Episodes

  • What shall i do with my newfound pen of light?

    What shall i do with my newfound pen of light?
    Jan 3 2025
    Coda WHAT SHALL I DO WITH MY NEWFOUND PEN OF LIGHT? In late 2016 I travelled to northern California to meet a friend and business associate. We spent an evening together thinking and talking. At one pointhe took a pen from his jacket and took a few notes.
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    21 mins
  • Pet a Cat When You Encounter

    Pet a Cat When You Encounter
    Jan 2 2025
    RULE 12 PET A CAT WHEN YOU ENCOUNTER ONE ON THE STREET DOGS ARE OK TOO I am going to start this chapter by stating directly that I own a dog, an American Eskimo, one of the many variants of the basic spitz type.
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    16 mins
  • Do Not Bother Children

    Do Not Bother Children
    Jan 1 2025
    RULE 11 DO NOT BOTHER CHILDREN WHEN THEY ARE SKATEBOARDING DANGER AND MASTERY There was a time when kids skateboarded on the west side of Sidney Smith Hall, at the University of Toronto, where I work. Sometimes I stood there and watched them. There are rough, wide, shallow concrete steps there, leading up from the street to the front entrance, accompanied by tubular iron handrails, about two and a half inches in diameter and twenty feet long. The crazy kids, almost always boys, would pull back about fifteen yards from the top of the steps.
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    19 mins
  • Be precise in your speech

    Be precise in your speech
    Dec 31 2024
    RULE 10 BE PRECISE IN YOUR SPEECH WHY IS MY LAPTOP OBSOLETE? What do you see, when you look at a computer—at your own laptop, more precisely? You see a flat, thin, grey-and-black box. Less evidently, you see something to type on and look at. Nonetheless, even with the second perceptions included,what are you seeing is hardly the computer at all. That grey and black box happens to be a computer right now, right here and now, and maybe even an expensive computer.
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    16 mins
  • Assume that the Person

    Assume that the Person
    Dec 30 2024
    RULE 9 ASSUME THAT THE PERSON YOU ARE LISTENING TO MIGHT KNOW SOMETHING YOU DON’T NOT ADVICE Psychotherapy is not advice. Advice is what you get when the person you’re talking with about something horrible and complicated wishes you would just shut up and go away. Advice is what you get when the person you are talking to wants to revel in the superiority of his or her own intelligence.
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    14 mins
  • Tell the truth—or at least, don't lie

    Tell the truth—or at least, don't lie
    Dec 28 2024
    RULE 8 TELL THE TRUTH—OR, AT LEAST, DON’T LIE TRUTH IN NO-MAN’S-LAND I trained to become a clinical psychologist at McGill University, in Montreal. While doing so, I sometimes met my classmates on the grounds of Montreal’s Douglas Hospital, where we had our first direct experiences with the mentally ill.
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    21 mins
  • Pursue What Is Meaningful

    Pursue What Is Meaningful
    Dec 28 2024
    RULE 7 PURSUE WHAT IS MEANINGFUL (NOT WHAT IS EXPEDIENT) GET WHILE THE GETTING’S GOOD Life is suffering. That’s clear. There is no more basic, irrefutable truth. It’s basically what God tells Adam and Eve, immediately before he kicks them out of Paradise. Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.
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    21 mins
  • Set your house in perfect order before you criticize the world

    Set your house in perfect order before you criticize the world
    Dec 27 2024
    RULE 6 SET YOUR HOUSE IN PERFECT ORDER BEFORE YOU CRITICIZE THE WORLD A RELIGIOUS PROBLEM It does not seem reasonable to describe the young man who shot twenty children and six staff members at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, in 2012 as a religious person. This is equally true for the Colorado theatre gunman and the Columbine High School killers.
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    13 mins