Tag Archives: learning

PROMPT: Won’t Live to Witness

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Daily writing prompt
What’s something you’d love to see in the future, but know you probably won’t live to witness?
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I would love to see an era in which AI and robotics frees up humans to work on the project of being better humans physically, mentally, creatively, emotionally, artistically, etc.

However, I suspect that on the way to that point there will be periods of dystopia, chaos, and quasi-Armageddon. As near as I can tell, it will involve the invention of a new form of economy (and possibly governance,) which I haven’t seen anyone discussing in the merited depths.

FIVE WISE LINES [June 2026]

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Photograph of sunset taken at Moalboal, Philippines across the Tanon Strait.

When I was younger I could remember anything,
whether it had happened or not;
but my faculties are decaying now and soon
I shall be able to remember only the things
that never happened.

Mark twain

“The mind is not a vessel to be filled,
but a fire to be kindled.”

Plutarch [paraphrased]

Judge a man by his questions
rather than his answers.

Voltaire

Resist much, obey little.

Walt whitman; “To the states“

People don’t take trips —
trips take people.

John steinbeck

PROMPT: Profound Piece of Advice

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What’s the most profound piece of advice you’ve been given? Did you take it?
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“Shut the hell up!” Sadly, more often than not, no.

PROMPT: Motivated

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How do you stay motivated when learning something new?
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That’s not so much my problem. I’m a learning addict and get hooked easily. My problem comes down the line at the point where the once blurred edges between what is of value and what is bullshit in a given discipline comes into focus. It is that point that my enthusiasm wavers.

PROMPT: High School

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Describe something you learned in high school.
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The one thing I learned in High School was that I really should have learned more than one thing in High School.

PROMPT: Don’t Understand

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What’s something most people don’t understand?
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The substance of financial crises. Not to mention Quantum Mechanics and Calculus. Really, there’s virtually nothing that most people do understand. Have you met most people? They’re kind of dim.

But seriously, the thing that has been striking me lately is how often zero-sum thinking is applied to non-zero-sum games. Put simply, people often believe they are in a situation in which every gain by someone else corresponds to a loss for them, when that is often not the case. Manipulation to convince people otherwise is in full swing. People are being led to believe they have to worry if others are complimented or are doing well because it reflects poorly on them, when — in fact — it does not (necessarily.)

PROMPT: Teacher

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Who was your most influential teacher? Why?
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That’s like asking me to pick my favorite breakfast meat.

PROMPT: Understand One Thing

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If you could make your pet understand one thing, what would it be?
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How Buddhists reconcile the Doctrine of Anatta (the belief that there is no permanent self) with a belief in reincarnation.

PROMPT: Clutter

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Where can you reduce clutter in your life?
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My brain.

PROMPT: Skills or Lessons

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What skills or lessons have you learned recently?
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Shopping for crazy. I’ve become aware that – during some time periods, it’s mandated that there be one bat-shit insane person per subway car — and that, if there are more than that, they need to spread out evenly and give the stage to one among them — a Car Crazy Champion, if you will. After riding in a car with a urine-drenched crack addict who paced the length of the car eating (and sloshing) some pungent food from a Styrofoam container, I realized I should have been in the next car with the very nicely dressed and clean-cut man in what seemed to be a self-created and self-imposed uniform reading aloud from the Bible. I no longer concern myself with what car gets me closest to the appropriate exit, rather I shop around for the least objectionable crazy.