Have you ever had a cramp? It is an exquisitely painful, suddenly experienced contraction and hardening of a muscle or muscle group. From what I learned online, the precise mechanism by which it comes about is not yet fully understood. I feel fairly confident, however, that it is often caused by tissue acting out to… Continue reading The Cramp
Author: Jochen
The Tragedy of Is vs. Ought
As an alternative title I was thinking of “The Is and Ought of Tragedy,” since it seems to me that the relationship is, well, tragic in both directions. I cannot be too sure about this, but I intuitively perceive that the source of much of the tragedy humans experience lies in our mental misconception of… Continue reading The Tragedy of Is vs. Ought
Life and Evil
Despite the fact that my thoughts on this topic haven’t coalesced into anything resembling a narrative, I decided to offer them in the form of a bullet list — mostly as a tool to get them “out” so I can come back to them later, and check them out after the fog has lifted some… Continue reading Life and Evil
Bifurcation Point
These past couple of days I again spent quite a bit of time thinking about what I see as an upcoming bifurcation point in human history. Put very simply, I believe that there are two broad paths leading from our current moment into the future. The first of these, to me, feels more like a… Continue reading Bifurcation Point
Woke Signaling
I’m aware that — against my usual habits — I had a cup of coffee this morning. My mental state and thoughts are probably more agitated as a result. All the same, since I had some similar thoughts already yesterday, I feel comfortable pinning some of them down… It occurred to me that the difference… Continue reading Woke Signaling
The Magic Formula
Without further ado, here it is: Carbu Nores – Leaho Totru Astra. What a weird magic formula, you might think. And why is there a pause between the second and third words? What is the purpose of this formula (what does it do)? And does it actually work? I’ll start with the purpose piece: the… Continue reading The Magic Formula
The Illusion of Progress
There is a philosophical observation whose shorthand form is attributed to Alfred Korzybski: “The Map is not the Territory.” Unfortunately, our inability to reflect on why words have power and where there power comes from leads us into all sorts of dead ends… If you want to know more about this, I would highly recommend… Continue reading The Illusion of Progress
VS is the new BS
First things first… I’m using BS in the title as short for bullshit, and VS as short for virtue signaling. What brought me to this tentative claim? A conversation with my husband earlier today highlighted a pattern which I believe contributes to gridlock we experience everywhere. A complex problem presents itself, and someone or a… Continue reading VS is the new BS
Mind Over Matter?
Can life really be cruel and yet worth living? That is the question I ended up with starting from a hypothetical situation. And I appreciate that the situation I will describe is contrived and artificial. I hope you can see that, despite it being artificial, the conflict it describes is real, albeit exaggerated to some… Continue reading Mind Over Matter?
Jazz-tune Yourself
At first I wanted to title this post simply “Tune Yourself”. Then I realized that is insufficient. Tuning can mean a lot of things. Generally speaking, I assume it refers to an increase of performance. It suggests fiddling or adjusting with some inner parameters. The reason I changed it to “Jazz-tune Yourself” gets at the… Continue reading Jazz-tune Yourself