Philosophy

The Stoic philosopher Lucius Annaeus Seneca’s list of ideas on how to lead a happy life serves as a great starting point for reflection. A key point from this list is that wealth and other externals should not define who we are as humans, but rather, our moral character should be our most precious possession. This ancient wisdom still applies today, especially in our age of social media, where we should not do anything because of public opinion, but rather, because of our conscience. Ultimately, the ability to quit if “the room gets too smoky” is the ultimate source of freedom, and a mark of a truly happy life. Read full article here

Goodhart’s Law states that when a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure, and this is unfortunately true more often than not. Thankfully, W. Edwards Deming and his colleagues have developed a body of work known as Statistical Process Control, which offers a number of principles to help solve Goodhart’s Law at the organisational level. Donald Wheeler’s formulation of the law, which states that metrics should be difficult to distort, data should be difficult to distort and people should be given space to improve the system, is a particularly useful one, as it offers a more actionable and solvable version of Goodhart’s Law. Read full article here

Don’t you love it when a kiss is more than a kiss? The practice of kissing seems to be a popular topic among philosophers as well, who have written extensively about kisses. Some argue that “a kiss is a kiss”, but others make a case for a distinction between a “first kiss” and all the others. For example, Danish existentialist Søren Kierkegaard believed that a first kiss is a moment that’s incomparable to any other, and that it was so powerful because of its potential to lead to more. Read full article here

Animal trials from the 16th century may have seemed like a backward practice, but they tell us a lot about how non-human consciousness was understood at the time. Through the story of Barthélemy de Chasseneuz, who defended a group of rats accused of eating a crop in Burgundy, we can learn that animals were thought to have some degree of autonomy, and were even given legal representation. In modern times, organisations like the Nonhuman Rights Project are pushing for greater legal recognition of non-human animals, and while the legal system remains slow to embrace change, we have learn that we shouldn’t underestimate the intelligence of animals. Read full article here

It’s tempting to trust intuitive arguments about social phenomena, but these often turn out to be wrong. We need to be more sceptical of these ‘models’ and require more empirical firepower before believing them. Take the example of the minimum wage – even with the rigour of modern microeconomics and large datasets, economists are still uncertain of its effects on unemployment. So let’s be extra cautious when it comes to social phenomena and make sure we’re basing our decisions on solid evidence. Read full article here

Are you familiar with the author of the wildly successful book Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind? Yuval Noah Harari is a famous historian, philosopher, and best-selling author. He might have seduced us with his storytelling, but a close look at his record shows that he sacrifices science to sensationalism, often makes grave factual errors, and portrays what should be speculative as certain. The author argues that he also reinforces the narratives of surveillance capitalists, giving them a free pass to manipulate our behaviours to suit their commercial interests. Read full article here

What does it take to have a good conversation? As described by philosopher HP Grice, good communication is co-operative; both speakers and listeners have to be equally engaged with the subject matter. Any conversation can be productive if the exchange of words is informative and truthful, with no false claims or ambiguous statements. Conversations are frequently influenced by the different attitudes of both parties and their levels of knowledge towards the subject in question. Great conversations are achieved when participants share communicative goals while accommodating each other’s personal needs. Read full article here