In college I wrote an essay about how Ex Machina is mythologically about Nietzsche’s “God is dead and we have killed him” the prof loved it so much he kept a copy to show future students and I’ve been chasing that high ever since Christian symbols:
- the AI’s name is Ava, a near-anagram of Eve
- she’s also created from man (she’s based on Caleb’s porn searches)
- there’s a tree in her enclosure; when Ava learns that she’s a bot she plots her escape (and she puts on clothes)
- the Turing test takes 7 days

Happiness isn’t eating plump figs in the south of France, hallucinating at Burning Man, binge-watching Netflix, or playing a good round of golf. Happiness is the pursuit of purpose, done individually and with a community: The Hebrew Bible calls happiness simcha, Aristotle called it eudaemonia. Both with and without religious context, happiness comes from living aligned to a purpose that has been given by a Creator. Simcha is about living aligned to what God has purposed for you:

Anxiety is a sign that you haven’t fully made sense of something in the past. Because the only way that the future can feel threatening is if you’re afraid that something you know you can’t handle is going to happen again. Memories that haven’t been fully processed will linger: Your brain and your body are constantly feeling out how safe the current surroundings are, and it does that by gauging how many unknown variables there are. Bad experiences that are not fully made sense of remain feeling like a potentially dangerous unknown.

My first book “Seven Principles of Self-Stewardship” will be out by the end of 2023.

📕 Here are the chapters: What is self-stewardship?

Somewhere between discipline and self-compassion, you must take care of yourself as if you were someone you’re responsible for. Ask yourself, “If I were living already for the second time and circumstances were the same, how would I advise myself?”

I did a silent retreat a while back (before it was a spirituality trend) and it consisted of duties such as cleaning and waking up early. My friend and I half-joked about how silent retreats have the best business model because people pay to shut up and scrub your floors. But all jokes aside it’s worthy to note how powerful a simple mindset switch can be. Cleaning for a retreat centre? A privilege. Cleaning my own kitchen? A nuisance. When “I HAVE to” turns into “I GET to”, duty becomes our delight.

My favorite movie trope right now is the mythological cat-deity. Cats represent magic and supernatural powers. They’re friendly tricksters (unlike the Fox archetype) and dis/appear in and out of reality when they are called upon—that is, when they are needed by mortal friends. The Egyptians worshipped cats as deities, the Japanese believe cats bring good luck. Cheshire (a floating cat that appears when he is needed) gives sage advice in the form of lighthearted parables. The Greek Sphinx hoarded secrets. When accompanying witches, cats are prophetic.

I reread @jk_rowling’s 2008 Harvard speech a lot, especially this line:

“There is an expiry date on blaming your parents for steering you in the wrong direction; the moment you are old enough to take the wheel, responsibility lies with you.” We don’t get to choose the hand we’re dealt but we get to play it to our advantage. Circumstances can make or break us depending on what we do about it, and there comes a day we have to cut the psychological umbilical cord—mental ties like blaming your parents for who you are.

My favorite story to tell at interviews is about how I once had a tutor who refused to continue lessons because I was slacking off. She told me “you can’t have million dollar dreams with a hundred dollar work ethic.” If I wasn’t giving my best effort, neither was she. To this day I believe that that’s where I got my work ethic, and work ethic is only one part. I also realized that learning is not equal to understanding. Understanding something is existential, not intellectual. Theory only becomes useful when it is crystallized in practice.

I think that the popularity of podcasts (as opposed to books) can be attributed to some historical/instinctive fondness we have for storytelling (and being told stories). Information was passed orally between people before it was written down and read. Another reason why I think podcasts are liked is because we have this propensity for eavesdropping and mingling. We’re social and we’re curious about what strangers discuss. Podcasts are nice because they let you into the conversation while never asking you to contribute.