Earthquake

Another earthquake hits Indonesia.

Disasters are truly not rare. Sadly.

The Illusion of Control

I forget continually. And I am reminded continually. We labour under the illusion of control.

Everything is a risk, a gamble. Anything can happen with varying degrees of probability. Fact is that bad things happen quite frequently: tsunamis, wars, plagues, famine ....

Bad things happen so frequently that we are in danger of suffering disaster fatigue.

The illusion of control enables us to act in the hope that we can make a difference! We can and we do - mostly through the law of unintended consequences.

Control is an illusion with great utility: behave as if you are in control - and keep in mind that you are not.

Life is lived best in the maintained tension of opposites.

Moderation in all things

All things recur. Repetition is important.

I revisit first principles because they are first and they do work: good habits, small wins and balance. These apply irrespective of domain. Savings, diet and weight loss, study and self-development, parenting and anything else you can conceive of that requires a consistent effort over time.

So many people are overweight and unfit it's almost depressing. Even more people are unprepared for retirement....

We have narrow time horizons and many cognitive blind spots.

Repetition is important.

Privacy vs utility

I am willing to trade privacy for utility. The essentials of our lives don't differ; only the mix.

There is some level at which every other is unknowable despite all the explicit statements that we can make.

Nor is character static. And reputation, as you know, is extremely fragile.

Everyone lauds communication but communication without purpose is just that - pointless.

I am still asking for dialogue instead of monlogue....