Sunday, March 28, 2021
Wednesday, March 17, 2021
See........................
So, art is saying Stop. It helps us to stop by putting a frame around something and makes us see it in a way we would never have seen it under normal circumstances of living, as so many of us do, on sort of automatic pilot, going through the world without really seeing much of anything. . . .
So, to help us out of our blindness, part of what the painter is doing is saying, See what's there, not what you expect to see. See what is really present in your life. See yourself, see each other.
-Frederick Buechner, The Remarkable Ordinary: How to Stop, Look, And Listen To Life
The hardest work.....................
The biggest challenge in the stock market is not Mr. Market or Mr. Value. The biggest challenge is neither visible nor measurable; it is hidden in the emotional incapacities of each of us as investors. Investing, like parenting teenagers, benefits from calm, patient persistence and a long-term perspective and constancy of purpose. That's why "know yourself" is the cardinal rule in investing.
The hardest work in investing is not intellectual; it's emotional. Being rational in an emotional environment is not easy, particularly with Mr. Market always trying to trick you into making changes. The hardest work is not figuring out the optimal investment policy; it's sustaining a long-term focus—particularly at market highs or market lows—and staying committed to your optimal investment policy.
-Charles D. Ellis, Winning The Loser's Game: Timeless Strategies for Successful Investing
Compelling..............................
Each of us, when fortunate, is compelled forward by something that grips our attention—love of a person; a sport; a political, sociological, or economic problem, or a scientific question; a passion for art, literature, or drama—something that calls to us for reasons we can neither control nor understand (try to make yourself interested in something you just do not care about and see how well that works). . . . You do not choose what interests you. It chooses you. Something manifest itself out of the darkness as compelling, as worth living for; following that, something moves us further down the road, to the next meaningful manifestation—and so it goes, as we continue to seek, develop, grow, and thrive. It is a perilous journey, but it is also the adventure of our lives.
-Jordan B. Peterson, Beyond Order: 12 More Rules For Live
Avoidance.......................
It is a sign of wisdom to avoid believing every thought that enters your mind. It is a mark of emotional intelligence to avoid internalizing every feeling that enters your heart.
-Adam Grant, Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know
The Middle Way..............................
Eisenhower said that he and his administration were determined that a fair, just, and moral America assume its responsibilities for the nation's less fortunate and for those who had been victims of racism. Ike would face heavy headwinds, especially among Democrats, whose main political base consisted of Southern whites. Still, determined to be a president for the whole country, the Middle Way was, in his view, the only prospect the United States had for sustainable social and racial progress.
The objective of desegregating the areas controlled by the federal government had been difficult enough to attain, and they included measures of far-reaching impact such as progressive federal court appointments and the desegregation of federal contracting. But the attitudes prevalent in individual states would be harder to tackle, and they were outside any president's jurisdiction at that time.
To advantageously influence local affairs, "the President had endeavored to keep the trust of both sides so that when he acted he would be supported by the public," Herbert Brownell recalled.
While Eisenhower's critics later blamed him for not doing more to create a new moral climate in this country, he realized that if the whole nation were to make good on its constitutional promise, it would require bringing the whole country along.
-Susan Eisenhower, How Ike Led: The Principles Behind Eisenhower's Biggest Decisions
Lest we forget, in 1957, Eisenhower both nationalized the Arkansas National Guard and sent 1,000 paratroopers from the 101st Airborne Division to enforce both order and a federal court decision mandating the desegregation of public schools.
The critical question.......................
We don't make decisions in a vacuum and we can't get something for nothing. When making choices, considering consequences can help us avoid future problems. We must ask ourselves the critical question: And then what?
-Farnum Street, Great Mental Models Vol. 1: General Thinking Concepts
An attitude of equanimity...................
Have you ever been on a cruise? If so, you will know that when you are allowed ashore you may entertain yourself by looking around and doing some shopping, but you should always be aware of when the ship will depart, lest you end up stranded where you don't belong.
The same goes with life. It's fine to enjoy its pleasures and to entertain yourself a little. But you should always keep in mind that at some time the voyage will be over, since it does not last forever. When the time comes, be ready, and make sure you look back and do not find that you have misspent your shore leave.
The best way to avoid this is to ask yourself from time to time what is important, and to act accordingly. . . . Cultivate, then, an attitude of equanimity toward externals.
-Massimo Pigliucci, A Field Guide To A Happy Life: 58 Brief Lessons For Living
Monday, March 15, 2021
Every once in a while...................
Tony Orlando & Dawn...Tie A Yellow Ribbon Round The Old Oak Tree
Yeah, but I sort of assumed..............................
.......................that this was everyday.
Sunday, March 14, 2021
The Law of Unintended Consequences.............
........................the one unbreakable law:
Interestingly, last year--2020--there were far fewer cars on the roads, because of social distancing, the shutdown of bars and restaurants, and the fact that many people did not commute to work at all.
The result: MORE TRAFFIC DEATHS. People drove much more aggressively on the nearly empty roads. To be fair, the total number of accidents did in fact fall by quite a bit, as you would expect. But the severity of the accidents that did happen? That was up sharply, especially outside of cities.
The point? Regulations have to take into account the likely response of citizens, based on expectations. You can't just twirl dials and pull levers when it comes to public policy.
-Mike Munger, from this post
The fine tradition of government shopping......
At the time when the early Ming emperors were stifling China’s prosperity with centralised bureaucratic tyranny, backward Europe was transformed into the world’s most innovative and wealthy continent. It did so precisely by not being unified and centralised: by being a quilt of different countries so that entrepreneurs, inventors and artists could shop around for a congenial regime, as David Hume was the first to argue. . . .
In harmonisation lies stagnation: innovation comes from variety. Britain must not be afraid to be different: to offer alternative opportunities, smarter regulation, divergent priorities. That is not a hostile act toward the European Union: it would be good for them too. In differentiation lies the chance to experiment and find opportunities for mutual gains, mutual recognition and mutual respect.
-Matthew Ridley, from this post
Friday, March 12, 2021
Thursday, March 11, 2021
That's interesting...............................
In a classic paper, sociologist Murray Davis argued that when ideas survive, it's not because they're true—it's because they're interesting. What makes an idea interesting is that it challenges our weakly held opinions. . . .
When a core belief is questioned, though, we tend to shut down rather than open up. It's as if there's a miniature dictator living inside our heads, controlling the flow of facts to our minds . . . The technical term for this in psychology is the totalitarian ego, and its job is to keep out threatening information.
-Adam Grant, Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know
Every once in a while..........................
Jim Nabors channeling Gomer Pyle.........The Impossible Dream
his amazing singing starts around 3:30
Necessary................................
These stories [mostly culled from Matthew and Luke] portray the existential dilemma that eternally characterizes human life: it is necessary to conform, to be disciplined, and to follow the rules—to do humbly what others do; but it is also necessary to use judgment, vision, and the truth that guides conscience to tell what is right, when the rules suggest otherwise. It is the ability to manage this combination that truly characterizes the fully developed personality: the true hero.
-Jordan B. Peterson, Beyond Order: 12 More Rules For Life
Balanced...................................
A certain amount of arbitrary rule-ness must be tolerated—or welcomed, depending on your point of view—to keep the world and its inhabitants together. A certain amount of creativity and rebellion must be tolerated—or welcomed, depending on your point of view—to maintain the process of regeneration. Every rule was once a creative act, breaking other rules. Every creative act, genuine in its creativity, is likely to transform itself, with time, into a useful rule. It is the living interaction between social institutions and creative achievement that keeps the world balanced on the narrow line between too much order and too much chaos. This is a terrible conundrum, a true existential burden. We must support and value the past, and we need to do that with an attitude of gratitude and respect. At the same time, however, we must keep our eyes open—we, the visionary living—and repair the ancient mechanisms that stabilize and support us when we falter. Thus, we need to bear the paradox that is involved in simultaneously respecting the walls that keep us safe and allowing in enough of what is new and changing so that our institutions remain alive and healthy. The very world depends for its stability and its dynamism on the subsuming of all our endeavors under the perfection—the sacredness—of that dual ability.
Do not carelessly denigrate social institutions or creative achievement.
-Jordan B. Peterson, Beyond Order: 12 More Rules For Life
Tuesday, March 9, 2021
Every once in a while.....................
Abbott & Costello.................................................Who's On First
A weapon....................................
In psychology there are at least two biases that drive this pattern. One is confirmation bias: seeing what we expect to see. The other is desirability bias: seeing what we want to see. These biases don't just prevent us from applying our intelligence. They can actually contort our intelligence into a weapon against the truth. We find reasons to preach our faith more deeply, prosecute our case more passionately, and ride the tidal wave of our political party. The tragedy is that we're usually unaware of the resulting flaws in our thinking.
My favorite bias is the "I'm not biased" bias, in which people believer they're more objective that others. It turns out that smart people are more likely to fall into this trap. The brighter you are, the harder it can be to see your own limitations. Being good at thinking can make you worse at rethinking.
-Adam Grant, Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know
If only you could avoid the human element....
I don't want to be a great problem solver. I want to avoid problems—prevent them from happening and doing it right from the beginning.
Reconsider.............................
But the twentieth-century experiments of nationalism and socialism, of syndicalism in factories and central planning for investment, of proliferating regulation for imagined but not factually documented imperfections in the market, did not work. And most of the pessimisms about how we live now have proven to be mistaken. It is a puzzle. Perhaps you yourself still believe in nationalism or socialism or proliferating regulation. And perhaps you are in the grip of pessimism about growth or consumerism or the environment or inequality. Please, for the good of the wretched of the earth, reconsider.”
Bourgeois Equality: How Ideas, Not Capital or Institutions, Enriched the WorldMonday, March 8, 2021
On patience and restraint.......................
For a younger generation and those to come, the presidency would fuse with television, and politics with storytelling and drama. Eisenhower knew that leadership has many outward signs, but getting constant attention is not one of them. For Eisenhower patience and restraint were also critical attributes of sound leadership. He was confident enough to know that action—any action at all—may be satisfying in the short term but, if not justifiable, could bring with it untold consequences over the longer haul. This could be seen in his refusal to intervene in Vietnam, for example.
-Susan Eisenhower: How Ike Led: The Principles Behind Eisenhower's Biggest Decisions
Fifty years ago.........................................
Santana.........................................................Toussaint L'Overture
Strive.............................
Col. William Draper, President Eisenhower's Air Force One pilot, told former president Eisenhower that after many years of service he was being forced into retirement because of a heart problem, which would necessitate a new career as an airline executive. He confided that he was worried about whether he would be able to succeed in the corporate world. On listening to Draper, Ike said to his longtime pilot, "Go ahead, be scared, and do it anyway."
Whether Eisenhower was frightened or scared we will never know. But he once articulated his simple formula in a letter to Mamie that contained the critical word. He wrote that it was imperative on him to "struggle is to do one's best; to keep the brain and the conscience clear; never be swayed by unworthy motives of inconsequential reasons, but to strive to unearth the basic factors involved and then do one's duty."
-Susan Eisenhower, How Ike Led: The Principles Behind Eisenhower's Biggest Decisions
Fun with statistics.................
That vertical line at the end of the chart represents the money supply - a 450% increase. Scary? Inflationary? Maybe, but not so fast. Morgan Housel weighs in with some context:
Money supply has increased from $4 trillion a year ago to $18 trillion today.
A 450% increase!
That’s something you might see in a third-world country with hyperinflation.
But before you dump life savings into gold and build a bunker, here’s the punchline: The huge majority of the increase you’re seeing in this chart is not money printing or new money creation.
It’s an accounting rule change. . . .
Of the $14 trillion increase in M1, $11.2 trillion (80%) came from an accounting rule change that shifted money from savings accounts to checking accounts.
A fundamental error...........................
David Brooks thinks it is your day job that can make you rich. He suggests avoiding coding = as of 2015 there were nearly eight times as many software developers in this country as there were dentists, but nearly as many dentists in the top one percent as there were software developers. He recommends becoming a surgeon, a lawyer, or a hedge-fund manager.
For what it is worth, an easier path to a brighter future is likely to be found in the trades. Plumbers and electricians can write their own ticket today. Lest you forget, a good sales person is worth their weight in gold.
Brooks's error? It is not what you earn that makes you wealthy, it is what you do with what you earn.
On favoritism...........................
Eisenhower believed that nothing destroyed the morale of a fighting man more than seeing favoritism in the ranks. In thinking about his experience, he once observed: "Morale is at one and the same time the strongest and most delicate of growths. It withstands shocks—even disasters of the battlefield, but can be destroyed utterly by favoritism, neglect, or injustice." He asserted that the same was true in civilian life.
-Susan Eisenhower, How Ike Led: The Principles Behind Eisenhower's Biggest Deicisons
Sunday, March 7, 2021
Temper.............................
In times of stress, perhaps the greatest struggle Ike had to contend with was the desire—the imperative—to control his temper: "Anger cannot win," he wrote in his diary in 1942. "It cannot even think clearly . . . for many years I've made it a religion never to indulge myself, but yesterday I failed."
-Susan Eisenhower, How Ike Led: The Principles Behind Eisenhower's Biggest Decisions
Be careful out there......................
Ben’s rule number one of the unfortunate realities of the investment business is a talented sales staff will trump a talented investment staff when attracting capital from investors.
-Ben Carlson, from his Investments as a Status Symbol post
The more things change.............................
Eisenhower's professional responsibilities were, as he described them, "maintaining the peace we had just won." And Ike was concerned by what he saw around him. "Washington," he observed, "seemed little bothered about the long-term future." In his words, the city was more consumed in rewriting the past by looking, for instance, for "a scapegoat for Pearl Harbor . . . But of the future, piled high with threats to our victory and to our continuing security, there seemed to be little thought."
-Susan Eisenhower, How Ike Led: The Principles Behind Eisenhower's Biggest Decisions
Fifty years ago......................................
Van Morrison...................................................Tupelo Honey
Well, tell us how you really feel..................
I really want to send our public health officials walking across a live minefield wearing blindfolds, so that they can get a sense of how they are providing us with information that would be helpful.
-Arnold Kling, from this post
Continuing education.........................
Spend the day profitably? Spend it pondering these quotes.
First.............................
I've learned that nothing is worth doing if it cannot be done from a place of deep peace. If we want to restore the planet, we must first restore ourselves. I believe that you find your way to your right life, your mission, the same way you find an animal. First quiet your heart and be still. Then find the fresh track and be willing to follow it. You don't need to see the whole picture; you only need to see where to take the next step. Life isn't about staying on track; it's about constantly rediscovering the track.
-Boyd Varty, Cathedral of the Wild: An African Journey Home
If.......................
. . . if we take responsibility for being the author of our world, we can come close to its source where we can correct it. By being loving towards others, we discover that we are surrounded by love and lovingness. When we unreservedly support life without expecting gain, life supports us in return. When we abandon gain as a motive, life responds with unexpected generosity.
-David R. Hawkins, I: Reality And Subjectivity
Saturday, March 6, 2021
Power vs Authority.........................
Authority is not mere power, and it is extremely unhelpful, even dangerous, to confuse the two. When people exert power over others, they compel them, forcefully. They apply the threat of privation or punishment so their subordinates have little choice but to act in a manner contrary to their personal needs, desires, and values. When people wield authority, by contrast, they do so because of their competence—a competence that is spontaneously recognized and appreciated by others, and generally followed willingly, with a certain relief, and with the sense that justice is being served.
-Jordan Peterson, Beyond Order: 12 More Rules For Life
Fun with the language....................
Anyone totally committed to a single pursuit almost inevitably becomes the propagandist of his own effort. As a nation of specialists, we have become a nation obsessed with self-justification. When we don't have it, we make it. And we are now familiar enough with the make-work of manufacturers who need products, scholars who need projects, politicians who need issues, generals who need armies. We speak the language of a people bent on justifying everything we do or want to do, whether it is justifiable or not.
This preoccupation, with its consequent language of self-praise, is epidemic. It is chronic at the highest levels of the government. Much of the blame for the erosion of our idealism must be laid to the government, because the language of ideals has been so grossly misused by the propagandists. The liars of policy and public relations are addicted to a rhetoric of high principle. Our political ideals fill their mouths as unctuously, and with as little involvement of conscience or intelligence, as so many pieces of fat meat.
-Wendell Berry, The Long-Legged House
On curiosity....................................
Awaken our sense of wonder, I say to my fellow nerd-communicators. Ignite the spark of curiosity and give it some fuel, using the time-honoured methods of storytelling, character, suspense and humour. But let's not rely on the journalists and the scientists and the other communicators of complex ideas. We have to be responsible for our own sense of curiosity. As the saying goes, 'only boring people get bored'. The world is so much more interesting if we take an active interest in it.
'The cure for boredom is curiosity,' goes the old saying. 'There is no cure for curiosity.' Just so: once we start to peer beneath the surface of things, become aware of the gaps in our knowledge, and treat each question as the path to a better question, we find that curiosity is habit-forming.
-Tim Harford, How to Make the World Add Up: Ten Rules for Thinking Differently About Numbers
Your share......................
To maintain good relationships with your colleagues means, among other things, to give credit where credit is due; to take your share of the jobs no one wants but still must be done; to deliver on time and in a high-quality manner when teamed with other people; to show up when expected; and, in general, to be trusted to do somewhat more than your job formally requires.
-Jordan Peterson, Beyond Order: 12 More Rules For Life
a cathedral project...........................
True cathedral projects can sustain such ambition because they are so broad: in their base of support, in the number and diversity of people and ideas that they bring together, in the number of experiments they contain. In doing that, they create and sustain the legitimacy that allows them to endure. Lose that and they're finished: anachronisms or pariahs that will dwindle and die. They remain public goods only as long as the public says so. In this, they are profoundly democratic.
Does that imply that democracy, too, is a cathedral project, one in which all of us are involved? Constructed over centuries, radical in conception, daring in ambition, sustained only by those who continue to believe in it. What we know of such projects is that, to endure, they require enormous openness to new ideas, a broad base of support, the ability to adapt and to change, a willingness to experiment, and to be febrile in their responsiveness to the unforeseen and unpredictable. Without that, they have no future. But with it, they may last for millennia.
-Margaret Heffernan, Uncharted: How To Navigate The Future
Gone, but not forgotten..................................
Michael Stanley Band..........Let's Get The Show On The Road
Friday, March 5, 2021
Checking in with.................................
............................................Jordan Peterson:
. . . people depend on constant communication with others to keep their minds organized. We all need to think to keep things straight, but we mostly think by talking.
Freud and Jung, with their intense focus on the autonomous individual psyche, placed too little focus on the role of the community in the maintenance of personal mental health.
We compete for attention, personally, socially, and economically. No currency has a value that exceeds it. Children, adults, and societies wither on the vine in its absence.
We cannot live without food, water, clean air, and shelter. Less self-evidently, we require companionship, play, touch, and intimacy.
It is much better to make friends with what you do not know than with what you do know, as there is an infinite supply of the former but a finite stock of the latter.
No one unwilling to be a foolish beginner can learn.
-all quotes excerpted from Rule One, the first chapter, in Beyond Order: 12 More Rules For Life
Sunday, February 28, 2021
Fifty years ago............................
Badfinger....................................................Day After Day
Saturday, February 27, 2021
Fifty years ago......................................
Richie Havens..........................................Here Comes The Sun
Toughen up................................
Humans are not built for a life of ease. This is a forgotten wisdom, one revered by the ancient Stoics and once fundamental to philosophical thought. Within the writings of Seneca and Epictetus lies the maxim that it is not our hardship that harms us, but how we relate to it. In choosing to learn and grow from affliction, we fortify our mind. As Seneca wrote, “Difficulties strengthen the mind, as labor does the body.” . . .
“Humans don’t mind hardship,” Junger remarks, “in fact they thrive on it. What they mind is not feeling necessary. Modern society has perfected the art of making people not feel necessary.”
-Freya India, from this post on Generation Z and suffering
practice is necessary.........................
The archer allows many arrows to go far beyond the target, because he knows that he will learn the importance of bow, posture, string, and target only by repeating his gestures thousands of times and by not being afraid of making mistakes.
And his true allies will never criticize him, because they know that practice is necessary, that it is the only way in which he can perfect his instinct, his hammer blow.
And then comes the moment when he no longer has to think about what he is doing. From then on, the archer becomes his bow, his arrow, and his target.
-Paulo Coehlo, The Archer
What leadership is not....................
Today's American culture tells us that those most likely to rise to the most important positions of responsibility are the ones who graduate at the top in their classes and have long lists of extracurricular activities. Such countless engagements on a CV are somehow equated with leadership—though they may actually have as much to do with a fear of commitment, a preoccupation with image, or the inescapable desire to assure others that one can master everything at once.
It is ironic, perhaps, that many great, victorious military commanders in our history—Civil War general Ulysses S. Grant; Gen. John Pershing, World War I commander of U. S. forces; and Dwight Eisenhower, World War II supreme Allied commander in Europe—graduated from West Point well below the top of their classes.
-Susan Eisenhower, How Ike Led: The Principles Behind Eisenhower's Biggest Decisions
On the importance of Feynman..........
One of the most important things Feynman ever taught me was that some of the most exciting scientific surprises can be discovered in everyday phenomena. All you need do is take the time to observe things carefully and ask yourself good questions. He also influenced my belief that there is no reason to succumb to external pressures that try to force you to specialize in a single area of science, as many scientists do. Feynman showed me by example that it is acceptable to explore a diversity of fields if that is where your curiosity leads.
-Paul Steinhardt, as culled from here
Toward better..........................
One challenge is embracing the effective and generative approach of possibility when we’re sure that we’re entitled to grievance.
-Seth Godin, from his post Grievance and possibility
Thursday, February 25, 2021
Fifty years ago.......................................
John Denver..........................Take Me Home, Country Roads
One by one..............................
"As they say 'to be in the world, but not of the world.' You can go to the Himalayas and miss it completely, and you can be stuck in the middle of New York and be very spiritual. I mean, I noticed in certain places, like New York, it brings out a certain thing in myself. If I go to some place like Switzerland, I find a lot of uptight people because they're living amongst so much beauty there's no urgency in trying to find the beauty within themselves. If you're stuck in New York you have to somehow look within yourself - otherwise you'd go crackers. So, in a way, it's good to be able to go in and out of both situations. Most people think when the world gets itself together we'll all be okay. I don't see that situation arriving. I think one by one, we all free ourselves from the chains we have chained ourselves to. But I don't think that suddenly some magic happens and the whole lot of us will all be liberated in one throw."
-George Harrison
Ah, human nature...................
“To suppose that the value of a stock is determined purely by a corporation’s earnings discounted by the relevant interest rates and adjusted for the marginal tax rate is to forget that people have burned witches, gone to war on a whim, risen to the defense of Joseph Stalin and believed Orson Welles when he told them over the radio that the Martians had landed.”
-Jim Grant, as quoted in this brief essay
You don't come across writing like this every day
I have a friend blessed with an intellect as keen as a drill, who, though he takes an interest in aesthetics, has never during a life of almost forty years been guilty of an aesthetic emotion. So, having no faculty for distinguishing a work of art from a handsaw, he is apt to rear up a pyramid of irrefragable argument on the hypothesis that a handsaw is a work of art. This defect robs his perspicuous and subtle reasoning of much of its value; for it has ever been a maxim that faultless logic can win but little credit for conclusions that are based on premises notoriously false. Every cloud, however, has its silver lining, and this insensibility, though unlucky in that it makes my friend incapable of choosing a sound basis for his argument, mercifully blinds him to the absurdity of his conclusions while leaving him in full enjoyment of his masterly dialectic.
-Clive Bell, from his little book, Art, found here
Wealthy 101...........................
74. soft wealth: health, relationships, creativity, art, books, deserts, perfect pizzas.
75. hard wealth: cash, enough to live on, finances managed.
And then there is real wealth..................
Wednesday, February 24, 2021
Uh-oh..........................
Walter Russell Mead eyes the politics of a coming "Green" wave. Careful what you wish for - it gets complicated. A wee excerpt:
Those who dismiss ideas like the “green new deal” as mere left-wing fantasies miss the enormous appeal of these programs for corporations looking for new business opportunities. It isn’t only renewable energy companies looking for government mandates and funding. It’s major auto manufacturers dreaming of replacing every gasoline-powered car and truck on the planet with an electric vehicle—and reaping the public-relations reward of looking virtuous. It’s construction companies looking to replace the existing energy infrastructure.
Judgment.......................
"Whatever strengthens your ego weakens your judgement, and ultimately, your success."
Tuesday, February 23, 2021
On manners.............................
Technology, it might be said, by providing machines to do what used to be done by hand . . . has complicated our lives in as many ways as it has simplified and enriched them . . . but in committing ourselves to machine control we have sacrificed many of the pleasures of self-control—of manners, if you wish. . . .
Now and then someone I have just met, avoiding false coziness, calls me "Mr. Lynes." I am as astonished as I am pleased, but it's my age and white hair that evokes it. I think of a story told by Dame May Witty, the distinguished actress, who was in a London shop and was being waited on by an uppity salesgirl (there are two words that have vanished) who was offhand and rude. Dame May, piqued, said, "I suppose you know who I am," and the clerk replied, "Certainly." To which the actress said, "I suppose you think you're as good as I am," and the girl said, "Of course." "Then why," Dame May said, " can't you be civil to your equals?"
Civility is, of course, the root and branch of manners . . .
-Russell Lynes, from his 1986 essay, On Good Behavior, found here
Just think................................
Most of us take pride in our knowledge and expertise, and in staying true to our beliefs and opinions. That makes great sense in a stable world, where we get rewarded for having the conviction of our ideas. The problem is that we live in a rapidly changing world, where we need to spend as much time rethinking as we do thinking.
Rethinking is a skill set, but it's also a mindset. We already have many of the mental tools we need. We just have to remember to get them out of the shed and remove the rust.
-Adam Grant: Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know
Investing with your heart.............
Money — the making of it — is never part of that purpose. It’s a byproduct of one or more of these other more lofty goals. The only purpose the money really serves for us is to allow us to do it all over again.
-Patrick Rhone, full story here
Sunday, February 21, 2021
Help From History..................
Please help me know it happened, that life I thought we had—
Our friends holding out their hands to us—
Our enemies mistaken, infected by unaccountable
prejudice—
Our country benevolent, a model for all governments,
good-willed—
Those mad rulers at times elsewhere, inhuman, and yet
mob-
worshipped,
leaders of monstrous doctrine, unspeakable
beyond belief,
yet strangely attractive to the uninstructed.
And please let me believe these incredible legends that
have
dignified our
lives—
The wife or husband helplessly loving us, the children
full of
awe and
affection, the dog insanely faithful—
Our growing up hard—hard times,
being industrious and
reliable—
The places we lived arched full of serene golden light—
Now, menaced by judgments, overheard revisions, let me
retain what ignorance it
takes to preserve what we need—
a past that redeems any
future.
That sound you hear..............................
........................is minds being blown all over the country.
On unconscious biases.....................
My left-leaning, environmentally conscious friends are justifiably critical of ad hominem attacks on climate scientists. You know the kind of thing: claims that scientists are inventing data because of their political biases or because they're scrambling for funding from big government. In short, smearing the person rather than engaging with the evidence. Yet the same friends are happy to embrace and amplify the same kind of tactics when they're used to attack my fellow economists: that we're inventing data because of our political biases, or scrambling for funding from big business. I tried to point out the parallel to one thoughtful person, and got nowhere. She was completely unable to comprehend what I was talking about. I'd call this a 'double standard', but that would be unfair—it would suggest it was deliberate. It's not. It's an unconscious bias that's easy to see in others and very hard to see in ourselves.
-Tim Harford: How to Make the World Add Up: Ten Rules for Thinking Differently About Numbers
Reasonable...............................
"So convenient a thing it is to be a reasonable creature, since it enables one to find or make a reason for everything one has a mind to do."
-Benjamin Franklin, as culled from his Autobiography
for ourselves.............................
What the patterns of an artist's progress show is the human capacity to find meaning and to make lasting work not by planning it but by remaining open to the possibilities they see inside and around themselves. This argues against forcing predetermined expectations and goals onto our experience of life and for an alert way of being, open to noticing and responding to the future as it emerges. We think ourselves efficient when we squeeze our lives into schedules, itineraries, and plans, asking of apps that they tell us what to do, where to go next. But what we lose is the freedom to notice for ourselves, to filter and reflect for ourselves, to craft our unique sense of who we are and what we wish to make of our lives.
-Margaret Heffernan, Uncharted: How To Navigate The Future
Checking in..............................
.....................................with Will Rogers (1879-1935):
"It's pitiful when you think how ignorant the founders of our Constitution must have been. Just think what a Country we would have if men in those days had the Brains and forethought of our men today!"
"We shouldn't elect a President; we should elect a magician."
"Washington, D.C. Papers say, 'Congress is deadlocked and can't act.' I think that is the greatest blessing that could befall this Country."
"If all politicians fished instead of spoke publicly, we would be at peace with the world."
"Lord, the money we do spend of Government and it's not one bit better than the government we got for one third the money twenty years ago."
"Things in our country run in spite of government. Not by aid of it."
"You know, Congressmen are the nicest fellows in the world to meet. I sometimes really wonder if they realize the harm they do."
"Elect 'em for a six-year term; not allow 'em to succeed themselves. that would keep their mind off politics."
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