Ever heard that riddle about whether you should take a million dollars or a penny, doubled each day for a month? Take the penny. You’ll end up with $1.3M if it’s a 28-day month, and as much as $10.7M if it’s a 31-day month. Doubling is extreme, but even growth of a fraction of a percent compounded every single day can achieve mind-boggling results. When you’re trying to go from idea to inception, progress each day is crucial. You can’t get stuck waiting for one big leap. You need to take at least one step every single day.
Tag: value
Life, Eating Animals, and Ethics
Do I value society with animals that I find delicious? No. Of course not. I value their taste and the nutrition that they provide. That’s it. And I obviously don’t value the hordes of insects I slaughter on a daily basis with my car. Who does?
Lessons from Building Praxis – Part 1
I had a lot of entrepreneurial ideas prior to Praxis. Most were pretty weak, some were good. But it didn’t matter. I didn’t have what it takes to execute on any of them until I pushed myself much, much harder on personal growth.
Selfish Reasons for Civilized Behavior
The nihilist in me isn’t too interested in moralizing to my children about right and wrong. Yes, I believe in ethics and morality, but no, I do not believe that we are obligated to anyone but ourselves to be good and moral people. If we aren’t obligated to anyone but ourselves, then any reason why find to be good and moral must necessarily be selfish. Right? I think so. And after polling some friends on what they considered “civilized behavior,” here are some actions and the selfish reasons to perform them.
Don’t Be Afraid to Be Interesting
Nearly every significant business connection I’ve made has been because of my deep love of ideas. The value of my radical, ideas-based network dwarfs that of my pure business/practical connections.
Hypocritical Bullshit That Lacks Perspective
I think it is highly problematic to allow hypocrites and intellectual frauds to capture the perception of moral authority over such minutia while they ignored hundreds of thousands of deaths and the other tragedies caused by government in the recent past.
How Not to Change the World
Don’t run for class president. Don’t go to HOA meetings. Don’t join a committee. Don’t get involved in political campaigns. All of these activities are about reform. Get into the institution, play by its rules, and try to make it behave differently than it wants to. Forget this approach. It sucks. Here are four reasons why.
Anything But Original Appropriation is Nonsensical
Ultimately, whatever property conventions people voluntary decide to respect amongst each other is or should be acceptable for the voluntaryist. However, until there is a meeting of the minds between individuals concerning property conventions, how should conflicts over property claims be judged? In my opinion, they should be judged on the basis of original appropriation, and anything else is nonsensical.
Meaningful Learning Is Just-in-Time, Not Just-in-Case
Average people learn what they need to avoid pain. Elite people learn what they need to get the grade, ace the test, win the award, gain certification, impress people, and obtain honors. Ascendant people don’t care about accolades or awards or tests or stickers or stars. They learn exactly what’s needed to solve a problem that matters to them, exactly when it’s needed. No more, no less. No sooner, no later.
Leaving One’s Moral Compass at the Door
Whenever I hear a government employee, be it a bureaucrat or law enforcer, say anything to the effect of, “I’m just doing my job” as a response to someone criticizing their behavior, my immediate thought is that they’ve seemed to misplace their moral compass.