Society
Ivan considers relationships, connectivity, hope, and fears.
Society
Irrationality
Have you ever made a decision that was not only completely out of character but completely brain-dead? Like the time you were offered a genuine Rothko for a song but declined to buy it because it didn...
Society
Genius
Contrary to what many people think, genius isn’t necessarily about being born intelligent, although that is a factor. Real genius requires more.
Society
Attention Spans
Suppose you were asked to handle 300 emails a day as part of a job. If there are twelve work-hours available, then you would have to spend 2.4 minutes on average to answer each email, if this was all ...
Society
Shifting Perspectives
How we think changes the world we see.
Society
Learning
One of the ways we learn is to observe. Infants do that a lot. They look around. What are they doing in their cute little heads? We don’t really know, but there are some interesting ideas. One is that...
Society
How Dark is Today
One of my favorite passages in history is:
Society
The Age of Anxiety
We live in an “age of anxiety”.
Society
The Teenage Years
When times are uncertain the best one can do is be optimistic and have a sense of humor. One must also take the long view.
Society
Tea and a Honda
It has been said that to become a cultured person one should study the Japanese tea ceremony. Nothing is allowed to be rushed, and there are no shortcuts. The tea ceremony creates a sense of tranquili...
Society
The Anatomy of Hope
The universe tends toward complexity, not simplicity. This is counterintuitive but nonetheless true. The reason can be found in how energy behaves. Energy prefers to be dispersed and resists concentra...
Society
Patience
Patience is defined as the capacity to accept (or tolerate) delay, trouble, or suffering, without upset.
Society
The Paradox of Great Art
I sometimes wonder how much of what we think is truly our own thoughts—how much is actually instinct or genetic predisposition? How much is the result of the prevailing environment and its beliefs?
Society
Are You Sitting Down?
One of the most profound revolutions in human history occurred well before agriculture. It was the period when humankind transitioned from nomadic to sedentary. More precisely, it was when humans star...
Society
Contempt
If one reads almost any news feed these days, one can’t help but notice that contempt is much more prevalent than it was before, and that the volume of that attitude is increasing.
