. Buddhist nun Pema Chödrön wrote that the best way to maintain concentration during meditation is to label all distracting thoughts as “thinking” and return to the immediacy of your breath. Similarly, one might argue that the best way to keep your mental composure during a debate is to label your opponent’s arguments as opinion. … Read more

. I like to think of this blog as a constantly updated map of my reading adventures, where each new stop offers an opportunity to ask one of my favorite authors how to live a good life. At the same time, I also view it as a constantly evolving anthology of my intellectual pursuits, where … Read more

“It took modern humans tens of thousands of years to reach a population of seven hundred million and then we tapped into millions of years of stored energy known as fossil fuels. Our human population exploded. It increased by ten times in a mere two hundred years. Our consumption has also exploded: on average ten … Read more

“The computer is a new mirror, the first psychological machine. Beyond its nature as an analytical engine lies its second nature as an evocative object,” Sherry Turkle wrote while contemplating the human spirit in a computer culture. “I do not see that computers are bringing us one step nearer to anything that does matter to … Read more