Beyond Perfection:

Humans create environments they aren't adapted to. In that sense, humans are 'imperfect' animals. As this creation of artificial environments is a runaway process.

Social Deprivation:

Rolf Degen:

"Even rats with a history of hard drug self-administration will stop using and switch to innocuous rewards such as sweet water or social contact when given the choice. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/mila.12502?campaign=wolearlyview… The image of craving as a desire of unimaginable and irresistible force is poised to solve the puzzle of addiction. But the image is flawed. In practice, it turns out that neither rats nor people mindlessly follow their desires for drugs in addiction. Even when rats have a history of drug self administration designed by experimentalists to mirror addiction, they choose alternative rewards to drugs in many circumstances. A series of [so-called forced-choice] studies found that 90% of rats chose sweet water over drug reward. This was so even if drug dose is high; cost of sweet water is significantly higher than cost of drug reward, as measured by number of lever-presses required to get either reward; and the individual animal has a long history of self-administration and escalation, and shows signs of withdrawal and sensitization. More recently, Venniro and colleagues adapted [the] forced-choice study paradigm to social reward. They found that almost 100% of rats—who were socially housed, so in no way socially deprived—chose social over drug reward, irrespective of training conditions, drug class, dose size, length of abstinence since last dose, and “addiction score” based on a DSM-style model adapted to rats. Rats chose drug reward only if choice of social reward was punished by moderate to high foot shock, or delivery of social reward was significantly delayed. What explains why rats in [some] early experiments self-administered cocaine until death is not the power of drugs in forming either habits or desires. It is the lack of anything better as they lived alone, for weeks on end, in barren, experimental chambers."

Cognitive Ability & Mental Disorders:

Inquisitive Bird, Twitter:

People with higher cognitive ability are less likely to develop mental disorders. Cognitive ability (score of 1 to 9) was measured in ~180k 18-year old Norwegian men (conscript data), and mental disorders/symptoms were diagnosed when they were 36-40 years old.

There is no other land:

Thoreau:

Never give all the heart:

W. B. Yeats:

On being a reader:

C. S. Lewis:

Pain and Pleasure:

 "In 1984 ... people are controlled by inflicting pain. In Brave New World, they are controlled by inflicting pleasure."

Neil Postman

"Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance."

Books:

I haven't read many books from cover to cover in the last few years.

------

A "shallow reader" doesn't read a book from cover to cover. He just takes some sips.

Loss of Depth:

Cal Newport:

"The reason knowledge workers are losing their familiarity with deep work is well established: network tools. This is a broad category that captures communication services like e-mail and SMS, social media networks like Twitter and Facebook, and the shiny tangle of infotainment sites like BuzzFeed and Reddit."

The unfocused life:

"a life full of distractions is, at an individual level, diminished."

Johann Hari

Ruining People's Ability to Pay Attention:

Johann Hari:

"if I put you in charge of the world, and you wanted to ruin people's ability to pay attention, what would you do? He thought about if for a moment, and said: 'Probably about what our society is doing.' "

Weniger Objekte:

Der Wunsch danach, weniger Objekte zu haben, mit denen man sich auseinanderzusetzen hat.

A Stuff Fetish:

via Robin Hanson:

>We once lived in an “enchanted” universe of agreed-upon meaning and common purpose, where we looked at the night sky and felt that each object was shaped with significance by a God-given order. Now we live in the modern world … of fragmented belief and broken purposes, where no God superintends the cosmos, common agreement on meaning is no longer possible, and all you can do with the moon is measure it. …<

Calculations of the Mammal Brain:

 "each brain is calculating the best way to act around the other. If a mammal encounters a stronger individual, it quickly exercises self-restraint because it wants to keep itself safe. Encountering a weaker individual is more relaxing. The mammal knows that a weaker individual is not likely to attack. Instantly scanning others for signs of relative strength helps a creature survive."

Loretta Breuning

Social Media, Time & Attention:

Oliver Burkeman:

"It's because our time and attention are so limited, and therefore valuable, that social media companies are incentivised to grab as much of them as they can, by any means necessary ..."

Jules Verne and the 20th century:

"Verne and Wells both failed to foresee some of the most basic aspects of the twentieth-century life: the dominance of the private automobile over other means of transportation, the ubiquity of telephones and personal computers ..."

Freeman Dyson

The Truth:

Jordan Peterson:

"What should you do, when you don't know what to do?

Tell the truth."

Das Verhängnis:

Leibnitz:

"Dass alles durch ein festgestelltes Verhängnis hervorgebracht werde, ist eben so gewiss, als dass drei mal drei neun ist. Denn das Verhängnis besteht darin, dass alles an einander hängt wie eine Kette, und eben so unfehlbar geschehen wird, ehe es geschehen, als unfehlbar es geschehen ist, wenn es geschehen."

"[J]ede Ursache hat ihre gewisse Wirkung, die von ihr zuwege gebracht würde, wenn sie allein wäre; weil sie aber nicht allein ist, so entsteht aus der Zusammenwirkung ein gewisser unfehlbarer Effekt oder Auswurf nach dem Maß der Kräfte, und das ist wahr, wenn nicht nur zwei oder 10, oder 1000, sondern gar unendlich viel Dinge zusammen wirken, wie das wahrhaftig in der Welt geschieht.

Die Mathematik oder Messkunst kann solche Dinge gar schön erläutern, denn alles ist in der Natur Zahl, Maß und Gewicht oder Kraft gleichsam abgezirkelt."

"so kann man sagen, dass die ganze künftige Welt in der gegenwärtigen stecke und vollkommen vorgebildet sei, weil kein Zufall von außen weiter dazu kommen kann, denn ja nichts außer ihr ist."

"Ich pflege zu sagen, eine Fliege könne den ganzen Staat verändern, wenn sie einem großen König vor der Nase herumsauset, so eben dieser in wichtigen Ratschlägen begriffen ist ...

Social Media:

Social media is like fast food for the brain. You should get most of your cognitive nourishment through other activities.

The Weird Reason To Have more Children:

Bryan Caplan:

"Think of a trait that brings people together. It could be jokiness, religiosity, libertarianism, love of books, or fascination with role-playing games – or seriousness, impiety, statism, hatred of books, or contempt for role-playing games. Take your pick.

Now suppose that the parent-child correlation on the trait you picked is exactly zero. Then no matter what you’re like, you should expect your kids to be at the 50th percentile. If you’re normal, that’s a pretty good deal; at least on average, your kids will be just like you. But the weirder you are, the less your kids will typically resemble you. Even if you’re at the 95th, 99th or 99.99th percentile, you can expect your kids to be perfectly average. In a world of zero parent-child correlation, weird people have little in common with their children.

In the real world, of course, parent-child correlations almost always exceed zero, and are often substantial. This doesn’t boost the similarity between normal people and their children; no matter what the parent-child correlation is, parents at the 50th percentile typically have children at the 50th percentile. But a positive parent-child correlation does boost the similarity between weirdos and their children – and the weirder you are, the bigger the boost. "

"There are two ways to surround yourself with people like you. One is to meet them; the other is to make them. If you’re average, meeting people like yourself is easy; people like you are everywhere. If you’re weird, though, meeting people like yourself is hard; people like you are few and far between."

Twitter:

Man isst nur selten "picksüße" Sachen. Ähnlich sollte man es mit Twitterbesuchen handhaben.

Aggression:

Aggression kann sowohl darauf abzielen, etwas zu bekommen, als auch Schaden zuzufügen, und oft sind beide Aspekte miteinander verknüpft. In der Psychologie wird zwischen verschiedenen Formen der Aggression unterschieden:

Instrumentelle Aggression: Diese Form der Aggression ist zielgerichtet und dient einem bestimmten Zweck, wie dem Erreichen eines Ziels oder dem Erhalt einer Belohnung. Ein Beispiel wäre, wenn jemand aggressiv handelt, um sich einen Vorteil zu verschaffen, etwa in einem Wettbewerb oder einer Verhandlung. Hier steht das Erlangen von etwas im Vordergrund.

Feindselige Aggression: Diese Form der Aggression ist durch Wut und Feindseligkeit motiviert und zielt in erster Linie darauf ab, Schaden zuzufügen. Es geht weniger darum, etwas zu erreichen, sondern mehr darum, den anderen zu verletzen oder zu schaden. Ein Beispiel wäre ein körperlicher Angriff aus Wut oder Rache.

In vielen Situationen kann Aggression eine Kombination aus beiden Formen sein. Zum Beispiel könnte eine Person aggressiv handeln, um eine Bedrohung zu beseitigen (instrumentell) und gleichzeitig aus einem Gefühl der Wut heraus (feindselig).

Originality:

via Twitter (Mo Zarrinsadaf):

"No man who cares about originality will ever be original. It’s the man who’s only thinking about doing a good job or telling the truth who becomes really original—and doesn’t notice it."

C. S. Lewis

Aggression:

Aggression often involves behaviors intended to cause harm or assert dominance, and it can sometimes manifest as a desire to take something away from others.

Instrumental Aggression: This is goal-oriented aggression, where the aggressor aims to achieve a specific objective, such as acquiring resources, power, or status. In this case, taking something away from others might be a primary motivation.

Hostile Aggression: This type of aggression is driven by feelings of anger and hostility, with the primary aim of causing harm or pain. It might not necessarily involve taking something away but rather inflicting harm on the target.

Underlying Motivations:

Self-Defense: Some aggression stems from a perceived threat, leading individuals to act aggressively to protect themselves or their resources.

Frustration: Frustration-aggression theory suggests that aggression can be an outlet for frustration, which might arise from blocked goals or unmet needs.

Psychological and Biological Factors:

...

Psychological Influences: Individual differences in personality, such as high levels of impulsivity or low empathy, can contribute to aggressive tendencies.

Contextual Factors:

Situational Triggers: Specific situations, such as perceived injustice or provocation, can trigger aggressive responses.

Moral:

Moral, das ist:

Sich in jeder Situation darum zu bemühen, das zu tun,
was gut oder sinnvoll ist oder erscheint.

Aggression:

Aggression can inflict costs in various contexts:

Physical Harm: Aggressive behavior can result in physical injuries to others, leading to medical costs, physical pain, and long-term health issues.

Emotional and Psychological Impact: Aggression can cause significant emotional and psychological distress, contributing to issues such as anxiety, depression, and trauma. This can lead to costs related to mental health care and reduced quality of life.

Economic Costs: Aggression in the workplace can lead to a hostile work environment, reducing productivity, increasing employee turnover, and raising costs associated with training new employees. Additionally, aggressive behavior can result in legal costs if it leads to lawsuits or compensation claims.

Social Costs: Aggression can damage relationships, disrupt communities, and create a climate of fear and mistrust. This can lead to social fragmentation and decreased social cohesion, which are difficult to quantify but have significant impacts on societal well-being.

Property Damage: Aggressive actions can result in the destruction of property, leading to repair or replacement costs.

Educational Impact: In educational settings, aggression can disrupt the learning environment, affecting both the aggressor and the victims. This can result in decreased academic performance and increased costs for interventions and disciplinary actions.

The average single guy:

Addressed to average single guys (hoe math):

Every time you're tempted to use a dating app or go clubbing, remember that you're just the 5th guy walking into this situation and you probably don't look that good, dress that well, or have that much money. Stop putting yourself in situations where you're not even in the running. Not every guy can compete in an open market. You have to be the best option, and for most guys that means familiarity and status in a local social group like school or work. Having a real life is the best strategy (and praying she doesn't turn on her apps and start feeling like she's Marilyn).

Quiet:

WHY DO RICH PEOPLE LOVE QUIET?
The sound of gentrification is silence.

The Answer - Paul Graham:

"The rich love quiet because they're trying to work."

-----

Steve Sailer:

"rich people tend to have longer, more complicated trains of thought (which is one of the reasons they are richer) that are more easily interrupted by random noise blaring"

The Hierarchy of Looks:

Liv Sage:

"Something about people who, in the most attractive years of their life, were still thoroughly average looking mocking someone who ..."

The Future:

Pearl Davies:

"What is the future going to be?
A lot of single parents and a lot of people without children."

"feminism has won."

Bücher:

Es wieder lernen, den Gedankenfaden eines Buches über ein paar Stunden hinweg zu verfolgen. Das Denken kann sehr kurzatmig werden.

-----

Sich gelegentlich Zeit nehmen, ein Buch zur Gänze zu durchwandern.

Delayed Negative Reaction (Shane Parrish):

"It can take a while to understand that not everyone who pushes back does so in the moment. Sometimes, they hit back in the moment, but more often than not, they become negatively coiled, patiently waiting for an opportunity to spring."

[Sometimes the negative response takes some time to occur. Certain behaviors trigger negative responses in others, and often these responses happen after long delays (hours, days, weeks, months, years ... humans have memories).]

Selbstregulationsdefizite:

Ein interessantes Thema. Ich besitze das Buch "Executive Functions" von Russel A. Barkley. Hier sollte ich mal wieder einen Blick hinein werfen.

https://meinnaturwissenschaftsblog.blogspot.com/search?q=EF

Was ist Glück?

Ein bisschen doch auch: Sich einen Platz in Welt und Wirklichkeit zu sichern; sichern zu können.

Das Abwerten:

Warum brauchen manche Leute, scheinbar zu Selbstregulationszwecken, das Abwerten so sehr?

Warum haben manche Personen geradezu den Wunsch, Schwächen oder Mängel beim anderen Menschen zu finden bzw. gegebenenfalls: diese mit Freude in die andere Person hineinzuinterpretieren?

Bauchentscheidungen und Rationale Entscheidungen:

Gerhard Roth:

"Rationale Entscheidungen sind in der Regel besser als >Bauchentscheidungen<, d.h. Entscheidungen unter hochaffektiven bzw. hochemotionalen Bedingungen (>Dem werde ich's zeigen! Jetzt haue ich auf den Tisch! Jetzt sag' ich endlich dem Chef die Meinung!<)."

Intense Drama and Lack of Boundaries:

"Environments where personal boundaries are not respected can lead to conflicts and dramatic situations. When individuals feel that their personal space, time, or emotional boundaries are being infringed upon, it can lead to intense reactions​."

Male Hierarchies:

Theia:

"I see no shame in anyone anymore, no humility or understanding of one's place in the unspoken masculine hierarchy."

Mistakes:

farnam street:

"The chief trick to making good mistakes is not to hide them—especially not from yourself. Instead of turning away in denial when you make a mistake, you should become a connoisseur of your own mistakes, turning them over in your mind as if they were works of art, which in a way they are. The fundamental reaction to any mistake ought to be this: “Well, I won’t do that again!”"

Envy:

via Rob Henderson:

"the envious person... Instead of deriving pleasure from what he has, he derives pain from what others have. If he can he deprives others of the advantages, which to him is as desirable as it would be to secure the same advantages to himself."

"women regard all other women as their competitors, whereas men as a rule only have this feelings towards other men in the same profession. Have you, reader, ever been so imprudent as to praise an artist to another artist? Have you ever praised a politician to another politician of the same party? Have you ever praised an Egyptologist do another Egyptologist? If you have, it is a hundred to one that you will have produced an explosion of jealousy."

Absence:

via Gurwinder: 

“Absence diminishes small loves and increases great ones, as the wind blows out the candle and fans the bonfire.” 

― La Rochefoucauld

Downstream Effects:

Living Fossils, Josh:

"Take my client Juan. About a year ago, he moved from outside of Denver to Boston and began having panic attacks. Because he had moved for his girlfriend, and had long dreamt of living in a big city, he decided to tough it out. He came to see me a few months ago for help with his now-contentious relationship, stress at work, and a host of physical problems related to anxiety, such as GI breakdowns, fatigue, and rashes. He was also still having panic attacks daily.

Now, if I took Juan’s situation at face value, there would have been plenty for us to work on. But after talking through his past, I realized that there was only one Major Problem: his environment was too much for him to handle. Overload was the basis for all his subsequent issues. But it would have been easy to miss the forest for the trees by focusing on his presenting problems instead of the underlying one. Hell, if I were a couples’ therapist, I might have interpreted Juan’s agony as due to his unstable relationship. If I were a CBT therapist specializing in anxiety, I would have went to work on reducing his panic response. Instead, as a therapist more and more guided by common sense, I told him he should move. “It’s just not the right environment for you.”¹

The point is, people adapt—or think they’ve adapted—to root causes, which continue to create downstream effects. Eventually, these downstream effects dominate the problem landscape, and the root cause is forgotten."

Underlying Issues:

"When someone says, "If you want to solve the problem, try to address the underlying issue," they mean that instead of focusing on the symptoms or immediate manifestations of a problem, you should identify and deal with the root cause or the fundamental factors that are creating the problem. This approach is based on the idea that by resolving the deeper, underlying issues, you can create a more lasting and effective solution rather than just temporarily alleviating the symptoms."

The Wellness-Bottleneck ("Do more!"):

Living Fossils, Josh:

The first thing people typically recommend to those who are going through a hard time is—do more.

(o) “If you’re having trouble sleeping, try yoga. That did it for me.”

(o) “I get anxiety sometimes, too. Have you heard of Headspace?”

(o) “Oh yeah, knee problems can be a bear. You should really get that checked out soon.”

(o) “That does sound frustrating, but have you tried talking to him about it?”

Even when the explicit cause of a person’s misery is having too much on their plate, the common response is to add to it. “You sound overwhelmed. Have you considered medication?” Never mind that this involves finding a psychiatrist, setting up an appointment, paying the exorbitant cost, picking up the prescription, experimenting with different medications and doses (often over the course of months), remembering to actually take the medication, going back for check-ups, and beginning therapy to monitor or augment the treatment.

In a nutshell, the wellness bottleneck is that all this work falls on someone that is already overburdened.

Co-Intelligence: Living and Working with AI

https://www.amazon.de/Co-Intelligence-Living-Working-Ethan-Mollick/dp/0753560771/

Chemistry:

Allie, Twitter:

"If a mid looking guy had this chemistry with a mid looking girl he'd be fine."

Simp-pathetic:

via Twitter:

The Island of Opportunities:

 Thoreau:

"Fools stand on their island of opportunities and look toward another island."

Talk in Dating Contexts:

If she likes you, she does 80 percent of the heavy lifting:

"if she likes you it’s not gonna be that difficult to talk to her."

How much can you really learn about a country from visiting it?

Noah Smith:

"a trip of a week or even three weeks doesn’t give you enough time to learn much about a place. Living overseas, especially for multiple years, will allow you to develop deep relationships with the people there — work colleagues, close friends, long-term romantic partners, etc. It will also let you see how people live in their day-to-day life — what their workday looks like, what their house looks like. You’ll experience the frustrations and the inefficiencies as well as the conveniences. You’ll understand the dreams and the heartbreaks and the day-to-day pleasures.

As a tourist, you will learn very little about any of those things. You’ll walk around and see the buildings but you won’t know who lives or works there. You’ll chat with people in restaurants and bars but you won’t learn their secrets. You’ll experience the surface of a place but you won’t perceive the depths."

Making Oneself Powerless:

via Rob Henderson:

"Shakespeare starts by assuming that to make yourself powerless is to invite an attack. This does not mean that everyone will turn against you, but in all probability someone will."

Experiencing the contents of literature:

Dylano Essayful: 

Read enough literature and you soon begin to see it everywhere, you're walking around and it's right there on the surface of everyday life, superimposed text, as if reality had citations you couldn't see before.

Gute Lektüre:

Die Kunst, ein paar gute Zeilen, ein paar gute Absätze sehr schätzen zu wissen.

Wenig Lektüre:

Es hat schon Spuren im Leben hinterlassen, ein paar Jahre lang wenig gelesen zu haben.

Das Anspruchsvolle:

>Der Begriff "anspruchsvoll" .... wird ... im Allgemeinen verwendet, um etwas zu beschreiben, das hohe Anforderungen stellt oder komplex und herausfordernd ist.<

>Das Anspruchsvolle bezeichnet Eigenschaften, Qualitäten oder Tätigkeiten, die hohe Ansprche stellen oder ein hohes Niveau erfordern. Bezogen auf Personen beschreibt 'anspruchsvoll' jemanden, der hohe Erwartungen hat, oft in Bezug auf Qualität, Leistungen oder Standards. Bezogen auf Aufgaben oder Tätigkeiten bedeutet es, dass diese komplex, schwierig sind, oder hohe Anforderungen haben.<

Psychische Anspannung:

Anhaltend starke psychische Anspannung kann durch eine Vielzahl von Faktoren verursacht werden, wie zum Beispiel:

Chronischer Stress:

Beruflicher Stress: Hohe Arbeitsbelastung, enge Deadlines, wenig Kontrolle über die Arbeit, Konflikte am Arbeitsplatz.

Persönlicher Stress: Finanzielle Probleme, familiäre Konflikte, Pflege von Angehörigen, Beziehungsprobleme.

Nicht jugendfrei:

Zum ersten Mal seit Ewigkeiten wird diese Seite vom WebWiki nicht mehr als jugendfrei eingestuft.

Waren es falsche Youtube Videos, die hier verlinkt worden sind?

How to define success?

https://qcurtius.com/2024/06/02/how-do-you-define-success-podcast/

Friendships:

Rob Henderson:

"In their book “The Social Brain: The Psychology of Successful Groups,” the Oxford psychologist Robin Dunbar and his coauthors report that the number and quality of your friendships have a larger effect on your health than your weight, how much exercise you do, what you eat, and the quality of air you breathe. They go on to write, “By far the biggest medical surprise of the past decade has been the extraordinary number of studies showing that the single best predictor of health and wellbeing is simply the number and quality of close friendships you have.” "

Offering Opinions:

Gurwinder:

"Beware of those who are quick to offer their opinion about everything; they’re bullshitaholics who can’t help pretending they know what they’re talking about."

Fake Masculinity:

Quintus Curtius:

You have to see this. It's one of the most hilarious things I've seen this year. Someone that epitomizes everything that's wrong with fake "masculinity" makes a total fool of himself:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yPPqKb5WIo

A Poem:

via Dimitri Kolokotronis:

Have more than thou showest,
Speak less than thou knowest,
Lend less than thou owest,
Ride more than thou goest,
Learn more than thou trowest,
Set less than thou throwest,
Leave thy drink and thy whore
And keep in-a-door,
And thou shalt have more
Than two tens to a score.

Friends:

via Rob Henderson:

"For adults of any age, friends can provide an existentially rewarding gift: They can truly know us, sometimes better than we know ourselves...friends are better at describing our behavioral traits than we are ... Friends can assess whether we are funny, dominant, or charming better than we can...they are superior at guessing our IQs."

Mad Max 5:

Ich habe letztens den jüngsten Mad Max Film gesehen.

Die Welt ist unglaublich komplex.

Abertausende Variablen die gegebenenfalls (zumindest kollektiv) bedacht werden müssen,
um Manches korrekt einordnen zu können.

Im Vergleich hierzu fällt die Handlung des Films sehr einfach gestrickt aus.

Sicherlich, man kann sich hierbei etwas erholen von seinem Tagewerk.

Dennoch scheint bei solch einem Film die Wirklichkeit
restlos ausgespart zu sein.

Bloß zwei, drei Variablen bleiben übrig,

an denen nach Lust und Laune  gedreht werden kann.

Four Men Limit:

 
Schon ein guter Gedanke; man kann sich bloß ein paar Mal in seinem Leben ernsthaft festlegen, ernsthaft in einer Beziehung Erfahrung sammeln mit einer anderen Person.

Experience:

"your experience largely depends on the material objects and mental subjects that you choose to pay attention to or ignore ..."

Winifred Gallagher

Konzentration:

Wenn wir uns auf andere Dinge konzentrieren, wird sich unsere Welt verändern.

Youtube:

I haven't been on Youtube for a while. So I was posting here some nice video recommendations from Youtube. (~the last six posts)

Stop Doom Scrolling:

The Four Horsemen:

Divorce & Sex:

"where does sex fall into that equation? It's everywhere in that equation, because again it is the thing that separates this relationship from other kinds of relationships. Sex is a thing that is definitional to a romantic relationship."

"Is it a great canary in the coal mine? That you know like something is off with the sex now that the tragedy is not far behind? Yeah like because almost every couple when I talk to my side of the equation about when d did the ship start to sink there was certainly some change in sex, because again sex is definitional in terms of what distinguishes a romantic relationship from a platonic relationship."

Providing Value ("Don't be the table"):

Deleting Social Media:

Marriage:

 

Enger Blick:

Menschen, die nie so recht vorausdenken, mitdenken.

Life:

Carl Jung:

“People do not realize just how much they are putting at risk when they don’t accept what Life presents them with, the questions and tasks that Life sets them. When they resolve to spare themselves the pain and suffering, they owe to their nature. In so doing, they refuse to pay Life’s dues and for this very reason, Life then often leads them astray. If we don’t accept our own destiny, a different kind of suffering takes its place: a neurosis develops, and I believe that that Life which we have to live is not as bad as a neurosis. If I have to suffer, then let it be from my reality. A neurosis is a much greater curse! In general, a neurosis is a replacement for an evasion, an unconscious desire to cheat Life, to avoid something. One cannot do more than Live what one really is. And we are all made up of opposites and conflicting tendencies. After much reflection, I have come to the conclusion that it is better to Live what one really is and accept the difficulties that arise as a result—because avoidance is much worse. Today I can say: I have been true to myself I have done what I could to the best of my knowledge and conscience. Whether it was right or not, I cannot say. Suffering was inevitable in any case. But I want to suffer for those things which really belong to me. A decisive factor for me in choosing this path was the knowledge that if I did not respond fully to my Life’s purpose and challenges, then they would be inherited by my children, who would have to bear the burden of my unlived Life in addition to their own difficulties. I am aware of what a heavy burden was passed on to me by my parents. Such a burden cannot simply be shaken off. You find yourself weighed down with an inheritance that you have to accept and carry around, like a snail carrying its house on its back. Being ‘smart’ and behaving reasonably are not enough to get you through Life. You may well spare yourself some trouble, but you cut yourself off from your own Life in the process. I have seen the fate of those who have not Lived their own Lives, and it is simply horrible. People who Live out their destiny and fulfill it to the best of their knowledge and abilities have no reason for regret. In a way, Voltaire was right when he said one only has to regret surtout ce que l’on na pas fait (‘especially what we did not do’). It is of immense importance that we as humans accept the debts incumbent on us. In old age it is not the wonderful things that we perhaps missed out on seeing or experiencing that we will regret, but rather the moments when we let Life pass us by.”