Category: Positive Thinking

Apophenia as Delusion Reed Berkowitz’s piece, A Game Designer’s Analysis Of QAnon, insightfully noted how Apophenia drives people into the Cult of QAnon. Jake Angeli, a.k.a. the QAnon Shaman, it has been pointed out, “displays strong aspects of what psychologists call ‘patternicity,’ which is to see hidden patterns, meanings, and agency behind what others would… Continue reading The QAnon Shaman and The Three Sides of Apophenia

To be fluent in a language means not only that you can understand it, but that you can speak it competently. Competency in the language does not necessarily make it your first language. It may be your second, or third. Your first language is your dominant one. Reason can be thought of like a language,… Continue reading Reason and the ability to use it are two separate skills

Water is vital, essential, and wonderful. When not treated with proper respect, water can kill you. So is water healthy or is it toxic?

“Fiction reveals truth that reality obscures.” ― Ralph Waldo Emerson We could leave it there and be done, or we could parse that out a bit more. Jordan Peterson, Sam Harris and Brett Weinstein discussed the idea of a metaphorical truth. They defined it as a notion that is literally false but conveys benefits to the… Continue reading When Fiction is Truer than Non-Fiction

Here’s a thought experiment about angels…

In my all-time most viewed post, Serotonin and Social Status, I inquired as to whether there are mindsets that protect us from societal influences on serotonin levels. Five years later I finally attempt to answer that question with Does Competency-Awareness Drive Serotonin Levels? Jordan Peterson posits something like (I’m paraphrasing), no one knows the upper limits of the benefits… Continue reading Competency Matrix

Jordan B. Peterson is known for an ostensibly uncontroversial position: the reality of malevolence and malevolent people. This position seems at odds (he says as much) with Buddhism’s perspective that Evil is essentially ignorance. Buddha taught (quote TBD) that evil is born out of ignorance, and that perspective instructs us on how to vanquish evil (knowledge!) Might Jesus Christ agree with Jordan, that… Continue reading Malevolence, Forgiveness, Acceptance, Buddhism and Christianity

In the Sam Harris Podcast Is Buddhism True? A Conversation with Robert Wright, Robert Wright noted “thoughts think themselves”. It’s a great conversation and I can’t pretend I can explain it better than he did, but here is my takeaway:

“Who is the enemy? Who is holding back more rapid movement to the better society that is reasonable and possible with available resources? Who is responsible for the mediocre performance of so many of our institutions? Who is standing in the way of a larger consensus on the definition of the better society and paths… Continue reading The Real Enemy is…