Category Archives: Life

Note to Self

Posted on May 2, 2019 by N.S. Palmer

What advice would you, as an adult, give to your 10-year-old self? Yes, a lot of people have written about that. The latest is psychologist Damon Ashworth, whose blog I read. Dr. Ashworth’s advice to himself is good, but rather general. … Continue reading →

Posted in Human Relations, Life, Psychology | Tagged Advice, Child psychology, Childhood, Growing up, Human Relations, Kindness, Life experience, Note to Self, Respect, Wisdom | 4 Comments

Lucky You

Posted on April 29, 2019 by N.S. Palmer

You’re lucky. So am I. I’ve written in previous blogs that believing we’re lucky is a helpful attitude: It makes us happier because we look for the good in situations. It helps us achieve because we see problems as opportunities … Continue reading →

Posted in Life, Philosophy, Political Science, Society | Tagged Andrew Yang, Automation, Evolution, Guaranteed annual income, Heredity, Rawls, The War on Normal People, Unemployment, Universal basic income | Leave a comment

Sliding Toward Infinity

Posted on April 26, 2019 by N.S. Palmer

When you’re a kid, you look forward to your birthdays. When you’re on the wrong side of 40, not so much. But here we are again. As the Stoic philosopher Marcus Aurelius said, our lives are circumscribed in space, and … Continue reading →

Posted in Life | Tagged Birthdays, Marcus Aurelius, Mathematics, Slide rules, Stoicism | 2 Comments

Don’t Mistake Hate for Logic

Posted on April 23, 2019 by N.S. Palmer

We’ve probably all made the error of mistaking hate for logic. Of course, we didn’t realize it at the time. But that’s what we were doing. Yesterday’s blog post got me thinking about the problem. On my “Top 10” list … Continue reading →

Posted in Epistemology, Human Relations, Life, Philosophy, Political Science, Psychology | Tagged Affirming the consequent, Belisarius, Bias, Byzantine Empire, Empress Theodora, Hate, Hatred, History, Justinian, Logic, Logical fallacies, Loyalty, Modus Ponens, Ostrogorsky, Rationality, Reason, Social Conflict, Syllogism | Leave a comment

Do Great Individuals Shape History?

Posted on April 22, 2019 by N.S. Palmer

Is human history driven mainly by the actions of “great men”? It’s called the great man theory of history. Of course, the problem is that word “mainly.” Lots of things cause historical events. To say that a specific person was … Continue reading →

Posted in Judaism, Life, Philosophy, Psychology, Society | Tagged Adam and Eve, Aristotle, Buddha, Calculus, Confucius, Einstein, Empress Theodora, Gilgamesh, Great Man Theory, Greatness, Hammurabi, Historiography, History, Isaac Newton, Jesus, Leibniz, Moses, Theories of History, Winston Churchill | Leave a comment

Two Views of Life — and Government

Posted on April 18, 2019 by N.S. Palmer

Your parents lied to you. So did mine. They told us: “You can do anything if you make up your mind to do it.” Nope. Not true. Don’t be too hard on parents. It’s a well-meaning lie. It’s arguably even … Continue reading →

Posted in Life, Philosophy, Political Science, Psychology | Tagged Democracy, Determination, Encouragement, History, Nature vs. nurture, Noble lie, Parenting, Persistence, Positive thinking, Social contract | Leave a comment

Don’t Wait: Be Happy Now

Posted on April 12, 2019 by N.S. Palmer

Empiricism is the idea that beliefs should be based on observable evidence. It’s one of the main reasons that our civilization has been successful. Empiricism has given us science, medicine, and technology. It’s given us choices and luxuries that people … Continue reading →

Posted in Life, Philosophy, Psychology | Tagged Constructive attitude, Croesus, Empiricism, Happiness, Herodotus, Philosophy jokes, Positive attitude, Positive thinking, Solon, Stoic, Stoicism | Leave a comment

How To Be Crazy — Constructively

Posted on April 11, 2019 by N.S. Palmer

A while back, I wrote about “How Not To Be Crazy.” And if you must choose between being totally crazy and being totally sane, it’s better to be sane. But let’s face it: total sanity is kind of a barren … Continue reading →

Posted in Human Relations, Life, Political Science, Psychology, Society | Tagged Abraham Lincoln, Cervantes, Don Quixote, Evolutionary Psychology, First-world problems, In-Group, Insane, Manichaean, Manichaeism, Out-Group, Quixotic, Simplistic thinking, Social Conflict | 2 Comments

Advantages of Getting Older

Posted on April 6, 2019 by N.S. Palmer

I got some reading glasses today. However, they’re not actually for reading. I can do that fine except with paperback Hebrew dictionaries, whose print is almost microscopic. I gave up on those a long time ago, and got a magnifying … Continue reading →

Posted in Life, Psychology, Society | Tagged Aging, Millennials, Older, Optimism, Positive thinking, Presbyopia, Rationality, Reading glasses, Skepticism, Tolerance | 3 Comments

I Did Something Stupid Today

Posted on April 4, 2019 by N.S. Palmer

I did something stupid today. I got mad at my phone. And that’s a big part of what’s wrong with the world. Not the fact that I got mad. I’m obviously not that powerful. And thank goodness that I’m not: … Continue reading →