christweedt

I’m a philosophy prof at Christopher Newport University, husband, and dad of 4. I use this app to post my thoughts for the day.

[christweedt @christweedt]

I’m planning on using this platform to record my meditations for the day. I’m happy to hear your thoughts and discuss them with you, but plz note that posting meditations here doesn’t mean I believe or endorse them

[christweedt @christweedt]

A great divide in our country: When someone is depressed and wants death, do we aim to help them out of suicide, or do we capitulate and assist in their death?

The difference is analogous to permissive parenting (“autonomy”) v. guiding/helping parenting (“paternalism”).

[christweedt @christweedt]

It’s a great irony that severe depression provides a reason to assist patients in their death, but severe depression also limits one’s autonomy.

[christweedt @christweedt]

“With all due respect” doesn’t imply that any respect is due.

“Thanks for all your great work” doesn’t imply that any of the reader’s work is great.

[christweedt @christweedt]

One might think that a very critical person is most worthy of trying to please.
The reverse is true.
A very critical person does not understand how to appropriately evaluate and so is not worth trying to please.

[christweedt @christweedt]

I spend 1/3 of my weekday life in the same 12’x8’x6’ spatial cube, and I spend another 1/3 of it sleeping in the same 8’x3’x3’ spatial cube.

[christweedt @christweedt]

American Buddhism seems to say, “Wake up, O sleeper! The way to be awake is to detach from reality and remove everything from your mind.”

That sounds a lot like sleep to me…

[christweedt @christweedt]

@resistancemoney Mine is big picture and aimed at living rightly. His is about satisfying intellectual curiosity about a narrow topic.

[christweedt @christweedt]

I told a philosopher that I became a philosopher to better understand the world, myself, and my place in it. He said he was just really confused about certain issues and his curiosity led him to go into philosophy. I thought my reasons were more common; now I see that his are.

[christweedt @christweedt]

If we could listen in to the voices in hell, I think most of what we’d hear are complaints about injustice.

[christweedt @christweedt]

When it seems like someone isn’t even trying to hear what you have to say and they’re sufficiently intelligent, it’s probably because it would hurt them too much to hear what you have to say.

[christweedt @christweedt]

Time is divided into blocks, each of which is an activity/task. Inevitably, we walk over a block each moment. Sometimes we make our block. Others are given to us to walk over. There is a pile of blocks moving toward us, and if we don’t order them, they’ll crash over us.

[christweedt @christweedt]

A decision made too late is a decision you don’t get to make.

[christweedt @christweedt]

Whenever you criticize or encourage, keep in mind its effects:
-When you criticize something enough, you won’t see it anymore. (This doesn’t mean it goes away.)
-When you encourage something enough, you see it more. (This does mean it happens more.)

[christweedt @christweedt]

Here’s a 65” TV; you get it as long as you listen to me talk about whatever I want for an hour.

Here’s a 65” TV; it’s $50.

Whichever you pick will tell me how much you think your time is worth.

The example needs to be adjusted with different objects, amounts, and activities.

[christweedt @christweedt]

What’s the probability of my death at any moment?
Usually very small, but I’ve lived so many moments that when you add up the probabilities, I should have died by now.
Either the probability of death at each moment is much lower than I suspect, or I’m very lucky to be alive.

[christweedt @christweedt]

This work is not relentless striving for effectiveness. It is consistent, measured, wise investments of time, punctuated by rest and waiting, always faithfully being ready to receive the call and act when called upon.

[christweedt @christweedt]

Life is not suffering; life is work.

The question set before us at our death is not
<Did you bear the suffering?>

It is, rather,
<Did you do the work set before you?>

[christweedt @christweedt]

When I work, I often make myself hungry by eating very little. When I’m hungry, I’m highly attuned to slight imperfections around me, & I’m hyper-vigilant about them. I then make my environment very comfortable so I hyper-vigilantly focus my attention on imperfections in my work.

[christweedt @christweedt]

There’s a kind of high that I get from locking in and writing/revising for hours on a deep topic. I hear surgeons and fighter pilots get this high, too. It’s not flow; flow helps to get the high. It comes from driven effort where minute detail is required, constantly rewarded.

[christweedt @christweedt]

In academia, there’s a real tradeoff btw prestige & meaningful life work:
1. Top journals publish narrow, lit-driven articles, not wisdom-pursuant explorative projects
2. Articles that could be published in prestigious journals could be pub. in friends’ ed. collections as a favor