What is the most inspirational thing you saw or heard that changed your life?
What is the most inspirational thing you saw or heard that changed your life?
“I am somehow less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein’s brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have died in cotton fields and sweatshops”
-Stephen Jay Gould
I was absolutely joking, but in hindsight I can see that’s not clear.
There are a number of words that are being declared in some quarters to be so offensive they may not even be uttered, like “faggot” which I have been chastised for even uttering in quotation, and informed I must call “the f-slur”.
My take on this is it is giving power to these words they would not otherwise have and is deeply regressive. We should follow the example of “queer”, which used to be used in highly offensive ways but in recent years has been adopted and claimed by the queer community and has been stripped of much of its power.
I was trying to poke fun at the idiot who is trying to give “slave” new power to offend, but obviously I didn’t do it well.
Well not really. That is great man theory bs.
Newton did not “invent” gravity, it is an immutable law of the universe, no more did Marx “invent” socialism or the labor theory of value.
In both cases they observed actions and reactions that were testable and quantifiable and in both cases they were not the only ones to reach the same conclusions.
“The first thing that jumps to your mind isn’t always what you truly think. Sometimes, it’s just what you’ve been trained to think. What matters, is what you do next”
I grew up in a really racist, queerphobic environment, and that comment really helped me by letting me give myself space to undo the bigoted indoctrination I had been taught, without getting trapped in guilt and self disgust whenever one of the racist or bigoted things I was raised with jumped in to my mind.
It let me recognise the bigoted thought as something I was trained to think, rather than being what I actually believe, and by recognising it, I could disempower the thought, and start to unlearn it
That’s a powerful thought.
Conditioning significantly influences our psyche.
These thoughts that are the result of conditioning are like knee jerk reactions.
Our brain is designed to conserve energy so it actually prioritises conditioned knee jerk reactions rather than introspective thoughts.
One needs significant amount of training to bypass this process.
“You cannot love someone else until you love yourself.”
My dad raised me on this. If don’t see yourself worthy of love from even yourself, you’ll never be able to accept it from someone else. Healthy love is mutual. Also, this ties back into the idea that if you don’t see yourself worthy of love, it means you need to work on yourself until you do rather than trying to fill that gap with someone else.
When I first came across that wisdom I realized my desire in a relationship was to just pour myself into the other person, basically worship them. But not for their benefit, but to distract myself from myself. It’s fairly easy to see how that goes wrong.
I’m still learning, and I’ve found even more stuff I need to work on, but either I get there or I don’t, what matters if I never stopped trying.
Reminds me of 28 Days.
I did not kill this plant, it was sick or something. I gave it everything. I was talking to it, telling it stories. I drew a sketch of it, and put it on my refrigerator.
Did you water it?
I killed the plant.
If you won’t care in 10 years, don’t care now.
(In reference to bad things happening)
This saying in my local tounge
Which roughly translates to
“You small, I big , this thought of world is incorrect, A Thirsty man feels the the ocean is smaller than than a glass of fresh water”
Imagine above is a really Catchy rhyming.
I don’t think anyone will understand but here it is in local tounge trying to write the sound in English.
Tu nano, hu moto, e khyal jagat no koto. Tarsa ne to dariya karta loto lage moto.
I’m unfamiliar with it, but I imagine it’s something like this:
You are small and I am big, this is but a fantasy of the world. For thirst is larger than the vastness of the ocean.
I should add that this is likely a metaphor for how any desire (thirst) is infinite (ocean) and cannot be satiated.
But I could very well have misunderstood some part of it.
You can look it that way too but the meaning we try to say in my culture is that.
No man is above another man, when you need help than smallest of the person can be the most valuable person in the world. Hence the idea of “I am above you” is incorrect, a small person can be more helpful than a big person.
It means no person it more valuable than other. When you need help of someone he is the most valuable to you no matter how small he is.
Overall idea is that everyone has their own place in world and no one is above anyone else
It’s similar in sound but in written form the individual characters are different.
Some characters are identifiable by their similar shapes but many are different,
Aa - આ -
Pa - પ
Ra - ર
India - ઇન્ડિયા
Bharat - ભારત
“Excellence is not an act, but a habit” - Aristotle teaching that good comes from the whole, not from a single step. Focus on the whole, and the steps will follow.
“So, what’s the next action for this?” - the GTD approach to task management teaching me to be specific and then go do it (or plan it, or delegate it). This really kicks me into productivity mode.
I’ve always prided myself on being empathetic and sympathetic to people no matter what. During the me too times, a lady was being interviewed about why survivors and victims don’t go to the authorities about their treatment from (men) powerful people.
She said something along the lines of “stand with us if you want things to change, but don’t you dare stand opposite to tell me how offended I’m allowed to be”. In an instant I realised I’d been guilty of minimizing the suffering of others simply because I’d not been through what they’d been through (in a sense - if I wouldn’t be offended why should they?). Changed my whole outlook on life actually
Serii? (lol)
I hope he enjoys it too! Those are some very amazing books, although their size might be a bit dauting for some people.
I’m also looking forward to Stormilght 5 this december. Have to start my re-read in preparation for it soon.
"Security does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Life either a daring adventure or nothing.”
Probably most speeches by Conan O’Brien.
Conan O’Brien’s 2011 Dartmouth College Commencement Address: youtu.be/KmDYXaaT9sA
Conan Addresses The Harvard Class Of 2020: youtu.be/VI2B3sZ1GaY
Very riveting stuff.
I love that movie for so many reasons.
I loved that if you stayed through the credits there was a small bit there.
I think it was the first movie to do that.