Now he tells us....................

 

People think we live in a world of politics, society, norms, and news.  But none of it is real.  They're just interpersonal drama.  They're the noisy waste product of unhealthy minds.

-Derek Sivers

the ultimate freedom..............?

 

I do not think that a wise man can possibly be free from every perturbation of the mind.

-Marcus Tullius Cicero

Please...........................

 

The world doesn’t need another hard-nosed profession. It needs one that acquires clout through competence and caring.

-Michael Wade, from here

It's a low bar, but I'd tune in.............

 

Predict that the DOGE weekly live streams listing all the things they are cutting from the federal budget will garner larger rating than any of the news shows on TV.

-Chris Lynch, from here

You can, but it won't.................

 

........................Frustration is bargaining with reality, hoping it will change.

-Farnum Street

Arnold Kling's.................................

........................................recurring daydream: 

By undertaking a wholesale re-org, you can change the default status of a unit from “keep doing what you did last year” to “justify your continued existence.”

If you haven't checked out..................

 

.....................The Free Press.  Well, you ought to.

Worth remembering......................

We are the gatekeepers of our own meaning,

Humans need help, yet too many of us have accepted the idea that it's a person failing to seek it.

You can't think your way out of depression any more than you can think your way out of drowning. 

Seeking and accepting help is a skill, and it's a skill that we are not taught to value.  In fact we are taught to shun it.

I will have gained more in the looking than I lost through not finding.

-Jarod K. Anderson, a few wee excerpts from Something In The Woods Loves You

On needing....................................

 

............................................more simple.

As agendas go.............................

 

.............this one could garner a lot of support:

The new political agenda is for voter ID, an end to daylight savings, Congressional term limits and buying Greenland. Who says no?

-Chris Lynch

Efficiency is overrated..............

We are rooting for the renaissance of community banking.   Please..........

. . . interstate banking was effectively outlawed until the 1980s. While this was inefficient, it had the effect of ensuring that every state had at least one major bank. Now there are only a handful of major banks in the entire country, and they do not have the same stake in local economies.

Arnold Kling, from here

a mental gym...................

 At a time when many people are wondering about the value of a college education, those who are in charge of those institutions would be well advised to recognize that their business should be a mental gym; a place where minds and souls are strengthened.

-Michael Wade, as he opens this post 

Fifty some years ago, I spent a college semester at Denison University listening to Professor Robert Toplin in a class called Latin America: Evolution or Revolution.  We had two 2-hour classes per week.  In the first hour of each session Toplin would take the "right wing" point of view on some topic and argue it persuasively.  In the second hour of each session Toplin would take the "left wing" point of view on the same topic and argue it equally persuasively.  Being typical college students, we got confused.  We initially started out trying to figure out Toplin's true opinion, so we could feed it back to him on tests and papers.   Took us a while, but we finally discovered that he didn't care what we thought—just so long as we actually did the work of thinking.  Toplin taught me one of the most valuable life lessons available: how to think for myself.  I have been grateful for him ever since.

Surprisingly good speech..................................... Where was this guy 180 days ago?.....................

Biden addresses the nation after Trump's election victory

 

Arnold Kling is worried..................

 

The intellectual mediocrity of today’s educated class is made worse by a lack of self-awareness. If they recognized that they are lightweights, they would exhibit less class snobbery. But it is the opposite. They feel that their college credentials entitle them to lord it over everyone else. They see their luxury beliefs as setting them apart and above everyone else in America, either in the present or in the past.

-as cut-and-pasted from here

"success".............................

 

My old job might never have been my key problem—chasing after a fictional, idealized version of myself was.  When I was quiet and attentive beneath the trees, I began to understand that my traditional view of "success" hadn't been mine at all.  I didn't make it.  It didn't serve me.  It brought me neither peace nor pleasure.

-Jarod K. Anderson, Something In The Woods Loves You

corrupted............................

 

Nowadays in the West we are, quite literally, corrupted by a lust to explain things.  Our lust to explain things veils things. . . . Be true to your eyes, not to the desiderata of science or language.

-John Moriarty, Dreamtime