Victor Frankl is an interesting case. I’d never heard of him before! Too many philosophy electives, not enough history. Heroes are rare, and often uncelebrated. Thanks for pointing him out!

The results of the prison experiment don’t surprise me. But this would be an apt time to bring up the oft mentioned example of Victor Frankl, who rose above his circumstances in a WWII concentration camp…

Maybe the pickup line should be “What’s your (personality) type?” rather than “What’s your sign?” these days :) There are varying theories around personality and partners. One idea is that the most important axis to match is S/N. One variant of that theory is that S/N should match, and all other axes should be opposite. And another states that S/N and T/F should match, while I/E and P/J should complement. In short, there’s no consensus.

Regarding P/J, I can say that some of the conflicts that come up between my mom and me are due to this opposition (she’s a P, I’m a J). For example, she likes to change her mind (return tickets, change hotels…) if she thinks something better has come up, whereas I prefer to be happy with what we’d decided on prior.

Goethe spoke mostly in Kraut, but the gist of one of his philosophies is that your situation greatly influences your decisions, and your decisions determine who you really are. His advice was to try to look at important situations out of their current context. I think the metaphor he used was that you must face life ‘naked’. I further believe he summarized this philosophy with a statement like “Our whole trick is that we must give up existence in order to exist”. I can’t tell you what book he said that in, but hopefully the Philosophy student Sam can add to what the sys admin Sam has to say (in a graduate student’s copious spare time). I did a web search for Goethe quotes, and I didn’t find this sentiment in the first few hits. It could be a fabrication, but I choose to believe it.

If you believe your situation determines who you are, you should really check out the social psychologists. Their message isn’t necessarily uplifting, but it’s supported by observable evidence, and has predictive value. Check out the URL from my first post if you think you’d be into that.

I do still think of the Bay Area as home… I’ll definitely be in touch when I make it back!

I really enjoy reading your updates. Please contact me if/when you come back to SF. I would love to see you!.

Love,
Miki

I agree with the importance of the journey, and appreciating the present moment as it is. Also, I think for some people, it’s not even that they have forgotten why they want the ends that they seek, but that they may never have even really asked themselves why they want it.