028 On Foolishness & Life
Hello Everybody!
Here's your weekly Amazing Things & Ideas Newsletter.
— Find one original idea from my side followed by the List.
On Foolishness & Life
Something foolish to one is the life of another.
Our "way" is just one of the infinite possibilities.
Something that isn't our way;
we judge through the lens of that which is our way.
So we never really move beyond our way.
We don't like people or things; or,
we find people or things foolish; or,
we get angry by people or things;
That do not fit our way.
Similarly, we like people or things; or,
we find people or things Genius; or,
we get well pleased by people or things,
That do fit our way.
But reality & Nature is what it is,
it is we who assign meaning to them.
And that meaning springs from a very limited view.
So we find foolish quite a lot of stuff that isn't like us.
Just because something isn't like us, doesn't give it one bit of a chance to be untrue (unless proved so). Foolish to one is life to the other. If Alice thinks Bob is foolish. Bob most probably also thinks Alice is foolish. Looking at this from a third person's perspective; well, we'll probably just think that the one who isn't our way is foolish; but let's say we had the power to move beyond "our way thinking"...
Then, we'll see two fools thinking the other one is a fool where in reality no one is and they're both just the way they are. Not fools, not geniuses. Just the way they are. We'll understand that human behavior makes one human a fool to another if that human is not like the way of the other.
The Amazing Things & Ideas List
Charlie Munger on embracing ignorance:
"Acknowledging what you don't know is the dawning of wisdom." — Charlie Munger
Seth Godin on our evolved preference for familiarity:
"Why are we more likely to take off our masks or avoid social distancing with a group of friends at a party instead of strangers on the train?
Why do we drive more carefully in a new neighborhood instead of near our home?
Why trust the advice of a doctor who looks like us, or went to the same school we did?
Our evolved preference for familiarity often backfires. There are many signals that give us useful information about whether a situation is productive or safe. But pre-existing social networks might not be the best one." — Seth Godin
Adopted from Seth Godin's blog: Fear of strangers
Jack Ma's original sales pitch for Alibaba in his apartment:
Alibaba IPO: Jack Ma's Original Sales Pitch in 1999 (video link)"If we go to work at 8am and go home at 5pm, this is not a high tech company and Alibaba will never be successful. If we have that 8am-to-5pm spirit, then we should just go and do something else."
In this short clip from 1999, Jack Ma delivers a speech to 17 friends in his apartment to introduce Alibaba and lay out his plan to compete with U.S. internet titans. Study the passionate drive behind his words and the way he expresses his vision. It's just incredible.
Understand the evolution of trust with game theory:
The Evolution of Trust by Nicky Case
This interactive guide uses game theory to explain why and how we trust each other. It expresses why even in relative peacetime we find it so hard to trust one another.
— Our problem today isn't just that people are losing trust, it's that our environment acts against the evolution of trust. This game explains that important point.
All articles on the Blog this week:
Thank you for reading. I hope you found that helpful. Have a great week ahead!
Onward,
Arjun
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