Two of my favorite people on the internet collided this week when Leo Babauta of Zen Habits went on the Rich Roll Podcast. As expected, it was a great episode, full of insight and wisdom, but there was one thing they said that I wanted to expand upon. At one point, Rich asked Leo why he thought mindfulness is becoming more popular and mainstream lately, but neither had a clear answer.
I think the main reason is the internet. Continue reading
How do we know whether something we didn’t witness ourselves actually happened?
In the past, all knowledge and records were passed on orally, then later through books. Meaning facts could have been easily manipulated and fabricated as the storyteller saw fit. Therefore no history pre-photographs/audio/video can be taken at face value as empirically true unless there is archeological evidence or scientific proof. Otherwise, there is no way of knowing whether any account of history happened the way we were told. Continue reading
I briefly talked about Haruki Murakami’s memoir, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, in my “Top Ten Books I Read in 2016” post, but I thought this book was worth expanding on, particularly Murakami’s passages about his introversion. Continue reading
Napoleon Dynamite is the type of movie you either love or hate. Except in my case, I both love and hate it. At first, I wasn’t sure why. I enjoy quirky independent comedies, and Napoleon Dynamite features socially awkward characters (like me), so it should have been right up my alley. But I didn’t love the film wholeheartedly like so many other fans. There were certainly parts of the movie I found funny, but other parts rubbed me the wrong way. After re-watching the movie recently and thinking about it further, I realized part of the reason I “hate” Napoleon Dynamite might be the way it portrays social anxiety. Continue reading
I am Invisible is a surreal slipstream short story about a young man who wakes up one day to discover he is invisible. Inspired by Franz Kafka’s Metamorphosis, the story touches on themes of social anxiety, alienation, and depression. I am Invisible is currently available on Amazon. Read below for a preview of the story.
The late great horror writer H.P. Lovecraft once said, “The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown.” He may not have been referring to social anxiety, but he could have been. Continue reading
I was thinking about the artificial intelligence (AI) revolution and how robots and automation will take over most if not all human jobs. But what about mine? The fiction writer. Or any other kind of artist: painter, musician, actor, etc… Will robots replace humans in creating art? Continue reading
What About Bob? is a comedy about a psychiatric patient (Bill Murray) who drives his therapist (Richard Dreyfuss) insane. Continue reading
I’ve recently become interested in personality types and the Myers–Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). After taking several free online tests (16personalities.com has a good one), I’ve discovered I am an INFJ. Continue reading
I saw a lot of great movies in 2016 (the best so far being Arrival) but there are still too many I need to see before I can do a best-of list. So I was thinking of doing a “best of 2015 list,” since I spent 2016 catching up on all the movies I missed last year. But there’d be nothing interesting about my list, as it would be pretty similar to any film critic’s best of 2015 list. So I decided to do a unique list. Continue reading
T.Z. Barry 