Jordan B Peterson - Quora

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Jordan B Peterson More
a psychology professor at the University of Toronto, a clinical Professor of Psychology at

psychologist, a TVO essayist, lecturer and ... University of Toronto
1998-present
Jordan B. Peterson is author of Maps of Meaning, a U Toronto prof, and a clinical
psychologist. He studies two main areas: the psychology of belief, including Lives in Toronto, ON
religion, mythology and political ideology; and the assessment and improvement 5.8m answer views
of personality, including the prediction of creativity and academic and industrial 165.9k this month
performance.
Published Writer
Inc and HuffPost
After completing his undergraduate degree at Grande Prairie College and the
University of Alberta, Dr. Peterson earned a Ph.D. in psychology at McGill in 1991,
and was a post-doctoral fellow at McGill’s Douglas Hospital. In 1993, he joined the Knows About
psychology department of Harvard University as an assistant and then associate
professor. He moved to the University of Toronto in 1997, and currently holds a Values and Principles
7 answers
position as full professor. His work has been supported by the Social Sciences
and Humanities and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Councils of Books
Canada, the Canadian Institute for Health Research, and the Rotman Business 3 answers
School Center for Integrative Thinking. He was nominated for the Levenson Parenting and Education
Teaching Prize at Harvard University in 1998, and by TVO each year from 2005- 3 answers
2008 as one of Ontario’s Best University Lecturers. He also serves as a monthly
University of Toronto
essayist and frequent guest panelist on TVO’s The Agenda, a well-known
Canadian current affairs program, and is a popular source of information for Douglas Hospital Montreal
Quebec
other TV and radio shows and print media articles, including TVO’s Big Ideas,
which has featured five of his lectures.

Dr. Peterson conducts experimental and theoretical research on
neuropsychology, aggression, alcoholism and drug abuse, self-deception and
motivation for social conflict. He also acts as a business consultant, working as an
executive coach for senior partners of large law firms in Toronto, in addition to
his clinical practice, and is the vice-president of a personality assessment and
remediation company, examcorp.com (see also cream.hr ). The author or co-
author of more than seventy scientific articles, he published Maps of Meaning:
The Architecture of Belief in 1999 with Routledge, which was subsequently made
into a televised lecture series on TVO (www.mapsofmeaning.com ). Dr. Peterson
is presently elaborating upon the ideas in Maps of Meaning, communicating
them to a wide public audience, serving as an advisor to a UN committee charged
with the promotion of sustainable economic and ecological development, and
developing an online system to aid people in understanding and improving their
characters (www.selfauthoring.com ).
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What is the most shocking book you have ever read?
Questions 0
Jordan B Peterson, Professor of Psychology
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Answered Nov 5, 2016
Shares 0
The Painted Bird by Jerzy Kosinski. Hands down. I’m no fan of trigger warnings.
Posts 5 Ever. But this book is shocking enough to produce seizures. I’m not joking. You’ve
Blogs 1 been warned.
Followers 21,228
It’s a semi-autobiographical account of Kosinski’s post-war experiences in
Following 4
Eastern Europe as he wandered through the wreckage as a child.
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What are the things that you do or use in order to make yourself
more productive and smarter?
Jordan B Peterson, a psychology professor at the University of Toronto, a
clinical psychologist, a TVO essayist, lecturer and ...
Answered May 20, 2016
Get up early in the morning and get to work.

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I'm 27 and a two time convicted felon. I screwed up my life.

Long story aside, I have a love for technology and ironically law
enforcement. I'm currently in school for Computer Science and
will graduate next May. Is it too late?
Answered May 6, 2016
If you complete the Future Authoring program at http://selfauthoring.com it

will increase your chance of turning your life around. It has already helped more
than 6000 people in verified studies. It's inexpensive. It is something you do by
yourself. It's difficult, because you have to think. You can read a popular npr
article about it here:http://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2...
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What's the fundamental reason why the speed of light cannot

be broken? Why does the universe want to preserve the upper
barrier on speed of light so much so that it readily slows down
time rather than see the speed barrier broken?
 https://www.quora.com/Is-time-travel-possible
Answered May 6, 2016 · Upvoted by Allan Steinhardt, PhD, Author "Radar in the Quantum
Limit",Formerly DARPA's Chief Scientist,Fellow
Here's another way of looking at it, I believe (although being a mere psychologist
I may be wrong and, if so, would like to know). At the speed of light, the universe
collapses to 2 dimensions, perpendicular to the travelling object. It can't get
flatter than that. In some weird sense, the photon is therefore already here and
there in its now. Simultaneous is the uppermost limit for speed. Correct?
Physicists?
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How can I study for 10+ hours a day without getting depressed
and how can I make myself get used to it?
Updated May 8, 2016
I think (1) you can't do it and (2) you shouldn't try. No one can actually study that
much. It is very rare for people to be able to concentrate hard for more than three
hours a day.
However, if you absolutely must....
1. Don't study more than 7.5 hours a day. You will just wear yourself out.
More won't help. You can't learn when you are exhausted.
2. Take a day off per week. Do something you like on that day. You are in
this for the long haul, so you can't wear yourself out. That would be
counter-productive. Your job is to learn, not to prematurely die trying.
3. Make a plan. What knowledge is most critical in each of the subjects?

First, concentrate only on that. Imagine that you are first planning to
obtain the easiest 50% in each study area.
4. Study from low to high resolution. Familiarize yourself with the central
ideas of the study areas. Then, and only then, concentrate on the details.
This means that you have to broadly outline the study domain, as if you
were summarizing it in essay format. I have produced a guide to such an
outlining process here: http://jordanbpeterson.com/Psy43...
5. Nap. A lot. Study for 2.5 hours. Take a break. Eat something. Do
something mindless, like watching a Simpson's episode. Then have a
nap. That will refresh you, and also increase the probability that you will
remember what you have studied. Sleeping helps consolidate memory.
6. Study one topic for 2.5 hours. Then switch to another. Continue.
7. Read. Then put down the book. Then summarize what you have read.
Don't look at what you were reading when you summarize. You have to
practice recall, not repeatedly expose yourself to the same material. You
are practicing remembering. That's what makes you good at
remembering. Going over the material ad nauseum won't work. It just
feels like work, without any of the actual difficulty of work (or the
benefits). Don't highlight or underline or anything useless and self-
deceptive like that.
Upvote · 3.7k Share · 14
What is more beneficial in all aspects of life; a high EQ or IQ?

This question is based on the assumption that only your EQ or
IQ is high with the other being average or below this average.
Updated May 6, 2016 · Featured on HuffPost and Inc
There is no such thing as EQ. Let me repeat that: "There is NO SUCH THING AS
EQ." The idea was popularized by a journalist, Daniel Goleman, not a
psychologist. You can't just invent a trait. You have to define it and measure it
and distinguish it from other traits and use it to predict the important ways that
people vary.
EQ is not a psychometrically valid concept. Insofar as it is anything (which it

isn't) it's the Big Five trait agreeableness, although this depends, as it shouldn't,
on which EQ measure is being used (they should all measure THE SAME THING).
Agreeable people are compassionate and polite, but they can also be pushovers.
Disagreeable people, on average (if they aren't too disagreeable) make better
managers, because they are straightforward, don't avoid conflict and cannot be
easily manipulated.
Let me say it again: THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS EQ. Scientifically, it's a

fraudulent concept, a fad, a convenient band-wagon, a corporate marketing
scheme. (Here's an early critique by Davies, M., Stankov, L. and Roberts, D.
Emotional intelligence: in search of an elusive construct. - PubMed - NCBI ;
Here's a conclusion reached by Harms and Crede, in an excellent article --
comprehensive and well thought-through (2010): "Our searches of the literature
revealed only six articles in which the authors either explicitly examined the
incremental validity of EI scores over measures of both cognitive ability and Big
Five personality traits in predicting either academic or work performance, or
presented data in a manner that allowed examination of this issue. Not one of
these six articles (Barchard,2003; Newsome, Day, & Catano, 2000;O’Connor &
Little, 2003; Rode, Arthaud-Day, Mooney, Near, & Baldwin, 2008;Rode et al.,
2007; Rossen & Kranzler,2009) showed a significant contribution for EI in the
prediction of performance after controlling for both cognitive ability and the Big
Five... For correlations involving the overall EI construct, EI explained almost no
incremental variance in performance ([change in prediction] = .00. Findings were
identical when considering only cases involving an ability-based measure of
IE...." See: http://snip.ly/7kc45
Harms and Crede also comment: "...proofs of validity [for EI[ seem to come from
measuring constructs that have existed for a long time and are simply being
relabeled and recategorized. For example,one of the proposed measures of
ESC,the Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire (Mikolajczak, Luminet,
Leroy, & Roy,2007), makes use of measures of assertiveness, social competence,
self-confidence,stress management, and impulsivity among other things. Most, if
not all, of these constructs are firmly embedded in and well-accounted for by
well-designed measures of personality traits such as the Hogan Personality
Inventory (Hogan & Hogan, 1992)and the Multidimensional Personality Ques-
tionnaire (Tellegen & Waller, 2008). The substantial relationships observed
between these ESC and trait-based EI measures, and personality inventories,
bears this out. It therefore appears that the predictive validity of ESC or EI
measures may be accounted for in large part by the degree to which they assess
subfacets of higher-order traits relevant to the outcomes being predicted. For
example, Cherniss (2010) relates that two studies of self-discipline showed them
to be significant predictors of academic performance and then criticizes Landy
(2005) for not taking them into account in a review of studies of ‘‘social
intelligence.’’ Given that self-control (or impulse control)is widely regarded as a
major subfacet of conscientiousness (Roberts, Chernyshenko,Stark, & Goldberg,
2005) and that numerous studies have linked Conscientiousness with academic
performance, that there is a link between a facet of Conscientiousness and
academic performance is hardly news."
IQ is a different story. It is the most well-validated concept in the social sciences,

bar none. It is an excellent predictor of academic performance, creativity, ability
to abstract, processing speed, learning ability and general life success.
There are other traits that are important to general success, including
conscientiousness, which is an excellent predictor of grades, managerial and
administrative ability, and life outcomes, on the more conservative side.
It should also be noted that IQ is five or more times as powerful a predictor
as even good personality trait predictors such as conscientiousness. The
true relationship between grades, for example, and IQ might be as high as r = .50
or even .60 (accounting for 25-36% of the variance in grades). Conscientiousness,
however, probably tops out at around r = .30, and is more typically reported as r =
.25 (say, 5 to 9% of the variance in grades). There is nothing that will provide
you with a bigger advantage in life than a high IQ. Nothing. To repeat it:
NOTHING.
In fact, if you could choose to be born at the 95th percentile for wealth, or the
95th percentile for IQ, you would be more successful at age 40 as a consequence
of the latter choice.
It might be objected that we cannot measure traits such as conscientiousness as

well as we measure IQ, as we primarily rely on self or other-reports for the former.
But no one has solved this problem. There are no "ability" tests for
conscientiousness. I am speaking as someone who has tried to produce such tests
for ten years, and failed (despite trying dozens of good ideas, with top students
working on the problem). IQ is king. This is why academic psychologists almost
never measure it. If you measure it along with your putatively "new" measure, IQ
will kill your ambitions. For the career minded, this is a no go zone. So people
prefer to talk about multiple intelligences and EQ, and all these things that do not
exist. PERIOD.
THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS EQ. THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS EQ. THERE

IS NO SUCH THING AS EQ.
By the way, there is also no such thing as "grit," despite what Angela Duckworth
says. Grit is conscientiousness, plain and simple (although probably more the
industrious side than the orderly side). All Duckworth and her compatriots did
was fail to notice that they had re-invented a very well documented phenomena,
that already had a name (and, when they did notice it, failed to produce the
appropriate mea culpas. Not one of psychology's brighter moments). A physicists
who "re-discovered" iron and named it melignite or something equivalent would
be immediately revealed as ignorant or manipulative (or, more likely, as ignorant
and manipulative), and then taunted out of the field. Duckworth? She received a
MacArthur Genius grant for her trouble. That's all as reprehensible as the self-
esteem craze (self-esteem, by the way, is essentially .65 Big Five trait neuroticism
(low) and .35 extraversion (high), with some accurate self-assessment of general
life competence thrown in, for those who are a bit more self-aware). See
http://snip.ly/5smyx
By the way, in case I haven't made myself clear: THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS
EQ. OR GRIT. OR "SELF-ESTEEM."
It's crooked psychology. Reminiscent of all the recent upheaval in the social
psychology subfield: Final Report: Stapel Affair Points to Bigger Problems in
Social Psychology
Cherie Nixon
EQ = social skills. Would you also call "social skills" a fraudulent term? Or is it th…
3 more comments from James Morrison, Mike Brown, Richard Voss
Why do I find people's small talk boring?

Answered Apr 4, 2016
Because you aren't good at listening and then carefully and attentively
broadening the conversation. This may in part be because you are cynical with
regards to the beginnings of social interaction. Why should strangers offer you
anything of real value or take a risk with you until you have demonstrated your
ability to handle simple social tasks competently (say without sarcasm or
dismissiveness)? So they start off trading in pennies to check you out. You can be
virtually certain, as well, that if you find initial small talk boring then the people
who are boring you find you, in turn, awkward, charmless, equally boring and
perhaps even a bit narcissistic.
What are the chances that I'll make a difference in the world?
You will make some difference no matter what you do. But at the moment your
plan as laid out in your question is too vaguely formulated to be answered in any
specifically helpful manner. What sort of difference? When? To who? Why?
Ask the question again but be more precise.
Upvote · 306 Share
My parents won't let me workout anywhere in the house. I have

no money to go to a gym. What am I supposed to do when my
dreams are being crushed?
Figure out what you would have to do to make your parents thrilled to allow you
to work out at home. Say "under what conditions would you be happy to see me
doing x at home?" Maybe you can find a win win situation. You could also ask for
something smaller. Say, "Dad (or Mom) if I clean up the basement maybe I could
try working out for a week down there and if you don't like it I'll stop and no hard
feelings." If they refuse to even consider it then you might spend some time
thinking about whether there is anything you can do to mend fences and improve
your relationship with your parents. Start by assuming that the current situation
is your responsibility and ask yourself what you could do that might improve the
family environment. When either of your parents do something kind or
thoughtful, notice and let them know you noticed. Think of it as a puzzle you
have to solve.
Upvote · 429 Share
What happens in the brain when we are stressed? Does it think
more productively? Can it produce better business ideas?
Answered Mar 8, 2016
When we are stressed, our bodies default to emergency preparation mode. Stress
almost inevitably involves novelty or uncertainty. If a situation is novel or
uncertain then, by definition, the appropriate response is unspecified and the
possibility of danger exists.
Question: What should you do when you don't know what to do?
Answer: Get prepared for anything.
We can get prepared for anything. We do this by producing the stress hormone
cortisol in the face of uncertainty. Cortisol release prepares our body for sudden,
rapid, action and/or damage. This is a psycho-physiologically demanding
process, and shunts resources away from planning and preparing for the future to
hyper-vigilance in the present. That is not good for problem-solving. In fact,
stress inhibits prefrontal cortical cognitive function. There's no point in thinking
about your career plans when you are being chased by a tiger.
Now, of course, there are degrees of stress, and there are also voluntarily and
involuntarily experienced stressors. This decreases the generalizability of the
facts stated above. You could argue that optimal stress (the kind that keeps you
alert and interested, rather than anxious and worried) voluntarily confronted
(instead of accidentally encountered) can heighten engagement and increase
problem-solving ability and motivation. However, it's more accurate to aply the
word "challenge" to such cases. Then we can reserve the word "stress" to describe
events and situations that we would happily avoid.
What is the philosophical/ethical basis for (and against, if you

have any) animal rights?
Answered Mar 8, 2016 · Upvoted by Tejasvita Apte, studied Law at Indian Law Society's
Law College (2011)
Animals don't have rights. Human beings have rights. Rights aren't "inside" or
part of a person. They are part of the complex agreements that make up civilized
society. My right to freedom, for example, is your obligation to let me speak and
act with a minimum of interference. Thus, each of your rights is my obligation.
And each of my rights is, simultaneously, your obligation.
Animals cannot shoulder an obligation. Thus, they cannot participate in the

complex social contract that structures rights.
This does not mean that we should treat them any old way. But it does mean that
the proper treatment of animals is NOT predicated upon their "rights."
This is also why you don't have a "right" to medical care. Someone else has to
provide it. If you have a right to it, then the provider, who has no choice but to
provide it, is no more than a slave.
Upvote · 972 Share
How do some people who once loved each other enough to

marry, end up in bitter divorces and feeling hatred for one
another?
Jordan B Peterson, 25 years as a consultant, clinical psychologist and
professor
Sometimes it's because they have genuinely different desires. This is a
particularly acute problem when one person wants children and the other does
not. Sometimes it's because something tragic happens, and it's too much for the
partnership. This often happens after the death of a child.
There are other common reasons.
Sometimes one or both partners are dishonest in speech or action. Then the trust
that is necessary for a relationship can be destroyed.
Often people do not know how to negotiate. To negotiate, you have to (1) be
willing to bargain (not to compromise, necessarily, although sometimes that is
also necessary); (2) know what you want and why you want it; (3) communicate to
the other person precisely what you want said and done; (4) listen when you get a
response, and modify your request, if necessary; (5) offer the other person the
same courtesy.
To simplify:
"Here's what I want. Here's exactly how I would like you to respond to my request.
If you are not willing to respond in that manner, then please provide an
alternative solution that pleases you, which I will then consider. I will do the
same for you soon."
Repeat. Forever.
Why should one be honest and do good when they are the most
exploited people?
You're assuming that honesty and goodness sets you up for exploitation. If you
are truly honest and good (rather than naive, which people often mistake for
virtuous) then you have far more power than someone who is dishonest and bad.
People will be able to trust you, so you can have genuinely valuable relationships
and partnerships. People will seek you out for companionship and advice. Your
head will remain clear, because you're not filling it with garbage.
Don't confuse vice with power.

Why do I like talking so much? I often crave other people's

company so that we can hang out and talk, or even text. Is this a
good thing or a bad thing?
You are very extraverted. Extraverted people are enthusiastic and assertive. They
thrive on and are energized by social contact (as opposed to introverts, who are
generally tired by being around people). Extraverts tend to be full of positive
emotion, which means that they tell jokes and have parties and smile and laugh a
lot. They often enjoy careers in sales or promotion.
Extraversion is only a bad thing if you end up in a career or a relationship where

you are likely to be away from other people. So don't go there. Otherwise it's just
part of your temperament.
It's probably worth finding or practicing some activities that you do on your own.
That will broaden your character, and make you less one-sided. It might also be
good for you to learn to notice if you are too dominant during conversations with
others, and to back off a bit. The introverts will appreciate that.
85.8k Views · View Upvoters · Answer requested by Jay Chong
Upvote · 314 Share
Is the "Old Montreal" in a convenient and safe location for

tourists visiting Montreal?
Answered Feb 29, 2016
There are no unsafe places in Montreal. Day or night. Or if there are, you have to
look for them, and try to get in trouble there. It's a ridiculously safe city. Don't
miss St. Laurent, either.
Upvote · 165 Share
Outside of love what do you think is the most important

attribute in a spouse?
professor
Answered Feb 16, 2016
Honesty. You can't negotiate with someone who isn't trustworthy, because that
person (a) will not keep private revelations confidential and (b) will not hold up
their end of any agreement. If you can't negotiate, then you can't problem-solve.
And if you can't solve problems in your relationship, then they accumulate,
multiply and, when large enough, drag you into a pit and eat you.
If all our values and agendas are a product of social interaction,

is there such a thing as objective knowledge?
professor
Answered Dec 31, 2015
If your initial assumption is accepted, then it follows that there is no such thing
as objective knowledge. But that initial assumption is incorrect. Values and
agendas have many sources. Some are biological -- like the deep-rooted feeling
that extreme thirst is unpleasant. Some emerge from exploration and
understanding of the non-social world.
Upvote · 175 Share
How can scammers justify scamming to themselves?

professor
Answered Dec 31, 2015
The typical scam artist, on the psychopathic side of things, imagines himself
superior -- usually in intellect -- to his victim. He has contempt for anything he
regards as weakness, and believes that trust and stupidity are the same thing.
Thus, in his mind, the people he deceives deserve what they get.
77k Views · View Upvoters
Upvote · 339 Share
How can I make good judgements?

Learn as much as you can.
Don't say things you don't mean.
Don't write nonsense.
Do not pass yourself off as something you are not.
Try to fix what you can fix and don't meddle with what you are not competent to
understand.
Practice this diligently for five years. Poof! You will make good judgments.
What are some good quotes about (a) evil and (b) bad
governments?
Many forms of Government have been tried and will be tried in this world of sin
and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has
been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all those other
forms that have been tried from time to time.
Winston Churchill, Speech in the House of Commons, November 11, 1947.
Upvote · 210 Share
Can you have freedom without peace?

professor
Absolutely. But you can't have peace without freedom.
Freedom is frequently the freedom to produce conflict. While conflict is not a

good, in and of itself, it is very often necessary in the short term to prepare the
ground for medium to long term peace. People who avoid necessary conflict don't
get peace. They just save up more trouble for the future.
Peace is impossible without freedom, because people who are not free become
resentful, and then they become underhanded and manipulative, and then they
become vicious. And then things get worse.
Upvote · 256 Share
Is the Golden Rule outdated? Why or why not?

professor
Not at all. Reciprocal cooperation is the basis of civilization.
Upvote · 137 Share
What moral lessons are learnt in Preschool?

How to play with others.
How to exist in the absence of your parents.
Upvote · 323 Share
What is necessary to have when you get married?
professor
The capacity to negotiate.
Willingness to tell the truth.
A joint plan.
Mutual sexual attraction.
A preference for long-term peace over short-term victory.
Some sense of your own faults.
The ability to apologize and to forgive.
The absence of a secret back door.
How can someone who seems to be evil in nature love

someone? What is the psychological explanation on such
people?
professor
“Gradually it was disclosed to me that the line separating good and evil passes
not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either -- but
right through every human heart -- and through all human hearts. This line
shifts. Inside us, it oscillates with the years. And even within hearts overwhelmed
by evil, one small bridgehead of good is retained. And even in the best of all
hearts, there remains ... an unuprooted small corner of evil. " Alexander
Solzhenitsyn, author of The Gulag Archipelago.
What does this mean? People are very complex. Only Satan is utterly evil. Only
Christ is utterly good. These are transhuman figures. Real, living human beings
can be many things at once. We are not unities, but multiplicities. Many spirits
can inhabit the same person.
Life would be much simpler, perhaps, if evil people were unreservedly evil and
good people unreservedly good. But it's not the case....
What attitudes should you have or what principles should you

follow to make sure you have an excellent work ethic?
professor
Show up on time.
Aim for promotion on the basis of your productivity and utility.
Be generous with sharing credit.
Make sure your goals at work line up with your goals in life.
Don't be afraid to be your own advocate.
Listen carefully and tell the truth.
Eat a protein and fat rich breakfast every day.
Don't sacrifice medium and long-term progress to expediency.
Get up early.
Do a couple of unpleasant but necessary tasks every day.
Read as much as you can.
Take your vacations.
Do the things you say you will do.
Take your coworkers to lunch.
Don't sacrifice yourself to the point of resentment.
Learn to say "no" when it is necessary.
Work hard on expanding and maintaining your social networks.
Put yourself in a position of strength before you negotiate.
Do not participate in office gossip.
Delegate enough to develop your juniors.
Learn to speak publicly.
Write clearly, carefully and concisely.
Buy clothes that are slightly better than you can afford.
Learn that responsibility and opportunity are synonymous.
Have an updated CV on hand at all times.
If you have to switch companies to advance your career, don't be stopped by fear.
Fire people who demotivate others.
Let your juniors know when they do something particularly well.
Take some time off when your opportunities start to feel like obligations.
Have a home life.
Learn the difference between real work and pseudo-work.
Protect your time.
Surround yourself with straightforward, productive people.
Ask a question if you don't know something.
Object to stupid new rules.
and, as the author of Dilbert says,
"always postpone meetings with time-wasting morons" :)
Do I have a moral responsibility to challenge certain
tenaciously-held beliefs if I find that they are based on shaky
evidence? I noticed that certain ideas are just not up for debate,
even if done respectfully and backed by scientific evidence.
 https://www.quora.com/Do-I-have-a-moral-responsibility-to-challenge-certain-tenaciously-held…
Let me begin with these two pieces of cautionary advice:
1. There is no sense making unnecessary enemies. Life is hard and time is short
enough to justify adroitly side-stepping ideological arguments and counter-
arguments whenever you can. So, if you can shut up, it is often best to do so.
2. It is useful to stop talking if the person you are speaking to is not listening.
When that happens the two of you are not in the same place and communication
is not possible. When you continue speaking under such circumstances you are
generally trying to push fate in a direction it is not currently willing to go.
Having said all that, I think that you have an absolute moral responsibility to say
what you think, when asked, to answer exam questions in the manner you believe
to be true (even if that is not what the professor thinks and if it may cost you a
mark) and, above all, to write carefully and clearly about what you genuinely
think. If you fail to do so, and take the easy route, you will corrupt your own
psyche, and that is a very dangerous thing to do.When you speak and write, you
are constructing your character. I mean that metaphysically, and practically. If
you bend that process towards easy accommodation to the demands of the group,
then you start to twist yourself (particularly when you know that those demands
are, in your view, wrong). This is tantamount to damaging a fine instrument. You
just can't expect to see through your sunglasses if you smear them with dirt. So
don't do that. Ever.

If you find yourself in a position where you are called upon to question, or merely
cannot hold your tongue any longer without damaging your soul, then speak. But
be strategic, prepared and careful. Plan. If you have to cause trouble (even if only
to prevent additional future trouble) then do it intelligently, with malice
aforethought. Ask sophisticated questions. You’re stepping into a war, and you
better be well weaponized. Don't say, "Does a wage gap between men and women
really exist?" Clearly, it exists. But the mere fact that it exists does not
demonstrate that it exists because of prejudice. A wage gap can exist for all sorts
of reasons: differences in education, intelligence, personality, location, job type,
age, occupational danger, and so on. And, as the old saying goes, "correlation
does not imply causality" (more on that in the P.S. section below). Make your
question sharp and pointed, like a spear: "I was reading XX author who has XX
qualifications. That individual claims on p.XX that there is virtually no wage gap
between [say] university educated single men and women between the ages of XX
and XX. What do you think about that?"

Why will that work?
1. It is not your opinion.

2. You do not state that the facts are true.
3. Your question is very specific and, therefore more informed and more difficult
to refute.
Ideologues love vagueness, but specificity is their enemy, because their low-
resolution theories cannot deal with differentiated facts. One such example is the
standard radical left claim, often implicit, that all differences in power that can
be observed between any groups of people spring from injustice. You can make
such a claim axiomatic, by defining injustice as that which produces differences
in power between groups of people. You can extend it to include all differences in
power between individuals as well. The advantage so such a claim are twofold.
First, you have a convenient answer to a very large set of very complex questions,
so you don’t have to study, and research and think. Second, you can claim the
moral high-ground, as someone who “opposes discrimination.” It’s a pretty
pathetic game, intellectually and morally, and has spawned some seriously
virulent and murderous thoughts and actions. You have to go after such dough-
like overgeneralization with very sharp knives.
Here's another fun question (I have derived it from this study, in particular,
although there are others that have come to similar conclusions):
J Pers Soc Psychol. 2008 Jan;94(1):168-82. doi: 10.1037/0022-3514.94.1.168.
Why can't a man be more like a woman? Sex differences in Big Five
personality traits across 55 cultures.
Schmitt DP1, Realo A, Voracek M, Allik J.
The question? "If gender differences are socially constructed, why have studies
from 55 nations involving 17000 people consistently indicated that personality
differences between men and women are largest in precisely those countries such
as Sweden, Denmark and Norway, where the most has been done to alleviate
inequality between the sexes?"
The answer might be "when you eliminate the environmentally produced

differences between individuals of different gender, you automatically maximize
the genetic differences, because that's all that's left." Or it might be something
else.
But it is not an easy fact to refute. And that’s the sort of weapon you need.

Good luck.
Upvote · 364 Share
Have you ever lied on your resume and had it turn out fine?
Answered Oct 9, 2015
Define fine. Do you mean in the short term, the medium term, or the long run? Do
you mean because you make more money? Or do you mean despite the damage
to your character?
I am a clinical psychologist. I see dozens of people a week. I talk to them about

everything. I have been doing it for more than 20 years.
Here's some things I learned.
Don't do things that make you resentful (or stop being resentful about them).
Make friends with what you don't know, instead of what you do know.
Don't lie.
No one ever "gets away" with anything.
You cannot twist the fabric of reality, without it snapping back. You might not
notice what the lie cost you, because you aren't smart enough to put cause and
effect together, particularly if the effect happens much later.
But you don't get away with anything. Period. Ever. And neither does anyone else.
You might be ignorant and arrogant enough to think you can bend the rules, but
that just means you're ignorant and arrogant, not that you can break the rules.
What are the most upvoted answers on Quora?

 https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-most-followed-questions-on-Quora-2
Answered Jun 26, 2014
Originally Answered: What answers on Quora have the most upvotes?
My answer at "What are the most valuable things everyone should know? has
1100 plus upvotes = 99.999+ percentile answer.
Is it possible to create an environment that decouples

vocabulary from g/IQ (in comparison to 20th century
America)?
 https://www.quora.com/Why-do-IQ-tests-weigh-vocabulary-so-heavily
The best single IQ test, the Raven's Progressive Matrices, does not weight
vocabulary at all. It is the "best" test because it correlates so highly with g, which
is essentially the average score of the answers to a large random set of problems
requiring solution.
Upvote · 100 Share
Does the fractional anisotropy of the arcuate fasciculus predict

intelligence?
Not as well, psychometrically speaking, as the ability to comprehend that
sentence.
Upvote · 249 Share
If you could write a rule book for being a man, what "man law"
would you write? What are the qualities of a good husband,
father, or brother? What one thing would you want to see in
your daughter's boyfriend or husband? Why?
1. Encourage children through play.

2. Promote the best in people.
3. Keep the sacred fire burning.
4. Guard the women and children from harm.
5. Confront the eternal adversary.
6. Build the crystal palace.
7. Confront death with courage and return.
8. Dare to cut down a tree.
9. Offer your sons up as a sacrifice to God.
10. Protect your daughters from exploitation.
11. Store up wealth for the future.
12. Consult the ancestral spirits.
13. Read great books.
14. Speak the truth about unpleasant things.
15. Pay close attention.
16. Make a worthy temple for the Lord.
17. Keep the howling winds of winter at bay.
18. Stand up for the oppressed.
19. Provide a warm and secure home
20. Be a prince of peace.
21. Don’t be too civilized.
22. Organize yourself with other men
23. Be faithful to your wife.
24. Be hospitable to friends and strangers.
25. Rout the wolves and chase the lions so the shepherds can eat.
26. Establish a destination – and a path.
27. Bring heaven to earth.
28. Take on the sins of the world.
29. Dig the wells and mine the gold and copper.
30. Gather everyone to the banquet.
31. Grow up and take responsibility.
32. Resist pride in all things.
David Urquhart
I'd be interested to read a line or two of explanation about each of these. Especial…
1 more comment from Julian Nelson
What is the fastest and best way to improve my memory,

cognitive skills, and span of concentration?
Answered Sep 4, 2013
Wake up at the same time every day, preferably in the morning.
Eat a good, relatively large breakfast, daily, avoiding excessive carbohydrates and
sugar, soon after waking.
It is very important to establish temporal routines of this sort, as it is very

difficult for your body to develop and maintain any emotional stability and
capacity for sustained effort if your basic biological rhythms are continually
upset. It is also very important not to subject yourself to stress without eating,
when you start your day, because you can't recover from that until you sleep
again.
Developing these two habits will help you more than anything else you can do.
Furthermore, you will not ever be able to perform optimally unless you do so.
How can I determine what my principles are?

professor
Notice when you are embarrassed or ashamed about something you say or do.
That is an indication that you have transgressed against your own core values.
Such feelings often manifest themselves, in their subtlest form, as a feeling of

weakness or disunity, centered in the body, and accompanying the statement or
action.
You can teach yourself to attend to these feelings, to note what you are doing
when they occur, and to stop doing or saying those things.
The next step is to consciously attempt only to say and do things that produce a
feeling of strength and integrity. This requires continual practice -- perhaps over
the course of years. However, the benefits that accrue cannot be garnered by any
other means.
The truth will set you free....
56.3k Views · View Upvoters · View Sharers · Answer requested by Joel V Benjamin
Linda Rogers
I like your answer, Jordan but I have found that it is pretty easy to understand m…
Is there such a thing as evil? Is it a religious concept? Can an

atheist believe it exists?
Jordan B Peterson, Professor of Psychology at University of Toronto (1998-
present)
Evil is the commission of harm for harm's sake (so, for example, torture for the
sake of the pain it causes). It is by no means a "social construct" -- and no one ever
acts as if it is, even though they may mouth such an unforgivable phrase in the
depths of some state of ideological possession. No one familiar with the excesses
of Nazi Germany, Maoist China, or Stalinist Russia would ever claim that evil is a
social construct.
There is in fact nothing more real than good and evil; nothing material, nothing
philosophical.
At the most profound level of analysis, evil is revenge against God for the sin of
engendering creation. But this is not a statement that modern people are inclined
-- or prepared -- to understand.
50.4k Views · View Upvoters · View Sharers · Answer requested by Joel V Benjamin
Joel V Benjamin
Jordan - I heartily agree with your statements before the last paragraph.
1 more comment from Tim Othy
What makes a person good?

professor
Originally Answered: What do you mean when you say someone is a good person?
It depends on who is saying it. If I say it, I mean that a good person is someone
who is working to make earth more like heaven and less like hell. From my
perspective, both heaven and hell are real places, and people journey through
each, occasionally -- sometimes even during the same day. But people don't really
notice. A conscious person has noticed hell, and strives to avoid being there. A
malevolent person works assiduously to increase the domain of hell. A good
person improves the quality of experience whenever that is possible, for himself
and others, and aims at that consciously.
Heaven and hell are eternal places because they are always there, at the extremes
of human existence, for better and for worse. People are always making a choice
between them, although they generally are not conscious of that, in any
articulated manner.
51.4k Views · View Upvoters · Answer requested by Joel V Benjamin
Upvote · 146 Share
What are the most thought provoking questions?

Originally Answered: What are some deep, profound, thought-provoking questions to ponder over?
How can I consistently act to minimize the evil done in the world?
How can I continually improve the quality of the actions that I repeat every day
(as those make up almost all of my life)?
What would happen if I only said things I deeply believed to be true?
What makes me interested in some things and not others (since it doesn't seem to
be a voluntary choice)?
Why has science taught us virtually nothing about consciousness?
How can I become strong enough to be useful in a crisis?
What do I currently do that adds the most quality and meaning to my life? How
can I do more of that (and less of what detracts from that quality)?
48k Views · View Upvoters · View Sharers · Answer requested by Quah Xin Ze
What things are important to get right early in life and what
can I do to feel satisfied with what I’ve already done?
Adopt an apprenticeship. Choose some difficult path -- one you think interests
you; one you might be good at -- and stick to it, until you have hammered out
your tendency to procrastinate, your lack of skill, and your muddle-headed
thinking. Then take a careful look at yourself, and see if you still want to pursue
that path. If not, change.
Don't wait around to find something. If you don't know what to do, do something,
and hit it hard. That way you will learn exactly what is good about that activity,
and what is not, instead of vaguely wondering. Once you learn that, and have
developed some discipline, by accepting a discipline, you can move on.
Aim to be a good person, and make everything else secondary. A moral life is
considered good because such a life is genuinely the best life you can have. To be
moral is not merely to follow an arbitrary set of rules, although you may have to
do that, voluntarily, for a while, so that you can hammer yourself together (as
recommended above). Good is more than that, but you can't get to the more until
you at least have some discipline.
Do not allow yourself to compromise your future. You can experiment, hard,
even with things that are frowned upon, because you need to know. But make
sure you are learning, rather than becoming decadent and deteriorating, because
you don't want any responsibility, and have become prematurely cynical. If you
are young you don't know enough to be cynical. So drop it. To anyone wise, it
looks like laziness, pretence and artifice anyway.
Virtues: What comprises a responsibility checklist for being a

good person?
 https://www.quora.com/What-comprises-a-responsibility-checklist-for-having-a-good-life
First, check to see if you are resentful about anything. If you are, then ask
yourself two questions:
1. Is your head on straight about whatever makes you resentful, or are you just
undisciplined and feeling sorry for yourself?
2. If this is not merely an attitude problem on your behalf, then do you have
something to say to someone about it, or some behavior or practice of thought
that you have to change?
You could talk this over with someone that will listen, who you trust, who wants
things to be good for you.
If you allow yourself to do things that make you resentful, then the resentment
may accumulate. If it does, it will make you bitter, first, and then vengeful. This is
a quick pathway to hell.
Second, watch to see if your conscience is clear, or if you are worrying about
bad things you have done, particularly at night. If you are, then ask yourself
two questions:
1. Are you depressed, taking too much responsibility for the events of life,
personal, economic and social?
2. Are you taking the easy way out and lying?
If you are depressed, and ruminating, and not sleeping well, and waking up in a
cold sweat, you should talk to someone about it, because that can be
symptomatic of depression.
If you are taking the easy way out, and lying, then you should stop, because that
is also a quick pathway to hell. There is virtually nothing in life that is more
valuable than a clear conscience. Without that, wealth itself is merely a means to
torture yourself and others.
Third, make sure that you are grateful, and aware of what you don't know,
and able to listen to others, who might teach you something if you are
careful. Avoid arrogance and imposing your arbitrary views and ideologies
on the world. Reality kicks back, hard, and if you insist on living in your
world rather than the real world, the flood that destroys will eventually
arrive at your doorstep.
Upvote · 187 Share
How is IQ calculated, what does it predict, and can it change?

(note: I also used the first few paragraphs of this to answer a very similar question
on Quora: What is IQ? There is extra information here, however, at the end)
Imagine a universal library of single questions or puzzles that require the ability
to abstract to solve. Then imagine that you make a test out of 100 such randomly
drawn questions or puzzles, give them to 1000 people,score them, and rank-order
their scores. Their IQ will essentially be that rank-order.
If you took any group of 100 such questions, and gave them to the same 1000
people, the rank-order would hardly change at all.
The more common IQ is merely those scores, transformed statistically so that the
average = 100 and the standard deviation (a measure of how much, on average,
such scores vary in a given population) is 15. Generally there is correction for age,
as well.
85% of the population has an IQ score below 115.

95% of the population has an IQ score below 130, 99% below 145, 99.9% below 160.
The difference between 50th percentile, 85th percentile, 95th percentile, 99th
percentile, and 99.9th percentile is the same, and it is large. The difference
between 85th percentile, or 115, and 50th percentile, or 100, is roughly the
difference between the average state college graduate and the average high
school graduate. The difference between 50th percentile, or 100, and 15th
percentile, or 85, is roughly the difference between the average high school
graduate and what was known before the days of political correctness as
borderline retarded.
It is illegal to draft someone into the US army if they have an IQ below 82. That IQ
characterizes about 1 in 10 people.
With an IQ of 85 or lower, it is very difficult to read well enough so that you can
follow written directions (a reasonable criterion for true literacy).
IQ is a very good predictor of life success in complex modern societies,

challenged in its power only by trait conscientiousness, one of the Big Five
personality traits, which is composed of orderliness and industriousness, the
latter of which is likely more predictive.
Here's a bit more detail:
IQ can be usefully conceptualized as composed of two forms: crystallized and

fluid. The crystallized form, which is mostly verbal, accumulates, to some degree
through life.
The fluid form, which is, perhaps, associated with prefrontal function, more
nonverbal, starts to decline rather quickly in the early 20's, and it's pretty much a
straight road to perdition from there.
Exercise, physical exercise, both cardiovascular and weight-oriented, helps a lot,

more than anything else, to deter this loss.
There is some indication that video games can increase IQ, as can proper diet.
There's also nothing wrong with knowledge, which can be increased by reading
and writing, more than anything else. Writing down your own ideas clearly and
carefully also helps organize your brain, increasing your adaptation, decreasing
uncertainty and stress, and improving your physical health.
Upvote · 157 Share
What exactly is IQ (Intelligence Quotient)? What has influence

on it? And does it change (raise or decrease) ?
Answered Oct 31, 2012
Imagine a universal library of single questions or puzzles that require the ability
to abstract to solve. Then imagine that you make a test out of 100 such randomly
drawn questions or puzzles, give them to 1000 people,score them, and rank-order
their scores. Their IQ will essentially be that rank-order.
If you took any group of 100 such questions, and gave them to the same 1000
people, the rank-order would hardly change at all.
The more common IQ is merely those scores, transformed statistically so that the
average = 100 and the standard deviation (a measure of how much, on average,
such scores vary in a given population) is 15. Generally there is correction for age,
as well.
85% of the population has an IQ score below 115.

95% of the population has an IQ score below 130, 99% below 145, 99.9% below 160.
The difference between 50th percentile, 85th percentile, 95th percentile, 99th
percentile, and 99.9th percentile is the same, and it is large. The difference
between 85th percentile, or 115, and 50th percentile, or 100, is roughly the
difference between the average state college graduate and the average high
school graduate. The difference between 50th percentile, or 100, and 15th
percentile, or 85, is roughly the difference between the average high school
graduate and what was known before the days of political correctness as
borderline retarded.
It is illegal to draft someone into the US army if they have an IQ below 82. That IQ
characterizes about 1 in 10 people.
With an IQ of 85 or lower, it is very difficult to read well enough so that you can
follow written directions (a reasonable criterion for true literacy).
IQ is a very good predictor of life success in complex modern societies,

challenged in its power by trait conscientiousness, one of the Big Five personality
traits.
Upvote · 72 Share
Similar to tests measuring IQ and EQ in individuals, is there a

test or theory on how to measure DIQ- Deceptive Intelligence
Quotient in an individual?
Updated May 4, 2014
Psychologists have tried to measure such a thing for years, using Lie Scales, for
example, to "correct" other scales for faking good, and self-promotion, and so on.
Overall, the results have not been good: there is little evidence that such
questionnaires do what they are supposed to do. Assessing the capacity to
deceive, and self-deceive, appears to be very difficult. My lab has developed a
fake-proof personality questionnaire, however, which does not allow people to
present themselves positively across all traits, and which forces them to admit to
flaws.
This kind of scale has advantages when used in situations where faking is likely,
such as a job application, but may not be as accurate as a standard personality
scale, where those filling out the scale are not motivated to look better than they
are.
The Unfakeable Big Five paper can be downloaded here:
http://ebookbrowse.com/2008-hirs...
Upvote · 31 Share
What qualifies someone as a messiah (savior) in the modern

world?
Answered Jul 20, 2012
They are courageous and tell the truth.
Upvote · 87 Share
Why are some people so obsessed with being productive?

A substantial part of this is temperamental: people who are high in the trait
conscientiousness are very concerned about doing their duty. They become
disgusted with themselves (specifically: disgusted or ashamed, rather than sad or
anxious) if they are not being productive. I suspect that this trait evolved because
conscientiousness is associated, genuinely and strongly, with productivity, and
productivity, particularly among males, is associated with mating success.
What are the necessary skills for 21st century students and
future leaders?
Updated Jul 24, 2012
The most important skill is the ability to write. There is little difference between
writing and thinking (at least verbal thinking) -- so, to write is to think. To think is
to avoid obstacles and capitalize on opportunity. To think is to set things straight.
To think is to convince and explain.
What you write, you remember. What you merely recognize, you are merely
familiar with. Multiple choice tests generally reward recognition memory, which
is much shallower than recall memory (which writing facilitates). If you write
something, then you know it well enough to talk about it, so you can then speak --
even publicly.
To write well, you need first to know what you are talking about. Thus, you have
to do your research. To do that, you have to know how to read, what to read, and
where to find it. Then you have to be able to generate information, so that your
writing is creative, and edit it, so that you separate the wheat from the chaff. Then
you have to be able to organize your argument, at the level of the word, the
sentence, the paragraph and the essay itself. If you can do that, you can organize
your thoughts and, in consequence, your brain. Then you can help organize other
brains, and other structures.
If you can write, you have power.
follow me @jordanbpeterson
How can you increase your productivity on side projects at the

end of the day when you're tired from work/college?
The most straightforward way to increase your energy at the end of the day is to
have a brief nap -- 20 to 45 minutes, sometimes longer. This will add 3-4 hours of
productive time to your evening.
Much better to do this than to drop half-dead in front of the TV or monitor.
What is it like to be a Christian who doesn't believe in the

existence of Hell?
You can't be a Christian and disavow belief in hell, because hell is where you end
up if you don't follow Christian principles. That might sound metaphysical, but
it's not. If you fail to recognize the sacredness of human life, refuse to die and be
reborn when that is necessary, assume that you possess omnipotent knowledge
(as ideologues are likely to do) and lie in word and action then you will end up in
hell.
Hell is the worst corner of the underworld. The underworld is where you go when
something tragic and unexpected happens in your life, and shatters your dreams.
It is the place of confusion and disillusionment. Everyone has been to the
underworld -- and some do not come back. Hell is the corner you end up in when
you are so confused and disillusioned that you become arrogant, resentful -- and
then cruel and vengeful. To be in hell is to wish for the eradication of existence,
for the sake of revenge.
As Mephistopheles says, in Goethe's Faust:
The spirit I, that endlessly denies.

And rightly, too; for all that comes to birth
Is fit for overthrow, as nothing worth;
Wherefore the world were better sterilized;
Thus all that’s here as Evil recognized
Is gain to me, and downfall, ruin, sin
The very element I prosper in.
Who knows? Maybe you have been there, already, once or twice.
Infernal world! and thou, profoundest Hell,

Receive thy new possessor—one who brings
A mind not to be changed by place or time.
The mind is its own place, and in itself
Can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven.
What matter where, if I be still the same
. . . Here at least/ We shall be free . . .
we may reign secure; and, in my choice,
To reign is worth ambition, though in Hell:
Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven.
Milton, Paradise Lost
If you walk down the street with your eyes open, downtown, in any large city, you
will see people who are in hell. They will be angry if you look at them, because
your gaze makes them more aware of their terrible state. Are they there,
eternally?
It depends on what you mean by eternally, and how you conceptualize time. At
the very least, those in hell feel like they are there eternally.
For more information, see the following lecture:

http://ww3.tvo.org/video/163167/...
follow me, if you like, on twitter: @jordanbpeterson

Upvote · 135 Share
Who are your recommended philosophers of everyday life who

is still productive (publications, works, or speeches) today?
Updated May 4, 2014
Alexander Solzhenitsyn. Although he died recently, his work on the prison
camp system (The Gulag Archipelago) is brilliant, morally, practically and as
literature and history. The second volume of the three volume set is particularly
powerful.
This is the book that knocked over the Soviet Union. It's a stunning study on the
relationship between individual moral choice and the corruption or redemption
of society.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ale...
Share
Share
Upvote · 101
What books have the most wisdom on love?

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
Upvote · 116 Share
How do I get my two year old daughter to stop biting and

pinching?
Here are two methods: choose the one that you find most suitable.
1. Immediately after your daughter bites or pinches someone, flick her hand
directly with your forefinger (as if you are flicking away a fly). This will cause her
a brief, unpleasant sensation, and will stop her from continuing such behavior.
You will not be able to apply enough force with such a flick to hurt her, so this is
safe, but she will find it unwelcome (and it is immediate and subtle, which are big
advantages).
A two year old is too young to be verbally reasoned with, or to understand and
apply a lesson from a book.
You might also be relieved to know that such behavior is normal among two year
olds, who are frequently aggressive. This is not your fault (although it is your
responsibility to stop such behavior).
2. If you are uncomfortable with the approach detailed above, try this:
immediately after she bites or pinches, remove her from the situation, and put
her somewhere boring and dull. The bottom stair of a stair case is good (watch
her to make sure she doesn't climb up, dangerously, if she is not familiar with
stairs). Don't let her move until she acts properly. As soon as she behaves, then let
her up.
Don't be afraid to discipline her. If she continues to bite and pinch, she will
alienate other children, and their parents, and will find it hard to make friends. In
addition, you will be upset and irritated at her. It is a good thing to modify her
behavior so that she will be liked by other children and adults. You will do her a
big favor.
Upvote · 197 Share
Do people in democratic countries deserve all the social and
economic pain they get?
 https://www.quora.com/topic/Democracy-1
It isn't so much that they deserve it, as it is that they can hypothetically learn
from their errors. That allows democratic systems to be moderately self-
correcting. When people are shielded completely from the consequences of bad
decisions, then it is very hard for them to learn the difference between wisdom
and foolishness.
Upvote · 58 Share
What comprises a responsibility checklist for having a good

life?
 https://www.quora.com/Virtues-What-comprises-a-responsibility-checklist-for-being-a-good-pe…
First, you might presume that you don't know what the good life might be for
you. You can guess, of course, and you can apply some practical generalizations
(you need an intimate relationship, a meaningful career or occupation,
reasonable health, and so on), but it is more productive to assume ignorance,
initially.
Then, watch yourself for two weeks -- as if (1) you don't know who you are and (2)
you are someone you are charged with caring for. Then notice, day to day, when
you are engaged in an activity that is meaningful. During such a state, you will
not be self-conscious, and you will not be aware of the passage of time. Also
notice when you are engaged in an activity that makes you ashamed, or weakens
you. This will often happen when you are saying or doing something that is false,
to live up to some idea you have of yourself, or want other people to have of you.
Then, after the two week period, start doing more of the former, and less of the
latter. It is also very helpful, when starting this process, to be very careful to tell
the truth because, if you don't, you will cloud your vision and it will be
impossible for you to determine what is good for you and what is not.
You may well be surprised by what you find out about yourself.
From the Gospel of Thomas (look it up):
‘Let him who seeks continue seeking until he finds. When he becomes
troubled, he will be astonished, and he will rule over the all.’
follow me on twitter @jordanbpeterson
How do I overcome a compulsive sense of despair?
If this is a serious problem for you, Mr. Lim -- serious enough so that you are
genuinely in despair, here are some practical steps you might take. First, ask
yourself the following questions:
1. Do you have a circle of friends, including at least one or two people that you can
really talk to?
2. Do you have a close, intimate, romantic relationship?
3. Do you have a meaningful job, or educational path, or serious personal interest
(or some combination thereof)?
4. Have you avoided problems with drugs or alcohol?
5. Do you have a realistic, meaningful plan for the future?
6. Are you in good physical health?
7. Do you have at least a necessary minimum of economic resources?
If the answer to all or even most of these questions is "no," then you are not so
much existentially desperate as you are lacking those elements that are necessary
to standard human life. You should then plan to change your situation so that
"yes" becomes the appropriate answer. You can find a good online program that
will help you plan to change your life at www.selfauthoring.com .
If the answer to most of these questions is "yes," but you still think black thoughts
and feel hopeless (and, perhaps, have trouble sleeping, or wake up too early in the
morning and worry, or nurse suicidal thoughts) then you might consider the
possibility that you are depressed. This is a decent online screener for symptoms
of depression: http://www.netdoctor.co.uk/inter... .
Depression is very common, and often responds well to treatment, which can
involve both psychotherapy and medication. People are often very loathe to
consider medication, because they believe that "they should be able to handle
their own problems," or because they are afraid of side effects. The former
statement is true, as a basic generalization, but not as a guide to every situation:
people encounter all sorts of catastrophes in their lives that they cannot handle
themselves. With regards to side effects: depression has side effects, too. A
chronic, exaggerated stress response is not at all good for you, elevating your risk
of infectious disease and increase the rate at which you age. So the side effect
argument is weak.
Anti-depressant use can be tricky: you and your physician will have to determine
which drug is best. One that works on the dopamine system (look it up on
wikipedia) is generally good for increasing positive emotion and motivation,
while drugs that work to increase serotonin are good for regulating negative
emotion. You will have to experiment to establish the proper dose, and the proper
time of day to take the drug. You will generally know in four to six weeks if it
works. If it doesn't, try another drug, or another dose.
Psychotherapy can be very helpful if you are suffering from serious tragedies of
the past. You can tell if this is the case, in the following manner: if you have a
memory that is more than 18 months old (approximately) and it still makes you
emotional when you think about it, then it has not been fully processed, and is
weighing you down. Many memories of that sort can make life too heavy to bear.
Do not settle for misery. It is possible to have a very rich and meaningful life.
Don't stop searching for help, or for answers, until things are better. Finally, don't
fool yourself into thinking you can do without the 7 things I listed above, because
you can't. No one can.
You might find these three videos helpful.
On the nature of evil: http://ww3.tvo.org/video/163167/...

On virtue: http://ww3.tvo.org/video/163562/...
On depression: http://ww3.tvo.org/video/177290/...
follow me at @jordanbpeterson
Why do people seem to like to talk about EQ in relation to IQ?

The answer you posted to your own question is more correct, by far, than any of
the other answers posted up until this time.
IQ has been measured more accurately and more tightly defined than any other
social science or medical construct, but the implications of the vast differences in
individual intelligence are not palatable to many people. So, now and then,
someone not very well informed or ideologically possessed invents a new king of
intelligence, and a large audience seizes upon the idea as something that will
save them from admitting to what they find conceptually unacceptable. A decade
after this happens, the new kind of intelligence disappears from view, as its lack
of utility reveals itself.
EQ was invented by a journalist, not a psychologist; most of the research he

reviewed described prefrontal cognitive function, not emotion. Furthermore, EQ
scales measure the Big Five trait agreeableness, insofar as they measure
anything, and agreeableness is already very well defined, and does not need any
help from EQ. Agreeable people are warm, empathic, compassionate and polite,
but they can be taken advantage of quite easily. For this reason, EQ is negatively
correlated with managerial performance, rather than positively correlated
(although the correlation is low).
Howard Gardner publicized "multiple intelligences" in 1993 -- although the word

"talent" was already working fine. None of his claims stood the test of time; his
intelligences could not be measured. Robert Sternberg tried something similar
with "practical intelligence"; the same fate befell his work.
Here is what IQ is: imagine you have an infinite bank of questions that require
abstract reasoning to solve. Imagine that you pick out ten sets of ten questions
from this bank, and give all ten sets to each of a thousand people. People who
score highly on one set will tend strongly to score highly on all the rest. In other
words, the rank order of performance will remain constant across all sets.
That rank order will also predict phenomena such as rank order of creative
achievement, school grades, speed of learning, and competence at complex jobs -
- and it will do it remarkably well (with r's of about .5, which is a larger effect than
that reported in 95% of social science studies). It will also predict such things as
brain size, thickness of neuron, and reaction time consistently, as well, but with
lower power (r = .10-.15).
Furthermore, that rank order will be singular, in that it will not be decomposable
into different abilities, particularly at lower levels of the rank.
Finally, IQ cannot be merely dismissed as a "statistical artifact." Although it is

generally derived from factor analysis, at least in its purest form (g), which is the
first factor derived from such analysis, a given person's average score on ten sets
of ten questions requiring abstract reasoning to solve will correlate very highly
with that factor.
In other words, average performance across sets of questions that require
abstract reasoning to solve is IQ, and IQ is as real as any average.
Upvote · 78 Share
Shannon Del Vecchio

This is a really interesting answer, but it doesn't really answer the question. The …
Can religion be thought of as a language of symbolism and

human communication rather than a source of factual beliefs?
Knowledge does not spring up out of nowhere, fully fledged. It undergoes a very
complex developmental process, as it moves from the completely
incomprehensible to the pragmatically useful.
Religious thought exists at the border between what is known and what is still
unknown, and acts to mediate the transition from the latter to the former. Art,
when it is true art, performs a similar function, partially explicating what is not
yet known well enough to be articulated. Thus, religion is more like art than it is
like science.
Religious symbols and images encapsulate knowledge of critical importance --

but knowledge so complex it still evades conscious formulation. Such
encapsulation is a relatively early but profoundly important stage in the
generation of articulated knowledge. Our imagination is captured by still-
functional religious symbols, because of our deep intuition that they at least
partially express something that is vital to realize.
You can see this happening all the time. Many forms of deeply popular
"entertainment" are built on a story-grammar that is completely religious. The
recent phenomenal popularity of the Harry Potter stories constitute a case in
point. Harry is a savior figure, who fights both the serpent (Volume II) and the
devil (he who cannot be named). His death and rebirth, in the last volume, is
what allows him victory over evil -- but only after he recognizes the evil within
himself. It's classically Christian, but many of the motifs predate Christianity
itself. People are drawn to such stories, by forces beyond their conscious volition,
because they contain information that is vitally important to their healthy being.
There is no changing that: for homo sapiens, some truths are eternal -- and those
eternal truths are religious.
Upvote · 99 Share
Could religion be described as human philosophy iteration 1.0?

Yes, but it is more than that, because not all of what religion represents, in image,
ritual and poetry, has yet been translated into articulated philosophy. Much
remains in 1.0 form.
Upvote · 47 Share
What is the best argument for the existence of heaven?

As Christ said, in the Gospel of Thomas: The Kingdom of Heaven is spread out
upon the earth, but men do not see it. What does this mean? Heaven and hell
exist now. We move between them, constantly. Some people are in hell. You can
see them, if you pay attention, when you are walking down any major street in
any city. Most people are in heaven, some of the time -- but they are not fully
conscious of it, because they don't know to think that way (and they don't know
that they should strive above all to stay there).
We can clearly create hell: Mao, Stalin and Hitler, that unholy Trinity, clearly
created hell -- bottomless horror, dominated by the prince of lies. We can also
create heaven -- but we cannot force other people to create it. Heaven is created
locally, by example, and then distributed, to those who will accept it.
And who knows? Perhaps if we were serious about creating heaven on earth, then
it would become eternal.
Upvote · 146 Share
Which are the best dualists arguments to sustain the existence

of soul?
Is individual consciousness "soul"? If so, dualist accounts of soul remain
plausible, at least phenomenologically -- it is "as if" my consciousness inhabits
my body. Beyond phenomenology? Well, decades of effort have not brought us
appreciably closer to a reductionistic, materialistic account of consciousness. It
remains an entirely mysterious phenomenon. We simply do not understand how
neural structures give rise to consciousness -- if they do -- or why some do and
others don't. Thus, the practical, scientific approach that has been so successful
on almost all other fronts has not succeeded yet on this one. It may, in the future.
For now, however, we cannot merely dismiss dualist accounts of consciousness
(or, arguably, soul).
Upvote · 44 Share
Are people fundamentally good or bad in general?

Originally Answered: Is man / woman inherently good or evil?
Men and women are inherently good AND evil.
How can the world be rid of evil?

You rid the world of evil by first eliminating the evil that you say and do.
Upvote · 154 Share
Can there be any good in the world if there is no evil?

Good and evil are opposite points on a continuum. However, good could prevail,
with sufficient individual effort, leaving evil to exist as a possibility, rather than a
reality.
Upvote · 88 Share
Everyone does what they feel is right, yet in aggregation there is

so much wrong being done out there. What explains this
phenomenon?
People do what they know to be wrong all the time. They just ignore their
knowledge, and rationalize their maneuvering.
Upvote · 91 Share
Is there any real right or wrong?

If you are looking for a serious answer to this question, watch this video:
Upvote · 60 Share
How can we get more people to care about the future in a

productive way, e.g. setting goals and kicking off activities to
improve our future?
The most effective technique, all things considered, is example. Set your own
house in order. Improve your familial relationships. Do something concrete and
useful for your local community. Once you manage this, you will know how to
"get more people to care about the future." If you can't manage it, then don't
bother, because it's outside your realm of competence, and you will do more
harm than good.
Upvote · 89 Share
What are some good examples of how pretence can get the job
done?
If pretence could get the job done, then it wouldn't be pretence.
Upvote · 42 Share
How is anxiety treated in children and teens?

Jordan B Peterson, 25 years as a clinical psychologist, consultant, father,
and professor
The most effective psychotherapeutic procedure for treating anxiety is
behavioral: first, find out what the person is anxious about. Most importantly,
find out what anxieties are stopping the person from pursuing the goals that are
important to them. Break down the situation they are anxious about into smaller
pieces. Have them practice the pieces, or expose themselves to the now-
differentiated situation.
For example, if someone is anxious about going to a party, you have to find out
when their anxiety starts. Maybe they don't know how to dress appropriately.
Maybe they don't know how to introduce themselves, how to shake hands
properly, or how to initiate a conversation. Maybe they are afraid they will have
nothing to say, or look nervous, or say something stupid.
So first you have to find out EXACTLY and in great detail what they are anxious
about. A "party," for example, is not one thing. It is many things, some of which
will make a given person nervous, and some which will not. Then you have to see
if they lack the skills necessary for the situation sub-component, or the
confidence to use those skills, or both. Then you have to teach them the skills,
assuming you know them, or have them practice in a non-threatening context, if
they have them.
With repeated voluntary exposure to the feared situation, the anxiety will
subside. It is also useful to tell the person not to avoid things they are afraid of, or
their anxiety may spread and worsen.
Severe, disabling anxiety may also be treated with anti-depressants, although

those are sometimes best used in combination with exposure therapy. Anti-
depressants have an ambivalent reputation, but they are often far better than the
alternative -- which can be the crippling anxiety.
Upvote · 79 Share
Are mammals moral?

Animals that are social have a procedural morality. A procedural morality is a

game-like structure, negotiated by the players. You can think of it as a pattern of
behavior. Imagine that two wolves from the same pack are having a dominance
dispute. They will threaten each other, and even fight, briefly. But very rapidly
one will back off, roll over, and expose its neck. The other one could kill its now-
subordinate opponent -- but it won't. The display of submission stops it from
continuing the fight. Thus, the dispute can be settled, who is dominant and who
submissive established, and the pack maintains both valuable members. If you
write down the description of such behavior, it looks like it is governed by rules.
However, rules are articulated, and encoded in language. What the wolves have is
shared pattern of behaving and understanding.
Such shared patterns are very common, all the way down the phylogenetic chain.
Even lobsters, which live in dominance hierarchies, manifest such patterns. They
are a proto-morality, governing social interaction.
Mammals can manifest very complex proto-morality. Rats, for example, like to
wrestle, particularly the juvenile males. They will work for the opportunity to
play with each other. If a rat is paired with a smaller partner, it can dominate him
easily, pinning him continually to the ground. However, if the big rat does not let
the little rat win about 1/3 of the time, then the little rat will stop inviting the big
rat to play (when they are repeatedly paired).
Human morality has emerged on the groundwork established at the procedural

level. Thus, it is far from "arbitrary." Social structures that are stable enough to
last and flexible enough to adapt are rare. Dominance hierarchies appear to work,
so social animals universally inhabit them -- and their nervous systems have fully
adapted to their existence. So the same neurochemical mechanism (serotonin)
governs dominance behavior in crustaceans and human beings, despite the
tremendous evolutionary distance between them. Anti-depressants, which
enhance serotonin function, will restore the "confidence" of a lobster who has
recently lost a dominance battle, make him stand up straight, and restore his
willingness to fight.
Organized human societies are dominance hierarchies full of members who have
become conscious enough of the pattern to codify it in rules -- and then argue
about the rules. Nonetheless, the rules exist, and are broken at the rule-breakers
severe peril.
Upvote · 71 Share
Why do people who claim to support the environment have

kids?
It is very important to distinguish support for the environment -- that great and
often dangerous abstraction -- from hatred for humanity. When the discussion
turns to the immorality of bringing children into the world, the probability that
we are now in the territory of hatred for humanity is very high.
Run quickly away from people who state that having children is wrong. Their
environmentalism is merely the publicly acceptable front for their profoundly
and dangerously anti-human sentiment.
"The planet would be better off if there were no people on it" -- a very evil
statement, offered in a very moral manner.
'When you tell a lie often enough, it becomes the truth' - to what
extent is this the case?
When you tell a lie often enough, you become unable to distinguish it from the
truth.
If you tell enough lies, often enough, the truth will become entirely hidden from
you -- and then you are in hell.
Upvote · 123 Share
Is it justified to lie or use exaggerated imagery to convince

people to do the right thing for the environment?
No. People become cynical very rapidly when something is oversold. You might
fool them once, but the next time, they won't listen at all -- and the next time
might be the most important time.
Upvote · 82 Share
What is the purpose of life?

Updated May 4, 2014
Originally Answered: What is the purpose of life? What is the reason behind our existence?
Man is here to transform earth into heaven (and not into hell).
You can start the process, today, by cleaning up your room :)
A rabbi was asked why God does not speak to anyone, nowadays, as he did so
often in the past. The rabbi replied, "nowadays there is no longer anybody who
can bow low enough."
(paraphrased from CG Jung)
Upvote · 224 Share
What is the purpose of criminal law?

If you are wronged, then you may feel a moral obligation to seek revenge.
Imagine, for example, that your daughter or wife is raped. A functioning criminal
justice system will help relieve you of that obligation (partly by acting on your
account; partly by forbidding you to take revenge). By doing so, it will help ensure
that every wrong, accidental or purposeful, does not launch an escalating war of
retribution.
Upvote · 69 Share
What is the purpose of morality?

 https://www.quora.com/What-is-morality
Morality, like politics, is the alternative to chaos and war.
Upvote · 63 Share
Is it immoral to use software to auto-follow users on Twitter in

hopes that they might follow you back?
 https://support.twitter.com/articles/76915
professor
If you have to ask if something is immoral, then it probably is -- at least for you.
Upvote · 33 Share
How should a college student spend their summer salary?

It's never a mistake to buy tools, defined broadly. They're not a cost, they're an
investment.
Upvote · 69 Share
How does trauma during childhood affect the brain, e.g., seeing
a parent suffer a heart attack, or suffering from severe corporal
punishment, et cetera?
and professor
If the trauma is serious enough, it makes the amygdala, which produces anxiety,
grow and the hippocampus, which inhibits it, situationally, shrink. This
combination of effects can make the traumatized person permanently more
sensitive to anxiety and pain. The hippocampus can recover, can grow back,
possibly as the person comes to understand the precise causal chain of events
that lead to the trauma, and how to avoid such circumstances in the future;
however, the amygdala does not appear to return to its original size.
Antidepressants can aid hippocampal recovery.
This is of course an oversimplification, but it's as accurate as a few sentences can

be.
Upvote · 94 Share
What are good techniques, methodologies, or strategies for

setting and managing attainable personal goals? Are there
books, blog posts or videos that you have found particularly
helpful in setting and managing attainable goals?
There is a short paper that reviews the relevant current literature on goal-setting
available for download on the left side of the page at www.selfauthoring.com .
Upvote · 32 Share
What are some concrete examples of good teaching techniques;

good pedagogy?
and professor
Never read your notes.
Tell stories.
Know why what you are talking about is important (or don't talk about it).
Alternatively put: make facts relevant -- then they are memorable.
Look directly at your audience (one person at a time).
Think hard about your basic points for ten minutes before each class (and don't
look at your notes while doing this thinking).
Talk about what you know.
Use the time you are teaching to learn something yourself -- to think something
through more clearly and carefully.
Model the act of thinking for your students.
Don't overprepare -- you will just drown your students in detail.
Upvote · 166 Share
What are the arguments in favor of almost never lying?

Updated May 4, 2014
Three answers:
1. One of the primary disadvantages to lying (but certainly not the only one) is
that every lie constitutes a dangerous precedent. You get better at what you
practice.
2. If you are in a situation where lying is your only evident option, you should
think hard about how you arrived there, and make sure, to the best of your ability,
that it does not happen again. Being where you have to lie is often a form of lying.
3. There are different forms of lying. Sometimes you have to distort the truth at
one level of analysis, to support it at another. White lies fall into this category. A
white lie is not an optimal solution to the problem of conflict of level of analysis,
but sometimes it appears to be the best one at hand. However, it is generally
worthwhile to find an answer that is true at all relevant levels simultaneously. So
the proper answer to "does this dress make me look fat" might not be "no" (to
preserve the questioner's feelings) or "yes" (because it does) but "I don't like to
answer questions like that" (because such questions are often inappropriate).
I'm an English teacher and the energy in my classroom is

stagnating. What writing exercise could get the students
engaged?
Ask them to write about the worst thing that has ever happened to them, or the
worst thing they have ever done. This will also improve their health and their
productivity (see www.selfauthoring.com for more information).
Upvote · 44 Share
Why do religious people often deny glaring scientific facts (or

more plausible hypothesis) for something divine and based on
faith, and how do they justify it?
 http://www.thinkatheist.com/profiles/blogs/bill-nye-bood-in-texas-for/
It is often because their religious beliefs have provided their communities with
stable, functioning and broadly accepted moral guidelines (that is, guidelines
about how to behave). If it turns out that one of the axioms or assumptions that
underlies those beliefs is wrong, then it raises a specter: what if the whole system
is wrong? When that question arises, the whole moral foundation shakes, and
that can destabilize the entire community. It's not merely a matter of pig-
headedness. Read Tolstoy's Confessions - it provides a good introduction to the
problem (as does Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment).
Upvote · 100 Share
Why do some people prefer to do nothing rather than

something?
They are low in trait conscientiousness, a stable Big Five personality trait. Trait
conscientiousness is composed of industriousness and orderliness. People low in
industriousness do not work hard. Why do such people exist? Here is one possible
answer: There are environments where working hard is counterproductive, even
dangerous. If you live in an unstable country, for example, and you work hard,
and build up security and wealth, someone might hurt you -- even kill you -- and
take what you have. Better under such circumstances to do as little as possible.
Also, you might reverse your question: lazy does not need explaining. It is easy to
be lazy. What needs to be explained is the tendency that people have to work.
Upvote · 115 Share
Can you test people for their natural talent to learn languages?
Sure: you can use a test of general cognitive ability -- more commonly known as
an IQ test. It is also likely, but not yet clearly known, that people who are high in
the Big Five personality trait openness will learn a language more quickly, as they
tend to be more verbally intelligent. Trait conscientiousness is also likely to help,
as conscientious people work harder at whatever they are trying to do. Why do
you want to know?
Upvote · 50 Share
Which is the best introductory book for the discipline you

know?
For psychoanalytic thought, certainly The Discovery of the Unconscious by Henri

Ellenberger. Jung, Adler and Freud, in one volume, in their historical context,
clearly written, unmatched scholarship -- a brilliant, unbiased book.
For the neuroscience of emotion: Affective Neuroscience by Jaak Panksepp --

readable, creative, deep, informed, and personal.
Which is the best introductory book on ethics?

Try Viktor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning, or Alexander Solzhenitsyn's Gulag
Archipelago (particularly the second volume), or Erich Neumann's Depth
Psychology: A New Ethic.
What are the best philosophy books?

Originally Answered: What are the best philosophy books?
Beyond Good and Evil by Friedrich Nietzsche (really, anything Nietzsche wrote,
but don't start with Thus Spake Zarathustra)
What are the most popular icons or images that represent

Canada?
 https://www.quora.com/topic/Taj-Mahal
The inimitable Leonard Cohen
Upvote · 47 Share
What pieces of literature are considered to be as morally

"outrageous" as Wuthering Heights?
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wuthering_Heights#Critical_response
Morally outrageous:
The Painted Bird by Jerzy Kozinski (beware of this book).
The Last Temptation of Christ by Nikos Kazantzakis (the author was
excommunicated)
We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver (in my opinion, the most realistic
portrayal of psychopathy ever penned)
Upvote · 50 Share
What are the most valuable things everyone should know?

professor
Updated Mar 18
Tell the truth.

Do not do things that you hate.
Act so that you can tell the truth about how you act.
Pursue what is meaningful, not what is expedient.
If you have to choose, be the one who does things, instead of the one who is seen
to do things.
Pay attention.
Assume that the person you are listening to might know something you need to
know. Listen to them hard enough so that they will share it with you.
Plan and work diligently to maintain the romance in your relationships.
Be careful who you share good news with.
Be careful who you share bad news with.
Make at least one thing better every single place you go.
Imagine who you could be, and then aim single-mindedly at that.
Do not allow yourself to become arrogant or resentful.
Try to make one room in your house as beautiful as possible.
Compare yourself to who you were yesterday, not to who someone else is today.
Work as hard as you possibly can on at least one thing and see what happens.
If old memories still make you cry, write them down carefully and completely.
Maintain your connections with people.
Do not carelessly denigrate social institutions or artistic achievement.
Treat yourself as if you were someone that you are responsible for helping.
Ask someone to do you a small favour, so that he or she can ask you to do one in
the future.
Make friends with people who want the best for you.
Do not try to rescue someone who does not want to be rescued, and be very
careful about rescuing someone who does.
Nothing well done is insignificant.
Set your house in perfect order before you criticize the world.
Dress like the person you want to be.
Be precise in your speech.
Stand up straight with your shoulders back.
Don't avoid something frightening if it stands in your way -- and don't do
unnecessarily dangerous things.
Do not let your children do anything that makes you dislike them.
Do not transform your wife into a maid.
Do not hide unwanted things in the fog.
Notice that opportunity lurks where responsibility has been abdicated.
Read something written by someone great.
Pet a cat when you encounter one on the street.
Do not bother children when they are skateboarding.
Don't let bullies get away with it.
Write a letter to the government if you see something that needs fixing -- and
propose a solution.
Remember that what you do not yet know is more important than what you
already know.
Be grateful in spite of your suffering.
Follow me on Twitter: @jordanbpeterson
Follow me on YouTube: Jordan B Peterson
12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos, my new book (Penguin/Random House),

is based on a dozen of these rules. It is currently available from many sellers here:
12 Rules For Life
439.6k Views · View Upvoters · View Sharers · Answer requested by Victoria
Kit Boragina
First message, you don’t deserve, you were GIVEN life, so you arrive indebted. St…
What things in life get better as you age?

People become more conscientious (orderly and industrious), more agreeable
(polite and compassionate) and less neurotic (less volatile and less withdrawn).
Upvote · 186 Share
What's the difference between being happy and being content?

Originally Answered: What is the difference between happiness and contentment?
Happiness is associated with high extraversion and low neuroticism.
Extraversion and its emotions, such as happiness, is mediated by the brain
chemical dopamine, which is produced in response to evidence that progress is
being made towards a valuable goal, and which reinforces the systems of
perception, thought and action which brought about that desired end.
Neuroticism, which is sensitivity to negative emotions such as anxiety, fear and
pain, is trait sensitivity to evidence that progress towards a desirable goal is
blocked or endangered. Happiness is actually more affected negatively by bad
events than it is promoted by equally sized good events.
Contentment, by contrast, appears mediated by serotonin, which is produced

when valued goals are attained, or when social status increases. Serotonin
reduces the reactivity of positive and negative emotion systems, producing
satiation (the technical equivalent to contentment).
What makes life more meaningful?
This is actually something to discover, not something to theorize about. You have
to watch, in a detached manner, so that you can find out what manifests itself as
meaningful to you. You can learn to do this. You can start by watching yourself
for a couple of weeks. Assume you do not know who you are, but that you would
like to find out. Notice when you say or do something that makes you unhappy or
self-conscious or disgusted with yourself. Stop saying and doing those things.
Notice, as well, when you say or do something that makes you feel more engaged,
stronger, and less self-conscious. Say and do more of those things.
This watching and noticing is more of an embodied or incarnate phenomena

than an abstract conceptualization. Saying and doing things properly -- for you --
will bring together your disparate and warring parts, and improve your temper.
Such an exercise produces an experience of deep-rooted solidity, at
approximately the level of the solar plexus, rather than the experience of fallling
apart. That solidity is the philosopher's stone.
You will have to sacrifice many of your deepest rooted convictions to correctly
perform the exercise described above correctly. Many of the things that make you
unhappy or self-conscious or disgusted will be things that you wish you could
happily do -- but you can't. The joke's on you. Likewise, the things that make you
stronger will often be undertakings you wish were beneath you -- but aren't. The
joke's on you again.
What is the most complex/meaningful poem? I was reading

Heaney which has a lot of hidden meaning and many literary
devices. Are there any other poets whose poetry is similarly
complex or erudite?
The entire Bible can be reasonably considered poetry -- even a single long poem.
The Bible is poetry partly because of the beauty of its language, but more
importantly because its structure hints at realities that remain so complex that
they are still expressed most suitably in narrative and metaphor. This is a
characteristic of genuine art, which aims at expressing the still inexpressible.
Chris Harrison has produced a remarkable map of the cross-references in the

BIble, providing a quick visual indicator of its tremendous depth of meaning (a
depth dependent on the complex relationship between so many of its concepts).
Upvote · 84 Share
What is the base of meaning?

There are different kinds of meaning. In the most basic sense, meaning is rooted
in motivation and emotion, in roughly that order.
Food is meaningful to someone who is hungry, as is water to someone who is

thirsty. Hunger and thirst are basic motivations, but there are others (including
sexual desire, disgust, pain, and the need for status). Basic motivations are
systems of perception, thought and behaviour that serve the necessities of life
(although they are better regarded as rather obsessive micro-personalities, than
as systems or mechanisms). Basic motivational states are products of evolution,
and are shared with non-human creatures, far down the evolutionary chain. Even
crustaceans want status, for example, and crustacean status is mediated by the
brain chemical serotonin, just as it is in humans.
Emotions, for their part, are also intrinsically meaningful. They tend to signal
movement away from or towards valued goals, including those that are
established by basic motivational systems. Thus, they have an orienting function.
Positive emotion, which is primarily mediated by the brain chemical dopamine,
tells you that you are on the right track, while negative emotions tell you that you
have made a wrong turn. Emotions are also intrinsically meaningful.
This simple picture is complicated by the fact that motivational systems have to
find fulfillment across many time frames and many contexts. This means that the
simple pursuit of a given motivationally-determined goal at one time and place
might interfere with the pursuit of another, or several others. Thus, people have
to organize their motivations and emotions into complex systems, which are
generally considered systems of beliefs. People also find their belief systems
meaningful, as they serve to organize their endeavours across multiple states of
motivation across many situations and time frames. It is for this reason that
people do not like to have their meaningful belief systems involuntarily
challenged.
The necessity of transformation adds an additional complication to this
increasingly complex picture: a system of belief may need to be updated, despite
the desire for stability, as such systems tend to age into irrelevance with the
change that time brings. Thus, experiences that produce information of the sort
that allows people to update their belief systems are also frequently experienced
as meaningful (often as most profoundly meaningful).
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a psychology professor at the University of Toronto, a clinical Professor of Psychology at

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Get up early in the morning and get to work.

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I'm 27 and a two time convicted felon. I screwed up my life.

If you complete the Future Authoring program at http://selfauthoring.com it

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However, if you absolutely must....

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What is more beneﬁcial in all aspects of life; a high EQ or IQ?

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IQ is a diﬀerent story. It is the most well-validated concept in the social sciences,

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Answer: Get prepared for anything.

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