Pleasure of Jun’ichiro Tanizaki’s Literature
In Dawn to the West, his “History of Japanese Literature” series, Japanologist Donald Keene, the eminent American-born scholar of Japanese literature, writes about the vividness of the works of Jun’ichirō Tanizaki, one of Japan’s most popular novelists: No one would turn to Tanizaki for wisdom as to how a man should live his life, nor […]
Having a Too-Hard Pile
Charlie Munger said at Daily Journal 2019 Annual Shareholders’ Meeting, Part of our secret is that we don’t attempt to know a lot of things. I have a pile on my desk that solves most of my problems. It’s called the too-hard pile. And I just keep shifting things to the too-hard pile. Every once […]
Appreciating the Moment
Self-help guru Leo Babauta writes in Dropping Distraction, Sit still for a few minutes and pay attention to what’s around you. Notice the quality of the light. Appreciate any people who might be nearby. Notice the quality of your thoughts, the sensations of various parts of your body, the loveliness of your breath as it […]
How to Handle Failure
In the bestselling The Four: The Hidden DNA of Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google, New York University-academic and business analyst Scott Galloway advices taking things in stride: Nothing is ever as good or bad as it seems. All situations and emotions pass. When you have a big victory, pull in your horns and be risk […]
Comparing Abortion and Killing Chimpanzees
Richard Dawkins writes in A Devil’s Chaplain: Reflections on Hope, Lies, Science, and Love, Science cannot tell you whether abortion is wrong, but it can point out that the (embryological) continuum that seamlessly joins a non-sentient foetus to a sentient adult is analogous to the (evolutionary) continuum that joins humans to other species. If the […]
A Revolution of Ignorance
Israeli historian Yuval Noah Harari writes in his international bestseller Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, The Scientific Revolution has not been a revolution of knowledge. It has been above all a revolution of ignorance. The great discovery that launched the Scientific Revolution was the discovery that humans do not know the answers to their […]
A New and Limitless Utopia
Colombian writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s novel Cien Anos De Soledad (One Hundred Years of Solitude, 1967) is a milestone in literary theory and history. His works have motivated writers all over the world. In his acceptance speech for the Nobel Prize for literature in 1982, he acknowledged, Face to face with a reality that overwhelms […]
Warren Buffett Discusses the IQ Score Needed to Succeed
Warren Buffett often declares that, to succeed, more important than IQ, is rationality and emotional stability. Morgan Housel discusses: Take two investors. One is an MIT rocket scientist who aced his SATs and can recite pi out to 50 decimal places. He trades several times a week, tapping his intellect in an attempt to outsmart […]
The True Essence of Consciousness
Norwegian-American Buddhist teacher Gil Fronsdal offers his views on the meaning of nirvana in the article “Nirvana: Three Takes” in the Fall 2006 issue of Tricycle: The Buddhist Review: The essence of our consciousness is already love and wisdom. Karma, concepts, and emotional patterns are only temporarily preventing our consciousness from unfolding its enlightened nature. […]
Combating Lies and Ignorance
German playwright and theoretician Bertolt Brecht writes in Writing the Truth: Five Difficulties, Nowadays, anyone who wishes to combat lies and ignorance and to write the truth must overcome at least five difficulties. He must have the courage to write the truth when truth is everywhere opposed; the keenness to recognize it, although it is […]