I think Self-help is to Philosophy as Engineering is to Physics. Both the engineer and the self-help “practitioner” take what has been developed through careful thought and research and apply that knowledge in a concretely practical way (barring the bad self help books of course). Knowledge is only useful if it is applied. I will admit I’ve never finished The Five Habits of Highly Effective People, that quintessential self-help book that is apparently the most sold book in California ... Read more
FOMO, or the Fear Of Missing Out
Recently while listening to music, I was interrupted by a Twitter ad that went something like this, “Do you have FOMO, or Fear Of Missing Out? With Twitter you can be a part of the action always and always stay up to date, so you never have to worry about FOMO again.” This initially struck me as a ridiculous ad. Not that I thought it wasn’t effective - I for a quick second felt a strange urge to check my virtually non-existent twitter feed after hearing it, but because it’s a bit like giving an ... Read more
On the Human Capacity for “Us vs. Them”
It’s just another day and down the hall I can hear a bit of the usual one-sided political debate going on. The type of back and forth that consists of multiple people with similar views getting angry, or at least highly antagonistic, at hypothetical people of a certain belief system, for whom they create responses. “Can you believe the [insert politically-affiliated-group]'s actually say that? They actually think [blank] isn’t racist. But if you flip it around, if we had a [blank] that would be ... Read more
The No Good “Bad God, No God” Hypothesis
I'd like to address what I call the “Bad God, No God” hypothesis argued by Sarah Silverman (briefly in A Speck of Dust), people on YouTube, and Roger Waters (in his live performances), among others. The hypothesis goes something like this: “If God existed, then he wouldn’t allow pain and suffering to exist in the world. Nevertheless, pain and suffering do exist on Earth, therefore God does not.” This post is an attempt expose the weakness of the thought process behind this hypothesis, and it ... Read more
Welcome!
Welcome to Pensive Primates. If you are reading this, chances are you are one. This is a site for creative thinking and musings about almost anything. New posts will come every Monday, and comments are encouraged, but all sh*t throwers will be reported to the zookeeper. If you like what you see please scroll down to the bottom and subscribe! ... Read more
Sam
Trader Joe