Showing posts with label links. Show all posts
Showing posts with label links. Show all posts
Wednesday, December 3, 2014
Favorite things
If you would like to be in love with being alive, then this post is for you.
A friend turned me on to the On Being podcast, which has since become my constant companion as I work through the backlog. If you're going to listen to one show, check out this magical conversation with former Irish priest John O'Donohue. His gratitude for the beauty of the human experience is contagious. The piece of traditional Irish music embedded above is linked from the On Being website as a companion to the conversation.
Other powerful episodes include interviews with Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh and French priest Jean Varnier. Conversations with Paulo Coelho and Ekhart Tolle are also worth your time.
Over Thanksgiving I read G.K. Chesterton's novel Manalive, about a remarkable man who goes to great lengths to stay in love with life, confounding everybody else around him.
Saturday, April 13, 2013
Links
You can learn a lot about how the American media works from the Kermit Gosnell case.
The world is warming a lot less quickly than we thought it would, which is great news for all of us. It turns out that 95% confidence intervals aren't worth a whole hell of a lot in climate science.
Declining participation in the workforce is one of the major economic story of the last 10 years. In related news, NPR's planet money reports on the burgeoning abuse of the USG disability program.
Margaret Thatcher, R.I.P.
The American left is in a period of waxing confidence and hostility.
Most Republicans under 50 years old now support gay marriage.
The world is warming a lot less quickly than we thought it would, which is great news for all of us. It turns out that 95% confidence intervals aren't worth a whole hell of a lot in climate science.
Declining participation in the workforce is one of the major economic story of the last 10 years. In related news, NPR's planet money reports on the burgeoning abuse of the USG disability program.
Margaret Thatcher, R.I.P.
The American left is in a period of waxing confidence and hostility.
Most Republicans under 50 years old now support gay marriage.
Thursday, December 27, 2012
The week's links
Pure bliss for policy nerds - 2012: a year in graphs.
Advice from an American entrepreneur on doing business in Europe. I hear that Western Europe is a nice place to live, but it is a tough place for entrepreneurs. There is a high level of risk aversion enshrined in the culture and in public policy.
For many poor students, the dream of using college as a bridge to the middle class turns out to be an illusion, as the NY Times reports. Poor students often lack the social resources to get into college and to graduate successfully.
The NY Times article illustrates several of the big demographic trends of the last 20 years - males falling behind females in education, the ever-growing population attending college, its ever-growing financial cost, and the disappearance of two-parent families in the lower socioeconomic classes and its side-effects.
Apocalypse not: why you shouldn't worry about the end times. A look back on 50 years of predicted catastrophic events that failed to materialize. It's important to calibrate your worldview with this set of data points.
A radiolab podcast covering the state of psychedelic research in medicine. Starts at the 53:40 mark.
And now your moment of warm fluffies:
Advice from an American entrepreneur on doing business in Europe. I hear that Western Europe is a nice place to live, but it is a tough place for entrepreneurs. There is a high level of risk aversion enshrined in the culture and in public policy.
For many poor students, the dream of using college as a bridge to the middle class turns out to be an illusion, as the NY Times reports. Poor students often lack the social resources to get into college and to graduate successfully.
The NY Times article illustrates several of the big demographic trends of the last 20 years - males falling behind females in education, the ever-growing population attending college, its ever-growing financial cost, and the disappearance of two-parent families in the lower socioeconomic classes and its side-effects.
Apocalypse not: why you shouldn't worry about the end times. A look back on 50 years of predicted catastrophic events that failed to materialize. It's important to calibrate your worldview with this set of data points.
A radiolab podcast covering the state of psychedelic research in medicine. Starts at the 53:40 mark.
And now your moment of warm fluffies:
Sunday, December 2, 2012
Randoms
Why does there appear to be so few conservatives in academia? Maybe because they want to keep their jobs.
The blue model continues to fail in California as high pension payments for public union members cuts into funding for police officers in San Bernardino.
The blue model continues to fail in California as high pension payments for public union members cuts into funding for police officers in San Bernardino.
Monday, November 5, 2012
Randoms
- An economist defends the electoral college and he finally convinces me that it's a good idea to abolish it
- It turns out that it's much easier than the opposite to list the countries that Britain has not invaded
- If California voters approve new taxes "for schools" they will pay for union benefits - not a penny will go to classrooms. Surprise surprise
- The real reason Romney will lose is the big Ohio St. football win on Saturday
Saturday, July 28, 2012
More Me
I have a new post at A Thousand Nations about the surprising benefits of political instability.
Sunday, July 15, 2012
A new favorite
Monday, June 25, 2012
A new favorite - Emerson
Attentive readers will notice the presence of a new favorites tab. I've begun collecting all the links that I find myself regularly recommending over the years in one permanent page.
The most recent addition is Ralph Waldo Emerson's commencement address to Divinity College, Cambridge. The text at the link is somewhat poorly formatted and is out of copyright, so I'll paste the full text of the address at the end of this blog post.
Emerson's heretical mixture of Christianity and Transcendentalism caused a controversy at the time. In my opinion, it captures the aesthetic beauty of Christianity better than a more traditional treatment: the quasi-pantheistic idea that a virtuous person is not limited to acting good or creating beauty, but may embody and incarnate goodness and beauty in himself.
Who was Jesus in Emerson's theology? Jesus was the first man to realize the greatness of a human being. He said "I am God, and to the extent that you think like me, you are God too". To Emerson, moral intuition perceived through direct transcendental experience is the most important aspect of religion. Jesus pointed man to the possibility of accessing this manifestation of God inside ourself. Historical Christianity lost sight of Christ's message when it began to venerate the person of Christ instead.
True religion is characterized by the presence of holy persons. These are persons with a deep and easy connection with moral intuition. They are immune to fame, custom, authority, pleasure, or money. They nourish and encourage the latent moral instinct in others. Emerson says of them, "We mark with light in the memory the few interviews we have had, in the dreary years of routine and of sin, with souls that made our souls wiser; that spoke what we thought; that told us what we knew; that gave us leave to be what we inly were.". They shine in times of crisis.
Today's holy person's aren't inferior to holy persons of the past. Revelation wasn't finished in Biblical time. Emerson calls on people to adopt the mantle of prophet and preach again from direct inspiration and moral intuition.
My favorite vision of morality is present in this address - I call it "moral physics". Morality isn't a resume of good and bad deeds that you give to God when you die. Rather, good actions instantly make your soul more godly, more pure - like you were meant to be. Bad actions make a soul weaker, more corrupted, smaller. Thus, a soul by affinity is attracted by its nature to heaven or hell. God isn't a "judge" of people in the human sense that he could go either way. Rather, God is the incarnation of good, the Platonic ideal. Good things are drawn to him by their very nature, and evil is repelled. When God judges a person to be good or bad it is a statement of fact, like the PH value of a liquid.
Also, God doesn't judge a soul as is, but he judges it by its rate of change. This is because he has an eternal time frame in mind, the mathematical limit as time approaches infinity. Over the course of eternity, all improving souls will become perfectly good and godlike, and all falling souls will be perfectly fallen. Thus, a smallest desire for good in the heart of a man that we would call evil can redeem him. And a small bit of resentment, anger, or hate can drag a good man downward.
Anyways, here's the full essay:
The most recent addition is Ralph Waldo Emerson's commencement address to Divinity College, Cambridge. The text at the link is somewhat poorly formatted and is out of copyright, so I'll paste the full text of the address at the end of this blog post.
Emerson's heretical mixture of Christianity and Transcendentalism caused a controversy at the time. In my opinion, it captures the aesthetic beauty of Christianity better than a more traditional treatment: the quasi-pantheistic idea that a virtuous person is not limited to acting good or creating beauty, but may embody and incarnate goodness and beauty in himself.
Who was Jesus in Emerson's theology? Jesus was the first man to realize the greatness of a human being. He said "I am God, and to the extent that you think like me, you are God too". To Emerson, moral intuition perceived through direct transcendental experience is the most important aspect of religion. Jesus pointed man to the possibility of accessing this manifestation of God inside ourself. Historical Christianity lost sight of Christ's message when it began to venerate the person of Christ instead.
True religion is characterized by the presence of holy persons. These are persons with a deep and easy connection with moral intuition. They are immune to fame, custom, authority, pleasure, or money. They nourish and encourage the latent moral instinct in others. Emerson says of them, "We mark with light in the memory the few interviews we have had, in the dreary years of routine and of sin, with souls that made our souls wiser; that spoke what we thought; that told us what we knew; that gave us leave to be what we inly were.". They shine in times of crisis.
Today's holy person's aren't inferior to holy persons of the past. Revelation wasn't finished in Biblical time. Emerson calls on people to adopt the mantle of prophet and preach again from direct inspiration and moral intuition.
My favorite vision of morality is present in this address - I call it "moral physics". Morality isn't a resume of good and bad deeds that you give to God when you die. Rather, good actions instantly make your soul more godly, more pure - like you were meant to be. Bad actions make a soul weaker, more corrupted, smaller. Thus, a soul by affinity is attracted by its nature to heaven or hell. God isn't a "judge" of people in the human sense that he could go either way. Rather, God is the incarnation of good, the Platonic ideal. Good things are drawn to him by their very nature, and evil is repelled. When God judges a person to be good or bad it is a statement of fact, like the PH value of a liquid.
Also, God doesn't judge a soul as is, but he judges it by its rate of change. This is because he has an eternal time frame in mind, the mathematical limit as time approaches infinity. Over the course of eternity, all improving souls will become perfectly good and godlike, and all falling souls will be perfectly fallen. Thus, a smallest desire for good in the heart of a man that we would call evil can redeem him. And a small bit of resentment, anger, or hate can drag a good man downward.
Anyways, here's the full essay:
Sunday, June 17, 2012
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
Self-links
My current best practices for management, based on my last two years of experience, listening, and reading: link
Monday, May 21, 2012
Sunday, March 18, 2012
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Links of the day
A TED talk on the power of the Paleo diet.
Sarah Blakely, the inventor of Spanx hosiery, is an Atlanta legend. All entrepreneurs will find her story of hustle inspiring.
Sarah Blakely, the inventor of Spanx hosiery, is an Atlanta legend. All entrepreneurs will find her story of hustle inspiring.
Sunday, February 19, 2012
Favorite Links
This is the best technical talk I've ever seen. Brett Victor, author of mind-expanding essays at worrydream.com, gives the clearest exposition of his philosophy in a talk at CUSEC while demonstrating some mind-blowing experiments in user interface. It is up there in quality with Steve Jobs' presentation of the first iPhone and the Mother of All Demos.
Bret Victor - Inventing on Principle from CUSEC on Vimeo.
More thoughts to come on why it is so good.
Bret Victor - Inventing on Principle from CUSEC on Vimeo.
More thoughts to come on why it is so good.
Saturday, February 4, 2012
Some favorite links
I love this post from Less Wrong - Generalizing from One Example.
Also, this interview from Nassim Taleb on the Economist podcast. 8 audacious minutes of Taleb at his mind-blowing best.
On the topic of favorite things, Hayek's essay The Use of Knowledge in Society was a big influence on me.
Also, this interview from Nassim Taleb on the Economist podcast. 8 audacious minutes of Taleb at his mind-blowing best.
On the topic of favorite things, Hayek's essay The Use of Knowledge in Society was a big influence on me.
Thursday, January 19, 2012
Monday, January 2, 2012
New Blog Taste
The 1950s gave us working for The Man. The 1960s gave us the cliche of the young person rebelling against The Man. Since then, these things come and go in cycles because kids generally hate their parents and vow to be as unlike them as possible.
FreedomTwentyFive is the chronicle of a 25 year old guy checking out of his day job working for The Man, unsatisfied with the life that our culture offers him. His earnest and wide-ranging search for meaning, his boldness in his personal life, and the several interests and influences he shares with me makes me attracted to his story.
Normally I get bored with earnest 20-somethings doing cliche things like "saving the world", protesting, or rebelling against the man. But Frost (the author) is thoughtful enough to get past my bullshit filter and make me think.
I wish him luck.
Check out the best of his blog.
FreedomTwentyFive is the chronicle of a 25 year old guy checking out of his day job working for The Man, unsatisfied with the life that our culture offers him. His earnest and wide-ranging search for meaning, his boldness in his personal life, and the several interests and influences he shares with me makes me attracted to his story.
Normally I get bored with earnest 20-somethings doing cliche things like "saving the world", protesting, or rebelling against the man. But Frost (the author) is thoughtful enough to get past my bullshit filter and make me think.
I wish him luck.
Check out the best of his blog.
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