I have no desire to go back to the mythical “good old days” when everything was supposedly better without technology. I like the abundance, opportunity, and the creative challenges that change brings. Nevertheless, the possibilities before us, however promising they might be, will only seduce us into mediocrity if we don’t learn how to separate the signal from the noise.
Tag: world
Identity and Anarchy, Part 1
What I’ve been thinking a lot of about lately is this concept of identity. And I’ve got like… a dozen half-written posts trying to explore my own thoughts, and figure out exactly how I want to present what I’m effectively trying to say. Maybe they’ll get finished, but maybe they won’t. I don’t know. But maybe I can attempt here to at least cut to the chase.
Get Outside to Improve Your Mental and Physical Health
Very rarely do any of us, neither children or adults, spend quality time in the natural world of forests, rivers, marshes, and the like. Our need to control the natural settings of the world around us has led us into avoiding contact with the natural world that doesn’t have concrete sidewalks and close cut lawns.
The Debate Over Taxation Cannot Be Value-Free
When anyone calls for a new tax or a tax increase, what that person wants is for government personnel to threaten force against anyone who fails to surrender his or her money to the state. But almost no one speaks in those terms. If tax advocates did that, their rhetoric at least would be honest (and only in that sense noble.) Instead, such people engage in base rhetoric.
Self-Sabotage Negates All Progress
Influence comes from two places. Force comes from the outer world, composed of every character and situation you’ll ever know. Force also comes from within. There is an inner world of values, concepts, and associations to guide you on your path. A weak inner world guarantees that your progress will fester, making you slave to external forces.
Philosophy of Voluntaryism 003 – The Unintended Consequences of Taxation (60m)
Philosophy of Voluntaryism 003 is a look at taxation, by Danilo Cuellar and Jim Limber Davis. “The unintended consequences of taxation are nearly infinite. What doesn’t have to be is our nescience about them. By understanding wealth, how it is created, and what its purpose is we can break down the idea of taxation and show the world what it really is: a practice befitting a less civilized, intelligent, and courageous period of humanity’s history.”
Curiosity is the Best Educator
The media we consume, the friends we have, our choices in play, our decisions of how to spend our time all have many various and complex purposes to them.
How to Feel Profoundly Grateful about the Market
In the real world, prices often seem far above marginal cost. Yesterday, for example, I bought a pair of tweezers for $14.99. But it’s hard to see how the marginal cost – metal, electricity, transportation, miscellaneous – could even reach $1.00. That’s a markup well in excess of 1000%. If you’re steeped in the perfectly competitive model, where price always equals marginal cost, it’s easy to feel “ripped off” whenever you make a purchase.
Arbitrary Self-Importance Will Taint Your Identity
You often wish a thing were true, but this does not make it so. Reality only bends in its own way, never totally mastered or obeyed. A thought originating in your mind is no more real or important than any other. You alone are not the determiner. It takes practice and skill to align your mind with what is.
The Magic of Being Held By the World
You are reading an article written for you by me, sent across the Internet thanks to the work of thousands and thousands of engineers and power workers and workers in computer factories, using a computer device produced by thousands of people around the world.