Are humans evil? Are humans inherently evil? There’s a popular hypothesis that says we are. It’s a great excuse for bad behavior. But believing we can’t help ourselves has never set well with me. Kind of like when some guys use ‘millions of years of evolution’ as an excuse to not be monogamous. My hypothesis is that humans aren’t inherently evil, and I’m going to tell you why. In Rutger Bregman’s ‘Humankind: A Hopeful History’,…
How you choose is more important than the choice itself
Have you heard people say that you can’t control what happens to you, but you CAN control how you react to what happens to you? It’s so true, but it isn’t easy. We all want some degree of control in our lives. Or wish for it. Long for it. But control is an illusion. I’m not saying life is 100% chaotic and unpredictable, but being attached to controlling things really only wears you out. I…
Accountability: : the quality or state of being accountable especially : an obligation or willingness to accept responsibility or to account for one’s actions So, yeah, that first one’s lame because it references a definition with at least 7 meanings. The especially part gets pretty close, though. How do you feel about accountability? Personally, I’m a huge fan. In fact, I will go so far as to say one of my main complaints about the world is that people…
I love the ‘forest for the trees’ metaphor because it describes a fundamental facet of human nature. Most of the time we tend to be myopic, only seeing what is right in front of us. For whatever reasons, our species is great at believing what our eyes see. Our ‘field of view’ seems to be ‘all there is’. I don’t know about you, but I tend to think of ‘myself’, my ‘self’, the ‘real me’,…
I recorded this episode based on a story someone once related to me about her post high school goals being ‘restricted’ by her family and cultural traditions. In other words, people ‘like her’ didn’t do certain things, or more accurately, could only do certain things. There were only so many career choices, or partner choices, or even the kinds of cars she could drive. Like many things I simultaneously appreciate and despise this notion. On…