Remotely working in today's digital economy without seeing anyone all day. What does it take to succeed?

Dispatched from Mars

Digital Nomads

We read and discussed an interesting article titled ”Why Books Don’t Work” (https://andymatuschak.org/books/) by Andy Matuschak. We felt the problem isn't so much the medium or how to write the book. It’s something else...

Why Learning Doesn’t Work

We discussed the realities of retirement, how different people think about it and deal with it, how we think about it, what it means philosophically as well as scientifically.

Retirement?

What do we mean by the word "love" in English? It means so many different things that it seems meaningless. In Japanese and Spanish, love means something much more specific.

Love

What is the optimal number of people to have a conversation with? What happens when we keep adding more people? Why do some people, particularly autistic people, have a hard time engaging in a group conversation? What do we mean by "social skills"? We theorize on these issues.

Conversation

To get along with others, we often have to tell people what they want to hear, not what you are actually thinking. We talked about the implications of doing this, and what happens if you never told the truth. The conversation then shifted to talking about our education system.

Feelings vs Reason

We discuss René Girard's theory of scapegoating.

René Girard — Scapegoating

Discussed René Girard’s theory of mimetic desire.

René Girard — Mimetic Desire

Evan is not sure if he is an artist or photographer—he knows only that he can’t stop seeing the world through his cameras. That is how he seems to process what happens in life—a camera as a phenomenological mediator. As long as I have known him (almost two decades), he has always been recording his life on his cameras. It’s as if his impetus is to give himself more time to understand what is happening. It wasn’t a coincidence that he captured the moment the second plane hit the World Trade Center. Amid the mob of people trying to get away from the building, Evan aimed his video camera up at the towers and kept it rolling.

Documenting Life—Photography of Evan Fairbanks

What does it mean to follow your passion in today’s "gig economy"?

Passion

When any idea or act is normalized within a group of people, it's easy and safe to criticize anything outside of that group that contradicts it. Normalization works so hypnotically that those under the influence begin to assume these ideas and actions to be universal. This makes people arrogant and even fascistic. What is more important than criticizing others who contradict your normalized values is to ask yourself what sort of hypnosis you yourself are under.

Normalization

Although every school teacher and parent touts the value of "critical thinking," there is no critical thinking about critical thinking. Everyone seems to accept it as a virtue but when their own fundamental assumptions are questioned by critical thinking, they are appalled by that act of critical thinking.

Critical Thinking

We have our own narratives to explain why we did what we did. Not having any narratives makes us uncomfortable. Ultimately we have our narratives for why we exist and who we are.

Identity

What does authenticity mean today? Everyone from artists, musicians to marketers talk about "authenticity" but what exactly are we looking for? How do we define it?

Authenticity

We talk about the ethnic food in the US, particularly in New York City, and the cross-cultural functions food plays.

Ethnic Food

Two of the most respected anthropologists on Mars (one looks Japanese, the other Spanish) were dispatched to New York City to learn about the earthlings. In this podcast, they discuss what they have learned so far. We appreciate any feedback (questions, requests, opinions, complaints, etc..). Email us to us@dispatchedfrommars.com

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Dispatched from Mars

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