Sweet Potato Blog

20221212 - Introduction How to handle tragedy? I believe Elon Musk gave us better solution: keep busy, look forward. But I agree that resilience is muscle, not bone. We can make it stronger. 20221213 - 1 Breathing Again "Children and adults recover more quickly when they realize that hardships aren't entirely their fault, don't affect every aspect of their lives, and won't follow them everywhere forever" p16 People are looking for narratives to explain everything, good or bad. Most of those narratives are wrong, like what Guy De Maupassan said:" Things are not as good we think, and they are not as bad as we think." "You don't merely suffer but have to keep on thinking about the fact that you suffer." p23 Well said! If we stop thinking about the suffer, the suffer would be much reduced. Unnecessary pain comes from subconsciousness. It comes from our mind. That's why zen suggests " Put it all down ": let go of your opinion, your...

20221128 - Introduction: "Step out of the car!" 1 Most of conflicts were caused by benefit conflicts. But a lot were caused by misunderstanding. Do we deserve to get this for free? Is it our rights to get this for free? This type of questions belong to the former. This book focuses on the latter. It's safe to say "good morning" to almost anyone, but further conversation could be dangerous. PART ONE: SPICE AND DIPLOMATS: TWO PUZZLES 20221128 - ONE: Fidel Castro’s Revenge 17 Puzzle Number One: Why can't we tell when the stranger in front of us is lying to our face? p27 Our subconsciousness is not reliable. It's not based on the first principle. How can we crack it? 20221128 - TWO: Getting in Know de Fuhrer 28 Puzzle Number Twe: How is it that meeting a stranger can sometimes make us worse at making sense of that person than not meeting them? p43 We are always looking for narratives to explain whatever we see or hear. But quite often this narrative is just ...

20221209 - Introduction The world is so complicated. Is it really possible to guide people toward the right direction? Can we guide AlphaZero? AlphaZero follows some rules, so we just need to set up right rules. For example, be tolerant to different opinions. Part I. The Long View 20221211 - Chapter 1: The Case for Longtermism We are not sure what we should do for long term benefit of human being. But there are something most likely good. For example, reduce the carbon emission, use sustainable energy to replace fossil energy, reduce pollution, be tolerant to different opinions, etc. That's the right way to go. Longtermism is the reflection of the ultimate desire of our gene. 20221212 - Chapter 2: You Can Shape the Course of History "Early plasticity, later rigidity". I think this is caused by MEME. But new MEME replaces old MEME all the time. We need to keep our mind open, so embrace the changing of MEME! Part II. Trajectory Changes 20221224 - Chapter 3: Moral Change Mor...