Quotes | The Unconquered Mind — Design Preview
The Unconquered Mind / Field Notes

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Fragments of thought on the nature of knowledge, the limits of reason, and the contradictions of being human.

Jamin Thompson   /   2023
Eight original quotations / One ongoing inquiryExplore the archive
Selected from the archive08 / FIELD NOTES
Philosophy / Sept 14, 2023

We live in a world of trade-offs. There is no such thing as absolute victory, there is no perfect solution, there are only trade-offs. All you can do is try to get the best trade-off you can get.

Jamin Thompson
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08 / 08 QUOTES
01 / 08Economics

Decepticon intellectuals come in many forms. But one of their most common tricks is to play the role of the market/economic expert. Bold predictions. Fancy charts. Long exposition. Pseudo quant. Devoid of logic. Immovably committed to bold positions because it makes you sound smarter than being humbly realistic. A clever trick to gain erroneous credibility and praise.

Jamin Thompson
02 / 08Human Nature

You can sell anything to fools if you market it right.

Jamin Thompson
03 / 08Philosophy

Purpose is important. Without a deep, meaningful purpose that drives you, it’s easy to fall into the trap of cynicism, apathy, nihilism, and despair. Take a moment today to remind yourself what your purpose is. No purpose, no longevity.

Jamin Thompson
04 / 08Human Nature

If I had to name one quality that makes you unfit for the modern world, it's intelligence [human or artificial]. The quality that will take you the furthest — should you choose to go down a dark path — is shamelessness.

Jamin Thompson
05 / 08Rationality

You see, the right answer is like two people. Quant is the nice one. Logic causes all the trouble. They fight.

Jamin Thompson
06 / 08Human Nature

Basic math tells us that athletes who get hammered every weekend, or once a week, will need to spend approximately half of their 4 years of eligibility just recovering from drinking, roughly 14,000 total hours, to operate at 100% baseline in terms of physical and mental optimality. So you can very easily make the case that athletes who drink alcohol are not serious people.

Jamin Thompson
07 / 08Knowledge

I have theorized that when it comes to scientific knowledge, it seems that the more we learn, the more we realize we don’t know. An inverse relationship of knowledge if you will. We learn that we do not know. We do not even know how much there is TO know. How can knowledge, therefore, even be measured? Can one ever know all that there is? Therefore, I surmise that in our universe, in its infinite stochasticity and mystery, the expert cannot exist.

Jamin Thompson

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Long form essays at the intersection of economics, philosophy, rationality, and technology.

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