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

Bob Marley & The Wailers...............Natty Dread album

 

Husband your..............................

 

.............................................power.

What, me worry.......................?

 

Americans are still not worried enough about the risk of world war.

mastery......................

 

Mastery is not only about getting better at your craft, but also about finding ways to eliminate the obstacles, distractions, and other annoyances that prevent you from working on your craft.

-James Clear, from here

Not much.....................

 Of what use is a philosopher who never offends anybody?

-Charlie Munger

time......................................

 

Until you value yourself, you won't value your time. Until you value your time, you will not do anything with it.

-M. Scott Peck, The Road Less Traveled

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

Bob James..................................One album

 

noses........................

 

      It sure does beat all how prosperity makes a man critical of all who are less prosperous.  Seems like some folks no sooner get two dollars they can rattle together than they start looking down their noses at folks who only have two bits.

-Louis L'Amour, The Courting of Griselda

On growing up.....................

 All my life I used to wonder what I would become when I grew up. Then, about seven years ago, I realized that I was never going to grow up—that growing is an ever-ongoing process.

-M. Scott Peck

Fifty years ago at the newsstand................

 

Aging like a fine wine.......................

 Anybody can grow older. That doesn’t take any talent or ability. The idea is to grow up by always finding opportunity in change.

and what are the odds of that happening....

 

We can’t default on government debt unless a crazy politician does something stupid.

Serving as a Trustee....................

 

..............................................of other's time.

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

       Hank Aaron breaks the Babe's home run record

 

an edge..........................

 

You have to figure out what your own aptitudes are. If you play games where other people have the aptitudes and you don’t, you’re going to lose. And that’s as close to certain as any prediction that you can make. You have to figure out where you’ve got an edge. And you’ve got to play within your own circle of competence.

-Charlie Munger, from here

thanks Chris

The 2024 version........................

....................of a total eclipse of the sun. 

            via John's non-iPhone phone camera

Longing for leadership.......................

.................................capable of uniting.

As these events unfold, America’s global leadership role is being challenged outside by other nations and inside by our polarized electorate. We need to find ways to put aside our differences and work in partnership with other Western nations in the name of democracy. During this time of great crises, uniting to protect our essential freedoms, including free enterprise, is paramount. We should remember that America, “conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal,” still remains a shining beacon of hope to citizens around the world. JPMorgan Chase, a company that historically has worked across borders and boundaries, will do its part to ensure that the global economy is safe and secure.

-Jamie Dimon, from here

Asking questions [or not]......................

 

Questions are useful.  Entrepreneurs and innovators usually start their search for something new and better by asking, "What if?" or "Why not?"

Questions are how we avoid disasters.  Groupthink is nothing more than people not asking the questions they know they should.

So why is it so hard for companies [and people] to embrace the art of asking good questions?

-Alan M. Webber, Rules of Thumb: 52 Truths for Winning at Business Without Losing Your Self

Pretty smart guy..................

 

I can calculate the motion of heavenly bodies but not the madness of people.

-Isaac Newton

As projects go, this one is tougher..........

......than it looks.  I would have eaten half of them.

via

Repeatability....................

 In business and investing, you want to learn the big lessons about why things behave the way they do without assuming the past is a direct guide to the future, because it’s not – most of the details are not repeatable.

-Morgan Housel, from here

Evolution and micro-impairments..........

 

.....add this to the list of stuff I never thought of before.

On creating......................

 

.............................the conditions for success.

Tools..............................

 

.................................of versatility and adaptability.

The trouble with doing.......................

 

.................economics properly and wisely:

It’s tempting to do economics as if an omniscient and omni-benevolent god were able and willing to hire itself out as the faithful agent to follow the mortal’s policy recommendations. Imagining oneself tapping into god-like knowledge and power is heady, and from that high perch the real-world, with all of its messiness and imperfections, does indeed appear to be in dire need of divine intervention. But economics properly and wisely done . . . takes human nature, including humans’ limited cognitive abilities, as given. Most of the so-called “theoretical exceptions” to the economic case for free trade are relevant only in an alternative reality in which governance of humans’ daily economic and political affairs could actually be turned over to a god or to a mortal transformed into a god.

-Don Boudreaux, from this post

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

Viktoria Mullova.....Bach: 6 Solo Sonatas & Partitas

 

Thanks Kurt

Getting into...........................

 

................the nitty-gritty of trust:

It’s not a good idea to warily eye everyone like they’re potential contestants on “Who Wants to Betray Me Next?” Studies show expecting others to be selfish can be a self-fulfilling prophecy: “those who expect people to act selfishly, actually experience uncooperative behaviour from others more often.”

Meanwhile, displaying trust in others from the get-go can create the opposite type of self-fulfilling prophecy: people want to prove your trust in them to be justified. Research shows seemingly irrational displays of trust often prove quite rational because it leads others to trust you and not want to let you down.

I would guess that......................

 

...............................this is true.

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

 

A hundred and fifty-seven castaways on a desert island in the South China Sea, the survivors of the wreck of HMS Diane, which had struck upon an uncharted rock and had there been shattered by a great typhoon some days later: a hundred and fifty-seven, but as they sat there round the edge of a flat bare piece of ground between high-water mark and the beginning of the forest they sounded like the full complement of a ship of the line, for this was Sunday afternoon, and the starboard watch, headed by Captain Aubrey, was engaged in a cricket-match against the Marines, under their commanding officer,  Mr. Welby.

-Patrick O'Brian,  The Nutmeg of Consolation

Trends....................................

 

.........................................in the housing market (and other worthwhile stuff to think about).

There are 70 million baby boomers and they control something like $70 trillion in assets. We’re looking at 10-15 years of boomers buying places in Florida, Arizona, the Carolinas and other warm destinations.

Most of them have paid off mortgages and an obscene amount of home equity. Good luck betting against this trend.

Editor's Note:  There is nothing obscene about home equity.

The 20-5-3 rule.............................

 

......for experiencing the healing power of nature.