Imagine a pretty spring day. You’re standing on your front porch or some other pleasant vantage point and looking out at a sunlit landscape: trees, grass, and singing birds. Then your five-year-old child or grandchild walks up to you and tugs on your hand to get your attention. You turn and the child asks, “What kind of world is this?”
What do you reply? Continue reading “14 Words”
Lord Acton wrote that power tends to corrupt, but I’m going to say flat out that it does corrupt. I’ll go further and say that it’s an addiction (probably every bit as bad as cocaine), and that the lust for control is one of its primary drivers. Continue reading “Control Is An Addiction”
Humans are not naturally stupid. Fear, however, distorts them, weakens them, and makes them far less effective than they’d naturally be. Fear, in its many guises, is the great enemy of mankind, and it’s time that we addressed it head on. Continue reading “Fear Is A Mind Hack”
The good news about ignorance? Yes, and emphatically yes.
The good news about ignorance is that it sets us free from mental chains. Now, to be clear, what I’m talking about here is accepting and admitting our ignorance. This is essential if we want to actually know things, as opposed to making a show of knowing things. And I can tell you from personal experience that it really works. I gained the habit of admitting my ignorance (almost advertising it) back in the early 1980s, and that habit has helped me toward more understanding and discovery than I’d be able to itemize. Continue reading “The Gospel of Ignorance”
Sure, we’ve all seen this in practice and people have developed catchy terms for it, like echo chamber, but the polarization effect of social media has been demonstrated scientifically. In fact, some of us were warning about it a long time ago. And while I can no longer find my original documentation on the subject, I can tell you precisely how it works. Continue reading “Social Media Is A Polarization Machine”
I spent a a good deal of my young adulthood searching for business advantages. Ultimately I found mine by reading: While the other guys were talking about nonsense and chugging back brews, I was reading the literature of my business… and it worked.
Things are a bit different nowadays, but I still respect the drive to get ahead, and today I have something for all who are interested: a big advantage, ready for the taking. Most people will turn away from it, but if you’re serious about getting ahead, this is for you. Continue reading “Would You Like An Advantage In Business?”
When writing historical things, I try to include perspective from people who actually lived through the events. And for money issues in the US, I’m able to do that back to about 1905.
So, do you think life was nasty, brutish, and short in 1905? That there were poor and starving people falling dead on every street corner?
When people think of luxuries, they think of things that rich people can afford but they can’t. And as it happens, the luxury I’m talking about today fits into that category. I’m hearing reports of very rich people enjoying this luxury, while people of lesser means find it unattainable. Continue reading “The Luxury Of Thinking One’s Own Thoughts”
At one time I lived close to the Field Museum of Chicago; I had a membership and spent a good deal of time there. One evening, about ten minutes before closing, I noticed that workers had begun preparing the first floor for an evening event. I had a panoramic view from where I stood at the second floor balcony, and what I saw has stuck with me ever since. Continue reading “The Dignity of Work”
Years ago I engaged in a long usenet discussion with another gentleman on immigration, life in the third world, etc. After some back-and-forths, the gentleman proposed a scenario:
What would happen if the two of us were dropped, naked and with absolutely no way of calling for help, into the poorest and most desperate spot in India? Continue reading “Be The Outsider”
