The other day I learned that David Sedaris, one of my favorite American essayist and public speaker, does a very peculiar thing. These days he lives in England, which is not particularly peculiar. His peculiarity is that every day he spends five or six hours picking up trash along the roads around his home. Why … Continue reading On Selflessness and Nation Building
Month: June 2017
Is it hot enough for you?
Today was hot. It was 102°F in San Jose, CA, my fair city. That beat a 1945 record for the day of 99°F. I kid you not. Here's a screen capture of the weather here. (For those of you in the civilized world of metric measures, 102°F is around 39°Celcius.)
Thomas Sowell on Intellectuals and Race
Prof Thomas Sowell of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University is an American institution himself. He is arguably one of the finest contemporary intellectuals. An economist by training, his output of books and articles is prodigious. A brilliant mind and an indefatigable warrior against the forces of unreason, ignorance, bigotry, tyranny, the controlling state, and … Continue reading Thomas Sowell on Intellectuals and Race
Miscellaneous Quotes
The 3-legged stool of understanding is held up by history, languages, and mathematics. Equipped with these three you can learn anything you want to learn. But if you lack any one of them you are just another ignorant peasant with dung on your boots. — Robert Heinlein in Expanded Universe (1980) It is difficult to get a … Continue reading Miscellaneous Quotes
Paul Weston: London Bridge Islamic Terror
Ask Me Anything — The Silicon Valley Founders Edition
This is inspired by my friend Rajan Parrikar's post "Portraits of Success." He references Carolyn Caddes‘s book, Portraits of Success – Impressions of Silicon Valley Pioneers (1986), which is a photographic tribute to the pioneers of Silicon Valley. Among those featured in the book is Prof Terman (1900 - 1982) of Stanford University who is identified as … Continue reading Ask Me Anything — The Silicon Valley Founders Edition
Economic Principles and Immunity from Silly Ideas
A reasonable way to think about any subject -- science, engineering, technology, economics, etc etc -- is to base the analysis on fundamental principles. It's like using maths, starting with axioms and logically deriving theorems that can then be said to be true within that axiomatic system. If you know the underlying bits, you can … Continue reading Economic Principles and Immunity from Silly Ideas
