Folgen
-
In this episode—especially since it has been so long since our last one—we decided to revisit the concept of kodawari and how it has changed for us over the three years of doing this podcast/blog.
Over time we encounter more knowledge and have more life experiences. And as we attempt to integrate those into a coherent life philosophy, our ideas about life change and update. I believe we have a duty to regularly bring a beginner's mind to our ideas so that we can "rediscover" them with novelty.
There is something cyclic to the way that we descend into a more chaotic state of confusion and then emerge from it by finding once again our deep truths with freshness in the present moment. This cyclic process can subtly or drastically update our ideas, making them more personal, genuine, valuable, and "true".
So since we are very different people than when we started the podcast three years ago, we felt it would be good to revisit the meaning of kodawari with fresh eyes. We especially lean into the uncompromising element of kodawari and why our society needs more "skillful inflexibility" to continue functioning.
Timestamps:[04:36] Why are we revisiting the meaning of kodawari?[09:09] How has kodawari changed for us?[12:12] What are we uncompromising about?[20:41] Rethinking how perfection fits into kodawari[23:11] Why humility is crucial[26:32] Limitations of the intellect and Chekhov’s The Seagull [32:59] Our official 2023 definition of kodawari
Links:First podcast episode on kodawariArticle: What is Kodawari?Japanese Ramen’s KodawariThe Japanese philosophy of "Kodawari"Chekhov’s The Seagull A Rabbi, a Priest, and an Atheist Smoke Weed Together
Support Us:You can always support us by leaving a rating or review in your podcasting app. You can also share our episodes with friends on social media.
But it does take a lot of time to put together a podcast, maintain a website, and write new content every week. So if you would like to support us in a more substantial way, consider making a donation through the PayPal buttons on our website:
https://exploringkodawari.blog/donation/
Follow Us:Our Website/BlogNewsletterTwitter: @EKodawariInstagram: @exploringkodawariFacebook: facebook.com/ExploringKodawari
-
“‘I shall take the heart,’ returned the Tin Woodsman; ‘for brains do not make one happy, and happiness is the best thing in the world.’” —L. Frank Baum
The topic of this episode is happiness and hedonic adaptation, otherwise known as the hedonic treadmill. Hedonic adaptation is a phenomenon of our psychology and physiology that keeps us at a stable level of happiness over time. This adaptation is like an immune system that desensitizes us in relation to negative and positive experiences, making us continually find our happiness baseline.
The Hedonic TreadmillThe concept of hedonic adaptation dates back to a 1971 paper by Philip Brickman and Donald T. Campbell called "Hedonic Relativism and Planning the Good Society", and it was made even more famous in a 1978 study called "Lottery Winners and Accident Victims: Is Happiness Relative?" The study compared lottery winners and paraplegics with a control group to show that both groups eventually adjusted and returned to a baseline of happiness.
The hedonic treadmill, or happiness treadmill, is named as such because no matter how much you chase happiness and increase it in the short term, you end up in the same place continually chasing. The hedonic pathways in our brains become desensitized to pleasurable things that we encounter regularly. So after big life events like winning the lottery, getting a job promotion, getting married, etc, we will tend to settle back to our happiness set point.
The Meaning of HappinessAside from the science of hedonic adaptation, we also talked about the philosophy of happiness and whether it is a good goal in life. How is happiness different from words like joy, pleasure, tranquility, peacefulness, excitement, satisfaction, content, cheerful, or well-being?
Is happiness something we get from the external world or does it come from within? Do we seek happiness or are we really running away from suffering? And what is the difference between a meaningful life and a happy life?
Solutions to the Hedonic Treadmill“Now and then it’s good to pause in our pursuit of happiness and just be happy.” —Guillaume ApollinaireLastly, we talked about ways to overcome hedonic adaptation so that we do not continually get caught in the same traps throughout life. Routines such as a dopamine detox and spiritual practices like gratitude and Beginner's Mind are all ways to avoid getting stuck on the hedonic treadmill.
Timestamps:[06:08] What is happiness?[10:05] What is the difference between happiness and well-being?[15:28] Dopamine [27:57] What is hedonic adaptation?[35:14] Hedonic adaptation towards negative phenomena [39:23] How to combat the hedonic treadmill[50:40] Why negative emotions are necessary
Links:A French poet’s beautiful advice on how to be happy (Luke's Medium article)Lottery winners and accident victims: is happiness relative? P Brickman, D Coates, R Janoff-BulmanStepping Off the Hedonic TreadmillBeyond the Hedonic Treadmill: Revising the Adaptation Theory of Well-BeingHow Does Hedonic Adaptation Affect the Pursuit of Happiness? - with Joe Gladstone
Support Us:You can always...
-
Fehlende Folgen?
-
In this episode, we explore the art of orchestral conducting with guest Chad Goodman. Chad is currently the conducting fellow of the New World Symphony in Miami Beach, and he has also had fellowships at Festival Napa Valley and the Atlantic Music Festival. Since 2018, he has served as an assistant conductor to the San Francisco Symphony, and he also founded Elevate Ensemble in the Bay Area.
Chad is also a good friend of ours, and so we used this conversation as an opportunity to get a more personal take on how orchestral conducting works and how a conductor thinks about music and prepares for concerts. We talked about music interpretation, the role of a conductor, communication, and how to unify a large group. We also talked about the beauty of constantly learning and improving and how outside knowledge helps unlock the secrets within a musical score.
And lastly, aside from the more obvious sign language elements to orchestral conducting, we also tried to touch on abstract elements such as body language, eye contact, and energy. Some musical performances capture magical energy, and we wondered how a conductor thinks about that and how they try to cultivate that energy.
Timestamps:[05:17] What exactly is orchestral conducting?[10:22] At what size does an ensemble need a conductor?[15:21] What makes conducting break down /not work?[25:05] How is kodawari relevant to conducting and what is perfection?[32:29] Why is music meaningful?[38:06] How does outside knowledge affect the interpretation/conducting of music?[48:52] On why learning never ends[56:07] Communication and the sign language of conducting[01:02:24] Bonus Questions/Speed Round
Links:Chad's websiteChad's InstagramHow to enter ‘flow state’ on command | Steven KotlerFlow Profile Test from Flow Genome ProjectWhat is Kodawari?Kodawari and Circumambulation
Support Us:You can always support us by leaving a rating or review in your podcasting app. You can also share our episodes with friends on social media.
But it does take a lot of time to put together a podcast, maintain a website, and write new content every week. So if you would like to support us in a more substantial way, consider making a donation through the PayPal buttons on our website:
https://exploringkodawari.blog/donation/
Follow Us:Our Website/BlogNewsletterTwitter: @EKodawariInstagram: @exploringkodawariFacebook: facebook.com/ExploringKodawari
-
"Written fifteen years ago, in 1940, amid the French and European disaster, this book declares that even within the limits of nihilism it is possible to find the means to proceed beyond nihilism. In all the books I have written since, I have attempted to pursue this direction. Although “The Myth of Sisyphus” poses mortal problems, it sums itself up for me as a lucid invitation to live and to create, in the very midst of the desert." —Albert Camus
This episode is part two of our exploration of nihilism and the search for meaning in life—be sure to check out the previous episode to hear the first half of this conversation. But in this episode, we try to overcome the meaning crisis induced by nihilism to find a more durable sense of meaning in life.
We also try to figure out what meaning even is. Is it possible to define meaning? Or is it something more implicit and instinctual? And finally, we close out the episode by exploring the philosophy of Absurdism as outlined by Camus in The Myth of Sisyphus. As Camus states:
"The struggle itself towards the heights is enough to fill a man's heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy."
For a more thorough exploration of this topic, check out our article below:
Overcoming Nihilism: Why Meaning Matters And How To Find It
Timestamps:[04:50] Why you should contend with nihilism and camp in that perspective[08:20] What is meaning?[12:50] The meaning of the movie It's a Wonderful Life and why it makes people cry[19:00] Meaning as service to others and assuming that Being is good[21:05] Meaning as a surrender of the intellect[26:40] Meaning as pointing (Kevin Simler's A Nihilist's Guide to Meaning)[29:19] Albert Camus, Absurdism, and The Myth of Sisyphus[39:30] How to bring someone back from a nihilistic place
Links:The ending of It's a Wonderful LifeAlbert Camus: The Myth of SisyphusJordan Peterson: The Meaning of Life
Support Us:You can always support us by leaving a rating or review in your podcasting app. You can also share our episodes with friends on social media.
But it does take a lot of time to put together a podcast, maintain a website, and write new content every week. So if you would like to support us in a more substantial way, consider making a donation through the PayPal buttons on our website:
https://exploringkodawari.blog/donation/
Follow Us:Our Website/BlogNewsletterTwitter: @EKodawariInstagram: -
“What does nihilism mean? That the highest values devaluate themselves. The aim is lacking; 'why?' finds no answer.” —Friedrich Nietzsche, The Will to Power This episode, Part 1 of our exploration of nihilism, gets into the justifications for nihilism and why it's important to give nihilism its due as a philosophy. We discuss Nietzsche and existential nihilism as well as the playful cosmic nihilism of people like Alan Watts or Kurt Vonnegut.We also explore whether or not nihilism is on the rise, and how it might be influencing political movements around the world. In Part 2, coming out shortly after this, we talk about how to overcome nihilism to find a more durable sense of meaning to life.For a more thorough exploration of this topic, you can read our article:Overcoming Nihilism: Why Meaning Matters And How To Find It Timestamps: [05:15] What is nihilism? [07:12] Cosmic nihilism and Carl Sagan's Pale Blue Dot [11:57] Nietzsche and existential nihilism [19:30] What is the opposite of being nihilistic? [22:23] Is nihilism on the rise? [26:07] Nihilism and moral relativism in social justice movements and "woke" ideology [34:03] The trap of ideology
What Is Nihilism?Nihilism is a philosophy that more or less states that human life has no intrinsic meaning or value. There are different forms of nihilism—moral, cosmic, political, existential, etc—that each has interesting details and histories. But since Exploring Kodwari is more about approaching self-development with the kodawari energy, we were less interested in the academic side of nihilism and more interested in the personal/psychological way that we all wrestle with nihilistic thoughts.Some people are explicitly nihilistic, but it seems more common for people to implicitly/subconsciously succumb to nihilism. Maybe it is a way to cope with the challenges of life or maybe it is a problem of the intellect and rationalism going too far. Probably, each person's struggle with nihilism is slightly different. But our claim in this episode (and Part 2) is that you can find the most durable sense of meaning in life after properly contending with nihilism.Links: Nihilism in Rick and Morty and BoJack Horseman Pale Blue Dot- Carl Sagan Albert Camus: The Myth of Sisyphus A Nihilist's Guide to Meaning by Kevin Simler The Master, his Emissary & the Meaning Crisis (Iain McGilchrist & John Vervaeke)
Support Us:You can always support us by leaving a rating or review in your podcasting app. You can also share our episodes with friends on social media.But it does take a lot of time to put together a podcast, maintain a website, and write new content every week. So if you would like to support us in a more substantial way, consider making a donation through the PayPal buttons on our website:exploringkodawari.blog/donation/Follow Us: -
What is metacognition? Metacognition is a modern term coined in 1979 by the American developmental psychologist John H. Flavell. He defined it as “cognition about cognitive phenomena,” or “thinking about thinking”.But the concept of metacognition has been around long before that in philosophy. "Meta", meaning beyond or above, signals that metacognition is a form of thinking above our usual cognitive processes. And in this podcast episode, we work through the varying layers of metacognition and meta-awareness and how metacognitive skills can make us better learners and better people.Timestamps: [04:45] What is metacognition? [08:25] Examining how you learn [12:33] The bird's eye view and how metacognitive therapy can help with depression [17:07] Metacogni-ception: the layers of metacognition [19:27] Mindfulness, Meta-awareness, and mind wandering [28:00] What is the difference between meditation and mindfulness? [30:05] Modular model of the mind and the importance of embracing contradiction [40:44] Camping and de-camping between viewpoints/opinions [47:39]
-
"Many of us have been persuaded that happiness is something that someone else, a therapist or a politician, must confer on us. Stoicism rejects this notion. It teaches us that we are very much responsible for our happiness as well as our unhappiness. It also teaches us that it is only when we assume responsibility for our happiness that we will have a reasonable chance of gaining it. This, to be sure, is a message that many people, having been indoctrinated by therapists and politicians, don't want to hear." —William Irvine, A Guide to the Good Life
In this episode, we dig deeper into the philosophy of Stoicism and work through some of the specific psychological techniques and exercises that will help you to adopt the Stoic viewpoint.
We also try to connect the growing popularity of Stoicism to the rise of victimhood culture over the last twenty years. As we said in the previous episode, Understanding Stoicism as a Philosophy of Life, much of Stoicism can be summed up by the psychological difference between viewing something as a blessing or as a curse.
Timestamps:[04:18] Negative visualization: The trick for appreciating what you already have[13:07] The Dichotomy of Control and how to more strategically set goals[17:44] Trans Life Meditation[19:14] The Last Time Meditation[22:04] The Storytelling Frame[22:59] The Stoic Test[25:33] Prospective Retrospection[29:41] Summarizing Stoic beliefs and techniques in comparison to today's growing victim culture[33:18] "Tranquility in the Storm": Julius Canus and following through on your philosophy of life
Links:Stoicism as a Philosophy of Life (Exploring Kodwari's in-depth article)Meditations by Marcus Aurelius (translated by Gregory Hays)A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy by William B. IrvineDaily Stoic: What is Stoicism?Author Terry Tucker—How to Embrace Suffering and Find Purpose in Life
Support Us:You can always support us by leaving a rating or review in your podcasting app. You can also share our episodes with friends on social media.
But it does take a lot of time to put together a podcast, maintain a website, and write new content every week. So if you would like to support us in a more substantial way, consider making a donation through the PayPal buttons on our website:
https://exploringkodawari.blog/donation/
Follow Us:Our Website/BlogNewsletterTwitter: @EKodawariInstagram: @exploringkodawariFacebook: -
"Remember: Matter. How tiny your share of it. Time. How brief and fleeting your allotment of it. Fate. How small a role you play in it." —Marcus Aurelius, MeditationsStoicism as a philosophy is not the same as being lowercase s stoical. It is not about blocking our difficult feelings and emotions. Instead, Stoicism is an approach to life that teaches us how to handle our negative emotions in psychologically healthier ways.Timestamps: [04:11] What is Stoicism? Zeno of Citium and the beginnings of Stoicism to the Roman Stoicism centuries later [09:12] What is a philosophy of life? [16:26] The basic Stoic beliefs and assumptions [26:00] Definition of Stoicism in relation to the victim culture of today's society [31:40] Ataraxia/Tranquility: the grand goal of Stoicism [38:19]
-
This episode is our conversation with Katherine Bormann, a violinist with The Cleveland Orchestra since 2011. Katherine has degrees from Rice University and The Juilliard School and studied with Kathleen Winkler, Joel Smirnoff, and Ronald Copes.
She has made appearances at Strings Music Festival, Mainly Mozart Festival, Aspen Music Festival, and Tanglewood Music Festival, where she was also a member of the contemporary music ensemble, New Fromm Players. She was also a member of the New World Symphony for four years.
In the episode, we talk about what it is like to be a musician in a top-tier orchestra, and how she maintains her technique, artistry, and inspiration. We also talk about the things outside of music that a musician must do to be their best self, especially the importance of being quiet and going within yourself so that you can better share your art with others.
And of course, we talk about the grueling audition process required to get a job like this and some tips that she has for getting better at auditions and other high-pressure situations.
It was definitely a bit of a music-geeky episode, but still, it is a conversation anyone can enjoy and get something out of, even if you're not a musician!
**Click here to watch the Youtube video for this episode**
Timestamps:[02:08] Katherine's background and how she got started with violin[04:05] The interconnectedness of all the arts and how they complement each other[06:04] Was there a moment of inspiration when Katherine knew she wanted to be a musician?[15:19] Why Richard Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier Suite is Katherine's favorite piece[20:10] How has Katherine's relationship with music changed throughout her life/career?[24:40] The importance of establishing routines[29:04] How to play emotionally and be engaged with the music while also being technically accurate[34:19] The value of being well-rounded and knowing more than just your musical part[40:27] The problem of hedonic adaptation, especially how it affects musicians[45:45] The different personality types between instruments[48:50] Audition advice[53:42] Bonus questions
Links:Katherin's BioON A PERSONAL NOTE | Cleveland Orchestra - With Violinist Katherine BormannTrumpeter Maurice Murphy playing his first notes with the London Symphony Orchestra on John William's Star Wars scoreBeginner's Mind
Support Us:You can always support us by leaving a rating or review in your podcasting app. You can also share our episodes with friends on social media.
But it does take a lot of time to put together a podcast, maintain a website, and write new content every week. So if you would like to support us in a more substantial way, consider making a donation through the PayPal buttons on our website:
https://exploringkodawari.blog/donation/
Follow Us:Our Website/BlogNewsletterTwitter: -
We recently published a new page on our website organizing all of our mental models (aka mental frameworks) into one place. We explain what a mental model is and how you can use them to better understand the world.
Mental Frameworks: Your Toolbox For Thinking More ClearlyIn short, mental models are ways of thinking that help to simplify the world. They block out the noise so that we can better pay attention to the signal. And the most fundamental mental model—the most fundamental way of categorizing and understanding the world—is understanding the dichotomy of chaos and order.
Episode Timestamps:[04:00] Mental frameworks/models and how they help us think and understand the world[05:15] Why chaos and order is the ultimate mental framework[09:47] What is a good definition or some examples of chaos?[14:48] The duality of life and death[18:30] The light vs. the dark in storytelling (Star Wars, Marvel movies, Harry Potter, etc)[23:42] The delusion of anger and the hemispheric structure of the brain[31:57] Why chaos is represented by serpents and why a garden is the perfect balance of chaos and order[41:53] Why is chaos mythologically feminine and order masculine?[54:24] The big five personality traits (OCEAN) and political orientation (aka why the left fears pathologies of order and the right pathologies of chaos)[01:05:21] Chaos and time: Beethoven's 5th Symphony, Mahler's 5th Symphony, and why the crocodile in Peter Pan swallowed a clock.[01:09:45] Why the ideal musical performance involves one foot in order and one in chaos.
Chaos and Order:When we analyze reality, we differentiate it into categories—we put boundaries between things. And making a division between chaos and order is the most fundamental categorization that we can make—it is the highest level of abstraction that you can represent reality with.
When we are in order, things are happening as we expect. The car starts when we turn the key, our bodies stay healthy, and the people you know behave as they should. In order, we have low anxiety because we are in the domain of the known. Our models of reality are matching up with what we see in the environment.
When we are in chaos, however, we get hit with the unexpected. Things around us aren't working as we thought they should, and the complexity of the world comes flooding in. In chaos, we are in the domain of the unknown, and it gives us high anxiety that our model of reality must be wrong/too simple.
And this dichotomy between chaos and order is even mirrored in the hemispheric structure of our brains, as outlined in Dr. Iain McGilchrist's book The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World. Generally, the right hemisphere deals with chaos(the unknown/the exception to the rules) and the left hemisphere with order (the known/the rules).
And of course, mythologically, the chaos and order duality is represented by the famous Chinese symbol of Yin and Yang.
Yin and Yang:In this famous symbol, the white snake represents order while the black snake represents chaos. In mythological terms, order is represented as masculine (father culture) while chaos is represented as feminine (mother nature).
The key takeaway from the Yin and Yang symbol is that, like all dualities, both parts require the other to exist. If there was no contrasting black color, you could not even see the white snake (and vice versa). Many forms of spiritual awakening, like the Alan Watts video linked below, hinge on the realization that these dualities...
-
In this episode, we speak with author and motivational speaker Terry Tucker. Terry has lived all over the country and worked in many different fields. After playing NCAA Division I basketball in college, he worked in a marketing department and as a hospital administrator. After that, he worked as a police officer, both as a SWAT Hostage Negotiator and an undercover narcotics investigator.
But in 2012, Terry began a very different path when he was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer called Acral Lentiginous Melanoma. To this day he continues his intense battle with cancer—most recently while in the hospital to amputate his leg they discovered tumors in both of his lungs. Unfortunately, his doctors don't really talk about a cure but about buying more time.
But despite the hell that he's been through, Terry has somehow found a way to embrace his suffering to learn from it. Not only does he continue to fight on, he also does so with a remarkably positive and motivating energy. He's one of those people that have learned how to take their suffering and turn it into some deep life wisdom.
And he shares that wisdom on his blog Motivation Check as well as in his newly published book titled Sustainable Excellence: Ten Principles to Leading Your Uncommon and Extraordinary Life.
So in this episode, we talk about his life story, his book, and many other topics. We talk about suffering, love, religion, Stoicism, and the other fundamental truths that he lives his life by. We especially got into the topic of resentment—that is how can one avoid becoming resentful towards life, even in the face of extremely unfair suffering.
Stoicism and Life Philosophy:I was recently reading William Irvine's book about Stoicism (A Guide to the Good Life), and he commented that most people don't really have a philosophy of life but instead live out a kind of enlightened hedonism—distractedly moving from pleasure to pleasure. He stressed how important it is, whether it be Stoicism or something else, that people embrace a philosophy of life to guide them.
This is what I find most inspiring and powerful about Terry's message. His philosophy of life has been tested to the extreme by reality and he still follows it and learns from it. It's one thing to believe in life rules/principles in the abstract, but it's entirely different to truly live them out no matter what.
Overall it was a really inspiring conversation, and we hope everyone can learn something from it!
**Click here to watch the Youtube video for this episode**
Timestamps:[02:40] Terry's background and his battle with cancer[08:21] Nietzsche: "He who has a why to live can bear almost any how" and Terry's motivation for living and bearing his suffering[12:33] The importance of failing: why you're either going to win or learn[21:48] Marcus Aurelius, Stoicism, and the importance of going within.[23:53] Terry's philosophy of "win the day" and the other fundamental truths that he lives his life by[28:53] The two different ways to address suffering: inner peace/acceptance mentality vs. the Navy Seal/warrior mentality[35:24] The growing resentment in today's society and how Terry, despite his suffering, avoids resentment[39:46] Is religion or a belief in a higher power necessary in order to battle the suffering in life?[49:59] Why is love the most important word in any language?[56:41] The importance of having your life philosophy tested by reality[01:03:23] Bonus Questions
Links:Terry's website Motivational CheckTerry's book: Sustainable Excellence: Ten Principles To Leading Your Uncommon And... -
For this episode, we were joined by trumpet player Scott Moore, who has been principal trumpet of the Memphis Symphony Orchestra since 1988. He has performed with the Chicago Symphony, the St. Louis Symphony, the Baltimore Symphony, the National Symphony, and the Toronto Symphony. He has also recorded and performed with the Nashville Chamber Orchestra, and with I Fiamminghi, the Orchestra of Flanders.
As a teacher, Scott has served as a Mentor with the Hot Springs Music Festival (which is where I met him) and on the faculties of the Sewanee Summer Music Center and the Tennessee Governor's School for the Arts.
In the episode, we talked about his life in music and the wisdom he's acquired along the way. While we do geek out about specific aspects of trumpet playing and musician life, I think a lot of the wisdom and life advice can apply to all sorts of situations. The topics we cover include performance anxiety, audition advice, quieting the inner critic, golf, and other advice that I picked up from Scott back in 2014 when I was at the Hot Springs Music Festival. In particular, I remind him of the advice he gave me of "nobody is shooting at you" which 7 years later I still use pretty much every day.
**Click here to watch the Youtube video of this episode**
Timestamps:[02:18] Scott's background[05:22] Why do trumpets get associated as being the meatheads of the orchestra?[10:03] Performance mindset vs. audition mindset[15:23] Audition fatigue and the differences between the early music world and the modern music world[17:03] The Dunning–Kruger effect and why having self-awareness can be both a blessing and a curse[23:36] How to dial down the inner critic[25:20] Geeking out on trumpet sound production (finding the sweet spot of a note, letting the trumpet resonate, etc.)[31:53] What cocktails we're drinking![35:49] Running into playing problems and what to do about it[42:42] Violin technique/sound production, ColourStrings violin method, and why we flinch away from difficult music[46:28] Golf is Not a Game of Perfect by Bob Rotella and how to achieve peak performance[49:33] Overcoming performance anxiety and Scott's advice of "nobody is shooting at you".[55:39] Bonus Questions
Links:Scott's BioGolf is Not a Game of Perfect by Bob RotellaScott's Youtube ChannelThe Dunning–Kruger effectColourstrings violin method
Support Us:You can always support us by leaving a rating or review in your podcasting app. You can also share our episodes with friends on social media.
But it does take a lot of time to put together a podcast, maintain a website, and write new content every week. So if you would like to support us in a more substantial way, consider making a donation through the PayPal buttons on our website:
https://exploringkodawari.blog/donation/
Follow Us:Our Website/BlogNewsletterTwitter: @EKodawariInstagram: -
“At every single stage [of processing information]—from its biased arrival, to its biased encoding, to organizing it around false logic, to misremembering and then misrepresenting it to others—the mind continually acts to distort information flow in favor of the usual goal of appearing better than one really is.” —Robert Trivers
In this episode, I speak with author and intellectual Robin Hanson. Robin is an associate professor of economics at George Mason University and a research associate at the Future of Humanity Institute of Oxford University. Robin has a bachelor's and a master's degree in physics, a Ph.D. in social science, and he has also researched artificial intelligence at Lockheed and NASA.
The topic of conversation for this episode centered around a recent book of his, one which he co-authored with Kevin Simler, titled The Elephant in the Brain: Hidden Motives in Everyday Life.
What is the Elephant in the Brain?Basically, it is a blindspot about how our minds work. As social creatures, we are wired to greatly care about what others think of us. And like all primates, our complex social behavior involves the politics of coalitions and norm enforcement—although grooming does serve a hygienic purpose, primates like chimpanzees use grooming for political purposes as well.
Human beings don't groom each other this obviously, but we are constantly judging each other. We are watching each other to make sure that our social norms are being followed and to judge whether people will be good allies. And we are worried about them judging us the same way. So in this desire to look good, we often downplay our more selfish motives and amplify our more altruistic ones. And the disturbing thing is that our brain does this unconsciously, keeping “us” in the dark.
To quote from the book:
"We, human beings, are a species that’s not only capable of acting on hidden motives—we’re designed to do it. Our brains are built to act in our self-interest while at the same time trying hard not to appear selfish in front of other people. And in order to throw them off the trail, our brains often keep “us,” our conscious minds, in the dark. The less we know of our own ugly motives, the easier it is to hide them from others."When it comes to choosing who we want in our social circles, we tend to want teammates who value the group over their selfish desires. And we rely on social signals to get this information and to make sure the signals are honest. But lying is a cheap signal—a strategy that allows one to reap the benefits without paying the price. And this setup created an evolutionary arms race between lying and lie detection.
George Costanza's LyingWhile we may think that the contents of our minds are private, we signal much more than we realize. And people monitor each other closely. So it turns out that the best way to lie is to follow George Costanza's advice: "Remember—it's not a lie if you believe it."
Because of this, our selfish motives remain hidden away in our subconscious so that our conscious minds can believe—and thus convincingly communicate to others—our nicer sounding and more group-oriented motives.
And the same goes for our institutions, which are often acting out secret agendas alongside the accepted and better sounding official agendas. Another quote from the book:
“And they aren’t mere mouse-sized motives, scurrying around discreetly in the back recesses of our minds. These are elephant-sized motives large enough to leave footprints in national economic data."Red Pill or Blue Pill?It can be disturbing to get into the workings of the mind like this—it is a brutally honest view of human beings and our institutions. It means you have to get rid of the nicer and more prosocial explanations for...
-
"Any model of communication is at the same time a model of trans-lation, of a vertical or horizontal transfer of significance. No two historical epochs, no two social classes, no two localities use words and syntax to signify exactly the same things, to send identical signals of valuation and inference. Neither do two human beings [...] Thus a human being performs an act of translation, in the full sense of the word, when receiving a speech-message from any other human being. [...] 'Translation,' properly understood, is a special case of the arc of communication which every successful speech-act closes within a given language. [...] In short: inside or between languages, human communication equals translation." —George Steiner from After Babel
In this episode, we explore the concept of communication from a few different angles. We start with the mind-blowing idea from the above quote that all communication—whether it's between two different languages or within the same one—involves a translation. And all translations involve, no matter how subtle, a loss or change in the original information. In this sense, languages are approximations of ideas that are themselves approximations of reality. While this may seem obvious to some, I only fully connected to the depth of this concept after I began learning Turkish.
In addition to this zoomed-out concept of communication/translation, we also explore a few different theories about how our human ancestors may have acquired language—from the universal grammar of Noam Chompsky to the idea that language grew out of collective rituals like grooming, music, dance, or other symbolic representation.
There is a lot of debate on that front, but however language appeared, it is unique to humans and is probably why we so quickly out-competed the other non-Sapien homo species. In short, language allowed for the creation of shared myths—metaphorical truths—that could organize Homo-sapiens into much larger groups. Unlike physical characteristics, which are beholden to the slow evolution of genes and biology, stories and culture can adapt very quickly to meet the changing demands of the environment.
And then after we zoom out on the history of language like that—and since Yankı is over six years into learning English and I've been learning Turkish for about 4 years—we finished by talking through what it's like to learn a second language and all of the funny situations that it causes, especially in our own relationship.
Timestamps:[03:20] When communication fails[09:47] Communication between different languages[14:24] Why all communication is a translation[18:14] Did language come from music?[22:22] Language and the cognitive revolution[27:38] Inventing words in order to encapsulate concepts[34:20] Noam Chomsky's universal grammar vs. other "continuity theories"[38:55] My personal journey of learning Turkish[46:26] Dialogue and conversation as an aid for thinking[51:19] How language affects our view of the world and the geographic languages like Guugu Yimithirr that don't have left and right[55:23] Words and concepts that don't translate between languages
Links:Lost In Translation: The Power Of Language To Shape How We View The World by NPR's Hidden BrainManolis Kellis on human communication and language (from Lex Freedman Podcast)This Is Your... -
Why do people do what they do? This fascinating question is the foundation of behavioral science, and in this episode, we speak about exactly that with behavioral scientist Dr. Kurt Nelson.
Kurt has a Ph.D. in Industrial & Organizational Psychology and is the founder of The Lantern Group, which uses behavioral science to help optimize companies and organizations. He is also the co-host of the podcast Behavioral Grooves where he—along with his co-host Tim Houlihan—interview experts in psychology and behavioral science.
So in this episode of Exploring Kodawari, we used Kurt's expertise to have a conversation about human behavior and psychology. We speak about the psychology of quarantine, mask-wearing, and other aspects of COVID-19 life. We also speak about stress, psychological priming, cognitive biases, the subconscious, and weird ways that the brain lies to itself.
And finally, we speak about a really important issue of modern life, the effect that social media is having on our psychology. While both Yankı and I have noticed for years how social media negatively affects our psychology, watching the recent Netflix documentary The Social Dilemma confirmed for us just how messed up social media can be.
Overall, it was a really great conversation and we're so happy that Kurt was able to join us. Enjoy!
**This episode includes a video on Youtube, click here to watch!**
Timestamps (clickable on webpage):[01:40] Kurt's background[03:43] What is behavioral science?[07:25] The psychology of COVID-19[12:33] The Wim Hof Method[16:49] The psychological effects of how governments handled covid-19 lockdowns [23:23] Cognitive dissonance, confirmation bias, and other ways that the subconscious affects behavior[27:40] Psychological/behavioral priming[38:08] Cognitive/perceptual biases and political orientation[42:13] The importance of zooming out and finding metacognition in politics[45:20] The Social Dilemma and the ways that social media affects our psychology[56:59] Bonus Questions
Links:Behavioral Grooves PodcastThe Lantern GroupKurt's TwitterThe Social DilemmaBehave: The Biology of Humans At Our Best And Worst by Robert Sapolsky
Support Us:You can always support us by leaving a rating or review in your podcasting app. You can also share our episodes with friends on social media.
But it does take a lot of time to put together a podcast, maintain a website, and write new content every week. So if you would like to support us in a more substantial way, consider making a donation through the PayPal buttons on our website:
https://exploringkodawari.blog/donation/
Follow Us:Our Website/Blog -
We are finally back! Sorry for the delay in getting episodes out—we just moved from New York to Florida and couldn't find the time to podcast. But we are settled in now, and for our first episode of 2021, we decided to tackle the psychology of new year's resolutions.
Why do we make new year's resolutions, and why do so few of us actually keep them? Statistically, 80 percent of people will drop their resolutions by February, and the exercise app Strava has deemed January 19th "Quitter's Day" because of how many people stopped logging their exercise by that date.
But there is value in using the fresh start of a new year to change yourself for the better. It seems to highlight a delicate tension between discipline and hard work on the one hand versus enjoying life in the present and having self-compassion on the other hand. As the French poet Guillaume Apollinaire says: “Now and then it's good to pause in our pursuit of happiness and just be happy.”
But knowing when to pause and be happy and when to dig in and be disciplined can be difficult, especially because we are so good at lying to ourselves.
So in this episode, we talk through new year's resolutions and where they go wrong. And digging deeper, we also zoom into the psychology of sacrifice and discipline. Making sacrifices in the present in order to have a better future seems obvious, but when we view it through the evolutionary lens it is really quite an amazing discovery.
**Click below to read our blog post that integrates a core concept from meditation with the topic of New Year's resolutions:
The Power of Begin Again
Timestamps (clickable on webpage):[04:20] Our New Year's Resolutions[12:50] Yearly question to check in with: What is the meaning of life?[18:44] Beautiful Anonymous and the best new year's resolution: making the perfect pancake[22:05] The Marshmallow Experiment and how gratitude can help us to foster more discipline.[30:24] Jordan Peterson's Bible lectures, Garden of Eden, and the psychology of how humans discovered the future[40:55] Cain and Able and the concept of sacrifice[52:45] Philosopher Alan Watts on "prickly" people vs "gooey" people[56:54] The power of opposites in finding a balance between discipline/sacrifice and compassion/happiness.
Links:Manolis Kellis on Lex Fridman Podcast—The Meaning of Life, the Universe, and EverythingThe Fruit, the Tree, and the Serpent: Why We See So Well by Lynne A. IsbellBeautiful Resolutions for 2021 by Beautiful AnonymousWhere Gratitude Gets You by NPR's Hidden BrainStanford marshmallow experimentJocko Willinc's videos "Good", Sisyphus, and Discipline -
This bonus/end of the year holiday episode is a looser and more fun episode all about the psychedelic mushroom history of Santa Claus. According to this theory, our modern Santa is based on ancient shamans in the Scandinavian and Siberian regions who would pass out hallucinogenic mushrooms on the winter solstice.
While it is just a theory, it does explain many of the weird traditions around Christmas—the red and white outfit, putting presents under a conifer tree, entering through the chimney, etc. It especially explains why humans might have believed that the reindeer pulling these old bearded shamans around the forest were flying. Maybe the reindeer themselves even thought that they were flying since they love to eat the Amanita muscaria mushroom.
Whatever the real history, this version is fun to think about and served as our excuse to have a few beers and make a fun bonus episode. And we invited our good friend and homebrewing expert Johnny back on—he was on previously to talk about the craft of craft beer—since he has an impressive knowledge of weird history on topics like this.
And since he's a beer guy, we also talked about the role beer played in the old pagan solstice celebrations (aka yule feasts) in Scandinavia and other parts of Russia.
Enjoy, and thanks for being a part of Exploring Kodawari in 2020. We'll be back with new episodes in 2021!
Links:The Magic Mushroom Christmas TheorySanta Is a Psychedelic Mushroom8 Ways Magic Mushrooms Explain Santa StoryThe True Meaning of Christmas (beer history)
Support Us:You can always support us by leaving a rating or review in your podcasting app. You can also share our episodes with friends on social media.
But it does take a lot of time to put together a podcast, maintain a website, and write new content every week. So if you would like to support us in a more substantial way, consider making a donation through the PayPal buttons on our website:
https://exploringkodawari.blog/donation/
Follow Us:Our Website/BlogNewsletterTwitter: @EKodawariInstagram: @exploringkodawariFacebook: facebook.com/ExploringKodawari
-
In this episode, we speak with composer, arranger, and trumpet player Brandon Dicks. Brandon is currently pursuing a doctorate in Trumpet Performance at Arizona State University, but he caught my attention with his impressive videography skills on his Youtube channel.
Brandon arranges just about any type of music for trumpet ensemble—for example, he has arrangements of Vivaldi, Mozart, Super Mario, Zelda, Jurassic Park, etc—and then performs all of the parts separately before editing it all together into the final product.
Especially during these COVID-19 pandemic times, having the skills to make music online is a huge advantage. So we asked him how he got so good at making videos and what tips he had for other people wanting to experiment with making music online. And since he's also a performer and educator, we also talked more generally about life as a performer and different teaching philosophies.
Definitely check out Brandon's links below, and enjoy the episode!
Timestamps:coming soon!
Links:Brandon's websiteBrandon's Youtube ChannelSocial Media: Instagram and FacebookTrumpeter's Multi-Track Competition and Seminar
Support Us:You can always support us by leaving a rating or review in your podcasting app. You can also share our episodes with friends on social media.
But it does take a lot of time to put together a podcast, maintain a website, and write new content every week. So if you would like to support us in a more substantial way, consider making a donation through the PayPal buttons on our website:
https://exploringkodawari.blog/donation/
Follow Us:Our Website/BlogNewsletterTwitter: @EKodawariInstagram: @exploringkodawariFacebook: facebook.com/ExploringKodawari
-
The answer to whether or not the self is an illusion is tricky—it really depends on what you mean by both self and illusion.
In this episode, we challenge the sense of self that we all feel from the first-person subjective experience. We all feel like we are riding around inside of our heads looking out at the world. We don't feel like we are identical to our bodies, but instead that we have bodies—we look down at them from up here inside of our heads.
Nondualism:Most people would say that they are behind their eyes in the center of consciousness. But neuroscientifically there is no place in the brain for such a self to exist. And we know from optical illusions that the brain can be easily fooled.
It is in this sense that the self can be shown to be an illusion because like all illusions, it disappears when you examine it more closely. This experience is known as nondualism or non-dual awareness, and it is when the sense of subject and object—of you in your head and the world out there—merge into one unified experience.
But this is not to say that you aren't real or even that the self isn't real. Illusions can be like any emergent phenomena—on one level of analysis they don't exist but on another level, it makes perfect sense to talk about them.
Temperature, for example, is an emergent phenomenon. Temperature is the average kinetic energy of the particles in a system. So it does not make sense to talk about the temperature of one atom, but that does not mean that it never makes sense to talk about temperature. I think of the self—the concept of being an "I" or a subject—in the same emergent way.
There are times when you can look closely and realize that you are not a separate subject. This experience of nondualism is beautiful and worth exploring. Sometimes it happens on accident—you've probably even had such a self-transcending moment without realizing it—and sometimes you can induce it through the practice of specific techniques (linked below).
But the fact that the self is an illusion doesn't mean that you have to experience the non-dual emptiness of consciousness all of the time. And it doesn't mean that you have to completely dispense with the concept of self. Most of the time it is perfectly valid to be a separate subject who has a name and an identity.
What's the point?For me, the point of nondualism and of practicing non-dual awareness is just to be able to see this deeper reality whenever I want. Because it is the sense of being a separate self that creates most of our suffering in life, and it can be an immense relief to let go of it—to realize that there is nobody inside of your head to experience the suffering. Suffering doesn't go away, but the sufferer can.
So with a meditation practice to give you some concentration, you can get underneath the many layers of the mind to realize that there is nobody inside of your head—there's no experiencer having the experience.
There's just consciousness and its contents.
Timestamps (clickable on website):[03:50] What is consciousness?[07:03] The mind-body problem[17:10] The problem of personal identity[25:35] The illusion of the self and why there isn’t a center to consciousness.[33:36] What is the point of discovering the illusion of the self?[46:06] Why having a self makes us suffer more[52:05] Kalu Rinpoche and Jack Kornfield on the fear of being nothing.
Links:Taming the Mind: A conversation with Dan Harris -
“The well-told story seems to answer something very deep in our nature as if, for the duration of its telling, something special has been created, some essence of our experience extrapolated, some temporary sense has been made of our common, turbulent journey towards the grave and oblivion.” —William Boyd
Our mission for this episode was to capture the beauty and art of the short story. And to help us out with this we were joined by author and writing professor Joe Labriola.
Besides speaking more generally about what makes flash fiction and short stories so powerful, we specifically analyzed two stories that were short enough to read on the podcast. The first was Sticks by George Saunders—probably my favorite story ever—and the second was ”Coloring In” by Joe Labriola himself.
Both of these short stories share the ability to gesture at truths about life—you could definitely say uncomfortable truths— in less than 400 words.
And speaking of truth, there is an anecdote that we mentioned in the episode about the writer John Updike. When asked something like: "Why is it that you write about fiction, why don’t you write about the truth?" Updike answered something like: "My good man, what is it that you think great fiction is?"
And I think that is what is so compelling about great fiction. While it is literally false—the characters and events can be completely made up—what it gestures at is often hyper-true. This is certainly the case with a story like ”Sticks” by George Saunders, and every time I read it I feel as though I temporarily remember a deeper truth about life that had left my mind. Even if it is a sad truth, I think we humans just enjoy being in the presence of truth.
The writer Virginia Woolf, when speaking about photography said: “Isn’t it odd how much more one sees in a photograph than in real life?” I think this is also true of short stories—they are like mirrors that reflect back at us something more true than what we tend to notice in everyday life.
Thanks for listening, be sure to check out the linked stories below, and enjoy the episode!
Timestamps (clickable on webpage):[04:10] John Updike and the truth in fiction[06:43] Flash fiction, short stories, novellas, novels, and the distinctions between them[15:45] A Short History of the Short Story by William Boyd and Edgar Allan Poe’s definition of the short story[20:13] Comparing the writing process with the music composition process[24:11] Kurt Vonnegut quitting his job at Sports Illustrated[32:20] The mythological roots of great story telling[37:48] Reading “Sticks” by George Saunders[53:56] Does analyzing great text or music take away from the magic?[01:04:09] Reading “Coloring In” by Joe Labriola[01:17:35] Virginia Woolf on photography and William Boyd on how short stories are “snapshots of the human condition” that allow to to “see in them more than in real life.”
Links:“Sticks” by George Saunders“Coloring In“ by Joe LabriolaA short history of the short story by William BoydJoe analyzes Ursula K. Le Guin's... - Mehr anzeigen
