Things I’ve learned and come to believe. Subject to change
1.We have evolved to reproduce, not to be happy. This does not me we can not be happy. Helen Fischer – Ted Talks h
ttp://www.ted.com/speakers/helen_fisher.html
http://helenfisher.com/
2. Because of one, we all want to reproduce, and much of what we do is the result of this desire, or the consequences of the desire fulfilled.
3. We have an insatiable hunger for plastic things you put batteries into that have flashing lights and make beeping sounds.
4. 2 and 3 are some how related.
5.”Most of economics can be summarized in four words: “People respond to incentives.” The rest is commentary.” .
http://www.landsburg.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Landsburg
6. Incentives are created by supply, demand, and the infrastructure created to communicate information about supply and demand in the world.
7. Even with advances in technology, the social infrastructure built on mutual trust still has a large influence what people know about supply and demand, or at least how they can fulfill their demand with supply, or bring their supply to demand.
8. Infrastructure, and the planning required to build it are more important than willpower.
http://www.iwillteachyoutoberich.com/blog/personal-finance-is-not-about-more-willpower/
9.Continuous evolution/adaption is necessary for success/happiness.
10.There is no development without human development, there is no growth without human growth.
11.There are many forms of capital and currency that are not financial. Tim Ferriss – http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2009/06/29/how-to-build-a-high-traffic-blog-without-killing-yourself/
12.The value of non financial currencies are often difficult to articulate in financial terms, and for this reason are often times undervalued.
13.Many times financial capital growth is not a net growth of capital, just a transformation of one form of capital into another. Example – a rain forest into boards, or soy fields which are converted into cheese burgers. The mental health of a population of people who are exploited to work in a factory.
14.The most important quality of growth, or change in an economy, is how that change affects human capital.
15. Growth is not a linear path through two dimensions,time and value, but a spectrum through multiple dimensions.
16. The set of behaviors, or patterns of behavior, that help us survive one environment will lead us to a new environment, where this set and pattern of behaviors, or logic, may keep us from thriving in a new environment, and may eventually kill us.
17. Many times, what we don’t know we don’t know is what we need to know. The first step is figuring that out. Eric Reis lean start up http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2009/05/19/vanity-metrics-vs-actionable-metrics/
http://startuplessonslearned.blogspot.com/2008/09/lean-startup.html
18. The meaning of life is to live. experience is the goal of life. Joseph Campbell – the power of myth http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Campbell http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Power_of_Myth
Kevin Kelly kk.org
http://www.kk.org/2008/04/the-triumph-of-experience.php http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/22/science/22conv.html?_r=2&sq=daniel%20gilbert&st=nyt&oref=slogin&scp=1&pagewanted=all
Tim Ferriss
19. The goal of growth is to help people live, to cultivate currency and capital, both financial and non financial, to have experience and the freedom to have experience.
20. Love defined : The will to extend one’s self for the purpose of nurturing one’s own or another’s spiritual growth. The Road Less Traveled, Scott M Peck
What is spiritual growth?
He later writes that love is courage in the face of fear and work in the face of laziness. Following that, spiritual growth is growth in the ability to be courageous or the ability to do work.
Work and courage help us experience life.
This growth comes from discipline
More notes from the book
Love is an action, not a feeling. Life is difficult.
Life is full of problems. It is the solving of these problems that gives life meaning.
Discipline is the means to solving problems. Discipline is made up of the following: Delay gratification
Take responsibility
Dedication to reality Balance, or disciplining discipline.
It is discipline which allows us to constructively face legitimate suffering, constructive in that it helps us to grow, and over come this suffering to face new suffering.
21. Attention is love.
‘To love is to be there” Thich Nhat Hanh
22. Attention, when used properly, creates real growth, an increase in an ability to experience life, and to have more focused attention.
23. Attention and neglect seem to echo through people.
24. Attention is a non renewable resource
Tim Ferriss
25. Farts and farting are universally funny.
This is what I got so far, and what I’ve been thinking about.
Feedback to Ed’s blog:
1. Helen Fisher: Fun, pretty interesting personality test at Chemistry.com. Yes, it’s a single’s site, but worth getting through the personality thing. A related article:
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200907/divorce
The ted.com video of Helen Fisher is very enlightening.
2. How reproduction and battery-filled plastic objects are related brings up lots of interesting thoughts, ranging from vibrators to the power associate with possession. Thoughts?
3. In response to #5: agreed. #6: How powerful is the communication element in defining incentives? How can we use communication to encourage positive behaviors – how can we create incentives for positive social change (#14)?
4. Re. #11. One example of this is Natural Capitalism: http://www.amazon.com/Natural-Capitalism/dp/B001H181UM/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1248543561&sr=8-2, which you refer to when you mention the transfer of capital – a rain forest into boards. I think you would enjoy reading about the green design project the book highlights, among other things.
5. Re. #16. The success of humans as a species relies on our incredible adaptability to new environments (physical, social, etc). As mentioned in the happiness article you flagged.
6. From the vanity metrics page: A comment on http://www.imvu.com/ and experience (#18) – “be the person you want to be”, “have fun”, “meet people from around the world” – what limits do people put on themselves that make them think that this can’t be their true reality, and only could exist in virtual reality? What are some tools we could use to discipline ourselves to achieve our best possible true reality?
7. Regarding work, discipline and spiritual growth: I highly recommend you read Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged as a beautiful example of spiritual/political growth in the context of American capitalism. Also speaks of guilt, ability and responsibility.
8. This blog you posted: http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2008/02/06/the-choice-minimal-lifestyle-6-formulas-for-more-output-and-less-overwhelm/ and associated links are particularly interesting. Demonstrates the power of the mind.