Remember the premise, to wit: This would be a good architecture for an interview with a very objective voluntaryist. So I have put myself into the personification of a scholarly, principled, individualist voluntaryist to imagine how honest answers to these questions might look.
Tag: writing
You Are Your Own Worst Critic
Over the past forty years of striving to make computers do what I want, I have gained a few hard-won truths. One is that we can be very poor critics of own ideas. We love those ideas; we poured our own blood, sweat and tears into them. Of course they must be right; of course the computer must have misunderstood what we intended to happen.
What a Perverse Presidential Incentive System!
All I can say is, we’ve got a hell of a political system on our hands when the surest way for a president to win the adoration of those who thought him a dangerous, ignorant, narcissistic, erratic, and bullshitting blowhard yesterday is to drop a bomb or fire a cruise missile today.
Will Grigg, RIP
It was with the greatest sadness that I read Sheldon Richman’s farewell to Will Grigg this morning. I, as with Sheldon, had never personally met Will, but the world of voluntaryists and I have lost a great friend. He has left a legacy, though.
The Driving Force behind Civilization’s Emergence
The earliest use of writing was strictly commercial and economic, not political or bureaucratic. It was trade, entrepreneurship, and stewardship of private property, not politics, “public education” or the creation of national mythology that allowed humankind to transition from prehistory to history.
A Voluntaryist Begins The Proust Questionnaire
I recently encountered the Proust Questionnaire. It is a regular feature in “Vanity Fair” magazine, where it is answered by a guest celebrity. When I got about halfway through I thought, “Voila! This would be a good architecture for an interview with a very objective voluntaryist.”
The Main Reason Changing Your Life is Tough
Many of us have things we’d like to change: our exercise and diet habits, procrastination and productivity habits, patience and mindfulness habits, quitting bad habits, decluttering and finances, reading and learning and doing all the things we want to do in life. But very often we fall short of our hopes. What’s the problem? Why do we struggle with these changes?
Defending a Free Nation
Most societies, at least in this century, handle the problem of national defense by having a large, well-armed, permanent military force, run by a centralized government, funded by taxation, and often (though not always) manned by conscription. Is this a solution that a free nation can or should follow?
Give Me a System, Not a Superstar
The best kind of system isn’t one whose functionality depends on the genius or goodness of the one at the helm. The best kind of system is one whose functionality can be sustained in spite of the lack of genius and goodness of those who take the helm.
Popularity Secrets
I know I could be a lot more popular as a writer. Particularly locally. All it would take is for me to lie.