Mediation makes you realize how little control you have over your mind
In order to have focus you have to be able to silence the stories the mind spins all day
The meaning of life is to liberate yourself and others from suffering, you can’t end suffering so you find something worth suffering for
The best books start as lecture notes because people give immediate feedback, computer screens don’t. The even better books start as lecture notes to intro students because they can’t mask knowledge with jargon, they need to explain it clearly
Humans gain our power from our ability to cooperate in large quantities. We have this ability because we can believe in fictional stories (religion / money / corporations)
The stories are tools to serve us we should not become enslaved by them
Money is the best system of trust humans have ever come up with. It allows us to trust people instantly without having to know them. Before money you had to trust every person individually who you made trades with, money reduces the need for that
Detachment is a super power
Everyone wants to be understood
The 3 main problems facing humanity:
There is consensus that the first two are bad, the third is much more complicated because some people’s dreams are others nightmares (AI, bio engineering)
There are 2 possibilities:
Improvement in one area always comes at the expense of another
The next revolution we be from the introduction of inorganic beings. We can’t even fathom what this will bring because our minds are bound by their organic composition