Vastness Q&A
Following up on the fact that you are a gift. 1. Why do we exist in the limited and disconnected way we do? What we’re experiencing is a game of our own creation. We are playing each other by imagining new ways to love and connect. What if we loved like this or had a connection like that. And like giggling, cosmic children, we embrace those whims and find out [...]
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The Gift and the Vastness
The Wave There was once a wave in the ocean, speeding along the surface, basking in the sun with the wind in his face, loving his life and playing with the other waves. He was always happy until he looked away at the distance, and saw the coming shore. He was horrified to see other waves ahead of him crashing into the rocks, breaking and dying. Another wave nearby noticed [...]
The Science of Self Help
One aspect of the self help industry that turns a lot of people off is the lack of a truly scientific basis. I’m writing about the 6 Fundamental Human Needs right now, but there are no rigorous studies to back that up. In fact, there’s no way to even design a rigorous study that would support or reject any actual hypothesis about them. There are no physical structures in our [...]
Ending the Cycle of Abuse
“You’re nothing without me” “If you even think about leaving me…” “You don’t deserve me” “You’ll never find anyone as good as me” “You brought this upon yourself” “I know best” “You’re a terrible person, and you need me to be better.” “You’re not worthy of my love” “I’m only doing this because I love you” “Don’t listen to anyone who doesn’t understand what we have, they are just trying [...]
Quality Problems vs Safe Problems
1. An anonymous poster asked a question on reddit: My GF has genital herpes and I don’t. I love her with all my heart, but I live day to day wondering if I should stay with her So from the very beginning of the relationship she was honest about her condition. Her ex cheated on her and got it and then gave it to her. I was a little bit [...]
How to Radically Change Your Life
I have a friend named Layla who is one of the best people I know; when she was about 20 years old, in the 50s, she left her nice little home in Britain, and went by herself, literally wading through the jungles of Central Africa. Chest deep in muck, elephant gun held high above her head, she found the famous explorer she’d been looking for and spent the following years [...]
Fundamental Needs #3: Massive Ink
Lucky Diamond Rich is most tattooed man in the world. He has tattoos across 100% of his body, including the insides of his eye lids and foreskin. When his whole body was filled, he began tattooing over the black ink with white ink, and various other colors. As if not risking enough infection, he also has large, subdermal implants variously placed on his body. I’ve personally never wanted tattoos—or bumper [...]
Making Others Happy
Doing what everyone else wants has its perks. I graduated from high school right around my 15th birthday. I never liked school and I got nothing but mediocre grades until I skipped from 5th grade into high school. Impressive (to whom?). Then I continued getting mediocre grades until I graduated. It was all very disappointing (to whom?), and I was rejected from LSU when I applied. I wrote a letter [...]
Young and Dumb
1. I was a precocious kid, the kind that’s remarkably well-spoken for a 6 year old, and everyone thinks it’s cute. At that time I figured, since I got along with adults so well, I must be pretty much on par. I knew I had facts and figures to learn, but obviously I operated on a similar level. But then I turned 10, and I could plainly see how much [...]
Life is a Sunset
Earlier this week I wrote about the importance of being unattached to outcomes and someone commented that it was a very Buddhist philosophy. Buddhist see everything in this world as temporary and encourage people to disengage from temporary things to break the cycle of rebirth. I don’t consider myself Buddhist, because I think disengagement isn’t the right answer. I think we’re here having a human experience, and we should revel [...]
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How I retired at age 25
When I was younger I pulled some ballsy moves, trying to get rich young. My goal was to be rich enough to do whatever I wanted to do by the time I was 25. Back then I planned to fight my way to the top of the ladder, and sky dive from the ladder’s lofty heights into retirement, riding a golden parachute. Instead I was left out to dry by [...]
Achievement Porn
Hacker News pointed me to an article recently called “Addicted to Fake Achievement“. That article is about video games, but this one isn’t. The thesis of that article is that some games (it mentions Role Playing Games) don’t actually require skill, just time. You start with a weak character and perform some task that’s almost too easy to fail. You’re rewarded by gaining access to another task that is also [...]