But What For Newsletter - No. 001

August 31, 2020

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Latest Articles

Habits Maketh the Man (And Un-Maketh Him, Too): “Life is complex. Chaotic. Surprising. Uncertain. It is full of new things - many of which can kill us. And that’s a problem, because we humans tend to prefer not dying. Fortunately, we have been practicing surviving for quite some time and have consequently developed a way to cut down on that chaos with a bit of order: the ability to form habits. However, and unfortunately for those humans looking for more in life than just survival, these habits often have more control over us than we have control over them.”

Others to Read

The Three Sides of Risk: “‘Well, let me take this to a dark and tragic place,’ I said before telling a group of 500 strangers a story I hadn’t talked about much in almost 20 years…”

How Do I Stop Forgetting What I Learned So Quickly?: “We aren’t actually reading to learn. We just feel like we’re learning something by reading and recognizing the words on the screen. The information is not yet knowledge, but we are fooled to believe that it has been transferred into our brains and will stay there forever.”

Quotes

“Perhaps the most valuable result of all education is the ability to make yourself do the thing you have to do, when it ought to be done, whether you like it or not. It is the first lesson that ought to be learned and however early a man's training begins, it is probably the last lesson that he learns thoroughly.” - Thomas Huxley

“Always turn it around. Is there some different issue on which my side is just as obtuse?” - Making Sense with Sam Harris

“Don’t use Google Calendar as a tyrant; you should use your calendar as if it’s your confidant or advisor. Sit down, open your calendar and design a week of days that you’d like to have, schedule events that you would consider to be meaningful and productive on a daily basis so that you feel that your life is justified by having a day like that. The goal should always be to make progress day by day rather than falling further behind which you can accomplish through establishing disciplined habits.” - Matthew Vere, paraphrasing Jordan Peterson

Extra Credit

The Changing World Order - Ray Dalio: “I believe that the times ahead will be radically different from the times we have experienced so far in our lifetimes, though similar to many other times in history… I don’t know how I’d be able to navigate what is happening now and what will be coming at us without having studied all this history.”

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