A German who escaped just before all the Jews were hoarded into concentration camps in Germany, came to the United States.
His name was Robert Hartman.
His experience with evil uniquely qualified him to set out to deal with the age long question: what is evil, what is good?
He took on himself to define good… the strait and narrow. Many philosophers failed in that: after all the strait and narrow is delineated by the land that encloses it, not by itself…
But he succeeded.
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Some ten years ago I learned a valuable way of looking at making life meaningful, or living a meaningful life. The teacher suggested that we pick a horizon, a direction, and then look what’s blocking the way of getting there.
Since then I saw that even seeing the horizon is blocked… Blocked by seven boulders, lined up one behind the other, blocking your view, blocking your movement.
So, in my coaching practice, when I ask people to set a direction, and they can’t see any, I am inclined to suggest that they choose the direction: living a meaningful live, or a fulfilled life… without specifying what it is.
I am reading a book, Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise. I am reading it because I want to be able to teach my students better, so they can leave behind the level of ordinary school learning, the pedestrian learning that always produces pedestrian result.
Amateurish performance, amateurish life. ((Your level of fulfillment is exponentially correlated to the amount of effort you invested. Easy: no fulfillment. Hard, lots of effort, hardship: lots of fulfillment.))
This may be the most important article you read this year, this decade… because this article may inspire you to become a professional at living, instead of remaining a rank amateur… aka bumbling idiot.
Risk Management
You have two options. You need to choose. You need to choose the option that has the lower cost to your reproductive success if it turns out to be wrong.
Now, I suspect, that almost none of us think about cost in terms of reproductive success, but according to evolutionary psychology, you are a mere vehicle to your genes, your genes are only inte
Passover and Easter around, you’ll spend time with family. You’ll see examples of “No One Is A Prophet In Their Own Land.”
You’ll be on both sides… by the way. But if you are one of my students, you will feel that you have something to teach your family: and no one will be interested. Get prepared!
In fact they will try to discourage you from continuing to pursue what you pursue when you spend time with me or my writing.
I’ve been teaching the Original Design for five years.
None of the original participants, that were my friends, are around, except one… barely.
This is one article, with two separate yet connected parts.
Part 1: Flashes of brilliance
Growth is not linear. By that I mean that you don’t grow a little bit every day. It is much like evolution: something tiny changes, and it creates a dramatic shift.
When things feel linear, it also means that you are simply stirring the soup… no growth. It’s OK.
Yesterday I had a glimpse at something that I had never seen: I saw that if opportunity favors the prepared… then I am in trouble: I am not prepared for any opportunity.
The fox and the hare tale: Why does a rabbit run faster than a fox? Because while the fox is running for his dinner, the rabbit is running for his life. All of life works the same way…
I have noticed that take-away, as a manipulation technique, works exceptionally well on me.
Here is how the technique works: you show something, and you state that it is only available at this price for a limited amount of time.
First things first: the saying is “become worth a damn.” But a lot of people consider damn a curse word, so they say “become worth a dime”… Oh well, here you have it. Become worth a dime… lol.
Second: let me explain the picture: no teacher is worth a darn, unless the student is able to handle, utilize what the teacher teaches. And therein lies all the difficulty you are experiencing.
As you can, maybe, track, I am becoming obsessed with learning to learn… or more precisely said, teaching you to learn to learn…