20.39: Random Thoughts of the Week

ℹ️ This is not a newsletter, nor is it a weekly update one can expect to be delivered every Sunday. These are just random thoughts or ideas I come across and pin down during the week.

Found on the “news”

This week I found nothing on the news. Basically because I don’t read the news — which reminds me that, in fact, this section is kind of pointless. Thinking of removing it for the upcoming versions.

Things I’ve shared

  • The playbook has always taught us that you make another person like you by asking about their interests, praising them… However, Chuck Palahniuk, the author of Fight Club, goes even beyond. He proposes this idea of messing up with people — deliberately making you look dumber, by stating a wrong fact, for example — and giving them a chance to correct you. The act of “correcting you” makes them feel better and more at ease with you. Source: The Time Ferriss Show
  • Having beautiful, inspiring things around is a delightful feeling. This brand is the pinnacle of this idea — but beware, if you’re easy on the “buy button” this website can potentially evaporate your savings.

Things I was into

How are you complicit in recreating the very conditions you say you don’t want.

—— Jerry Colonna

  • The way Carl Jung used the idea of Metanoia. I’ve always thought of the term as clarity of vision, a way to unlock and achieve your human potential. Jung’s approach is even more interesting — he developed the usage to indicate a spontaneous attempt of the psyche to heal itself from conflict and being reborn in a more adaptive form.
  • Never thought that archaeological records could be susceptible to bias. However, since a great deal of archaeology is state-sponsored, it usually ends up as a narcissistic exercise in self-portraiture. In other words, the way archaeological evidence is gathered, tends to leave systematic holes in our knowledge. Source: Devon Zuegel

Random thoughts

  • 5️⃣ Romans did plenty of things right. However, their numeral system was not among their greatest hits. As a kid, you learn the numbers by ascending order: first, the 1, then, the 2… you get the gist. But because of the subtractive notation in the Roman numeral system, if you wanted to understand 4 (IV), you first needed to know about five (V), which if you think about it, doesn’t make much sense.
  • 🎧 Huet, who was deemed the most read person in his day, had a servant follow him with a book to read aloud during meals and breaks — one could argue that the guy somehow pioneered Audible but 500 years ago.
First published on September 27, 2020
#til