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"Never underestimate a man who overestimates himself." ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt "You will become way less concerned with what other people think of you when you realize how seldom they do." ~ David Foster Wallace "You can't overestimate the importance of psychology in chess, and as much as some players try to downplay it, I believe that winning requires a constant and strong psychology not just at the board but in every aspect of your life." ~ Garry Kasparov The Dunning-Kruger effect is intriguing as it applies to various areas, including sports, business, education, and politics. It…

"When dissonance is present, in addition to trying to reduce it, the person will actively avoid situations and information which would likely increase the dissonance." ~ Leon Festinger "What I do is create a lens through my work that corrects my readers' cognitive dissonance and says: you will see all of it - not what you want or what makes you comfortable, but all of it. And you will not erase what displeases you." ~ Chris Abani Just thinking of some of my friends that own small businesses and issues and stress that they live through can be extremely challenging. Running a small…

"The mind of an enlightened human being is flexible and adaptable. The mind of the ignorant person is conditioned and fixed." ~ Ajahn Sumedho "Brains are tricky and adaptable organs. For all the 'neuroplasticity' allowing our brains to reconfigure themselves to the biases of our computers, we are just as neuroplastic in our ability to eventually recover and adapt." ~ Douglas Rushkoff Instead of memorizing facts, we should train our minds to think creatively and find connections. Learning from different angles, like seeing things as pictures, hearing them as sounds, or doing things with…

Hard power makes sense under some circumstances. But there's not a universal solution to global problems. A major country like the United States has to have a broadly-conceived program for effective international action, influence and cooperation with others. ~ Zbigniew Brzezinski "Power is the ability to affect others to get the outcomes you want, and that can be done by coercion, payment or attraction." ~ Joseph Nye "Money and donations are an important part of our political system. They are hard power." ~ Joseph Nye "Every politician just has to remember how he got his position in the…

As an educator and someone always interested in lifelong learning for all adult students, I believe the launch of the Peterson Academy's college-level courses is an outstanding addition to the competition, alongside Coursera and many other online college course programs. Peterson Academy has just launched its Beta version, marking the beginning of new features and improvements. The feedback from early beta users will help shape the platform into the best possible learning experience in the coming months. Imagine having access to the world's leading educators right at your fingertips.…

"Fear is the main source of superstition, and one of the main sources of cruelty. To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom." ~ Bertrand Russell "Winners are not afraid of losing. But losers are. Failure is part of the process of success. People who avoid failure also avoid success." ~ Robert Kiyosaki "I've failed over and over and over again in my life and that is why I succeed." ~ Michael Jordan "Fears are educated into us, and can, if we wish, be educated out." ~ Karl A. Menninger "He who fears being conquered is sure of defeat." ~ Napoleon Bonaparte "Failure is not the opposite of…

"In a sense, artificial intelligence will be the ultimate tool because it will help us build all possible tools." ~ K. Eric Drexler "You can't just stop technological progress. Even if one country stops researching artificial intelligence, some other countries will continue to do it. The real question is what to do with the technology. You can use exactly the same technology for very different social and political purposes. So I think people shouldn't be focused on the question of how to stop technological progress because this is impossible. Instead the question should be what kind of…

"The consumption society has made us feel that happiness lies in having things, and has failed to teach us the happiness of not having things." ~ Elise M. Boulding "When I admire a writer, it's for the recognizable palette - Hemingway's minimalism, the dialogue, those isolated bar scenes. But with each story or novel, he shows me something different within the framework he's built - like noticing that there's a chair in the corner I didn't see in another story." ~ Jill Talbot "Essentialism is not about how to get more things done, it's about how to the get the right things done. It doesn't…

Summer is a great time to learn/read up on some good books, here's a quick rundown of each that I am diving into each day for the two months of July and August: The Art and Business of Online Writing: How to Beat the Game of Capturing and Keeping Attention by Nicolas Cole teaches the ins and outs of writing for the web. A super interesting straight to the point read. Whether starting a blog, write content for a website, or just improve your online writing skills, this book is a valuable resource. Snow Leopard: How Legendary Writers Create A Category Of One by Category Pirates, Nicolas…

"There are 4 billion cell phones in use today. Many of them are in the hands of market vendors, rickshaw drivers, and others who've historically lacked access to education and opportunity. Information networks have become a great leveler, and we should use them together to help lift people out of poverty and give them a freedom from want." ~ Hillary Clinton "Technologies, including cell phones, have the potential to help millions of poor people out of poverty by enabling access to a range of safe, affordable financial services - most importantly, savings accounts - that have long been out…

"Hewlett Packard at one point had only three private offices. One belonged to Hewlett, one to Packard, and the third to a guy named Paul Ely who annoyed so many coworkers with his bellowing on the phone that the company finally extended his cubicle walls to the ceiling." ~ Robert X. Cringely "People who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do." ~ Isaac Asimov "I know nothing more annoying when people I don't know jump to conclusions on my person based on nothing but gossip or speculation." ~ Nikolaj Coster-Waldau I just read an interesting article in Fast…

"Always assume incompetence before looking for conspiracy." ~ Niccolo Machiavelli "We have politicians that are grossly incompetent. We have leaders that are incompetent and we have negotiators that are incompetent." ~ Donald Trump "The Obama administration's agenda of maximizing dependency involves political favoritism cloaked in the raiment of "economic planning" and "social justice" that somehow produce results superior to what markets produce when freedom allows merit to manifest itself, and incompetence to fail. The administration's central activity - the political allocation of…

To those of you watching this at home tonight, I’d like to deliver a message that the media doesn’t want you to hear from the Republican Party. Our message to Black Americans is this, the media has tried to convince you for decades that Republicans don’t care about your communities, but we do. We want for you what we want for every American, safe neighbourhoods, clean streets, good jobs, a better life for your children, and a justice system that treats everyone equally regardless of your skin colour and regardless of your political beliefs. ~ Vivek Ramaswamy The Milwaukee RNC Convention…

"The state within a state is hiding mostly in plain sight." ~ Mike Lofgren "I am quite confident that there are numerous discussions going in various "deep states" throughout the world about how to contain Trump's America geopolitically and economically, given the early indications that his policies will intensify conflict in many parts of the world." ~ Richard A. Falk "I don't care what you want to call it. You can call it the deep state. You can get specific and you can say that it's members of the permanent government and there are plenty of those, that are in the intelligence…

"I have complete confidence in Secret Service. These guys and gals are unbelievably professional. They know what they’re doing and I basically do what they tell me to do. Now, sometimes I’m the first one to admit that it chafes a little bit being inside this bubble. It’s the hardest adjustment of being president, not being able to just take a walk." ~ Barack Obama "The Secret Service is a strange group. They don't really have a leader. It's not set up like a military. Each one is supposed to be able to act like a leader when something comes up." ~ Val Kilmer The Secret Service (USSS) is a…