Angry intellectuals can be stimulating, and sometimes they say valuable things, but for three quarters of a year now I've been occasionally listening to some really good dharma* teachers, and I do think that sometimes it's really refreshing to listen to people who are using their brain power to find less reasons to hate things.

When I was a kid, I had this friend with whom the only way to get along and have something to talk about was to find something to hate or something to complain about together. Spending time with that friend was always kind of awkward and, in a strange way, made me feel slightly ashamed of feeling and playing and actually sincerely loving all kinds of things. As if loving something was a sign of childish ignorance, ignorance of what's wrong and stupid about that thing.

A valuable question to ask oneself every now and then: am I exercising my intellect in ways that are actually making me increasingly close-minded?

Is my brilliant mind working really hard to make itself smaller and smaller?

Maybe being smart is not just about looking at things long enough to see how wrong and stupid everything is.

Maybe being smart is not just about seeing problems that most people are too busy or lazy to notice.

That stuff definitely needs to be noticed, otherwise we're doomed. I'm just saying that maybe that's not all there is to see.