A Layman's Blog: 9/20/15

Saturday, September 26, 2015

Just to know who is driving..............................

The Moody Blues....I'm Just A Singer (In A Rock And Roll Band)

I'm just a wandering on the face of this earth
Meeting so many people
Who are trying to be free
And while I'm traveling I hear so many words

Language barriers broken
Now we've found the key
And if you want the wind of change
To blow about you
And you're the only other person to know, don't tell me
I'm just a singer in a rock and roll band.

A thousand pictures can be drawn from one word
Only who is the artist
We got to agree
A thousand miles can lead so many ways

Just to know who is driving
What a help it would be
So if you want this world of yours
To turn about you
And you can see exactly what to do
Please tell me
I'm just a singer in a rock and roll band.

How can we understand
Riots by the people for the people
Who are only destroying themselves
And when you see a frightened
Person who is frightened by the
People who are scorching this earth.

I'm just a wandering on the face of this earth
Meeting so many people
Who are trying to be free
And while I'm traveling I hear so many words

Language barriers broken
Now we've found the key
And if you want the wind of change
To blow about you
And you're the only other person to know, don't tell me
I'm just a singer in a rock and roll band.

How can we understand
Riots by the people for the people
Who are only destroying themselves
And when you see a frightened
Person who is frightened by the
People who are scorching this earth.

Music is the traveller crossing our world
Meeting so many people bridging the seas
I'm just a singer in a rock and roll band.
We're just the singers in a rock and roll band.
I'm just a singer in a rock and roll band...

On the perilous road....................

................................................to well-intentioned censorship.

There is a wonderful quote from Epictetus that I think of every time I see someone get terribly upset about one of these things (I try to think about it when I get upset about anything): “If someone succeeds in provoking you, realize that your mind is complicit in the provocation.”

-Ryan Holiday, as excerpted from t his read-worthy essay

via

Hey, that's my business you're talking about....

..........................................and I couldn't agree more.

Historical analysis suggests that developers are prone to bouts of irrationality.
-as extracted from this article in The Economist

Fifty years ago.............................................

Marianne Faithfull...............................House Of The Rising Sun

On ideology............................

The principal problem with ideology is that you stop thinking when it comes to hard issues. Munger believes in regularly taking your best ideas, tearing them down, and looking for flaws as a means of improving yourself, which is hard to do when you are a ideologue.

-Tren Griffin, as excerpted from Charlie Munger: The Complete Investor

This is probably unfair to astrologers.....

It doesn't have to be this way..........

via

Friday, September 25, 2015

The eternal question......................

The Who.......................................................Who Are You

I know there's a place you walked
Where love falls from the trees
My heart is like a broken cup
I only feel right on my knees

I spit out like a sewer hole
Yet still receive your kiss
How can I measure up to anyone now
After such a love as this?

full lyrics here

supreme...................................

“Reading and sauntering and lounging and dosing, which I call thinking, is my supreme Happiness."
-David Hume

Passion trumps reason..............

I had been obsessively, ruminatively, fruitlessly trying to figure out who I was and what I would do without work or love or children to care for. It was like formulating an argument when the premises refuse to yield the conclusion, or analyzing a data set that makes no sense. But if I couldn’t figure myself out, I decided, I could at least try to figure out Desideri, and so I lost myself in his book, and his life.
-Alison Gopnik

If a story on good-old-fashioned intellectual sleuthing sparks any interest, you really should read this essay. It has it all.
via

Maximize..................................................

The way I approach the problem of multiple priorities is by focusing on just one main matrix: my energy. I make choices that maximize my personal energy because that makes it easier to manage all of the other priorities.
Maximizing my personal energy means eating right, exercising, avoiding unnecessary stress, getting enough sleep, and all of the obvious steps. But it also means having something in my life that makes me excited to wake up. When I get my personal energy right, the quality of my work is better, and I can complete it faster. That keeps my career on track. And when all of that is working, and I feel relaxed and energetic, my personal life is better too.

-Scott Adams, How To Fail At Almost Everything And Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life

Checking in with Aesop...................................

A Crab, forsaking the seashore, chose a neighboring green meadow as its feeding ground. A Fox came across him, and being very hungry ate him up. Just as he was on the point of being eaten, the Crab said, "I well deserve my fate, for what business had I on the land, when by my nature and habits I am only adapted for the sea?"

Contentment with our lot is an element of happiness.

-Aesop, Aesop's Fables

image, and further commentary, via

Fifty years ago......................

The Who...........................................................I Can't Explain

The state of the Union....................

Yes, America, perhaps the only country on earth that can be serially led by second- or third-rate presidents—and somehow always manage to come up trumps (so to speak). America, where half of college-age Americans can’t find New York state on a map — even as those same young Americans lead the world in innovation. America, where Cornel West is celebrated as an intellectual, Miley Cyrus as an artist, Jonathan Franzen as a novelist and Kim Kardashian as a beauty — and yet remains the cultural dynamo of the world.

-Bret Stephens, as quoted by Stuart Schneiderman, in this essay about Chinese Premier Xi Jinping's upcoming visit to our shores.

Modern times..........................

Simplicity trumps complexity..............

Every single great investor or business person I’ve read about over the years discusses the importance of simplifying in order to succeed. Yet the majority of investors are constantly looking for ways to make things more complex and complicated.
-Ben Carlson, as excerpted from here

Thursday, September 24, 2015

Burning in my heart...............

The Boss (2014) ..............................................Heat Wave

... penalties for enjoyment ...

Such then is the present state of the world, and of the countries, nations, more remarkable seas, islands, and cities which it contains. The nature of the animated beings which exist upon it, is hardly in any degree less worthy of our contemplation than its other features; if, indeed, the human mind is able to embrace the whole of so diversified a subject. Our first attention is justly due to Man, for whose sake all other things appear to have been produced by Nature; though, on the other hand, with so great and so severe penalties for the enjoyment of her bounteous gifts, that it is far from easy to determine, whether she has proved to him a kind parent, or a merciless step-mother.

-Pliny the Elder (AD 23 – August 25, AD 79), Natural History

I don't think so..........................

via

Emotional intelligence................

Happily, the skills that help us cultivate emotional intelligence also help us identify and develop the inner factors that contribute to our deep sense of well-being. The same things that build emotional intelligence will also help us create conditions for our own happiness. Therefore, happiness may be an unavoidable side effect of cultivating emotional intelligence. Other side effects may include resilience, optimism, and kindness. (You may want to call your doctor to determine if happiness is right for you.)
-Chade-Meng Tan, Search Inside Yourself: The Unexpected Path to Achieving Success, Happiness (And World Peace)

Fifty years ago..........................

The Who...............................................................Heat Wave

Sand in the hourglass.....................

Our progress is fueled by a blend of dissatisfaction, achievement, and appreciation.

May we have a cup nearby every single day.

-Michael Wade, as extracted from here

Can't believe..............................

.................................................he thinks this is a good idea.

One day, perhaps, carrying cash will be as much a cause for suspicion as the possession of a jemmy or a knife.

-John Kay, as excerpted from this post titled "The move towards a cashless society is bad news for criminal activity."

Be careful what you wish for. The list of "criminal" activities seems to be ever expanding.

Those were the days my friend............

Not seeing my long-ago favorite comic book, however:

first image via

Fun with the language.................................

If a pope must resort to public speaking — and I see no reason why he should — it would, I suppose, be better if he stuck strictly to ecclesiastical Latin. That way, everyone would have an equal opportunity to misunderstand him. Or alternatively, we could all learn Latin, a language in which a wide range of post-modern abstractions and ambiguities are impossible to express.

-David Warren, as excerpted from here

It's over..............................A sad day.....................

Yogi Berra wasn’t a big guy – about 5′-8″ and 185 lbs in his prime – but he played the game with a fierce tenacity and workman’s diligence that won the respect of his opponents and teammates. He had a long and productive career with the Yankees and gave his all on the field.
-as excerpted from here

Wednesday, September 23, 2015

Didn't see the plan...............

Jamie O'Neal...........................................On My Way To You

Suspecting this to be true........

... it's almost always dangerous to apply scientific principles rigidly to arenas dominated by human behavior...
-Gary Carmell, as excerpted from The Philosophical Investor

Realpolitik..........................

Spengler takes another look at Vladimir Putin:

There are a lot of reasons I don’t watch Republican political debates. One of them is that I might throw a whiskey glass at the television screen every time one of the contenders tries to show how tough he or she is by excoriating Vladimir Putin. Big talkers. My fellow Republicans oscillate between the view that Russia is about to implode and the view that Putin is about to make war on NATO. Both views are equally silly. Putin is playing a weak hand skillfully, trying to keep Russia in the game as a world power (if not a superpower). He also rules the one Christian country that has been fighting a war with Islamic terrorists for decades. After years of colossal American blunders in the Levant, there’s no way we can exclude Putin from a seat at the table. That’s a fact of life, and all the bloviating in the world won’t change it. It’s also a fact that Russia has interests which sometimes run counter to ours and sometimes coincide with ours. Where our interests coincide, we should work with Russia; where our interests diverge, we should foil Russia. That’s called Realpolitik and it’s what great powers do for a living.

If memory serves, Henry Kissinger, serving as Richard Nixon's Secretary of State, was the last practitioner of Realpolitik in the United States government. Here is how our friends at Wikipedia approach about the subject:

Realpolitik (from German: real "realistic", "practical", or "actual"; and Politik "politics", German pronunciation: [ʁeˈaːlpoliˌtɪk]) is politics or diplomacy based primarily on power and on practical and material factors and considerations, rather than explicit ideological notions or moral or ethical premises. In this respect, it shares aspects of its philosophical approach with those of realism and pragmatism; often, its simply referred to as "pragmatism" in politics, i.e. 'pursuing pragmatic policies' (Singapore). The term Realpolitik is sometimes used pejoratively to imply politics that are coercive, amoral, or Machiavellian.

Ahhh.............that rascal Machiavelli.

As a side note, I was wondering what Putin might think of Spengler's calling Russia a Christian country. Judging by this article, he would probably agree. We certainly live in interesting times.

Imagine.............................

Imagine whenever you meet anybody, your habitual, instinctive first thought is, I wish for this person to be happy. Having such habits change everything at work, because this sincere goodwill is picked up unconsciously by others, and you create the type of trust that leads to highly productive collaborations. Such habits can be volitionally trained.

-Chade-Meng Tan, Search Inside Yourself: The Unexpected Path To Achieving Success, Happiness (And World Peace)

Our boy..............................

........................is on another hot streak. He cracks my head up.

The long run....................

Books won't stay banned. They won't burn. Ideas won't go to jail. In the long run of history, the censor and the inquisitor have always lost. The only sure weapon against bad ideas is better ideas.

-Alfred Whitney Griswold

Fifty years ago..............................

The Byrds..................................................Chimes of Freedom

Three worthy objectives...........

Develop into a lifelong self-learner through voracious reading; cultivate curiosity and strive to become a little wiser every day.
-Charlie Munger, as cited here, but culled from Poor Charlie's Almanack

Think I'll check at the library tomorrow.....

I think he is telling us to focus.......

The true insights a person can get in life are still very limited, so correct decision making must necessarily be confined to your "circle of competence." A "competence" that has no defined borders cannot be called a true competence.
-Li Lu, as culled from here