Month: March 2011
-
The Asymmetry of Order
It took billions of dollars and thousands of minds to build the nuclear power plants in Japan. It took one unforeseen quake and subsequent tsunami to not only destroy the plants, but also the lives of millions nearby. This is the nature of our world, the struggle to create order can be dismantled quickly. Sure,…
-
Slow Goals
Dead people are influencing our thinking. Not in a supernatural way, but in how they influenced the way their culture taught their children to think. Consider what words your parents taught you first – objects and colors or verbs? The Geography of Thought by Richard Nisbett goes through the influence of philophers from thousands of years…
-
Only Seeing the Differences
“Wow! That’s really cool that you and the other groomsman wore matching tuxedos!” I was amazed at the comment. How could it be any other way? But this wasn’t a typical wedding, it was my brother and his Swedish bride’s wedding that took place just north of Stockholm. The sum of the comments was even…
-
The Cloud of Outrage
He was yelling into his phone in the late evening. “You think I’m just going to take this?!” Ann and I emerged from our apartment and saw this man on the way to our car. Something about coming across someone on a cellphone connecting violently with another person struck me. This is exactly how I…