Dazai Osamu, pseudonym of Tsushima Shūji
(June 19, 1909 - June 13, 1948)

Tsushima's success in writing was brought to a halt when his idol, the writer Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, committed suicide in 1927 at 35 years old. Tsushima started to neglect his studies, and spent the majority of his allowance on clothes, alcohol, and prostitutes. He also dabbled with Marxism, which at the time was heavily suppressed by the government. On the night of December 10, 1929, Tsushima committed his first suicide attempt, but survived and was able to graduate the following year. In 1930, Tsushima enrolled in the French Literature Department of Tokyo Imperial University and promptly stopped studying again. In October, he ran away with a geisha named Hatsuyo Oyama and was formally disowned by his family.

[Source]

“Now I have neither happiness nor unhappiness.

Everything passes.

That is the one and only thing that I have thought resembled a truth in the society of human beings where I have dwelled up to now as in a burning hell.

Everything passes.”
— No Longer Human

“The weak fear happiness itself. They can harm themselves on cotton wool. Sometimes they are wounded even by happiness”
— No Longer Human

“Whenever I was asked what I wanted my first impulse was to answer "Nothing." The thought went through my mind that it didn't make any difference, that nothing was going to make me happy.”
— No Longer Human

“For someone like myself in whom the ability to trust others is so cracked and broken that I am wretchedly timid and am forever trying to read the expression on people's faces.”
— No Longer Human

“I thought, “I want to die. I want to die more than ever before. There’s no chance now of a recovery. No matter what sort of thing I do, no matter what I do, it’s sure to be a failure, just a final coating applied to my shame. That dream of going on bicycles to see a waterfall framed in summer leaves—it was not for the likes of me. All that can happen now is that one foul, humiliating sin will be piled on another, and my sufferings will become only the more acute. I want to die. I must die. Living itself is the source of sin.”
— No Longer Human

“Mine has been a life of much shame. I can't even guess myself what it must be to live the life of a human being.”
― No Longer Human

“People talk of “social outcasts.” The words apparently denote the miserable losers of the world, the vicious ones, but I feel as though I have been a “social outcast” from the moment I was born. If ever I meet someone society has designated as an outcast, I invariably feel affection for him, an emotion which carries me away in melting tenderness.”
― No Longer Human

“I could believe in hell, but it was impossible for me to believe in the existence of heaven.”
―No Longer Human

“I want to spend my time with people who don't look to be respected. But such good people won't want to spend their time with me.”
― The Setting Sun

#LearnWednesday

What is the Ambiguity Effect?

The ambiguity effect is a cognitive bias that describes how we tend to avoid options that we consider to be ambiguous or to be missing information. We dislike uncertainty and are therefore more inclined to select an option for which the probability of achieving a certain favorable outcome is known.

The ambiguity effect can prevent us from giving two viable options equal consideration. As a result, our decision making is affected. We may automatically decide against something based solely on the fact that we feel that putting our trust in the unknown is too risky. Engaging in this cognitive bias limits us, as it prevents us from reaping the long-term benefits of riskier decisions.

To avoid limiting ourselves, we need to learn to override our initial impulse to avoid ambiguous options and situations. As with any heuristic, the first step to doing so is recognizing its existence and its influence over our decision-making.

[Know More]

Sigmund Freud
(May 6, 1856 - September 23, 1939)

Freud may justly be called the most influential intellectual legislator of his age. His creation of psychoanalysis was at once a theory of the human psyche, a therapy for the relief of its ills, and an optic for the interpretation of culture and society. Despite repeated criticisms, attempted refutations, and qualifications of Freud’s work, its spell remained powerful well after his death and in fields far removed from psychology as it is narrowly defined.

[Know More]

“Most people do not really want freedom, because freedom involves responsibility, and most people are frightened of responsibility.”
— Civilization and Its Discontents