In the immortal words of Creed Bratton of The Office, “If I can’t SCUBA, then what has this all been about? What am I working toward?” While this is quotation is meant to be funny since a man working an office job (with plenty of references to drugs, murder, and other seedy activities during the workday) for decades was all leading up to a...
Read MoreThere is a long list of questions that people ask that show a genuine misunderstanding of how life exists in the universe—or, if they do understand it, an unwillingness to accept this law of physics. Questions include: The most common manifestation of this in modern times is when people look around, see someone better off than them, and then...
Read MoreThe idea that the meaning of life can be so simple and elegant is a tough one to digest; there’s a reason why people say, “What is the meaning of life?” as a joke when someone asks them to bring up a topic for light conversation. But if it’s that simple, then why do people ponder it so deeply and frequently? Well, the answer brings up many...
Read MoreThe haves vs. the have-nots. The majority vs. the minority. Good vs. evil. It seems like everything in life is turned into a conflict between two forces where one has to win and the other has to lose. Unfortunately, this taps into deep human psychology regarding everything from our fight-or-flight response to our tendency toward tribalism to feel...
Read MoreI wrote in my previous post about how people focus more on screaming for others to change than thinking about things that they can do. There’s no doubt that most people care about issues—even though many are either pretending or grossly exaggerating their concern (The Office poked fun at this well when Ryan falsely professed his deep love for...
Read MoreThe word “activist” has become pretty popular these days as both a profession and a way to virtue signal to everyone on social media that you are a good person who cares about others. Now, the cynics of the world will point out two things: This post isn’t going to point out specific causes and judge them nor is it going to rail against hypocrisy...
Read MoreWe live in an interesting time. For billions of years, life evolved by searching endlessly for resources, using those resources to grow and reproduce, and then dying. And, at its core, that’s what humans still do today. But the past few centuries have seen great advances in humans’ ability to require less effort to survive and to reduce the risk...
Read MoreThere is a great saying for anyone trying to get work done: "Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good." I say it all the time when trying to talk executives back from a perfect three-year plan to focusing more on a clear understanding of what you need to achieve and a plan that shows progress and value toward those outcomes over time vs. a...
Read MoreIt is easy to get caught up in the doom and gloom that the 24-hour news cycle perpetuates. In addition, there is always the reality as any individual ages that death is the end of the line and can come at any time. So, of course that combination can cause many people to become pessimistic and believe that life is sad and painful. But, as pointed...
Read MoreOne of the more (in)famous analogies from The Meaning of Life: A guide to finding your life's purpose is the relationship between happiness and growth being like the relationship between grades and learning. The reason for the analogy is that a large portion of the population is married to the idea that happiness is the meaning of life and so no...
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