Today, people struggle to find what's real. Everything has become so synthetic that a lot of people, all they want is to grasp onto hope.
Saturday, September 20, 2025
the essential things.............
As you continue to clear out the closet of your life, you will experience a reordering of what really matters. Life will become less about efficiently crossing off what was on your to-do list or rushing through everything on your schedule and more about changing what you put on there in the first place. Every day it becomes more clear than the day before how the essential things are so much more important that then next most important thing in line.
-Greg McKeown, essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less
Friday, September 19, 2025
Let us play...............
Let us ask the gods not for possessions, but for things to do; happiness is in making things rather than in consuming them. In Utopia, said Thoreau, each would build his own home; and then song would come back to the heart of man, as it comes to the bird when it builds its nest. If we cannot build our homes, we can at least walk and throw and run; and we should never be so old as merely to watch games instead of playing them. Let us play is as good as Let us pray, and the results are more assured.
-Will Durant, as quoted here
two eyes, one sight...................
People talk about their personal life and their professional life as if they are two separate entities. But the fact of the matter is that we only have one life. It's all connected, whether we want to admit it or not.
-George Raveling, What You're Made For
messy and complicated................
Reality is messy and complicated, so our tendency to simplify it is understandable. However, if the aim becomes simplification rather than understanding we start to make bad decisions.
-Farnum Street (Shane Parrish), The Great Mental Models
the natural rate..........................
"That which they obtain too cheap they demand in too great quantity," lamented the prudent banker. In so many words Thornton was suggesting that providing paper credit at below the natural rate of interest created the conditions for an unstable financial boom.
In Locke's day, at least, money was backed by rare metals. In the modern world, however, money is created whenever a bank makes a loan and the link between acts of saving and lending has become more tenuous.
Even though it cannot be known with certainty, it is useful to hold in mind how the world would look if the natural rate held sway; a rate that was set, as Locke imagined, by individuals freely lending and borrowing money in the market, like any other commodity; a rate that accurately reflects society's time preference; which ensures that we neither borrow too much nor save too little; which ensures capital is used efficiently, and puts an accurate value on land and other assets; a rate which provides saver with a fair return and is not so low as to subsize bankers and their financial friends, nor so high as to bite borrowers.
-all excerpts from Edward Chancellor's The Price of Time: The Real Story of Interest
Us humans.....................
. . . the trends show how much more forceful the power of human inventiveness is relative to everything else.
-Ray Dalio, Principles for Dealing with The Changing World Order
Monday, September 15, 2025
Good questions all...................
In your favour of April 8th, You “wonder for what good End the Sensations of Grief could be intended”? You “wish the Pathologists would tell Us, what the Use of Grief, in Our Œconomy, and of what good it is the Cause proximate or remote.” When I approach Such questions as this, I consider myself, like one of those little Eels in Vinaigre, or one of those Animalcules in black or red Peper or in the Horse radish Root, that bite our Tongues So cruelly, reasoning upon the το παν ["totality"]. Of what Use is this Sting upon the Tongue? Why might We not have the Benefit of these Stimulants, without the Sting? Why might We not have the fragrance and Beauty of the Rose without the Thorn?
-John Adams, from a letter to Thomas Jefferson, May 6, 1816
Apparently........................
............................this is our 23,326th post. Apologies for littering all over the Intertunnel floor.
Trust me when I tell you...........
.................the absolute best exercise is the one you will actually do consistently. Now that that is out of the way, Eric Barker is always worth reading:
The sheer volume of pseudoscientific drivel available on the subject of “getting in shape” is so dense, it could collapse in on itself and form a black hole of misinformation.
It's simple..............................
Complexity is easier to sell but the more complex a financial plan or portfolio becomes, the harder it is for clients to stick with it. Simple strategies, when clearly defined and explained, work better in the long run.
But simple is harder than complex.
You have to fight to keep things simple because your natural tendencies make you susceptible to stories and narratives. Simplicity is more of a psychological exercise while complexity is more about trying to outsmart the competition.
Complex problems like the markets or financial plans don’t require complex solutions.
Charlie Munger once said, “Simplicity has a way of improving performance through enabling us to better understand what we are doing.”
-Ben Carlson, from this post
Sunday, September 14, 2025
choose wisely.........................
All the time you spend worrying about the opportunities you
don't have comes at the expense of maximizing the opportunities you do have.
Churchill and Bate.......................
It’s the same three words : don’t give up. The challenging news continues to flow, few seem to know anything factual and winter beckons. But hang onto the powerful timeless mantra : don’t give up. Because you know you and this period has given you an opportunity to understand yourself even more. It’s a time which can be scary, frustrating and certainly stressful. But don’t give up, don’t let anyone spoil your day and take it one step at a time. Grab every bit of freedom you can, help others who need it. Oh, and don’t give up. Ever.
a name of mystery..........
Most modern histories of mankind begin with the word evolution, and with a rather wordy exposition of evolution. . . . There is something slow and soothing and gradual about the word and even about the idea.
As a matter of fact, it is not, touching these primary things, a very practical word or a very profitable idea. Nobody can imagine how nothing could turn into something. Nobody can get an inch nearer to it by explaining how something could turn into something else. It is really far more logical to start by saying "In the beginning God created heaven and earth" even if you only mean "In the beginning some unthinkable power began some unthinkable process."
For [the name of] God is by its nature a name of mystery, and nobody ever supposed that man could imagine how a world was created any more than he could create one.
-G. K. Chesterton, from here
increase...............
4. Where no oxen are, the manger is clean,
But much increase comes by the strength of the ox.
-The Holy Bible, Proverbs 14:4
Your ownself.......................
I never met my greatest mentor. I wanted so much to be like him. But his message was the opposite. Be yourself, with passionate intensity. . . .
Your goal in life is to find the people, business, project, or art that needs you the most. There is something out there just for you. What you don't want to do is build checklists and decision frameworks built on what other people are doing. You're never going to be them. You'll never be good at being somebody else.
-Naval Ravikant/Eric Jorgenson, The Almanack of Naval Ravikant
connections.......................
We are social beings, designed to live, work, and thrive within a community. Our greatest joys, deepest sorrows, and most significant achievements gain meaning through our connections with others.
As you contemplate your own path, remember this: You were made for connection. You were made to be part of a team—whether it's a family by blood, a family by choice, or both. You were made to support and be supported, to love and be loved, to challenge and be challenged.
You were made to build a team that lifts you up, celebrates your victories, and helps you become the best version of yourself. A team that keeps you grounded and helps you navigate life's complexities.
You were made to be part of something bigger than yourself—a family, a community, a legacy that extends beyond your individual achievements.
-George Raveling, What You're Made For
uniquely human..................
We must never forget that we may also find meaning in life even when confronted with a hopeless situation, when facing a fate that cannot be changed. For what then matters is to bear witness to the uniquely human potential at its best, which is to transform a personal tragedy into a triumph, to turn one's predicament into a human achievement. When we are no longer able to change a situation—just think of an incurable disease such as inoperable cancer—we are challenged to change ourselves.
-Viktor Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning
a nice pat on the head...........
In Ken Blanchard's book The One Minute Manager Meets the Monkey, Blanchard calls these types of situations "other people's monkey." As a leader, you must ensure you aren't accidentally taking on other people's monkeys (problems or projects). Adam was (probably unintentionally) trying to put his monkey on my back. I gave the monkey a nice pat on the head and told him to go back home.
That's the basis for transformational leadership: start with the premise that this isn't your job, it's theirs. You shouldn't be telling them how to do it because that is their role, and they own it. Instead, they should be explaining to you the best way to solve it.
-Dan Martell, Buy Back Your Time
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