Knowledge might turn out to be false. That's why I question my knowledge. In the spirit of Karl Popper and the philosophy of fallibilism, I continuously develop, clarify, or delete my writings as new insights emerge or previous assumptions are challenged.
Compensatory measures don't work. There is bound to be a net loss of biodiversity. No one can recreate a forest of centuries-old trees, or a thousand-year-old peat bog.
The best insect hotel is nature.
Easy money leads to very risky investments.
Motivation is fleeting. Fun is a positive feedback loop. Do what's fun, not what requires motivation.
Qualitative decision-making is rooted in good physical and mental health.
Free markets, like science, originate from human nature, refined by invention into systems that drive efficiency and discovery.
Creating something with skill and passion doesn't necessarily mean you can make a living out of it.
In most cases, you don't have to be rich to start or stop doing something.
If you're worried about someone damaging it, don't buy it.
As we search the universe for signs of life, we create new life forms in petri dishes and computers. It's possible that we will merge with our new inventions before we discover alien life.
We are constantly expanding our influence over the universe, but our control will never be absolute. In mathematical terms, we are asymptotically gaining control of the universe. (See The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations That Transform the World, by David Deutsch)
Attention economy: Notifications are not designed to help you, but to make you spend more time in the app.
One day we will make rockets as fast as we make cars.
Whether it's humans or artificial intelligences, don't take their word for it.
"What do we want to accomplish this week?" is acceptable for a team. But individuals can be bolder and ask themselves, "What do I want to accomplish today?"
Heal your trauma before you have children, or they will suffer from your suffering.
Leonardo da Vinci died at the age of 67. By defeating aging, humanity could benefit from the brightest minds for the longest time ever.
Progress allows us to become like the Elves: everlasting with pointy ears.
Never make decisions when you're in a mental crisis.
You won't get back the health you sacrificed for wealth in retirement.
My mental health was so terrible that it drove me to move several times in search of a new place, new friends, a new job, better weather, new hobbies. But moving was not the answer. I was sick. Psychiatry, medication, regular exercise, and Buddhism eased my suffering.
The most successful human of all time is probably a diplomatic cavewoman who prevented a few murders and allowed millions of descendants to be born as a result.
Comparing yourself to other surfers takes all the fun out of surfing.
If you try to copy another surfer's style, you will look like a dork. (A conclusion inspired by a quote from the late Andy Irons).
I'm still waiting for surfers to write songs about how an airline broke their surfboards.
Some people get married and divorced so often that a wedding ring vending machine might be useful to them.
I'm going to grow a long neck and call myself Rodney Mullet.
Quand on joue à cache-cache, je me dissimule toujours au même endroit. C'est ma constante de Planck.
Comme on dit en Australie, il ne faut pas mettre la charrue avant l'émeu.
Un seul hêtre vous manque, et tout est peupliers. (Une allusion au vers : « Un seul être vous manque, et tout est dépeuplé ! » du poème L'Isolement, d'Alphonse de Lamartine.)
Le sorcier ne met jamais trop de sel, car le magicien dose.
Est-ce que les algériens jouent du rock Kabylie ?
Let us think in eternities and remember that the bakery closes at noon.
I am impartial. Especially when my enemies are losing.
Lorsqu'un Italien tire, est-ce que sa mitraillette fait « buratatatata » ?
If I ever adopt a dog, I'm going to call it "Lightweight Baby" or "Yeah buddy!"
I went to the hospital to get my ignorance amputated. The problem is that it's already grown back.
On ne s'improvise pas écrivain. Montaigne a essayé.
Quand les Inuits se battent, est-ce qu'ils mettent des calottes polaires ?
I went to a restaurant with some friends for Valentine's Day. I saw something appear in my soup with "I love you" written on it. I had a lot of questions. It turned out to be one of the magnets used in the kitchen to hang up order slips.
Si je modernise le moteur de ma Renault, est-ce qu'elle devient une cliodynamique ?
Une femme, c’est Perséphone. Un homme, ça perd ses poils.
The world ocean is 656 times the size of mainland France (361,900,000 km²/551,695 km²). As Patrice de Mac Mahon said: "So much water, so much water!"
The concept of the habitable zone works for campfires. Too close and you burn. Too far and bears will attack you. Only in between can you survive.
Is there less risk of causing damage by asking what to remove rather than what to add?
Productivism is so ingrained in our societies that if people see you doing nothing, they think you have a problem.
The IT department knows much more about you than you think.
We remember those who went to the Platonic Academy, not those who went to the Games of Ancient Rome.
It is the hallmark of the prig conformist to focus on spelling mistakes and miss the point.
Nitpickers are either autistic or idiots, or both.
Two ways to feed pigeons: birdseed and the news.
L'abus d'école est dangereux pour la santé. A rule of thumb inspired by the french slogan: "L'abus d'alcool est dangereux pour la santé." (Alcohol abuse is unhealthy).
There are some books we can't really choose not to read: the ones children want us to read to them.
Always speak out against the people who share things out of context.
Nazism traumatized french people. To the point that they are now so focused on the far right that they forget to also destroy communism (postmodernism, woke, degrowth) and political Islam.
The West uses the Holocaust as an excuse for not doing what it should to stop Israel when it commits war crimes, invades countries, and bribes politicians.
The fight against drug trafficking is not about eliminating it, but about getting politicians elected. It does not address the most common cause of drug use: psychiatric disorders. Since politicians refuse to help the sick, it's up to entrepreneurs to develop the solutions that will cure them.
Is it easier to convince a group of people or a single person?
Flaubert, Nietzsche and Montaigne claimed that walking helped them think better. Long walks (without music or podcasts) solve many problems.
If I hear several people say they've been to the same place, I'll never go there. Mass tourism kills the soul of any place.
Having an audience is the easiest way to become a know-it-all.
Getting rich doesn't extinguish passion.
School bullying is about three things: some students harass and beat other students, teachers coerce children and sometimes spend their nerves on them, and compulsory education forces children to come back to the same place every day to suffer again. Abolish compulsory education and school bullying will definitely stop.
It is always those who have never been truly poor who say that money can't buy happiness.
Anyone who calls himself or herself an erudite, a savant, a polymath, is a pathological narcissist. Only centuries will tell.
You can't force children into education and then complain that they lack initiative, creativity, agency, critical thinking and autonomy.
You learn more about people from the variety of situations you experience with them than from the time you spend with them. For example, you might share an office with someone for years and think you know each other well. But the moment you both experience a new situation, like going on a trip or starting a business together, you suddenly discover sides of each other you never knew existed.
There's no such thing as "brutal" honesty. There's only honesty. Otherwise you're still emotionally attached to what other people say.
The government, an agency, a commission or an institution does not give us money. It is simply an intermediary, often useless, that redistributes money from citizens, often inefficiently.
When we accumulate, we risk burying what is important. When we reduce, we take the chance of finding it again.
Like many things, apologizing for our bad deeds becomes easier the more we do it.
Prosperity means being satisfied with what you have. It decreases when you want something else or something more. The more difficult it is to get that thing, the more your prosperity decreases.
If you're worried about leaving your home unattended when you go on vacation, it's a sign that your belongings own you.
There are an infinite number of red flags. If you wait until they're all green to conceive, you'll never have children.
Most of what we hope for won't happen. Most of what we fear won't happen. If we're busy anticipating, we're not living. Buddhism, Seneca, Epicurus: same conclusions.
Les Américains ont la liberté d'expression. Les Français ont la semi-liberté d'expression. (Americans have free speech. The French have semi-free speech.)
You don't need to be or have anything to accept yourself.
In the old days, we used to exaggerate the size of the fish we caught. Today, we exaggerate the size of the hornet's nest we've discovered at home.
Forcing unwanted events leads to low attendance and wastes public funds.
Level 0: I want to change A. Level 1: I realize that I can't change A, but I don't accept it. Level 2: I accept that I can't change A. Level 3: What can I enjoy about A? How can I get the most out of it?
Do not say that you love your pet. You've neutered it, depriving it of giving birth and parenting. And if you reply that your pet is an emotionless being, then you could love an automated plush toy just as much.
Adults are free to ignore the stupidity of journalists. Let's give children the freedom to ignore the stupidity of teachers by abolishing compulsory education.
Even when it's a journalist telling them not to waste their time with the news, people still waste their time with the news.
People watch reality TV to make fun of the participants, whose idiocy is exaggerated by the producers to captivate the audience. Sometimes the viewers are aware of this staging. Nevertheless, they continue to watch these nonsense shows because they give them a sense of superiority. Documentaries are also simplistic. The goal is to flatter the viewers' egos by making them believe that they effortlessly understand complex issues. In news, journalists skim a topic, think they've got it, out of pride or stupidity, and then publish a simplistic text they call an article. Their readers love it because they think they can understand any subject in a few paragraphs.
If you want to convince people to spare farm animals, protesting in front of fast-food restaurants is far less effective than sharing photogenic vegan recipes online.
A negative feedback loop occurs when restricting children's freedom to roam creates a cycle that further discourages parents from allowing it. In the past, when many children roamed the streets together, the risk of kidnapping or agression was low because other children were around to notice and alert others if something went wrong. But today, with fewer children roaming the streets, any child who does is more likely to be alone, isolated, and vulnerable. Knowing this, parents force their children to stay at home. The streets are now empty of children.
Universities have more silos than farms.
When someone dies of alcoholism, people complain, but when someone dies of adrenalism, they say he lived his life to the fullest.