You Don't Have To Have A Dream: Advice for the Incrementally Ambitious

Art is any expression of an idea into which you've put a bit of fucking effort.

Science is not a body of knowledge nor a system of belief; it is just a term which describes humankind’s incremental acquisition of understanding through observation. Science is awesome.

It is often the fast-thinking, bias-riddled, adrenalised, dehumanising part of our brain that tweets. It is the slow-thinking, contemplative, creative, self-aware, humanising part of our brain that makes art.

I said at the beginning of this ramble that life is meaningless. It is not a flippant assertion. I think it’s absurd, the idea of seeking ‘meaning’ in the set of circumstances that happens to exist after 13.8 billion years’ worth of unguided events. Leave it to humans to think the universe has a purpose for them. However, I am no nihilist. I am not even a cynic. I am, actually, rather romantic. And here’s my idea of romance: You will soon be dead.

At the root of my atheism -- and my writing style -- is a natural tendency to try to beautify ugly truths rather than swallow beautiful lies.

A valuable idea is usually one that has been carefully considered. Our feelings are not virtuous purely by virtue of how keenly we feel them. Take time to hone your opinions, then take pride in how you express them.

Life will sometime sseem long and tough and, God, it's tiring. And you will sometimes be happy and sometimes sad. And then you'll be old. And then you'll be dead. There is only one sensible thing to do with this empty existence, and that is: fill it.