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

Marc Andreessen.....................

 

..................talks with Joe Rogan for three plus hours, mostly about AI.  Extremely interesting.

X summary here; a few snippets:

6. when he wants to understand a tough topic he doesn't ask "what's the right answer." he asks the AI to steelman one side, then steelman the other. then he decides for himself. 7. for big questions he tells the AI to pretend to be a panel of experts. "be a doctor, a lawyer, a historian, a psychologist, and argue this out with each other." then he reads the debate they have. 8. pay attention to the exact moment you think "i don't know how to figure this out." most people just give up at that moment. that's the moment you should open the AI. 9. the only real skill left in using AI is knowing what to ask it. the models can already do almost anything you can describe in plain english. the bottleneck lives in your own head.

A small "d" democrat..................

 

I am a democrat because I believe that no man or group of men is good enough to be trusted with uncontrolled power over others. And the higher the pretensions of such power, the more dangerous I think it both to the rulers and to the subjects. Hence Theocracy is the worst of all governments. If we must have a tyrant a robber baron is far better than an inquisitor. The baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity at some point be sated, and since he dimly knows he is doing wrong he may possibly repent. But the inquisitor who mistakes his own cruelty and lust of power and fear for the voice of Heaven will torment us infinitely because he torments us with the approval of his own conscience and his better impulses appear to him as temptations. And since Theocracy is the worst, the nearer any government approaches to Theocracy the worse it will be. A metaphysic, held by the rulers with the force of a religion, is a bad sign. It forbids them, like the inquisitor, to admit any grain of truth or good in their opponents, it abrogates the ordinary rules of morality, and it gives a seemingly high, super-personal sanction to all the very ordinary human passions by which, like other men, the rulers will frequently be actuated. In other words, it forbids wholesome doubt.

-C. S. Lewis, Of Other Worlds: Essays and Stories

Verse...........................

 

And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

-The Holy Bible, Romans 12:2, King James Version

In the background....................

 

Renaissance.......................Tales of 1001 Nights

In praise of Tim Cook......................

 

....................................and restraint:

   While there are many who compare Tim Cook to Steve Jobs and find him wanting on vision and flair, I am grateful, as an investor in Apple, for the restraint and discipline that he brought to the job. That gratitude will stay intact even if Apple's caution on AI turns out to be a mistake, since the restraint and rectitude that Cook brought to his job are management qualities that significantly undervalued. I don't teach from or write cases, but I would love to see more business school cases about CEOs like Cook who are not easily swayed by the temptation of more growth and ego-driven acquisitions. I loved the Steve Jobs movie, but I don't expect to see a Tim Cook movie anytime soon, and while that is understandable, it also explains why we will continue to have too many CEOs at companies viewing themselves as saviors, gambling shareholder money on turnarounds and rescues, when the better pathway would be acceptance and shrinkage. I believe that investors lose more money from companies trying to do too much rather than from them doing too little, and from overreaching than from underachieving.

-Aswarth Damodaran, from this essay

Thinking about respect................

 

“Respect is earned, not given” implies a cold kind of cruelty. If everyone around us must work to “earn” our respect, this implies that our default assumption is that others do not deserve respect. It does not seem proper or fitting to approach everyone we meet with such an assumption of unworthiness and then expect them to pass an unknown test in order to be deemed worthy of respect. It seems uncharitable in the extreme to approach every new person with a “prove me wrong” attitude.

-as lifted from here

The World according to........................

 

........................................memes:

better memories...................

 

Let us build memories in our children,
lest they drag out joyless lives,
lest they allow treasures to be lost because
they have not been given the keys.
We live, not by things, but by the meanings
of things. It is needful to transmit the passwords
from generation to generation.

-as culled from here

Age differences................

 

Ray Visotski takes us for a walk down his musical memory lane.  He must be a youngster: no Motown, no Beach Boys, no girl groups, no British Invasion tunes.  Those were the days my friend.