Adages
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Quotes to ponder
I came across the phrase “Tyranny of the articulate” somewhere recently – something to consider as one ranks the online component of modern life.
And as I must quote Kevin Williamson at every opportunity –
As the Scots say: “The father buys, the son builds, the grandchild sells, and his son begs.” A nation that is not building is on its way to begging.
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Quote of the day – William F Buckley edition
From this Kevin Williamson column
I won’t insult your intelligence by suggesting that you really believe what you just said
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The Autodidact’s curse
Coined by Bryan Caplan in his interview with Tyler Cowen – paraphrased as…
When you’re read widely in the field but haven’t actually talked to anyone who knows what’s going on
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Quoting myself
I’d forgotten about this one – I forget where I originally got it
Superman living in a world of kryptonite is the best description of modern life I can think of.
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Quote of the day
You know the classic definition of a Marxist? “People who love humanity in groups of one million or more.”
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Assorted links
- By raw coincidence from – here is this line from McSweeney’s – specifically regarding prayers to end war and murder
Mudslides, freak lightning storms, untreatable illnesses–those are God problems. But YOU killing each other with killing machines YOU created to kill each other seems like a YOU problem. Go do something about it! But, hey, that’s just this God’s opinion.
As Hoffer put it – we walk between the devil and the dragon.
- My favorite SMBC so far – sort of related to my “Let’s Kill Hitler” book idea.
- One of Tyler Cowen’s better posts – regarding Moore’s Law and Social Media – some nuggets
Manipulable people can be reached with a greater flood of information, so over time as data on them accumulate, they become more manipulable.
It is often easier to manipulate smart people than stupid people, because the latter may be oblivious to a greater set of cues and clues.
There is a performative dimension that renders both sides more rigid and dishonest.
The socially sensitive, very smart people will become the most despairing, the most manipulated, and the most angry. The socially insensitive will either jump ship into the camp of the socially sensitive, or they will cultivate new methods of detachment, with or without Stoicism. Straussianism will compete with Stoicism.
Social sensitivity is the nugget of wisdom – that seems like more of a spectrum disorder (to use the parlance of our time)
- By raw coincidence from – here is this line from McSweeney’s – specifically regarding prayers to end war and murder
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Quote of the day – Jim Webb Edition
From this episode of The Atlanta Podcast
Jail is for people you’re scared of, not people you’re mad at
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Quote of the day
From dot net rocks (regarding interuptions and software project management)
You have to stop yanking the flower out of the ground to see how the roots are growing.
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Quote of the day – podcast edition
From Kevin Williamson – one of my recent favorite pundits:
Congress can use a little less self-importance and a little more self-respect.
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Quote of the day – Joni Mitchell edition
Despite her prominence among the young musicians of the 1960s and 1970s, and her writing of “Woodstock” (where she was prevented from performing because her manager thought it was more advantageous to appear on The Dick Cavett Show[74]), she did not align herself with the era’s protest movements or its cultural manifestations. She has said that the parents of the boomers were unhappy, and “out of it came this liberated, spoiled, selfish generation into the costume ball of free love, free sex, free music, free, free, free, free we’re so free. And Woodstock was the culmination of it.” But “I was not a part of that,” she explained in an interview
Identities strike again I suppose. Making one’s costless opinions (on Climate Change, Trump, the Vietnam War in this case) of primary importance is perplexing, particularly when I do it. Granted people do talk a lot about parenting, work, etc (i.e stuff they actually do every day) the opinions are useful proxies for something I suppose.