Saturday, December 20, 2025
On the importance of sensing problems...
Silent acquiescence is the enemy. The key is to get people talking.
Once that happens, you may be surprised at how things can turn around.
Once that happens, you may be surprised at how things can turn around.
-Michael Wade, from this edition
Thursday, December 18, 2025
And he's cruisin' every pad with a little surprise...
Pausation........................
Reflection
requires stillness.
One cost of
rushing from thing to thing is that you lose the space to think. Hard work
matters, but nonstop motion often hides a quiet truth: you could have used your
time better.
If you never
pause, you confuse activity with effectiveness. Make time to think. Walk
outside. Sit quietly. Create space. Then move again, but this time on
purpose.
-James Clear, from this episode
Humilitism.................
.........................Can I get an Amen?
Humilitism says that an
elite should consist of people who are aware of the limits of our ability to
comprehend complex social systems.
reformation....................
As Tolstoy put it: “Everyone thinks of changing the world. But no
one thinks of changing himself.” Kierkegaard said it more sharply: “It has
often been said that a reformation should begin with each man reforming
himself.”
Ouch.......................
Capitalism seems to have moved into an actively misanthropic stage. Corporations don’t just hate their workers. They hate their customers.
The deadening effect...............................
..............................of managerialism:
Managerialism is a form of political economy in which the middle-man steps in with a claim that he has some special competence, through the exercise of which new efficiencies can be realized, or some process of production or distribution can be optimized through quantitative rigor. But a funny thing then happens. His metrics easily come detached from the underlying things they are meant to track, no doubt because the incentives of the manager are tied to metrics, rather than directly to the thing. The latter orientation is characteristic of the craftsman, via the “internal rewards” and satisfactions that are intrinsic to some skilled practice (such as making good television), as opposed to the “external rewards” of money, or social position, or other goods that may be a second-order consequence of getting to be really good at something. But you can’t get good at something while focused on external rewards. You have to go deep into the practice itself.
Wednesday, December 17, 2025
wavelets in a ceaseless surf..........
Now Aristotle understands Plato to have held that the universals have objective existence, and indeed Plato had said that the universal is incomparably more lasting and important than the individual,—the latter being but a little wavelet in a ceaseless surf; men come and go, but man goes on forever. Aristotle's is a matter-of-fact mind; as William James would say, a tough, not tender, mind; he sees the root of endless mysticism and scholarly nonsense in the Platonic "realism"; and he attacks it with all the vigor of a first polemic. As Brutus loved not Caesar less but Rome more, so Aristotle says, Amicus Plato, sed magis amica veritas—"Dear Plato, but dearer still is truth."
-Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy
On particulars and generalities......
A hostile commentator might remark that Aristotle (like Nietzsche) criticizes Plato so keenly because he is conscious of having borrowed from him generously; no man is a hero to his debtors. But Aristotle has a healthy attitude, nevertheless; he is a realist almost in the modern sense; he is resolved to concern himself with the objective present, while Plato is absorbed in the subjective future. There was, in the Socratic-Platonic demand for definitions, a tendency away from things and facts to theories and ideas, from particulars to generalities, from science to scholasticism; at last Plato became so devoted to generalities that they began to determine his particulars, so devoted to ideas that they began to define or select his facts. Aristotle preaches a return to things, to the "unwithered face of nature" and reality; he had a lusty preference for the concrete particular, for the flesh and blood individual. But Plato so loved the general and universal that in The Republic he destroyed the individual to make a perfect state.
-Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy
A challenge..................
Thus it can be seen that mental health is based on a certain degree of tension, the tension between what one has already achieved and what one still ought to accomplish, or the gap between what one is and what one should become. Such a tension is inherent in the human being and therefore is indispensable to mental well-being. We should not, then, be hesitant about challenging man with a potential meaning for him to fulfill.
-Viktor Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning
Aging like a fine wine...........
From the inside, old age is not so simple. We may be more concerned about time as death approaches, but older folks are also more capable of appreciating that time. The fewer moments we have to look forward to in life, the more valuable they become. Past grievances and preoccupations often dissipate, and what's left is what we have before us. The beauty of a snowy day, the pride we have in our children or in the work we've done, the relationships we cherish. Despite the perception that old people are grumpy and cantankerous, research has shown that human beings are never so happy as in the late years of their lives. We get better at maximizing highs and minimizing lows. We feel less hassled by the little things that go wrong, and we are better at knowing when something is important and when it's not. The value of positive experiences far outweighs the cost of negative experiences, and we prioritize things that bring us joy. In short, we're emotionally wiser, and that wisdom helps us thrive.
-Robert Waldinger and Marc Schulz, The Good Life: Lessons From the World's Longest Scientific Study of Happiness
outshine................
In this life, in our mind, through our eyes, and on each day,
doubt is logical and reasonable.
Faith is not.
Faith does not rid doubt, rather it carries us through it.
May our faith outshine our doubt.
-Matthew McConaughey, Poems & Prayers
Tuesday, December 16, 2025
Kindness: costless and priceless...........
One perhaps self-serving observation. I’m happy to say I feel better about the second half of my life than the first. My advice: Don’t beat yourself up over past mistakes – learn at least a little from them and move on. It is never too late to improve. Get the right heroes and copy them. You can start with Tom Murphy; he was the best.
Remember Alfred Nobel, later of Nobel Prize fame, who – reportedly – read his own obituary that was mistakenly printed when his brother died and a newspaper got mixed up. He was horrified at what he read and realized he should change his behavior.
Don’t count on a newsroom mix-up: Decide what you would like your obituary to say and live the life to deserve it.
Greatness does not come about through accumulating great amounts of money, great amounts of publicity or great power in government. When you help someone in any of thousands of ways, you help the world. Kindness is costless but also priceless. Whether you are religious or not, it’s hard to beat The Golden Rule as a guide to behavior.
I write this as one who has been thoughtless countless times and made many mistakes but also became very lucky in learning from some wonderful friends how to behave better (still a long way from perfect, however). Keep in mind that the cleaning lady is as much a human being as the Chairman.
-Warren Buffett, from this Thanksgiving letter
The super power......................
.................................of reading:
Becoming a lifelong learner is the best career decision I have ever made. But I had no other choice.
-Ben Carlson
cognitive misers...............
Nowhere in the modern world do we see the effects of our emotional behavior more clearly than in markets. Our emotions lead us to be overconfident when we should be humble, panicked when we should be circumspect, and deeply engaged in seeking information that conforms (rather than disconfirms) our preexisting beliefs. . . .
According to Bernstein, humans are "cognitive misers," relying on simple narratives instead of using complex analytical thinking. The more compelling the narrative is, the more corrosive it becomes to our analytical abilities.
-Barry Ritholz, How Not To Invest: The Ideas, Numbers, and Behaviors That Destroy Wealth—And How to Avoid Them
On the art of breaking rules...............
Commenting on the behavior of the Bank of England in the crisis of 1825, Thomas Joplin said, "There are times when rules and precedents cannot be broken; others, when they cannot be adhered to with safety." Of course. But breaking the rule establishes a precedent and a new rule, which should be adhered to or broken as occasion demands. In these circumstances, intervention is an art, not a science. General rules that the state should always intervene or that is should never intervene are both wrong, . . .
-Charles P. Kindleberger, Manias, Panics, and Crashes: A History of Financial Crises
the madness of the people................
Not everyone was convinced by the rise in the South Sea share price. . . . Sir Isaac Newton, the Master of the Mint, began selling his £7,000 holding of South Sea shares (when asked about the direction of the market, he is reported to have replied, "I can calculate the motions of the heavenly bodies, but not the madness of the people").
-Edward Chancellor, Devil Take the Hindmost: A History of Financial Speculation
two "races" of man..............
From all this we may learn that there are two races of men in this world, but only these two—the "race" of the decent man and the "race" of the indecent man. Both are found everywhere; they penetrated into all groups of society. No group consists entirely of decent or indecent people. In this sense, no group is of "pure race"—and therefore one occasionally found a decent fellow among the camp guards.
Life in a concentration camp tore open the human soul and exposed its depths.
-Viktor Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning
Monday, December 15, 2025
Sunday, December 14, 2025
El Fuego......................
I had always loved sunrise: was always renewed in spirit. For all my life I'd felt cheated if I'd ever slept through dawn. The primeval winter solstice on bitter Salisbury Plan had raised my childhood's goose pimples long before I understood why, and it had long seemed to me that dawn-worship was the most logical of primitive beliefs.
-Dick Francis, as excerpted from Wild Horsesdo the work.............
The universe does not offer financing.
This is hard to accept because modern life trains us to expect
the opposite. We are addicted to "Buy Now, Pay Later." You live in
the house before you pay off the mortgage. You get the degree before you pay
off the loan. You eat the meal before you ask for the check.
We are conditioned to enjoy the benefit today and pay the cost
tomorrow.
Achievement reverses the transaction. It requires full payment
in advance (and regular payments forever). If you want a fit body, a calm mind,
a healthy relationship, or financial independence, the cost is non-negotiable.
You must do the work before you get the result.
This is why most people quit. They pay a little, see nothing,
and stop. They never make it far enough to see the first return arrive.
-Shane Parrish via Farnum Street, from this edition
Never surrender.........................
Gibran's bitter denunciation of both religious and political injustice prevailing at the time, brought about his anticipated exile from the country and his excommunication from the church, although his parents were staunch Maronites. It was the story, Khalil the Heretic, in particular which drove the Sultan and his Emirs into trepidation and cause nervous authorities in the entire Middle and Near East to examine their governments.
Gibran was quietly pursuing painting with his friend Rodin in Paris when he learned of the ceremonial destruction of his book, and he merely expressed the thought that it was excellent cause for the issuance of a second edition.
-Martin L. Wolf, from the Preface to Gibran's Spirits Rebellious
Good questions all....................
How long will it be before we discover we cannot dazzle God with our accomplishments?
When will we acknowledge that we need not and cannot buy God's favor?
When will we acknowledge that we don't have it all together and happily accept the gift of grace?
-Brennan Manning, The Ragamuffin Gospel
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