Chris Lakin

All Essays

• Philosophy and Life

  We’ve figured out how to get exactly what we think we want, and none of what we need.

  Relax like you’re about to be executed.

  If you walk into a dead end in a maze, you don’t go “Fuck! I’ve failed!”

  There is a sweeter kind of freedom.

  Stoicism: A summary of a philosophy which has done me considerable good.

  Consume less and create more.

  Solitude deprivation: Are you depriving yourself of solitude?

  ‘Decision fatigue’ exists. Reduce ambiguity in decisions.

  Deliberately inject randomness into your decisions.

  Deviate: Deviate from what’s typical to win a winner-takes-all game.

  Fulfillment ≠ Pleasure.

  We may have to force ourselves to do not-yet-habitual activities, even if we enjoy them greatly.

  If you’re going to have an ego, at least make it meta.

• Learning

  Ideation occurs in the recesses of the mind. How can creativity be optimized?

  Idea Sex: How to increase idea quality.

  Focus on learning what’s possible, not specific procedures.

  Much of expertise is pattern recognition. How do we teach that?

  You can’t learn from experience at face value.

• Other

  • Health

    Food: The purpose of food is to nourish!

    Isn’t fixing the root cause usually the best solution? (And how I cured the root of a chronic health problem.)

    What I tell friends about improving sleep.

  • Social

    Parroting: the only way to understand someone else with certainty.

    How do you find people you’ll like? Be polarizing.

    Open-minded: How to quickly determine whether someone is open-minded.

    Unscientific: Ask questions even when ideas seem preposterous.

  Corner of less-important essays.

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