A lot of self-help advice is formulated as what to do to succeed. But, most success is based on avoiding attrition. People generally like those they’ve known for a while for no reason other than the fact that a neutral track record is a positive track record. The bar is in hell. The first stepContinue reading “How to Lose Friends and Alienate People”
Author Archives: idj4thinking
Write Stuff Down!
What’s one small improvement you can make in your life? Bettering yourself is the result of thousands of tiny choices. Those small choices need to be visible to you, to have sticking power. A choice in the hand is worth two in the bush. Once you decide what to do, you should write it downContinue reading “Write Stuff Down!”
Debate Coach Delivers Harsh Truth
Share a story about someone who had a positive impact on your life. When I was younger, I believed that because I was a strong analytical thinker, I’d be unstoppable in debate and the rest of life. My beliefs didn’t match reality. Not only was I mediocre at debate, but I was unfriendly, and aContinue reading “Debate Coach Delivers Harsh Truth”
The Freedom To Be Disliked
What does freedom mean to you? I remember viscerally when one person who I called a friend at the time told me how I had to think about his religion and belief system. I told him in no uncertain terms that I have the ability to make my own judgements about ideas, and while IContinue reading “The Freedom To Be Disliked”
🚨Public intellectual assessment time!🚨
What public figure do you disagree with the most? I’m not naming names. When you try to determine which public figures are credible, it’s important to understand generally how they get to conclusions, how transparent their process is, and whether their track record holds up. For instance, if it’s hard to follow a train ofContinue reading “🚨Public intellectual assessment time!🚨”
All Habits Start Small
The idea that someone wakes up one day, and conquers the world, vanquishing anyone in his way is a delusion fed to us by Hollywood. It’s dramatic, high-stakes, and consistently not based in reality. Instead, successful habits are built gradually over time, step by step. The first step to building a habit is to haveContinue reading “All Habits Start Small”
Misterwives, certainly better than sister wives.
What was the last live performance you saw? The last musician I heard live was Misterwives, a poppy indie-rock band. This was a magical performance and the energy was impeccable. The new album they have out is very catchy, and I found myself going through it and getting a little obsessed with individual songs, particularlyContinue reading “Misterwives, certainly better than sister wives.”
Suspicious of Kaldor-Hicks as Optimality Conditions
Wikipedia explains that the Kaldor-Hicks improvement criteria is essentially a less stringent version of a Pareto improvement, something where in practice, everyone is made better off. In the Kaldor-Hicks view, merely the ability of the winners to compensate the losers is grounds for claiming something is optimal, regardless of whether such compensation occurs. The basicContinue reading “Suspicious of Kaldor-Hicks as Optimality Conditions”
Self-Actualizing My Interests
What do you do to be involved in the community? One barrier that many people find to making friends is that they don’t prioritize doing things they enjoy. Typically, friendship revolving around a shared interest, especially for a man, is easier to bond over. Men, in general, are more likely to bond working on aContinue reading “Self-Actualizing My Interests”
What can I help you with? I’m building a male friendship course and I want your feedback
I recently learned that 53% of men are dissatisfied in their relationships with their friends and that 1/7 men have no close friends. This number is frightening to me, because a lack of friendships makes it 25% more likely that someone dies in the next four years. And, that’s not even considering the mental anguishContinue reading “What can I help you with? I’m building a male friendship course and I want your feedback”
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