Misc. – Page 3 – Roxana Murariu

Between Two Wor(l)ds: Schadenfreude and Mudita

January 8, 2024July 31, 2022 by Roxana

There are four possible ways in which we can combine our reactions when we observe another person’s happiness or unhappiness: we can feel pleasure at another’s unhappiness (schadenfreude), displeasure at another’s unhappiness (compassion), displeasure at another’s happiness (envy), or pleasure at their happiness (mudita). Schadenfreude is a word borrowed from German, composed by Schaden (“damage/harm”) and Freude (“joy”). Thus, schadenfreude means tingling or even waves of pleasure noticing another’s misfortunes. The critical difference between schadenfreude and sadism is that sadism gives pleasure by inflicting pain. In contrast, …

Seeing the World through the Japanese Concept of Wabi-Sabi

January 8, 2024July 17, 2022 by Roxana

Wabi-sabi is a Japanese concept through which the world is accepted as beautifully imperfect with humble and subtle flaws as it naturally grows and decays. Etymologically, the noun wabi is better understood through its adjective form wabishii (wretched, dreadful). In time, a negative connotation of wabi transformed through the influence of Zen philosophy, with its core concepts of accepting and contemplating imperfection and impermanence, into the quiet simplicity of rustic beauty, for things created by nature or people. Wabi is beauty coming from subtle imperfections. The noun sabi is …

When Incentives Fail. A Story about Rats, Cobras, Nails, and Atrocities.

May 2, 2024June 26, 2022 by Roxana

Part 1: When Incentives Fail. A Story about Rats, Cobras, Nails, and Atrocities. Part 2: Avoiding Perverse Incentives More than a century ago, the French colonialists decided to modernize the French Indochina, especially its capital, Hanoi. Large areas of Hanoi were cleared to accommodate French-style districts with boulevards, bridges, palaces, villas and gardens. This major infrastructure project was supposed to transform Hanoi from a cramped and narrow city into a symbol of France’s “civilising” mission in Indochina. A sign of cleanliness and civilization was …

What Makes Finland a Happy Country

January 8, 2024April 3, 2022 by Roxana

A few weeks ago, the World Happiness Report published its yearly global survey results about how people from more than 150 countries worldwide evaluated their lives. The full report can be found here (page 22). What is the methodology for ranking countries based on their happiness? The polling company Gallup conducts interviews with hundreds of thousands of people across the nations included in the report. People assess their own happiness using a scale from 1 to 10, responding to questions such as if they smiled, laughed or experienced …

Remembering 2021

January 6, 2024December 23, 2021 by Roxana

So much has happened in 2021, so little has occurred. Coups d’état, lockdowns, controversies, wars, destructive climate disasters, 2021 was a terrible year. There is no denying there were some sparks of hope. For example, we saw the massive collaboration effort that contributed to the delivery of almost nine billion Covid jabs. This endeavour was not without troubles along the way, such as uneven access to vaccines or variants that seem to evade the vaccine. 2021 also brought the world’s first 3d printed school, built in …

Writing Insights (2021)

December 29, 2024December 19, 2021 by Roxana

A well-known writer got collared by a university student who asked, “Do you think I could be a writer?” “Well,” the writer said, “I don’t know…. Do you like sentences?” Annie Dillard – The Writing Life As I started writing articles for this blog for over a year now, I thought to review the lessons I learned about writing during this journey. When to Write What started as stealing time to write, here and there, progressed into a much more organized framework. Most of my …

The Exponential Art of Kaizen

January 8, 2024July 31, 2021 by Roxana

When nothing seems to help, I go and look at a stonecutter hammering away at his rock, perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred and first blow, it will split in two, and I know it was not that last blow that did it—but all that had gone before. Jacob A. Riis How are post-war industries rebuilt? Can worldwide poverty be reduced? Can couples divorce rates be predicted? The answer to such dramatic questions …