Check your Pulse #14
Quite simply, all powerful messages must contain an element of absurdity, illogicality, costliness, disproportion, inefficiency, scarcity, difficulty or extravagance – because rational behaviour and talk, for all their strengths, convey no meaning.
Rory Sutherland • Alchemy: The Surprising Power of Ideas That Don't Make Sense
Value, in an economic sense, is theoretically created by new things based on new ideas. But when the material basis for these new things is missing or actively deteriorating and profits must be made, what is there to be done? Retreat to the immaterial and work with what already exists: meaning.
Meaning is always readily available to be repeated, re... See more
Meaning is always readily available to be repeated, re... See more
Nemesis • Nemesis | the Umami Theory of Value
The hippie world & the science world can be reconciled, here's how to do it:
1. Take a break from arguing over mechanism/metaphysical assumptions (HIPPIE: It works because of mystical energy! RATIONALIST: There's no such thing!)
2. Empirically test whether there are *effects*
Unfortunately:
• Hippies are attached to fancy mystical explanations (r... See more
I imagine there actually are plenty of things stopping you, as there were for me. The biggest thing is that if you grew up in a largely Westernized, secular materialist culture, there are massive mental blocks which prevent us from engaging with these topics. It's ironic that our preconceptions about how things are supposed to work prevent us from ... See more