Finding Clarity in an Ambiguous World
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White Knuckled Grip
Gambling ought never to be an important part of a man’s life. If it is a way in which large sums of money are transferred from person to person without doing any good (e.g., producing employment, goodwill, etc.) then it is a bad thing. If it is carried out on a small scale, I am…
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Philosophical Underpinings
I’m only human Just what can I do? ‘Cause I feel the fusion When I’m there with you We’re all chemicals, We are, are, are We’re all chemicals… – Tiesto & Don Diablo, Lyrics to Chemicals It’s not hard to guess Tiesto & Don Diablo’s philosophy: we are the chemicals that make us up, that’s it.…
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The More Things Change The More They Stay The Same
A close friend recently told me about his final motorcycle ride. Back when he was in college, he rode his 150cc bike to school each day without a helmet or gloves or really any protective gear. His mom worried for his safety and after hounding him to get a helmet, she finally just up and bought…
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Using Complexity To Fix Complexity
Ann got a severe bronchial infection while she and I were living in India. We called a doctor who came to our hotel and assessed her health, he wrote out some prescriptions for several medicines and we were able to pay him and buy all the medicine for less than the copay in the United…
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Knowing vs Doing
Suppose you walk into a restaurant and order a sandwich. They give you the option of a side: fries, a baked potato or chicken nuggets. Now suppose, they add a salad to that list of sides, something healthy. How would that change the distribution of the sides? We probably would think that quite a few…
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The Way We’ve Always Done It
Ever watch a child learn how to walk, or really learn how to do almost anything? It takes days and days of repetitive attempts. Each day mostly consisting of failure but slowly they show progress. More attempts and soon they’re walking, then running, then jumping, then dancing. We don’t learn to walk by accepting that…
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Ambiguity Tax
Recently we moved to a new place and hired a company to both pack and move us. The packers showed up on Saturday so they could move us on Sunday. Overall they worked hard getting our goods put into boxes, even providing an index to let us find items later. But occasionally when I came…
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Addicted To More
Gotta get my hands on it, my hands on it Gotta get my hands on a little bit more Won’t stop till I get it, till I get it Won’t stop till I get a little bit more Cause everybody wants Everybody needs Everybody wants A little bit more … One too many is never…
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Photographic Memories
One year when I was in High School, my aunt,uncle and cousins (all around our age) drove their camper trailer out from California and we met them in Durango with our family trailer. I wasn’t able to make the trip that year, but my uncle who enjoyed amateur videography, made a video that made the two-week…
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Shedding Shame
After getting married, my bride and I went to buy our bed frame at the furniture store. She liked the look of a sleigh bed, but I wasn’t convinced. As an illustration, I hopped on one of the sleigh beds and pretended I was on an actual sleigh, kneeling near the foot of the bed.…
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