Well put...

Bigotry is the disease of ignorance, of morbid minds; enthusiasm of the free and buoyant. Education and free discussion are the antidotes of both. We are destined to be a barrier against the returns of ignorance and barbarism.
~ Thomas Jefferson

Or so I've been told...

The best feeling in the world is being loved back by the person you love 
~ found on the interwebs

Also good advice...

Show people respect, even when they don't deserve it.  

Respect is a reflection of your character, not theirs.  

~ Dave Willis

Good advice...

Treat each day as a separate life.

~ Seneca

My mantra for 2023


 

f I had a nickel for all the useless meetings I attended, I'd have many nickels!

Elon Musk reportedly send this mail to Tesla employees: 
 
1) Avoid large meetings 
  • Large meetings waste valuable time & energy 
  • They discourage debate
  • People are more guarded than open
  • There’s not enough time for everyone to contribute 
    Don’t schedule large meetings unless you’re certain they provide value to everyone 

2) Leave a meeting if you’re not contributing 
    If a meeting doesn’t require your: 
  • Input
  • Value
  • Decisions 
  • Your presence is useless. 
    It’s not rude to leave a meeting. But it’s rude to waste people’s time. 

3) Forget the chain of command 

    Communicate with colleagues directly. Not through supervisors or managers. 

    Fast communicators make fast decisions. 

    Fast decisions = competitive advantage. 

4) Be clear, not clever 

    Avoid nonsense words and technical jargon. It slows down communication. 

    Choose words that are: 
  • Concise 
  • To the point 
  • Easy to understand 
    Don’t sound smart. Be efficient. 

5) Ditch frequent meetings There’s no better way to waste everyone’s time. Use meetings to: 
  • Collaborate 
  • Attack issues head-on 
  • Solve urgent problems 
    But once you resolve the issue, frequent meetings are no longer necessary. 

You can resolve most issues without a meeting. 

Instead of meetings: 
  • Send a text 
  • Send an email 
  • Communicate on a discord or slack channel 
    Don’t interrupt your team’s workflow if it’s unnecessary. 

6) Use common sense

    If a company rule doesn’t: 
  • Make sense 
  • Contribute to progress 
  • Apply to your specific situation 
Avoid following the rule with your eyes closed. Don’t follow rules. Follow principles.

Indeed...

The place I want to be is somewhere in your heart...

~ from The 1975's song, Oh Caroline

The Feynman Method

Richard Feynman's method to learn about any subject:
  1. Choose a concept or a topic of your interest and start studying it
  2. Explain it to a 12-year-old
  3. Reflect, Refine, and Simplify
  4. Organize and Review

Willie gets it...

I turned in my bed and found myself reaching for you 
Frost on the window and the warmth of the love we once knew 
I reached out to hold you and feel your breath on my skin 
But then I woke up and I knew you, I have been dreamin' again 

What's the dream to dreamer?
The ghosts are the love is all gone
What's the song to the singer? 
When the last of the crowd has gone home 
What's a gift to the giver?
But there's nobody there to receive
What's faith to a lover? 
When there's nothing left to believe 

I remember the morning, I first woke up to the your smile 
With your face like an angel and your body so reckless and wild 
The day we were married we promised our love will never end 
But you were just crazy, and I was just dreamin' again 

What's the dream to dreamer?
The ghosts are the love is all gone
What's the song to the singer? 
When the last of the crowd has gone home 
What's a gift to the giver?
But there's nobody there to receive
What's faith to a lover? 
When there's nothing left to believe 

Tonight, I'm alone, and I know I'll be dreamin' again 

~ Willie Nelson, Dreamin' Again

Sure, sure. But I already knew that!

You won't learn anything if you think you know everything already. 

Humility is necessary for growth.

~ Richard Feynman

Regarding the 'Honey Do' list...

I said to my wife, "You can give me a list of things to do if I can give you a list of things to quit doing. How about that?"

~ Comedian Brad Upton

Indeed...

The problem with virtue signaling is, at some point, signaling your virtue becomes more important than the act of actually being virtuous.

~ Vivek Ramaswamy



If I had a nickel every time...

Talk sense to a fool and he calls you foolish.

~Euripides

True for the Universe AND in relationships!

For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring. 
~ Carl Sagan (The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark)

Truth...

Stupidity is knowing the truth, and seeing the truth, but still believing the lies.

~ Richard Feynman

Ten Essential Rules of Critical Thinking


  1. Do not feel absolutely certain of anything.
  2. Do not think it worth while to proceed by concealing evidence, for the evidence is sure to come to light.
  3. Never try to discourage thinking for you are sure to succeed.
  4. When you meet with opposition, even if it should be from your husband or your children, endeavor to overcome it by argument and not by authority, for a victory dependent upon authority is unreal and illusory.
  5. Have no respect for the authority of others, for there are always contrary authorities to be found.
  6. Do not use power to suppress opinions you think pernicious, for if you do the opinions will suppress you.
  7. Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric.
  8. Find more pleasure in intelligent dissent than in passive agreement, for, if you value intelligence as you should, the former implies a deeper agreement than the latter.
  9. Be scrupulously truthful, even if the truth is inconvenient, for it is more inconvenient when you try to conceal it.
  10. Do not feel envious of the happiness of those who live in a fool’s paradise, for only a fool will think that it is happiness.

~ Bertrand Russell’s 10 Essential Rules Of Critical Thinking

But I can't because [fill in excuse here]

 Three simple rules for personal finance:

  • Spend less than you earn
  • Keep everything as simple as possible
  • Focus on building an emergency fund
~ Trent Hamm, Money Blogger

But I can't because [fill in excuse here]

Three simple rules to avoid poverty: 

  • Finish High School
  • Get a full-time job
  • Wait until 21 to get married and have children

~ The Brookings Institution found that these rules worked for 90 percent of those that followed them

I guess it all depends on your point of view...

Rome has never been this brightly lit at night!

~Nero

But I can't because [fill in excuse here]

 Rules for Raising Fit Children

  • No fast food ever
  • No soda in the house
  • Pack their lunch every day
  • Sit down family dinner every night.  Meats, fish, vegetables, fruit for dessert
  • Talk about nutrition and lead by example
  • Cakes and ice cream are for special occasions only - birthdays, Thanksgiving
  • Get them into sports and activities that require exertion
  • Limit TV and computer time

Good idea…

We need less virtue signaling and more virtue

~ Greg Gutfield

Argumentum Ad Baculum

The informal logical fallacy, where a person resorts to screaming, shouting, or yelling to persuade in an argument.

Also called an Appeal to Force fallacy

Oh, Tommy!

To argue with a man who has renounced the use and authority of reason, and whose philosophy consists in holding humanity in contempt, is like administering medicine to the dead.

~ Thomas Paine

Long ago, indeed...

Sometimes I wonder, how I spend

the lonely nights,

dreaming of a song

The melody 

haunts my reverie,

and I am once again with you, 

when our love was new 

and each kiss an inspiration.

But that was long ago,

and now my consolation is in the stardust of a song.

~ Stardust 

The point, indeed...

Queen Elizabeth:   What's that look?

Prince Phillip:  You make a better person of me.

Queen Elizabeth:  And you of me...Isn't that the point of marriage?

~ The Crown, Season 5, Episode 2

A twist on Occam's Razor

If you hear hoof beats, think horses, not zebras

~ a classic saying in medicine

William of Occam said the best explanation of any phenomenon is the one that makes the fewest assumptions.


Simple, profound, and correct...

Discipline is the difference between what you want now and what you want most.

~ Abraham Lincoln

Willie knows...

Remember:  Energy follows thought.

So be careful what your say...

~ Willie Nelson

Or in marriage...I mean retirement...

In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless but planning is indispensable. 
~ General (and President) Dwight D. Eisenhower

Will do.

Ask yourself:  What is the most excellent thing I can do today? 
Then do it.
~Niel Peart

Ugh...

 ...a Republic, if you can keep it.

~ Benjamin Franklin

Mind. Blown.


 


 


 

Tell me again about how today's political climate is the WORST EVERRRR!

1800: "He is one of the most detestable of mankind" (Martha Washington, to a clergyman, about Thomas Jefferson)

1800:  He is “a hideous hermaphroditical character which has neither the force and firmness of a man, not the gentleness and sensibility of a woman.” (James Thomson Callender, about John Adams)

1860:  ...and a horrid-looking wretch he is! - sooty and scroundrelly in aspect; a cross between the nutmeg salesman, the horse-swapper, and the nightman. (Harper's Weekly, about Abraham Lincoln)

1864: Filthy story-teller, Ignoramus Abe, Despot, Old scoundrel, big secessionist, perjurer, liar, robber, thief, swindler, braggart, tyrant, buffoon, fiend, usurper, butcher, monster, land-pirate, a long, lean, lank, lantern-jawed, high-cheeked-boned, spavined, rail-splitting stallion (a compendium of insults lobbed at Abraham Lincoln, according to Harper's Weekly)

1866:  Grant is nothing more than a drunken trowser-maker!

1967:  Hey, hey, L-B-J.  How many kids did you kill today?

2022:  Let's Go Brandon!

Well said...

People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought - which they seldom use.
~ Søren Kierkegaard

Well...yeah...

Artillery men believe that the world consists of two kinds of people:

Artillery men and targets.

~ unknown

Mmmmmmm, Bacon!

A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds.
~ Francis Bacon

Nelson was one of the wise ones...

The world is not divided by race, color, gender, or religion.

Our world it divided into wise people and fools.

And fools divide themselves by race, color, gender, or religion.

~ Nelson Mandela