The original quote says “Beware the lollipop of mediocrity; lick it once and you’ll suck forever.”
Such words are easily remembered. Of course, who wants to suck forever? I first came across that quote when I was a teenager. The quote, which originates from the famous Beach Boy co-founder Brian Wilson, was attached to some guy’s online profile. People tend to repeat these kinds of catchy words. So did I. It sounded right.
This kind of thinking is super toxic for your mental health. Here’s why.
Back in the days, I found that saying to be true, even with a…
I used to regret the path I had chosen for my final year at University. It ate at me how stupid I had been to get into the situation I was in. In another article, I covered some techniques for how to keep going when you cannot leave that helped keep me sane during the time. But as I was approaching the end of my hardships I came to realize that all those regrets had been entirely pointless.
The Loop of Regretting
Regretting, by definition, is about something of the past. Regretting suggests a mistake. You could have known better, have avoided something, and…
How to keep going when you cannot leave
For the longest time of my life, I have lived by the saying “if you can’t stand a situation, either leave it or change it.” During my final year at university, however, I had to discover that my everyday wisdom was not applicable.
I was in a situation where my supervisor — someone who was supposed to guide me with my thesis — threatened with ending my stipend if I would not work for him. That is, of course, without payment.
My research group and I found that he had spun off a second company to sell our research. We…
A logician’s thoughts during a meditation sitting.
Time for some moral philosophy. The trolley problem is a classic dilemma to question ethical decision making.
Consider a trolley that is bound to go either straight to divert once. The trolley cannot stop. There are five people tied to the track in front of the trolley. Tied to the sidetrack, however, is just a single individual. A person is tasked to decide whether to pull the lever and hence go to the sidetrack. Death is inevitable.
Let’s say the decision-maker is not a sadist and tries to decide in a morally correct…
This year I made the first-hand experience to be extorted by corrupt police. Looking back, the feelings of unfairness and powerlessness are interesting to observe. They are of a different kind, not comparable with shitty work life. Here is how being unsuspecting and blue-eyed can turn your holidays into a lesson on self-conception.
Living in Singapore, I was in the middle of my Master’s Thesis and decided to take some days off. A friend of mine joined me for a short trip to south-east Asia. It was the fifth day of our travel when we arrived in Vientiane, Laos. After…
Clifford Perkins
Student of life. Meditation newcomer. Yoga enthusiast. Cloud security engineer and language lover.
