Friday, March 12, 2021
Thursday, March 11, 2021
That's interesting...............................
In a classic paper, sociologist Murray Davis argued that when ideas survive, it's not because they're true—it's because they're interesting. What makes an idea interesting is that it challenges our weakly held opinions. . . .
When a core belief is questioned, though, we tend to shut down rather than open up. It's as if there's a miniature dictator living inside our heads, controlling the flow of facts to our minds . . . The technical term for this in psychology is the totalitarian ego, and its job is to keep out threatening information.
-Adam Grant, Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know
Every once in a while..........................
Jim Nabors channeling Gomer Pyle.........The Impossible Dream
his amazing singing starts around 3:30
Necessary................................
These stories [mostly culled from Matthew and Luke] portray the existential dilemma that eternally characterizes human life: it is necessary to conform, to be disciplined, and to follow the rules—to do humbly what others do; but it is also necessary to use judgment, vision, and the truth that guides conscience to tell what is right, when the rules suggest otherwise. It is the ability to manage this combination that truly characterizes the fully developed personality: the true hero.
-Jordan B. Peterson, Beyond Order: 12 More Rules For Life
Balanced...................................
A certain amount of arbitrary rule-ness must be tolerated—or welcomed, depending on your point of view—to keep the world and its inhabitants together. A certain amount of creativity and rebellion must be tolerated—or welcomed, depending on your point of view—to maintain the process of regeneration. Every rule was once a creative act, breaking other rules. Every creative act, genuine in its creativity, is likely to transform itself, with time, into a useful rule. It is the living interaction between social institutions and creative achievement that keeps the world balanced on the narrow line between too much order and too much chaos. This is a terrible conundrum, a true existential burden. We must support and value the past, and we need to do that with an attitude of gratitude and respect. At the same time, however, we must keep our eyes open—we, the visionary living—and repair the ancient mechanisms that stabilize and support us when we falter. Thus, we need to bear the paradox that is involved in simultaneously respecting the walls that keep us safe and allowing in enough of what is new and changing so that our institutions remain alive and healthy. The very world depends for its stability and its dynamism on the subsuming of all our endeavors under the perfection—the sacredness—of that dual ability.
Do not carelessly denigrate social institutions or creative achievement.
-Jordan B. Peterson, Beyond Order: 12 More Rules For Life
Tuesday, March 9, 2021
Every once in a while.....................
Abbott & Costello.................................................Who's On First
A weapon....................................
In psychology there are at least two biases that drive this pattern. One is confirmation bias: seeing what we expect to see. The other is desirability bias: seeing what we want to see. These biases don't just prevent us from applying our intelligence. They can actually contort our intelligence into a weapon against the truth. We find reasons to preach our faith more deeply, prosecute our case more passionately, and ride the tidal wave of our political party. The tragedy is that we're usually unaware of the resulting flaws in our thinking.
My favorite bias is the "I'm not biased" bias, in which people believer they're more objective that others. It turns out that smart people are more likely to fall into this trap. The brighter you are, the harder it can be to see your own limitations. Being good at thinking can make you worse at rethinking.
-Adam Grant, Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know
If only you could avoid the human element....
I don't want to be a great problem solver. I want to avoid problems—prevent them from happening and doing it right from the beginning.
Reconsider.............................
But the twentieth-century experiments of nationalism and socialism, of syndicalism in factories and central planning for investment, of proliferating regulation for imagined but not factually documented imperfections in the market, did not work. And most of the pessimisms about how we live now have proven to be mistaken. It is a puzzle. Perhaps you yourself still believe in nationalism or socialism or proliferating regulation. And perhaps you are in the grip of pessimism about growth or consumerism or the environment or inequality. Please, for the good of the wretched of the earth, reconsider.”
Bourgeois Equality: How Ideas, Not Capital or Institutions, Enriched the WorldMonday, March 8, 2021
On patience and restraint.......................
For a younger generation and those to come, the presidency would fuse with television, and politics with storytelling and drama. Eisenhower knew that leadership has many outward signs, but getting constant attention is not one of them. For Eisenhower patience and restraint were also critical attributes of sound leadership. He was confident enough to know that action—any action at all—may be satisfying in the short term but, if not justifiable, could bring with it untold consequences over the longer haul. This could be seen in his refusal to intervene in Vietnam, for example.
-Susan Eisenhower: How Ike Led: The Principles Behind Eisenhower's Biggest Decisions
Fifty years ago.........................................
Santana.........................................................Toussaint L'Overture
Strive.............................
Col. William Draper, President Eisenhower's Air Force One pilot, told former president Eisenhower that after many years of service he was being forced into retirement because of a heart problem, which would necessitate a new career as an airline executive. He confided that he was worried about whether he would be able to succeed in the corporate world. On listening to Draper, Ike said to his longtime pilot, "Go ahead, be scared, and do it anyway."
Whether Eisenhower was frightened or scared we will never know. But he once articulated his simple formula in a letter to Mamie that contained the critical word. He wrote that it was imperative on him to "struggle is to do one's best; to keep the brain and the conscience clear; never be swayed by unworthy motives of inconsequential reasons, but to strive to unearth the basic factors involved and then do one's duty."
-Susan Eisenhower, How Ike Led: The Principles Behind Eisenhower's Biggest Decisions
Fun with statistics.................
That vertical line at the end of the chart represents the money supply - a 450% increase. Scary? Inflationary? Maybe, but not so fast. Morgan Housel weighs in with some context:
Money supply has increased from $4 trillion a year ago to $18 trillion today.
A 450% increase!
That’s something you might see in a third-world country with hyperinflation.
But before you dump life savings into gold and build a bunker, here’s the punchline: The huge majority of the increase you’re seeing in this chart is not money printing or new money creation.
It’s an accounting rule change. . . .
Of the $14 trillion increase in M1, $11.2 trillion (80%) came from an accounting rule change that shifted money from savings accounts to checking accounts.
A fundamental error...........................
David Brooks thinks it is your day job that can make you rich. He suggests avoiding coding = as of 2015 there were nearly eight times as many software developers in this country as there were dentists, but nearly as many dentists in the top one percent as there were software developers. He recommends becoming a surgeon, a lawyer, or a hedge-fund manager.
For what it is worth, an easier path to a brighter future is likely to be found in the trades. Plumbers and electricians can write their own ticket today. Lest you forget, a good sales person is worth their weight in gold.
Brooks's error? It is not what you earn that makes you wealthy, it is what you do with what you earn.
On favoritism...........................
Eisenhower believed that nothing destroyed the morale of a fighting man more than seeing favoritism in the ranks. In thinking about his experience, he once observed: "Morale is at one and the same time the strongest and most delicate of growths. It withstands shocks—even disasters of the battlefield, but can be destroyed utterly by favoritism, neglect, or injustice." He asserted that the same was true in civilian life.
-Susan Eisenhower, How Ike Led: The Principles Behind Eisenhower's Biggest Deicisons
Sunday, March 7, 2021
Temper.............................
In times of stress, perhaps the greatest struggle Ike had to contend with was the desire—the imperative—to control his temper: "Anger cannot win," he wrote in his diary in 1942. "It cannot even think clearly . . . for many years I've made it a religion never to indulge myself, but yesterday I failed."
-Susan Eisenhower, How Ike Led: The Principles Behind Eisenhower's Biggest Decisions
Be careful out there......................
Ben’s rule number one of the unfortunate realities of the investment business is a talented sales staff will trump a talented investment staff when attracting capital from investors.
-Ben Carlson, from his Investments as a Status Symbol post
The more things change.............................
Eisenhower's professional responsibilities were, as he described them, "maintaining the peace we had just won." And Ike was concerned by what he saw around him. "Washington," he observed, "seemed little bothered about the long-term future." In his words, the city was more consumed in rewriting the past by looking, for instance, for "a scapegoat for Pearl Harbor . . . But of the future, piled high with threats to our victory and to our continuing security, there seemed to be little thought."
-Susan Eisenhower, How Ike Led: The Principles Behind Eisenhower's Biggest Decisions
Fifty years ago......................................
Van Morrison...................................................Tupelo Honey
Well, tell us how you really feel..................
I really want to send our public health officials walking across a live minefield wearing blindfolds, so that they can get a sense of how they are providing us with information that would be helpful.
-Arnold Kling, from this post
Continuing education.........................
Spend the day profitably? Spend it pondering these quotes.
First.............................
I've learned that nothing is worth doing if it cannot be done from a place of deep peace. If we want to restore the planet, we must first restore ourselves. I believe that you find your way to your right life, your mission, the same way you find an animal. First quiet your heart and be still. Then find the fresh track and be willing to follow it. You don't need to see the whole picture; you only need to see where to take the next step. Life isn't about staying on track; it's about constantly rediscovering the track.
-Boyd Varty, Cathedral of the Wild: An African Journey Home
If.......................
. . . if we take responsibility for being the author of our world, we can come close to its source where we can correct it. By being loving towards others, we discover that we are surrounded by love and lovingness. When we unreservedly support life without expecting gain, life supports us in return. When we abandon gain as a motive, life responds with unexpected generosity.
-David R. Hawkins, I: Reality And Subjectivity
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