Adages
-
Random insight from Patrick McKenzie
In a recent podcast he used the term “Execution Quality” – largely to refer to real estate buyers who have a deserved reputation for fulfilling obligations and not being difficult to work with – it is the official reason you give when you do not go with the highest bidder apparently.
-
Quote of the day – from YT
From some video I didn’t bookmark
I’m only good at two things, playing guitar, and hiding my dependence on anti-psychotic drugs. And I’m all out of Klozapine…
-
Marleigh’s line of the day –
While waiting for a parent teacher conference, and looking up at one of the circular air vents in an otherwise dark place
It’s like a hole in the emptiness
-
Quote of the day – podcast edition
From a long digression abut the economic and demographic ailments of the world, and the relatively good position of the United States – summed up as
We’re definitely the leper with the most fingers
-
Quote of the day – financial crimes edition
If you constantly demand the impossible, what you will get is the unethical
From this podcast by the great Patrick McKenzie
-
In our world we have no murderers just dirty rugs
–Random thought that occurred to Marleigh which was quite funny at the time.
-
Quote of the day – Youtube edition
Youth, flexibility and strength are temporary conditions, but work is a lifetime commitment.
-
Proud parenting moment – Halloween edition
When we were wrapping up trick or treating we were talking about the prevalence of 15 foot skeletons. Either me or the wife mentioned that people left them up year round, and the Halloween skeletons became Thanksgiving skeletons, then Christmas skeletons, and so forth, and how this angered neighbors and neighborhood associations. After clarifying that the neighbors did not in fact buy the skeletons somehow, Marleigh had the memorable line
That’s ridiculous – just because they have opinions doesn’t mean they have rights!
-
Must all good things be compatible
I’ve been pondering this quote from Isaiah Berlin (as seen in Rob Henderson’s newsletter)
“The optimistic view…that all good things must be compatible, and that therefore freedom, order, knowledge, happiness…must be at least compatible, and perhaps even entail one another in a systematic fashion…is not self-evidently true…Indeed, it is perhaps one of the least plausible beliefs ever entertained by profound and influential thinkers.”
Which also had the nugget
Freedom for the pike is death for the minnow
Which brought to mind the adage, first seen by me from Freeman Dyson of
One law for the lion and ox is oppression
The above is an illustration of the facts that the two ways of life are incompatible – the lion cannot digest plants, and the ox cannot digest meat. A law that said no eating animals, only plants, would lead to the lions starving, and a law that said eating animals is fine would lead to the deaths of the oxen.
Examining incompatibilities between beliefs is immensely interesting, and probably one of the better signals of thoughtfulness.
-
Quote of the day – David Friedman edition
From his substack
Given the state of macroeconomics — I like to describe a course in macro as a tour of either a cemetery or a construction site