Category: Sage Advice
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Be Satisfied
Be satisfied with what you have, but not via the comparative thought, "I have more than them."
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Advice on Study and the Improvement of the Mind
Reader M.L.P. inquires, I was wondering what habits one should acquire to study philosophy profitably. I read philosophy books but I tend to forget most of what I read. I also find it hard to come up with my own ideas. Roughly how many books or articles should one read in a day? Or is…
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Let it Go!
You allow mental clutter to collect in memory, and then you repeatedly sift through it, keeping it alive and present. What good is the memorial rehearsal of failures, foibles, and fatuities, of missed opportunities, and unpleasant encounters? Let it go, not quite forgetting the details, but relaxing one's grip on them, while preserving the lessons.
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On Engagement with Females: The Anti-Biden Rule
With the exception of wives, sisters, and girlfriends, accept and return hugs, but don't initiate them. A gentleman is cognizant of the power differential between the sexes, and does not impose himself physically or psychologically. And while the scent of a woman can can carry a powerful erotic charge, a gentleman does not creep up…
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Money, Happiness, and Conditiones Sine Quibus Non
Money can't buy happiness. What it can buy are the conditions without which happiness is impossible. Thus spoke the Sage of the Superstitions.
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Don’t Talk Like a ‘Liberal’!
When you do, you validate their obfuscatory and question-begging jargon. For example, leftists believe in something they call 'hate speech.' As they use the phrase, it covers legitimate dissent. It is foolish for a conservative to say that he is for 'hate speech,' or that 'hate speech' is protected speech. Dennis Prager has been known…
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Memorial Relaxation
It is better to relax one's grip on the past than to let it go entirely.
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Mistakes
We have all made mistakes. But if we have learned their lessons, they have served a good purpose. Let us not compound our blunders by dwelling on them. Do not forget them, but do not dwell on them. Retention in memory subserves a salutary humility; to dwell on them impedes the project of one's life…
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Out of Self-Respect
Be self-critical out of self-respect, not self-loathing.
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A Reader Needs Advice re: Graduate School
The following is from a reader who approves of my idea of soliciting advice from the rest of you, many of whom are better apprised than me of the current academic climate and job market. Name and identifying details have been elided. If you have a moment to offer some advice on the situation I've…
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Good Advice
If possible, avoid the near occasion of armed confrontation, assuming that such avoidance is consistent with manly virtue. But with hot civil war nigh, manly avoidance may not be possible. If push comes to shove, and shove to shoot, you had better be prepared both for the shooting and its aftermath. Intellectually, though, it is…
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What to Do if a Cop Stops You
The following advice can save your life, especially if you are an impulsive black not brought up to respect legitimate authority. And yes, the authority of the police is legitimate even if the particular cop you encounter is an arrogant asshole as some of them are. Pull over when it is safe to do so.…
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What Can a Sane individual Do in the Present Political Situation?
This is a repost from last November. Given how fast things are unraveling, what I wrote then sounds a bit lame now. Still, I think my suggestions are sound. They are things I do. Whether you should do them is your call. ………………………. What can an individual do? Not much, but here are some suggestions.…
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Carpe Diem!
Seize the day, my friends, the hour of death is near for young and old alike. How would you like death to find you? In what condition, and immersed in which activity? Contemplating the eternal or stuck in the mud of the mundane or lost in the diaspora of sensuous indulgence? The clock is running,…
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Grievance and Gratitude
Do not indulge your sense of grievance without compensatory attention to the many good things that have come your way in the form of opportunities, unearned advantages, narrow escapes, strokes of luck, and the like. Make a list and see whether the occasions for gratitude don't outnumber the occasions for grievance.