learning

Who are you?

Civilization ‘helps’ answer the question, “Who am I”? The cultural story we hear from infancy drums into us who we are and who we should be. Essentially, this is a form of ‘natural’ brainwashing — ‘natural’ in that the brainwashers are themselves brainwashed. Because the story is essentially arbitrary, we spend our lives striving to […]

Alone with Thought

Two recent Science News pieces touch on a core human problem. The problem is, as chapter 71 puts it, “Realizing I don’t’ know is better; not knowing this knowing is disease.” The anthropology book review, Kidding Ourselves, shows the rational side of self-deception. The other, People will take pain over being left alone with their […]

Flow Triggers

The Rise of Superman: 17 Flow Triggers is an interesting review of essential ‘flow triggers’ as the author Steven Kotler calls them in his book The Rise of Superman: Decoding the Science of Ultimate Human Performance. Anyone comfortable with the Zen(1) point of view will recognize them right off. Steven rephrases them in a religiously […]

Profound Connections Enlighten

Profound sameness is a continually enlightening perceptual process, in my view. Thus, any research that supports profound sameness, even tangentially, warrants review. Listen to this short talk on NPR by Dr. Matthew Walker, director of UC Berkeley’s Sleep and Neuroimaging Laboratory: Memory Pinball And Other Reasons You Need A Nap. (For a little more detail, […]

Emotion Speaks… Literally

I learned to speak a number of languages during my traveling years. Learning a language in country ‘on the job’, so to speak, is an easy, quick and enjoyable way to learn. During those years, my interest was to communicate—not eloquently mind you, but just enough to get by. Several hundred words and some fearless […]

Earn It to Learn It

Knowing, in the Taoist sense of the word, is not knowledge per se. As chapter 15 puts it, Of old, the adept student was minutely subtle, open and deep beyond knowledge. Times are different now. Our modern electrified pace of life is continuously updating every facet of human knowledge. However, this is not the case […]

Feeding the Worry Gene

Have you noticed how there is something always ‘wrong’. No matter how good things are, something will soon go awry. All this is obvious, I suppose. That is what makes the News, news. What is less obvious is how the perception and experience of good fortune and misfortune are complimentary, as chapter 58 puts it, […]

The Why Of It

Digging down into the bottomless mystery—the why of it—feels a quixotic quest at times. Then I add quixotic insult to injury by posting my observations on the web. I know these are palatable to only a few people and they already know intuitively what I’m saying, more likely than not. What is the point? Ah, […]

“It’s the Economy Stupid”

Do you remember that pithy campaign comment from James Carville, “It’s the economy stupid”? I wonder if he knew how deeply universal that truth is. Why don’t educators put this at the top of their list of the basic education each person must have? Could it be they don’t know? Economics is survival for all […]

Upping the Ante

Have you noticed the ever-present urge to continue ‘upping the ante’? Not only that, but isn’t the sky often the limit? We can’t help but aim for the next step up, and when we reach it, that level becomes our new bottom line. Most of us are content for a little while, but then we […]

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