First, We Make the Beast Beautiful

In a TED talk titled ‘Why we make bad decisions’, psychologist Daniel Gilbert explains that cognitive biases mean we are actually really bad at making decisions for ourselves and that even a complete stranger will increase the likelihood of making the ‘happiest’ decision for you by a factor of two.

Much of how we’re living feels untethered and wobbly. What a wonderful thing to be a bit of solid ground amid the flapping.

Help us manage our fire, yes, but don’t try to extinguish us.’

‘That is all I want in life: for this pain to seem purposeful.’

This is what else life naturals do: they see a flower. And find it beautiful. That’s it.

They don’t wonder if they’re liking it enough, or if the whole experience is a waste because today they’re too stressed to appreciate lovely things like flowers. Nor do they fear that the flower won’t last. And they don’t try to draw on that Zen proverb about how a flower doesn’t try to bloom, it just blooms on its own. And then despair that they’re failing to do the same. They simply grasp the is-ness as a matter of course.

But today there are few such boundaries. Information and obligations flood in. We keep thinking, after all these years (decades?) that there will come a lovely fine day when the influx eases. When we’ll get on top of it, as we once used to be able to. We still work to this old-school notion. But such a day no longer exists.

Read this. It’s fun.

It’s an exercise I learned from Gilpin:

nervous toggler Pascal also remarked that all of man’s problems come from his inability to sit quietly in a room alone. And to let nothing happen. I’m not sure he ever got around to realising such a skill. He died at thirty-nine from what has been interpreted by some as anxiety-­related complications.

Distraction is the only thing that consoles us for our miseries and yet it is itself the greatest of our miseries.

I often get asked about coffee. Is it bad? Should you drink it? I take my cues from Ayurveda. Nothing is inherently bad; it’s about whether it’s sending you off the air.