ariel's quotes

P286

If my behavior were totally predictable by another human being competing for the same mate, that person would always be one step ahead and would easily defeat me. If my behavior were totally predictable by either an intelligent predator or another human being out to steal my resources, I would find myself waling right into the jaws of death.

Trying to maximize happiness leads to unhappiness

This idea stems from Tolsoy's remark that unhappy families are uninteresting, since each is unhappy in a different way. Happy families, on the other hand, are uninteresting, since they are in the same way.

A meaningful life is one that joins with something larger than we are -- and the larger that something is, the more meaning our lives have.

When we are struggling to avoid loss or to repel trespass, sadness and anger are our motivators and our guides. When we feel a negative emotion, it is a signal that we're in a win-loss game Such emotions set up an action repertoire that fights, flees, or gives up. These emotions also activate a mindset that is analytical and narrows our focus so nothing but the problem at hand is present.

The species stands at an inflection point after which the human future will be much happier than the human past, Wright concludes. And all the oxygen is sucked out of the boardroom.

The key is not finding the right job, it is finding a job you can make right through recrafting.

The belief that we can rely on shortcuts to gratification and bypass the exercise of personal strengths and virtue is folly. It leads not just to lizards that starve to death, but to legions of humanity who are depressed in the middle of great wealth and are starving to death spiritually

...and ideology that your past determines your future. The hard determinism that underpins this dogma is empirically barren and philosophically far from self-evident and the passivity it engenders is imprisoning.

In your own life, you should take particular care with endings, for their color will forever tinge your memory of the entire relationship and your willingness to reenter it.