1. There is no such thing as objective truth in the universe, only the absolute laws of physics
   1. Everything else is a futile human attempt at creating meaning out of a meaningless existence
2. Mental models and social paradigms are learned, arbitrary constructs that generate mostly irrational expectations about the world, as well as overly emotional reactions to the way the world actually works
3. These models and paradigms cloud and distort our perception of the world as it really is
   1. Mental models help us navigate and make sense of the world's unpredictability, but they tend to be rigid and can play against us when we need to be flexible, open-minded, face unforeseen challenges, or adapt to change, because their purpose is to provide us with a (false) sense of comfort and security, at the cost of avoiding the rich unknown and the potential for transformational discomfort it creates
   2. Social paradigms are imposed by the surrounding culture and accepted tacitly by its individuals, in favor of peaceful co-existence, but unless we identify, acknowledge, and avoid these paradigms whenever we can, we become bound, restricted and eventually trapped by them
4. Personal biases and emotions are also artificially constructed and learned survival mechanisms that prevent growth, in the same way that mental models and social paradigms do, because they seek to protect us from the fear of uncertainty, not help us transcend our current state
5. Our intuition regarding the complexity or difficulty of a particular problem is rarely aligned to its actual complexity or difficulty, and we constantly overshoot or underestimate both
   1. This is why humans are generally bad at planning and estimating the cost of resources required for dealing with problems, challenges, tasks, projects or even mundane activities
   2. This is also why we must take action as soon as possible, to ground our perspective in something closer to a measurable reality
   3. On the face of this very human shortcoming, pausing, reflecting and learning go a long way
6. Time seems to flow at a consistent rate, and yet it is really difficult to calculate, because there is always less than we need or want, and too much when we are rushing to get to the other side of it
7. We don’t think, act, pause, reflect or learn as much as we should for our own benefit, and when we do, we usually don’t do it in the right order, at the right time or in a sufficient amount
   1. In fairness to our wonderfully misterious but very confusing humanity, it is hard to tell the difference