Jophin Mathai

How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love My Shitty Life Self-Help Gets Philosophical

Link to the piece here:
www.thedriftmag.com/how-i-learne...

While an exaggerated sense of our own importance is a recipe for both political and psychological disaster, it is also possible to overestimate our insignificance. Acceptance shades easily into excuse. With enough practice tolerating imperfection you can learn to forget what it is you're failing to live up to. When those expectations include owning a vacation home or winning a Nobel Prize, letting go might be healthy - but doing so is tragic when they include stopping a genocide or ending homelessness. If that seems like an unreasonable standard to hold ourselves to, it is only because so few of us today have experienced the way that participating in the exercise of collective power can augment and extend our personal agency. Erik Baker

When we are left to fend for ourselves, the conditions that shape our lives tend to feel alien and monolithic, forcing us to choose between the two polarities of self-help: the delusional optimism of positive thinking and the stoic acceptance taught by "philosophy."

Given our times, self-help lit can be a false guardrail against an existential nihilism. But there is a role for individual and collective responsibility to free oneself and others.

Great piece by Erik Baker in the Drift magazine that connects some important dots.

"If we could understand and love the infinity of agonies which languish around us, all the lives which are hidden deaths, we should require as many hearts as there are suffering beings. And if we had a miraculously present memory which sustained the totality of our past pains, we should succumb beneath such a burden. Life is possible only by the deficiencies of our imagination and our memory." (E. M. Cioran, A Short History of Decay)

Cioran.

“Life is possible only by the deficiencies of our imagination and our memory.”

…and also of our knowledge (and ignorance).

Public Good Narrative Project - Global Cooperation Institute September 2025

Today, harmful stories are shaping the global conversation, constraining policy ambition.

Our new report identifies how to overcome these stories.

PUBLIG GOOD: Building a winning narrative to bring the world together

By Jonathan Glennie & Ben Phillips

globalcooperation.institute/public-good-...

World Inequality Conference 2026 - World Inequality Lab The World Inequality Lab is organizing the third edition of the World Inequality Conference, to be held at the Paris School of Economics on June 4-5, 2026.

📢 We’re excited to announce that the 3rd edition of the World Inequality Conference will take place on 4–5 June 2026 in Paris.

📄The call for papers is now open — submit by December 1!

▶️ inequalitylab.world/en/event/wor...

@pse.bsky.social @cris-sciencespo.bsky.social @taxobservatory.bsky.social

Jophin Mathai's review of Being Peace (Being Peace, #1) 5/5: Life is tough and overwhelming. There is the proximity of personal (and collective) hardships. There is suffering that cuts across space and time, live-streamed into omnipresent screens—genocide...

I turn to Thich Nhat Hanh every now and then for some grounding in the present. I reflected on ‘Being Peace’, and what it means to nurture peace in turbulent times.

#books

www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

‘Self-termination is most likely’: the history and future of societal collapse An epic analysis of 5,000 years of civilisation argues that a global collapse is coming unless inequality is vanquished

“The key thing is this is not about all of humanity creating these threats. It is not about human nature. It is about small groups who bring out the worst in us, competing for profit and power and covering all [the risks] up.”

56 minutes of Test cricket The crowd is still - as if every single person here knows they’ve just seen the best hour (56 minutes) of cricket they’ll ever see.

There are few sport formats that have the ability to emulate theatre like Test cricket. And in the best of emulations, it becomes an incredible art form.

Excellent piece by Jarrod Kimber that captures the drama.

www.goodareas.co/p/56-minutes...

This is why we must be anti-carceral in our politics

‘Gen Z stare’ is fuelling manager stress, making them walk out: Here’s what the young workforce needs to know - Times of India Careers News: A silent stare from Gen Z is triggering rising tension and burnout among managers, many of whom are reconsidering their roles. Seen by some as passive

This article is hilarious: an analysis of the 'Gen Z' stare at the workplace. And advice on how to be, of course.

(weird, happy AI-generated image as cover)

timesofindia.indiatimes.com/education/ca...

New Yorker fiction editor Deborah Treisman’s Reddit AMA.

www.reddit.com/r/writing/co...

Great point. Also why it would just exacerbate epistemic injustices.

And ‘faking it’ for many would be just going along with ruling ideas, with a little more efficiency that genAI offers.

Efficient bullshitting which will take way more energy to get rid of.

…that they accept their role in the existing order of things, either because they can see or imagine no alternative to it, or because they see it as natural and unchangeable, or because they value it as divinely ordained and beneficial?”

- Steven Lukes

In the first place, what, in any case, is a grievance - an articulated demand, based on political knowledge, an undirected complaint arising out of everyday experience, a vague feeling of unease or sense of deprivation? Second, and more important, is it not the supreme and most insidious exercise of power to prevent people, to whatever degree, from having grievances by shaping their perceptions, cognitions and preferences in such a way that they accept their role in the existing order of things, either because they can see or imagine no alternative to it, or because they see it as natural and unchangeable, or because they value it as divinely ordained and beneficial? - Power: A Radical View, by Steven Lukes

“…is it not the supreme and most insidious exercise of power to prevent people, to whatever degree, from having grievances by shaping their perceptions, cognitions and preferences in such a way…

A global minimum tax on the ultrarich could change planetary politics. Right now South Africa, Chile, France, and Spain are pushing for it

www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/b...

Thanks for sharing, Rishika. And the reminder for scepticism :)

In general, I continue to wish what I wish. There’s too much bullshit—and increasingly dangerous bullshit—that the rest have to deal with, especially due to elite ignorance.

The global inequality and the concentration of power makes elite ignorance exceedingly brutal.

If there is one thing I wish generally for elites, it is epistemic humility—that privilege does not grant omniscience.

I frequently take comfort in the fact that the Universe is vast and beautiful and entirely unaffected by petty human foolishness

An Onion front page with the headline: Congress, Now More Than Ever, Our Nation Needs Your Cowardice Who will stand up for our democracy? This question, fraught in even the most peaceful times, has only grown more pressing as our country approaches its 250th anniversary. Each passing day brings growing assaults on essential liberties like freedom of speech and due process. Meanwhile, our delicately assembled legal system faces a constant barrage of threats. Even as this issue reaches publication, the U.S. military has been deployed against peaceful protesters. We teeter on the brink of collapse into an authoritarian state. That is why, today, The Onion calls upon our lawmakers to sit back and do absolutely nothing. Members of Congress, now more than ever, our nation desperately needs your cowardice. Our republic is a birthright, an exceedingly rare treasure passed down from generation to generation of Americans. It was gained through hard years of bloody resistance and can too easily be lost. Our Founding Fathers, in their abundant wisdom, understood that all it would take was men and women of little courage sitting in the corridors of power and taking zero action as this precious inheritance was stripped away—and that is where we have finally arrived. Now is not the time for bravery or valor! This is the time for protecting your own hide and lining your pocket. Now is not the time for listening to your idiotic constituents drone on about what’s happening to their precious democracy. This is the time for getting down on all fours and grov- eling. Now is not the time to say, “Enough is enough,” and have the tough conversations about resisting the ongoing assaults on American liberty. This is the time to let the wave of apathy and indifference roll over you as you think about getting a really nice renovation to your house in Kalorama. But what can I, one coward, do alone? you might ask.

Donald Trump just unilaterally bombed Iran. A masked gang is terrorizing our streets. America has rapidly devolved into an authoritarian state.

That's why, today, The Onion has purchased a full page ad in today's New York Times with a simple plea to Congress:

Sit back and do absolutely nothing.

If extreme weather had a capital, it would be Mumbai. We’ve got it all: floods, sea-level rise, cyclones, heat islands.

Mumbaikars are sick of being called resilient and being caught off-guard.

But forecasting the monsoon is fraught, more so with climate change. My dispatch for @carbonbrief.org👇🏽

Your Brain on ChatGPT: Accumulation of Cognitive Debt when Using an AI Assistant for Essay Writing Task This study explores the neural and behavioral consequences of LLM-assisted essay writing. Participants were divided into three groups: LLM, Search Engine, and Brain-only (no tools). Each completed thr...

"Over four months, LLM users consistently underperformed at neural, linguistic, and behavioral levels."

arxiv.org/abs/2506.08872

“Cynthia Kitchens, a former quality manager who worked at the Charleston plant between 2009 and 2016” had listed 11 planes delivered between early 2012 and late 2013 “whose quality defects most kept her awake at night. Six of them went to Air India…”

How Some Highly Educated Middle-Class Women Manage to Navigate Care and Work A workspace for highly educated women forced to leave their trained careers is emerging—they avoid demanding full‑time roles of 70 plus weekly hours, and opt for contract or home‑based work while bala...

A workspace for highly educated women forced to leave their trained careers is emerging—they avoid demanding full‑time roles of 70+ weekly hrs & opt for contract or home‑based work while balancing flexible schedules with care-giving.
www.theindiaforum.in/society/how-...

Gig Workers United: Reimagining Global Justice in the Era of AI | TechPolicy.Press Platform workers from 28 countries meet in Geneva to ensure their voices are heard as the ILO discusses global labor standards for gig work.

“Our demand is clear: we call for full recognition as employees, with all corresponding rights. Platform companies must be held accountable as principal employers and can no longer be allowed to hide behind a legal framework that has destabilized labor markets across the globe.”

The story of Sikh charities delivering relief in nearly every disaster around the world deserves greater recognition.

People should be wary of any celebrations over this news.

By many accounts, GDP as an inappropriate measure. But in the Indian context, it is especially important to keep in mind Goodhart's law: "When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure". (1/2)

tinyurl.com/5n8d7w4c

Where are you in the global distribution of income? Use our simulator to position your income relative to the income of others

Use the income/wealth comparator by the World Inequality Database and find for yourself how GDP, in the barest sense, currently translates to income/wealth distribution in society.

wid.world/income-compa...

People should be wary of any celebrations over this news.

By many accounts, GDP as an inappropriate measure. But in the Indian context, it is especially important to keep in mind Goodhart's law: "When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure". (1/2)

tinyurl.com/5n8d7w4c

Zimbabwe was declared a rogue state and sanctions imposed for more than a decade for less.