Category: Mindsets

  • How to respond to batsh*t crazy political environments

    How to respond to batsh*t crazy political environments

    I have been struggling with how to respond to/handle/cope with the current batsh*t crazy political environment in Israel. Particularly the so-called “Judicial Reform” legislation that our current government is pushing forward at a rapid pace. I asked ChatGPT how it suggests a Stoic would respond to this. It seemed to offer pretty sensible advice.

  • I’m feeling anti-social today so I had a chat with ChatGPT about this

    I’m feeling anti-social today so I had a chat with ChatGPT about this

    Today feels like one of those days when I don’t really feel like much social interaction. I thought I’d see what ChatGPT had to say. It actually helped chatting to the bot, even though I know it is a generative AI.

  • Heretic in the House podcast

    Heretic in the House podcast

    I’ve been listening to the “Heretic in the House” podcast hosted by Professor Naomi Seidman. It’s a short series of about five episodes that explores attitudes towards people who leave the Orthodox Jewish Community to live a life that is “Off the Derech”, or “Off the Path”. https://www.hartman.org.il/program/heretic-in-the-house/ It is a really interesting and engaging…

  • Consistency of perspective

    Consistency of perspective

    I really enjoyed this comment by Hank Green about consistency of perspective. He and John, his brother, had a short discussion in response to a question a listener sent to them on their podcast, Dear Hank & John: Consistency of perspective, and consistency of world view, is like a loyalty to a former self who…

  • The people you really owe anything to

    The people you really owe anything to

    I really like this tweet by Shoshanna Keats Jaskoll about who she (and we) really owe anything to: It’s a nice reminder of our higher priorities.

  • Our daughter asked me why people hate Jews?

    Our daughter asked me why people hate Jews?

    Our 10 year old daughter asked me two nights ago why people hate Jews? I’ve thought about this a lot. The explanations that I’ve come up with are: 1. Perhaps we Jews are just fundamentally evil? 2. People misunderstand, and fear Jews. I’m clearly biased, being a Jewish Israeli. I don’t believe that we are…

  • Choosing Signal over WhatsApp is about personal agency

    Choosing Signal over WhatsApp is about personal agency

    Reframing the WhatsApp privacy debate It is tempting to frame the discussion about WhatsApp’s privacy policy change that enables WhatsApp to share your profile data with Facebook (even though it’s been doing this for some time without being clear about this) as being about Facebook being able to read your WhatsApp messages. That interpretation is…

  • 45

    45

    45 feels like a milestone, although I couldn’t tell you which milestone it is, aside from a vaguely significant number. At least, 45 seems more significant than 44, or even 46, with the next big number being 50. I’ve taken a couple days off to celebrate my birthday, and have a mini-staycation after a particularly…