purpose

To illustrate the difference between art and technique, he tells the story of two people who each make a glass cup: the first person designs a fine, functional glass from which one can drink perfectly, but the second person, an artisan, creates another glass cup that is so special, it generates an emotional reaction.

The Greeks would say the second... See more

Conviction is an extension of self-knowledge. It emerges from your experiences and prior conditions. To know that is to know yourself. Being someone with conviction is really just living with clarity, and everything else is downstream of this self-knowledge.

Why should the universe have a purpose? The question of the purpose of the universe is an invention of human minds, and has no significance, except for the way that it illuminates the psychology of scholarly pursuit and of the pursuing scholars themselves. We should not impose human-inspired attitudes and questions on material things. There is a

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"Ideas start out small, weak, and fragile. In order to grow, ideas need financial capital. But they also need emotional capital - good energy, positivity, and resilience. The best way to control your emotional capital is to fine tune your internal monologue and replace your hunger for approval with a desire to grow." ... See more

In the short term a 1-of-1 purpose will almost always fail. Every day is yet another moment that people didn’t follow your vision and the world failed to transform according to your ideas. The failures are literally limitless.

With a longer view, however, this process looks different. Eighty straight days of struggling in the darkness can produce... See more