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5 things worth sharing this week.

What I’m reading

Fooled by Randomness by Nassim Taleb, here is my recent most favourite quote:

 “Accordingly, rules have their value. We just follow them not because they are the best but because they are useful and they save time and effort. Consider that those who started theorizing upon seeing a tiger on whether the tiger was of this or that taxonomic variety, and the degree of danger it represented, ended up being eaten by it. Others who just ran away at the smallest presumption and were not slowed down by the smallest amount of thinking ended up either outchasing the tiger or outchasing their cousin who ended up being eaten by”.

My note on this is that we shouldn’t overly theorise. What should we do instead? Use practical rule-of-thumb heuristics that actually help. Not everything needs to make perfect sense; it just needs to work.

An item I would highly recommend

I’ve been using the Amazon Kindle Paperwhite for the past several weeks.

I would typically read on my phone and rarely on my computer, but reading on the Paperwhite is much better on my eyes and makes it easier to read for longer without getting distracted.

One bold statement from me

“Prioritising the new over the old ( and even the ancient) harms you.”

I say this because ancient literature, religion, philosophy, etc, contains so much wisdom.

Answer me this?

If ancient literature, religion, and philosophy were useless, then why would they have survived the test of time? 

There is something to the “old” which makes it unperishable (the old that sticks around). 

It’s our job to extract as much wisdom from the past as possible.

And by doing so, we stand on the shoulders of giants.

A statement that I believe to be unwaveringly true

“If you want to be happy, be curious”

Some important questions to answer:

What are your values? Are you sticking to them? If you’re not, then why? What will help you stick to them? Suppose you’re not sticking to your values. In that case, the solution might just be deciding what they are and writing a mission statement for your life that encompasses them. 

Are your values rooted in religion? If they are are you sticking to your faith? If not you know what to do.

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