All posts tagged: purpose

Why We Crave Purpose

Why We Crave Purpose

Published by Jenni Sidey

Ask yourself this central question: When were you genuinely the happiest in your life? If you are being totally honest, you might find that the most joyful and unforgettable times were your most productive ones. Human beings are meaning-making machines—perpetual storytellers of the highest order. We are constantly weaving interpretation and texture into every aspect of our lives. Every day, we are organically compelled to justify our beliefs and actions, and for good reason; “meaning” gives us drive and determination to keep on going even when things get tough and we are running on empty. But why? In an inherently disordered world, our brains operate like principal narrators—realizing cognitive designs out of unpredictability and transforming experience into historied structure. But this isn’t an esoteric coincidence; it is a mental survival device. It’s one of the most essential parts of being human. We can’t stop doing it, and we shouldn’t. If we stray from the focused states of the mind that keep us connected to our daily purpose, we may decompensate and fall apart. For example, …

“Life Crafting”: Finding Your Life Purpose

“Life Crafting”: Finding Your Life Purpose

Published by Jenni Sidey

Let’s face it, we all need a reason to get out of bed in the morning. As humans, we aren’t meant to merely trudge through life, living paycheck to paycheck or just accumulating more meaningless stuff. At some point, for many people, a “chasing the carrot” existence is no longer enough. We may yearn for a more meaningful way of life, a passion, or purpose that makes our heart sing, or beat a little stronger. Finding our purpose can provide us with a powerful motivation to rise in the morning with excited anticipation and maybe even joy. Far too many individuals go through their entire lives without pursuing their true purpose or passion. Finding one’s purpose—a meaningful life—need not be a rarely attained luxury. In fact, living a meaningful life has even been linked to improved health and lowered stress, as well as improved well-being. Would You Go to Extremes for Your Purpose? Like most of you, I like a cozy, comfortable life, which I’ve experienced for much of my life—all the usual things we’ve …

The Non-Fluffy Stripes On Towels Have A Purpose After All

The Non-Fluffy Stripes On Towels Have A Purpose After All

Published by Sam Flores

Every once in a while, I see a post on social media that makes me realise I know nothing about the world.  Last week, that question came from a Redditor who wanted to know why new builds sometimes have bricked-up windows (turns out it’s a mixture of manufactured charm and, sometimes, council rules).  And now, another, equally mind-melting X post has come to my attention: “What is the purpose of this part of a towel?” software engineer Nate McGrady asked, sharing a circled photo of the non-fluffy stripes on the bathroom textile. This, I thought, is what my press privileges exist for. So, I reached out to Courtney Cole, an interior designer at TileCloud, about what’s really going on here.  what is the purpose of this part of a towel? pic.twitter.com/q4UYACVMDP — Nate (@natemcgrady) March 13, 2025 They’re called “dobby borders” “This part of the towel is actually called a ‘dobby border’ – which so many people don’t know,” Cole explained (I certainly didn’t).  King Towel describes a “dobby border” as a strip or band …

Tim Friede: I have been bitten by more than 200 snakes – on purpose

Tim Friede: I have been bitten by more than 200 snakes – on purpose

Published by Miika Tikkanen

I know what it feels like to almost die from a snake bite. You can’t move. You can’t breathe. Your diaphragm’s frozen. But you can hear everything. So when I was in the ICU, I could hear the doctors talking about me. “Why did he do it? Was it a suicide attempt?” And I’m like: no, it wasn’t. I just screwed up. I began injecting myself with snake venom in 2001, in an effort to develop a treatment. If you look at the numbers, 5 million people are bitten every year. There are 138,000 deaths every year and 400,000-plus amputations and other complications. Those are pretty big numbers. There are organisations that want to help, like the Strike Out Snakebite global initiative, which is looking to raise awareness of the impact of snake-bite envenoming. And there is snake antivenom, first invented 125 years ago by Albert Calmette. But these haven’t changed much in that time, and they aren’t perfect. They’re made by injecting horses with venom, then collecting the antibodies the horses make. Using these in …

This tiny cylinder on HDMI cables actually serves a purpose

This tiny cylinder on HDMI cables actually serves a purpose

Published by Miika Tikkanen

You’ve probably noticed it before—that small cylindrical bulge wrapping around the connector end of your HDMI cable. Most people would ignore it and use the cable for its intended purpose, but that little cylinder is genuinely trying to solve a real engineering problem. It isn’t always necessary for modern cables, and you should stop using old HDMI cables if you haven’t upgraded yet. However, understanding what it does will help you appreciate why manufacturers still include it and when it actually matters. That weird HDMI cable bump has a name Meet the ferrite core you’ve been ignoring Levent Konuk / ShutterstockCredit: Levent Konuk / Shutterstock That tiny cylinder you see on your HDMI cable is called a ferrite core, but it goes by many names, including ferrite bead, ferrite choke, EMI filter, and more. It’s constructed from a ceramic material made from iron, nickel, and zinc oxides compressed into shape. It’s designed to act as a magnetic inductor wrapped around your cable. The magic isn’t in fancy materials or exotic engineering. It’s in the physics of …

Let It Go: Rethinking Our Cosmic Purpose

Let It Go: Rethinking Our Cosmic Purpose

Published by Jenni Sidey

This post is in response to There Goes the Sun: Pondering the Universe’s Past and Future By Louis Putterman Ph.D. As discussed in my previous post, The Romance of Reality presents a set of scientifically-premised arguments for viewing life, consciousness, and the physical universe as being all of one piece, a view mistakable at times for a Vedanta, Tao, or Zen-like stance on the oneness of being. By the end of the book, however, it seems far less focused on ‘being here now.’ Instead, the author declares as self-evident that if humans and the devices with which he expects us soon to merge fail to escape the limits of terrestrial existence before the sun becomes a red giant and vaporizes Earth some 7 or 8 billion years from now, our existence will have been for naught. Having made a plausible case that life was almost inevitable given the way that the universe generates complexity as it moves towards its eventual heat death, he argues that it is the universe’s fate to become completely saturated with …