Harsha Gangwal

Unlearning.

[Harsha Gangwal @HarshaGangwal]

Yoga.

[Naval @naval]

Move the body, rest the mind.

[Harsha Gangwal @HarshaGangwal]

Stoner by John Williams - a simple story of an ordinary man, offering an extraordinary emotional depth.

Been a while since I read something that touched me with such profundity. Moving, sad and will stay with me for a long long time..

[Nassim Nicholas Taleb @nntaleb]

If you are actively ignoring someone, you are not ignoring them.

[Harsha Gangwal @HarshaGangwal]

That boy is my husband now ❤️

[alli @sonofalli]

in your 20s, there will be a boy that slides into your DMs with a random message. It’s very important that you answer that message.

[Harsha Gangwal @HarshaGangwal]

The mother had a panic attack at the station. The police are recording the video of the two women. Please help

[Harsha Gangwal @HarshaGangwal]

@DgpKarnataka @BlrCityPolice HSR police called two women, a widowed mother and her daughter, to give statement and are now forcing them out of the police station with the complainant when they are clearly stating that their life is at risk.

[Rob Henderson @robkhenderson]

People with narcissistic or psychopathic personality traits are often drawn to certain ideologies and forms of political activism. They use activism as a vehicle to feed their own ego rather than to work toward real social change.

People who are high on what psychologists call the dark triad—narcissism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism—will often hijack movements for their own ends. Activism gives them a way to disguise their ugly motives with a veneer of moral concern. It lets them turn what should be about helping others into a way to boost their own status, admiration, and prestige.

That’s why it’s a mistake to treat the loudest, most extreme personalities as representative. Most people aren’t high in these traits. But those who are tend to have a megaphone. They love attention. They love stirring up controversy. They post constantly. They talk endlessly.

It’s worth remembering the “1% rule” of social media: about 1 percent of people create most of what you see online, 9 percent occasionally engage, and 90 percent are just lurking. Which means the most unhinged voices often set the tone for the whole conversation.

[Nassim Nicholas Taleb @nntaleb]

A noble person is kind to a stranger he will never meet again, when nobody is watching, & when he has nothing to gain. The rest is self-promotion, social climbing, or profit seeking.

[Harsha Gangwal @HarshaGangwal]

This is exactly how I feel when I read history books. Decades, centuries and millennia when zoomed out, feel like mere days or weeks. And how ridiculously brief our time is on this Earth!

[VV @visualizevalue]

Zoom out

[Harsha Gangwal @HarshaGangwal]

@ramkid And the mesmerizing lyrics penned by Gulzar! Interestingly, this was the last song sung by Geeta Dutt. One of my favourites ❤️

[Naval @naval]

It’s the people who most want to be seen as selfless that you have to worry about.

[Jonathan Shedler @JonathanShedler]

The less we know about a subject, the simpler the answers can seem

Why?

Decades of research by cognitive scientists shows we have two systems for processing information. Nobel prize-winning psychologist Daniel Kahneman called them System 1 and System 2

System 1 is quick, automatic, outside conscious awareness (“implicit”), and emotion-driven. It gives a false sense of certainty and “knowing” in the absence real information or thought

It’s the standard formula of grifters, self-promoters, and demagogues

System 2 is slow, deliberate, conscious, rational, and information-driven

The more we know and think about something, the more likely System 2 is online—and the less we grab at quick, easy, “obvious” answers

[Outa @CallMeOuta]

I used to have this mental illness where I thought logical arguments would change someone’s mind

[The Stoic Emperor @TheStoicEmperor]

If your view of human nature is too naive, you will be taken advantage of.

If your view of human nature is too cynical, you will become a paranoid and deny yourself all intimacy.

There is risk in trusting someone, but there is greater risk in trusting no one.

[Jonathan Shedler @JonathanShedler]

I’ve been playing with the idea that relationships tend to fall into one of three patterns

1️⃣ Hierarchical. One person’s needs/wants take precedence over other’s

2️⃣Transactional. Each gives something to get something in return

3️⃣Mutual. Two people coming together as whole people, seeing and responding to one another as whole people—to connect and discover one another...

...with each person also becoming something else and something more by virtue of that coming together. This is a relationship continually co-created by two, mutually shaping and being shaped by one another—an experience of “we,” not just the a combination of two “I’s”

This is where genuine intimacy can develop. I believe this is what philosopher Martin Buber referred to as an “I-thou” relationship (vs. an “I-it” relationship)

Many people have never experience this kind of mutual relationship and cannot conceive of it, any more than a fish could conceive of “not water.” It is just outside their experience

When such people are dissatisfied with the subordinate role in a hierarchical relationship and seek a more satisfying one, they do not envision a mutual relationship. Instead, they envision another hierarchical one with the roles reversed

When such people are dissatisfied with a transactional relationship and seek a more satisfying one, they do not envision a mutual relationship. Instead, they envision another transactional relationship with a better deal

One distinguishing feature of psychoanalytic (or psychodynamic) psychotherapy is that it develops a capacity for more mutual relationships—specifically by exploring what occurs in the psychotherapy relationship itself

Because of the work done in the therapy relationship, mutuality and intimacy become more possible in other relationships

This is why most psychodynamic therapists are deeply unimpressed by pop-psychology notions of self-love, self-healing, self-care, etc. It’s all self self self self

But our experience of self is formed in relationship, and requires relationship to change

We become most fully ourselves in mutual relationships where we are truly seen by another

This is entirely different than the “self-care” and “self-love” promoted by pop-psychology and social media therapy “influencers”

[Prof. Feynman @ProfFeynman]

Intelligence isn't the ability to remember and repeat, like they teach you in school. It is the ability to learn from experience, solve problems, and use our knowledge to adapt to new situations.

[Naval @naval]

Reality is a big IQ test, and it starts with the question, “Do you want to stay where you were born?”

[Nassim Nicholas Taleb @nntaleb]

Friends, this holiday season, try to reach out to those who have little of no friends, no family, and no reason to cheer. They may be involuntarily stuck in a state of loneliness. They don't need your money; they don't need your gifts.
Maybe just a little bit of attention.

[Harsha Gangwal @HarshaGangwal]

@ramkid @quintumble Indeed!

[Prof. Feynman @ProfFeynman]

I'm smart enough to know that I'm dumb.