increasing my surface area
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increasing my surface area
SOREN: Because there's a little bit of a feeling that, like, I don't know, being small or average or a little bit whatever, in the middle, it makes you feel sort of insignificant or something. But size is actually like a weirdly interesting thing, because when something gets bigger, it's not just a bigger version of the same thing. Like, when you... See more
The Middle of Everything Ever - Transcript
“Dunbar’s number” is a theoretical cognitive limit on the number of stable social relationships humans can maintain at one time. According to Robin Dunbar, a British anthropologist, humans have the cognitive capacity to keep track of somewhere around 150 close personal connections. Beyond this limited circle, we start treating people less like
... See moreJosh Kaufman • The Personal MBA: A World-Class Business Education in a Single Volume
we cannot assume that everything interesting is at the same scale as ourselves.
John Brockman • This Will Make You Smarter: 150 New Scientific Concepts to Improve Your Thinking (Edge Question Series)
Satisfaction comes not from chasing bigger and bigger things, but paying attention to smaller and smaller things.
Arthur C. Brooks • From Strength to Strength
Whenever I get caught in “make-a-dent-in-the-universe” thinking, I ask myself WIIWAF (what if I were a frog?)
A natural response to death is to aspire to rupture space-time: found a company, or a name-recognition indie band, or a book that sells beyond your life. But who really makes a dent in the universe? Steve Jobs? Jonas Salk? Genghis Kahn?
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as far as you can manage it, you should make sure your psychological centre of gravity is in your real and immediate world – the world of your family and friends and neighborhood, your work and your creative projects, as opposed to the world of presidencies and governments, social forces and global emergencies.
This will make you happier. It will
... See moreI’ve found one tried-and-tested mindfulness exercise to be helpful here. Become consciously aware of your feet – of their position in space and their temperature, their contact with your footwear or the ground. Come out of your head for a moment, and especially out of other people’s heads. Here you are. Here. On the ground. Now: what feels like it
... See moreI think the frogs have something to teach us about living in the world today. There are risks and rewards to baring your soul to the jungle. Still, I worry about disappearing altogether. By keeping things too close, do I risk becoming invisible? If I show too much of myself, if I let the wrong light in, do I risk having my contours become... See more