Weekly Wisdom Builder
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“Leisure participation will cultivate your inner wisdom, empowering your inner voice, your inner coach – your philosopher guide, as Socrates would say.” –Michael Alan Prestwood
Weeky Wisdom Builder
7 Jan 2026
7 Jan 2026
Stories: Science Philosophy Critical Thinking History Big Bang Metaphysics Evolution Biases Futurism Ancient History Ethics Reasoning
5 Minutes Per Week
Read more when inspired.
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This Week’s Idea
WWB
Story of the Week
Updated This Week
History
Story
Heraclitus
born circa 535 BCE
circa 535 to 475 BCE, likely aged about 60 years old
- "No one steps in the same river twice."
- Weeping or "Dark" Philosopher
Pre-Socratic Philosophy
Heraclitus lived around 500 BCE in the Greek city of Ephesus, and he saw something most people miss: nothing ever truly stands still. Rivers flow. Fires burn. Lives change. Even the things that look solid are only holding their shape for a while. Heraclitus wrote in sharp, almost cryptic fragments, not essays, which earned him the nickname the Dark Philosopher. But beneath the mystery was a clear idea—reality is not made of fixed things, but of processes in motion. Order still exists, he argued, but it comes from tension and balance, not permanence. Two and a half millennia later, physics quietly agrees.
WWB
Quote of the Week
New This Week
Philosophy
Quote
“Everything is in flux.”
- Heraclitus
- 500 BCE
Impermanence
Translated from Ancient Greece.
Heraclitus’ claim that “everything is in flux” captures a deep truth shared by both metaphysics and classical physics. The world appears stable only because change often happens gradually. Beneath every solid object, fixed identity, and steady law lies continuous motion, transformation, and becoming. What endures is not stillness, but patterned change.
WWB
Weekly Crossroads
Wisdom at the crossroads of knowledge.
Wisdom emerges from the consistent exploration of the intersections of philosophy, science, critical thinking, and history.
1START: Science »
Will the night sky have stars nearly forever?
The Expanding Universe
Our galaxy is part of the Local Group, over 50 galaxies, gravitationally bound, forever.
Science
FAQ
2Philosophy »
What does existence before essence mean?
Existentialism
In metaphysics, existence before essence means humans are born first, without a predefined purpose, and only later form their identity.
Philosophy
FAQ
3Critical Thinking »
Is cause and effect certain?
Causation versus Correlation
Cause and effect feel certain because experience trains us to expect patterns. Hume pointed out that just because something always happens in our experience doesn’t mean it must happen.
Critical Thinking
FAQ
4History!
Who were the Presocratic Philosophers?
Presocratic Philosophers
In ancient grecoroman times, the word sophist shifted from a respected label to a pejorative.
History
FAQ
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Next set of ideas drops Wednesday at 3PM PST.
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