The Pearl: Gold & Diggers
Written by Martin Vidal | 09/05/2021
Food for Thought:
The Modern Philosopher Is More an Archaeologist
I once wrote a piece about how the universe must be, by every measure, infinite. My argument was based on the assertion that what exists cannot touch what does not exist, and therefore a border marking the transition from existence to non-existence is impossible. When I submitted it for publication, the editors said I needed source materials. I asked, “How do I apply sources for what is being argued on the basis of logic, and can possibly only be inferred by logic?” They asked me to cite other philosophers who had said similar things. I refused and my piece was rejected. In my frustration, I wrote the piece below. Why do we act like we don’t have sufficient ability to figure things out on our own these days? Everything considered reliable is based on sources and experience, but even empirical data requires logical interpretation and extrapolation. What about that which we can extrapolate just from what we see each day in the world? It’s time we remembered that the human mind is just as capable as it was during the time of the philosophers of old.
Read it here.
Personal Development:
Dopamine Baseline
A lot of us find the necessary and productive things we do boring when compared to what we do for sheer entertainment. This feeling of boredom is actually a craving for dopamine. Activities that are fast-paced and offer a constant stream of “rewards"—such as certain television programs, video games, and even social activities—all result in a lot of dopaminergic activity in the brain. If we spend a lot of our time doing things like these, we establish this exaggerated dopaminergic response as our baseline. Then, anything less stimulating will seem boring.
If you spend your days reading, you will find that reading becomes entertaining, whereas if you get into the habit of playing lots of video games, reading can become relatively understimulating. It’s similar to how when you have a bad diet, chock-full of lots of sugar and fat, regular, healthy food can seem bland. But once you start eating nutritious food regularly again, it becomes just as delicious as the unhealthy food was, with the added benefit of being good for you. In fact, those fatty and sugary snacks are making our dopamine system fire like crazy just the same as video games and other highly stimulating activites.
Sometimes we just need to go on a mental diet. After a while, the activities that are good for us become fun as well, if we just keep away from the stuff that drives our dopaminergic system to a higher baseline.
For more content like this, see The Ambition Handbook: A Guide for Ambitious Persons.
Book Quotes:
When you are content to be simply yourself
and don’t compare or compete,
everybody will respect you. (p. 8)Do you have the patience to wait
till your mud settles and the water is clear?
Can you remain unmoving
till the right action arises by itself? (p. 15)He who defines himself can't know who he really is. (p. 24)
The Master gives himself up
to whatever the moment brings.
He knows that he is going to die,
and he has nothing left to hold on to:
no illusions in his mind,
no resistances in his body.
He doesn’t think about his actions;
they flow from the core of his being.
He holds nothing back from life;
therefore he is ready for death,
as a man is ready for sleep
after a good day’s work. (p. 50)The world is sacred.
It can’t be improved.
If you tamper with it, you’ll ruin it.
If you treat it like an object, you’ll lose it. (p. 29)
You can find the full book here.
A Song I Love:
Yellow Gold by Alela Diane
This song is truly a poem written to music. More than music, this song shows me what writing can be, how it can be married to wordless sounds for such a powerful effect. Words and the sounds of music can both affect us in the same way but by different routes. The lyrics
Colors, colors, dance on the wall
Colder mornings, days turn to fall
Remember lying sideways on the bed
Lazy lovers with an empty day ahead
Morning light painted us
Yellow gold
I shed my shadow like a dress
When your love took hold of me
When your love took hold
capture the beauty of the morning, which is one of the great gifts of life on earth: waking up each day to a rising sun that paints everything with a beautiful, yellow gold. This, combined with that happy, carefree place that only love can take us to, is nothing but idyllic and hopeful.
But I’ll be with you when the stars and sea are gone
Supernatural vacancy intangible
Listen to it here.
A Tiny Thought:
There is no point in life when we are not called upon to change for the next role.
Until next week,
Martin Vidal
Author of The Ambition Handbook and Flower Garden
Website: www.martinvidal.co