This past weekend, my parents paid a visit to my new home in Charlotte, NC. We were walking through South End in the shadow of repurposed red-brick factories and modern steel and glass monsters. It was in this setting my dad posed an interesting question: Knowing what you know now, if you could go back […]
This piece marks an important milestone for Becoming Polymathic – our six-month anniversary. Well, technically our seventh, but this piece will be the 26th. In the grand scheme of things, this milestone is insignificant. However, as a young venture, it’s important to celebrate and reflect on these small milestones. This piece will be about where
I’m going to make an obvious statement to open this piece – we live in a society devoid of silence. If that statement doesn’t seem obvious, look around you and try to describe all the sensations, sites, smells, and sounds. Furthermore, try to do it without looking at a screen. It’s an overwhelming exercise that
This week’s piece is a new pursuit for Becoming Polymathic. Instead of discussing habitual, neurological, philosophical, and psychological concepts, we’re going to profile individuals who’ve embodied the ethos of Becoming Polymathic. That ethos is one of curiosity, discipline, and resourcefulness. The individual who we’ve chosen to profile in this first piece is Aleksandr Karelin. Aleksandr
Most of the time when we use the word “ego”, it’s in a negative context whilst describing somebody obnoxious. Furthermore, it’s something we believe is tangible. However, in both instances, our definitions are incorrect. Freud’s Ego To explain why that is so, we need to revisit an old friend of Becoming Polymathic – Sigmund Freud.
Defining Ego: From Psychoanalysis to Neuroscience Read More »
In a similar manner to last week’s piece, we will start by discussing an impactful book. Prior to reading The Extended Mind by Annie Murphy Paul, I read an equally significant book – Imaginable by Jane McGonigal. McGonigal is a world-renowned futurist and video game designer. The games she designs, however, are not ones played by overly caffeinated teenagers
I’m currently reading The Extended Mind by Annie Murphy Paul. It’s a fantastic read: a rare blend of anecdotal evidence and hard science. Paul’s thesis is the human mind is limited and to maximize the capabilities of one’s mind, he or she must leverage the external world. There are several means and methods discussed in her book,
“Most men lead lives of quiet desperation.” Since its original appearance in Walden, many people have tried to assign meaning to this enduring quote by Henry David Thoreau. Rightfully so: it’s an ambiguous yet powerful statement which has become more relevant to modern society as time passes. In recent years, I believed the “lives of quiet
To begin this piece on decision fatigue, allow me to describe a scenario: You open your eyes after a restful night sleep. As you lie there staring at the ceiling, you think about your single task for the day – laying 35,000 bricks. The pattern is already marked and you have the necessary tools; all
We have reached the end of our Inception Series: and what a journey it has been! At a minimum, I hope these last four piece gave you a better understanding of the complex nature of dreams. Unlike many things in life, we can’t explain dream content in a linear, logical manner. Yet, it’s not the