I believe you can be smart without needing to be all that intelligent.
I believe that there are some things you should know that will help you live a good life.
Rationality is the ability to get the things you value in life.
My purpose in life is to enable rich and rewarding lives-worth-living, starting with my own.
A question worth asking is, “what can I do or say that will add to the number of hours people spend experiencing the sublime, or getting absorbed in meaningful work?”
Important Ideas to Learn
I love learning new things. Sometimes, when I learn something new, I think, “why have I never heard this idea before? Everyone should know this.”
I write to share some simple tricks for living a life worth living that I have found, which are not common knowledge (but they should be).
To live a life worth living, there are a few things you should know about, which they don’t teach in school, and it seems very few people have heard of.
Smart Ways to Live
Be useful. Help other people. Solve problems.
When I really focus on these principles, I notice my life gets better and better.
When I focus on being useful and helping others, earning money, friends, respect, or whatever kind of takes care of itself.
When I add to that a focus on solving problems for other people, being fulfilled in my work, having fun, and having enjoyable days pretty well takes care of itself.
I’m sure I am missing a few simple principles, but those three are a good starting point. I’m writing this blog in part to learn and teach principles for living.
Truth and Rationality: I am for them
Rationality is the stuff of doing what is needed to achieve goals. I need rationality to achieve the goal of a having a life worth living.
People who think rationality is not for them are wrong about that.
Rationality entails that Reason and Emotion work together
A rational life includes rich emotional experiences.
While we have all had the experience of our emotions getting the better of us, strong emotions never entail that you MUST make stupid decision. I believe you can have strong emotions and be fully rational at the same time. I believe that you need to have some emotions to behave rationally.
It’s a common misconception that being rational means being like Mr. Spock, or some robot. That belief is irrational bullshit.
You can’t write off rationality like that. That means you and I have a job to do: align both mind and heart according to core values.
Reason in Politics
Politics to me is cooperating with other people to make a better world. Doing this effectively involves knowing how people work and knowing about how the world works.
To most people, politics seems like a world of pettyness, bickering, ineffectiveness and ego. That is not the kind of politics I choose to participate in.
My own kind of politics involves constructing a happy marriage, participating effectively in successful business, and encouraging neighbors to value, create, improve, and protect the things that make our lives so great. Game theory, psychology, psychology and so on have something valuable to say about how to do that more effectively.
My own politics is important for making my world, and my local community, a better world for all to live in. I believe I should take responsibility for what change I can effect, and to use that power wisely, for the benefit of all, not just myself.