I consistently have ideologues on both the Left and Right explain to me why it's very good and important that they're bitter and hateful. They believe it makes them a better, more effective person; ironically, it only makes them more similar to the people they hate.

Once you know how to be curious and open minded—willing to fully grapple with a topic and find out you’re wrong—the intense desperation to force a one’s view on everything and everyone that’s so common today is disturbing. It’s like seeing people willingly handicap themselves.

📖Groupthink isn’t just an abstract concept. It leads to catastrophic mistakes in all parts of life, from bullying to mass murder. Valuing dissent and the freedom to challenge any “consensus” are the best defenses we have, but they're increasingly unpopular.

It takes immense strength and wisdom to show grace to others when they’ve failed instead of kicking them while down. That’s why we rarely see it. Some call this Christianity.

If I was an alien from another planet, you could probably never convince me that it would be so hard to get humans to believe that freedom is good. It’s a mystery you have to witness with your own eyes.

"As I found when activists tried to redefine “racism,” while much of their target audience went along with it unaware of the bait-and-switch, many went the other way and became racists. This was an entirely predictable result." Joseph (Jake) Klein The Black Sheep

I'm always overcome by an almost mystical level of awe and gratitude when I think about my dishwasher and laundry machines. Just those few appliances free me from hours and hours of repetitive, tiring chores. We are so rich and so blind to it.

If you want to: - Open your mind - Bring joy to others - Stay young at heart - Exorcise your demons - Exercise your imagination Make more art. It's a powerful way to improve yourself and beautify the world around you. It's a tragedy that more people don't do it.

Useless argument that shows how much we’ve lost touch with the American ideal. These culture war battles could be put to rest by a “live and let live” culture that doesn’t make government a weapon used to force one tribe’s way on all. We aren’t meant to be having these fights.

People will throw out every excuse they can imagine to justify indulging what they know is wrong, and then wonder why their life feels mediocre and unfulfilling.

Political tribalism lowers the standards you hold yourself to. Instead of striving for truth and your own values, you strive more for praise from your fellow tribe members with similarly low standards. It's a feedback loop that drags you lower and lower.

Hugely underrated mindset of effective people is just asking yourself: How can I materialize my goal right now, even in the smallest way? No matter what you’re trying to do, the more effective person is the one who actually takes a step toward their vision, even if it’s tiny.

The world really is like a mirror: you look at it and see a reflection of yourself in whatever you see. Your bitterness, gratitude, judgement, fear, love, or hatred—it’s all reflected back to you. “We see things not as they are, but as we are.”

Watching the ants make a run for my latte and for once I found that little nuisance endearing. Animals can quickly remind us of the basic luxuries we’ve become blind to.

All humans are endowed with rights by their Creator. This idea is foundational to America. Though the Constitution does grant certain privileges to citizens related to political membership, such as voting and holding public office, it does not grant rights, such as free speech.

And most of them work in politics now.

The person constantly engaged in defending their ideas has little time leftover to question and expand those ideas.