I discuss the concept of “missing out,” how to track whether or not you’re truly making progress or being productive with your time, and the danger of the “mule mindset” when it comes to productivity.
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Tag: philosophy Page 1 of 2
I discuss:
– How people form overly simplistic narratives for life, why it’s often necessary but also harmful.
– A person’s success or failure long-term on something heavily depends on how they were introduced to it.
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In this episode I discuss:
– Why conspiracy theories are often counterproductive
– The template and criteria for a “narrative” that enables control freaks
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Much of life is an illusion. We perceive things to be a certain way because our limited perspective doesn’t provide full context.
Freedom is one of them. A person feels free only insofar as they feel capable of doing something without permission or external constraints. But like everything else, context can create an illusion.
Imagine two children growing up in the same household. One goes to bed early and rises early. The other is a night owl. The former won’t feel restricted by a strict curfew by their parents. The latter will feel controlled. But both are equally constrained.
Too many people think they’re free when they’re actually on a leash, however long or short. The illusion is maintained only as long as they remain within its length, or their master chooses not to pull on it. The illusion of freedom often makes one blind to the leash as it shortens.
Authentic virtue is a difficult thing to determine, because many people do the right thing for the “wrong reasons.” They do the right thing because it’s easy to do, the safe thing to do. It’s easy to adhere to a religion or a ideology when it gains you acceptance and a sense of belonging.
Doing the right thing because you’re scared of the risks or loss of something important by doing the wrong thing doesn’t make you virtuous. But, it makes it hard for others to know for sure why you do the things you do, and vice versa.
Putting aside severe or grievous crimes, a man who does the wrong thing out of genuine courage is more virtuous than the man who does the right thing out of cowardice. That doesn’t mean what the coward does is detrimental to the collective good, nor is the brave man’s act beneficial. The issue is one of inner conscience, of true self. Both desire to do the same thing, but one at least is willing to risk loss to get it.
This matters because circumstances change, and a man’s cravenness can be exposed as much as a man’s bravery. When the man is a leader or someone with great power and responsibility, the consequences can be enormous.
This is why the mundane, riskless life produces insincere and disingenuous selves. For a man to truly know another, for him to know his own self, they must endure trials, crisis, and conflicts. He must face loss and perhaps even lose things that matter to him. Those hardships are a refining fire that consume falsities and pretenses so he cannot deceive others or himself.
In my early livestreaming days I had a habit of saying “I’ll be brief,” and then proceeded to be anything but. It got be a running joke amongst friends that remains to this day.
I decided to take the idea and actually run with it.
I’ve done blogging in the past, but more or less quit. Some think blogs are over and done with in favor of livestreaming.
This may be, but I think another part of it is blog posts need to be short. Very short. Like something someone can read within a minute.
That’s where “Ill Be Brief” comes in.
Entries will consist of snippets of thoughts that come to mind, usually a general observation about life. Moreover, they will be genuinely concise, no more than 100 words. Chances are, you’ll hear me expound further on it during an upcoming Mountain Pass Podcast.
I discuss:
– Why many heroes are scoundrels
– Doing the wrong thing out of bravery and doing the right thing out of cowardice
– The film Beckett and how the State v. Church struggle in the Middle Ages compares to the Corporate v. State struggle today.
Tim Keefe and I discuss a book titled “Voice, Exit, And Loyalty” that deals with a lot of pertinent issues we face today. When we don’t like a situation or environment we find ourselves in, do we voice our concerns or just leave? The answer depends on a variety of elements we delve into.
TJ Martinell · Chat with Tim Keefe on “Voice, Exit, And Loyalty”
Tim Keefe and I discuss the modern phenomenon of actionless talk, some of the potential reasons for it, and how men can respond to it.
TJ Martinell · Mountain Pass Podcast – Words Without Actions
I discuss ways to use a voight-kampff style test on people around you to test their authenticity and gauge reality of your relationship with others around you.