Saturday, February 22, 2025
optimistic contrarians...................
A contrarian isn't one who always objects—that's a conformist of a different sort. A contrarian reasons independently from the ground up and resists pressure to conform. . . .
Cynicism is easy. Mimicry is easy. Optimistic contrarians are the rarest breed.
comfort zones.........................
Every man, wherever he goes, is encompassed by a cloud of comforting convictions, which move with him like flies on a summer day.
-Bertrand Russell, Sceptical Essays, "Dreams and Facts," 1928
bewildering complexities................
It would be good to be able to say that we should dispense with visions entirely, and deal only with reality. But that maybe the most utopian vision of all. Reality is far too complex to be comprehended by any given mind. Visions are like maps that guide us through a tangle of bewildering complexities. Like maps, visions have to leave out many concrete features in order to enable us to focus on a few key paths to our goals. Visions are indispensable—but dangerous, precisely to the extent that we confuse them with reality itself.
-Thomas Sowell, A Conflict of Visions: Ideological Origins of Political Struggles
Friday, February 21, 2025
Responsibility and accountability - oh, no......
If Congress wants to reclaim the power of the purse it so proudly declares its own, it must take its responsibilities more seriously. Americans are right to be upset at its routine failure to perform its constitutional duties. Appropriating money is only half the job. Anyone can swipe a credit card, but ensuring that the money is spent properly is the inescapable responsibility that comes with the power to spend. You can’t have one without the other. If Congress wants control over the purse strings, it has to own the duty of accountability that comes with it.
Practices.......................
There is not a universal list of best daily practices. But it is universal that the best have their list of daily practices.
-Paul Rabil, The Way of the Champion: Pain, Persistence, and the Path Forward
hello moon....................
The thinnest of slivers can come
as a surprise some nights.
A girl leaving a restaurant
points up to show her friends.
as a surprise some nights.
A girl leaving a restaurant
points up to show her friends.
And there is the full one,
bloated with light,
a bright circle over the city
keeping the dreamers from sleep.
bloated with light,
a bright circle over the city
keeping the dreamers from sleep.
But the moon tonight
is crossed by a drift of clouds
and looks like a mug shot
of a criminal, a cornered man.
is crossed by a drift of clouds
and looks like a mug shot
of a criminal, a cornered man.
One of its seas forms a frown
that makes for a grudging look.
that makes for a grudging look.
The last thing it ever wanted
was to end up being a moon.
It's the only light in the sky
save for a solitary star,
whose sisters and brothers
must be blinking somewhere afar,
must be blinking somewhere afar,
leaving the moon and me
to circle in our turning places,
his face remote and cold,
mine warm but vexed by his troubles
-Billy Collins, Many Moons
a better sign..............
Humor means using your mind beyond necessity, beyond reality, for both noticing and imagining. That's why we admire a quick wit. It shows you quickly looked at something from many angles, found the one that amused you the most, and considerately expressed it to someone else. Observation, creativity, and empathy, all in an instant. What could be a better sign of a healthy mind.
-Derek Sivers, How to Live: 27 conflicting answers and one weird conclusion
Thursday, February 20, 2025
the more things change.........................
The invention of paper was decried by Socrates for degrading the faculty of memory . . .
-Scott H. Young, Get Better at Anything: 12 Maxims for Mastery
Ed. Note: Wondering if Socrates really thought that way, the Intertunnel was consulted: one answer found here.
the small "s" self.................
Much of our misery in this world, Bellamy thought, was caused by our misplaced emphasis upon selfhood, "this vicious habit of regarding the personality as an ultimate fact instead of a mere temporary affection of the universal."
-Wilfred M. McClay, The Masterless: Self and Society in Modern America (1994)
Hide and seek..................
Wakefulness is the Alpha and the Omega. It is what we are running from. It is also what we are seeking. We are escaping from the very thing we're trying to get to.
-J Jennifer Matthews, Radically Condensed Instructions for Being Just as You Are
vexing.............................
Most of the issues that vex humanity daily—ethnic conflict, arms escalation, overpopulation, abortion, environment, endemic poverty, to cite several most persistently before us—cannot be solved without integrating knowledge from the natural sciences with that of the social sciences and humanities. Only fluency across the boundaries will provide a clear view of the world as it really is, not as seen through the lens of ideologies and religious dogmas or commanded by myopic response to immediate need.
-Edward O. Wilson, Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge
Thinking on paper......................
338: The gaps between established truths are where a lot of action is.
339: Be wary whenever the eloquent become vague.
340: Seek distance from coercive people, especially those who long to command you for your own good.
341: Frequently tally up your assumptions.
342: Don't look for magic bullets.
343: The difficult path may be the fastest.
-Michael Wade, Random Thoughts: Brief Reflections and Moments of Clarity
Wednesday, February 19, 2025
nourishment.........................
In the kitchen, a monk is pulling down one small bottle after another, scattering spices across the communal meal he's preparing. "I always get up early when it's my turn to cook," he says. "To think about color, think about texture."
"I hadn't realized meals were so important."
"It's a hard life." He looks straight at me. "The guys need something to brighten their day."
-Pico Iyer, Aflame
let things be.......................
What I eventually figured out—not that it ever seems to get particularly easy—is that other people's negative emotions are ultimately a problem that belongs to them. And you have to allow other people their problems. This in one more area in which the best thing to do, as a finite human with limited control, is usually not to meddle, but to let things be.
-Oliver Burkeman, Meditations for Mortals
Many paths.............................
When people were committed to the idea that in the field of religion only one plan must be adopted, bloody wars resulted. With the acknowledgment of the principle of religious freedom these wars ceased. The market economy safeguards peaceful economic co-operation because it does not use force upon the economic plans of the citizens. If one master plan is to be substituted for the plans of each citizen, endless fighting must emerge. Those who disagree with the dictator's plan have no other means to carry on than to defeat the despot by force of arms.
Losing.....................
Our muscles are prompted to grow by failure,
healing from countless micro-injuries.
healing from countless micro-injuries.
Our minds, science, and technology
are similarly nourished by defeat.
We are creatures born to thrive
on the borderlands of ruin.
Home is a valley between saw-toothed peaks of loss.
Here we sow failure and harvest miracles.
Tuesday, February 18, 2025
"money power".........................
This idea was at the core of Van Buren's worldview. It would never change. Collusion between government and private interests, he believed, would always enrich the few at the expense of the many.
-James M. Bradley, Martin Van Buren: America's First Politician
Pretty good question................
How much priority do your investors, clients and employees put on building processes that do well in chaos?
Sunday, February 16, 2025
Happy Anniversary Sweetie...........................
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