If you happen to have a few hours to burn, The Case Against Credentialism from The Atlantic tracks the fascinating development of credentialism:

Three changes, which took place in the past hundred years, produced the system that is now producing M.B.A.s. They were the conversion of jobs into “professions,” the scientific measurement of intelligence, and the use of government power to “channel” people toward certain occupations.

The Zurich Axioms is a book written by Max Gunther. In the context of speculation, it maps out the risks of chaos and the risks of human behaviors and tendencies, and it provides a framework for managing these risks to capitalize on positive luck. Read the rest of this entry »

Three quotes on money that seem well aligned. Read the rest of this entry »

From the The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom, Jonathan Haidt on the pleasure of success:

The final moment of success is often no more thrilling than the relief of taking off a heavy backpack at the end of a long hike. If you went on the hike only to feel that pleasure, you are a fool.

Professor Paul Cantor:

A static perfection is a bad ideal for humanity, and attempts to impose an artificial order on the world only succeed in creating greater disorder.

Read the rest of the interview @Mises Economics Blog.

The law of money & complexity: an artist needs 20 followers to survive, a writer 20,000, a newspaper 300,000; a tv station, a million. @alaindebotton

It is rare that I buy magazines. I might buy three a year (my subscription to Rolling Stone doesn’t count — it was a Christmas present). But this month’s Scientific American Mind is a special feature issue on Men and Women. I could not resist its pull. And after only a few pages I’m overflowing with questions. Read the rest of this entry »

Technology’s double punishment is to make us both age prematurely and live longer. @nntaleb

The capacity to feel grateful seems linked to a readiness to acknowledge one’s vulnerability. @alaindebotton

Wisdom of religions in their insistence that we schedule moments for gratitude, self-examination, forgiveness. Whim won’t do it. @alaindebotton

The reason to travel: there are inner transitions we can’t properly cement without a change of locations. @alaindebotton

Readiness to answer all questions is the infallible sign of stupidity.

Saul Bellow, via Marginalia, no.116 « The New Psalmanazar

Tom Hodgkinson from The School of Life writes about evils of usury. But I’m not buying many of his arguments. Read the rest of this entry »

I like this guy already:

When patients pretended to confide in me that they were suffering from low self-esteem, I used to reply that at least, then, they had got one thing right: they had valued themselves at their true worth.

The self-esteemist wants something for nothing, and, because in his heart he knows that what he wants is impossible, he is wretched and ascribes all the many failures of his life to it. Self-esteem is therefore first cousin to resentment.

@Theodore Dalrymple on Self-Esteem vs. Self-Respect — Features — In Character, A Journal of Everyday Virtues by the John Templeton Foundation

But how do these things get started? Maybe we should ask The Rambling Fool or The Last Psychiatrist.