First Blog

  A.   What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments, but what is woven into the lives of others. ---  Pericles, Greek statesman B.   Contradictions fuel progress. Without them, we stagnate. C.   If you’re not learning every day, you’re falling behind. D.   One great talent of geniuses is that they can reject bad ideas quickly. 

  Contradictions, far from being merely obstacles to reason, can be sources of deep intellectual and emotional pleasure. They challenge the mind to hold opposing truths in tension, sparking curiosity and creativity rather than closure. It can reveal that opposing truths are not truths at all. Even more, both can be rejected with pleasure.   In literature, paradoxes invite us to see multiple layers of meaning. We find characters equally justified in their contrary decisions, and finding ourselves in agreement with both. In philosophy, economics, and science, they reveal the limits of logic and the richness of human thought, the cause of why we have so many theories and manage our lives and professions with all floating about. In everyday life, they remind us that reality is rarely simple or one-sided. Parenting is one long journey with multiple contradictions between the protagonists. At times, we long for it to end, but when it ends, we often miss it.   My goodness, wit...

A.     “A truth can be naked, but a lie always needs to be dressed.”  --- Khalil Gabran B.     Many politicians live in fame but die in ignominy? C.     If you want to increase your dollars, pay attention to your pennies. D.     Music directly represents the passion of the soul. If one listens to the wrong kind of music, one will become the wrong kind of person. – Aristotle

Introduction. Genius is one of those ephemeral items in the human inventory of gifts together with skills and talents, abilities and intelligence, proficiency and cleverness. Hard to define, genius is both specific and contextual. It is not generally abstract. Genius can reveal itself anywhere, in science, business, politics, war, and literature though often along separate channels. Some of our greatest philosophers, e.g. Immanuel Kant, were challenged by the concept and addressed it with notably interesting, though somewhat obscure interpretations. There exists yet another form of genius, distinct from philosophy, literature, or science. It is an everyday kind of genius, one that lies within us all, though it appears only rarely. From time to time, it surfaces to produce marvels: ingenious inventions, clever procedures, stirring music, memorable poetry, and practical devices. Those who create them are what we might call micro-geniuses . They are essential to the progress ...

A.     Justice is to politics what beauty is to art. --- Raymond English B.     There are two kinds of self-help books, “How to” types and “What you should know” types. Best to read both. C.     Stupidity is just cause for termination in every business, except government.

Introduction. In previous chapters, we have talked extensively about problem-solving techniques, and in particular, what can go wrong. Among them are difficulties with the team, the leadership, the problem itself, the problem's multiple solutions, and many others. What we consider here a more personal set of impediments to problem-solving, though they apply to all settings. It is based on research from psychology, cognitive science, my own observations,  and various fields of problem-solving. Call them collectively as your Blind Spots. Here are ten of the most common impediments people face when trying to solve problems. We follow these up with another five, perhaps of lesser importance. As usual, this is not a discussion about math class, where solutions are usually unique, it being a matter of finding it. It is about real-world problems where multiple solutions, bias, and overload are commonplace. The Top Ten Impediments. At a minimum, everyone should be  aware of the...

  ODD THOUGHTS FOR FRIDAY (9/5/25), argument, treasure, wisdom, gifts to kids A.     No rational argument will have a rational effect on a man who does not want to adopt a rational attitude. - Karl Popper, philosopher B.     The true treasure hunter is the one who knows treasure when he sees it.   C.     The pause taken before a decision may open the door to wisdom. D.     Instead of buying your kids all the things you wished you had, teach them all the things you wish you had been taught. --- Bruce Lee (paraphrased)

1.      Introduction. Your marvelous brain not only thinks but can think in a variety of ways. Thinking in evolutionary terms, most have practical roots, but others are new and learned. It is almost wonderous the scope of these modes of thinking, almost as if it was designed for tasks that lay ahead. In this short essay we give brief descriptions of some of our many thinking modes we use to solve problems. The sheer number of thinking modes suggests another point of separation between humans and other animals. For example, most predators think tactically, but how many think strategically? Not all these thinking modes come naturally. Many must be learned, practiced, and then perfected. Various personalities specialize in various types of thinking, which while adequate for some are insufficient to become a great thinker. The greatest of all is the human’s capacity for metacognition, its ability to control thought, or think about thinking. After this discussio...

  Abstract. Hate has repeatedly served as a catalyst for political mobilization, social cohesion, and authoritarian consolidation throughout history. Hate is with us here in the USA more than ever. The last time we saw it was in the 1950s with McCarthyism. Few of us remember. Let us meander a bit from fascist movements in Europe to white supremacist organizations in the United States and genocidal regimes in Africa and Asia. In all we see that political groups have exploited hatred as a means of constructing collective identity, simplifying complex problems, and legitimizing violence. This essay examines the political uses of hate across a range of contexts, including Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, the Ku Klux Klan, Rwanda’s Hutu Power movement, Stalinist Russia, Maoist China, and the Yugoslav conflicts of the 1990s, while also reflecting on the less overt but still destructive politics of ideological hate in the United States during the McCarthy era. By comparing these cases, the es...