Luck vs. Choice

Nathanael Garrett Novosel, December 9 2020

How much of life is controllable vs. uncontrollable?  50/50?  75/25?  There are a multitude of articles and videos analyzing the degree with which luck factors in to success or not.  Some of my favorites are: The role of luck vs. skill in sports "Coin flipping" (aka luck) vs. skill in stock market picks

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5 Christian Concepts That Are Aligned with the Unified Theory of Meaning

Nathanael Garrett Novosel, December 2 2020

A Unified Theory of Meaning can't truly be unified if it isn't aligned or compatible with most philosophies.  In this blog post, I thought I'd start to show how all philosophies have the eight core concepts of meaning embedded into their ideologies.  Let's begin with Christianity, which has a lot of relevant concepts.  Here are five ideas from the...

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Permanence Sucks (Yeah, I Said It)

Nathanael Garrett Novosel, November 25 2020

Okay, so the title is a little "in your face" in nature, but I wanted to get your attention.  There are a lot of philosophical discussions out there about impermanence, and they all seem to be the same Buddhism-like narrative about how everything is impermanent and so you should detach from everything and learn to let go to evolve beyond attachment...

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What (or Who) Is Your Rock?

Nathanael Garrett Novosel, November 18 2020

Life can be tough.  But even in the best of times, you need support to reach your full potential.  In either case, it helps to have a base of support to help you, whether it's to fall back on when you stumble or to stand on to reach higher than you could otherwise. So, what or who is your rock?  This is a big question so that you can prepare for to...

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Growth: At the Heart of Storytelling

Nathanael Garrett Novosel, November 11 2020

Great storytellers can captivate their audiences.  It seems like an art form, and much of it is: the tone, the pace, and the voice inflections are all key to capturing hearts and minds.  But the structures of stories are as much of a science as an art.  You might be familiar with the core structure: introduction, inciting incident, rising action, c...

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The Growth-Centric View of Meaning Is Everywhere in Our Language

Nathanael Garrett Novosel, November 4 2020

It's the world's biggest secret that's hidden in plain sight: life is about growth, and everyone intuitively knows this.  The source of the leak?  Language.  Our idioms, expressions, platitudes, sayings, and questions.  We guide the younger generation to realize their potential, and we help rising leaders develop the skills and abilities they need...

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You Were Not Born to Suffer

Nathanael Garrett Novosel, October 28 2020

Freddie Mercury might have been born to love you, but you were not born to suffer. While I try to remain objective, analytical, and dispassionate in helping people find meaning in their lives, this mistaken conclusion that people come to is reinforced by popular philosophies...and so it irritates me to no end.  Buddhism talks about dukkha, which is...

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The Growth-Centric View of Meaning in Popular Ideas

Nathanael Garrett Novosel, October 21 2020

I just described where the growth-centric view of meaning is popping up in the corporate world, and so my brain must've been primed to see some of these examples in other areas.  There are several pop psychology and business ideas that have been widely used and accepted in speeches and articles that have growth at the heart of them.  Let's take a l...

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The Corporate World Is Acknowledging the Growth-Centric View of Meaning and Purpose

Nathanael Garrett Novosel, October 14 2020

It was difficult mustering the courage to publish my book and put my ideas out there with the possibility that I could've made some serious mistakes.  Sure, I had support from over 100 sources that provided substantive evidence in a growth-centric view of meaning, from Dr. Carol Dweck's Mindset on how the growth mindset leads to success to the fact...

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Life’s 8 Major Fallacies

Nathanael Garrett Novosel, October 7 2020

Life can be very difficult to understand or figure out.  Why do bad things happen to good people?  Why does evil exist?  What is the right thing to do in no-win situations?  Questions like these can eat up your time in deep philosophical thought trying to find the best way to either live optimally or understand why the world works the way it does.

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