If people don’t see beauty around them, they lose respect for where they live, and along the way, respect for themselves.

Stepping outside my Stanford/Google/Waymo research bubble and sitting with real American companies made me realize why the bulk of the economy was not automatable by software or AI. We needed something new that is neither strictly code or AI, something that can flex but deliver reliable and affordable results to the biggest companies in the world. @tbpn @PoeticHQ

This is entirely clear to anyone who has read any bit of history from the 18th century onwards. Modern Najdi-Salafis have engaged in a kind of reformism without actually naming it. Saudi Arabia alone has gone through at least 4 iterations.

Things the recovery industry will not tell you: 1. The drug worked. That is why people use it. Not weakness. Not moral failure. A neurological event so complete and persuasive that any honest account of addiction has to start there. The problem is not that the drug fails. The problem is that what it does is unrepeatable, and you will burn your entire life to the ground trying to get back to a place that no longer exists. 2. Shame is not guilt. Guilt says I did something bad. Shame says I am something bad. Guilt is appropriate. Shame is a cell with no windows. Most people use the words interchangeably. That mistake is lethal. 3. You cannot shame someone who has already named the thing you are holding over them. Say it first. Say it in plain light. The weapon drops. 4. Guilt can coexist with self-respect. Shame cannot. You can hold the damage and the dignity at the same time. I know because I live there. 5. Radical honesty does not give you back who you were. It hands you the clean slate of who you always wanted to be. The mask comes off. The cartoon other people drew of you stays on the page. 6. Nobody gets clean on a winning streak. 7. You have to be almost self-delusional in your forgiveness of yourself. (Go watch Chase Hughes) 8. The greatest sin was not the chaos. It was the absence. Being unavailable to the people who needed you. 9. Sustainable recovery starts with one thing: honesty with yourself. If you love an addict and want to help, that is the only door in. 10. I am only an expert on my recovery. Nobody is an expert on anyone else’s.

How could you live and have no story to tell? - Dostoevsky

you can fuck up pretty bad at most ages and still have your life work out, but the people i know who wound up in bad relationships or with health downturns while single in their 30s mostly missed the boat on kids. for all the talk of permanent records and getting into the right college when you’re young, it turns out that career paths are winding and forgiving across the course of a lifetime, but there is actually a relatively short window to find a partner and start a family.

Nietzsche describing the mindset of high performers

Worked in a prison. They get chicken every other day, can buy lots of tuna and eggs from canteen. They’re eating well. It’s the routine, consistency and lack of distraction compounding over time.

You can face your shadow at any age…but the process of calcification is real if you never confront it. This is the loop: action -> behaviour -> habit -> identity. Shadow integration requires painful confrontation with yourself..and at some point, you have to raise the ceiling

Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards - Kierkegaard

The fool is the precursor to the saviour

Until death, all defeat is psychological

A good man without strength is only hoping evil has mercy - Sun Tzu

Three men lost their lives on Monday protecting their community. Amin Abdullah, the security guard and father of 8, stood in front of the gunmen so 140 children could hide. Mansour Kaziha, a pillar of the mosque for nearly 40 years, called 911. Nader Awad ran toward the danger to draw the shooters away. They were fathers, husbands, pillars of their mosque. They chose others over themselves. Our hearts are with their families and the entire Muslim community of San Diego. Islamophobia kills. This is not a debate. It’s reality. 🤍 Innā lillāhi wa innā ilayhi rājiʿūn

وَءَاخَرُونَ ٱعۡتَرَفُوا۟ بِذُنُوبِهِمۡ خَلَطُوا۟ عَمَلࣰا صَـٰلِحࣰا وَءَاخَرَ سَیِّئًا عَسَى ٱللَّهُ أَن یَتُوبَ عَلَیۡهِمۡۚ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ غَفُورࣱ رَّحِیمٌ

"Hardship does not come to bury a man. It comes to measure him." - Epictetus

This is a rare human trait, this sense of wonder and curiosity is a gift for humanity. It’s nice to see. Elizabeth is a Russian Jew, and deeply knowledgeable about Iraqis