Joseph's "Just My Thoughts"

Small Fun: Although not essential, small fun helps prevent corruption and depravity, and keeps greed in check. In fact, the key to controlling greed isn’t moderation, but small fun itself. However, if that small fun ever disappears—leaving you bored or unmotivated—it’s important to take time for self-reflection. While big fun doesn’t last long and can actually fuel greed, by contrast, small fun supports steady effort and offers you time to reflect leisurely. Therefore, to live a happy life, we must find some small fun. - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”

Survival of the Fittest and Cooperation: Examining the world from the perspective of competition for survival reveals that only the strong and fittest survive, a concept often referred to as “Falling Prey to the Strong and Survival of the Fittest.” However, there are cases where this principle does not apply, when each entity cooperates with the others. Then, rather than surviving because they are strong and adaptable, it may be that they are strong and adaptable because they survived. Cooperation is an act of a very peculiar nature. The truth is, those who cooperate are the strongest. - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”

The Paradox of Development. In 2008, Google created a system to predict flu outbreaks in advance. Initially, the tool accurately forecasted when and where the flu might occur. However, in 2013, a new feature was added that suggested related search terms. As a result, searchers began inputting their queries less carefully, which led to a decline in the system’s predictive performance. Although improvements have been made since then, this example illustrates how enhancements in one area can cause failures in another. Therefore, it seems like we gain by losing, and often lose by gaining. - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”

Garbage: Nothing starts as garbage; it becomes so when materials used to protect valuables, like packaging, are no longer needed, or when objects become obsolete or worn out after their expiration date, such as second-hand goods. In essence, garbage results from the end of roles or functions, as well as the passing of values over time. Similarly, the mind follows this process. The defense mechanisms of the mind, which I once valued for self-protection, may also become garbage. When they are no longer valid or worth protecting, we may cling to them, though they are mere illusions. Just as with physical waste, mental garbage should be discarded rather than kept. - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”

Storytelling: When the future is uncertain and making decisions becomes difficult, we should calmly gather our thoughts and craft our own story. Stories hold power—the power to neatly organize complex situations. We accept and understand even absurd stories with interest if they fit the art of storytelling. Storytelling reconstructs the situation and finds and fills in the missing meaning between events based on facts. As a result, we complete and accept a coherent narrative. We experience cognitive dissonance when a narrative isn’t interpreted due to an incomprehensible situation, meaning the gap between events isn’t understood. This cognitive dissonance causes instability, which further complicates the situation. Addressing twists, turns, and future uncertainties requires a focus on storytelling. In this process, I need to identify the parts I missed and complete the meaning. - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”

Expectations and disappointments stem from the same root. External factors do not separate expectations from disappointments; rather, internal factors do. We can’t easily stop losing if we lose a little because expectations remain. Moreover, we’re not satisfied with small profits; we want more. In other words, greed is the root of both expectations and disappointments. It’s wrong to say that you’re disappointed because you expect it. Since they share the same root, expectations and disappointments only intersect depending on the situation. With a big loss, you lose patience, and with a big profit, you feel happy only then. Large gains or losses are hard to sustain, but small, everyday victories are easier to maintain because our brains are wired that way. Big negative events often result from a series of small bad outcomes, while big happiness comes from accumulating small joys. Our life is about continuously pushing forward with small but steady steps. Repeating small decisions can le...

Space and Gravity: We understand intangible values like price or worth using spatial and physical metaphors: high or low, rising or falling. Although intangible value has no physical properties, we mentally map it onto ideas of space and gravity. For instance, we imagine a lowest point for value, equating a price drop with a sharp fall and a rise with a slow climb, as if gravity is at work. This illustrates that our thinking applies the rules of space and gravity to even the most abstract concepts. - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”