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

Dave Grusin................................Greatest Hits

 

Daily.............................

 

more fun here

Sorting out.............................

 

................................new realities.

As questions go.......................

........................................this is an important one. 

The true pleasure..............................

 

............................of re-reading favorite books.

More wisdom...........................

 

..................................from Nicholas Bate:

Now that you mention it.....................

 

....the old AOL dial-up connection made an awful noise:

thanks Kurt

The list of interesting books.......................

 

.......................I haven't yet read keeps growing.

suspicion......................

 

I used to identify as libertarian, but then I would find myself defending positions I hadn't thought through because they're a part of the libertarian canon.  If all your beliefs line up into neat little bundles, you should be highly suspicious.

-Eric Jorgenson, The Almanack of Naval Ravikant

objectivity.......................

 

       The life of Darwin demonstrates how a turtle may outrun the hares, aided by extreme objectivity, which helps the objective person end up like the only player without blindfold in a game of pin-the-donkey.     

      If you minimize objectivity, you ignore not only a lesson from Darwin but also one from Einstein.  Einstein said that his successful theories came from: 'Curiosity, concentration, perseverance and self-criticism.'  And by self-criticism he meant the testing and destruction of his own well-loved ideas.

-Charlie Munger, as excerpted from this speech

debts.....................

 

It's almost impossible to go broke without borrowed money being in the equation.

-Peter Bevelin, Seeking Wisdom: From Darwin to Munger

unimaginable................

 

The most astonishingly incredible coincidence imaginable would be the complete absence of coincidence.

-John Allen Paulos

develop......................

 

The brain can be developed just the same way as the muscles can be developed, if one only takes the pains to train the mind to think.

-Thomas Edison

On retirement spending....................

 

The truth is, you can’t predict the future. Black swan events, long-term care needs, unexpected medical expenses—these things happen. But the bigger danger for this audience isn’t overspending.

It’s under-living.

-Jordan Grumet

via

indulging.....................

 

     The house gives signs of enjoying the emptiness.  It is rearranging itself after the night, clearing its pipes and cracking its joints.  This dignified and seasoned creature, with its coppery veins and wooden feet nestled in a bed of clay, has endured much: balls bounced against its garden flanks, doors slammed in rage, headstands attempted along its corridors, the weight and sighs of electrical equipment and the probings of inexperienced plumbers into its innards.  A family of four shelters in it, joined by a colony of ants around the foundations and, in spring time, by broods of robins in the chimney stack.  It also lends a shoulder to a frail (or just indolent) sweet-pea which leans against the garden wall, indulging the peripatetic courtship of a circle of bees.

     The house has grown into a knowledgeable witness.

-Alain de Botton, The Architecture of Happiness

Hey.....what?....wait a minute...........

 

I’ve seen all sorts of estimates for the coming wealth transfer from baby boomers to the next generation.  $16 trillion. $84 trillion. $124 trillion. . . .

Here’s the one part of this conversation we’re not really touching on — The Great Wealth Transfer requires that the baby boomer generation dies off. Death and taxes, right?

-Ben Carlson, from here

purpose......................

 

The purpose of studying economics is not to acquire a set of ready-made answers to economic questions, but to learn how to avoid being deceived by economists.

-Joan Robinson

advances.....................

 

Truth never triumphs—its opponents just die out.  Science advances one funeral at a time.

-Max Planck

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

Waylon Jennings.......................Rainy Day Woman

 

induced......................

 

     To twenty-first-century policymakers, the interest rate is simply a lever used to control inflation and tweak economic output.  Yet an acquaintance with the Babylonian origins of interest should give pause for thought.  Interest has always been with us because resources have always been scarce and must be rationed somehow, because wealth is unequally distributed between creditors and borrowers, and because, as Böhm-Bawerk says, 'interest is the soul of credit.'  Interest exists because loans are productive, and even when not productive still have value.  It exists because those in possession of capital need to be induced to lend, and because lending is a risky business.  It exists because production takes place over time and human beings are naturally impatient.

-Edward Chancellor, The Price of Time: The Real Story of Interest