@Philosophy
Why Some Weird Beliefs Aren’t
People hold a lot of weird beliefs, but these weird things seem a whole lot less weird once you understand the reasoning behind them. In this post, I’m going to sketch out the gist of a couple “weird” beliefs. The hope is that once you understand why people believe weird things, you’ll stop thinking of them as crazy and realize that they, too, are human beings just like you and me.

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This is a review and summary of David Myers’s The Pursuit of Happiness. General Thoughts on the Book in General, Generally The book is pretty good. I gave it a four out of five stars on Goodreads. If you’re looking for an answer to the question, “Who is happy?” and are not interested in reading more rigorous texts, then this is a good place to start. If you’re interested in the more pragmatic question, “How can I become happier?

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The Psychology of Happiness.” width=“199” height=“300” srcset=“https://rs.io/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/psychology-happiness-michael-argyle-paperback-cover-art-199x300.jpg 199w, https://rs.io/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/psychology-happiness-michael-argyle-paperback-cover-art.jpg 200w” sizes=“(max-width: 199px) 100vw, 199px” />This is my The Psychology of Happiness summary. The book is by Michael Argyle. Notes on notes I didn’t bother taking notes on parts of the book that contained information covered more thoroughly elsewhere or where the author’s claims struck me as dubious. I also spent a while hunting down citations and then quit about half way through, figuring blogging ought to be fun.

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Happiness: Lessons From a New Science.” width=“195” height=“300” srcset=“https://rs.io/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/happiness-lessons-from-a-new-science-cover-195x300.jpg 195w, https://rs.io/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/happiness-lessons-from-a-new-science-cover.jpg 226w” sizes=“(max-width: 195px) 100vw, 195px” /> This is my Happiness: Lessons from a New Science summary. Happiness: Lessons from a New Science Summary What is the problem? Jeremy Bentham was a shy and kindly man, who never married and gave his money to good causes. He was also one of the first intellectuals to go jogging – or trotting as he called it.

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If you do not work on an important problem, it’s unlikely you’ll do important work. —Richard Hamming, You and Your Research How can you distinguish important problems from those which aren’t? A problem’s importance is determined by the amount of good that work on it produces. What’s Good? On all plausible theories, everyone’s well-being consists at least in part in being happy, and avoiding suffering. —Derek Parfit, On What Matters

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@Uncategorized
Predictions for 2014
The One Million Dollar Paranormal Challenge goes unclaimed. The price of an ounce of marijuana in Colorado drops to under 150, half of what it’s going for today. The twin prime conjecture is proven. First mainframes, then desktops, then laptops, cell phones, tablets. This year we will see an influx of wearable computing devices. Rights for gays continue to improve with at least one more state legalizing same sex marriage.

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@Uncategorized
I Hate My Phone
I read an interesting interview with Matias Duarte, Android’s head of user experience, this morning. The article was pretty good, but that’s not what I want to talk about. This is what I want to talk about: “What we heard from everyone we talked to in the study was that they love these things (smartphones), they are a part of their lives. They’re incredibly passionate about them. They can’t live without them.

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@Uncategorized
Why You Should Start Blogging (Again)
I have this theory: inside of every person there is a blogger trying to get out. Everybody has the potential to maintain a blog with, at the very least, weekly updates. I do not care how busy you are. There’s no excuse not to do it. The benefits of blogging are many. Blogging facilitates powerful introspection. In my years of blogging, I have found that writing in general, and blogging specifically, are great ways to discover truths about yourself.

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