Here’s a wide-ranging conversation I had with the good people at the Institute for Leadership Training, in Brazil. We discuss Ayn Rand’s philosophy, moral certainty, and how rational principles apply to leadership, teamwork, independence, self-defense, religion,...
Having strong self-esteem depends on being proud of yourself—on feeling proud of the things you do, the values you hold, and the principles you stand for. But for that pride to be genuine, you must know that you deserve to be proud of those things. If you...
In “Conceptual Fallacies and How to Avoid Them,” I mentioned the essential difference between logical and conceptual fallacies—one being a violation of the principles of logic, the other a violation of the principles of concept-formation. Here, I’d like to elaborate...
Here’s the video of a talk I gave at LevelUp 2024. I’ll share the accompanying slides below—along with two extra slides I prepared but didn’t use (they’re the final two and, in the context of the talk, they should be self-explanatory). Continue...
Toadling is a changeling—a child who was stolen from her cradle by wicked fairies less than an hour after birth and replaced by their own daughter. The fairy’s family don’t care what happens to Toadling once she’s in their realm, but luckily she’s adopted by a clan of...
Is your work meaningful and interesting to you? If not, do you have a plan for how to transition to work that is? In 2013, after a series of unpleasant jobs, I made a decision: The job I was doing then would be the last job I hated. The next year, I put that decision...
I journal a lot. Across all my journals, I’ve written at least seven-hundred and fifty thousand words. From the many avid journalists I’ve spoken to, a common practice is to write, shut the journal, and never look at it again. But, this is a mistake in my...
This spinoff to The Handmaid’s Tale, set in the same tyrannical theocracy (the Republic of Gilead), alternates between the perspectives of three very different women. Aunt Lydia, the only character who’s in both this novel and the original, was coerced into helping...
Logical fallacies are not the only errors that retard thinking. Conceptual fallacies do, too, and often in subtler, more destructive ways. Just as logical fallacies violate principles of logic, conceptual fallacies violate those of concept-formation. The basic...
I did something kind of nuts, and it took forever, but I think it clearly shows that—in the debate between Anthony Fantano and Rick Beato over the state of pop music—Fantano is WRONG. Pop music has definitely gotten worse. Here I discuss—and share—the 660+ song...
