Hubris. If unchecked it always gets us in the end.

January 11, 2021

Good morning! We’ve added nearly 20 minutes of light to each of our days compared to Christmas. We’ve not only survived the 40 darkest days of the year but we’re now building momentum toward spring; you can feel it. The earth’s objection to gravity’s pull is played out in a gyroscopic temper tantrum resulting in even less light at dawn, but progressively more in the afternoon. Time to extinguish those outdoor lights enkindled more than a month ago in hopes of staving off impending doom… looks like the humans prevailed once again.

Hubris

• Hubris.  If unchecked it always gets us in the end.
• “My boss just called and said, ‘How are you?’ and I reflexively said, ‘fine,’ and she was like, ‘NOPE, START OVER,’ I am not fine and you are not fine and no one is fine.  Let’s have a real conversation, ‘how are you?’, and I was like, ‘super terrible’, and she was like, “MUCH BETTER.”  (Willett)
• Do you understand Bitcoins?  I don’t.
  • About the closest I can come to an analogy is tulip prices in Holland during the 1630s… but I could be way wrong.
  • I understand Tesla better than I understand tulips or Bitcoins.  At least tulips existed; you could touch, smell, feel, even taste them.
• How did you do last year?
  • According to the WSJ, winners were U.S. growth stocks, soybeans, copper, oranges, and corn.
  • Losers were lots of foreign currencies, cows, and lean hogs… apparently we still prefer our  hogs on the fattier side — and bovines in general are in a slump.
• Even if you know nothing about wine you could probably detect the difference between an A+ wine and a D- wine, probably.
  • But, you might find it helpful to engage an expert sommelier if you want to better understand a B+ wine compared to a C+ wine — that is if you have a need or a desire to know.
    • If you don’t like the wine metaphor, insert Scots Whisky in its place.

The End of Nine to Five

• Is it the end of nine to five… if there ever was such a thing in the first place?
  • Remote or virtual changes to the work environment because of the COVIDs occurred most with workers involved in education, finance, insurance, management, and information technology.
  • Perhaps not surprisingly, the fewest changes occurred in food service, agriculture, retail, trucking, transportation, and construction.  (WSJ)
• The biggest mistake most of us make is in choosing to not ask for help.  How dumb when you think about it.  Once again it’s Hubris.

Journalism is the First Draft of History

• They say journalism is the first draft of history — and history, of course, is the greatest lie, though progressively less so given subsequent drafts. (Hughes) 
  • There are dozens of excellent journalists in the world, among them Peggy Noonan.
  • Her January 9th column should be on everyone’s reading list:  Peggy