The Overexamined Life

The Overexamined Life

Human beings have seen the value of self-reflection for a very long time. Nearly three millennia ago Siddharta Gautama noted that “it’s better to conquer oneself than a thousand men in battle”, as part of his enquiry into the human condition that came to be...
Why scheduling fails

Why scheduling fails

If you are relying on a schedule to force you to act — to practise a skill or a craft— you are not scheduling to practice, but practising to schedule. It’s not that scheduling isn’t a useful thing to do. Rather, scheduling is only useful to the person who has already...
The Big Red Bus Problem

The Big Red Bus Problem

I recently got my driver’s licence after having put it off for many years. Apart from the tricky business of navigating big UK roundabouts, it turned out that I had an aversion to buses. My driving instructor would frequently ask me why I was slowing down upon seeing...
On happiness and regret

On happiness and regret

To chase happiness — whether through excess wealth, status achievements or spiritual attainment — is to live in regret. Constantly having our eye on some future prize produces the psychological feeling of missed opportunity and scarcity. The feeling that we need to...
The fallacy of personal progress

The fallacy of personal progress

Humanity has achieved vast material and technological improvements — things are the best they’ve ever been in this realm. Likewise, we’ve made many social improvements in terms of freedoms, equality and justice in many parts of the world compared to even a century...
On the vagueness of desire

On the vagueness of desire

The modern human is obsessed with achievement. Yet, how clear are we about what that is? The desire to ‘achieve’ — unlike the desire for food when hungry — often lacks specificity. Defaulting to some vague idea of more, ‘achieving’ is usually a confused,...