Category Archives: motivation

71. Is learning “grit” is the best way to succeed?

Posted on April 6, 2014 by thormay

How have you man­aged your fail­ures, and has fail­ure made you a bet­ter per­son? Every­one fails at some­thing sooner or later. The impor­tant thing is how they han­dle fail­ure. A recent edu­ca­tional fad in Amer­ica is to teach stu­dents “grit” … Con­tinue read­ing →

Posted in competence, culture, ethics, ideology, individualism, Language learning, lifestyle, merit, motivation, philosophy, proportion, teaching, value, work | Leave a comment

70. Are diet and exercise really personal choices?

Posted on March 27, 2014 by thormay

  A human epi­demic of obe­sity / near-obe­sity has cor­re­lated world­wide with the spread of man­u­fac­tured food & bev­er­age, and motor­ized trans­port. Diet & exer­cise though seem to be intensely per­sonal choices. How can this dilemma be solved?   Pref­ace: This … Con­tinue read­ing →

Posted in culture, diet, economics, exercise, health, individualism, lifestyle, motivation, proportion, rules, sport | Leave a comment

69. How do we judge literary value and artistic value?

Posted on March 9, 2014 by thormay

Pref­ace: This is a dis­cus­sion paper, not a researched aca­d­e­mic doc­u­ment. The read­ing list at the end is a col­lec­tion of con­tem­po­rary links from the Inter­net and pretty acci­den­tal, not edited for qual­ity. The author is a prin­ci­pal orga­nizer for … Con­tinue read­ing →

Posted in art, culture, merit, motivation, philosophy, poetry, proportion, truth, value, writing | Leave a comment

68. Are We Too Wealthy?

Posted on February 27, 2014 by thormay

Do we demand an unsus­tain­able and unre­al­is­tic qual­ity of life? Does our desire to be wealthy place too much pres­sure on the econ­omy and on the envi­ron­ment? Is it pos­si­ble that we may have to think about accept­ing less?  Thor … Con­tinue read­ing →

Posted in culture, economics, ethics, ideology, individualism, intellectuals, lifestyle, merit, motivation, philosophy, politics, proportion, refugees, wealth, work | Leave a comment

66. What will be the dominant ideologies of the 21st Century?

Posted on January 11, 2014 by thormay

The 20th Cen­tury revolved polit­i­cally around com­pet­ing inter­pre­ta­tions of Cap­i­tal­ism, Com­mu­nism, Social­ism and Fas­cism. These are all ways to orga­nize the lives of peo­ple on a large scale. Are real alter­na­tives or new inter­pre­ta­tions likely to emerge in the chal­leng­ing years … Con­tinue read­ing →

Posted in China, economics, ethics, ideology, law, merit, motivation, politics, regulations, religion, rules, truth, war, wealth | Leave a comment

62. Economic Complexity and the Engine of Psychology

Posted on August 14, 2013 by thormay

Con­text: The essay con­sid­ers eco­nom­ics as a psy­cho­log­i­cal phe­nom­e­non with the char­ac­ter­is­tics of a com­plex dynamic sys­tem. It is an ini­tial and some­what play­ful explo­ration, not a math­e­mat­i­cal paper on sys­tems the­ory. The orig­i­nal con­text was a dis­cus­sion group back­ground … Con­tinue read­ing →

Posted in competence, culture, economics, ethics, evidence, law, management, motivation, philosophy, politics, regulations, rules, truth, wealth | Leave a comment

61. Ethical Behaviour is Harder for the Rich

Posted on July 28, 2013 by thormay

Con­text: The mate­rial here com­prises dis­cus­sion points and some ref­er­ence links for a diverse group of peo­ple in Bris­bane, Aus­tralia, who fancy them­selves as “gen­tle thinkers”, and who meet from time to time to talk things over. All kinds of … Con­tinue read­ing →

Posted in China, culture, economics, ethics, innovation, law, management, merit, motivation, philosophy, politics, regulations, rules, truth, wealth | Leave a comment