Lessons from history.............

Lesson #3: Unsustainable things can last longer than you anticipate.

-Four more lessons here

via

Life is good........................

I doubt any college administrators will ever invite someone like me to give such a speech. In some ways, it is for the best. I would have a hard time telling 20-somethings that the whole world is in dire need of wholesale change.

In fact, I would tell them that while many things could be better, overall, we in the modern world are doing spectacularly well. I would explain just how much better off we are than were our grandparents or even our parents a mere two or three decades ago. Life is good.

-the rest of the story is here

Knowing the important stuff..........

15. Tsundoku is the act of acquiring books and not reading them.

-134 more amazing facts may be found here

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

Booker T. & The M.G.'s.................................Hang 'em High

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

Three Dog Night.....................................................Eli's Coming

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

The Cufflinks...........................................................Tracy

Althouse. When she's right.........................

.................................................................shes's right.

"I think there are a LOT of people out there whose idea of truth is what they want to be true."

The University........................

..............................................................................of Bate.

Offering the finest lessons on the art of becoming a valuable human being - on a daily basis.  If you are serious about life its ownself, spend some time with his "popular posts."  Oh, did I tell you it's all free.

Making the most...............................

................................................................of life its ownself.

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

Gary Puckett and The Union Gap.....This Girl Is A Woman Now

30 lessons........................

........................................from thirty years.   As incomplete lists go, this one offers much grist for the pondering mill.  Enjoy.  Here's a sample:

25.  THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS BALANCE, ONLY BALANCING INDIVIDUAL MOMENTS

Life is movement, not a perfect or stagnant balance. Rather than striving for balance, we can strive to master the art of balancing, which allows for more flux and change in any given moment.

via

This quote is from Barry Ritholtz.....

.........................................but it certainly applies to many in this wee corner of the blogosphere:

"I have a fairly high purchased-to-read (P/R) ratio, but I don’t let that bother me; just having them handy means I might read them, and at the very least I have a large reference library."

-as taken from this "summer reading list" post.

Well, okay.................

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

Edwin Starr.........................................................................25 Miles

Some things never change.............

"No town has ever taken itself so seriously with so little reason."

-Isaiah Berlin, on Washington, March 30,1943

When answers just create more questions......

......................................How much are we really supposed to know?

Enlarged photo and best guess at what we're looking at is here

Feelings.....................................

“One can be the master of what one does, but never of what one feels.” 


-Gustave Flaubert

It's that time of the year.........................

courtesy of

Tethered.................................

Affection exchange theory, introduced by Professor Kory Floyd, postulates that affection strengthens bonds, provides access to resources, and communicates your potential as a parent, increasing your pool of potential mates.   I think it goes deeper.  I know a lot of people who, despite their good fortune, are wandering.  Few meaningful relationships, an inability to find reward in their professional lives, too hard on themselves, etc.  It's as if they're not grounded, never convinced of their worth . . . wandering.
     When I look at my own success, it mostly boils down to two things:  being born in America and having someone irrationally passionate about my well-being—my mom. . . .
      Having a good person express how wonderful you are hundreds of times changes everything.  College, professional success, an impressive mate—these were aspirations, not givens for a remarkably unremarkable kid in an upper-lower-middle-class household.  My mom was forty-three, single, and making $15,000 a year as a secretary.  She was also a good person who made me feel connected and, while waiting for our Opel, gave me the confidence that I had value, that I was capable and deserving of all these things.  Holding hands and laughing, I was tethered.

-Scott Galloway,  The Algebra of Happiness:  Notes on the Pursuit of Success, Love, and Meaning

Shake yourself free..............................

     Each and every one of us has been born into a given historical reality, ruled by particular norms and values, and managed by a unique economic and political system.  We take this reality for granted, thinking it is natural, inevitable and immutable.  We forget that our world was crated by an accidental chain of events, and that history shaped not only our technology, politics and society, but also our thoughts, fears and dreams.  The cold hand of the past emerges from the graves of our ancestors, grips us by the neck and directs our gaze towards a single future.  We have felt that grip from the moment we were born, so we assume that it is a natural and inescapable part of who we are.  Therefore we seldom try to shake ourselves free, and envision alternative futures.
     Studying history aims to loosen the grip of the past.

-Yuval Noah Harari,  Homo Deus:  A Brief History of Tomorrow

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

Sly & The Family Stone..............Hot Fun In The Summertime

One can admire his writing.........................

...........................without having to agree with him:

      This is the paradox of historical knowledge.  Knowledge that does not change behavior is useless.  But knowledge that changes behavior quickly loses its relevance.  The more data we have and the better we understand history, the faster history alters its course, and the faster our knowledge becomes outdated.

-Yuval Noah Harari,  Homo Deus:  A Brief History of Tomorrow

Some random selections......................

..........................from Michael Wade's Random Thoughts: Brief Reflections and Moments of Clarity:

"Don't think weakness discourages attacks."

"Listen to fools but don't argue with them."

"Some of the most dangerous people are those who want to save the world."

"One of the challenges of life is overcoming the effects of high school."

"You need to thank someone today."

"On occasion, all of us are dumber than one of us."

"Evaluating a nation by contrasting it with a utopia is a common distortion."

"Never hire anyone who is abusive to the powerless."

"We can do much better than we think we can but first we must think we can."

On thinking....................

     Don't spend much time thinking about what other people think.  Think about what you think.  Think instead about the results, about the impact, about whether it is the right thing to do."

-Ryan Holiday, from today's entry from The Daily Stoic

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

Led Zeppelin.........................................Dazed And Confused



 "I don't listen to Led Zeppelin often, but when I do, so do my neighbors."