Category: Sage Advice
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Carpe Noctem
To make good use of the night, don't load the mind with dreck before drifting off.
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Grievance and a Life Well-Lived
A life well-lived cannot have grievance as its organizing principle.
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The Beauty of the Solitary Life
Thomas Merton, The Journals, vol. 6, 24 June 1966, p. 344: "The beauty of the solitary life . . . is that you can throw away all the masks and forget them until you return among people." For, as one of my aphorisms has it, "The step into the social is by dissimulation." Before I…
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On Her Deathbed
Substack latest. "I fear that there is nothing on the other side."
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Noetic Distance
You kept your distance from him when he was alive, and you did well in so doing. Now that he is dead, when his only proximity is noetic, it is noetic distance that you must maintain.
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Vox missa nescit reverti
Good advice from Horace, Ars Poetica, 390: "A word, having been sent forth, does not know how to return."
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De-Dox Your Glove Box!
And what might I mean by that? I mean remove documents from your glove compartment or other easily accessible areas in your vehicle wherein it would be unwise to carry them given the spike in crime of all sorts caused by such Democrat policies as defunding the police and eliminating cash bail. I count four…
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Reader Asks: What Should I Read?
Nathaniel T. writes, In the new year, I'm committing to some more regular reading habits. What serious books would you recommend to someone outside academia who has about half an hour uninterrupted in the morning to read, three times a week? How about a list that would last that person a year? Here…
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2024 and Trump sub specie aeternitatis
First-rate political analysis by DiploMad 2.0. (HT: Bill Keezer) But there is little to be hopeful or happy about this New Year. 2023 is likely to be worse than the last three. You are well-advised to seek your happiness within. Not that one should withdraw from the fray entirely. Fight on, but not at the…
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Self Respect
Just as we should not become too familiar with others, we should not become too familiar with ourselves.
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Another Reason to Limit Socializing
Avoid unnecessary socializing lest you inadvertently reveal what it would be imprudent to reveal. As we sink into a Sino-style surveillance state, it is probably best for most of you, especially the young, to lay low and go gray. I've made mine so I run less of a risk in speaking my mind. The little…
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Maxims and Meta-Maxims
1) Live now: resist the tendency to bring the past into the present. 2) Beware of viewing yourself through the belittling eyes of others. 3) Avoid negative and weakening thoughts. 4) Avoid comparisons with others. 5) Keep socializing to the minimum necessary to maintain one's sanity and humanity. 6) Do not associate with those beneath…
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Downplay Both
If you downplay your wins, downplay your losses. The pain of defeat is worse than the pleasure of victory is good. But you have the power to regard them as equal. In some measure the pain of loss can be lessened. The Stoic therapy is no cure, but it is a palliative. If our predicament…
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Beware of Projecting . . .
. . . your values and attitudes into others. We are not all the same 'deep down,' and we don't all want the same things. You say you value peace and social harmony? So do I. But some are bellicose right out of the box. They love war and thrive on conflict, and not just verbally. It is dangerous…
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Half-Way Cultural Appropriation
You appropriate our science and technology, why not then appropriate the values, virtues, attitudes, and behaviors that led to the science and technology? Here are some of them: hard work, self-control, self-knowledge, deferral of gratification, focus, protracted study, objectivity, rational thinking, coherent speech, respect for legitimate authorities, respect for elders, and punctuality. Why the…