An easy cab ride took us to the Sevilla train station where we caught the high speed, non-stop train to Cordoba. The historical tug of war between Islam and Christianity in southern Spain is well displayed here, especially in the Mezquita.
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| along the Promenade of Kings at Alcazar of Cordoba |
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| the gardens at the Alcazar of Cordoba |
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| a monument for Averroes |
Lisbon, Portugal is a mere hour away (by air) from Seville (six hours by car). Lisbon is one of the oldest cities in the world. Located just off the Atlantic Ocean, the city rises steeply from the highly navigable Tagus River. We didn't give ourselves enough time to do justice to Portugal, but after spending less than 48 hours in Lisbon, we came away thinking it is a mighty fine place. If you don't mind hills, it is a very walkable city. Of course, we also took the obligatory tuk-tuk ride, as well as a sailboat cruise on the Tagus. Lisbon suffered an awful disaster in 1755, with a massive earthquake, followed by a tsunami, followed by fire. In the old part of the city you can clearly tell, by the road patterns, what areas were unaffected by the disaster. Very interesting city.
But self-help quick fixes are bogus because they’re shallow. Not because change can’t happen fast. If you’re willing and able to get deep and honest about why you do the counterproductive, happiness-limiting things you do, there’s no automatic reason why it might not be possible to walk away from them today.
-Oliver Burkeman, from here
You don't need more time because you already have all the time that you will ever get; you need more focus.
Granny’s Rule, to be specific, is the requirement that children eat their carrots before they get dessert. And the business version requires that executives force themselves daily to first do their unpleasant and necessary tasks before rewarding themselves by proceeding to their pleasant tasks.
In ever more areas of life, algorithms are coming to substitute for judgment exercised by identifiable human beings who can be held to account. The rationale offered is that automated decision-making will be more reliable. But a further attraction is that it serves to insulate various forms of power from popular pressures.
-Matthew B. Crawford, from this essay
The truth is that our finest moments are most likely to occur when we are feeling deeply uncomfortable, unhappy, or unfulfilled. For it is only in such moments, propelled by our discomfort, that we are likely to step out of our ruts and start searching for different ways or truer answers.
-M. Scott Peck, The Road Less Traveled
In 100 years a lot of what we take to be true now will be proved to be wrong, maybe even embarrassingly wrong. A good question to ask yourself today is, "What might I be wrong about?" This is the only worry worth having.
You don't need to worry about progressing slowly. You need to worry about climbing the wrong mountain.
-James Clear, from here
I sought good judgment mostly by collecting instances of bad judgment, then pondering ways to avoid such outcomes.
When you stop believing in God, there is no sudden explosion of light or darkness. The world continues on its accustomed course. The sky does not fall. The sun still shines. Life goes on. But something is lost nonetheless, something important that gives life connectedness, depth and a sense of purpose; that gives you a feeling of participating in something vast and consequential.
-Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, The Great Partnership: Science, Religion, and the Search for Meaning
Oh unsurpassed generosity of God the Father, Oh wondrous and unsurpassable felicity of man, to whom it is granted to have what he chooses, to be what he wills to be! The brutes, from the moment of their birth, bring with them, as Lucilius says, ``from their mother's womb'' all that they will ever possess. The highest spiritual beings were, from the very moment of creation, or soon thereafter, fixed in the mode of being which would be theirs through measureless eternities. But upon man, at the moment of his creation, God bestowed seeds pregnant with all possibilities, the germs of every form of life. Whichever of these a man shall cultivate, the same will mature and bear fruit in him. If vegetative, he will become a plant; if sensual, he will become brutish; if rational, he will reveal himself a heavenly being; if intellectual, he will be an angel and the son of God. And if, dissatisfied with the lot of all creatures, he should recollect himself into the center of his own unity, he will there become one spirit with God, in the solitary darkness of the Father, Who is set above all things, himself transcend all creatures.
-Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, from his Oration on the Dignity of Man
Mastery is not only about getting better at your craft, but also
about finding ways to eliminate the obstacles, distractions, and other
annoyances that prevent you from working on your craft.
-James Clear, from here
Until you value yourself, you won't value your time. Until you value your time, you will not do anything with it.
-M. Scott Peck, The Road Less Traveled
It sure does beat all how prosperity makes a man critical of all who are less prosperous. Seems like some folks no sooner get two dollars they can rattle together than they start looking down their noses at folks who only have two bits.
-Louis L'Amour, The Courting of Griselda
All my life I used to wonder what I would become when I grew up. Then, about seven years ago, I realized that I was never going to grow up—that growing is an ever-ongoing process.
You have to figure out what your own aptitudes are. If you play games where other people have the aptitudes and you don’t, you’re going to lose. And that’s as close to certain as any prediction that you can make. You have to figure out where you’ve got an edge. And you’ve got to play within your own circle of competence.
-Charlie Munger, from here
....................of a total eclipse of the sun.
via John's non-iPhone phone camera
Questions are useful. Entrepreneurs and innovators usually start their search for something new and better by asking, "What if?" or "Why not?"
Questions are how we avoid disasters. Groupthink is nothing more than people not asking the questions they know they should.
So why is it so hard for companies [and people] to embrace the art of asking good questions?
-Alan M. Webber, Rules of Thumb: 52 Truths for Winning at Business Without Losing Your Self
In business and investing, you want to learn the big lessons about why things behave the way they do without assuming the past is a direct guide to the future, because it’s not – most of the details are not repeatable.
-Morgan Housel, from here
.................economics properly and wisely:
It’s tempting to do economics as if an omniscient and omni-benevolent god were able and willing to hire itself out as the faithful agent to follow the mortal’s policy recommendations. Imagining oneself tapping into god-like knowledge and power is heady, and from that high perch the real-world, with all of its messiness and imperfections, does indeed appear to be in dire need of divine intervention. But economics properly and wisely done . . . takes human nature, including humans’ limited cognitive abilities, as given. Most of the so-called “theoretical exceptions” to the economic case for free trade are relevant only in an alternative reality in which governance of humans’ daily economic and political affairs could actually be turned over to a god or to a mortal transformed into a god.
-Don Boudreaux, from this post
................the nitty-gritty of trust:
It’s not a good idea to warily eye everyone like they’re potential contestants on “Who Wants to Betray Me Next?” Studies show expecting others to be selfish can be a self-fulfilling prophecy: “those who expect people to act selfishly, actually experience uncooperative behaviour from others more often.”
Meanwhile, displaying trust in others from the get-go can create the opposite type of self-fulfilling prophecy: people want to prove your trust in them to be justified. Research shows seemingly irrational displays of trust often prove quite rational because it leads others to trust you and not want to let you down.
A hundred and fifty-seven castaways on a desert island in the South China Sea, the survivors of the wreck of HMS Diane, which had struck upon an uncharted rock and had there been shattered by a great typhoon some days later: a hundred and fifty-seven, but as they sat there round the edge of a flat bare piece of ground between high-water mark and the beginning of the forest they sounded like the full complement of a ship of the line, for this was Sunday afternoon, and the starboard watch, headed by Captain Aubrey, was engaged in a cricket-match against the Marines, under their commanding officer, Mr. Welby.
-Patrick O'Brian, The Nutmeg of Consolation
.........................................in the housing market (and other worthwhile stuff to think about).
There are 70 million baby boomers and they control something like $70 trillion in assets. We’re looking at 10-15 years of boomers buying places in Florida, Arizona, the Carolinas and other warm destinations.
Most of them have paid off mortgages and an obscene amount of home equity. Good luck betting against this trend.
Editor's Note: There is nothing obscene about home equity.
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