Category: rambling

• The End of the F***ing Year

  To say that 2020 has been a maddening year would be the biggest understatement ever.

  Evan Tan

  December 22, 2020

  metaphysics, personal life, pop culture, rambling, reflections, travel, world events

  absence of free will, end of 2020, end of the fucking world, end of the year 2020, free will, john rawls, richard dawkins, what's happening at the end of the year

• Go Fake Yourself

  The more I think about pinning down who the “authentic self” is, the more I question that it even exists.

  Evan Tan

  December 6, 2020

  metaphysics, personal life, philosophy, rambling, reflections

  authenticity, be true to yourself, evan tan, evan tan writer in manila, how to be true to yourself, stay true stay you, to thine own self be true is bad advice, writer in manila

• “The Universe is Having a Wank”: Teleological Explorations, By Way of Birthdays

  There’s nothing that drives you further down into introspection like the waning high of your birthday that’s almost about to end (except probably a close brush with death, a bus speeding at 100 kilometers per hour barely colliding with the car you’re in at a highway—but that’s another story.)

  Evan Tan

  October 3, 2020

  metaphysics, personal life, philosophy, rambling, reflections, Uncategorized

  carl sagan, evan tan writer in manila, ian shapiro moral foundations of politics, john locke workmanship ideal, moral foundations of politics, teleology, writer in manila

• You are a rat

  “The earliest known mammals were the morganucodontids, tiny shrew-size creatures that lived in the shadows of the dinosaurs 210 million years ago. They were one of several different mammal lineages that emerged around that time. All living mammals today, including us, descend from the one line that survived.”

  Evan Tan

  July 25, 2020

  rambling, reflections, Uncategorized

• To See Clearly, Don’t Shy Away from Conflict: Chronicles During the COVID-19 Community Quarantine

  Recently, I was in a heated Twitter debate about how people who had animal companions but were not vegan were essentially in a master-slave relationship. While some of my friends argued with me directly, some chose not to reply and instead resorted to subtweets and snarky, shady remarks. Those who did the latter did not…

  Evan Tan

  May 17, 2020

  personal life, philosophy, pop culture, rambling, vegan

  evan tan writer in manila, How social media encourages groupthink, how to argue better, How to overcome willful blindness, How to overcome willfulness blindness margaret heffernan, margaret heffernan willful blindness, Philosophy for our Times podcast

• Suffering is a Cookie: Chronicles During the COVID-19 Community Quarantine

  I suffer because I believe that I deserve that cookie. But I also know that eating that cookie comes with consequences.

  Evan Tan

  March 22, 2020

  personal life, philosophy, pop culture, rambling, reflections, vegan

  buddhism concepts, covid-19, covid-19 community quarantine philippines, covid-19 diary, evan tan writer in manila, first noble truth, writer in manila

• Love in the Time of the Novel Coronavirus

  All travel is fiction, you told yourself, as you walked around Ximending that cold morning. You’ve been too obsessed with getting the details right that you forgot that the experience is more important, the feelings you will take away from this whole trip.

  Evan Tan

  February 15, 2020

  personal life, rambling, reflections, travel

  ai weiwei odyssey, coronavirus, museum of contemporary art taiwan, pakavulay sarapung, taipei

• A Necessary Fear

  This was a draft I began writing in August 2014. I am not sure why I didn’t get to finish this. I am publishing this now with some thoughts I’ve added, four years later. Today I had an anxiety attack. It wasn’t the first, nor the worst, but it crept from behind and surprised me.…

  Evan Tan

  September 14, 2018

  personal life, rambling, reflections