my tumblr

"Of course, the outlook is not all bad. Some of you will find good jobs — those who have used your..."

Tue, 22 May 2012 20:11:00 +0300

“Of course, the outlook is not all bad. Some of you will find good jobs — those who have used your time wisely, by studying science and engineering. It’s only the rest of you who are screwed. […] As to journalism, there are a few skills you need to know, which you could pick up in an afternoon; the rest is undifferentiated. You look. You ask questions. You think. And you tell the world what you come up with. No college necessary. In fact, college may hinder you. Instead of using your own eyes and your own brain, and developing your own way of looking at things, you spent your best years in class absorbing the claptrap du jour of the mainstream media. […] Others among you have read popular novels or a few history books. You think you know something. Maybe you call yourself a historian. Or perhaps a literary critic. My advice is to keep that to yourself. You have paid a lot of money for something that millions of other people — just as smart as you are — do for a hobby or past-time. There’s not much real knowledge in either of those things…just opinions and ideas which are more vanity and entertainment than genuine learning. […] Same thing for those who have spent years studying ‘politics’ or ‘economics.’ Drop the pretense that you know something. You don’t. All you have is a full plate of opinions…most of them preposterous…and most of them indigestible by a thoughtful person.”

- http://dailyreckoning.com/to-the-class-of-2012/ (Bill Bonner)

"It is easier to be smart than to be good; that’s why there are so many smart people, and so few good..."

Mon, 07 May 2012 23:57:12 +0300

“It is easier to be smart than to be good; that’s why there are so many smart people, and so few good ones. Smart men get elected to high office. They run major corporations.They write editorials for the newspaper. Pity the poor good man; he goes to parties and has nothing to say that is not mocking and cynical. Others talk about their smart deals, their smart ideas, their smart plans and successes. Women crowd around them; a smart man grows taller as he speaks.The good man shrinks.”

- Bonner, W. & Wiggin, A. (2009). The New Empire of Debt: The Rise and Fall of an Epic Financial Bubble.

"Remember that a system is not defined by the name it gives itself, but by how the power..."

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 03:02:31 +0200

“Remember that a system is not defined by the name it gives itself, but by how the power relationships actually work behind the scenes. Thus, Iraq may call itself a democracy, but in truth it is a sectarian “thugocracy” that barely keeps order”

- Robert D. Kaplan

"Very few beings really seek knowledge in this world. Mortal or immortal, few really ask. On the..."

Sun, 26 Feb 2012 20:04:09 +0200

“Very few beings really seek knowledge in this world. Mortal or immortal, few really ask. On the contrary, they try to wring from the unknown the answers they have already shaped in their own minds — justifications, confirmations, forms of consolation without which they can’t go on. To really ask is to open the door to the whirlwind. The answer may annihilate the question and the questioner.”

- Anne Rice

"Any man who has had teenage children will tell you to be suspicious of logic, for as soon as a..."

Fri, 06 Jan 2012 17:39:56 +0200

“Any man who has had teenage children will tell you to be suspicious of logic, for as soon as a teenager gets the hang of it, his sense of reason seems to leave him — and doesn’t return for at least five or six years. Or, if he takes up politics, law, or economics, it may never return. “If there really were a God,” says the teenager triumphantly, “He wouldn’t let there be people starving, He wouldn’t allow Bush to kill people, and He wouldn’t make me do homework on Friday night.” But we’ve been around long enough to believe that God can do any damned thing He wants, even if it makes no sense to a 15-year-old.”

- Bonner, W. & Rajiva, L. (2007). Mobs, Messiahs, and Markets: Surviving the Public Spectacle in Finance and Politics

"As we said, the older we get, the less we know about anything; the more facts, opinions, and ideas..."

Tue, 03 Jan 2012 18:11:19 +0200

“As we said, the older we get, the less we know about anything; the more facts, opinions, and ideas we collect, the less sure we are of any of them.”

- Bonner, W. & Rajiva, L. (2007). Mobs, Messiahs, and Markets: Surviving the Public Spectacle in Finance and Politics

"The single man, on the other hand, is a desperado. Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin were, effectively,..."

Tue, 03 Jan 2012 17:48:29 +0200

“The single man, on the other hand, is a desperado. Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin were, effectively, single. So was Alexander the Great. They had no private lives; they had perforce to make public spectacles of themselves. The single man still feels the need to be a conqueror — of women or of men — by seduction or by brute force. That is why the public generally elects family men to high office; they don’t trust the lone wolf. That may be one reason why George W. Bush — a married man — is likely to be denied the success that more notorious, and single, world improvers have had.”

- Bonner, W. & Rajiva, L. (2007). Mobs, Messiahs, and Markets: Surviving the Public Spectacle in Finance and Politics

"We see people reading “The World Is Flat” numbly on airplanes. […] For a long..."

Tue, 03 Jan 2012 17:25:14 +0200

“We see people reading “The World Is Flat” numbly on airplanes. […] For a long time, we couldn’t bring ourselves to read the book, but finally we did. As expected, it is suitable only for children … and only for them to sit on or club each other over the head with.”

- Bonner, W. & Rajiva, L. (2007). Mobs, Messiahs, and Markets: Surviving the Public Spectacle in Finance and Politics

"The truth is that no risk-control gimmick however complex, can protect a whole market for the simple..."

Mon, 02 Jan 2012 20:53:00 +0200

“The truth is that no risk-control gimmick however complex, can protect a whole market for the simple reason that the whole market cannot outperform itself. The more people climb onto an investment platform - whether it is derivatives, dot-coms, dollars… or dirigibles - the more it creaks and cracks. [Ed. FAZ?]”

- Bonner, W. & Rajiva, L. (2007). Mobs, Messiahs, and Markets: Surviving the Public Spectacle in Finance and Politics

"You may tear apart the baby’s rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil..."

Wed, 21 Dec 2011 06:42:04 +0200

“You may tear apart the baby’s rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, VIRGINIA, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.”

- Francis Pharcellus Church

"There is enough uncertainty in entrepreneurship without adding inflation, deflation, interest rates..."

Tue, 29 Nov 2011 00:40:18 +0200

“There is enough uncertainty in entrepreneurship without adding inflation, deflation, interest rates and exchange rates to the list of barriers standing in the way of innovation. The U.S. economy as guided by the Fed has seen continual asset bubbles, crashes, panics, booms and busts in the forty years since the United States left gold. It is time to diminish the role of finance and empower the role of commerce.”

- James G. Rickards

"[…] people who are interested in making the best possible decisions rarely are confident that..."

Mon, 19 Sep 2011 01:43:50 +0300

“[…] people who are interested in making the best possible decisions rarely are confident that they have the best possible answers.”

- Ray Dalio

Independent

Thu, 18 Aug 2011 03:06:50 +0300

I have yet to hear about a single contemporary “independent” thinker that doesn’t actually have a circle of close friends inside of which critical thinking is abolished as a courtesy.

Writing advice

Mon, 15 Aug 2011 23:58:00 +0300

If you think that you have something to say, you should first write a (private) draft. Then, you should read it by trying to understand what the hell you were trying to say. Then rewrite it, by dropping all of the fluff and by keeping only what it was that you were trying to say. You might be surprised to find this second version is much, much shorter. You might even be surprised to find out you’re left with something not even worth saying. Most people failing to heed this advice is probably why there’s a bubble in books (also blogs etc.). And why most books are not even worth the paper they’re printed on. People that are not highly selective about the books they’ll be spending their time on (reading) are also people that are extremely deficient in thinking. Strive for clarity and don’t fool yourself because your readers (at least the intelligent ones) won’t be fooled: if you think that something you just wrote is smart/stylish/etc. it’s probably more of a sign you’re confused (and so will be your readers - at least, the intelligent ones will be confused).

Happy-Go-Lucky

Sun, 17 Jul 2011 17:55:43 +0300

When the system you are a part of is too big (and for the record, everything became too big ever since the entire humanity stopped living in groups of < 100 people not so long ago - oh, and there’s no going back) you do not even need to consciously choose immorality (or unconsciously choose what most would deem immoral) in order to do harm. Hence, the perversity of the happy-go-lucky attitude.

Self-congratulation

Sat, 16 Jul 2011 04:52:00 +0300

Disregarding any other philosophical considerations, self-congratulation is delusional simply because everyone practices it (i.e. shows how shaky a proposal it is to rely on anyone’s approval - which roughly is the ultimate underlying motivation for it).

The "middle way"?

Fri, 15 Jul 2011 00:27:59 +0300

Stating that the “middle way” should be followed is the emptiest form of wisdom. Akin to giving up completely. At best, you can speak of the “middle way” only a posteriori.

Arrogance

Fri, 15 Jul 2011 00:18:58 +0300

Some people are surprised when they find extreme arrogance in the very same person they thought of as humble and diffident. They should not be surprised at all, for if humbleness serves them any purpose, it is to show them the absurdity, vanity and lack of consistency surrounding them (in which they do not take any part). The important thing is that you will always be able to get through to such a person. The merely arrogant will never change his mind.

Culture & economy

Wed, 29 Jun 2011 20:14:19 +0300

I’ll take cultural differences leading to squabbling politicians any day over cultural affinities leading to “harmony”, cartels, collusion of interests etc.

Narrow

Mon, 27 Jun 2011 17:39:29 +0300

Narrow passions are a sign of narrow minds (those of people who can’t see behind the details that everything is just more of the same). Hopefully someone else didn’t say this before - I can certainly see it behind many things/writings.