Articles and Essays about the Simplicty Of Happiness

The Problem
E-mail takes too long to respond to, resulting in continuous inbox overflow for those who receive a lot of it.

The Solution

Treat all email responses like SMS text messages, using a set number of letters per response. Since it’s too hard to count letters, we count sentences instead.

FIVE SENTENCES is a personal policy that all email responses regardless of recipient or subject will be five sentences or less. It’s that simple.

* See also: two.sentenc.es, three.sentenc.es, four.sentenc.es and five.sentenc.es.

** To begin using this system, optionally copy this text and paste it into your e-mail signature:

——————————————–
Q: Why is this email so short?
A: https://simplicity-of-happiness.com/five/

Peter’s Map – Turning the World Upside Down

Have you ever wondered what is considered “normal” in this world? For many people, normality is an ideal state. It gives us a sense of security, knowing that things are the way they are. Our entire education system is built on this premise, teaching us what is right and what is wrong.

Recently, I watched a video that explained how all the maps we know are actually drawn incorrectly. It turns out that they should look completely different. The current map system was invented by a German cartographer, which is why Germany appears quite prominently and disproportionately large. At first, I thought this was just another conspiracy theory and almost closed the video. But then, they went on to explain the challenges of projecting a sphere onto a flat surface. In this particular case, it was solved in a certain way. However, if we were to maintain the proportions accurately, Europe would appear much smaller, while Africa would be significantly larger. And why is Europe placed at the top and not at the bottom? Doesn’t that imply a certain superiority? And suddenly, the map in this post appeared. Someone in the video said, “You can’t do that!” – “Why?” – “Because it is freaking me out!”

Exactly. Isn’t it the same with many other aspects of life? Just because I have a specific idea about something, does it mean that nobody is allowed to do it differently? Is it because I can’t handle it?

So, what’s the problem? Just because I have a certain perception of something, I shouldn’t impose it as the norm that everyone else must adhere to. Perhaps it’s similar to the map situation. My thoughts and perceptions are merely representations of reality, not reality itself. Every thought simplifies, omitting or adding details. The map is not the reality.

Maybe it would help to turn our internal map upside down as well.