Modern society

It cannot be acquired by pleasurable experiences but only by identifying and realizing our own potential, moral and creative, in our specific environments, with our particular family, friends and colleagues, and helping others to do so. 

Daniel Kahneman believes there are two systems for organizing and filtering knowledge: 

• System one is real-time. This system makes judgments and decisions before our mental apparatus can consciously catch up. 
• System two, on the other hand, is a slow process of thinking based on critical examination of evidence. Konnikova refers to these as System Watson and System Holmes.

To move from a System Watson- to a System Holmes-governed thinking takes mindfulness plus motivation.

• In 1885, socialist William Morris proposed that in the factories of the future, employees should work only four hours a day.
• In 1930, John Maynard Keynes predicted that advances in technology would lead to an age of leisure where people might work 15 hours a week.
• Since the early 2010s, these ideas have been developed further, creating a growing critique of work as an ideology, and exploring alternatives to work.
• Post-work offers enormous promises: In a life of much less work, life would be calmer, more equal, more communal, more pleasurable, more thoughtful, more politically engaged, more fulfilled.

The work ideology is not natural nor very old.

• Before the modern era, all cultures thought of work as a means to an end, not an end in itself.
• Once the modern work ethic was established, working patterns started to shift. Between 1800 and 1900, the average working week shrank from 80 hours to 60 hours, and in the 1970s to roughly 40 hours.
• In 1979, Bernard Lefkowitz related in his book that people who had given up their jobs reported feelings of "wholeness." During the same period, because wages were high enough, it became possible for most people to work less.
• During the 80s, work ideology was reimposed by aggressively pro-business governments who were motivated by a desire for social control.
• By the early 21st century, the work culture seems inescapable.

Start your day by thinking who you want to be and what impact you want to have on the world.

To help you reach that state of motivation, read or listen to something inspiring.

Meditation is a way to focus your attention to your internal dialogue and moving it into the direction you desire.

The more you are able to focus your attention where you choose to, the stronger your mental muscle will become.

In 1986, a discovery was made that dopamine did not produce pleasure, but in fact, desire. While dopamine makes us want, pleasure comes from opioids and endocannabinoids ( a kind of marijuana produced in the brain), which paints pleasure on good experiences.

We cannot explain away our minds by brain mechanisms. Brain mechanisms are part of our minds.

Understanding that desire and dread, for instance, share the same brain operations, could help ease schizophrenia symptoms by restricting a particular dopamine neuron that produces fear.

• Your goals are like the rudder on a small rowboat. They set the direction and determine where you go. 
• If you commit to one goal, then the rudder stays put and you continue moving forward. 
• If you flip-flop between goals, then the rudder moves all around and it is easy to find yourself rowing in circles.
• If the rudder is your goal, then the oars are your process for achieving it. While the rudder determines your direction, it is the oars that determine your progress.

Example: If you’re a writer, your goal is to write a book. Your system is the writing schedule that you follow each week.

1. Ruthlessly Eliminate Your Goals. Consistently prune and trim down your goals. If you can muster the courage to prune away a few of your goals, then you create the space you need for the remaining goals to fully blossom.
2. Stack Your Goals. Make a specific plan for when, where and how you will perform this."Networking: After I return from my lunch break, I will send one email to someone I want to meet."
3. Set an Upper Bound. Don't focus on the minimum threshold. Instead of saying,  “I want to make at least 10 sales calls today.” rather say, “I want to make at least 10 sales calls today, but not more than 20.”

As we get aware of how to improve our critical thinking skills and build our attention muscle, we need to stop consuming junk information that can harm our minds similar to how junk food is harming our bodies.

A good way to practice focusing your attention is to memorize a situation and think about it intentionally.

Memorizing forces our brain to function and remember the information, actively removing distractions.

They are generally well regulated by the body, but there are a few diet and lifestyle changes you can make to boost your levels naturally:

• Eat lots of protein
• Eat less saturated fat
• Consume probiotics
• Exercise often
• Get enough sleep
• Listen to music
• Meditate
• Get enough sunlight

• Even people who are usually good at handling stress can find their mental health affected by periods of continuous closeness. 
• Constant togetherness can be a great thing, right up until it isn’t. So if you live with others and find yourself needing space of your own, tell them that.
• Use creative hacks: for example, if a bedroom is doubling as an office, create the ritual, at the start of the workday, of shutting the door (a sign that the bedroom is now a workspace).

If we want our knowledge to compound, we’ll need to focus on the invariant general principles.

Half-lives show us that if we spend time learning something that changes quickly, we might be wasting our time.