How many times have you heard a bank teller, or an airline attendant, or a medical office person say “the computers are slow today,” like there is a cosmic miasma through which computers must swim to get their work done?
Author: Kilgore Forelle
Strange Ideas
Sometimes, idea-oriented people have no shutoff valve. Politicians often have this affliction. They never met an idea that they didn’t like, but cost, intervention, and Rube Goldberg-ishness turn idea-attractions into love affairs. Their confirmation biases block any words to the wise.
Complexity of Causality
We make this mistake over and over. We think that A causes B. But in addition to A, there are infinite A primes, double primes, triple primes, n-tuple primes, as well as the rest of the alphabet and its primes. And these are not a solid front, but a staggered and scattered barrage. Furthermore nothing strikes B directly, or practically so.
RKBA
Any enemy will seek to disarm you. First, they will take away promises that you made on their behalf. A people who thought they could hold bad government at bay with words made a declaration of independence first — these are things a people will not tolerate coming from someone who wants to rule them.
Always Do Right
Here are some ways, as I see it, to do right: Seek out good people. They will treat you well and you will respond. It will not hurt to tolerate others. Keep an open mind. Understand where you are among others, in the midst of nature, in the universe.
Market Info
I heard a radio report, as I recollect its gist, of a study which found that customers prefer NOT to be asked, “can I help you?” in a marketplace. That squares with my feelings as well. I prefer to see everything that is available, at my own pace, and then make my own reasoned choice.
Words Poorly Used #132 — Non-Disclosure
If it is POTUS himself who is trying to hush government employees, doesn’t it violate two trusts of public office? Firstly, he is infringing on the employees’ right to free speech, but worse he is dropping an iron wall on the public’s expectation of transparency in government.
The Two-Party System Will Not Die
Like everything statist, neither the democratic party nor the republican party will die. Each will just limp along as bureaucratic place holders for the selection of the worst candidates possible. Each will be loudspeaker trucks for the worst backers with the most money.
Continuity
I have encountered two very interesting concepts recently. They are both implied by this observation from Henri-Louis Bergson: “The present contains nothing more than the past, and what is found in the effect was already in the cause.” So there is, according to Bergson, a continuity in the connectivity among past, present, and future.
Encourage Ideas
First of all, encourage yourself to have ideas. If you have 1 idea a day, at the end of a year you will have had 365 ideas. What are the probabilities that none of those ideas are worthwhile? What are the probabilities that self-ordering will not restrict those bad ideas from happening.