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Tag: intuition

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    Tax of Existence

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    1–2 minutes

    Humans fight entropy by constantly attending to themselves—a survival instinct by checking our health and well-being.

    This spills into endless self-focus: how we’re doing, fitting in, remembering, and fantasizing. It builds identity and worth… but what is our cosmic significance?

    Rather than being “OK” after our self-attendance, we also insist on mattering to others. All this expended self-attentional energy demands externalized reciprocation, so we can finally justify our costly existence.

    We are our own greatest overhead.

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    Instinct Over Logic

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    1–2 minutes

    Cormac McCarthy’s quote, “The unconscious is a machine for operating an animal,” reveals our primal core. We’re not just logical nodes or computers; heuristics and instinct drive us.

    Only half of our brain (left) leans logical; coincidentally, that’s the half that deceives. Clarity can arrive from embracing our animalistic unconscious, letting our holistic, non-linguistic drives (left brain, bodily) arise.

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    Curiosity: survival and surplus

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    1–2 minutes

    Curiosity arises from two states: survival and surplus. In survival, it serves utility; in conditions of surplus, it becomes playful exploration.

    Yet even playfulness may stem from survival (freedom born of overcoming), while surplus enables deeper insight (less pressing, less provisional, more contemplative).

    Is curiosity ever free from survival’s roots, the inherent drive to map and know the world that threatens you? Genuine curiosity may only emerge when survival fades, allowing idle wonder to evolve, yet equally, such contentment may dissolve (or pervert) the investigative impulse.

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    accounting: zombification

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    1–2 minutes

    The accountant’s instinct is to log and cut, cut to the bone, scrimp and shield, to tourniquet outgoing vitality. They save the blood from spilling, but too much constriction, too much cutting, and restriction, and only a husk remains, immobile and zombified.

    At this point, ravenous and lacking sugar in the brain, one must go out and find fresh blood. One must parasitically consume rather than generate one’s own vitality.

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    The instinct to lie

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    1–2 minutes

    If information is power, it’s no surprise we lie. We instinctively hold something back to retain leverage, a survival mechanism to protect our most vital resources.

    To be open and trusting is to invite predation. Don’t blame people for lying—this cautious instinct can be protective in hostile environments.

    The real conflict lies in balancing belief in others with self-preservation. While communal trust fosters security, it also becomes prey to bad actors, eventually dissolving that trust and leaving only frightened survivalists in its wake.

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    Darwinian fitness read retroactivity

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    1–2 minutes

    Survival of the fittest cannot be calculated in advance; it is only recognized as "fit" in hindsight.
    Naturally, we can forecast some adaptable traits will be indispensable; however, the secondary cascades illuminate unforeseen weak traits as more evolutionarily beneficial.

    For instance, domestication (quasi-parasitic, sacrificial survival) underscores the folly of peak physical prowess or sexual natural selection. By stripping survival instinct in favor of subservience, devolution may land some species on Mars, greatly expanding their survival odds.
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    Simplistic governance

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    1–2 minutes

    To explain where you are now and predict (or forecast) the future requires understanding history, mythology, human nature, and science.

    With only partial models (or only a couple of disciplines), your predictions will be biased and your forecasts will be askew.

    Amplified ignorance across an entire democracy, manipulated by mediated algorithms, reduces the ability of people to model; they only react instinctively, emotionally. The result is that simplistic governance will take over as citizens become simpletons.

    There is nothing wrong with simple. The problem is that complexities manifest, seemingly producing themselves from simple starts (just a few proteins produce all of life), and require multifaceted consideration and foresight to evolve even moderately alongside.

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    tyrannical reaction to the competitive instinct

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    1–2 minutes

    The competitive instinct is the desire to excel and be honored for it, not the power to dominate.
    – In a confused overreaction, clamping down on any who would want distinction through winning is a means to dissuade a possible tyrant.
    Ironically, those clamping down are tyrannical in forcing egalitarianism, which enforces fragility and similarity.

    The competitive instinct is not always about dominance but the pursuit of excellence and recognition. This drive for distinction (excellence) is often misinterpreted as the potential for tyranny.

    This reaction itself can become tyrannical, as it enforces a rigid egalitarianism. Ironically, this approach fosters a culture of fragility and homogeneity, stifling the very individualism it seeks to protect.

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    Truth as creation rather than discovery

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    1–2 minutes

    Is "truth" merely the repetition of acts you create for yourself?
    Suppose there is no universal truth but merely the monotonous repetition that sharpens intuition into hard law, a vital principle. In that case, it may feel like discovery or exposure of truth, while it is instead a personal creation.

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    Balancing for Weakness

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    1–2 minutes

    We are often defined by our weakness. However we put ourselves in frameworks that balance.

    Those with criminal instincts are attracted to the police academy, while obnoxious people attempt to become sales people, and those who do not understand themselves, and their family members, work to become a psychologist.

    Our deficiencies become the drivers to normalize ourselves.