Essays on freedom and personal fulfilment by Chris Barclay
Facebook friends. Instagram followers. Discord groups. We are building systems that help us optimize for separation. While claiming to further connectivity, these algorithms and their frameworks teach us to quantify our personal value by audience engagement versus through actual human affinity. They keep us hooked by gamifying social interaction, rewarding performative likability in place of […]
Continue ReadingThere’s a big fat girl made out of sunshine and she’s rolling all over me. I’m sitting in the garden, teeth chattering, knees knocking, in the swelter of Thai midday. A floor fan hums quietly behind me on the patio. I don’t feel hot, but am dripping with sweat. I reach for a face towel […]
Continue Reading中文 As social animals, people generally don’t respond well to confinement. That’s why it’s our primary form of punishment. It’s really the best disincentive to bad behavior we’ve come up with as a species. Lashings, public humiliation, attending traffic school, nothing makes people think twice more than the threat of being locked up. Which is […]
Continue ReadingEverything is perfect and there is always room for improvement — Shunryu Suzuki. For those suffering from self-induced pressures of striving to be perfect, here is a reprieve. It doesn’t involve daily affirmations that we are already good enough and should embrace our shortcomings as part of what makes us special. Nor does it reject […]
Continue ReadingHappiness is so overrated. Think about it. When we’re happy, we’re content with how things are, which is another way of saying complacent. When we’re complacent, we take things for granted, stop being curious and lose our interest in learning. We forget our appreciation for what it means to be free. We become busy and switched off to […]
Continue ReadingIt would be a lie if I told you that I am not scared. For me, the most frightening part of being smashed against the wall of mortality is the feeling that my life has been a failure. That I haven’t had enough time to realize all of my dreams and to make the kinds […]
Continue ReadingIt’s been almost a year since I last wrote, as I haven’t been struck by anything in particular that inspired me. Then yesterday I was at Starbucks minding my own business, when I was assaulted by Oprah Winfrey. Oprah is now selling her own branded tea, which includes putting her inspirational quotes on the insulating […]
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