Kurt Vonnegut at the Writers’ Workshop
Suzanne McConnell writes an essay on what Kurt Vonnegut was like as a teacher at the Writers’ Workshop: He told us in workshop classes, “You’re in the entertainment business.” He impressed this …
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Benjamin Franklin’s Rule for Making Decisions
When Charles Darwin set out to marry, he employed a technique pioneered half a century earlier by Ben Franklin. Despite his importance, the prolific Franklin often gave his practical wisdom to many of …
Arthur Schopenhauer: Men of learning …
“Men of learning are those who have read the contents of books. Thinkers, geniuses, and those who have enlightened the world and furthered the race of men, are those who have made direct use of …
“When we encounter pain, we are at an important juncture in our decision-making process.”
It is a fundamental law of nature that to evolve one has to push one’s limits, which is painful, in order to gain strength—whether it’s in the form of lifting weights, facing problems head-on, or in …
The evolutionary function of religion
Excerpts from Jonathan Gottschall’s The Storytelling Animal on the evolutionary function of religion. In his trailblazing book Darwin’s Cathedral, the biologist David Sloan Wilson proposes that …
Nonsense: A Handbook of Logical Fallacies
Robert Gula in Nonsense: A Handbook of Logical Fallacies: Let’s not call them laws; and, since they’re not particularly original, I won’t attach my name to them. They are merely a …
A Simple Tool to Help You Learn Better
Learning something new shouldn’t be easy. If it feels effortless, you’re probably not actually learning anything. In order to get better, you have to reach. It needs to be a little bit difficult. From …
“the truth is that prediction is hard, often impossible.”
Philip Tetlock, author of Expert Political Judgment, co-authors an interesting article in foreign policy. Academic research suggests that predicting events five years into the future is so difficult …
The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity
Carlo Cipolla, a former Professor of Economics at UC Berkeley, lists the basic laws of human stupidity: The first basic law of human stupidity asserts without ambiguity that: Always and inevitably …
“stories equip us with a mental file of dilemmas we might one day face”
From Jonathan Gottschall’s The Storytelling Animal: In his groundbreaking book How the Mind Works, Pinker argues that stories equip us with a mental file of dilemmas we might one day face, along …
Insanely Simple
I learned quite a lot about organizational culture while reading Ken Segall’s Insanely Simple: The Obsession That Drives Apple’s Success. Segall worked closely with Steve Jobs as an ad agency …
On Reading and Books
On Reading and Books — an essay by German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860), who influenced some of the most prominent minds in the world. Ignorance is degrading only when it is found in …
The Great Ideas of the Social Sciences
What are the most important ideas ever put forward in social science? I’m not asking what are the best ideas, so the truth of them is only obliquely relevant: a very important idea may be largely …
David Foster Wallace: The Paradox of Plagiarism
David Foster Wallace (1962–2008) remains one of the most revered authors of our time. His timeless collection of wisdom includes everything from his famous commencement speech This is Water to his …
The Oracle, a Manual of the Art of Discretion
In The Art of Worldly Wisdom, Christopher Maurer translates this gem from Baltasar Gracián y Morales: Know how to sell your wares, intrinsic quality isn’t enough. Not everyone bites at substance …
Richard Dawkins on Pascal’s Wager
Richard Dawkins’s wide-ranging interview with Playboy Magazine. PLAYBOY: So you aren’t taking Pascal up on his wager. He was the 17th century philosopher who argued it’s a smarter bet to believe …