3 philosophers set up a booth on a street corner – here’s what people asked

"I should be as happy as I'm ever going to be right now, but I'm not. Is this it?"

The life choices that had led me to be sitting in a booth underneath a banner that read “Ask a Philosopher" – at the entrance to the New York City subway at 57th and 8th – were perhaps random but inevitable.

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My childhood was deadly. Education saved me.

With encouragement from parents, a child can bloom in their education.

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  • In Igoye's native village, girls were often ridiculed on the basis of their sex. In her case, for example, boys would call her "prostitute" was she was still a chid at play. Also, the sexual exploitation of girls was not unheard of.
  • Igoye used their harassment, she says, as fuel to study, work hard, and become successful.
  • Another reason for her success, and why she advocates for female empowerment, is the encouragement she received from her father growing up. He would often tell her and her sister that they weren't "useless" and could amount to something.
self personal growth success life

15 surprising life lessons from a highly successful 80-year-old

You can use these to get ahead, no matter your age.

Blackstone's Byron Wien, Vice Chairman of Private Wealth Solutions Group, gave a speech laying out the wisdom he learned during his 80 years. Here are 15 of Wien's best life lessons, which teach us about improving our productivity, sleep, burnout avoidance, and everything in between.

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happiness work-life balance life business productivity creativity

Attention is not a resource but a way of being alive to the world

Our attention is more than just a resource. It is an experience.

'We are drowning in information, while starving for wisdom.' Those were the words of the American biologist E O Wilson at the turn of the century. Fastforward to the smartphone era, and it's easy to believe that our mental lives are now more fragmentary and scattered than ever. The 'attention economy' is a phrase that's often used to make sense of what's going on: it puts our attention as a limited resource at the centre of the informational ecosystem, with our various alerts and notifications locked in a constant battle to capture it.

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mind brain philosophy neuroscience mindfulness happiness work-life balance mental health life attention

7 best Alan Watts books on philosophy and life

He left behind a mind-expanding collection of books.

Image source: The Alan Watts Organization
  • Alan Watts wrote more than 25 books on the subject of philosophy and religion.
  • He was among the first to bring Zen Buddhist thought to the west.
  • Subjects ranged from dualism in philosophy to the troubles of modern man.
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