Arjun Khemani

A lot of people blame society for their circumstances. “If only society was more broad-minded, I wouldn’t face X problem.” But society has no mind. Individuals have minds.  No society is actually stopping you from getting what you want. But yes, an unpleasant spouse, expectations from parents or relatives, a dreadful employer—these are people who…

This is a linkpost for https://criticalrationalism.substack.com/p/wealth-creation-is-righteous By definition, wealth-creation brings something into the world that didn’t exist before. By creating wealth, you grow the pie, rather than take from it. Steve Jobs became a billionaire not by stealing but by creating real value. This contradicts the idea that rich people have a moral obligation to…

Like Pavlov’s dogs, they condition us to be hungry when the bell rings. They make us believe that the elders deserve respect despite their oppression and always know better than us, and they know what’s right for us. They mold each child until we become a slave of their philosophy, doing everything the way we…

“Disobedience, in the eyes of any one who has read history, is man’s original virtue. It is through disobedience that progress has been made, through disobedience and through rebellion.” Oscar Wilde 1. Authorities make mistakes: Beware whenever someone says this is the final truth and this is how you should act. Question authority. Nothing is out…

This is a link post for https://criticalrationalism.substack.com/p/on-the-derangements-of-science Some think of science as a cold, inhuman, and logical practice of dealing with the “facts of reality”. Meanwhile, some “believe in science” and think of it somewhat akin to the final word of God. Both those views are wrong, and for similar reasons: they share a fundamental…

It wouldn’t be a revelation to many of you if I say schools kill creativity. “Modern” school markets itself as a place where creativity and critical thinking are developed. But that’s false. Creativity cannot flourish in a place where you’re told what you’re supposed to do. In such an institution, criticism is also shunned, and…

“I take a different view of science as a method; to me, it enters the human spirit more directly. Therefore I have studied quite another achievement: that of making a human society work. As a set of discoveries and devices, science has mastered nature; but it has been able to do so only because its…

This is a link post for https://criticalrationalism.substack.com/p/3-why-altruism-is-evil I. The idea of creating a future that is favorable for our descendants is in vogue today. But before even thinking about creating an ideal future, we must address a more fundamental problem about the limits of what is knowable. And that is the impact of the growth…

This is a link post for https://criticalrationalism.substack.com/p/2-why-chatgpt-isnt-a-step-towards Last month, OpenAI introduced ChatGPT to the world. The chatbot immediately took the Internet by storm, crossing a million users in less than 5 days of its research launch. There’s a ton of excitement around its impressive capacities. Scientists, journalists, writers, programmers, teachers, students, people-working-jobs-that-it-threatens, and of course, AI researchers—everyone’s…

For this blog post, just sharing one of the simplest tweets I’m proudest of to have written; the thought of which still baffles me: Ironic how we are trying to create computers that can “think for themselves” and at the same time sending kids to school—explicitly wanting them to follow the instructions—making them learn how…

Almost everything to do with the evidence of modern civilization is the manifestation of thought. Think about it, from primitive huts to heaven-kissing skyscrapers, from Stone Age doodles to the Mona Lisa, the significance of the dollar bill, the footprints on the Moon—all is but a product of thought. Applicably, the most productive and the…

There’s a web app called The Most Dangerous Writing App that’s actually pretty good at fighting writer’s block. How it works is simple: you set a time limit for yourself, and then you have to write as much as you can within that time frame. The catch? You can’t stop writing, even if you want…

– Why is gravity still considered a force when it is known since the 1910s that gravity is just a manifestation of the curvature of spacetime? (H/T: Twitter) – Will ChatGPT kill the student essay? – Will artificially intelligent entities be conscious? Even if they won’t, when an AI starts to look and talk like…

Recently, I went on a solo meditation retreat somewhere close to the Himalayas for 4 days. It was a powerful experience and I am glad to have done it. Since the time of planning and telling relevant people about my plans, this was looked at by some almost as a suicide mission. A sixteen year…

Note: I’m assuming you’ve already heard “journaling is good for you”. And that you’ve somewhat been convinced. Carry on if that’s the case. If not, spend half an hour watching “journaling” videos on YouTube and come back here to add meaningful structure to the habit that’s going to change your life. I’ve been using some…

Hint: never. Nullius in verba is our motto here. In Latin, it roughly means “take no one’s word for it”. When people hear that phrase, a common argument that pops up against it is that you sometimes have to take someone’s word for it. You can’t personally recreate the whole of human knowledge now, can…

This is another article I wrote for the Taking Children Seriously website. This time, its a film review! On the thoroughly inspiring, and somewhat infuriating film Dead Poets Society featuring Robin Williams. Read it on the Taking Children Seriously website here. Taking Children Seriously is a beautiful parenting philosophy that began with the views of…

There’s a lot going on. But also not a whole lot. Let me explain. Changing houses So we recently moved houses. And I’m at this entirely new part of the city which is absolutely beautiful. Well at least comparatively much more beautiful. I’m still around in the city but there’s trees, lots of trees. And…

I wrote a book review of Ivan Illich’s Deschooling Society for the wonderful Taking Children Seriously website that was relaunched recently. You can read it on the Taking Children Seriously website here. Taking Children Seriously is a beautiful parenting philosophy that began with the views of Sarah Fitz-Claridge and David Deutsch inspired by the epistemology…

At one point doesn’t everything seem relative? What even is truth if not that which is true relative to the person? This echoes the philosophy of relativism. It states that truth is relative to the individual. There is no absolute truth, according to the relativists. If there is one, we cannot know it. Because everything…

In school, I’m often accused of talking back at the teacher. One day, after being annoyed by a seemingly unreasonable question for the nth time, the teacher coldly demanded of me, “Never ask me why.” I thought that was rather dumb so I scoffed and said, “What? Why?” On other occasions, I’ve heard imposing comments…

The TEACHER has written something on the board and all students are “expected” to copy it in their notebooks. STUDENT: [whispers to himself] Where am I ever going to use this in my life? TEACHER: [hears STUDENT] Your final paper depends on you knowing this word-for-word. So get on with writing it now. STUDENT: Yes,…

The “chasing things to get happy” strategy is a meaningless one. Desire always creeps up yet again and you start with another void to fill every time the last thing you filled it with no longer gives you the zeal it did when you first wanted to get it or at the exact moment you…

This post was inspired by a live discussion between Slavoj Žižek (pronounced SLAH-voy zhee-ZHEK) and Yuval Noah Harari on the topic “Nature: friend or foe?”. You can watch their conversation on YouTube here. This post presents the ideas there more concretely and expands on the same. (You don’t need to watch the video first to…

There’s a whole blog post series arguing for why we could presently be living in the “most important century” for humanity ever. This piece is a critique to exactly that fundamental idea of this being the “most important century” of all time. The author is trying to point out that this century will most probably…

Automatically, we associate experience with some concept. “This is good”, “This feels bad”, “I’m happy”, “I love doing this”. However specific our words might be and whatever feeling we get about so-and-so being the perfect word or concept for what we feel, ultimately experience seems to be beyond concepts. You need to feel it. An…

A double-edged sword is anything that can have favorable and unfavorable consequences. I pose a list of fundamental double-edged swords to the human condition below. A double-edged sword doesn’t have to be unfavorable. Making explicit and understanding the nature of these double-edged swords may perhaps help to flavor more of or only the favorable aspect…

After running in my local (but beautiful) national park this Sunday, I made an extremely pleasant observation. Followed by a second but distressing observation of the same thing I felt pleasant about. The final observation I made was an observation of my observations in finding diversity in unity. Let me explain- In the park, I…

It’s been a whole year since I started this blog. And what a long way I’ve come since then. Before starting out, I’d been writing for a book (which is still in the works). Since starting the blog I also started a podcast. I started tweeting significantly. And I developed more than a few meaningful…

This morning Dad was telling Mom how it’s getting difficult for him to see at night while driving on the road. (And also that rains don’t help.) He’d read on the Internet he said, that after forty, it’s normal to have a deteriorating eyesight. The lens of the eye starts to change form and that…

The TEACHER has just explained the details of an assignment to the entire class. A STUDENT raises his hand. TEACHER: [to the student] Yes, do you have a doubt relating to what I just said? STUDENT: As it happens, indeed I do miss. Is this project compulsory? TEACHER: Yes, it is compulsory for all to…

I know there are like an uncountably infinite “two kinds of people in this world”, but there are two kinds of people in this world: those who say it can’t be done because they don’t know how it can be done and those who say (and know) it can be done even when they don’t…

There’s a whole side of argument that supports the idea of keeping false beliefs for psychological consolation—beliefs that act as some sort of a placebo. There are a couple of holes in this argument that make it a bad explanation which I wish to point out in this blog post. Many people (atheists including) argue…

A young friend recently died; It was a shock to hear. Something that happens in an instance,but affects the indefinite future;when isn’t death a shock? Yet, a sudden death makes one reflect.“If I were to die today,will have I lived?” Putting life into perspectiveis one of death’s few significant roles. “Am I afraid of deathbecause…

“Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction.” Blaise Pascal In 1973 Israeli psychologist George Tamarin presented a mind-blowing study on the effect of what’s “written in the Bible” on the way people uncritically perceive good or bad. Tamarin presented to over a thousand Israeli schoolchildren (aged…

This is an essay I wrote for the Eon Essay Contest. “The Earth is the cradle of humanity, but [hu]mankind cannot stay in the cradle forever.”   KONSTANTIN TSIOLKOVSKY The Space Race (1955-1975) between the United States and the USSR was primarily motivated by a race for achievement—the craving to display technological and intellectual superiority. Rivalry…

“I can’t help myself, it’s human nature, human natureWho’s to say what’s meant to be?Why can’t we be on our worst behavior, worst behaviorWhen it comes so naturally?” Zara Larsson (I Would Like) The study of human nature in evolutionary psychology makes us humans seem like totally irrational creatures, “… survival machines—robot vehicles blindly programmed…

I was in the audience of my school debate last week. A two hour experience that made me ponder on the extent to which school debates are meaningless. I suggest a better and complete alternative to debates in this post. But first, let me state my observations during my time listening to the debate held…

“Mom, can I […]?” “No.” “Why?” “Because you can’t.” “But why can’t I?” “Because it isn’t good.” “Why?” “Because I say so.” [Moans with disappointment, accepts defeat.] Because I say so. Impatience usually is the cause of these four words. Sure, one may object saying, “I can’t explain everything to a child. Their understanding is…

I turn 16 today. Here are some ideas (and questions) on my mind: 1. Are you going to wait for death to enjoy life too? 2. Tomorrow is simply a bonus. 3. Why do we choose to stay in a bad place when reason can easily get us out of it? 4. Some die at…

“Why do we sit down and eat?” that was the question that (completely randomly) popped up in my head and I asked my 9 year old sister what she thought about it. That’s a foolish question at first glance, isn’t it? And one would probably nudge that question away due to it’s apparent silly nature.…

AD 2072, The World. People have had many understandings of the laws of the Universe in the past. They weren’t all labeled understandings of the ‘laws of the Universe’ but essentially suggested what we mean by them—that is, the rules that the Universe obeys in all its workings and how it exists. In some societies…

A couple years ago I was at a spiritual place where I was starting to understand that a lot of things in the world were really messed up. The path most people unconsciously seemed to follow (birth, going to school, striving for grades, entering college, finding a job, climbing up the corporate ladder, marriage, work,…

“Is there is a meaning of life?” Many people naturally ponder on the meaning of life question. As humans who are thirsty to understand the world, we crave explanations for our existence. What’s the purpose of life, we ask? Why did the Universe happen? What does it all mean? We want to make sense of…

“… once in a while, when you deeply reflect on one of these facts [about the size & age of the Universe], or when you’re in the right late night conversation with the right person, or when you’re staring at the stars, or when you think too hard about what death actually means—you have a Whoa moment.”…

Just so we’re on the same page: we all agree that a child’s creativity is one of the most important things to them, right? Also, isn’t watching cartoons and fantasy shows “a waste of time”? A piece of “shocking ghastly junk” to exaggerate with Roald Dahl’s words for those precious little souls? But what if…

I have a fellow-runner friend who runs the Mumbai Marathon. The race takes place on the third Sunday of January each year. Coincidentally, in this zone of the world, that is the last bit of winter we get to experience each season. My friend thinks that it’s all—literally—cool until the race but just on the…

“We are going to die, and that makes us the lucky ones. Most people are never going to die because they are never going to be born. The potential people who could have been here in my place but who will in fact never see the light of day outnumber the sand grains of Arabia.…

Unlearning is the new meta-skill. Though it doesn’t get as much attention as it deserves. You can’t really learn evolution without unlearning creationism (the idea that the Universe was created by a supernatural power). You can’t really learn quantum theory without unlearning that the laws of physics must deal with only those things large enough…

It’s easy to accept the most irrational ideas when one doesn’t give them any thought and blindly accepts them because they’re the most obvious ones. It isn’t natural to humans to question their own tightly held beliefs or those of authority (whom they can’t conceive of doubting). And since we’re wired in a way to…

Human biology and evolution favor us in the ease of the process of procreating children but it doesn’t make the job of raising them easy in any way. That’s one reason why parents have such a hard time raising a child. It isn’t instinctive to us like copulation seems to be. One may doubt this…

History and it’s key insights have a tendency to get distorted in our minds due to the recent record. Reasoning in such a way so as to come to a conclusion that what’s going to happen in the future is merely a product of what’s happening in the world right now (or has happened in…

A teenager’s rant on the problem with the normal teenager. When a child becomes a teenager, all of a sudden he’s into the “real world” now. And I feel that’s a really gloomy imaginative world to be in. In the last years of high school, everybody becomes extremely serious about their career and what they’re…

The following is an excerpt from a speech by Douglas Adams on the troubles on speaking against religion in free society. One can openly share their perspective on the best economic system and their political views but it seems sharing their take on religion (if they’re atheist) is extremely unethical. Richard Dawkins quoted the excerpt…

(Pronounced: the times rule) A simple rule I follow allows me to learn (and essentially live) up to 2x faster than one would normally do. Here’s how one can employ it to do the same. I listen to all my audiobooks and podcasts at 1.25x speed. And I watch the videos of online courses I…

In the previous post, I started with a bold conjecture. I wrote: The biggest threat to humanity is itself. This is because I think it’s true if we take absolute accountability for our species. Climate change is something (maybe) we have accelerated. And it’s because of us that Earth is getting inhospitable. So if the…

The biggest threat to humanity is itself. I don’t know a lot about what’s going on between Russia and Ukraine right now. This short post doesn’t delve into the details, though it teaches a good lesson. Humans have war-like characteristics. We tend to not stand people who aren’t like us. Vladimir Putin may have his…

Most people and standard definitions associate happiness to a feeling of pleasure and joy. I don’t find that view very compelling. So I’m going to propose an unconventional (and hopefully more promising) view of happiness here. Since this is a relative subject, you don’t have to agree with me or even listen to me. But…

Observation I took cold showers almost every morning throughout the entire winter. Very rarely would I take a hot shower either for the sake of pleasure or when I was sick. But the contrast in these two kinds of showers is tremendous. Especially after taking the shower. Although ironical, you feel warmer after a cold…

A lot of what we talk about on this blog is to do with how we look at certain things. The perspective from which we are viewing the world. And how is that vision advantageous in accordance with our biggest goals. You’re sure to tumble across obstacles in your life. Maybe you’re facing one right…

In the previous post we discussed problems faced because of the dual nature of the mind: The tendency for the conscious self to surf over to the irrational (or Fear) condition. This post continues with showing 2 ways to stay more on the rational side in making important decisions and keeping useful beliefs. Without further…

It’s a painful fact that we’re so often aware of the right thing to do, and we know what we want to do, yet we do not do it! Sin #1 The day before, on my run I came across a man on the side of the street, sitting in a crouched position, hands on…

There’s two ways we think: (1) with emotion and (2) with rationale. They both work together but often fight against each other due to the immense differences in their goals. Emotion’s goal is alerting the body in order to survive and reproduce. The primitive instinct that effects fear and anger among others. Rationale’s goal is…

This is part two of the 2-part money series on this blog. You can read part one here where we discussed what makes people believe in money and how it works. No, money isn’t evil. The same way a knife isn’t evil but the murderer is (depending on your definition of evil). Money is a…

Why do we believe in money? Why would people take jobs they’re really not quite interested in and work the majority of their life only to get money out of it? Why have we given so much importance to money? And how does it work in the first place? Let’s try answering these pressing questions.…

Some stats… Between 33 and 40 per cent of all people experience some form of anxiety when it comes to flying. And between 2.5 per cent and 5 per cent of the population have crippling anxiety, a genuine fear of flying that needs to be classified as a clinical phobia. [1] Some more stats… The…

Last week marked 15 years since the first time Steve Jobs showed the iPhone to the world. In honor of that here’s a short remark he made about the secrets of life in an interview done by the Santa Clara Valley Historical Association. [1]This is one of the best secrets of life I’ve ever heard.…

This post was originally created for the newsletter subscribers. You can subscribe or learn more here. This is a theory of how discrimination against African Americans came to be what it is today. It began with the Europeans. They had to bring in African slaves to work in the sugar plantation fields. Why did they bring…

The world is so diverse. Some people we like, some we dislike, some we find cool, some are weird. And the people we have feelings toward similarly have feelings toward the rest of the world (just like we do). Why is it that the same event can cause so different reactions between two human beings?…

Sports fans that root for their hometown team unconsciously use a subtle way to always keep their identity high regarded. This is how we they do it: When their home team wins, they say, “We beat them 3-0!”. When their hometown/favorite team loses, they say, “They [speaker’s hometown team] lost 2-0 that night.”Or, “Yeah, [hometown…

Teenagers today often hear from last generation people that back in those days, we didn’t stare at screens all day, we went outside and did stuff. But if only there were something known as the Internet back in those days, I can assure you that the teenage situation would be pretty much the same as…

The Hulk teaches us a lot about anger. He’s good at destroying the enemy when he’s angry, but sometimes that irrational mind goes down the wrong path. When Bruce Banner is subjected to a certain level of emotional stress (at or against his will) he turns into the Hulk. The Hulk can smash. And that’s…

The New Year is the perfect excuse to start working out, read books, keep a journal, learn a new skill, and stuff like that. Although, if only we were as pumped up and in a celebratory mood for each new day as we are for every new year on New Year’s Eve… the world would…

Notes from Darren Hardy’s book The Compound Effect.This is a combination of quotes directly from the book with certain adjustments for context, as well as my personal thoughts. What is the compound effect? The Compound Effect is the principle of reaping huge rewards from a series of small, smart choices. The compound effect is the…

Oftentimes I get an incredible idea, but send it to waste only because I think about it too much. And sometimes I begin doing something new but get so worked up in the superfluous details that I never really get anything done. Sound relatable? We are guided by two main internal factors:Logic and Emotion. Logic…

Are you letting yourself be led by fear or by love? If there’s one thing that stops us from doing what we love, that’s fear. Inaction, and often undesired action; boils down to having insufficient courage. Often the physical obstacles are nothing compared to the ones we have created in our psyche. You’re either led…

A lot is uncertain.Often, the things that are supposed to go in a way, don’t go so.It’s hard to accept but it remains an outstanding fact that most of the stuff in life is uncertain.The future is malleable. Things aren’t intended to be and stay as they are, as much as you may want them…

It’s common to see that when we have an abundance of something, we don’t really care too much about it. But when we have a scarcity of something, we dwell too much on it. We complain about having little time, but on the weekends we essentially drain the hours; doing something even we’d probably rather…

This post consists of the lessons from and summary of Gary Vaynerchuck’s book: Twelve and a Half : Leveraging the Emotional Ingredients Necessary for Business Success. In the book, Gary Vaynerchuck shares 12 necessary “emotional ingredients”, which are essentially emotional skills, integral to have led to his success and happiness in life and business. The…

This article is supposed to be a joke. Its not a direct accusation to Apple (I love that company), but it points the finger to every technology company that has bad data privacy of its users and it also condemns the user for using technologies where their privacy is essentially a joke. End of disclaimer.…

I mention “Monkey Mind” quite throughout this article. It constantly seeks instant gratification. It works on instinct and impulse. It thinks through feeling, not logic. We all have it, but with reason we can turn it off.Keep reading, you’ll get it. Do you wish to create / start something new? Or perhaps you are starting…

This article is a template for a year-end journaling process I share in this article (link – Reflect. Review. Redesign. (#115)). Sorry, but you’ll need to read that before you can understand this. Oh, you’ve read it already? Great! Sorry, carry on, please. Reflect List everything you can recall in each week/fortnight week/month (step 1…

2021 is nearing its end. What a year it’s been! The end of the year is the best excuse to Reflect. Review. And Redesign. That’s what we’re going to talk about here. Did you wake up yesterday and consciously look at your calendar and say, “Wait, what? It’s December, already?!”– If it occurred to you…

This article is a summary for How to Win Friends & Influence People by Dale Carnegie (one of the greatest best-selling books of all time). Let’s dive in. This book is an action book. For “the great aim of education,” said Herbert Spencer, “is not knowledge but action.” Part One: Fundamental Techniques in Handling People…

“I just sit in my office and read all day.” Warren Buffett Reading books has lately become one of my greatest habits. But only reading them and taking in information isn’t going to help if the books I read don’t show up in my morals and through my actions. We’ll see how we can remember…

Often, we say something, mean something, and we do a whole ‘nother thing, if not completely the opposite of what we had said.When I say “said”, I don’t just mean words spoken by you to your friends, family or general acquaintances. I also mean what you think about, and promise yourself. That counts your dreams,…

My Experience & Why I Don’t Plan to Fall Back to Hot Showers Cold showers have turned into a really hot thing right now, backed by “scientific evidence” said to bring about a lot of health benefits. Countless famous people today and in the past advocated the use of it. Charles Darwin used hydrotherapy, cold…

Lucius Annaeus Seneca the Younger or simply Seneca wrote a moral essay sometime back in 49 AD titled ‘De Brevitate Vitae‘ (‘On the Shortness of Life‘ in English) This article is partly inspired by his Stoic philosophy. The average life lasts for about:630,720 hours. 26,280 days. 3,750 weeks. 864 months. 7.2 decades.72 years. If you get…

Step 1. Awareness Children are fast learners. Quite faster than the average adult. They pick up how to speak and learn their first language in no time. Whereas, an adult who knows how to speak already would take a considerably longer time to learn a new language than a newborn human baby. Not only in…

Note: mental links, mental models, mental connections, heuristics and systems thinking; all roughly mean the same in psychology. I’ll use the term “mental links” throughout this article. Our minds are incredible at linking and connecting things. Mental links are responsible for how we make sense of the world. We simplify complexities, and find similarities through…

It was November 1994. Fourteen-year-old Matilda, practically for a joke, was playing the role of burglar at home with her friend Stacy. Her father, coming home late, who assumed Matilda was at a friend’s house thought a real burglar may have broken in. He heard noises as he entered his house.For the safety of his…

How often do we judge others (almost unconsciously) when the other person hasn’t done any wrong? How often do we criticize when we really need to apologize? How often do we look for loopholes or fake alibi to save our own ego, instead of the truth? How often do we accuse when we are the…

The human brain is a subtly brilliant thing. Its capacities and intriguing manners literally amaze me every day—to this day! Its immense size is wonderful. Its complexity is breathtaking. Everything about it is just so awesome!It also seems better though in its original form when we accumulate and generalize it as one piece. Allow me…

17 years ago the city council in Monza, Italy (famous for its Formula 1 Grand Prix) prohibited pet owners from keeping their goldfish in bowls (like the one in the picture above). Here’s part of what the measure’s sponsor said, “The ruling is intended to transmit a message about the correct treatment of domestic animals.…

People may forget what you say and people may forget what you do. But no one will ever forget how you made them feel Maya Angelou Read the above quote once again, if you please, and this time try noticing how your thoughts shoot up when you understand the words of Maya Angelou better. So,…

Everything we do, every thought we’ve ever had, is produced by the human brain. But exactly how it operates remains one of the biggest unsolved mysteries, and it seems the more we probe its secrets, the more surprises we find. Neil deGrasse Tyson The other day in biology class while we were studying something about…

Today and this post together mark day and article #100 on this blog. The enthusiasm and desire to write everyday and share it with a delightful audience through this blog still reside sincerely in my heart, perhaps now more than ever. Since day 1 I’ve tried writing the best I can, learning and growing along…

“It is easier to resist at the beginning than at the end.”  Leonardo da Vinci The mind is eminent for its resistance. We occasionally experience resistance even to doing things that we deep-down really want to do. And that’s strange, isn’t it? Although; I completely agree with what the great polymath Da Vinci observed on…

I read and think. Warren Buffett Bill Gates has revealed an important practice which helped him think very well during the early years at Microsoft. Twice a year, Gates would take a 7 day Think Week. He would go to a secluded location in Hood Canal, Washington with stacks of important papers and books. He…