San Luis Obispo, California, USA. Thanks for stopping by!
So, we rise from the rubble...
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Saturday, May 2, 2026
"Too Often..."
"Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word,
a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring,
all of which have the potential to turn a life around."
- Leo Buscaglia
"Why Memento Mori Is The Ultimate Life Hack"
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"Why Memento Mori Is The Ultimate Life Hack"
by Danny Kenny
"The plane lurched violently upward. “Ladies and gentlemen, we’re making an emergency climb due to traffic in our flight path.” In other words: There’s a plane where it’s not supposed to be, so we’re getting the hell out of here. The captain’s voice was steady, but the g-forces pressing me into my seat and the fast climb told a different story. It was the kind of airplane experience where your mind races to conclusions you’d rather not reach.
As turbulence shook the cabin, I noticed something strange happening in my body. While others gripped armrests and exchanged terrified glances, I found myself focusing on my breath to see how low I could bring my heart rate. Like a psychopath. In for four. Hold for four. Out for four. Hold for four. Facing the possibility of death, I needed to know: Am I ready?
My grandfather used to say, “Make sure to have your bags packed.” Not to literally have your luggage by the door, but to be ready to leave life without regrets, unfinished business, and words left unsaid. As Flight 447 to Orlando climbed through that storm, I did my check: Am I good with all my people? The answer surprised me. Despite all my achievement-chasing and productivity-hacking, despite the endless striving I’ve documented in these pages…I was good. I’d added warmth, humor, and joy to the lives I’d touched. My relationships were in a good spot. The world was, perhaps, a slightly brighter place for my existence.
It honestly wasn’t the answer I was expecting, but it was a grounding one. A few minutes later, the plane leveled off. Thirty minutes later, we were safely on the ground in Orlando. But something had shifted. The rest of that trip felt clearer, less anxious, and more grounded. The obnoxious emails waiting in my inbox had lost their sting. The “urgent” meeting that wasn’t really urgent revealed itself to be something not worth spending any additional energy on. Death, it turns out, is an excellent BS detector, and we could be thinking about it way more often in our daily lives.
The ancient practice modern high-achievers need most: Memento mori, which literally means “remember you will die,” sounds like the kind of thing that would send modern optimizers running for longevity protocols (such as infrared light, collagen, and definitely some kind of algae) and the promise of immortality. But as Tim Ferriss observed: “I think about death all the time and it’s not a morbid, sullen exercise for me … I find it to be, and this might sound strange, but greatly encouraging because it drives a sense of urgency, or at least time sensitivity, to a lot of my decisions.”
He goes on to describe looking at stars and contemplating that the light hitting your eye might be from a star that no longer exists. That realization isn’t an excuse for nihilism; it instead provides perspective, clarifies, and empowers. Suddenly, that workplace drama or Twitter beef reveals itself as the cosmic irrelevance it always was. “It’s all dust,” Ferriss said. “Nobody gives a f*ck.”
Ryan Holiday put it even more directly in his exploration of Stoic practices: “Meditating on your mortality is only depressing if you miss the point. It is in fact a tool to create priority and meaning.” The ancients knew this. Emperor Marcus Aurelius reminded himself, “You could leave life right now. Let that determine what you do and say and think.”
But here’s what Ferriss, Holiday, and the Stoics are really pointing to, and what that moment on Flight 447 made visceral for me: Death isn’t the enemy. It’s the life coach you desperately need but never, ever, ever wanted to hire.
Befriending your mortality: Ernst Becker won a Pulitzer for "The Denial of Death" by arguing that human civilization is essentially an elaborate defense mechanism against our awareness of our own mortality. We build monuments, chase achievements, create legacies to somehow convince ourselves we’ll find a way to overcome the one thing guaranteed by our biology. This denial drives what Becker calls our “immortality projects,” the ways we try to ensure that our existence will echo beyond our inevitable end.
For me, it was the 4.0 GPA, the PhD, the six-figure consulting gig. For you, it might be the IPO, the bestseller, the perfect family photo that gets 500 likes. We’re all running toward some imagined future, achievement, or trophy that grants us immunity from dying. We’re scrambling to find the thing, and we’re scrambling to get the thing, and we’re scrambling to hold onto it forever.
We don’t have to do that. This shift from seeing death as the enemy to recognizing it as a clarifying force has been gradual for me: years of Stoic practice, meditation, and simply observing life unfold around me. People in my life dying, some way too soon. People diagnosed with long-term illnesses. These are consistent, regular reminders that life is a finite, non-renewable resource.
The irony is that befriending death doesn’t make life feel shorter or scarier. It makes it feel more vivid, more precious, more worth living authentically rather than performatively. When you truly internalize that you could leave life right now - not as some abstract philosophy but as lived reality - several things happen:Your real values emerge from the noise. Suddenly, being seen as successful matters less than actually connecting with people you love.
Fake urgencies reveal themselves. That ASAP email? Unless someone’s actually dying, it can wait. Your tolerance for BS approaches zero. Life’s too short for meetings that should have been emails or relationships that drain more than they give. What actually matters becomes blindingly clear. Hint: It’s usually much simpler than your brain wants to believe.
The 90-year-old test: Here’s an exercise I give to every coaching client as we start our work together. It never fails to cut through the complexity we create around our lives: Close your eyes. Fast-forward to age 90. It’s a Tuesday, and you’re sitting on a porch (because apparently all 90-year-olds have moved south and have porches in our imagination). What’s true about the best version of this moment? When I do this exercise, the picture that emerges is remarkably simple: I’m healthy enough to move around and be active. I’m surrounded by people and family I love. I’m still sharp enough to write, teach, and serve others. That’s it. That’s the whole list.
Notice what’s not there? The size of my bank account. The prestige of my job title, the number of LinkedIn followers, whether I ever gave a TED talk. None of it makes the cut when you’re staring down the barrel of your own mortality. This isn’t about having low ambitions - it’s about having accurate ambitions. When you know how your story ends, you can work backward to figure out what actually matters now.
The 90-year-old test is where I start my values work because it’s the only perspective that can’t be fooled by short-term thinking or social pressure. Your 90-year-old self doesn’t care about inbox zero or Q3 targets. They care about whether you were present for the people who mattered. They care about doing work you find meaningful. And they care about not dying with a life unlived.
Practical memento mori: Here are a few more concrete practices that bring death’s clarity into daily life:Write your own eulogy. Many people have heard of this, but I recommend writing two versions:
Write the eulogy for if you died today, and then write the one for if you lived a life aligned with what truly matters to you. The gap between them is the work for you to do and the places for you to focus.
The deathbed story filter. Before any major decision, ask: “On my deathbed, will I regret not doing this, or will I regret the things I sacrificed to do it? What’s the story I wish to be able to tell about this when I’m dying?” This question has helped me see through superficial achievement traps and, on the other side, has helped me choose the short-term painful thing that benefits me in the long term.
Study the stars and get outside. Adapting Ferriss’s advice, go outside at night and look up. Find a star. Consider that its light traveled years to reach you, meaning the star itself might already be gone. Find ways to be in grand scenes in nature. Find places that bring you awe. Let that cosmic perspective shrink your problems to their actual size.
Here’s what nobody tells you about memento mori: It’s the ultimate productivity system. Not productivity in the mercenary sense of cramming more into less time. But productivity in the truest sense: producing what matters, eliminating what doesn’t.
When you truly grasp your mortality: You stop procrastinating essential conversations.
You quit optimizing systems that optimize nothing meaningful.
You delegate or delete those many trivial tasks to focus on the vital few.
You stop trading time for money once you have “enough.”
You start creating things that might outlive you in valuable ways.
After that flight to Orlando, I noticed immediate changes. Emails that would have sent me into an hour-long response spiral got two sentences or silence. Arguments that would have escalated got met with a, “You might be right” or “This isn’t worth our energy.”
I began to understand what Becker was really saying: We’re all going to die, and no amount of achievement can change that. Instead of this being depressing, I found it liberating. But the biggest shift? I started prioritizing shared meals with loved ones as if they were board meetings with God because, from the perspective of mortality, they basically are.
When you stop trying to outrun death through achievement, you can start using your limited time to contribute something meaningful. The question shifts from “How can I matter forever?” (an absurd exercise likely to lead to shallow, inauthentic answers) to “How can I matter right now?” (a powerful question for finding compassionate action to make the world a little bit better around you, in this moment).
Your mortality, your mentor: As I write this, I’m thinking of my uncle Ward. A kind, lovable, and humble man, he was an example to all who met him. He passed, far too soon, in August 2023, after a horrific battle with throat cancer and Crohn’s disease that meant he could not eat and barely speak for months. He was far too gentle, too kind, too good to have deserved a fight I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy. And yet, even as he lost weight and even when words became too painful to form, my uncle still showed up for his family, managed to communicate love through presence alone, and found ways to express care even as his body betrayed him.
I remember how he’d text me about the latest Cubs game or to share the latest news on my one friend who made it to the MLB. For anyone he knew driving to or from Chicago, he would be checking the weather for them, letting them know the forecast and the ideal driving windows to avoid the worst of it. And there was nothing any of his many nieces or nephews could accomplish without my uncle Ward being one of the first to congratulate them for it.
By remembering him, I remember to live. I remember how he loved his family and his friends. I remember the generosity of his spirit, being the first to serve charity, to leave behind a bigger tip, to congratulate someone on their latest accomplishment.
My uncle can no longer do those things on this earthly plane. But I can. This is the paradox of memento mori: The more we remember death, the more fully we live. The more we befriend mortality (our own or the people in our lives), the less it controls us. Admittedly, this embrace feels weird. But death is the feature of our existence that makes life meaningful. Without scarcity, there’s no value. Without endings, there’s no urgency to begin. And without mortality, there’s no reason to choose what matters over what’s merely urgent.
So I’ll ask you what I asked myself on that turbulent flight: Are you ready? Are you good with your people? Have you said what needs saying, done what needs doing, loved who needs loving? If not, what are you waiting for? Death is waiting to help you figure out what actually matters. All you have to do is listen."
"How It Really Is"
"Thomas Edison said in all seriousness: "There is no expedient to which a man will not resort to avoid the labor of thinking"- if we bother with facts at all, we hunt like bird dogs after the facts that bolster up what we already think - and ignore all the others! We want only the facts that justify our acts - the facts that fit in conveniently with our wishful thinking and justify our preconceived prejudices. As Andre Maurois put it: "Everything that is in agreement with our personal desires seems true. Everything that is not puts us into a rage." Is it any wonder, then, that we find it so hard to get at the answers to our problems? Wouldn't we have the same trouble trying to solve a second-grade arithmetic problem, if we went ahead on the assumption that two plus two equals five? Yet there are a lot of people in this world who make life a hell for themselves and others by insisting that two plus two equals five - or maybe five hundred!"
- Dale Carnegie
Dan, I Allegedly, "No Police, No Help, No Money! What’s Happening?!"
Full screen recommended.
Dan, I Allegedly, 5/2/26
"No Police, No Help,
No Money! What’s Happening?!"
"California’s emergency system is facing a breaking point. In this video, I break down how the 911 infrastructure - built decades ago - is now failing at scale, with tens of thousands of hours of outages every single month. Despite tens of millions already spent, the system still isn’t reliable. What does this mean for everyday people? It means when you call for help… no one may answer. This raises serious questions about government spending, infrastructure priorities, and public safety across the state.It gets worse. The Los Angeles Police Chief has now admitted there aren’t enough officers - or funding - to safely handle the 2028 Olympics. Combine that with rising crime stories, economic instability, and warnings about inflation and supply shortages, and you have a perfect storm. In this video, we also cover shocking fraud cases, retail theft, and what you should be doing right now to prepare financially and protect yourself. "
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"Millions of Americans Are Doing Everything Right… And Still Falling Apart"
Full screen recommended.
Across The States, 5/2/26
"Millions of Americans Are Doing Everything Right…
And Still Falling Apart"
"Why Americans are dying younger is no longer a mystery - and it’s not just healthcare. This video breaks down the deeper economic crisis affecting life expectancy in the U.S. Here’s the thing: something started going wrong years before anyone noticed. Even as headlines claimed growth, everyday life got harder - higher costs, more stress, and less stability. That disconnect isn’t random. It’s a signal that the system people rely on isn’t working the way it used to. What most people miss is how this shows up in the body. Rising anxiety, burnout, and long-term health issues aren’t separate problems - they’re tied to financial pressure, job insecurity, and the cost of simply staying afloat. When survival gets harder, health follows. The reality is, this goes beyond hospitals or medicine. It’s about wages, housing, debt, and how much control people actually have over their lives. Even younger generations are feeling it earlier, and the long-term effects are already showing."
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"Millions of Americans Are Tapping Out - The Cost of Living Is Breaking Them"
Full screen recommended.
Global Discovery, 5/2/26
"Millions of Americans Are Tapping Out -
The Cost of Living Is Breaking Them"
"Millions of people across the country are facing growing financial pressure as the cost of living crisis continues affecting households, workers, and retirees. In this educational documentary, we examine why more Americans struggling with rising rent, food prices, healthcare costs, and debt are reconsidering what life in America looks like in 2026. This video explores how changes in the U.S. economy, wage growth, and inflation may be contributing to the ongoing middle class crisis. From housing affordability to shrinking savings, the documentary analyzes how Inflation in America and the housing crisis USA are impacting everyday American families and reshaping working class America. We also discuss the growing concerns surrounding American economy decline, poverty in America, and broader economic struggles USA affecting communities nationwide. Through data, personal experiences, and historical comparisons, this documentary examines the challenges of Living in the U.S. and the reality of survival in America during uncertain economic times."
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"A Flashing Red Warning Signal: In California, Gasoline Is 6 Now Dollars A Gallon And Diesel Is Now 7 Dollars A Gallon"
by Michael Snyder
"You have probably noticed that gasoline is starting to become extremely expensive. That is really bad news for all of us, because our entire way of life depends on cheap energy. We can’t make stuff without energy. We can’t move stuff without energy. That is why the cost of energy directly affects the cost of everything else. In fact, energy is literally the foundation of our entire economy. If we have cheap energy we will have a high standard of living. If we do not have cheap energy we will not have a high standard of living. It really is that simple.
Prior to the war with Iran, energy prices were quite low, but now everything has changed. Oil production in the Persian Gulf has dropped by 57 percent from pre-war levels, and hardly any oil and natural gas have been getting through the Strait of Hormuz over the past couple of months. As a result, energy prices are soaring all over the world.
Here in the United States, the average price of a gallon of gasoline just hit $4.30…Gasoline prices nationwide surged 27 cents over the past week as oil prices spiked. Drivers paid $4.30 per gallon on average across the U.S. Thursday, compared to $4.03 a week ago. In late February, the average price of a gallon of gasoline in the United States was less than 3 dollars a gallon. At this point, U.S. consumers are paying $1.32 more per gallon than they did just prior to the war. If the conflict with Iran is not resolved quickly, things will get a lot worse.
In order to get an idea of where things could be headed, just look at what is going on in California. The average price of a gallon of gasoline in California just reached $6.01…California gasoline prices hit $6 per gallon on Thursday, a 30% increase since the U.S. and Israel launched the war against Iran in late February. Drivers in California are paying the most in the nation at $6.01 per gallon on average, according to data from AAA.
A 30 percent increase in two months is crazy. But this is the reality that we are living in now. Before the war began, the average price of a gallon of gasoline in California was just $4.64. This just shows how rapidly conditions can change.
Needless to say, the price of diesel has been going up even faster. In California, it is up a whopping 47 percent since the beginning of the war…. Diesel, meanwhile, cost about $7.50 per gallon on average in California on Thursday, a 47% increasse since the war broke out on Feb. 28. Diesel is essential for the economy because the fuel is used by trucks and trains to deliver all the goods that consumers buy.
If prices for gasoline and diesel remain at these elevated levels, it will be very painful, but we can survive this. But what will happen if oil prices continue to skyrocket? On Thursday, the price of Brent crude actually hit $126 a barrel before falling back… Oil prices surged to a wartime high Thursday, with Brent crude, the international benchmark, topping $126 a barrel as concerns grew that the Iran war will drag on, tightening global energy supplies.
We are being warned that the price of oil could easily reach 150 dollars a barrel if the Strait of Hormuz is not reopened quickly. Unfortunately, it does not appear that is going to happen any time soon. So I am encouraging everyone to prepare for an extended crisis. Literally just about everything is going to become more expensive.
And that is really bad news, because a survey that was conducted before the war ever began discovered that more than half of all Americans were struggling to pay their bills on time each month…A separate survey of 5,000 Americans, conducted by Talker Research for Current in December 2025, adds context to how raw the financial picture looks. In that study, 87% of respondents said the country is in a crisis because of how unaffordable life has become. More than half (52%) said they struggle to pay their bills on time each month, and 50% said they’ve had difficulty affording groceries.
Please read that paragraph again. That was where we were at prior to the war with Iran. Needless to say, substantially elevated energy prices will make our affordability crisis a great deal worse.
Of course it isn’t just U.S. consumers that are being affected by this. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is warning that “the whole of humanity is paying the price” and that we are now facing the “specter of global recession”…The head of the United Nations warned Thursday of the “specter of global recession” if the U.S.-Iran war doesn’t end soon, imploring both sides to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and “let the global economy breathe again.”
Speaking to journalists in New York, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that despite the “fragile ceasefire” between the U.S. and Iran, the consequences of their ongoing standoff in the Strait of Hormuz “grow dramatically worse with each passing hour.” “As with every conflict, the whole of humanity is paying the price,” he said. “The pain will be felt for a long time to come.”
I normally do not agree with U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres about anything. But in this case, he is right on target. If the Strait of Hormuz does not reopen soon, there is no way that we are going to avoid a major global economic downturn.
Guterres is also claiming that 45 million people living on this planet could soon fall into “extreme hunger”… If the constraint on shipping through the strait “drags on through midyear,” he said 32 million people would fall into poverty and 45 million “into extreme hunger,” he said. According to the UN, the number of people experiencing acute hunger was already at an all-time record high even before the war with Iran started.
Now we are facing the worst fertilizer crisis in history. If you have not read the breakdown that I published about this earlier in the week, please go back and read it now. There are so few prominent voices that are telling the truth about this. The spring planting season in the northern hemisphere is going to be a disaster, and six to nine months from now global food shortages are going to hit us like a freight train. Food prices will rise to shocking levels in wealthy nations, and there will be widespread famines in impoverished nations. We desperately need the Strait of Hormuz to be reopened immediately, because we really are heading into an unprecedented nightmare."
"A Prayer For Struggling Americans From Iran"
Full screen recommended.
"A Prayer For Struggling Americans From Iran"
Friday, May 1, 2026
Brick Beat Battalion, "We Share the Same Pain"
Full screen recommended.
Brick Beat Battalion, "We Share the Same Pain"
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Canadian Prepper, "Alert! WTF! Trump Cancels Congress, War To Restart!"
Full screen recommended.
Canadian Prepper, 5/1/26
"Alert! WTF! Trump Cancels Congress,
War To Restart!"
Comments here:
Adventures With Danno, "Prepare For Massive Price Hikes, It's About To Get Ugly"
Adventures With Danno, 5/1/26
"Prepare For Massive Price Hikes,
It's About To Get Ugly"
Comments here:
"Something Is Wrong With American Food - And People Are Getting Angry"
Full screen recommended.
Epic Economist, 5/1/26
"Something Is Wrong With American Food -
And People Are Getting Angry"
"Ninety-three percent of Americans are metabolically unhealthy. Thirty-eight percent of kids under twelve are pre-diabetic. American white bread is classified as a plastic in forty-three countries. The food in the United States is not the same food the rest of the world is eating - and a wave of Americans coming back from trips abroad are saying the same thing: "I ate whatever I wanted in Italy, France, Jamaica, the DR - and felt fine. The moment I came home, my body started reacting again." This video pulls together the clips going viral right now from the people noticing it first."
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"A Look to the Heavens"
“Close to the Great Bear (Ursa Major) and surrounded by the stars of the Hunting Dogs (Canes Venatici), this celestial wonder was discovered in 1781 by the metric French astronomer Pierre Mechain. Later, it was added to the catalog of his friend and colleague Charles Messier as M106. Modern deep telescopic views reveal it to be an island universe - a spiral galaxy around 30 thousand light-years across located only about 21 million light-years beyond the stars of the Milky Way.
Along with a bright central core, this stunning galaxy portrait, a composite of image data from amateur and professional telescopes, highlights youthful blue star clusters and reddish stellar nurseries tracing the galaxy's spiral arms. It also shows off remarkable reddish jets of glowing hydrogen gas. In addition to small companion galaxy NGC 4248 at bottom right, background galaxies can be found scattered throughout the frame. M106, also known as NGC 4258, is a nearby example of the Seyfert class of active galaxies, seen across the spectrum from radio to X-rays. Active galaxies are powered by matter falling into a massive central black hole.”
"The Prophet: On Good and Evil "
"The Prophet: On Good and Evil "
"Of the good in you I can speak, but not of the evil.
For what is evil but good tortured by its own hunger and thirst?
Verily when good is hungry it seeks food even in dark caves,
and when it thirsts it drinks even of dead waters.
You are good when you are one with yourself.
Yet when you are not one with yourself you are not evil.
For a divided house is not a den of thieves; it is only a divided house.
And a ship without rudder may wander aimlessly among
perilous isles yet sink not to the bottom.
You are good when you strive to give of yourself.
Yet you are not evil when you seek gain for yourself.
For when you strive for gain you are but a root
that clings to the earth and sucks at her breast.
Surely the fruit cannot say to the root,
Be like me, ripe and full and ever giving of your abundance.
For to the fruit giving is a need, as receiving is a need to the root.
You are good when you are fully awake in your speech,
Yet you are not evil when you sleep
while your tongue staggers without purpose.
And even stumbling speech may strengthen a weak tongue.
You are good when you walk to your goal firmly and with bold steps.
Yet you are not evil when you go thither limping.
Even those who limp go not backward.
But you who are strong and swift,
see that you do not limp before the lame, deeming it kindness.
You are good in countless ways,
and you are not evil when you are not good,
You are only loitering and sluggard.
Pity that the stags cannot teach swiftness to the turtles.
In your longing for your giant self lies your goodness:
and that longing is in all of you.
But in some of you that longing is a torrent rushing with might to the sea,
carrying the secrets of the hillsides and the songs of the forest.
And in others it is a flat stream that loses itself in angles and
bends and lingers before it reaches the shore.
But let not him who longs much say to him who longs little,
Wherefore are you slow and halting?
For the truly good ask not the naked,
Where is your garment?
nor the houseless, What has befallen your house?"
- Kahlil Gibran
○
Freely download a PDF version of "The Prophet" here:
John Wilder, "What Do You Value?"
"What Do You Value?"
by John Wilder
“I have been in the service of the Vorlons for centuries, looking for you. Diogenes, with his lamp, looking for an honest man, willing to die for all the wrong reasons. At last, my job is finished. Yours is just beginning. When the darkness comes, know this; you are the right people, in the right place, at the right time.” – "Babylon 5"
"What is the most common question asked by philosophers nowadays? “Do you want fries with that?” Diogenes is dead. When he was up and kicking around, he lived in a wine barrel at the end of town, and often was caught on the streets stark naked. Sometimes he was, um, enjoying himself. Oddly, he was also thought of as a respected philosopher. When I try to emulate him, though, all I get is a restraining order and some embarrassing YouTube® videos.
The reason we remember Diogenes is for two reasons: First, he invented the chicken nugget, but sadly was unable to invent any tasty dipping sauces. Second, he walked around making pithy little statements like this: “We sell things of great value for things of very little, and vice versa." It’s a very short, and very wickedly to the point piece of advice. Frankly, it points out many of the problems we are facing as a society today.
Let’s take consooming for today’s topic. Billions of dollars are spent attempting to convince people to purchase one product or another. These advertisements are hard to avoid – and they have one thing in common – a desire to get the consoomer to spend money. In some cases, the ads provide the ability to match a need with a product. If I’m cutting down trees using axes and handsaws, knowing that a thing called a chainsaw exists is providing me a real value. So, ads inform.
But ads also are used to create desire in customers, playing on emotions to drive purchase decisions for things that aren’t needs, but frivolities. I have plenty of those! I’m a sucker for some things in particular. In the sitting room (where I’m typing this now) I look around and see a map I bought as artwork a few years ago. It shows all the undersea telegraph cables in around 1871. So very cool! I walked into the store, saw it, and bought it. I consoomed. I can’t cut down a tree with it. I can’t drive it to work. It’s just... there, stuck to my wall.
Is the map of great value? No. It’s a print. It doesn’t make me better, more complete, important, or accomplished. We can look in terms of multiple ways to value things. Dollars are only one. In this case, the picture cost about what I made in about an hour or two. Was it worth an hour of my life to own that map? Yeah, I guess so. But when I start to value objects that I own, and look at how much of my life I traded for them, my equation starts to change.
If I didn’t spend that hour at work, what could I have spent that hour on? How could I have changed my life? Could I have spent more time brushing my teeth, so they were 2.3% brighter? Should I have spent that time waxing my dog? What did I overlook or not spend time on? And which of those things might have been more valuable?
I understand that money is important – those who say that money isn’t important haven’t gone without it. But money isn’t the goal, it’s what can be done with it that’s important. The true currency of our lives isn’t gold, silver, or even PEZ™. It’s time. Each of us on this planet have a finite number of hours left on this rock, and that number goes down by one each hour that we spend. It goes down by one if I spend it at a job I don’t like. It goes down if I spend it writing the best post I’ve ever written. It goes down by one if I’m sleeping. It goes down by one every hour.
Yes, I know, exercising and other positive things might extend that life, but I’m still going to die. In the endless summer of a life when I was, say, 12, I didn’t think much about time and how I spent it. Even then, though, I didn’t try to just “pass the time” since there was so much to do and see and learn in the world. Now as I’m on the back side of life, I can see that those hours I have left cannot be wasted.
They’re all I have. And learning is great, but now it has to have purpose. Will it help me write? Will it help me crack a puzzle that I can share? Will it help me with some project I’m working on? Can it help me change the world?
Again, as I get older, it ceases to be about me. It’s now about what I can do to help others, how I can help make the world a better place. Thankfully, during my career I’ve been able to do work on things that matter, and have made the world a slightly better place. If I’m trading my life for my work, I’m glad that it’s work that matters.
Diogenes? He’s still dead, but he changed the world, just a little bit. And I can, too. And so can you. Time is still all we have, but it’s up to us to make the most of it, each and every day, just like Diogenes showed us. But, I don’t recommend you do it naked. Now, I wonder how Diogenes dealt with the restraining orders?"
"There Was A Tale..."
“There was a tale he had read once, long ago, as a small boy: the story of a traveler who had slipped down a cliff, with man-eating tigers above him and a lethal fall below him, who managed to stop his fall halfway down the side of the cliff, holding on for dear life. There was a clump of strawberries beside him, and certain death above him and below. What should he do? went the question. And the reply was, Eat the strawberries. The story had never made sense to him as a boy. It did now.”
- Neil Gaiman
Judge Napolitano, "INTEL Roundtable w/Johnson & McGovern - Weekly Wrap 1 May"
Judge Napolitano - Judging Freedom, 5/1/26
"INTEL Roundtable w/Johnson & McGovern -
Weekly Wrap 1 May"
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"Half The Nation Struggles To Pay it's Bills, Americans Are Feeling Intense Pressure"
Jeremiah Babe, 5/1/26
"Half The Nation Struggles To Pay it's Bills,
Americans Are Feeling Intense Pressure"
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Full screen recommended.
The Unfolded States, 5/1/26
"Millions of Americans Are
Living in Third World Conditions"
"Millions of Americans are working harder than ever, yet falling further behind. Rising housing costs, expensive groceries, and unpredictable healthcare bills are changing what everyday life looks like across the country. What used to feel stable is becoming harder to maintain. This video breaks down what is really happening behind the cost of living crisis USA is facing today. From record homelessness to shrinking financial margins, these trends are not isolated. They are part of a broader shift affecting a growing portion of the population and accelerating the American middle class decline. If you have noticed things feeling tighter, more expensive, or harder to manage, you are not alone. The bigger question is where these trends are heading next, and what that means for the future."
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The Economic Ninja, 5/1/26
'Here's What Happens When Over
600 Convenience Stores Close"
"Economic Ninja here. Today, we're looking at the widespread "retail collapse" impacting major chains across the nation. With numerous "closed stores" from 7-Eleven to GameStop, it's clear we're witnessing a significant "retail crisis." This "retail apocalypse" and the resulting "business closures" are strong indicators of an "economic slowdown" affecting the entire "us economy." This video dives into the wave of retail shutdowns, including over 600 7-Eleven locations closing, along with major chains like GameStop and Foot Locker. When consumer behavior shifts this dramatically, it often signals growing strain on everyday household finances."
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"We All Do What We Can..."
“All sins, of course, deserve to be treated with mercy: we all do what we can, and life is too hard and too cruel for us to condemn anyone for failing in this area. Does anyone know what he himself would do if faced with the worst and how much truth could he bear under such circumstances?” - Andre Comte-Sponville
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Joe South, “Walk A Mile In My Shoes”
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"Every Normal Man..."
"Every normal man must be tempted, at times, to spit on
his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats."
- H. L. Mencken
“Why Albert Einstein Thought We Were All Insane”
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“Why Albert Einstein Thought We Were All Insane”
by Simon Black
“In the early summer of 1914, Albert Einstein was about to start a prestigious new job as Director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physics. The position was a big deal for the 35-year old Einstein – confirmation that he was one of the leading scientific minds in the world. And he was excited about what he would be able to achieve there. But within weeks of Einstein’s arrival, the German government canceled plans for the Institute; World War I had broken out, and all of Europe was gearing up for one of the bloodiest conflicts in human history.
The impact of the Great War was immeasurable. It cost the lives of 20 million people. It bankrupted entire nations. The war ripped two major European powers off the map – the Austro Hungarian Empire, and the Ottoman Empire – and deposited them in the garbage can of history. Austria-Hungary in particular boasted the second largest land mass in Europe, the third highest population, and one of the biggest economies. Plus it was a leading manufacturer of high-tech machinery. Yet by the end of the war it would no longer exist.
World War I also played a major role in the emergence of communism in Russia through the 1917 Bolshevik revolution. Plus it was also a critical factor in the astonishing rise of the Nazi party in Germany. Without the Great War, Adolf Hitler would have been an obscure Austrian vagabond, and our world would be an entirely different place.
One of the most bizarre things about World War I was how predictable it was. Tensions had been building in Europe for years, and the threat of war was deemed so likely that most major governments invested heavily in detailed war plans. The most famous was Germany’s “Schlieffen Plan”, a military offensive strategy named after its architect, Count Alfred von Schlieffen. To describe the Schlieffen Plan as “comprehensive” is a massive understatement.
As AJP describes in his book "War by Timetable", the Schlieffen Plan called for rapidly moving hundreds of thousands of soldiers to the front lines, plus food, equipment, horses, munitions, and other critical supplies, all in a matter of DAYS. Tens of thousands of trains were criss-crossing Europe during the mobilization, and as you can imagine, all the trains had to run precisely on time. A train that was even a minute early or a minute late would cause a chain reaction to the rest of the plan, affecting the time tables of other trains and other troop movements. In short, there was no room for error.
In many respects the Schlieffen Plan is still with us to this day – not with regards to war, but for monetary policy. Like the German General Staff more than a century ago, modern central bankers concoct the most complicated, elaborate plans to engineer economic victory. Their success depends on being able to precisely control the [sometimes irrational] behavior of hundreds of millions of consumers, millions of businesses, dozens of foreign nations, and trillions of dollars of capital. And just like the obtusely complex war plans from 1914, central bank policy requires that all the trains run on time. There is no room for error.
This is nuts. Economies are comprised of billions of moving pieces that are beyond anyone’s control and often have competing interests. A government that’s $39 trillion in debt requires cheap money (i.e. low interest rates) to stay afloat. Yet low interest rates are severely punishing for savers, retirees, and pension funds (including Social Security) because they’re unable to generate a sufficient rate of return to meet their needs.
Low interest rates are great for capital intensive businesses that need to borrow money. But they also create dangerous asset bubbles and can eventually cause a painful rise in inflation. Raise interest rates too high, however, and it could bankrupt debtors and throw the economy into a tailspin. Like I said, there’s no room for error – they have to find the perfect balance between growth and inflation.
Several years ago hedge fund billionaire Ray Dalio summed it up perfectly when he said, “It becomes more and more difficult to balance those things as time goes on. It may not be a problem in the next year or two, but the risk of not getting it right increases with time. The risk of them getting it wrong is clearly growing. I truly hope they don’t get it wrong. But if they ever do, people may finally look back and wonder how we could have been so foolish to hand total control of our economy over to an unelected committee of bureaucrats with a mediocre track record… and then expect them to get it right forever. It’s pretty insane when you think about it."
As Einstein quipped at the height of World War I in 1917, “What a pity we don’t live on Mars so that we could observe the futile activities of human beings only through a telescope…”
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"It is common to assume that human progress affects everyone - that even the dullest man, in these bright days, knows more than any man of, say, the Eighteenth Century, and is far more civilized. This assumption is quite erroneous. The great masses of men, even in this inspired republic, are precisely where the mob was at the dawn of history. They are ignorant, they are dishonest, they are cowardly, they are ignoble. They know little if anything that is worth knowing, and there is not the slightest sign of a natural desire among them to increase their knowledge."
- H. L. Mencken, 1929
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Freely download "Ideas And Opinions", by Albert Einstein, here:
"Iran Has Nuclear Weapons - America Cannot Strike, Israel Faces Annihilation"
Full screen recommended.
Prof. Jiang Xueqin, 5/1/26
"Iran Has Nuclear Weapons -
America Cannot Strike, Israel Faces Annihilation"
"Iran has just done what no one dared to believe - revealed nuclear weapons to the world. Now America is frozen. Israel is terrified. And Trump's "5-Day Ultimatum" is not what it seems. Prof. Jiang Xueqin breaks down the most consequential geopolitical shift of the decade - Iran's secret nuclear program, the hidden Iran-North Korea deal, and Trump's calculated 5-day trap designed to destroy Iran while the world watches the "negotiation."
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Col. Douglas Macgregor, 5/1/26
"Iran Receives 500 Chinese DF-21D Missiles,
Israel's Navy Erased, US Carriers Dare Not Return"
"For the first time in modern military history, China transferred 500 DF-21D carrier-killer missiles to Iran - and within hours, Israel's entire naval task force was erased from the Eastern Mediterranean. Four corvettes, two submarines, eleven support vessels - gone in a single night. American carriers that were supposed to respond? They never came. This is the unfiltered analysis of the strategic earthquake that just restructured the entire Middle East power balance - told from the perspective of someone who spent three decades inside the machine that just failed. The mainstream narrative is hiding what actually happened. We are not."
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Larry Johnson & Col. Wilkerson, 5/1/26
"It’s Over: Iran Just Wiped Out Trump’s Blockade -
War Imminent"
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