Ep 400: Life Lessons That Are Priceless
The Seen and the Unseen - hosted by Amit Varma
Embracing Authenticity in a Mimetic Culture
This chapter delves into mimetic culture and its influence on personal motivations, highlighting the shift from superficial to genuine desires. The hosts discuss the importance of staying true to one's identity as a creator while navigating societal pressures in the pursuit of meaningful work.
It's episode 400, and on this special and unlikely occasion, Shruti Rajagopalan gets Amit Varma to chat about all the life lessons he has learnt during these eight years -- and favourite books, films, music and poetry. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out: 1. Amit Varma on Twitter, India Uncut, Substack, The Art of Clear Writing, The Seen and the Unseen and Everything is Everything. 2. Shruti Rajagopalan on Twitter, Substack, Instagram and her podcast, Ideas of India. 3. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen w Shruti Rajagopalan, in reverse chronological order: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18. 4. The Hunter Becomes the Hunted -- Episode 200 of The Seen and the Unseen. 5. The Art of Podcasting -- Episode 49 of Everything is Everything. 6. A Meditation on Form -- Amit Varma. 7. Why Are My Episodes So Long? -- Amit Varma. 8. If You Are a Creator, This Is Your Time -- Amit Varma. 9. 'How We Spend Our Days Is How We Spend Our Lives' -- Amit Varma. 10. 'I Play to Play' -- Amit Varma. 11. How We Do the Small Things -- Amit Varma. 12. New York Stories -- The anthology film including Martin Scorcese's Life Lessons. 13. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen w Pranay Kotasthane, in reverse order: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12. 14. Arnold Kling and the Four Languages of Politics -- Episode 394 of The Seen and the Unseen. 15. Dead Poets Society -- Peter Weir. 16. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time -- Mark Haddon. 17. Biju Rao Won’t Bow to Conventional Wisdom -- Episode 392 of The Seen and the Unseen. 18. He Tells Her -- Wendy Cope. 19. Not Waving but Drowning -- Stevie Smith. 20. Runaway -- Alice Munro. 21. Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage -- Alice Munro. 22. The Bear Came Over the Mountain — Alice Munro. 23. Lives of Girls and Women -- Alice Munro. 24. Gulliver's Travels -- Jonathan Swift. 25. How To Know a Person -- David Brooks. 26. Fierce Attachments -- Vivian Gornick. 27. The Odd Woman and the City -- Vivian Gornick. 28. Shephali Bhatt Is Searching for the Incredible -- Episode 391 of The Seen and the Unseen. 29. The Dead — John Huston. 30. Dubliners -- James Joyce. 31. Amit Varma's thread on The Dead. 32. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich -- Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. 33. The Gulag Archipelago -- Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. 34. You Can Always Get There From Here — Mark Strand. 35. Father Returning Home — Dilip Chitre. 36. PG Wodehouse on Wikipedia, Britannica and Amazon. 37. Finding Nemo -- Andrew Stanton. 38. Deepak VS and the Man Behind His Face — Episode 373 of The Seen and the Unseen. 39. Praise for intelligence can undermine children’s motivation and performance — Claudia Mueller and Carol Dweck. 40. Atomic Habits -- James Clear. 41. The City — CP Cavafy. 42. René Girard on Amazon and Wikipedia. 43. Wanting — Luke Burgis. 44. Luke Burgis Sees the Deer at His Window — Episode 337 of The Seen and the Unseen. 45. The Gentle Wisdom of Pratap Bhanu Mehta — Episode 300 of The Seen and the Unseen. 46. My Top 10 Tips for Aspiring YouTubers — Ali Abdaal. 47. Bhargavi Zaveri-Shah Will Not Wear a Blue Tie to Work -- Episode 389 of The Seen and the Unseen. 48. Louie — Louis CK. 49. You’re Missing — Bruce Springsteen. 50. The Blank Slate -- Steven Pinker. 51. Behave -- Robert Sapolsky. 52. Robert Sapolsky’s biology lectures on YouTube. 53. Anatomy of a Fall -- Justine Triet. 54. Anatomy of a Folly -- Amit Varma. 55. The Use of Knowledge in Society — Friedrich Hayek. 56. Four Papers That Changed the World -- Episode 41 of Everything is Everything. 57. Individualism and Economic Order -- Friedrich Hayek. 58. Jeff Bezos on The Lex Fridman Podcast. 59. The Wealth of Nations -- Adam Smith. 60. Trickle-up, not trickle-down -- Swaminathan S Anklesaria Aiyar. 61. “Trickle Down” Theory and “Tax Cuts for the Rich” -- Thomas Sowell. 62. Beware of These Five Fallacies! -- Episode 45 of Everything is Everything. 63. Stay Away From Luxury Beliefs -- Episode 46 of Everything is Everything. 64. This Passing Moment — Amit Varma’s Housefull Economics piece on Opportunity Cost. 65. The Surface Area of Serendipity -- Episode 39 of Everything is Everything. Amit Varma and Ajay Shah have launched a new course called Life Lessons, which aims to be a launchpad towards learning essential life skills all of you need. For more details, and to sign up, click here. Amit and Ajay also bring out a weekly YouTube show, Everything is Everything. Have you watched it yet? You must! And have you read Amit’s newsletter? Subscribe right away to The India Uncut Newsletter! It’s free! Also check out Amit’s online course, The Art of Clear Writing. Episode art: ‘Life is Here’ by Simahina.
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