Today is the birthday of the legendary philosopher-emperor Marcus Aurelius, one of history’s wisest and most quotable figures.

So, in honor of the great man, here are 10 of his most powerful quotes (annotated by me):

Marcus Aurelius advises Twitter users

“so many young men have lost themselves…The false signals they’re getting from video game progress, combined with the sexual reward of online porn, are convincing their dopamine pathways they’re winning in life, even as their minds and futures atrophy” gurwinder.blog/p/why-everythi…

If anyone is interested in a deep-dive into the cultural, spiritual, and political ramifications of TikTok, this article by Gurwinder is amazing. It's not the same as other apps.

gurwinder.blog/p/tiktok-may-b…

Here are some of the most important things I’ve realised about problems and stress:

1. Problems are a feature of life, not a bug.

There will never come a time when you have no problems.

What, did you think that one day you’re just going to wake up and cease having problems?…

This is a fascinating essay on two thinkers (Chinese and British) whose goal was to help Western capitalism to destroy itself, and how the CCP may now see TikTok as a way to do that.

gurwinder.substack.com/p/tiktok-may-b…

If 'social justice activism' was about helping those in need, the activists would take the time to fully understand the issues they protest about. Instead, the main purpose of 'social justice activism' is to make the activists feel good about themselves. It’s moral masturbation.

New paper from Norway: Banning smartphones in school

- significantly decreased doctors visits for psychological symptoms and diseases among girls
- reduced bullying among both genders
- improved girls’ GPA and attendance rates
- largest effect sizes were among the poorest kids

Samuel L Jackson got his first major movie role aged 40.

Tolkien started the Lord of the Rings at 45, and finished it at 63.

Darwin published Origin of the Species at 50.

Harland Sanders founded KFC at 62.

'Grandma' Moses began painting at 78.

You’re never too old to start.

“God, nation, family, and work — are weakening, and people are losing their value systems. . . games, with their well-defined rules and goals, provide a semblance of order and purpose.”

Why Everything is Becoming a Game, by Gurwinder gurwinder.blog/p/why-everythi…

'Read the room' is not advice for being right. It's advice for being popular. So when people give it, they're also implicitly telling us which they think is more important.

The biggest problem with the Democratic party is that it gets its information about the wants and needs of demographic groups (young people, Black people, women, etc.) by talking to activist groups who claim to represent those 'communities', but which don't really represent them.

“If words are just as violent as bullets, then bullets are only as violent as words.”

— Jonathan Rauch

Fun question:

How many thoughts do you remember from yesterday?

Most people struggle to recall any clear unique thought.

Data suggests humans have 10,000-20,000 thoughts per day.

The forgetting paradox: You forget how many things you forget... because you've forgotten them.…

'By learning about science and getting a good education, we become as knowledgeable as a person who spent thousands, or hundreds of thousands, or even millions of years thinking and exploring the world.' stevestewartwilliams.com/p/how-culture-…

Pretentiousness is destroying the social sciences. The best disguise for low intelligence is skepticism of everything, so the safest strategy for mediocre academics is to build careers on denying reality. The logical outcome of this trend is a curriculum of conceptual debris.

Games are nothing new, but gamification is happening on an increasing scale. @g_s_bhogal argues everything is becoming a game, explains why, and concludes this is not even necessarily a bad thing, though there are significant dangers. Excellent long read: buff.ly/44bllMQ