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Never Mistake Cynicism For Wisdom

I wonder if those Nietzschean critiques, with their eruditeness and polemical virtuosity, tend to fall in love with their own ingenious.

Rahul Samaranayake

August 04, 2022

On Ideology & Unhappiness

Our penchant for becoming ideologues, for finding psychic stability through the prescription and imposition of dogmas onto the world, is unsurprising.

Rahul Samaranayake

July 03, 2022

Healthy Skepticism for Better Debates

One would have thought that in this age of information, logical fallacies would cease to exist. But, amazingly, the exact opposite has happened despite our incredible access to information.

Jacob Bell

June 05, 2022

Authenticity And The Problem Of Self

A “self”. The thing is, it is not so simple as to live out the storyline of “one true self”, for life is not so simple as to be lived impulsively.

Euwyn Goh

May 07, 2022

A Fool Seeking Wisdom

There are really two ways to interact with the world. As a fool seeking Beauty or as a victim seeking Justice.

Allyson Flake Matsoso

April 02, 2022

The Necessity of Forgiveness

I don’t see sociopolitical systems ever being effective in dealing with matters of the heart.

Rahul Samaranayake

February 27, 2022

A Dance of Perspective

Toward a more holistic understanding of life, world, and reality.

Jacob Bell

February 06, 2022

Perpetual imbalance

Everyone’s worldview is complex, and language is tyrannical, in some sense. As soon as anything felt is articulated, it is irreversibly reduced.

Euwyn Goh

January 01, 2022

Raising Rebels

It is crucial that our youth expect that difficulty will come when they diverge from the majority. This path won’t help them be the “cool kid”, but their shining example could bring hope to the hopeless. They may not march in the crowd – but in attempting to model a virtuous and moral life they will bring back an Ideal lost to many.

Allyson Flake Matsoso

December 06, 2021

When Buddhism Goes Bad

How My Mindfulness Practice Led Me To Meltdown

Dan Lawton

November 28, 2021

Chrysippus the Under-Rated

He believed that happiness and living virtuously are tied to one another. For Chrysippus, wisdom and virtue are essentially the same thing.

Jacob Bell

November 22, 2021

A Difficult Childhood

We can find precious memories even in a “bad home”. We can turn pain into triumph. We should avoid catastrophizing the imperfections of our parents or allowing a difficult childhood to define us. Human history is full of suffering, full of parents who made a mess of things.

Allyson Flake Matsoso

November 06, 2021

Why We Should Go To Mars While Also Combating Inequality

I fear that we’ve abandoned our emotions, intuitions and every other aspect of being human at the behest of our intellect that we idolise so much.

Rahul Samaranayake

October 20, 2021

The Death & Resurrection of Self/World

“From my rotting body, flowers shall grow…” — Edvard Munch

Jacob Bell

October 08, 2021

Why Do People Believe the ‘Social Media is Mind Control’ Myth?

The evidence is overwhelming: we are far more powerful than the technology that is supposedly mind-controlling us. It’s not even close.

Nir Eyal

September 25, 2021

Who is to Blame?

When we are stuck in blame – when we seek someone to accuse for every difficulty of life – we start to see our fellow man as opponents, rather than fellow-travelers in this difficult life.

Allyson Flake Matsoso

September 11, 2021

The Future of Community is Private Cities

While working and studying remotely has its perks, we have now also experienced in full the drawback of remote life. That is, we feel deprived of physical connection. We dread the predictability of life at home.

Euwyn Goh

August 28, 2021

Hell is Other People? Perhaps Not.

Broken and embittered from past experiences, one can quite easily and even justifiably become a creature of hell and in turn a creator of hell for others. One could take another path, however, and try to find the wisdom which hides in the darkest depths of any hellish situation.

Jacob Bell

August 15, 2021

Incorporating Social Permaculture Into Our Institutional Evolution

To solve the climate crisis, the only winning strategy will be love.

Alison Lea Sher

July 31, 2021

Exploration: Know The Place For The First Time

For the world to become “real” to us, we must encounter it. Young people are full of hope, idealism, and a desire to make the world a better place. How wonderful are these instincts! Yet, often these instincts are ill used. Without accompanying experience, knowledge, and empathy, an idealistic young person can damage more than repair.

Allyson Flake Matsoso

July 17, 2021

Against Cynicism: My Case For Living Life To The Fullest

To my partner’s annoyance, I have a running joke I make at social gatherings about wanting to have ten kids one day — enough to play a five-on-five basketball game. I tell myself the reason behind the joke is for some engaging befuddling humour to lighten up the mood in a room, even though it mostly leaves me having to explain the joke awkwardly, and even then, most people do not find it funny.

Rahul Samaranayake

March 24, 2021

Don’t try to change the world until you do this

Throughout the history of humankind, it hasn’t been uncommon to see humans supporting each other in heinous acts. Some of us supported slavery. Some of us supported the Nazis. One might say that our predecessors were relatively uneducated, and that we’ve now learnt from the mistakes we’ve made. Unfortunately, it’s not that simple.

Euwyn Goh

March 18, 2021

Our Highest Identity

Is our culture moving backwards? In the last hundred years we have seen a tremendous change in society. In the West, rights and privileges have expanded and there is relative peace and prosperity. Until recently, it looked as if Martin Luther King’s dream for his children, “not to be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character,” was a real possibility.

Allyson Flake Matsoso

March 04, 2021

5 Reasons Why You Should Not Try to Change the World

It took me five years to write The Millennial’s Guide to Changing the World, because my intentions for writing it went through so many metamorphoses. I’ve decided that there are noble, level-headed, and productive reasons to want to change the world and there are batshit crazy reasons to want to change the world that will likely land you in a ditch somewhere with burned bridges all around you.

Alison Lea Sher

February 05, 2021

Choose your society wisely

Why do we imitate? As babies, we imitate to make sense of the physical world around us. I recently came across a fascinating study where an adult touched a light panel with his head to illuminate it, and some observing 18-month-olds performed this novel act even after a 1-week delay. Once we have passed this phase, we imitate for a few reasons. Firstly on the utilitarian side, imitation helps us bypass trial-and-error processes, to make learning much more efficient. Secondly on the social side, we imitate to be socially accepted. As they say, “monkey see, monkey do”. I’ll be focusing on the social aspect of imitation in this essay.

Euwyn Goh

January 24, 2021

Habits That Are Killing You Slowly But Surely

Books such as Atomic Habits have been immensely influential and beneficial in my life. The brevity and rigour of James Clear have broadened my perspective on the synergy between systematic thinking and productivity. I am grateful for talented authors like him, who make our lives better through words. Having said that, some of the ideas shared in modern self-help books seem to be overly focused on systematic and peripheral changes, over more heartfelt, penetrating changes to a human being like self-realisation, self-actualisation and finally self-transcendence.

Rahul Samaranayake

February 12, 2020

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REALM explores psychology, philosophy, literature & religion aimed towards virtue. Better people make better societies; our goal is to help individuals live truthfully.


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