Intuition.......................

 But my intuition is that the main problem in the U.S. economy is that too many highly educated people work for government and for non-profits, where they mostly make trouble for the productive sector.

-Arnold Kling, from here

A question not asked very often............

 Everyone remembers the children’s story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. You know, this porridge is too hot, this one is too cold, this one is just right.

Well, pain kinda works in the same way. Too much pain will lead to trauma and helplessness. Too little pain will lead to entitlement and selfishness.

But just the right amount of pain and struggle: that’s what allows us to feel a sense of accomplishment and meaning in our lives, which then builds up our sense of autonomy and self-worth—the bedrock of a mentally healthy and happy person.

So, how do you define the Goldilocks Zone of Pain? How do you know how much pain is “just right?”

-Mark Manson, from here

Mistakes.......................

I don't want you to think we have any way of learning or behaving so you won't make a lot of mistakes.  I'm just saying that you can learn to make fewer mistakes than other people—and how to fix your mistakes faster when you do make them.  But there's no way that you can live an adequate life without making many mistakes.  In fact, one trick is to get so you can handle mistakes.  Failure to handle psychological denial is a common way for people to go broke.

-Charlie Munger

More proof (as if you needed any)....

 ..........that God loves us and wants us to be happy.

via

This qualifies.......................

 ................as dangerous behavior today:

It seemed like a good opportunity to understand the crux of this conflict and hear multiple perspectives directly from those who hold them, as opposed to how they’re described by others. I listened, I found it enlightening, and I shared it.

-Mo Perry, from here

thanks Patrick

Mental health.........................

 

"Checkism".........................

 Noah Smith opines that progressives need to embrace progress:  here

This “clear consensus” exists only within an echo chamber. 

Do check in with....................

............................................McSweeney's:

 In another sign of the times, the imaginary arguments with your neighbors in your head have gotten sadly acrimonious lately.

Wow, I think he is talking about Newark, Ohio...

 Urbanism is not dead, but it is morphing into a new form. The most promising cities are currently taking shape on the periphery of the most densely settled areas, which lets them accommodate companies and families in a safer, healthier environment. These new cities are found around economically and demographically dynamic regions, largely in the sunbelt, but also in parts of the Midwest such as around Columbus and Indianapolis.

-Joel Kotkin, from here

Creation........................

 Even though we can’t measure luck, we can all agree that experiencing more good luck is a good thing. Believe it or not, we can actually create some of this good luck ourselves.

-creation story from Jack Raines here

A Bill of Rights.......................

 ......................for slow learners:

1. Focus on direction, not destination
Immerse yourself completely in the journey and you will reach your final goal gradually.

2. Raise your hand
Asking questions is a fundamental human right.

Eight more of "you have the right to" here.

Happy.........................

 

To the child of my child: I may not be around when you read this but I want you to know that this morning I walked on a path and I could see the full moon above the pine trees. It was very bright and round and full and it made me very happy to see it. Someday you will be watching that same moon. I hope it makes you happy too.

-Leonard Cohen

via

Yep.........................

 I just think it’s important to recognize that outward measures of success don’t automatically translate into inward feelings of happiness.

Life is often more complicated than it seems.

-Ben Carlson, from here 

Portal....................

 

Claude Monet       1888          oil on canvas 
Haystacks at Giverny, the Evening Sun 

 The act of creation is an attempt to enter a mysterious realm.  A longing to transcend.  What we create allows us to share glimpses of an inner landscape, one that is beyond our understanding.  Art is our portal to the unseen world.

-Rick Rubin, The Creative Act: A Way of Being

Highly recommended...............

      Shortly after Jackson's death, one unforgiving New York Whig damned the General as "the undisputed head of a violent, proscriptive party . . . He did more to break down the republican principles of the government and enslave the minds of the people than all the rulers who went before him."  Here reigned a virtual dictator, he continued, a master of "that pernicious popular homage called popularity."  Fifteen yeas later, however, in the perilous secession winter of 1860, another Yankee, a New Hampshire Democrat, thought that only an indomitable Jackson-like leader could save the nation.  "Would to Heaven," he wrote, "we had another Andrew Jackson . . .  at the head of this Government . . . instead of James Buchanan."  Both of these observers anticipated, in their divergent views, a sharp and seemingly endless debate over the meaning of power and populism in Jackson's America.  The notion of the people preventing social elites and financial aristocrats from bullying, bestriding. or otherwise buying Congress is altogether attractive.  And yet common man democracy's erratic energy collaterally legitimized Indian removal, slavery's expansion, and the troubling growth of presidential fiat.  In important moments, as when Jackson ignored the Supreme Court in the Cherokee case or refused to honor the government's obligation to deposit public monies in the National Bank, the rule of law itself appeared imperiled.

Depressing...................

 ..........if it wasn't written by Freddie deBoer, I would have stopped reading.  I am glad I kept reading.

All across our culture, you’ll find people eager to abandon the fundamental task of our lives, fostering and maintaining human connection, so that they can fall deeper into a pit of hedonistic distraction forever. 

Normalcy.....................

      The 1990's were a nice decade for most.  Strong American-provided security.  No serious international conflicts.  Global trade penetrated deep into the former Soviet space as well as into countries that had done their best to sit out the Cold War.  The cost of the American overwatch and market access steadily expanded, but in an environment of peace and prosperity it all seemed manageable.  Germany reunified.  Europe reunified.  The Asian tigers roared.  China came into its own, driving down the price of consumer products.  Resource producers, whether in Africa, Latin America, or Down Under, made scads of money helping more parts of the world industrialize.  Globe-spanning supply chain lines made the Digital Revolution not simply possible, but inevitable.  Good times.  We all came to think of it as normal.

     It is not.

     The post-Cold War era is possible only because of a lingering American commitment to a security paradigm that suspends geopolitical competition and subsidizes the global Order.  With the Cold War security environment changed, it is a policy that no longer matches needs.  What we all think of as normal is actually the most distorted moment in human history.  That makes it terribly fragile.

     And it is over.

-Peter Zeihan, The End of the World Is Just the Beginning:  Mapping the Collapse of Globalization

On mis-reading the tea leaves...........

 This garbled argument aligned with Jackson's sense of persecution and long-standing unwillingness to respect the sincerity and moral seriousness of his opponents.  He suspected the abolitionists of using slavery as a stalking horse, rather, to attack his administration.  In Jackson's world of finely spun conspiracies, the rich and influential feared democracy and threw whatever they could—internal improvements, the Bank, and now abolitionism—to knock him down.  He took seriously only his own ethical concerns, and the cares of others were variously dismissed as mere opportunism.

-David S. Brown, The First Populist: The Defiant Life of Andrew Jackson

Highly recommended................

 

Another example of a foundational value: I don't believe in any short-term thinking or dealing.  If I'm doing business with somebody and they thing in a short-term manner with somebody else, then I don't want to do business with them anymore.  All benefits in life come from compound interest, whether in money, relationships, love, health, activities, or  habits.  I only want to be around people I know I'm going to be around for the rest of my life.  I only want to work on things I know have long-term payout.

Control............................

 

first image via                    second image via

Quality................

. . . a man’s quality is tested by his ability to act contrary to his own interests whenever it becomes necessary.

-from this Hammock Papers post on noblesse oblige