The difficult part is finding the "good"...........

 Of course, we shouldn't be credulous, but the antidote to credulity isn't to believe nothing, but to have the confidence to assess information with curiosity and a healthy scepticism.

     Good statistics are not a trick, although they are a kind of magic.  Good statistics are not smoke and mirrors; in fact, they help us see more clearly.  Good statistics are like a telescope for an astronomer, a microscope for a bacteriologist, or an X-ray for a radiologist.  If we are willing to let them, good statistics help us see things about the world around us and about ourselves — both large and small — that we would not be able to see in any other way.

-Tim Harford, How to Make the World Add Up:  Ten Rules for Thinking Differently About Numbers

Reminiscent...............................

 If Mr. Trump was less than honorable in refusing to acknowledge defeat, his opponents are less than satisfied with mere electoral victory. The current impeachment is reminiscent of the beheading of Oliver Cromwell, which took place two years after his death.

-Arnold Kling, from this read-worthy post

Super-powers.....................

                  more wisdom here

A few simple rules...........................

      To avoid the various foolish opinions to which mankind are prone, no super human genius is required.  A few simple rules will keep you, not from all error, but from silly error.

      If the matter is one that can be settled by observation, make the observation yourself. . . .

     If an opinion contrary to your own makes you angry, that is a sign that you are subconsciously aware of having no good reason for thinking as you do. . . .

     A good way of ridding yourself of certain kinds of dogmatism is to become aware of opinions held in social circles different from your own. . . .

     Be wary of opinions that flatter your self esteem. . . .

-Bertrand Russell, from his 1943 essay An Outline Of Intellectual Rubbish, which is reprinted here

On freedom........................................

      What is freedom?  It is, first, the capacity to deliberate or weigh alternatives.  "Shall I be a teacher or a lawyer?"  "Shall I vote for this candidate or the other candidate?"  "Shall I be a Democrat, Republican, or Socialist?"  Second, freedom expresses itself in decision.  The word decision like the word incision involves the image of cutting.  Incision means to cut in, decision means to cut off.  When I make a decision I cut off alternatives and make a choice.  The existentialists say that we must choose, that we are choosing animals; and if we do not choose we sink into thinghood and the mass mind.  A third expression of freedom is responsibility.  This is the obligation of the person to respond if he is questioned about his decision.  No one else can respond for him.  He alone must respond, for his acts are determined by the centered totality of his being.

      From this analysis we can clearly see the evilness of segregation.  It cuts off one's capacity to deliberate, decide, and respond.

      The absence of freedom is the imposition of restraint on my deliberation as to what I shall do, where I shall live, how much I shall earn, the kind of tasks I shall pursue.  I am robbed of the basic quality of man-ness.

-Martin Luther King, Jr., as excerpted from a December 1962 speech, as reprinted in A Testament of Hope

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

The Rolling Stones...............................................Wild Horses

 

The walk......................................

 ....................God’s canvas that he paints differently each day.

Different..........................

       As Arius would write, like Panaetius before him, we each have our own implanted gifts (aphormai), resources that can lead us to virtue.  Our personalities suit us differently to different paths of ethical development.  We all have different launching points, but these inborn tools together with hard effort will get us to where we want to go.

       We must focus on the task at hand, and waste not a moment on the tasks that are not ours.  We must have courage.  We must be fair.  We must check our emotions.  We must, above all, be wise.

-Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman, Lives Of The Stoics:  The Art of Living from Zeno to Marcus Aurelius

Opening paragraphs..................

       On the phone, Tomlinson said to Ford, "When the deputy's wife and kids disappeared, moonshiners might've dumped their bodies in the lake—it was during Prohibition.  It wouldn't be the first time karma has waited decades to boot justice in the ass."

-Randy Wayne White, Mangrove Lightning

On unjust laws......................................

 Playboy:  Perhaps.  But the kind of extremism for which you've been criticized has to do not with love, but with your advocacy of willful disobedience of what you consider to be "unjust laws."  Do you feel you have the right to pass judgment on and defy the law — nonviolently or otherwise?

King:    Yes—morally, if not legally.  For there are two kinds of laws: man's and God's.  A man-made code that squares with the moral law, or the law of God, is a just law.  But a man-made code that is inharmonious with the moral law is an unjust law.  And an unjust law, as St. Augustine said, is no law at all.  Thus a law that is unjust is morally null and void, and must be defied until it is legally null and void as well.  Let us not forget, in the memories of six million who died, that everything that Adolph Hitler did in Germany was "legal." and that everything the Freedom Fighters in Hungary did was "illegal."

-as excerpted from the January 1965 Playboy interview with Martin Luther King, Jr., as reprinted in A Testament of Hope

Editor's Note:  What gives power to King's willful disobedience, as with Gandhi before him, was the willingness to nonviolently accept the consequences of disobedience, ultimately bringing shame, and then change, to the oppressor.

Traveling..........................

 "The only true voyage would be, not to visit strange lands, but to possess other eyes."

-Proust, The Captive.  An epigraph used by Margaret Heffernan in the chapter Think Like An Artist from her book, Uncharted:  How To Navigate The Future

Gifts..................................

 "You get different gifts in life, and one of my greatest gifts is my mom and dad."

-Jeff Bezos, as culled from Invent & Wander

I have a difficult time accepting the notion that I am privileged by my skin color.  I have absolutely no doubt that I have been highly privileged by growing up in the stable, safe, supportive, positive home of my parents.  The foundation they provided me has been priceless. 

The genius of knowing what to ignore...............

 Einstein reportedly once said that his own major scientific talent was his ability to look at an enormous number of experiments and journal articles, select the very few that were both right and important, ignore the rest, and build a theory on the right ones.  In that assessment of his own abilities, Einstein was very likely overly modest.  But part of his genius was an instinct for what mattered and the ability to pursue it vertically and connect it horizontally.

-John M. Barry, The Great Influenza:  The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History

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

Led Zeppelin.........................................Stairway To Heaven

 

The need to be "maladjusted".....................

       Modern psychology has a word that is probably used more than any other word.  It is the word "maladjusted."  Now we all should seek to live a well adjusted life in order to avoid neurotic and schizophrenic personalities.  But there are some things within our social order to which I am proud to be maladjusted and to which I call you to be maladjusted.   I never intend to adjust myself to segregation and discrimination.  I never intend to adjust myself to mob rule.  I never intend to adjust myself to the tragic effects of the methods of physical violence and to tragic militarism.  I call upon you to be maladjusted to such things.  I call upon you to be as maladjusted as Amos who in the midst of the injustices of his day cried out in words that echo across the generation, "Let judgment run down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream."  As maladjusted as Abraham Lincoln who had the vision to see that this nation could not exist half slave and half free.  As maladjusted as Jefferson, who in the midst of an age amazingly adjusted to slavery could cry out, "All men are created equal and are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights and among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."  As maladjusted as Jesus of Nazareth who dreamed a dream of the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man.  God grant that we will be so maladjusted that we will be able to go out and change our world and our civilization.  And then we will be able to move from the bleak and desolate midnight of man's inhumanity to man to the bright and glittering daybreak of freedom and justice.

-Martin Luther King, Jr., as he concluded a June 7, 1957 speech.  From A Testament Of Hope

Shadows................................

       The quality of the outcome casts a shadow over our ability to see the quality of the decision.

       We want outcome quality to align with decision quality.  We want the world to make sense in this way, to be less random than it is.  In trying to get this alignment, we lose sight of the fact that for most decisions, there are lots of ways things could turn out.

       Experience is supposed to by our best teacher, but sometimes we draw a connection between outcome quality and decision quality that is too tight.  Doing so distorts our ability to use those experiences to figure out which decisions were good and which were bad.

Annie Duke, How To Decide:  Simple Tools for Making Better Choices

Likely so.............................

 

Fun with nature and a camera..................

                     Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards 2020

 

             via

The power elite?.....................................

 The understanding of America as an empire is as foreign to most Americans as is the idea that the specific country that they live in is run by a class of people who may number themselves among the elect but weren’t in fact elected by anyone.

-David Samuels, as extracted from this read-worthy essay

      via

In praise of chaos......................

 ..............four suggestions for investors.   Here's #2:

2.   Don’t base investment decisions on your gut feel for which way markets are headed. Instead, adopt practices that have worked through many different market cycles. Like a good poker player, don’t sweat the losses if you have a process in place that puts the probabilities in your favor. Focus on tax efficiency, holding down investment costs, diversifying broadly and investing in line with your risk tolerance.