Watts stands out among other 20th-century philosophers for several reasons. Namely because he managed to do three unique things:<ul><li>Have very differentiated points of view from contemporary Western viewpoints.</li><li>Articulate them extremely well.</li><li>Do it all in a time when you could record your own lectures—which he did, in abundance.</li></ul>

The Philosopher From The Future

Alan Watts wasn’t an expert in what he taught. Despite writing extensively about Eastern philosophies like Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, and Zen, he wasn’t ordained as any kind of monk or didn’t strictly follow any one system.What he was, like the ideas he dedicated his life to studying and teaching, isn’t easy to define. He was a lover of life.He was a remarkable teacher during the 50s and 60s who self-coined himself as a spiritual entertainer.He was a prolific writer, publishing over 25 books, most of which were, and continue to be, hugely successful.

A Spiritual Entertainer

Alan Watts didn’t take life, or himself, too seriously. He enjoyed a good drink or six. He left the Church partly due to an extramarital affair. He didn’t pretend he wasn’t human and wasn’t ashamed of his vices—whether they be sex, alcohol, acid, partying on his houseboat, or all the above.The main reason why Alan Watts is and will be the leading philosopher of the 21st century is that he clearly embodied everything he taught, and in doing so, wholeheartedly engaged in and enjoyed life.

Don't Be So Serious

To know that you can do nothing is the beginning. Lesson One is: “I Give Up”… What happens now? You find yourself in what is perhaps a rather unfamiliar state of mind.” Just watching. Not trying to get anything. Not expecting anything. Not seeking. Just trying to relax. Just watching, without purpose.

Lesson #1: On The Meaning of Life

Get rid of knowledge; eject wisdom, and the people will be benefited a hundred-fold

How can you understand the universe when you are a part of it? How can you discover the meaning of life through intellect alone? How can you bite your own teeth or eat your own mouth? Although seemingly obvious and even foolish, Watt’s believed such questions were key to really realizing how much we don’t know.Overlooking such points when trying to understand life leads to an endless cycle of questioning, figuring out, problem-solving, and, ultimately, the only logical conclusion there is: that the universe is meaningless.

The Paradox Of Life

If the universe is meaningless, so is the statement that it is so. If this world is a vicious trap, so is its accuser, and the pot is calling the kettle black.

You can’t make sense of the universe through problem-solving. You can’t find the meaning of life through thought alone. Problem-solving is a function of the universe. Your thoughts are one small expression of life.From the beginning, the question was flawed. But more than that, trying to discover an answer or reason for existence, life, the universe, etc., as if you, the questioner, were separate from existence, life, the universe, will only serve to get you further away from finding what you’re looking for.

Thinking Isn't Everything

One can only attempt a rational, descriptive philosophy of the universe on the assumption that one is totally separate from it. But if you and your thoughts are part of this universe, you cannot stand outside them to describe them. This is why all philosophical and theological systems must ultimately fall apart. To “know” reality you cannot stand outside it and define it; you must enter into it, be it, and feel it

You Are Part Of The Whole

To be secure means to isolate and fortify the “I”, but it is just the feeling of being an isolated “I” which makes me feel lonely and afraid. In other words, the more security I can get, the more I shall want”.The desire for security and the feeling of insecurity are the same thing. To hold your breath is to lose your breath.

Lesson #2: On Uncertainty & Insecurity

No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man.

Religions are divisive and quarrelsome. They are a form of one-upmanship because they depend upon separating the “saved” from the “damned,” the true believers from the heretics, the in-group from the out-group. . . . All belief is fervent hope, and thus a cover-up for doubt and uncertainty.The problem that besets any doctrine or set of ideas that supposedly holds “The Truth” is that it is based on believing that something is true, as opposed to knowing something is true for yourself.

Lesson #3: On Religion & Faith

Believing in some other entity that has divine power or will to save you from your sins can also cause you to close off from life and avoid its harsh truths — uncertainty, impermanence, death, change.Paradoxically, embracing such realities is essential for freedom and the basis of understanding any religion.

The Harsh Truth Of Life

In the West, “nature” is something that’s equated with the countryside or the mountains — a place that is wild and out there.Nature is thus something you enjoy from the safety of your couch via a David Attenborough documentary or when you finally get out of the city on the weekend.This divide between our daily life and the natural world has grown so much that most of us don’t know where the food we eat every day comes from and feel out of place in the silence and vastness of open, cementless spaces.

Lesson #4: On Taoism & Nature

In Chinese, the word for nature is ziran, which means “self so”, or “so of itself”. Ziran doesn’t mean green pastures over yonder. There is no word to distinguish between “us” and “nature” in Chinese. It means a spontaneous process that happens in and of itself.This notion of ziran — the natural, spontaneous process of life — is the basis of the principle of “Tao”. The Chinese philosophy based around living in accordance with the Tao, and that is attributed to the person (or likely persons) Lao Tzu, is called Toaism.

Ziran: Nature Defined In Chinese

The past and the present are real illusions, that they exist only in the present, which is what there is and all that there is. From one point of view, the present is shorter than a microsecond. From another, it embraces all eternity. But there isn’t anywhere, or anywhen, else to be.<ul><li>To understand music, you must listen to it. But so long as you are thinking, “I am listening to this music,” you are not listening. </li><li>To understand joy or fear, you must be wholly and undividedly aware of it. So long as you are saying, “I am happy,” or “I am afraid,” you are not being aware of it.</li></ul>

Lesson #5: On the Present Moment

Lessons on life, belief, religion and nature.

The lessons of Alan Watts are key to addressing the greatest challenges of our age, from understanding the meaning of life to finding the present moment.

Stashed ideas

Alan Watts on The 5 Most Important Lessons of The 21st Century

You may view it as a point of pride to always arrive at meetings five to ten minutes early. However, those minutes add up. You could be over-preparing and losing precious hours in your week.Consider redirecting that time toward projects that are waiting for your attention. Try being right on time—or even five minutes late—to some of your meetings. With the time you gain back, you can start planning the project you wish to start.

Don't arrive early for meetings

There are certain instances in which adding more meetings will help you accomplish the work. To tackle your nagging projects, identify accountability partners and schedule regular check-ins with them.A couple of 30-minute meetings during the week with a partner can provide you with accountability, a new viewpoint, or a means to delegate some of the work you’ve outlined. Some leaders can accomplish more if their calendars are full, because the full calendar forces them to act efficiently. This approach, while hard to sustain long-term, is perfect for short bursts of work.

Add more to your calendar

How can you layer work and tackle nagging projects while you’re objectively engaged in something else?<ul><li>For example, when you’re exercising, could you speak through the talking points of an upcoming presentation and record yourself? Later, transcribe your audio. </li><li>Or, if you want to squeeze in some extra reading, try listening to an audiobook while taking a walk.</li></ul>Consider where you can layer work and use your time more effectively to accomplish meaningful projects.

Layer your activities

Look at all of the work you need to accomplish. What is not a short-term priority? Where can you cut corners? Consider: What are your essential projects and your “nice-to-have” projects? For the tasks you deem imperative, determine your “good enough.” Weigh the value of more time dedicated to a project versus the impact that spending extra time will take on your team’s morale.

Determine your "good enough"

We all have those things on our to-do list that just never get crossed off. Here’s how to change that.


4 counterintuitive strategies to finally tackle those nagging projects

Delivering the best member and customer experiences with a focus on trust is core to everything that we do at LinkedIn. As we continue to build on our Responsible AI program that we recently outlined three months ago, a key part of our work is designing products that provide the right protections, mitigate unintended consequences, and ultimately better serve our members, customers, and society.

Better AI Systems

Transparency means that AI system behaviour and its related components are understandable, explainable, and interpretable. The goal is that end-users of AI—such as LinkedIn employees, customers, and members—can use these insights to understand these systems, suggest improvements, and identify potential problems (should they arise).Developing large-scale AI-based systems that are fair and equitable or that protect the users may not be possible if our systems are opaque.

The principle of Transparency

Transparency allows modellers, developers, and technical auditors to understand how an AI system works, including how a model is trained and evaluated, what its decision boundaries are, what inputs go into the model, and finally, why it made a specific prediction. This is often also described as “interpretability” in existing research. Explainable AI (XAI) goes a step further by explaining how a system works or why a particular recommendation was made to members and customers.

Transparency + Context = Explainability

A few key ways we've improved transparency in AI at LinkedIn:<ul><li>Explainable AI for model consumers to build trust and augment decision-making.</li><li>Explainable AI for modellers to perform model debugging and improvement.</li><li>Transparency beyond AI systems.</li></ul>

Improving AI Transparency

Complex predictive machine learning models often lack transparency, resulting in low trust from these teams despite having high predictive performance. While many model interpretation approaches such as SHAP and LIME return top important features to help interpret model predictions, these top features may not be well-organized or intuitive to these teams.To deal with this challenge, we developed Intellige, a customer-facing model explainer that creates digestible interpretations and insights reflecting the rationale behind model predictions.

Augmenting trust and decision-making

Machine learning engineers at LinkedIn need to understand how their models are making the decisions to identify blindspots and, thereby, opportunities for improvement. For this, we have explainability tools that allow model developers to derive insights and characteristics about their model at a finer granularity.

Explainable AI(XAI) for modellers

From a holistic “responsible design” perspective, there are many non-AI initiatives that help increase the transparency of our products and experiences.<ul><li>On the backend, researchers have previously highlighted the importance of dataset documentation as a key enabler of transparency.</li><li>On the front end, we launched a transparency initiative designed to earn and preserve member trust through improvements to our reporting and policy enforcement experiences.</li></ul>

Transparency beyond AI systems

Our approach to building transparent and explainable AI systems

The traditional approach to goal-setting is measured by one thing: the outcome. This goal-setting approach is problematic for three reasons:<ol><li>It attaches our self-worth to the outcome of our goal: If we accomplish our goal, we see ourselves as successful; if we don’t, we see ourselves as failures.</li><li>It cultivates a harmful “if-then” happiness contingency mindset that removes you from the present and fixates you onto a time in the future. </li><li>It provides no system for measuring progress as you work toward your goal, thus falsely packaging the outcome as the sole measurement of progress </li></ol>

The Traditional Approach: Outcome-Based Goals

The GAP (growth, awareness, progress) approach focuses on three pillars:<ol><li>Growth by Consistency (your inputs). Growth happens through a series of small and consistent incremental steps, not monumental overnight strides. </li><li>Awareness by Metacognition (your outputs). The objective is to stay aware of your output and reflect on whether you’re implementing the most effective strategies that’ll help you achieve your goals. This places extra emphasis on the process and your learning loops.</li><li>Progress by Tracking (your logs). This third pillar is an extension of the first two. By tracking your inputs (placing an X on your </li></ol><a class="idea-content-link" href="https://www.omaritani.com/habit-tracker">habit tracker</a>

GAP Goals: The Three Pillars

The point of a goal is not to create a momentary-change, the point of a goal is to create and sustain a lifetime-change.The point is not “to make it” or “arrive” at an outcome, the point is to progress throughout. We don’t grow and expand the moment we reach the result, we grow and expand in the process of working toward the result we want.

Focus on Progress to Create Lifetime Change

The point of a goal is not to create a momentary-change, the point of a 
goal is to create and sustain a lifetime-change. In this article, I’m 
sharing with you a more mindful approach to goal-setting that puts growth, 
awareness, and progress at the core of it, while transforming the outcome 
into a milestone to celebrate rather than a futuristic point in time to 
arrive to.

Alan Watts on The 5 Most Important Lessons of The 21st Century

4 counterintuitive strategies to finally tackle those nagging projects

Our approach to building transparent and explainable AI systems

A More Mindful Approach to Goal-Setting

Brian Adams