UPDATE

 It's Day 7 for me and my family without power. Check "NEXT" on Tuesday morning before class, for the latest update.

==

Wind chill below zero when I took the dogs out this morning. Robert Frost comes to mind...

Some say the world will end in fire,

Some say in ice.

From what I’ve tasted of desire

I hold with those who favor fire.

But if it had to perish twice,

I think I know enough of hate

To know that for destruction ice

Is also great

And would suffice.

I'm not really this pessimistic. But I'm ready for Spring.

Day 6

 

Still without power, holed up in a downtown hotel a stone's throw from the Seigenthaler pedestrian bridge so artfully depicted in the lobby. Want to dogwalk it, but it's forbiddingly icy. Hurry please, NES. 

UPDATE Jan 28

POST-UPDATE, 10:20 a.m.: University still on remote status Thursday. Looking forward to seeing you all Tuesday, one way or another. jpo

Still powerless in my neighborhood, I'm unlikely to make it to Murfreesboro tomorrow whatever the university decides about Thursday (29th). Please continue keeping up with the readings (Aristotle, Pyrrho etc.) and post your comments about them as you are able. We’ll catch up when we can. See you eventually. jpo

No class today

 Or tomorrow. Probably not the rest of the week, though that  determination has not yet been made as of 5 AM Tuesday. I hope you are all well, staying warm wherever you are. It’s day three of no power where I live, in Nashville. We’re spending a lot of time bundled and huddled around the fireplace and consuming warm beverages. Last time this happened was the big chill of ‘94. Every 30 years or so is often enough!

Please keep up with the readings and post your comments about them as you are able. We’ll catch up when we can. See you soon. jpo

What matters?

"Of course, I matter to myself—that's self-evident—but do I actually, truly, objectively matter? Does my objectively mattering just come along with my objectively existing, or is there rather something that I must do, something that I must be, to deserve all the attention that I can't help lavishing on myself?

Should I pursue power or fame to vindicate my self-mattering, strive to have the fact of my existence register in as many lives as possible and in that way come to truly matter, or should I rather dedicate my life to the service of others? Should I strive to create something of beauty in the world, giving pleasure to many, or contribute to the ongoing search for knowledge that our self-characterization as Homo sapiens suggests we are supposed to be all about? Must I please a deity to whom I owe my existence and live out the purpose for which the deity might have created me, or live my life as if it were a work of art, cultivating such aesthetic qualities as style, originality, and coherence? Should I merge my identity with something greater than myself, something that will outlast me, perhaps a cause, such as justice for all, or, as in Buddhism, with reality itself so that my personal ego shrivels into the purity of nothingness? Or do I achieve mattering simply by doing my best by the people with whom the circumstances of my life have contingently bound me—my family and friends, my colleagues?"

— The Mattering Instinct: How Our Deepest Longing Drives Us and Divides Us by Rebecca Newberger Goldstein

How we'll begin each class

 I like to take a few moments each day to notice our context within the "continuous human community in which we are a link" (John Dewey)...

So we'll begin with a glance at history and sometimes the Writers Almanac, and at the historical "newspaper of record," the New York Times.

Don't forget to activate your free student subscription to the digital edition of the Times.

And don't forget to read it.

A Tennessee Dean Had ‘Zero Sympathy’ for Charlie Kirk. She Was Fired.

This is old news now, but it made the New York Times yesterday. Not great publicity for MTSU.

"If I'm wrong, and this speech is not protected, then I have never understood what the Constitution means and I have never understood what it protects," Ms. Sosh-Lightsy said. "Either I haven't understood it or we are on the edge of completely changing what it means."

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/19/us/politics/middle-tennessee-state-university-dean-fired-charlie-kirk.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share

Introductions

 Greetings, Spring '26 CoPhilosophers. ("CoPhilosophy," or "CoPhi" for short, is my informal name for Intro to Philosophy. Read the masthead quote above, to see why. I'll elaborate on the first day of class.)

Note also: we're going with a no-screens policy this semester... so please do not open your laptops or stare at your phones at any point during class (exceptions noted in the sidebar to the right).

We begin with Introductions. Please click on the comments tab below and tell us 

• Who you are;
• Why you're here (at MTSU, in the Honors program, in this course, on this planet); 
• What you think Philosophy is;
• Whether you have a pithy personal philosophy of your own (think Sally Brown, Charlie's little sister: "No! That's my new philosophy!");
• Whether you have a favorite philosopher (famous or not);
• The title of the last unassigned book you read and enjoyed;
• Whatever else you'd care to share.

Include your section # (1, 2, or 3), we're sharing this site. 

Just for fun: Monty Python's Philosophers Song (it's not true that all the old dead philosophers were drunks), and Douglas Adams's answer to the ultimate question of the Life, the Universe, and Everything.

Looking forward to meeting you all on the 20th!

Dr. Oliver

Surviving Autocracy

Very good piece by @mashagessen, the author of Surviving Autocracy, who left Russia in 2013 as the authoritarian hammer really started coming down, and moved to the United States.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/18/opinion/trump-one-year-later.html?unlocked_article_code

Dump the chariot

What Are We Thinking?

Our thoughts are an ever-changing swirl of fears, feelings, desires, impulses, memories and body sensations that interact to form a single mind.

...we can dump one of the more unfortunate metaphors we in the West have relied on to understand the mind. This metaphor, going back to ancient Greece, holds that reason is a wise charioteer and the passions — emotions and desires — are the stallions who pull the chariot. In this fable, reason is the calm, sophisticated smart guy, while the emotions and desires are dumb, primitive beasts. People lead good rational lives when they use reason to suppress and control the passions.

This chariot metaphor rests on an overly positive estimation of the power of pure reason and an overly negative view of the passions. The fact is that your emotions are not primitive and dumb. Positive emotions encourage risk-taking. Awe encourages you to broaden your focus beyond your narrow self. Sadness encourages you to change your way of thinking.

Your desires are not dumb, either. They tell you what is worth valuing and where you should go. Your body also contains its own form of wisdom. Cortisol increases vigilance. Adrenaline prepares the body for quick and decisive action.

As Annie Murphy Paul writes in her book “The Extended Mind,” “Recent research suggests a rather astonishing possibility: The body can be more rational than the brain.”

If we wanted to step back and look at the whole mind, we’d say — to the extent that we can even separate these faculties — that reason, emotions and desires are just different resources people draw upon to help make judgments about what to do next. Each faculty has its own strengths and weaknesses, and life goes best when a person coordinates all the faculties in one graceful swirl.

Your job as a conscious person is not to be a dominating, rationalist charioteer. It’s to read the judgments that your emotions, desires and body are sending you, act on them when their judgments are appropriate and redirect them when they are getting carried away.

Some people are so misled by the charioteer fable that they don’t cultivate or use all their faculties. They are so smitten with their own high intelligence that they don’t pay attention to their own emotions and desires, or to the signals their guts are sending them. This is why phenomenally smart people often do astoundingly stupid things...

David Brooks
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/16/opinion/neuroscience-thinking-human.html?smid=em-share

eTexts at the library

…Based on our search, the following eBooks are available to your students:

A little history of philosophy

https://ezproxy.mtsu.edu/login?url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/j.ctt5vkvxd

Sick souls, healthy minds : how William James can save your life

https://ezproxy.mtsu.edu/login?url=https://muse.jhu.edu/book/73048

…

To see more about the library's effort to support students and faculty in offering affordable course materials, please check out our web page and newaffordable course materials search. 

And if you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Best wishes,
Suzanne

Suzanne Mangrum, MLS
Acquisitions Librarian
James E. Walker Library

If You Can’t Teach Plato in a Philosophy Class, What Can You Teach?

An ancient classic is canceled in Texas.

...University administrators and state lawmakers are saying, in effect, that academic freedom won’t protect you if you teach ideas they don’t like. Never mind that decades ago, the Supreme Court described classrooms as the very embodiment of the “marketplace of ideas”: “Our nation is deeply committed to safeguarding academic freedom, which is of transcendent value to all of us, and not merely to the teachers concerned. That freedom is therefore a special concern of the First Amendment, which does not tolerate laws that cast a pall of orthodoxy over the classroom...”

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/12/opinion/plato-texas-academic-freedom.html?smid=em-share

WJS Newsletter – William James Society

Spring 2026 Newsletter

President's Message from Dr. Phil Oliver

LISTEN (audio file on Google Docs)

'Tis the season of William James's birth, in 1842.

By an odd twist of coincidence, January 11 happens also to be my wife's birthday. So it's a date I cannot and dare not ever forget.

The late great biographer Robert Richardson, noting the legendary James "family tradition" according to which Emerson blessed infant William, cautioned against attaching either too much or too little import to that mythic connection. It does seem too right to be true, but also too good not to be...

https://wjsociety.org/news/

Unenlightened "theory"

"What’s confusing about the woke movement is that it’s born from traditional left-wing emotions: empathy for the marginalized, indignation at the plight of the oppressed, determination that historical wrongs should be righted. Those emotions, however, are derailed by a range of theoretical assumptions that ultimately undermine them. ‘Theory,’ in English, is such a nebulous and trendy concept that it’s even been used to launch a fashion line, but if the word today has no clear content, it does have some direction. What unites very different intellectual movements bound together by the word ‘theory’ is a rejection of the epistemological frameworks and political assumptions inherited from the Enlightenment. You need not spend years deciphering Judith Butler or Homi Bhabha to be influenced by theory. We rarely notice the assumptions now embedded in the culture, for they’re usually expressed as self-evident truths. Because they are offered as simple descriptions of reality rather than ideas we might question, it’s hard to challenge them directly. Those who have learned in college to distrust every claim to truth will hesitate to acknowledge falsehood."

Left Is Not Woke by Susan Neiman

(Susan's point: enlightened people are skeptical, but they're also truth-and-wisdom-seekers.As we'll see when we read her Why Grow Up, she thinks that's the mature view.)

Simone de Beauvoir on love and friendship

Simone de Beauvoir, born on this day in 1908, on love and friendship — simply superb: https://www.themarginalian.org/2025/04/11/simone-de-beauvoir-love-friendship/

Time travel

"I feel so sorry for anyone who misses the experience of history, the horizons of history. We think little of those who, given the chance to travel, go nowhere. We deprecate provincialism. But it is possible to be as provincial in time as it is in space. Because you were born into this particular era doesn’t mean it has to be the limit of your experience. Move about in time, go places. Why restrict your circle of acquaintances to only those who occupy the same stage we call the present?"

"Brave Companions" by David McCullough: https://a.co/2aRCw9Q

Why Plato Matters Now

Does Plato matter? An ancient philosopher whose work has inspired and informed countless thinkers and poets across the centuries, his ideas are no longer taught as widely as they once were. But, as Angie Hobbs argues in this clear-sighted book, that is a mistake.

If we want to understand the world we live in – from democracy, autocracy and fake news to celebrity, cancel culture and what money can and cannot do – there is no better place to start than Plato. Exploring the intersection between the ancient and the modern, Professor Hobbs shows how Plato can help us address key questions concerning the nature of a flourishing life and community, healthcare, love and friendship, heroism, reality, art and myth-making. She also shows us how Plato's adaptation of the Socratic method and dialogue form can enable us to deal with contested issues more constructively.

Plato's methodology, arguments, ideas and vivid images are explained with a clarity suitable both for readers familiar with his work and for those approaching Plato for the first time. This book shows why Plato really matters, now more than ever.

==

"A.N. Whitehead claims that the European philosophical tradition can best be characterized as a 'series of footnotes to Plato'. This is not true, but it is true that after Plato no philosopher in the West can fail to have been influenced by him, for better or worse, whether they are aware of it or not.

I fell in love with Plato when I was a student of 19, and have been reading his works, writing and broadcasting about them, and discussing them with undergraduates and graduates throughout the decades since. 'Philosophy begins in wondering, and nowhere else,' says Socrates in the Theaetetus; Plato helped harness and nurture that sense of wonder in me, and I shall always be grateful to him. I still find his dialogues inexhaustibly rich, beautiful and thought-provoking. At times I find them disturbing, but they always provoke me into exploring why I am disturbed, and thus coming to a more precise and lucid understanding of the questions at stake."

— Why Plato Matters Now by Angie Hobbs

https://a.co/d/3DNA6xy

==

Texas A&M has ordered a professor to remove the teachings of Plato from his course as part of an institutional policy banning race and gender "ideology."

Reached for comment, Plato said: "We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light."

https://www.sacurrent.com/news/texas-news/texas-am-bans-radical-woke-teachings-of-greek-philosopher-plato/

==

PEN America condemns educational censorship at Texas A&M after a professor is told not to teach Plato, a foundational thinker in the study of Western philosophy, merely because his writings discuss questions about love, gender, and human identity.

https://pen.org/press-release/plato-has-been-censored-what-next/ censorship #highereducation

Texas A&M, Under New Curriculum Limits, Warns Professor Not to Teach Plato

Definitely planning, now, to discuss Plato's Symposium in my classes around Valentine's Day. What a moment we're living through! And what a platonic irony, as they're literally killing poets too.

… On Wednesday, as word of disputes like Dr. Peterson's spread, critics of the Texas A&M policies said free-speech clashes became inevitable after the board's moves. The College Station campus's chapter of the American Association of University Professors said the move against Dr. Peterson "raises serious legal concerns."

The group said its misgivings went beyond the Constitution.

"Silencing 2,500-year-old ideas from one of the world's most influential thinkers betrays the mission of higher education and denies students the opportunity to engage critically with the foundations of Western thought," the group said. "A research university that censors Plato abandons its obligation to truth, inquiry, and the public trust — and should not be regarded as a serious institution of higher learning."

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/07/us/tamu-plato-race-gender.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share

Orenda

Orenda is when we look at how things are and decide how we want them to be.

https://substack.com/@philosophyminis/note/c-192409784?r=35ogp&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=notes-share-action

Don’t fall into the gap

And what's the word for hanging onto your dreams, no matter how daunting the present actuality?

Near-death survivors

…at the annual conference of the International Association for Near-Death Studies

Near-death experiencers are the best dancers. I could identify which attendees at the annual conference of the International Association for Near-Death Studies have been to the brink, because they moved their bodies with un-self-conscious abandon, ripping up the floor of a tent on the grounds of a suburban Chicago Hilton.

The dance party, which took place on the penultimate night of the conference, was dominated by longtime members of the organization. There were over 700 people at the conference and around 300 at this celebration. I recognized many of their faces from the jackets of the books sold at the conference’s bookstore and from the panels I attended.

You could walk up to any one of them, and they would matter-of-factly tell you about how they almost died. Evan Mecham, the president-elect of IANDS, had an archetypal near-death story, which he started telling me a few minutes after we met. He had been driving on an icy mountain road at night when a deer appeared. He swerved, saving the deer’s life but almost losing his own. He nearly bled out waiting for medical help after a semi truck hit his driver’s side.

“All the pain left me, and if death was a warm blanket, it drew itself up over me, and I crossed over. I let go. I had an incredible experience of talking with another dimension, and I died with gratitude and love for a creator and for my life and for family,” Mecham told me. It changed his life permanently. “I became kinder. I became a vegetarian.” He became a more mindful spouse and father... nyt

MALA 6010 Spring 2026

UPDATE, Feb. 26: Here's a more direct link to our Week 1 reading assignment, "On a Certain Blindness in Human Beings" by William James.

The Connection Between Liberal Arts and Well-Being

Block 1 - 1/29 and 2/5     Will Perkins
Block 2 - 2/12 and 19      Yang Kim
Block 3 - 2/26 and 3/5     Phil Oliver - The Philosophy of Well-Being *
Block 4 - 3/19 and 26      Francis Koti
Block 5 - 4/2 and 9        Angela Mertig
Block 6 - 4/16 and 23      Kate Goodwin 

The Philosophy of Well-Being
 Philosophers since antiquity have concerned themselves with the pursuit of happiness and human flourishing, which (along with physical and mental health) substantially comprise "well-being" as most of us conceive it. 

William James said "If we were to ask the question: What is human life's chief concern? one of the answers we should receive would be: It is happiness. How to gain, how to keep, how to recover happiness, is in fact for most people at all times the secret motive of all they do, and of all they are willing to endure." 

And he once advised an ailing friend: "Keep your health, your splendid health. It is better than all the truths under the firmament." 

In this block we'll discuss what philosophers like James have said about well-being as our chief concern.

Readings/assignments - selections to be announced and posted on the CoPhilosophy site.

Grade distribution (to total 15% of the overall course grade or 150/1000 points) - 50% participation (attendance, blog posts on the CoPhilosophy site); 50% report presentation-Week 2.


The Connection Between Liberal Arts and Well-Being: Liberal arts education encompasses various disciplines, including humanities, social sciences, and the arts, which contribute to a well-rounded understanding of human experiences. This holistic approach helps individuals develop critical thinking and empathy, essential for personal and societal well-being.

 
The liberal arts significantly contribute to well-being by equipping individuals with the skills and knowledge necessary to understand and address complex human issues. By fostering critical thinking, cultural awareness, and emotional intelligence, liberal arts education prepares individuals to lead fulfilling lives and positively impact their communities. These skills are crucial for navigating life's challenges and fostering resilience, which are key components of well-being. They offer not just tools for work, but tools for life.

 
This interdisciplinary approach is essential in today's fast-paced world, where holistic well-being is increasingly recognized as vital for personal and societal health. The connection between well-being and the liberal arts is a powerful one, rooted in the idea that education is not just about acquiring job skills, but about becoming a thoughtful, reflective, and flourishing human being.

==

* For what it's worth, chatGPT's overly-ambitious suggestions:

You said:

I am participating this semester in a team-taught course in the Master of Liberal Arts (MALA) program at Middle Tennessee State University called MALA 6010 The Connection Between Liberal Arts and Well-Being. I and several other professors from various departments in the college will each meet with the students twice. My block, called The Philosophy of Well-being, is February 26 and March 5. This is my block description: Philosophers since antiquity have concerned themselves with the pursuit of happiness and human flourishing, which (along with physical and mental health) substantially comprise "well-being" as most of us conceive it. William James said "If we were to ask the question: What is human life's chief concern? one of the answers we should receive would be: It is happiness. How to gain, how to keep, how to recover happiness, is in fact for most people at all times the secret motive of all they do, and of all they are willing to endure." And he once advised an ailing friend: "Keep your health, your splendid health. It is better than all the truths under the firmament." In this block we'll discuss what philosophers like James have said about well-being as our chief concern. Can you suggest suitable readings for Week 1? In Week 2, students will each present a short report on some aspect of well-being, health and happiness, and what philosophers (particularly American philosophers) have written about this. In Week 1 I would like to assign something by William James, possibly his essay "On a Certain Blindness in Human Beings"... I would also like to assign something that will give students a brief and broad overview of the field, perhaps an excerpt from Daniel Haybron's Very Short Introduction to Happiness. Can you suggest other possible reading assignments and recommendations?

ChatGPT said:

This sounds like a wonderful block—especially in a MALA context, where you can move fluidly between historical, existential, and practical dimensions of well-being.

Since Week 1 sets the conceptual and interpretive framework for student presentations in Week 2, I’d suggest structuring it around three layers:

A classic American philosophical voice (James)

A concise conceptual map of the field


A contrasting or complicating perspective on happiness/well-being

Below is a curated set of suggestions, organized by role in the syllabus.
Core Anchor: William James
1. William James – “On a Certain Blindness in Human Beings” (1899)
Excellent choice.
Why it works:
Introduces pluralism about values and well-being.

Undermines moralistic and elitist accounts of the good life.

Emphasizes sympathy and the opacity of others’ goods.

Pairs beautifully with contemporary debates about subjective vs. objective accounts of well-being.

You might frame it with questions such as:

• Does James defend subjectivism about well-being?
• Is well-being plural and perspectival?
• What role does “recognition” play in human flourishing?

2. James – “The Moral Equivalent of War” (optional pairing)

This essay complements Blindness by connecting individual vitality with collective purpose and discipline. It raises the question:

Does well-being require struggle? Is comfort the enemy of flourishing?

If you prefer something more psychological, an excerpt from The Varieties of Religious Experience (e.g., “The Sick Soul” vs. “The Healthy-Minded”) would deepen the conversation about health, optimism, and tragic consciousness.
Concise Overview of the Field
3. Daniel Haybron – Happiness: A Very Short Introduction

Excellent for conceptual scaffolding.
Particularly useful sections:

Distinction between happiness and life satisfaction

Emotional condition vs. evaluative judgment

Critique of “life satisfaction” metrics

Students will benefit from:

Clear taxonomy (hedonism, desire-satisfaction, objective list theories)


Introduction to measurement debates
Classical Foundations (Short Excerpts)

Even in an American-focused block, grounding in antiquity clarifies the tradition James inherits.

4. Aristotle – Nicomachean Ethics, Book I (selections on eudaimonia)

Why:
Establishes flourishing as activity in accordance with virtue.

Provides a non-hedonic model of well-being.

Useful contrast to modern psychological accounts.

Even 10–15 pages would suffice.
A Pragmatist Expansion
5. John Dewey – Excerpt from Human Nature and Conduct
Dewey reframes well-being in terms of:

• Habit formation
• Growth as an ongoing process
• Democratic and social dimensions of flourishing

This keeps the focus distinctly American and ties well-being to education and civic life—very appropriate for a Liberal Arts course.
A Contemporary American Voice
6. Martha Nussbaum – Excerpt from Creating Capabilities or “Capabilities and Human Rights”

Though not a pragmatist, she offers:

A robust objective-list theory

A bridge between philosophy and public policy

A framework for thinking about health and human dignity

This will give students options for their Week 2 reports (e.g., capabilities vs. happiness metrics).
Existential / Psychological Depth

7. Ralph Waldo Emerson – “Self-Reliance” (selections)

Emerson enriches:

• Individual authenticity
• Non-conformity as flourishing
• The moral psychology of independence

He pairs beautifully with James’ pluralism.
Alternative American Perspective

8. Henry David Thoreau – Selections from Walden

Especially chapters on:

• Economy
• Solitude
• Higher Laws

Raises the question:
Is simplicity essential to well-being?
A Useful Structure for Week 1

You might assign:

Primary Text

James, “On a Certain Blindness in Human Beings”

Conceptual Overview

Haybron, selected chapters

Philosophical Counterpoint (choose one)

Aristotle (virtue model)

Dewey (growth model)

Nussbaum (capabilities model)

Emerson (authenticity model)

That keeps the load reasonable but conceptually rich.
Framing Questions for Week 1 Discussion

You might structure discussion around these tensions:

Is happiness primarily:

• A feeling?
• A judgment?
• A way of living?
• A moral achievement?
• Can someone be happy but not flourishing?
• Is well-being subjective, objective, or plural?
• Does health ground happiness—or is it only instrumental?
• Is suffering compatible with well-being?

Additional Optional American Thinkers (For Student Presentations)

If you want to seed ideas for Week 2:

William James – health and vitality
Jonathan Edwards – religious happiness
Josiah Royce – loyalty and community
Cornel West – prophetic pragmatism and hope
Laurence Thomas – moral psychology and respect

==

Also available for Week 2 report presentations:

• "I am an American philosopher" - interviews with contemporary philosophers in the pragmatic tradition (pick 2 or 3 to tell us about)
• William James Society - letters from the President, and other content
• The School of Life - short videos on historical philosophers and ideas (pick 2 or 3 to show us, and discuss
• Little History of Philosophy -tell us about 2 or 3 philosophers and their ideas about well-being. 
• Any of the books I've placed on 3-day reserve at the library (see the right sidebar on my CoPhi site).
• Anything else of interest to you (and pertaining to philosophy and well-being/happiness/flourishing) that you find in the library, or online (at the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, for instance), or on any of my sites.
• Chapter II, Blindness and Optimism, in William James's 'Springs of Delight': the Return to Life (in the library, not on reserve... or I can lend you a copy)

One Week Without Smartphones on a College Campus

"Classes at St. John's are discussion-based — no laptops allowed."

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/03/style/smartphone-tech-fast-college-students.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share

Seek wisdom

"Let no one be slow to seek wisdom when he is young nor weary in the search thereof when he is grown old. For no age is too early or too late for the health of the soul."

— Epicurus, Letter to Menoeceus

Best philosophy lectures on YouTube

https://open.substack.com/pub/jaredhenderson/p/the-best-philosophy-lectures-on-youtube?r=35ogp&utm_medium=ios&shareImageVariant=overlay

They Want to Influence You to Do … Nothing

Some GenZ influencers are so weird. For goodness sake, do something: go for a walk, read a book; don't just sit there making empty "content"…

…James Danckert, who runs a "boredom lab" at the University of Waterloo in Canada, where he studies the psychological and neurological roots of boredom, cautioned new practitioners not to indulge a "gross misunderstanding of boredom," in which this mental state is assumed to be a de facto good.

"Boredom is signaling for you a lack of meaning, a lack of purpose in your life," he said in an interview, calling the TikTok challenge in particular "a misguided approach." The goal, he explained, is not to wallow in feelings of disinterest and malaise but to find some way to alleviate them.

There are better ways for people to cope, Dr. Danckert said, other than locking themselves in a cage of existential ennui — by going outside or finding a new hobby, for instance. Reading also works. "You don't have to do nothing."

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/01/style/boredom-online-trend-influencers-tiktok.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share

Be good

"There is a gap between where we would like to be and where we are in terms of our behavior."
https://fivebooks.com/best-books/how-to-be-good-massimo-pigliucci/