“People prefer their sources of information to be highly correlated. Then all the messages you get are consistent with each other and you’re comfortable.”
Daniel Kahneman
These are random thoughts from the recent days and weeks. Some of these are serious, but many not. I hope it’s not too difficult to decipher between the two.
As we emerge from the pandemic, car traffic has picked up. Two things are apparent:
- People forgot how to drive.
- Being stuck in front of a screen for over a year can make you more selfish and more oblivious to others.
Speaking of being selfish and bad behavior:
You mean to say that for the last year, while we were all doing our best to win the Victimhood Awards, we were actually enabling horrendous behavior by refusing to correct it? Play childish games, get childish results.
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/06/11/as-america-reopens-businesses-see-an-uptick-in-bad-behavior-.html
Also, as the pandemic seems to be waning:
Guard your time. As the world begins to open up, there’s going to be opportunities available that are going to look attractive because of being in a year plus of “lockdown.” Now, the term “lockdown” seems excessive given that nearly every retailer has been reporting record earnings..but I digress… Your time is valuable. If the answer isn’t “Hell Yes!” then it’s “No.” If you’re everywhere, you’re nowhere.
Speaking of record earnings:
Nearly every major publicly-traded retailer in this country has been reporting record EPS and sales. This is great. However, we’re being sold on Trillions more in Government Spending on “relief” because the Country is “hurting financially.” – Well…which is it???
Truth and biology are not social constructs. Dogecoin is.
Speaking of Dogecoin:
Elon Musk is apparently a fan of the crypto currency. Has there ever been a hype master better than Elon? I don’t think so. He knows how to manipulate emotions and the market to build capital for all of his adventures whether they make financial sense or not. Tesla’s stock market valuation defies logic, even on a long term scale. He’s managed to make that company a status sybmol/virtue signaling champion that is bigger than the Big 3 combined, with nowhere near the sales; environmental impact of lithium mining be damned… He will go on Joe Rogan and talk about going to Mars, and the engineering behind it. It produces more money and investment for him. He’ll tweet about Dogecoin, a form of money invented out of thin air, and drive the price up, again, making more money for himself. He recently went on SNL. He is smart enough to know that to “make it” in the internet era, you have to maneuver in people’s feelings. It’s hard to think of anyone that’s done a better job of this.
Envy, Email, & Fructose are responsible for 95% of the problems in the World. (*Not quantified by “science.“).
Does it seem odd that the same political persuasion that is Pro-abortion, is ALSO for endless spending on universal healthcare from cradle to grave? It’s like “well, we fought to make sure you didn’t make it out of there, but ya did. Nice job. Now, we intend to pour unlimited money into your medical care, at the expense of everything else, and we mean everything else, no matter how bad your personal lifestyle choices may be. Congrats on making out, now do as you please.”
I was going to remark about the US’ number 1 export has become “feelings”, but then I remembered how much I still like Counting Crows, and thought “Well,… this is a problem, isn’t it?” By the way, they have a new EP just released, and it’s pretty damn good. Check it out.
My Son just finished up his first baseball season. He has a pretty accurate arm. It dawned on me, that he has no clue, that we are where we are as a species, likely because we are the best throwers that the animal world has ever known. It also dawned on me, he doesn’t care. He just knows the game, and that he’s supposed to throw a ball, as precisely as he can, at a target. He doesn’t think about it. It is just in him. We don’t pay attention to the “why” as a kid, but you really start wading into deeper waters on the simple elements of a game ( like throwing), that really are not simple at all as we age.
As I was getting ready to pull the trigger on publishing this, I learned of some really unfortunate news involving a heath situation with some friends and their child. “Heartbreaking” doesn’t even come close to describing…not even close. So I delayed publishing for quite a while. It’s hard to know that soul-crushing situation is going on, while simultaneously making jokes about some of the absurdity in life that we see on a daily basis. But that’s life – at all times there is darkness and light; always a balance of tragedy and triumph concurrently taking place on this crazy planet. A person taking their last breath at the very moment someone will take their first. Someone being told they no longer have a job, while someone is accepting an offer. Someone is ending a marriage, while another says “I do”. All of this happens at the same time, but we often focus on only what we see vs the larger reality. It’s a cycle that never stops. The dark gives the light it’s enormous value.
Andrew L Hamilton 
Thanks for your Insight and Wisdom, Andrew. How very true that the complexities of life become more and more apparent (hopefully) with maturity!
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