an increased valuing...............

 

People who depend too much upon the past have become almost useless in many professions.  We need a new kind of human being who can divorce himself from his past, who feels strong and courageous and trusting enough to trust himself in the present situation, to handle the problem well in an improvising way, without previous preparation, if need be.

     All of this adds up to an increased emphasis on psychological health and strength.  It means an increased valuing of the ability to pay fullest attention to the here-now situation, to be able to listen well, to be able to see well in the concrete, immediate moment before us.  It means that we need people who are different from the average kind of person who confronts the present as if it were a repetition of the past, and who uses the present simply as a period in which he prepares for future threats and dangers, which he doesn't trust himself enough to meet unprepared when the time comes.

-Abraham Maslow, The Farther Reaches of Human Nature

rooted.................

     

     We shall find, after earnest observation and reflection, that all, except those who have entered into the way of wisdom, believe that happiness is only to be obtained by the gratification of desire.  It is this belief, rooted in the soil of ignorance and continually watered by selfish cravings, that is the cause of all the misery in the world.

-James Allen

Art.............................

 

Art cannot be a monologue.

-Albert Camus

Norman Rockwelll      Connoisseur      Oil     1961-2

benefits...................

 

     One last point about laughter.  As I described it laughter seems to have a beneficial effect on human communities: those who laugh together also grow together and win through their laughter a mutual tolerance of their all-too-human failings.  But not everything that confers a benefit has a function.  Entirely redundant behavior—jumping for joy, listening to music, bird-watching, prayer—may yet confer enormous benefits.  By calling it redundant I mean that those benefits are the effect of the behavior, not its cause.

-Roger Scruton, On Human Nature

essential.....................

 

     Essential to sanctity, whether in the Palaeolithic or in our day, is a willingness to live ecumenically with all things—more essential to it is a willingness to live sympathetically with all things.

-John Moriarty, A Hut at the Edge of the Village

crafting a gift...............

 

No matter how marvellous the mountain-top epiphany, no matter how deep the vigil in the forest, if you cannot craft a gift from the experience, in the end the encounter will never quite accomplish itself.

-Martin Shaw

Ralph Waldo Emerson..........

 

     Emerson was a notorious freethinker, unburdened by the conventions of his time.  He was basically a walking middle finger to the dumb traditions and sheeplike thinking that held people back.  If he were alive today, he would be appalled at the educational uniformity, technological distraction, and immediate gratification that keep our most ambitious young people anesthetized and unable to find their life's meaning.  He saw a version of the problem in his own time, in fact, and wrote a long essay called "Self-Reliance" on how, in seven steps, to rebel against the psychogenic epidemic.

-Arthur C. Brooks, The Meaning of Your Life

the illusion of certainty...................

 

Diving in headfirst to explore the unknown is something humans were created to do and cannot resist.  The unknown is where we feel the most alive.  Although our minds crave certainty, our hearts desire freedom.  We live in an illusion of certainty.  Most of what we have can be lost or taken away at a moment's notice.  We all know the only constant is change, yet we spend most of our energy trying to fight what is natural and inevitable and wonder why we are suffering so much.  It is not change that we should fear but staying the same.

-Joseph Nguyen,  Don't Believe Everything You Think

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

All times are mad, but some are madder than others.  The grueling work of people of conscience is to portray through their words and actions a less mad reality—to show the route toward a better land that, admittedly, cannot be reached but that can be approached if enough of the oarsmen can be encouraged to pull in the same direction.

     I did not expect to live in a peculiarly mad era, or to be caught up myself in the maelstrom.  On the contrary, the lot of my generation seemed likely to be one of ironic detachment, banality, and order, the passions euthanized for the good of the species.  But here we are.  And here I am, working to crawl out of the clutches of the sea and up to the prow, hoping to become one of those pointing out the course, away from this and toward something else.

-Ryan Avent, In Good Faith:  How the Nature of Belief Shapes the Fate of Societies

setting store....................

 

I have attended a good many lectures in my time.  I still remember that the spinning of a top is a case of Kinetic Stability.  I still remember that Emphyteusis is not a disease, nor Stillicide a crime.  But though I would not willingly part with such scraps of science, I do not set the same store by them as by certain odds and ends that I came by in the open street while I was playing truant.

-Robert Louis Stevenson, An Apology for Idlers, and Other Essays

It's no secret............................

 

Let me tell you the secret to investing.  

     There is no secret.

Sorry to break it to you, but there is no Holy Grail that guarantees overnight riches in the markets.  There's no confidential stock-picking scheme that will give you all of the upside with none of the downside. . . .

It has to be this way because risk and reward are attached at the hip.  If you want to earn a return on your capital, you must accept risk in some form.  One of the few iron laws of investing is there is no free lunch.

Ben Carlson, from his introduction to Risk & Reward

Opening sentences......................

 

The only possible excuse for this book is that it is an answer to a challenge.  Even a bad shot is dignified when he accepts a duel.

-G. K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy

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

 

I think perhaps we have collectively been too eager to deny the relevance of 1776 to us today, too sure of our own superiority to listen to revolutionary leaders' advice about society, human nature, and government, and too quick to disparage or simply ignore the national past that began in those desperate and idealistic days 250 years ago.

-Brendan McConville, from his essay in The American Revolution at 250:  Twenty-Four Historians Reflect on the Founding

writing a different story.................

 

Not everyone who supported the Revolution would necessarily see it as an opportunity to make wide-ranging changes in society.  Dissolving the connections to Great Britain would be enough.  People go go about their business in pretty much the same way as they had before.  Of course, some changes would necessarily have to take place because the basic structure of a republic differs from that of a monarchy.  Subjects become citizens with new responsibilities that would alter the contours of society.  Men, though certainly not all of them, would have to get used to voting. . . .

If the Americans were not really operating with a tabula rasa after breaking from the British Empire, there was substantial opportunity to write a different story for the newly created United States, one that would help transform the world.  Jefferson sounded this theme throughout his political career and until his death.

-Annette Gordon-Reed from her essay "Thomas Jefferson, Optimistic Visionary", as found in The American Revolution at 250:  Twenty-Four Historians Reflect on the Founding

Many great speeches...................

 

.............have been totally forgotten or ignored.  None more so than this read-worthy one.    A brief snippet:

Another factor in maintaining balance involves the element of time. As we peer into society's future, we - you and I, and our government - must avoid the impulse to live only for today, plundering, for our own ease and convenience, the precious resources of tomorrow. We cannot mortgage the material assets of our grandchildren without risking the loss also of their political and spiritual heritage. We want democracy to survive for all generations to come, not to become the insolvent phantom of tomorrow.

thanks Michael

Chris Lynch.............

 

........is on a rules and habits kick.  Scroll and enjoy.

What would we do without narratives.....?

 

All is not well with the US economy, but the narrative of doom and gloom is being oversold as well.

-Brian Wesbury, from this post

Actual Intelligence.................

 

..................................Making something that matters.

advantage........................

 

In a world where technical skills become commoditised, your character becomes your competitive advantage.

-Nicholas Bate

pass it on..........................

 

On wanting.....................

 

If intelligence is getting what you want, wisdom is wanting what’s worth getting in the first place.

-Shane Parrish, from this episode

Checking in.....................

 

.....................................with Adam Grant:

Emotion regulation is not about controlling what you feel. It’s about choosing how you respond.

Wise people don’t suppress emotion—they find constructive ways to express it.

Intense feelings don’t always demand immediate reactions. They often benefit from deep reflection.

ready or not..................

 

Readiness is not a feeling. It's a decision.

The voice in your head that says you're not ready is not protecting you. It's just stopping you from finding out what you're actually capable of.

-Mark Manson, from this edition

In all my years of schooling....................

 

...............I had maybe four teachers on par with Rob Firchau - but they made all the difference, 

Memorial Day...........................

 

Remember...............................

Normandy American Cemetery     France

Henry Hazlitt wrote.............

 

"Economics is haunted by more fallacies than any other study known to man".  

Per Bylund agrees and suggests we pay attention to Goodhart's Law.

via