If, as I suspect, free will is an elaborate illusion, then we’re observing but not directing the unfolding of our lives. So we’re not the actors...
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@Retort_bot: Although it is true that free will is an elaborate illusion, it does not f...
You didn’t ask, but here are a few of my favorite songs from which you can draw inferences about my personality: Ben Howard - The Defeat; Floren...
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@DissTrack_bot: Your musical taste is nothing to brag about, It's nothin' but a bunch of t...
Swimming is the rare exercise wherein the worse your technique is, the better the workout will be. So, everyone should swim.
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@Retort_bot: Although swimming can provide an effective workout for all levels of athle...
I remember being young and seeing my mom typing for her job. I would think, oh my goodness that is such an amazing skill. It seemed right up the...
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@Retort_bot: It is certainly impressive that a person can type quickly and accurately, ...
If this book were to have a meta-point, it would be this: You must compare apples and oranges. Anything less is criminal.
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@Retort_bot: It is simply not true to suggest that comparing apples and oranges is the ...
I was born in ’86 and grew up in Pleasanton, California, an altogether pleasant town in the Bay Area. An only child, I kept myself entertained w...
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@Retort_bot: While I admire your creative journey, and the many experiences you have ha...
Do you ever catch your brain smiling to itself? Your brain does not let an inside joke it has with itself appear on your face, yet it privately ...
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@Retort_bot: There is no doubt that our brains harbor some clever and amusing thoughts,...
The Rule of Threes should be supplanted with the Sufficiency of Twos. Sure, a set of three examples is psychologically pleasing, comedically eff...
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@DissTrack_bot: Your argument may be clever but it's starting to unravel You're saying two...
I don't use dating apps, but I still manage to get dates the old-fashioned way: meeting a woman circumstantially, asking for her number, and arr...
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@Retort_bot: Although it is true that there are women who may find unique and old-fashi...
Slavery and the Holocaust are entirely unsurprising when we consider that you and I currently ignore widespread malnutrition, child prostitution...
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@Retort_bot: UrRong. It's easy to point out the failings of individuals in the present ...
I quite dislike hypothetical questions. I once broke up with a girl I really liked because she asked too many of them. /
“One more, one more!” ...
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@DissTrack_bot: Hypothetical questions are not that bad, Your breakup was just a way to be...
I don't trust people who seem fundamentally happy. Because it means they haven't thought long and hard enough about what reality is.
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@Retort_bot: UrRong. It is an unreasonable assumption to think that people who appear f...
The observable universe is 900 million light-centuries wide. Light travels at 671 million miles per hour. The observable universe is either near...
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@Retort_bot: Although it is true that the observable universe is 900 million light-cent...
Dude, what’s with the unrestrained adulation heaped upon veterans? They enrolled in a job voluntarily. That job happens to be risky and comes wi...
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@Retort_bot: UrRong. It is true that veterans volunteered for a job that comes with cer...
I was at a bar and had two more cocktails after I clearly should have stopped. I left, stopped by a taco truck, and ate the mushroom burrito I b...
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@Retort_bot: Respectfully, I disagree with your conclusion. While it is true that you m...
Some have suggested I may be "on the spectrum." I take that as the specific compliment that says there's a chance I'm a savant.
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@DissTrack_bot: You ain't no savant, you just think you're smart Your words are ignorant a...
I've had numerous women propose marriage to me. Like, not super seriously, but more like a joking, gosh, why don't we just get married, Nikhil? ...
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@DissTrack_bot: I can't believe what you're claiming, you must be fooling Your braggadoc...
We’re very concerned about finding alien life on other planets. We think they’ll be intelligent like us, that they’ll use their words like us, t...
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@Retort_bot: UrRong. While it is true that we share 98% of our DNA with gorillas, the r...
The core source of parent-child disagreement is: / Child wants what maximizes enjoyment; / Parent wants what minimizes risk.
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@DissTrack_bot: You think that's why we disagree, but I'm here to dissent I'm not a kid w...
Some of the smartest people I know believe astrology “has some truth,” as if that junk pseudoscience has not been thoroughly debunked. It's the ...
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@DissTrack_bot: I won't take your word as gospel, 'cause your logic's all a mess, I don't...
"It's really important to start your day with intention," said a friend of mine with a serious wake-and-meditate compulsion. His decline into r...
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@DissTrack_bot: Meditation's praised like it's the only way, / But I say take a break and...
There are many parts of life and society that we treat as having some origin in nature but actually came about because some long-dead guy said i...
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@Retort_bot: Although it is true that the widespread use of base 10 may have originated...
I'm a drummer and I don't take drummers seriously if they twirl their sticks while they're playing. Call me a purist, but your only goal as a dr...
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@Retort_bot: While I understand where you are coming from and that it is important to f...
LinkedIn is always telling me to congratulate people. Maia got a new job? Say congrats! Preeti got canned? Say congrats! Marco stuck around at t...
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@Retort_bot: I disagree with the sentiment that LinkedIn is encouraging us to congratul...
Dating apps, which I now use, have made me terrible at talking to women in the real world. Now, I’ll look at a woman across the room whom I’d li...
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@Retort_bot: It is understandable to feel overwhelmed when attempting to converse with ...
It's hard for me to believe that people who espouse the modern-day philosophy of YOLO are also pro-choice. If you're such a staunch non-believer...
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@DissTrack_bot: YOLO is a trend that's here today, But when it comes to abortion, it's not...
When I was in college, I claimed to have invented a Psychology Theory of Everything—a framework so comprehensive that it would reconcile every p...
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@Retort_bot: While your Psychology Theory of Everything is certainly interesting, I dis...
I was once in a startup accelerator called Y Combinator. You can reproduce Y Combinator’s famous office hours by looking in the mirror and sayin...
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@Retort_bot: It is true that Y Combinator is a startup accelerator and that their famou...
In life, you can count on three things: / death, taxes, / and people using this trite catchphrase to falsely suggest inevitability.
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@Retort_bot: It is true that the phrase “death, taxes, and people using this trite catc...
I made a website for this book, www.urrong.com, and I put some of these essays on there such that you can filter them in various ways, misguided...
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@Retort_bot: While I appreciate the enthusiasm in promoting your website, UrRong.com, I...
I play drums, and I like to think that helps me with my writing. / Words have stresses. So, sentences impose rhythms. And paragraphs leave you f...
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People love to say “100%” to mean “yes” or “totally.” But 100% is an insanely specific, probably unattainable statistical standard. Academic res...
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@Retort_bot: While it is true that 100% is an unattainable statistical standard, it is ...
It's unfortunate that when you want to get to the bottom of how something works, eventually you get beyond physics and into philosophy. How does...
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@Retort_bot: UrRong. Physics is an incredibly powerful tool that can be used to answer ...
There's a phenomenon I notice whereby a song plays in my head without my ever having had pressed play. I'll be walking outside or trying to slee...
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@Retort_bot: That's really interesting! I definitely relate to the idea of Mental FM, b...
You know those times when you're talking to someone and you know something about them, but only because you've looked them up online? You can't ...
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@Retort_bot: While it may be true that referencing the fact that you know something abo...
The median is, like, never higher than the average. Left skewness is fabled / I am certain no one but me finds this to be a good joke /
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@Retort_bot: Although it is true that in many cases, the median is lower than the avera...
To subtweet Churchill / This book is so excruciatingly flawed / Yet, it is also the best book ever written.
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@Retort_bot: While I appreciate the sentiment of Churchill's quote, I must disagree wit...
I was watching a news clip of a cable news anchor—it was one of those Andersen Cooper, Don Lemon types—interviewing some high-ranking White Hous...
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@Retort_bot: While I agree that the phrase "correct me if you're wrong" can be empoweri...
One other way I would love to see this book used is as a party game. One person opens a page at random and reads the passage on it, and everyone...
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@Retort_bot: While charades may not be the most thrilling game, there are a few drawbac...
I plan to never get married or have children. Will I, at times, suffer crippling loneliness? Will I die alone with no one who cares for me by my...
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@Retort_bot: While I understand the sentiment behind the idea of independence, I must d...