Presa scrie că „Umbrărescu salvează ArcelorMittal Hunedoara". Cifrele arată altceva: cel mai mare constructor din România face o afacere foarte bună, de anii ‘90. Pentru ca am trecut de vârsta la care mă fascinau poveștile cu eroi salvatori, și pentru ca prețul afișat este infim, am zis să pun câteva întrebări unei inteligențe artificiale, care a și sumarizat răspunsurile în articolul de mai…
Au trecut mai bine de 10 ani de când mi-am pierdut nevoia de a scrie. Descoperisem câștigul din scris acum aproape 25 de ani. Prima recenzie, sinceră, spre norocul meu, a venit de la Nicu Pană . Îl consideram, ca și acum, prieten înțelept. Îmi fusese profesor de engleză la ASE. „Cum ți se pare?“ i-am zis, mândru de textul meu, scris pentru siteul a ceea ce eu consideram serios că este…
Schizo.ro - Cum să trăiești cu Schizofrenia Am vrut să fac acest proiect în urmă cu 15 ani! Am cumpărat domeniul, am găsit traducători și persoane care să facă review. L-am amânat mereu, din multe motive: calitatea traducerii, formatarea, drepturile de autor, lipsa personalului calificat care să ajute. Anul acesta mi-am făcut o listă de lucruri de suflet pe care trebuia să le îndeplinesc. Astăzi…
Sumar: Desi cafeaua este consumata peste tot, sunt foarte putini cei care o inteleg. Cu un minim de efort poti bea constant cafea buna , fara sa-ti faca o gaura in buzunar. Mult din ceea ce stii sau crezi despre cafea este probabil gresit. Mai jos, opiniile mele, aparute in urma unei practici de cativa ani de prajit si preparat cafea. Despre oameni, gusturi si preferinte Vorbim in majoritati.…
I have never found someone that clicked better with my worldview than Neel Burton , professor, philosopher, psychiatrist, author and so on ;-) I will quote a part of his TED presentation (video above). People in the depressive position are often stigmatized as failures or losers. Of course, nothing could be further from the truth. If these people are in the depressive position, it is just because…
Mental toughness programs, motivational speakers, self improvement books have a common purpose: to make you the strong and motivated successful person that you want to become. Maybe, at times, you find yourself apathetic, realizing you are a grain of sand in desert of life. Maybe you have big dreams, but the reality of your failure to make them come true is even bigger. Maybe you feel like you…
Masterful piece by Professor Terence Kealey : The Myth of Science as a Public Good Non-surprisingly for just a few people: government funding for science goes against science progress! But this is just the first half an hour of the lecture, the other hour is an amazing session of Q&A. You can also read the latest book he wrote on the subject: Sex, science and profits .
Do you like counter-intuitive facts? What if I was to tell you that the drug pusher, the dishonest cop, the profiteer or the employer of child labour perform useful, productive services? More than that, they improve the morality of the free market and do more good than thousands of emotional “anti-you-name-it” activists. How can this be right? It sounds completely insane! Read:…
Are you happy? : Happiness is always at the top of our wishlists. But how often does one actively think and work on being happy. Sounds weird? Only if you haven’t done it before. The second you start thinking about happiness you step on the glorious grounds of Philosophy. You can start your journey of finding personal happiness by studying the work of humanity’s greatest thinkers. It sounds like a…
Key Concepts: Ambivalence : One of the most important things I learned over the last years is mastering ambivalence . The short version: ambivalence is the state of having contradictory feelings and beliefs . Ambivalence is a very efficient way of being prepared for anything . Being prepared is an important part of having a strategy for dealing with any specific situation. Every time when faced…
The Psychology of Nations : Can we live in a world without war? A classical utopian question that deserves a proper answer. I have always been fascinated by international politics and struggled to figure out the reasoning behind the reactions and decisions of states, trying to predict history as it happened. By far the best book I have ever came across on this topic is The Psychology of Nations (A…
Dreaming of Unobtainia : We are all living a mass psychosis : the lust for world that does not exist - Unobtainia . My favorite example are airline magazines - some seem printed entirely to advertise this utopian world. It goes way beyond, this world is sold to us at every corner, in every hour of our lives. Think of all our proposed models or all the things we are told to desire every day! They…
Key Concepts: World View : I am at a point in life where doubt is my greatest certainty . One of the few things I’m very committed to is expanding my worldview . To keep it simple, by world view I understand the sum of my perceptions and interpretation of my surrounding universe. For the not-so-lazy, there is a great article about world view on Wikpedia . Lots of food for thought in there. The…
A few days back curiosity hit me: What was my current life philosophy? I knew it was somewhere between existentialism and nihilism. And here it is: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absurdism In absurdist philosophy, the Absurd arises out of the fundamental disharmony between the individual’s search for meaning and the meaninglessness of the universe.
Stupid Advice : “Good advice is hard to come by” In the quest for meaning you (and I) try to get answers. Usually a mix of knowledge from books, thinking or intelligent dialogue can get you possible and useful answers. But, it takes time and effort. For some issues I’m not willing to put in the time and effort, so I go for the the already masticated answers. Most of the “answers” I found lately…
The Crack Up : “The voice too — I am working with a teacher on the voice. When I have perfected it the larynx will show no ring of conviction except the conviction of the person I am talking to. Since it will be largely called upon for the elicitation of the word “Yes,” my teacher (a lawyer) and I are concentrating on that, but in extra hours. I am learning to bring into it that polite acerbity…
The Antidote : Today I finished reading one of the most interesting books I have read for a while: The Antidote - Happiness for people who can’t stand positive thinking . The book proposes the negative path to happiness - enjoying insecurity, uncertainty, sadness and failure . It successfully argues that positive thinking, goal setting and happiness seeking are flawed approaches to life. They…
“How ridiculous and how strange to be surprised at anything which happens in life.” Marcus Aurelius. My favorite Roman Emperor. Haven’t you read his Meditations ?
Counselor : Counselor “Actions create consequences. Consequences which produce new worlds, and they’re all different. Where the bodies are buried in the desert, that is a certain world, where the bodies are left to simply evolve, that is another. And all these worlds, heretofore unknown to us, they must have always been there, have they not? Reflective men often find themselves at a place removed…