NonTrivial

Meditation is a practice that has been around for thousands of years and is used for various purposes. But meditation is practiced periodically, once a day at best. This means the state of mind that makes the most difference in our life only makes up a small portion of our life. We need our most important state of mind to always be on, with us as we interact with the world. We need to see meditation not as a once-in-a-while session, but as an ever-present state of mind.

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Logic and emotion are both important. But society often chooses one or the other, rather than having them work together. This occurs because society tries to attend to emotions rather than use them effectively. If I redress my logic in the hopes of appeasing someone who's "offended" we fail to reach a rational solution. If I maintain my logic absent the other person's emotions, their feelings are not being acknowledged. Neither works, yet logic and emotion must be compatible. I show how the proper way to use our emotions is to recast what we feel onto logical structure. This ensures we recognize emotions as critical evolutionary signals, while directing them towards constructive ends.

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We all want a better world. But society cannot be forced into a specific governance or morality. In this episode I argue that we need to build our world from within, as individuals with solid moral and intellectual integrity. Only through a better inner world will our collective world reflect the truths we deem most important as individuals. I offer a solution that rises above any specific world view, promoting a better world without compromising other's existing beliefs.

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We all want our voices to be heard. But the reality is most of us will never live to see much of an audience. We need to realize we’re not really speaking to today’s generation, as much as we are to future people who will encounter our work. There are countless examples throughout history of people who died never seeing their true impact. As long we make our thoughts tangible, our audience will always be much larger than what we see today.

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We are told by society to chase happiness; that the "pursuit of happiness" is the most sensible goal in life.  But I argue that happiness has much in common with misery when it comes to pursuing goals. Both happiness and misery are emotional extremes, and both things we cannot control. Making that which we cannot control a goal in life is untenable. I argue that we need to see the pursuit of contentment as being far superior to the pursuit of happiness.

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Our best ideas come unannounced. We might be walking, taking a shower, playing with our children, etc. But this means when we sit down to do our actual work we are missing so much of the original inspiration and energy. We’re missing the quality insight we had in the moment. I argue that we need to capture our ideas the moment they arrive if we are to deliver truly authentic and in-context work. I put forward a solution to make this possible.

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Life is full of narratives. They're how we make sense of the world.  But narratives exist somewhere between truth and nonsense. The challenge is to see past the narratives, aligning our lives with that which is true. I discuss the technique needed to see past the narratives in our lives.

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Temptations are things we desire to do, but are also things we deem wrong or unwise. Temptations take us away from who we want to be in life. Temptations start off harmless, but have a tendency to grow without notice, until we are living an incorrect life. I argue that we must learn to stop problematic distractions early, by replacing our damaging preoccupations with more productive and authentic actions.

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Collaboration is good, but friction is needed to solve tough problems as a group. The quality of information depends on stark individualism, rather than some engineered collaboration based on excess politeness and etiquette. In this episode I argue that  collaboration should not be equated to "being nice", and that the energy and authenticity we need to work well in groups depends on a good deal of friction and even anger.

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When we think about the things we want to accomplish, we often frame them in terms of the barriers we need to pass. But this isn't the case for things that comprise our lifestyle. When something is part of our lifestyle we just do it, and often do it well. Exercise, writing, whatever; our goals become far more obtainable when we stop putting them on pedestals and instead just move. I discuss how to turn what we intend to do into things we always do.

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Members: Join for full access to additional talks, practical exercises, member Q&As, and more at dekyon.io.