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Just like Marquis de Lafayette felt compelled to venture into the americas and fight in the American Revolution, something similar was set ablaze in young Hamilton while he was still in the west indies, and in the recesses of his mind, he felt that America is where he is destined for glory. Hamilton arrives in the americas, and the first thing he does is try to find a way to compress all his…
It is a fact of life that judges hold immense power in influencing policy, public opinion, and the law of the land. The power of the judge depends on their court’s position in the hierarchy, the lower the court the more adherent to legalistic standards/rules and precedent it is. So the question becomes: is the judge a state court judge, subject to the whims of higher courts' decisions; or an…
Thoughts on the book 'Impro' by Keith Johnson I've enjoyed the Status and Spontaneity chapters so much, and think they're super insightful writing about human psychology and interpersonal relationships: we want people to be low status without feeling sympathy for them (man falling on a banana skin); you can play high status (talking with a still head, ignoring eye contact and not glancing back;…
We learned in LiftOff, the first book about the early days of SpaceX that it takes an intense amount of hours and focus and finding the right people for the job who align with the mission, to just get off the ground. Falcon 1 was the culmination of those efforts that almost went nowhere. The risk of failure was looming large, but the slim chance of success made it all worth it. In book 2,…
..Among the many things to which he gave thought and care, none was more important to him than the work he hoped would be accomplished by the Vanderbilt University. Vanderbilt, towards the end of his life, was still lamenting his lack of education and his involvement in the war against the south through his mightiest ship "Vanderbilt" and wanted to redeem that by building something of value for…
Life can not be just about solving problems. There has to be something that inspires us to get up in the morning; the spirit of exploration and adventure, humanity exploring the stars! The advancement of civilization is not inevitable. Egyptians, for instance, forgot how to build the pyramids, Skills/technologies can get lost. Human agency is what advances civilization! answering questions is not…
If we go back to the 17th and 18th century, the nature of the discourse at the time was expository, rational, long-form and sequential. People had a typographic mind; the only medium of communication available was the printed word, so people had to read, think and engage actively with the medium which, in turn, made them more thoughtful and critical. listening to a debate for 7 hours in the town…
How do you assess outcomes in life, based on what? Track records? Wealth? position in the corporate hierarchy? The reason one asks themselves these questions is because they'd wanna hedge their bets against illusions of success and skill (medium, short-term) and maximize their long-term success. So given that frame, when we look at outcomes, we gotta think of the unrealized outcomes and the…
There is a man stuck in a traffic jam. There are people. It looks like the faces are familiar. No wait, the man is now floating up in the air viewing everything from above. Someone suddenly drags his feet and he falls all the way down to the ground. Our protagonist is having a nightmare! Fellini’s 8½ follows a filmmaker(Fellini?) who’s having an existential crisis of the intense kind; What movie…
Vagabonding is the art of leaving everything behind and traveling for an extended period of time in a faraway land. There are distinct differences between vacationing for a few days in the Bahamas and living in some remote exotic place as far from what you're accustomed to as possible and experiencing it fully, both the bad parts and the good parts. Taking on such quests shouldn’t be a privilege…