Donald Rumsfeld’s Legacy
The Atlantic’s George Packer offers a scathing critique of Rumsfeld’s responsibility for the travesty of the Iraq War: Rumsfeld was the worst secretary of defense in American history. Being newly dead shouldn’t spare him this distinction. Rumsfeld was the chief advocate of every disaster in the years after September 11. Wherever the United States government […]
Can Racial Sensitivity Go Too Far?
Racism is supposed to be actions that stifle the individuality and well-being of an oppressed race. Over-sensitivity is so deeply embedded within our minds and society that it is virtually impossible to escape. And all kinds of innocuous gestures keep racial tension alive and well. Everyday interactions are misinterpreted. New York Times Opinion Columnist Bret […]
Tiny Houses and Escape Hatches in Getaway Western Catskills
Getaway Western Catskills in New York state offers a chance to disconnect, rebalance and recharge: Getaway Western Catskills are glorified cabins in the woods that come with hot tubs, big screens and WiFi that genuinely encourage an escape from the stresses and turbulence of everyday life. Getaway is brainchild of two Harvard business grads who […]
What Makes Life Seem Empty
A life with much contemplation is preferable because good things will make good people happy. Intention and action are the highest good and will enable us to find the right path in life. Albert Einstein writes in Ideas and Opinions (1954): Everybody has certain ideals which determine the direction of his endeavors and his judgments. […]
How To Create Good Memories That Will Last A Lifetime
Joshua Foer, 2006 U.S.A. Memory Champion and author of the enthralling Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything (2011,) offers a suitable allegory for memory than that of a recording mechanism: Memory is a playground. It’s not my own metaphor, that’s what I was once told by the man who trained me […]
Innovate at Scale as Google Does
CEO of Alphabet Sundar Pichai on the benefits and burdens of leading a vast, no-longer-youthful organization: You constantly find when companies are smaller, they make more decisions that are more like betting the company. Then they tend to get more conservative at scale. So how do you make sure as a company, you’re ambitious, you’re […]
Charlie Munger on One-Size-Fits-All Strategies
No investment strategy can be a one-size-fits-all solution. At the Daily Journal Corporation (DJCO) annual meeting on 16-Feb-2022, the 98-year-old Charlie Munger answered questions: I don’t think I have a one-size-fits-all investment. I think some people are gifted enough that they can invest in hard to value difficult things. Other people, I think, would be […]
What Freedom Represents
During COVID-19 masking guidelines, too many people have the absurd notion that going maskless displays they’re a lover of freedom. Actually, it shows that you have no idea what freedom represents, argues Michael Tomasky in The New York Times: Freedom emphatically does not include the freedom to get someone else sick. It does not include […]
Fighting Poverty: Redistributing Wealth Doesn’t Work
Pop star Bono on realizing that simply handing out money can be counterproductive, through this interview the New York Times (via Tyler Cowen and via Tim Worstall,) I ended up as an activist in a very different place from where I started. I thought that if we just redistributed resources, then we could solve every […]
Charlie Munger on Excess Speculation
Speculative stocks—especially emerging market stocks, penny stocks, rare materials stocks and derivatives—are high risk, high-reward, and therefore appeal to short-term traders. Alas, if day trading was that easy, 90% of day traders wouldn’t be failing year after year. At the Daily Journal Corporation (DJCO) annual meeting on 16-Feb-2022, the 98-year-old Charlie Munger answered questions: The […]