Life...

Life..

• is nothing what it seems...
• Moving forward/progressing would happen no matter what direction you take..
• is filled with obstacles that repeat over the course of your life, but looking at things differently each time lets you explore opportunities you might have missed..

Taking Inspirations...

"It is said that Sartre drank thirty cups of coffee a day in order to function correctly.

It is also said that Philip K. Dick used vast amounts of speed.

Picasso had a lot of sex.

Bandelaire surprisingly relied on routine, whilst Magritte preferred suburbia.

Charles Dickens was spurred on by deadlines.

Mozart liked solitude.

Some artists work late at night, others early in the morning.

Some are quiet, some talk a lot. Many drink a lot.

…

Clearly the whole issue of inspiration is unclear."

 

-- Storm Thorgerson, art director, Pink Floyd

Leaders...

This is something I cant resist sharing...an old Dilbert classic:

Source: http://dilbert.com/fast/1995-02-05/

Happyness..Epicurus Style...

Here you go again…happiness!

So it turns out that Epicurus was right about Happiness..almost.

http://www.spring.org.uk/2007/12/hedonist-philosopher-epicurus-was-right.php

"If a little is not enough for you, nothing is." –Epicurus

All the more..what’s amusing to me is the fact that philosophers..since ages..have been keen to tell the rest of us.. “how to live” and “how to be happy”.

And..if we go by it…the advice comes to us “with the lustre of intellectual achievement”…WTF?

Isn’t this in itself .. Being happy for them?

So..this is what the dude(err..I mean Epicurus) suggested..

1. Don't fear the gods (or fate, or blind chance)
2. Don't worry about death
3. What is good is easy to get
4. What is terrible is easy to endure

Philosophy: Study of philosophy is central to happiness…can help us deal with both..our fear of death and.. of the gods.

Friendship: Friendship is one of the most important aspects of the good life. Not only does it give us many benefits, it also benefits our friends as well.

Now, this is interesting.. Epicurus advised against getting married. He wasn't that impressed with sex either saying we should count ourselves lucky if sex didn't cause anyone any harm(!).

Prudence: is an excellent way of making decisions. All decisions can be seen as leading to pleasure or pain. Thinking ahead, planning for the future with these possible outcomes in mind will help lead a pleasurable life.

Security: Well you have to agree to it as-is…

 

And, according to the modern school of thought…

1. Epicurus was wrong about the detached life and commune living

2. Epicurus was wrong about avoiding marriage
3. Pleasure is not the opposite of pain

And this is what our dude got right…

1. Using cognitive strategies to deal with death and pain
2. Friendships matter more than status or money
3. Happiness comes from moderate varied pleasure

Nature and Death...

I read this interesting quote today...

"Nature is God's way of killing you."

And it occurs that..
"Aging is Nature's way of killing you".

But, you might want to ask..
Why does God want me to die?

Nothing is better than a drunken monkey...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYuIYNaKynI

This is another pretty old interesting story..

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3580626.stm

“Apparently a black bear broke into a cooler, guzzled 36 cans of beer, and then passed out. The irony is that the bear tried a can of Busch, but rejected it in favor of a local brand.”

'random' v/s 'equally distributed'...

I do this all the time…mistaking ‘random’ with ‘equally distributed'.

 

For instance, if you ask someone to select 5 ‘random’ people in a room..they will choose one/two from the middle..one from the front..one from the back..and the last one from some area of the room un-noticed yet.

They will also make the sex distribution as equal as possible…regardless of the proportion of males/females present in the room.

 

This is not being ‘random’, but actually being ‘equally distributed’.

 

Btw, can humans generate ‘random’ events?

 

I think..it’s impossible to come up with a random sequence just by pulling it out of your head. We can’t help stop thinking..