“The fool pursues the pleasures of life and finds himself their dupe; the wise man avoids its evils.”

Set the timer (5-30 min), take 20 seconds of prep if you like, start talking. Jot your thoughts onto the sticky-note board.

similar topics

• Heraclitus says you cannot step into the same river twice, because the water has flowed on. But think again: is it only the river that changes, or is the person stepping in also someone new? Can anyone step into any river even once?
• The odds of you existing were practically zero; you happened only through countless accidents stacking up just right. Given such an impossible stroke of luck, is living an ordinary life a waste of the universe's gift, or is even thinking that way an empty vanity?
• Hilbert's infinite hotel: a hotel with infinitely many rooms is completely full, yet a new guest can still be given a room. Why does our common sense collapse the moment 'full' and 'infinite' appear in the same sentence?
• Newcomb's paradox: a being that predicts the future almost perfectly sets out two boxes. Take only the closed box and it is full; take both and it is empty. Logic says take both boxes, so why does intuition keep telling us to take just one?
• Every night when you fall asleep your consciousness switches off completely, and every morning it comes back. Is the person who wakes up really the one who fell asleep, or a brand new consciousness that inherited their memories? What exactly separates sleep from death?