… the opposite of “complex” is not “simple,” the opposite of “complex” is “isolated.”
“The opposite of ‘complex’ is ‘isolated.’”
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Embracing Uncertainty
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“… embracing uncertainty is to embrace … mystery. These lives we live, surrounded by beauty and horror, profound knowledge and pitiful ignorance, are a mystery to us all. To push that truth away with false certainty, falsely derived from either religion or reason, is to miss our most perfect truth.
We are, after all, just ‘such stuff as dreams are made on; and our little life is rounded with a sleep.‘”
The Upside Of Being An Introvert
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The right kind of leader can break [the pattern of groupthink], and the right kind of leader may be an introverted one. Introverted CEOs are more common than you might think, given the caricature of the hard-charging, fast-talking executive. By one estimate, 40% of high-powered American businesspeople fall on the introvert end of the spectrum, a group that appears to include the likes of Bill Gates, Charles Schwab and Google CEO Larry Page. The ability to assess risk and remain focused on the long term can pay off big in the boardroom. So can the capacity for listening, a trait that can be too easily lost in the isolation of the C-level suite. “Introverted leaders tend to be more detail oriented and better able to hear their employees,” says Jennifer Kahnweiler, an executive coach and author of The Introverted Leader.
Via The Upside Of Being An Introvert (And Why Extroverts Are Overrated)
“Do not feel absolutely certain of anything”
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- Do not feel absolutely certain of anything.
- Do not think it worth while to proceed by concealing evidence, for the evidence is sure to come to light.
- Never try to discourage thinking for you are sure to succeed.
- When you meet with opposition, even if it should be from your husband or your children, endeavor to overcome it by argument and not by authority, for a victory dependent upon authority is unreal and illusory.
- Have no respect for the authority of others, for there are always contrary authorities to be found.
- Do not use power to suppress opinions you think pernicious, for if you do the opinions will suppress you.
- Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric.
- Find more pleasure in intelligent dissent than in passive agreement, for, if you value intelligence as you should, the former implies a deeper agreement than the latter.
- Be scrupulously truthful, even if the truth is inconvenient, for it is more inconvenient when you try to conceal it.
- Do not feel envious of the happiness of those who live in a fool’s paradise, for only a fool will think that it is happiness.
Via A Liberal Decalogue: Bertrand Russell on the Ten Commandments of Teaching
Max Planck on Consciousness
I regard consciousness as fundamental. I regard matter as derivative from consciousness. We cannot get behind consciousness. Everything that we talk about, everything that we regard as existing, postulates consciousness.
–Max Planck, As quoted in The Observer (25 January 1931)