Mindless (Google’s English dictionary, Oxford Languages)Acting or done without justification or concern for the consequencesNot thinking of or concerned about(Of an activity) So simple or repetitive as to be performed automatically without thought or skill Will...

 David Foster Wallace started his 2005 commence speech to the graduating class at Kenyon with this short story:There are these two young fish swimming along and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says, “Morning, boys. How’s...

“There are two cardinal sins from which all others spring: impatience and laziness. Because of impatience we were driven out of Paradise, because of laziness we cannot return. Perhaps, however, there is only one cardinal sin: impatience. Because of impatience we were...

In How Much Land Does A Man Need Leo Tolstoy offers a lesson in the downside of greed and overreach. I’ll summarize the key point of the story for those who haven’t read it. (Note: spoiler alert.)The story follows a Russian peasant named Pahom. He buys some land then...

 Prediction is very difficult, especially about the future.     Niels Bohr, Nobel prize-winning physicistWe must always tell what we see.  Above all, and this is more difficult, we must always see what we see.      Charles Peguy, poet, essayist and editor Just over a...

 Free Rider: a person or company that gets an advantage without paying for it or earning it. Today’s American left finds itself in a bit of a funk. The new President has jumped out of the starter blocks at lightening speed. His strategy is to declare the election a...

 Jack of all trades master of none, though oftentimes better than master of one. The Hedgehog and the Fox is arguably Isaiah Berlin's most famous book, a short book of just 80 pages although in the most recent updated edition it extends to 122 pages with a forward by...

 Hubris: Excessive pride, self confidence "Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall. Humpty Dumpty had a great fall. All the King's horses and all the King's men couldn't put Humpty together again." America is at one of those lull before the storm moments. Inequality of income and...

 These are strange times in America. Republicans, traditionally the political party of the wealthy owner and business class, have rebranded themselves as the working man’s party while the Democrats, traditionally the political party of labor, the disenfranchised and...

 "There is a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in."     Leonard Cohen Is the glass half full or half empty? It’s the age old question. There has been much handwringing about an authoritarian takeover of the world and even of the United States. A few...

 “Every society gets the kind of criminal it deserves.” City of LiesHistorically Republicans have been in favor of smaller and limited government while Democrats have supported a larger and more activist government. In recent years that framework has changed in...

 It’s been quite a shock at my age to discover that the values I’ve lived by all these years are wrong. I grew up in the fifties and sixties. We didn’t have personal computers or smart phones to guide us so we lived according to the popular maxims of the day. For...