PRay TeLL, Dr. Hash

<p>If you don't have a guru already, I'm here for you:</p> <ol> <li> <p lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">Unusual advice is the best because other people aren't taking it.</p> </li> <li> <p lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal; font-weight: nor...

<p>Here's a personal observation that probably doesn't apply to anyone else so take my word for it. Achievements are like climbing a mountain; each step up giving you a better view of from whence you came. After each accomplishment, I thought I might be high enough above the valley to look down and make sense of life, but in actuality, every time I got to the top, I could see higher mountain...

<p>Longterm goals are easy to wish for but difficult to achieve, so most people don't accomplish much of anything. However, there are two simple rules that make goals obtainable: first, no matter how easy a goal is, if it's not convenient, chances are you won't do it. Convenience is the most under-appreciated of all life's little pleasures: to simply reach out and grasp your desire. If conve...

<p>Outside Obligations are unilateral contracts made about you but in which you were not given a chance to negotiate; for example, church established ethics and morals, and “Ask Heloise” type manners fall into this category. Out of personal courtesy, you may even adhere to these informal social dictates, but the demands can quickly become much greater: church tithing, charities, tipping, uni...

<p>How often have you been told to make a plan for your life? That “common sense” advice alone is enough to show that most people don't understand how life operates because you can't predict the future, so you can't plan it; you can only have a goal and do the first thing that seems likely to achieve that goal; it's all a mad scramble after that. An apt metaphor, is trying to cross a river o...

<p>Most people assume the personality they exhibit right now is them. Given no change in circumstances, that's probably true but there is research that actually proves the old adage that people “will rise to the occasion.” What that means is that your personality depends on the circumstances, and if circumstances change, so will your personality, dramatically so; you're not who you think you...

<p>People write whole books that could be boiled down to a single sentence, an aphorism: a witty saying highlighting a truth that survives long after the author. Benjamin Franklin was accomplished in many fields but it's “apple a day” and “penny saved” sayings that we remember him by. The cleverness of an aphorism is in direct proportion to its memorability, but at the same time they need to...

<p>Intelligent authors make wise observations but the gist is flooded by so many worthless words that it's impossible to dig it out. Whole books are written that contain only a single premise, one that could be written in a sentence first then explained in a couple more pages if you still wanted to read. Normally, I and most people, read the first sentence of an article then skedaddle. It's...

<p>It seems unfair that most of the homilies we are taught as children simply aren’t true; it’s part of the fantasy of childhood that, hopefully, adults mature out of. We would all like to think that the world is a better place than it is, and you can't make it that way if you don't know what's wrong. If you haven't discovered what's not the truth yet, let me tell you, but pay careful attent...

<p>Conservatism has lots of good aspects, most importantly it keeps things that are working well, working well, but it does have the significant downside of limiting people's creativity. Liberals don't have that problem but then again, you have to be suspicious of the selfishness of liberalism, which is probably why Conservatives don't recognize when the Liberals have it right. Then there ar...

<p>People of the Old Testament were onto something when they identified the sins:</p> <ol> <li> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">Almost all human motivations emanate from our negative emotions.</p> </li> <li> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">Envy i...

<p>It’s interesting that so many storylines, some of the most compelling ones in fact, are centered on getting back at another person or another team, mostly out of competitive spirit. This feeling can obviously be experienced vicariously; the dopamine reaction fans feel when their sports team defeats the rival, who barely beat them last time on a technicality, is sweet indeed. Stories about...

<p>Sloth is an old word, kind of strange, rather misunderstood. Laziness is often considered the definition of sloth but lazy people don’t like to do anything, while slothful people don’t actually accomplish anything. Slothful people can be quite active pursuing their own self-gratification, but there is no lasting achievement, just purely consumptive activities like fitness, food & fant...

<p>It would be strategic to assume that the vast majority of what we see, hear, and experience is distorted by our own selfishness, or the selfishness of others. Our selfishness manifests itself in all aspects of our lives; even decisions supposedly made for altruistic reasons usually have a modicum of selfishness at their core. Selfishness is the foundation of many sins: greed, the focus on...

<p>In the primitive battle for survival and social dominance, anger overcomes reason and even fear. Anger is the “fight” component of the fight-or-flight response, and apparently it's very important to human existence, considering its prevalence. Anger is provoked by a myriad of stimuli: threat, frustration, even embarrassment. Anger is primordial: there is a disruption of the body’s homeost...

<p>No emotion is more based in genetic conservation than fear. Fear triggers our primordial fight-or-flight response via a cauldron of visceral chemical reactions that have successfully protected homo sapiens as they evolved. All responses, from the unconscious to the cognitive, are intended to reduce fear, and people will do whatever they have to make fear go away. Modern humans are no less...

<p>Vindictiveness is on the fringe of human emotions, usually the result of a personality disorder such as Narcissism or Borderline: typified as self-destructive, paranoid, with a lot of repressed aggression. It's especially prominent during an individual's climbing of the social hierarchy, ultimately as it pertains to mating opportunities but also while seeking control over their own lives....

<p>The most bizarre of the negative emotions is perversity: the willful determination to act counter to someone else’s interests, even at your own detriment. It's like spite, in that you intend to thwart the intentions of another person, but you make that choice knowing that it will materially harm your own situation. This is the seminal example of irrationality overwhelming logic: it doesn'...

<p>Spite is a malicious desire to harm, annoy, frustrate, or humiliate another person, often one who has no animosity towards you or you them. The reason why spite is instinctual is that a good defense is the best offense; if another member of your tribe is ascending the social hierarchy, with all that entails including mating opportunities, it's in an individual's best interest to hinder th...

<p><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Resentment is bitter indignation directed towards you by others who perceive you as interfering with their own objectives, real or imagined. </span></span>Resentment is also generated in others who are envious of you, or covetous of your things, or simply lust after your wife....

<p>Like all negative emotions, jealousy is rooted in evolution: a male's biological imperative is to continue his gene line, and since males can't determine the parentage of their offspring, they must control access to the female. This is the most commonly exhibited aspect of jealousy, but jealousy is also tightly tied to fears of humiliation if another male usurps their mate, as well as a f...

<p><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Envy is ubiquitous and one of the most fundamental of emotions. Envy is one's own discontent with regard to another's advantages, successes & possessions. It's </span></span>telling that our envy towards the accomplishments of others is so powerful that it controls every as...

<p>Societies have long recognized that the big three visceral motivations: envy, jealously & resentment; are deleterious, and warn against them. Why? Because they manifest as spite, perversity & vindictiveness; which are destructive all around. It's actually rather curious that more emphasis is not given to these base feelings because they are quite predictive, but people wish it was...

<p>Psychiatrists aren't the only ones who should understand human weaknesses; let's review what we know:</p> <ol> <li> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">To be irrational is to make subjectively bad decisions.</p> </li> <li> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;&q...

<p>Depression is a symptom of affluence. People are evolved to get enjoyment from simple accomplishments, like having enough food to eat, evading a threat, or building shelter. When those things are provided without effort, it becomes more difficult to find individual purpose; and when child-bearing & rearing are also reduced, the lack of motivation becomes epidemic, as evidenced by the...