It's time for me to curate you a nice collection of videos that can teach you about a wide variety of subjects that will eventually help your life in the long run (or at least help you look like a smart-ass among peers)
Well that's history now. That was what I was going to do. But I'm ENTP. I found something else to do. So welcome to a discussion on money and economics. Normally I drag Ayn Rand or Ludwig von Mises into something like this. But today I'm going to use someone who is alive and well. He is Dan Lok. It's a great response to show any communist or money hating idiot you meet. There are few Cliché parts. But overall it's a solid response.
Little Bit of Spiritual Pondering
Let's say you do want to think more about the spiritual side. Having significant financial security wold allow you to do this even if you weren't much of a spiritual person to begin with. After all it only after humanity had to stop hunting and gathering they started creating real artwork and got into things like spiritual development. The European middle ages had practically no development in humanity while everybody was merely spending one day after the next thinking at best about the next season or at rare occasions about the next generation of their children.
I have no divine vision on the afterlife and I have no memory of an afterlife. My memory starts at a point where I was just a few years. What I know of this world is limited. Out of those things I will tell you two things that are absolute.
The actions you do are absolute. You can negate the consequences later. Even if you find time travel, it still would mean that you are simply undoing the effects of what you have done. After a decision has been made, it stays true as long as the universe. At least that is what I know. The next part is that actions have consequences. These consequences can be massive (like starting of a nuclear fission) or inconsequential (like blinking while you are reading this.
You Control Thoughts Which Control Actions
Basically this is going to look like one of those putting your heart at the right place Clichés. But sometimes the truth is just so obvious that you'd look right past it. But what if I tell you that having good thoughts is enough for a good afterlife. Ignorance is the root of all suffering and evil. Nothing can hurt the world more than ignorance. Erroneous ideas have been at the root of most conflicts to arise in this universe. Even good intentions can be misguided by simple stupidity. Actually taking some time to become an intelligent, wise and insightful human being can help the world more than 10 asteroids of pure diamond.
But that doesn't mean generosity isn't helpful. It's a great things. Generosity is a hallmark of a good civilization. But I am talking about Generosity as in without hope, without reward, without witness. Think about the time you gave some random person few bucks or some food. Think about a time you fed some stray animal just because you could. That's the kind of thing I'm talking about
If you can give away a million dollars like you'd give some random kid some candy or help someone buy a ticket for the bus/train, then that is true Generosity. If can't give away things like that, still keep giving. But know that you are not being truly generous when you make it a transaction even in the name of god or afterlife.
Another thing you can do in this life is being kind or just nice. You need to call off BS when necessary and a disgusting rapist is not a good person and even as a pacifist I don't ask the world to not defend themselves when necessary. But I do ask the world to be nice. Don't be a jerk unless you are pointing something wrong. Don't expect the worst from everybody you meet. Maybe you have some terrible experiences to judge someone in a certain group. After all Europe is having serious crime and rape problems due to migrants. But groups are not individuals. I don't ask you to be nice to the gangbangers who are about to slide a bottle into your rectum after busting a load instead of using pepper spray. But you could give people the benefit of the doubt and welcome them with a smile.
What We Have Gotten Wrong
By "We", I mean the society at large. Let's not forget that our modern civilization pretty much started from scratch. Our electronic certainly started from scratch. There were no aliens to give us cool tech. I don't know what happens in Area 51. But I don't use alien tech in my life. I use technology developed by humans through creativity and perseverance. But the stories we tell the world tend to be based around what is basically magic stuff.
Economics isn't magic and even non-economists like MatPat understands:
You mind is yours alone and only you can change it. Others can influence but ultimately you have to give consent or at best others will simply have to stop at hacking your nervous system to control your body. There is no magic that can change this. I've talked about "Chintana" and Memetics and how they are the guiding force of civilization. Click on the respective links to read more about them.
Today's "Chintana" often tends to be about how great and unique everybody are and how they can slowly and steadily become the person of their dreams etc. The stories of successful people often plays a part in these motivational pep talks. But these things tend to leave a lot out. Many of the people I think of as great people quit college or school. But this was not an end but a stepping stone. I quit because I wanted to learn and grow better. I didn't listen to the CEO of one of the largest banks on the planet when I invested in crypto and I'm going to be rich. But that's not because I didn't listen to XYZ. It is because I simply did what was right.
I decided to end with some words of wisdom sorry but I had to add two sets of wisdom because ideas keep popping up.