Guy Makes A List Of 13 Modern Life Things That Sound Illogical, But Are Actually True
Many view paradoxes as a form of thought exercises philosophers and thinkers in general dabble in, and not something that would actually be applicable in real life on a practical scale.
Well, paradoxes do happen in life. Writer and podcaster David Perell recently went to Twitter to share what he calls the ‘Paradoxes of Modern Life.’ He listed 13 of them, each more interesting than the other.
And many have found this a rather interesting read as the thread soon went viral on Twitter.
More Info: Twitter
Say what you want, but paradoxes are cool, and this writer shared some of his own about modern life
Image credits: david_perell
So, this week, David Perell, a writer, podcaster, and owner of the Write Of Passage writing school, shared a tweet thread detailing 13 thought-provoking ‘Paradoxes of Modern Life.’
Each of them came with its own title, like the Paradox Of Reading, the Paradox of Creativity, and the Paradox of Originality, among many others.
He provided a total of 13 paradoxes that he called ‘Paradoxes of Modern Life’
Image credits: david_perell
While some seem to be hinting at more global phenomena, like the idea of consensus and the abundance of information, others are more personal—like the aforementioned paradox of creativity or of reading.
If you’re not aware, a paradox is a statement that manages to contradict itself or is contradictory to one’s expectations. You might also want to check out Wikipedia’s extensive list of paradoxes as well to get a fuller picture.
The Paradox Of Originality says that nothing is really original, and exemplifies with famous artists
Image credits: Jean Francois Millet, Vincent van Gogh
Image credits: La Sieste by Millet, 1866, and by van Gogh, 1889
Image credits: Les Premiers Pas by van Gogh, 1890, and Millet, 1853
Image credits: david_perell
Take David’s Paradox of Reading, for instance: “The books you read will profoundly change you even though you’ll forget the vast majority of what you read.” It gives the idea that books have a great impact on who we are, despite us not really remembering most of what is written in them.
Another very good one is the Productivity Paradox, which he explains as “we keep inventing things that save us time, but it feels like we have less time than ever before.” And it’s quite likely that these same things that we invent are taking up our time!
David also provided more information with the Paradox of Abundance
Image credits: david_perell
Twitter liked this short list of paradoxes, leading to the thread gaining over 23,000 likes with over 7,000 retweets. Some people were eager to debate and discuss these in more detail, while others started suggesting their own paradoxes in response to David’s thread.
Image credits: david_perell
One user suggested the “Rookie-Sage” Paradox, whereby “a complete novice and a total master often use the same approach.”
Another user gave an existential one: “The Paradox of Prosperity: Although on average we’re living better today than anyone has ever done, our personal experience of life makes us feel like we haven’t made much progress.”
Yet another one jested the following: “The Paradox of Twitter. It was created to share snippets of information. Now people create these mega-threads.”
Image credits: david_perell
You can read through the entire thread and people’s comments here. But before you go—came up with some paradoxes of your own while reading or have thoughts about David’s paradoxes? Why not let us all know in the comment section below!
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Most of those were not examples of a paradox. Perhaps an example of a paradox might be that if someone were to keep trying to find a paradox where there is no example of one that they will always fail.
Eh, I've seen it used like that in science, where theory meets hard data. In that context it means "real-world outcome fundamentally opposes conclusion drawn from logic". Of course, you can't get the true paradoxes from philosophy because the real world wins over theory and gut feelings every time, and any "paradox" means that your theory is crucially flawed (often, it is used to prove exactly that). It's just a handy word for a fundamental disagreement between conclusions (data and logical).
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Here's an interesting paradox: You only know something deeply if you can explain it to a small child.
Our history teacher told us that on the exam, we should write our short answers as if we are explaining the concepts to a 5-year-old child with no idea what history is like. He said that only then will we show that we didn't simply memorize the definitions, but truly understood the material.
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“Tell me you don’t know what a paradox is without telling me you don’t know what a paradox is”
I am curious to know, under ancient Jewish law if the suspect was found NOT guilty by every judge, will they deemed guilty?
I wondered the same. I also wondered...if a man ran out of his house and randomly attacked and killed a stranger passing by...which 20 people witnessed.....and all judges found him guilty BECAUSE HE CLEARLY WAS...he would actually get off? That sounds....ineffective and rather daft.
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What is it called when people are reckless when they have a lot of something and only careful when it's clear it's almost gone? The environment as a big example, or dish soap on a smaller level for example.
Professional Magician - The paradox of sleight of hand - You work hard to develop sleight of hand skills with the goal being that the audience does not know you are doing them.
The paradox of consensus has its holes, other commenters point out, but it’s worth being skeptical when it starts feeling like you’re in a Manchurian Candidate situation—if the consensus is too uniform and too zealous, there probably is something hinky going on behind the scenes. Especially when consensus isn’t the usual standard of truth for some type of situation. And OP didn’t describe the Abilene paradox, although he was close; the confusion was that the originating circumstance was also about ice cream. The actual phenomenon is where everyone in a group agrees to do something no one in the group wants to do, for the sake of group unity; it’s not about picking the lowest common acceptable denominator. I might prefer rocky road ice cream, but if my team had a social event and only got vanilla and were like “we knew this was safe,” I wouldn’t complain.
The paradox of consensus is BS. If you catch some in the act of killing someone, the evidences are clear (the killer holds the bloody murder weapon in their hand, bloody hands, blood all over their body etc etc) and the judges agree on the liability then the person is innocent? bs my friend, bs.
I'd like to comment some more I'd like to talk about the Del Villar family That have arrived here as refugees. I don't know much. They are from Jalisco.
I don't know what to think. We have so many stories. Paradox ain't even in it.
Who wrote this? A 20 year old? These are not paradoxes, they are cliches.
The ''Paradox of Reading'' is not a paradox but an explanation of why schools fail. If you immediately put an insight to work, you probably will forget the insight but not the fact that it works. Schools, however, rarely provide students with opportunities to practice what they've learned.
Authority comes with being able to do a lot of violence, but the moment you use that violence you also loose all the authority.
Communication paradox & irony: I don't want to judge anybody. I don't want to gossip about anybody. I don't want to label anyone. But, if I say or write those things to a person, by inference, I've done all three.
I need this man as a friend. He sounds like he would really brighten up my life...
I'd add the paradox of choice: when you have too many options, you may give up on making a decision altogether.
This is true with every single thing. No one knows the work behind the finished product no matter if it's putting books back in the library or creating a delicious meal or raising decent human beings. No one knows unless they've done it
Think of modern life like a library or a Walmart . . . you don’t need EVERYTHING that’s available, you need to focus on what you can actually use, what applies to your life. You don’t have to know the movement of the sun and stars or how to make a watch just to find out the time. Focus! Keep what is useful to you, and ALL the other stuff will be there when you search for it. I also find that time has a way of pointing out what is important and fluff will fly away on the wind.
Not true about the ice cream. I would not automatically choose chocolate or vanilla if there were other choices. If the others don't like it. f**K them.
Once again: there is NO cure for herpes. You can only minimise/treat the symptoms. As in anything, don't just rely on one source, especially a "doctor" who refers to themselves as "The Great"... like "The Great Houdini"(we all know what he was good at... deception).
Load More Replies...
Most of those were not examples of a paradox. Perhaps an example of a paradox might be that if someone were to keep trying to find a paradox where there is no example of one that they will always fail.
Eh, I've seen it used like that in science, where theory meets hard data. In that context it means "real-world outcome fundamentally opposes conclusion drawn from logic". Of course, you can't get the true paradoxes from philosophy because the real world wins over theory and gut feelings every time, and any "paradox" means that your theory is crucially flawed (often, it is used to prove exactly that). It's just a handy word for a fundamental disagreement between conclusions (data and logical).
Load More Replies... Here's an interesting paradox: You only know something deeply if you can explain it to a small child.
Our history teacher told us that on the exam, we should write our short answers as if we are explaining the concepts to a 5-year-old child with no idea what history is like. He said that only then will we show that we didn't simply memorize the definitions, but truly understood the material.
Load More Replies... “Tell me you don’t know what a paradox is without telling me you don’t know what a paradox is”
I am curious to know, under ancient Jewish law if the suspect was found NOT guilty by every judge, will they deemed guilty?
I wondered the same. I also wondered...if a man ran out of his house and randomly attacked and killed a stranger passing by...which 20 people witnessed.....and all judges found him guilty BECAUSE HE CLEARLY WAS...he would actually get off? That sounds....ineffective and rather daft.
Load More Replies... What is it called when people are reckless when they have a lot of something and only careful when it's clear it's almost gone? The environment as a big example, or dish soap on a smaller level for example.
Professional Magician - The paradox of sleight of hand - You work hard to develop sleight of hand skills with the goal being that the audience does not know you are doing them.
The paradox of consensus has its holes, other commenters point out, but it’s worth being skeptical when it starts feeling like you’re in a Manchurian Candidate situation—if the consensus is too uniform and too zealous, there probably is something hinky going on behind the scenes. Especially when consensus isn’t the usual standard of truth for some type of situation. And OP didn’t describe the Abilene paradox, although he was close; the confusion was that the originating circumstance was also about ice cream. The actual phenomenon is where everyone in a group agrees to do something no one in the group wants to do, for the sake of group unity; it’s not about picking the lowest common acceptable denominator. I might prefer rocky road ice cream, but if my team had a social event and only got vanilla and were like “we knew this was safe,” I wouldn’t complain.
The paradox of consensus is BS. If you catch some in the act of killing someone, the evidences are clear (the killer holds the bloody murder weapon in their hand, bloody hands, blood all over their body etc etc) and the judges agree on the liability then the person is innocent? bs my friend, bs.
I'd like to comment some more I'd like to talk about the Del Villar family That have arrived here as refugees. I don't know much. They are from Jalisco.
I don't know what to think. We have so many stories. Paradox ain't even in it.
Who wrote this? A 20 year old? These are not paradoxes, they are cliches.
The ''Paradox of Reading'' is not a paradox but an explanation of why schools fail. If you immediately put an insight to work, you probably will forget the insight but not the fact that it works. Schools, however, rarely provide students with opportunities to practice what they've learned.
Authority comes with being able to do a lot of violence, but the moment you use that violence you also loose all the authority.
Communication paradox & irony: I don't want to judge anybody. I don't want to gossip about anybody. I don't want to label anyone. But, if I say or write those things to a person, by inference, I've done all three.
I need this man as a friend. He sounds like he would really brighten up my life...
I'd add the paradox of choice: when you have too many options, you may give up on making a decision altogether.
This is true with every single thing. No one knows the work behind the finished product no matter if it's putting books back in the library or creating a delicious meal or raising decent human beings. No one knows unless they've done it
Think of modern life like a library or a Walmart . . . you don’t need EVERYTHING that’s available, you need to focus on what you can actually use, what applies to your life. You don’t have to know the movement of the sun and stars or how to make a watch just to find out the time. Focus! Keep what is useful to you, and ALL the other stuff will be there when you search for it. I also find that time has a way of pointing out what is important and fluff will fly away on the wind.
Not true about the ice cream. I would not automatically choose chocolate or vanilla if there were other choices. If the others don't like it. f**K them.
Once again: there is NO cure for herpes. You can only minimise/treat the symptoms. As in anything, don't just rely on one source, especially a "doctor" who refers to themselves as "The Great"... like "The Great Houdini"(we all know what he was good at... deception).
Load More Replies...
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