In 1942, Zweig wrote about Nazi Germany

'Little by little, it became impossible to exchange a reasonable word with anyone. All conversations ended with crude accusations. There was only one thing left to do: withdraw into oneself and keep silent for as long as the fever lasted.'

My epistemology is the same as David Deutsch's and Karl Popper's.

I highly, highly recommend checking out their work.

It's practical philosophy for the 21st century that will influence your thinking in any domain.

There is a category of errors that I see often (especially in morality): refusing to engage in a cost-benefits analysis.

This includes not considering the alternatives.

Look around at a few major topics and you will see it clearly: Ukraine-Russia, Israel-Hamas, fossil fuels,…

There is a category of errors that I see often (especially in morality): refusing to engage in a cost-benefits analysis.

This includes not considering the alternatives.

Look around at a few major topics and you will see it clearly: Ukraine-Russia, Israel-Hamas, fossil fuels,…

Book recommendations: Churchill

1. The Last Lion by W. Manchester - 3000 pages 🤯
2. The Splendid and the Vile by E. Larson - Churchill & his family in 1940
3. My Early Life by Churchill - great writing from the man himself
4. Walking with Destiny by A. Roberts - best 1-book bio

My 5 favorite non-fiction books:

1. The Beginning of Infinity by David Deutsch
2. The Fabric of Reality by David Deutsch
3. The Choice by Edith Eger
4. 30 Lessons for Living by Karl Pillemer
5. The Last Lion by William Manchester (trilogy about Churchill)

Creativity, as explained by David Deutsch, is our unique superpower (as people) to solve problems by creating new ideas.

These ideas did not exist before. They were not implicit in our genes.

This capacity is universal: there are no idea that we cannot think.

The best hedge against the unpredictability of life is to constantly, relentlessly, sincerely seek the truth.

Schools teach you that you learn by reading. Then they check if you have learned by writing (answers to a test).

But it's more like you learn when you think through things. Writing it is a very efficient way to do that. Thinking in your mind after reading something, also works.

If I had to sum up all of Steve Jobs in one sentence, it would be: 'Life is malleable for the people who give a damn'.

Intelligent life is the spark that will light up the dark cosmos after billions of years of silence.

Do not destroy the means of error correction.

We make progress by correcting errors. We can't know in advance what part of our knowledge is false.

The important thing is to preserve the institutions, rights, methods of finding and changing those errors.

Week 2 without caffeine

Positive
- The headaches have disappeared
- Slight subjective improvement in sleep quality
- I can function totally normally without coffee

Negative
- No objective improvement in sleep: many interruptions, low amount of deep sleep

Health tip: drinking a tea spoon of apple cider vinegar before a big meal helps lower blood glucose post-meal.

Make sure to dilute it in water, otherwise it burns.

MMA/ UFC is the most entertaining sport to watch because the stakes are so high.

You look away for one second, you miss the KO.

The matches are so dynamic, it's almost impossible to predict accurately the winner from one round to the next.

Modern day gladiators ⚔️

An interlude with 'time lord' Sam - theoretical physicist - to help unpack some of the finer details of the physics in David Deutsch's chapter on 'Time' in 'The Fabric of Reality' - and other topics.

With timestamps/chapters as below. youtube.com/watch?v=Qw5EVS…

When the student is ready, the problem will appear.

Week 1 without caffeine

Negative:
- headaches (disappearing)
- drowsiness during workout (disappeared)
- no improvement on sleep yet
- jealousy

Positive:
- lower resting heart rate

Tip: change your identity from coffee lover to 'someone who can quit coffee

Highly recommend this new film about a British man that helped 669 children escape from the grip of the Nazis in Czechoslovakia.

Moral courage is under-rated.

'Everything you want is on the other side of pain' I tell myself as I start my Zone 5 training session.