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Chapter 008: Call to Action

  • A deep friendship should be antifragile
  • “Men and women range themselves into three classes or orders of intelligence; you can tell the lowest class by their habit of always talking about persons; the next by the fact that their habit is always to converse about things; the highest, by their preference for the discussion of ideas.”
  • 1) Mieux vaut être seul que mal accompagné [Best to be alone than poorly accompanied]; and 2) Dis-moi qui sont tes amis et je te dirai qui tu es [Tell me who your friends are, and I’ll tell you who you are].
  • Sam Harris Debating Burquas
    • Person Sam is debtaing says that taking the eyes out of every third child is fine if that is what the religious ideology says is right
  • The difference between a judgmental ideologue and a judgmental intellectual is the process by which each arrives at his position.
  • The hash tags and Instagram profile pics display nothing
  • Mating Stratagies
    • Survive, get food and avoid becoming someone else’s food.
    • Fuck, those that evolve for intersexual wooing (the peacock’s tail; the “moonwalk” dance of the red-capped manakin) or for intrasexual competition (moose antlers; the cranial structure of rams for butting heads).
  • Astronaut Kevin Kelly having to apologize for quoting Winston Churchill, a man who lead the war against Hitler????
  • An individual who decides to wear a “Draw Mohammad” t-shirt in Yemen (to protest Islamic blasphemy laws) is undoubtedly exhibiting excessive fearlessness. On the other hand, the media’s reluctance to challenge an imam’s statement that “Islam is peace” is a manifestation of cowardice. Between these two endpoints lies the sweet spot of tempered and reasoned engagement.
  • Keep work and personal life separate, twitter exchanges should be separate just like parenting decisions
  • There is a dumbing down of society with MBA's requiring less and less work, grade inflation, and non disclosure of grades.
  • Socialism, “Great idea, Wrong species.”
  • It does no one any favors to pursue a utopian vision of society where no one’s feelings are hurt.