This week’s newsletter at a glance:
A Book Review
The fire of competition
A new theory of life and evolution
Enjoy!
Age appears best in four things: old wood to burn, old wine to drink, old friends to trust, and old authors to read.
—Francis Bacon (1561-1626)
✏️ Book Review: Man’s Search for Meaning
Viktor Frankl's experience in the furnace of human suffering gave rise to insights into the human condition that would not have been possible without such circumstances. The first half of the book details his experiences in the Nazi death camps, as well as the psychological and existential questions that were posed to the inmates. His experience as a psychologist not only gave him an advantage in surviving such a trial, but allowed him to write the book from a unique and invaluable perspective: his knowledge of human nature and keen awareness of psychological phenomena, coupled with a first-hand experience, provided him with an almost scientific lens through which to view the suffering of the death camps.
His theory of logotherapy, which suggests that the search for meaning in life is the primary motivational force of the individual, was theorized before his internment. Through such a struggle, he was forced to put his theory to the test, inadvertently allowing him to develop it further. He states that life has meaning under all circumstances, even in unimaginable suffering. This became even more clear to him during his experience in the death camps: despite the seemingly hopeless conditions, certain individuals were able to bear such a burden admirably, maintaining their goodness and will to live, while others simply gave up and resigned themselves to their fate, seeing no need to fight on.
With his loss of belief in the future, he also lost his spiritual hold; he let himself decline and became a subject to mental and physical decay. Usually this happened quite suddenly, in the form of a crisis, the symptoms of which were familiar to the experienced camp inmate. We all feared this moment -- not for ourselves, which would have been pointless, but for our friends. Usually it began with the prisoner refusing one morning to get dressed and wash or to go out on the parade grounds. No entreaties, no blows, no threats had any effect. He just laid there, hardly moving. If this crisis was brought about by an illness, he refused to be taken to the sick-bay or do anything to help himself. He simply gave up. There he remained, lying in his own excreta, and nothing bothered him anymore.
Viktor E. Frankl, A Man's Search for Meaning
In the second half of the book, he expands on his theory and details how we can find meaning in life, which is undoubtedly a difficult task, especially in modern society. He suggests three primary paths: through meaningful work and deeds; through experiencing something or encountering someone (i.e. relationships); and through the attitude one takes towards unavoidable suffering.
This model and attitude toward life have aided me in finding my meaning. Suffering in life comes inexplicably: just ask Job. But when one's day-to-day life is oriented towards meaningful work and fulfilling relationships, it is possible to bear the tragedy of life nobly, to face life upright with your head held high despite its inevitable twists and turns. And as he shows us in the book, one can find a meaning to life even in unavoidable and terrible suffering.
Ultimately, man should not ask what the meaning of his life is, but rather he must recognize that it is he who is asked. In a word, each man is questioned by life; and he can only answer to life by answering for his own life; to life he can only respond by being responsible.
Viktor E. Frankl, A Man's Search for Meaning
I would highly recommend this book. I think it is one of those which I may need to revisit every few years to re-assess my direction in life and remind myself of its powerful message.
ego te provoco
I challenge you
💡 Food for Thought
Defeat is the mother of reform.
🔗 Sunday Best
Video-Based Assessment in Surgical Education: A Scoping Review
Citation: McQueen, S., McKinnon, V., VanderBeek, L., McCarthy, C., & Sonnadara, R. (2019). Video-Based Assessment in Surgical Education: A Scoping Review. Journal of surgical education, 76(6), 1645–1654.
Although further research and cost-benefit analyses are required, greater adoption of video-based assessment into surgical training may help meet increased assessment demands in an era of competency-based medical education.
Assembly theory explains and quantifies selection and evolution
Citation: Sharma, A., Czégel, D., Lachmann, M., Kempes, C. P., Walker, S. I., & Cronin, L. (2023). Assembly theory explains and quantifies selection and evolution. Nature, 622(7982), 321–328.
Assembly Theory provides a framework to unify descriptions of selection across physics and biology, with the potential to build a new physics that emerges in chemistry in which history and causal contingency through selection must start to play a prominent role in our descriptions of matter.
It is no measure of health to be well-adjusted to a profoundly sick society
—Jiddu Krishnamurti (1895-1986)
See you next week.
AT