But,” he said,” I am not fulfilled and there is no peace.” Yes, because peace cannot be had…
• August 12, 2019

  Optimism Is Betrayal

  Let optimism be defined as faith that the future, individually or collectively, shall be better than the present situation. Then optimism, I say, is betrayal. When you’re a child, being optimistic is a legitimate pragmatic fudge. You often benefited from believing that the thing around the bend would lift you out of the funk, that your concerted…
• August 10, 2019

  A Commitment To The Cosmos

  Look, somewhere down the line we killed the cosmos and we’re living long, long, long after that enveloping we once knew. Living limply afterward. This was a very bad idea. Existentialism starts off from the death of the cosmos and then advises us to buck and embrace our own lonely freedom. Even worse. Without a…
• August 9, 2019

  Discontent Is Really Everywhere–In You

  There’s that nagging thing. You forget when it started. You’ve done a lot to try to get rid of it and, barring that, to diminish it. Remember? There was that one thing you did–that was pretty crazy. But not just that one thing either. Think of all the zany antics and mental gymnastics you’ve been…