I often talk about the negative impact of mental pressure. But I am occasionally asked whether some pressure isn’t good. For example, a member of the Thinking Lab observed, “Just the right amount of pressure is desirable and beneficial…. I believe in values pressure — a good thing if you have good values — where […]| Thinking Directions
“Thinking” is a purposeful process of integrating new observations with your existing knowledge and values to reach new conclusions. It is not a passive state of registering random impressions. It is an actively sustained process of identifying one’s impressions in conceptual terms, of integrating every event and every observation into a conceptual […]| Thinking Directions
Mental overload is the #1 obstacle to thinking. Whether it’s too many things to think about, too many emotions to give you space to think, or too much complexity to untangle in your head, it is THE problem. Indeed, what distinguishes humans from animals is that we have more mental abilities to deal with overload. […]| Thinking Directions
I aim to teach people to think clearly and logically about value-laden issues. As a means to this end, I exhort my Thinking Labbers to identify “deep rational values” [Footnote 1] at stake in every confusing situation. This is critical to your short- and long-term happiness. This term is introduced in the class on “Emotions […]| Thinking Directions
In this series on happiness, I have distinguished short-term pleasures and temporary joys from true happiness. To be in a state of true happiness, you need to gain your values every day, week, month, and year. This requires not only that you accept facts of reality, but that your values be consistent with one another, […]| Thinking Directions
In the first article in this series, I explained the fundamental nature of happiness, which I learned from Ayn Rand. Elaborating on this concept, she wrote: In psychological terms, the issue of man’s survival does not confront his consciousness as an issue of “life or death,” but as an issue of “happiness or suffering.” […]| Thinking Directions
If you want to be happy, you need to know what happiness is. Yet, it is widely misunderstood. Like many abstract concepts that involve values, the concept of “happiness” has been distorted, obfuscated, and denied by philosophers, making it harder for us to understand what we need to be happy. But fortunately, Ayn Rand sorted […]| Thinking Directions
