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Don’t ever underestimate the destructive power of sins of omission.
Sorting that out is worth a fight, isn’t it? That’s a big part of life, isn’t it?
In truth, what you need—what you deserve, after all—is someone exactly as imperfect as you.
Why avoid, when avoidance necessarily and inevitably poisons the future? Because the possibility of a monster lurks underneath all disagreements and errors.
But not thinking about something you don’t want to know about doesn’t make it go away.
You are merely trading specific, particular, pointed knowledge of the likely finite list of your real faults and flaws for a much longer list of undefined potential inadequacies and insufficiencies.
Why refuse to investigate, when knowledge of reality enables mastery of reality (and if not mastery, at least th...
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Do you truly think it wise to let the catastrophe grow in the shadows, while you shrink and decrease and become ever more afraid?
Isn’t it better to prepare, to sharpen your sword, to peer into the darkness, and then to beard the lion in its den?
What you least want will inevitably happen—and when you are least prepared.
Why refuse to specify, when specifying the problem would enable its solution?
When things fall apart, and chaos re-emerges, we can give structure to it, and re-establish order, through our speech.
If we speak carefully and precisely, we can sort things out, and put them in their proper place, and set a new goal, and navigate to it—often communally, if we negotiate; if we reach consensus. If we speak carelessly and imprecisely, however, things remain vague.
Precision specifies.
When something terrible happens, it is precision that separates the unique terrible thing that has actually happened from all the other, equally terrible things that might have happened—but did not.
Precision may leave the tragedy intact, but it chases away the ghouls and the demons.
But even what is terrible in actuality often pales in significance compared to what is terrible in imagination.
Be careful with what you tell yourself and others about what you have done, what you are doing, and where you are going.
Search for the correct words.
Organize those words into the correct sentences, and those sentences into ...
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The present can flow by without robbing the future if its realities a...
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Don’t hide baby monsters under the carpet.
Courageous and truthful words will render your reality simple, pristine, well-defined and habitable.
You have to consciously define the topic of a conversation, particularly when it is difficult—or it becomes about everything, and everything is too much.
But to do that, you have to think: What is wrong, exactly? What do I want, exactly?
You must determine where you have been in your life, so that you can know where you are now.
You must determine where you have been in your life, because otherwise you can’t get to where you’re going.
You must determine where you are going in your life, because you cannot get there unless you move in that direction.
Random wandering will not move you forward. It will instead disappoint and frustrate you and make you anxious and unhappy and hard to get along with (and then resentful, and then vengeful, and then worse).
Say what you mean, so that you can find out...
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Act out what you say, so you can find out...
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Note your errors. Articulate them. Strive to correct them. That is how you discover the meaning of your life. That will protect you from the tragedy of your life. How could it be otherwise?
Confront the chaos of Being.
Take aim against a sea of...
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Specify your destination, and chart...
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Admit to what y...
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Tell those around you wh...
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Be precise in your speech.
They were trying to become competent—and it’s competence that makes people as safe as they can truly be.
Kids need playgrounds dangerous enough to remain challenging.
People, including children (who are people too, after all), don’t seek to minimize risk. They seek to optimize it.
When untrammeled—and encouraged—we prefer to live on the edge.
I believe it was Jung who developed the most surgically wicked of psychoanalytic dicta: if you cannot understand why someone did something, look at the consequences—and infer the motivation.
When someone claims to be acting from the highest principles, for the good of others, there is no reason to assume that the person’s motives are genuine.
Every word we speak is a gift from our ancestors. Every thought we think was thought previously by someone smarter.
Absolute equality would therefore require the sacrifice of value itself—and then there would be nothing worth living for.
We might instead note with gratitude that a complex, sophisticated culture allows for many games and many successful players, and that a well-structured culture allows the individuals that compose it to play and to win, in many different fashions.
He believed that intellectual activity should be devoted to social change, instead of mere understanding, and hoped to emancipate humanity from its enslavement.
Beware of single cause interpretations—and beware the people who purvey them.
In societies that are well-functioning—not in comparison to a hypothetical utopia, but contrasted with other existing or historical cultures—competence, not power, is a prime determiner of status. Competence. Ability. Skill. Not power.
