Complex arrays (Puett & Gross-Loh)

Just as the world itself is fragmented, we are too. Instead of thinking of ourselves as single, unified selves who we are trying to discover through self-reflection, we could think of ourselves as complex arrays of emotions, dispositions, desires, and traits that often pull us in different and contradictory ways. When we do so, we become malleable. We avoid the danger of defining ourselves as frozen in a moment in time.

Michael Puett & Christine Gross-Loh,
The Path: What Chinese Philosophers Can Teach Us About the Good Life