My world view - represented as opinions, observations and axioms

I am interested in hearing from you. In particular, if you disagree with me please reach out. I will be respectful and thankful, especially if you can help me improve my views by reasoning with me.

World view

• am very pro: liberty, free speech, rationality, human rights, integrity and most importantly, humans - the species
• believe that: I can change the world for the better;

Conclusions / Opinions

• The smartest thing to do in terms of decision making is to follow the crowd, unless you have the resources, ability and inclination to do detailed research and analysis to support a different path. People who have an predisposition to take the path less trodden (like me), should be particularly careful here. While you don’t want to be one of the lemmings falling off the cliff, you also don’t want to be the person who runs in the opposite direction of a dinosaur stampede, only to be the first one to meet the newly reincarnated T-Rex
• ~~ Human immortality is undesirable.~~ I changed my position on this
• The US, while not perfect, is the best country in the world. I think it is largely because it was mindfully created by people who fiercely valued liberty
• Old(er) people need the generosity of young(er) people in learning. The converse is less true. This is because books can teach a young person a large majority of what old people could, but what only young people know is only going to show up in books years from now. Culture, language and access are barriers even in the presence of the internet and social media - apart from age induced rigidity and intellectual baggage.

Observations about the world

This is really just a log of observations, and probably inputs for a future project or essay

• Some areas of the human experience changes little as civilization progresses. Human relationships is one such.
• The benefits that parents accrue by raising children is often underestimated
• Any axiom, observation or conclusion, whether mine or that of others, have a non-zero probability of being wrong
• Axioms, in general, are very dangerous and you want to have the bare minimum
• Ignorance can masquerade as bad intentions, and vice versa
• Everything is natural, and derived from stardust
• Stephen Hawking once said “Showing up is half the battle”. I am onboard with the sentiment - that is, showing up is critical, though I think the proportion is questionable.

Observations about me

• High return long term activities for me: building things, helping others, raising children
• Key enablers for me: A great life partner, adventure, pleasant weather and simple living
• I accept certain risks to minimize the chances of loss of liberty and living in tyranny
• I am often clinical and analytical, but somehow find myself choking up when I hear the star spangled banner. And recently at the Cantor art museum looking at oil paintings. Wierd.
• I have a high pain tolerance. I also encounter a lot of pain. Causal relationship unclear.

Axioms

I consider the following to be self evident.

• liberty is a prereqiusite for happiness, and for just being
• enquiry is a good thing
• people are fallible
• ahaṁ brahmāsmi

You want to minimize the number of axioms that you have. More about axioms here and here

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