Tom Walters

Author: Tom

  • How I think about self development

    The right questions Always interrogate the question and verify the assumptions. Especially when dealing with areas that have outsized potential impacts on your life. Most people never question the question – do so and you instantly unlock more critical thinking. You angle of attack is important and is usually the primary influence on outcome. The…

  • The Big Question – 2025 Edition

    Here are my latest answers to the big questions I bump into all the time. Recorded for posterity and future reflection. I plan to come back and answer similar questions on a semi-regular basis. What is the purpose of life, the universe, and everything? Although I’m not convinced by the framing of this question and…

  • Maximum You

    Put aside the readings you’ve been doing about ego destruction and dissolution of self for a moment, because I want to talk about you. Or, to be truthful, any part of this universe in the process of selfing into a person. Lifespan This is typically what people are referring to when they talk about improving…

  • Fake Science

    Fake Science is a beautiful term. It perfectly captures the art of defining a metric, taking measurements, analysing those data points, and continually generating a complex output before chaining it to other inputs for yet more bullshittery. This is something I see almost on a daily basis, and it gets to the core of what…

  • The Data Shufflers

    “Dennis look!” came a worried request. “Huh, what’s up?” “It’s the humans again, they’ve built a data shuffler that does the shuffling for them!”  “For the love of trifles not again” said the older man, his face all scrunched up and he pushed his thick glasses onto the top of his greying head, averting his…

  • Honeymooning in Crete

    A memory bank of our time away on the beautiful island of Crete. Take Off The journey is the reward – so say those beyond the finish line – but I’ll agree that the buoyancy that appears in the days leading up to a holiday is wonderful. While I’m typically dialling up my stress levels…

  • Health Debt

    When you’re young you’re made of rubber and magic (to quote Chris Williamson). Your body is primed to go full bore into the world and hammer through life at full speed. You’re in absolute health credit – you just don’t know it. But as you age, you effectively spend down that credit and most people…

  • Nuance is a shitty sales tactic

    I love nuanced ideas, conversations, and people. The world exists as a continuous flux and everything is relative. But people buy the simple solution, even if you need to explain the nuance you should lead with the most simple, reductionist argument you possibly can. And in that spirit, that’s the end of the post.

  • Junk Time Buffets

    Do you feel like you don’t have the time to accomplish all the things you’d like to? Do you wind up exhausted at the end of a day thinking damn, where did the time go? Perhaps you run down the list of things you’d set out to achieve this month one evening, and lament the…

  • You are a verb not a noun.

    Nouns are an illusion. A product of our inability (or blatant disregard) to perceive changes in the things around us over a time period that would typically let us categorise them as verbs. Things that move are easy to cast as verbs – to walk, to dance, to sing. States of being can quite happily…