Jay Shetty - Sam Harris

1) Sam Harris discusses how spirituality is often misunderstood and how it can be viewed as a conversation about reality and how to live within it. He argues that we have a common inheritance of wisdom and insight, and that we should use whatever works to navigate our lives, given the needs of the moment and technological changes. Harris urges people not to be dogmatically attached to a specific religion, for it doesn't make sense in this time. In the same way, he suggests that Christianity or Buddhism do not say anything about their spirituality. Harris explains that meditation is a way of breaking away from the spell of thought and that consciousness has peaceful and gratifying qualities that thought often fails to recognize. Ultimately, it's about paying attention to the moment and not suffering unnecessarily.

2) Sam points out that one must be skeptical of certain beliefs that go by the name of spirituality, as they often cannot be aligned with sophisticated scientific views of reality. However, some critical spiritual claims such as unconditional love and the ilusory nature of the self are fully supported by scientific discussions about the human mind and brain. Harris suggests that people need to become wiser curators of human conversation to find what is worthy of our attention and advises that when considering ethics and morality, we should use the Golden Rule as a navigation tool for living a good life.

3) Harris discusses the challenges of making decisions in today's world where we face massive coordination problems amidst increasingly advanced technology and the explosion of information through social media. According to Harris, this calls for a more flexible, non-dogmatic, and open-minded approach where we are open to better evidence and arguments while being skeptical and conservative in the revision of our world view. The legacy thought structures of fundamentalism do not operate well in this context, and Harris encourages us to be perpetually open to new evidence and better arguments when making decisions. Ultimately, we must navigate this ever-shifting landscape of possibilities using human conversation as a means of coordination.

4) Sam discusses how human values and imperfections can be inherited by technology and media, even with the best intentions of creating good in the world. Harris emphasizes the importance of self-reflective contemplation to purify one's elements and recognizes Consciousness as the condition in which all other emotions appear. Harris argues that even if one has experiences that change the contents of awareness, these changes are transitory and would fade in time. Therefore, meditation provides a way to find a mature approach to a self-reflective practice that is ego-free rather than merely purifying one's elements to achieve enlightenment.

5) Harris discusses how meditation can lead to a recognition of the fundamental mystery of one's experience, and how mindfulness meditation can lead to de-identification from negative emotions like anger or fear. He explains that even the dualistic, strategic awareness of one's emotions during meditation is a starting point for recognizing the impact of thoughts and emotions, and how mindfulness can give people a degree of freedom in their reactions to emotions. Ultimately, meditation can help individuals move beyond patterns of negative thinking and towards a state of open awareness.

6) Harris discusses how energy and anger can be necessary when defending oneself or others, using the example of violently defending against an aggressor. He acknowledges that the energy behind this action does not necessarily stem from hatred, but sometimes the situation can evoke feelings of hatred towards the attacker. However, he then speaks about how it is important to view people as equivalent to forces of nature, and while we can defend ourselves and put them in prison, we don't need to hate them in the same way as we can't hate a hurricane. Harris believes that differences in life outcomes are largely due to differences in luck and that acknowledging this should lead us to want to cancel out the most extreme variations of luck.

7) Harris discusses the concept of luck and the responsibility that comes with being lucky. Harris expresses the idea that as global civilization gets wealthier andwealthier, it's important to recognize the terrible disparities in luck and engineer a tide that raises all boats. While asymmetries can promote creativity and innovation in society, he feels it's crucial to spread the luck within society and create love for others. Harris also highlights the importance of finding outlets for outrage that can arise in response to problems in society and acting pragmatically to make a difference in the world based on changing incentives at the system level.

8) Sam talks about how individuals should strive to improve themselves but also acknowledges that there are systems in place that make it hard to do so. There are systems of incentives that are aligned to make it harder for individuals to be ethical and easier for them to behave like psychopaths. Harris uses climate change as an example of how difficult it is to make ethical decisions when the incentives are all wrong. While it is great to buy electric cars to reduce carbon footprint, there is a litany of horrors that come with extracting Cobalt from Congo, which highlights the need to design ethical systems of incentives and economic opportunities that make it easier to behave ethically.

9) Harris discusses his approach to charitable giving and how he has decided to give a minimum of 10% of his pre-tax income to charities based on rational analysis of cause effectiveness, as opposed to just giving to causes he personally finds enjoyable. This approach has allowed him to outsource the cognitive labor of deciding where to allocate his charitable funds and has created a default change in his mindset that has resulted in a merging of his selfish and selfless impulses. He also discusses how setting clear constraints, such as allocating 10% of his income to charity, has saved him time and energy on figuring out where to allocate his resources.

10) Harris discusses his decision to quit Twitter and the impact it had on his life. His experience on the social media platform was negative, leading to feelings of despair and contempt as he encountered numerous instances of confusion and misrepresentation. He ultimately decided to cut it off entirely, realizing that it was a dysfunctional situation that was ultimately diverting and a waste of time. Although he misses the good parts of the platform, he does not plan to go back and would only consider doing so if he could use it in a healthier way. The conversation also touches on the topic of impermanence and how Harris thinks about the deaths of people he cares about.

11) Sam discusses how it is possible to be happy even in the absence of loved ones, and how death can be somewhat analogous to sleep. They also delve into the idea of grief, and how it is important to feel the gravity of a loss rather than wanting to take a "grief pill" to alleviate the pain immediately after a loved one's passing. Ultimately, grief is the appropriate register of what that person meant to the individual who lost them.

12) Sam discusses his experiences with goal-oriented meditation practices and the harmful advice he received about how to approach it. He also reflects on the biggest lesson he learned in the last 12 months, which was the need to get off of Twitter due to the negative effects it had on his life. Additionally, he talks about how he no longer values identity in any form, and that it's not about being someone in any kind of sense, but rather having an open hand in life. Harris acknowledges the importance of having a healthy ego, but values being open and relaxed over having a strong sense of self.

13) Sam discusses the idea of identity from a human-scale practice point of view. While it may be appropriate for children to feel pride for the right things, pride does not fit into Sam's sense of what it means to be a person. He believes that the price we pay for dishonesty at every level of society is enormous, and there is so little price paid for lying. Thus, he proposes a law that would emphasize the importance of honesty and discourage lying, especially in situations where it matters. Sam also suggests that lie detection technology could be the biggest ethical change society could ever experience, and norms regarding truth-telling should evolve accordingly.