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Imagine if governments decided to add Prozac, an antidepressant, to the public water supply with the intention of enhancing the population's overall h

Mary’s Room (Frank Jackson): This thought experiment questions the nature of consciousness and the acquisition of knowledge. Mary is a scientist who h

chinese room

The Chinese Room Argument (John Searle): Searle imagines a scenario in which a person who does not understand Chinese is locked in a room full of boxe

The ideal conditions for our best work aren't the same as the conditions for our comfort. Super annoying. The best stuff comes from less comfortable p

His many wise words are all downstream from his wise life, generous friendship, and faithful devotion to beloved goods.

We require heroism of our entertainers. We want them sacrificing themselves to a certain ultimate degree of input. No one can sing this loud, and yet

i stayed and looked at the sleeping dead duck. due to a lifetime of zoloft, i cannot cry. my eyes dont make tears. but i can feel the feeling of being

Non-coercive marketing is about creating customers who are both happy and empowered. […] An empowered customer is someone whose choice to transact com

Expected elation. Society has built a world that defines what's appealing and what's not. What success should look like. I spent years chasing this id

What impresses you? Why? Money? Cars? Fitness? Abilities? Intelligence? Influence? I often find myself feeling impressed by something and desiring it,

“The modern man is always claiming a self-sufficiency which he is unable to achieve. He constantly compares himself with other people and, afraid that

What is your relationship to objects and their connection with desire?

I didn’t feel comfortable inside the endlessness of it. I am the kind of writer who believes in taking the time I need to come up with something worth

“Life is always winking at us, calling our attention to the beauty hidden in plain sight. Why do we so often miss what’s right in front of us, lost in

The writer Ted Chiang was once asked in an interview if he ever considered publishing more frequently. Chiang, one of the greatest living fiction writ

The game has shifted, and the winning strategy with it. It’s no longer about understanding specialized details; it’s about grasping the high-level glo

What we do with our freedomThe examples of the excruciating etiquette of the aristocratic courts, the marriage market Rhimes dramatised, the civil ass

The workforce is splitting in two. Tech workers are either amplified by AI or shaken by it, and that divide shapes their feelings about work more than

Why am I so sure about this?

What is this teaching me?

Scott Alexander’s recent post argues that the best response to AI displacement isn’t optimization or doomerism—it’s play. Figure out what you actually

what would one imperfect action teach me?

Burnout is not what it presents: it’s not about working too hard for too long, burnout is about working in the face of a goal that seems too far out,

There’s a phrase making the rounds online: “The more I heal, the less ambitious I become.” I’ve been wondering if its resonance reveals a quiet fatigu

I am not less capable because I refuse to live in constant activation. I’m just less exploitable.

My body was not an obstacle to ambition, but the barometer for what sustainable ambition could look like now.

Host: And of course, the luxury sector spans over so many different products. But what do you think the definition of luxury is?Bernard Arnault: First

to be successful, you have to have the combination between modernity and timelessness.