Engaging Life with Courage and Intelligence
The 1956 book When Prophecy Fails is a social psychology classic that examines the aftermath of the Chicago UFO religious group, the Seekers, who believed the world was about to end. The book’s authors study what the group members did when the apocalypse did not occur. It takes extraordinary mental tricks to recover after predicting…
America has had a few very intractable problems that tied our society in knots. In the 19th century, it was slavery. After the Civil War, the most significant issues revolved around economic prosperity and inequality. We’ve had many economic ups and downs with winners and losers. Ironically, both are now unhappy. The losers are resentful,…
The terms lock-in (noun), lock in (verb including different verb forms), or locked-in (adjective) have been around for a while. They have a surprisingly broad range of usages in technical, slang, social, business, medical, religious, and political contexts. Likewise, they have a wide spectrum of connotations, from highly positive to extremely negative. A lock-in can…
When I was a young, impressionable lad, a visitor to my Sunday School class gave us a little inspirational talk meant to elevate a small group of impressionable young boys. I will never forget what he said about selecting friends. He said, “Seek out people who are honest, humble, and of good character.” This one…
Many books document the aftermath of countries and cults that fail spectacularly. The scenario should be familiar to everyone: A charismatic leader convinces his cult followers that they have mighty, secret powers or standing in the world. He convinces them that their unique beliefs will allow them to triumph in the afterlife, the current life,…
Arrogance really comes from insecurity, and in the end our feeling that we are bigger than others is really the flip side of our feeling that we are smaller than others. Desmond Tutu While some of James Bond’s movie scenarios involved undercover spying with foreign governments, several involved spying on rouge, power-seeking entrepreneurs. One of…
Note: This post was written in September 2024. As the political divide and divergent versions of reality in American politics have increased, I became increasingly curious. What was the cause? As someone who studied social psychology, psychology, and sociology, I thought there was more to it than simple explanations such as red state vs. blue…
Warren Buffett is an old-school, Middle American kind of guy. Many young people regard him as a fossil despite his obvious financial success. One current replacement for Buffett’s obsolete approach seems to be to invest in Bitcoin. Here is what Buffett says about Bitcoin: Over the past decade, it’s been clear that the crypto craze…
Peter Thiel and Elon Musk were among PayPal’s founders who injected their DNA into the company’s operating procedures. Many of us may have used PayPal while doing business with eBay or other companies that have PayPal as an option. I used PayPal once to buy a used golf driver on eBay. I used them only…
We may recall that during COVID, Musk borrowed money from the Biden administration to keep Tesla from going bankrupt. He was also so committed to his work that he slept in the factory. Today, he sleeps in the Lincoln Bedroom in Trump’s White House instead of the factory floor. How his life has changed in…