Saturday, December 31, 2011

No Absolutes?

Ask someone if they are absolutely sure of it the next time they assert that no absolutes exists.  That statement is self-contradictory.

Saturday, December 24, 2011

Projection

One underlying human trait is that we usually project our own thoughts onto others.  We expect others to be trustworthy if we are trustworthy.  We expect others to cheat us if we tend to cheat others.  It is interesting how many human relations are colored with this.

Friday, December 16, 2011

How Much Can Discrimination Explain?

I always enjoy Walter Williams. I find his ideas to be very cognizant and well thought out.

How Much Can Discrimination Explain?

It is worth the time to listen to this, especially if you believe that the modern idea that the outcomes imply discrimination if they differ from the population distribution.

Thursday, December 15, 2011

Make Sure Things Work the Way You Think

I have become very much of a contrarian as I have grown older. I have found much "common wisdom" to be far from accurate, especially in our modern society where the rules are drastically different than most of recorded history. It can be dangerous to comment on any specific ones of these, especially since so many take offense to those who don't agree with them today, in spite of the wide openness everyone is supposed to be following. I would encourage everyone to really look at things that you have taken for granted and make sure they really work as you think they do. Figure out which of your "core beliefs" are reliable and which are built on a faulty foundation. That will put you in a much better stead in life. This does not mean that everything is relative, but the our understanding of things is often off the mark, especially in certain situations. The absolute truths may still be there, but they may not be the exact things you thought they were. Keep that in the forefront of your mind!

Thursday, December 01, 2011

Free from All Risk?

One of the areas where I do a lot of work is in information security. We learn there that a key underlying principle is that we can never completely remove risk, we can only reduce it to an acceptable level. This is a principle that needs to be spread throughout more of life. We live in a time when we try to completely eliminate any risk. Not only is this not possible, it costs a lot of money to find that out. We can never completely remove every harmful substance, no matter how hard we try. Don't give into the rhetoric that claims you can do so. Instead, turn the conversation toward the goal of finding the proper level of risk.