Stuff to bring up at a dinner party

We evaluate almost every action, habit, and preference not just by its immediate effects but by its reputational impact.

We are social creatures, and almost everything puzzling and paradoxical about our species is downstream of this fact.

“Almost every idea that you have is downstream from what you consume. When you choose who to follow on Twitter, what book to read, what podcast to listen to, you’re choosing your future thoughts.”

They too must serve masters who hold the purse strings. And their great intellectual powers can make the master feel insecure, as if he were only there to supply the funds—an ugly, ignoble job. The producer of a great work wants to feel he is more than just the provider of financing. He wants to appear creative and powerful, and also more important... See more

To put the point another way: Nobody expects a computer simulation of a hurricane to generate real wind and real rain. In the same way, a computer model of the brain may only ever simulate consciousness, but never give rise to it.

Producing original or interesting or creative work is a delicate balance between believing what you are doing is incredibly important (otherwise why are you doing it?) and believing that it is not particularly important (otherwise you will be paralyzed into inaction or its close cousin, perfectionism).