047: An Optimized Life

MiLo (“Abu”) welcomes a new grandson, and we talk about pregnancy and birth. Then we talk about discrimination and personal blind spots, “cooperative interruption,” daydreaming, optimizing yourself to perform better, lifehacks, material wealth and happiness, striving versus self-acceptance, envy, commute time as a predictor of school success, the power of intention, classical yoga versus kashmir shaivism on transcending versus ‘being’ the pile of dung, and gratitude as a practice. At the end we wonder about the optimal form of government and what that means for whom.

Mentioned in this episode

Brené Brown and Tim Ferris on the tension between striving and self-acceptance

Dr. Gül Dölen on “critical periods” of brain development and the effects of psychedelics

Hayek’s B******s (book) by Quinn Slobodian — “How neoliberals turned to nature to defend inequality after the end of the Cold War”

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