the mantle................

 

Science, right from the beginning of the modern enterprise, was allotted the role that the Church had previously claimed for itself: the primary guide to truth, and the enlightener of humanity.  More than a method, it was a faith.  It remains one today, which is why arguments around scientific questions, from COVID to climate change, are often so vexed and divisive.  Each of us wants to claim the mantle of 'science' for our perspective because of the authority it bestows.  'Follow the Science' usually translates in practice as 'follow me'.

-Paul Kingsnorth, Against the Machine

the country we're visiting..........

The reason literacy is important is that literature is the operating instructions. The best manual we have. The most useful guide to the country we’re visiting, life.

-culled from this post at The Hammock Papers

bewildering complexities................

     It would be good to be able to say that we should dispense with visions entirely, and deal only with reality.  But that maybe the most utopian vision of all.  Reality is far too complex to be comprehended by any given mind.  Visions are like maps that guide us through a tangle of bewildering complexities.  Like maps, visions have to leave out many concrete features in order to enable us to focus on a few key paths to our goals.  Visions are indispensable—but dangerous, precisely to the extent that we confuse them with reality itself.

-Thomas Sowell, A Conflict of Visions: Ideological Origins of Political Struggles

 

A good guide.......................

 

     via

some capacity...............

Since it has pleased God to give us some capacity for reason, so that we should not be, like the animals, slavishly subjected to the common laws, but should apply ourselves to them by judgment and voluntary liberty, we must indeed yield a little to the simple authority of Nature, but not let ourselves be carried away tyrannically by her: reason alone must guide our inclinations.

-Michel de Montaigne, The Complete Works, Book Two, Chapter 8

humanness..............................

 This being human is a guest house

            Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness,

Some momentary awareness

            comes as an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!

The dark thought, the shame, the malice

        meet them at the door laughing,

                and invite them in.

Be grateful for whoever comes,

        because each has been sent

                as a guide from beyond.

-Rumi

Sometimes............

 

Laying on my back, watching the stars emerge, I was struck by how they'd been there all along, invisibly lining my day even when I couldn't see them.  Sometimes the darkness reveals, it's ways more mysterious than light's.  Sometimes the darkness gives a gift of stars by which we can navigate our way home.

-Boyd Varty, Cathedral of the Wild

image via

Standards...................................

..................................................................................a list.

A rudder.................................

“Most people are willing to take the Sermon on the Mount as a flag to sail under, but few will use it as a rudder by which to steer.” 

-Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

Where would we be without "experts"......?

Also, the more self-confident an expert appears, the worse his or her track record is likely to be.

-Barry Ritholtz,  lifted from his footnotes to this post on "An Expert's Guide to Calling a Market Top."

A pretty good start.............

Three Guides -

No Blame. 
Be Kind. 
Love Everything. 


- Terrance Keenan, St. Nadie in Winter: Zen Encounters with Loneliness

via

On guidelines............................

"Our philosophies aren’t rules; they’re guidelines. In every long-lasting business, the methods of conducting business may constantly change, but the values, the culture and the philosophies remain constant."
-Yvon Chouinard, as quoted by Ben Carlson and as excerpted from this A Wealth of Common Sense blog post

Seeing Eye People.........................

A gentleman does not attempt to walk and send a text message at the same time.
-How To Be A Gentleman (Revised and Expanded)



video via

A gentleman...................

When a gentleman outgrows his clothes, he gives them away to charity.  He does not pretend that someday he will lose weight.  When, and if, he does lose weight, he certainly will not want to celebrate by wearing out-of-date coats and trousers.
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After he has sent an e-mail message to a personal friend, a gentleman does not assume that his friend will respond to him within twenty-four hours.
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A gentleman may not be able to dance a samba, but he should be capable of a box step, which is almost like not dancing at all.

-as excerpted from How To Be A Gentleman:  A Timely Guide to Timeless Manners

Ten Rules.......................and some advice

Rule 7:  The only rule is work.  If you work it will lead
to something.  It is the people who do all the work all
the time who eventually catch onto things.  You can
fool the fans.................but not the players.
                                     

For a more legible version, visit Ka-Ching!
For information about the author, John Cage, go here.

Advice for dealing with us introverts.......

We try not to break these..............

Joe Stampone's A Student of the Real Estate Game blog brings
us Sam Zell's Fundamentals.  Zell has the reputation of being
one to the all time great, and hard-nosed, real estate and business
investors.  Here he offers his rules for investing:

Rule #1 - Operate on the condition of no surprises

Rule #2 -Everyday that you’re not selling an asset in your
portfolio, you’re choosing to buy it

Rule #3 - Ensure management’s interests are aligned with
shareholders

Rule #4 - Look for good companies with bad balance sheets

Rule #5 - Nothing should stand between a company and its
fiduciary responsibility to shareholders

Rule #6 - Look for opportunities in markets with pent-up
demand

Rule #7 - The definition of a partner is someone who shares
your level of risks

Rule #8 - Liquidity = value

Rule #9 - Sentimentality about an investments leads to lack
of discipline

Rule #10 - Take meaningful positions so you can influence
your own destiny

Rule #11 - When everyone is going right, look left

Rule #12 - Understand the downside

Rule #13 - It all comes down to Econ 101 – supply and
demand.

Life's geometry...........................

"Though a straight line appears to be the shortest distance
between two points, life has a way of confounding geometry.
Often it is the dalliances and the detours that define us.
There are no maps to guide our most important searches;
we must rely on hope, chance, intuition and a willingness
to be surprised."
-Gordon Livingston, Too Soon Old, Too Late Smart