Mental Tools

Trauma: Did Your Childhood Mess You Up, Man?

American culture has has created, popularized and amplified a great many wonderful things. But one of its bastard children is decidedly unwonderful. And, no, I’m not talking about fast food, although that was a good guess. Trauma. Specifically, the idea of trauma as being indelible and definitive. We take the idea for granted now, but…

Crisis: Sic Semper Erat, et Sic Semper Erit

Recently, I was doing some immersion multiplexing, and this song come up in the background behind the Cantonese podcast I was foregrounding (it’s a very weird podcast, I wouldn’t recommend it unless you like weird things): [(34) gotta get thru this (acoustic) – daniel bedingfield – YouTube] goo.gl/DiQHLy [Gotta Get Thru This (song) – Wikipedia]…

Fight Battles, Not Wars

This entry is part 16 of 17 in the series The Art of War of Learning

This entry is part 16 of 17 in the series The Art of War of LearningYou don’t fight wars. You plan wars. Heaven help us, I do sound awfully bellicose, don’t I? Again, this is war as metaphor; I’m a pacifist and a coward to boot. I’m literally afraid of the dark (still sleep with…

War! What Is It Good For?

This entry is part 4 of 17 in the series The Art of War of Learning

This entry is part 4 of 17 in the series The Art of War of Learning Teaching us how to allocate our time, energy and resources (TER) productively. People take limits in war seriously because death and destruction are salient consequences. Reified fecal matter can come into contact with air distribution appliances rather rapidly.  …