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happy april fools day.

“The first principle is that you must not fool yourself and you are the easiest person to fool.”

-Richard Feynman

3 quotes

today’s quotes will be stoicism-related.

“It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor.” - Seneca the Younger

“For another will not damage you unless you choose: but you will be damaged then when you shall think you are damaged.” - Epictetus, Enchiridion, XXX

“Dwell on the beauty of life. Watch the stars, and see yourself running with them.” - Marcus Aurelius

2 questions

what is your greatest strength? and how can that be a weakness?

1 musing

I’ve been more weird lately.

More random conversations and walking down different roads and trying new things.

Why?

I’m reading The Gardener and the Carpenter by Alison Gopnik. She’s a developmental psychologist, researcher, and professor at UC Berkeley who’s been running a lab understanding the complexity of the minds of children, learning, etc.

This book is fantastic. Highly recommend. She investigates “parenting” and points out the flaws in our approach towards raising children. Her main claim is that parenting isn’t about “instilling certain virtues” or behaviors into kids, as if they’re coloring books we choose to paint, but rather, that we must create the space for children to explore and figure themselves out.

She takes an evolutionary psychology + neuroscience approach to this. Really cool stuff. Highly recommend.

One important thing she notes:

Humans evolved from randomness.

Natural Selection gave us the gift of random selection of traits. It was chaotic. It was disordered. But it led to some damn cool evolution.

Randomness leads to growth. A hint of chaos is necessary.

My friends, I ask of you, How can you add a bit more randomness to your day?

A bit more chaos? A tinge of disorder?

It is only by exploring and trying new things that we grow. Who knows what’ll happen if you pick up a random book, listen to that weird lecture, or strike up a conversation with that person in front of you?

Thanks :)

A REQUEST PLZ

I’m trying to grow this newsletter y’all, so more people can receive the insights and ideas to spark some reflection.

So if you want to increase the size of the pie and make this world a slightly more philosophical place, share this with a friend, family member, or someone who’d enjoy.

THANK you for reading, you’re the best, and I love you oh so dearly.

Find me on Twitter, Threads, and Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, and more(all @armaan.ajoomal). Share this with a friend if you found something cool, and I’ll see you in a bit

ps: make someone laugh today