SXSW Interactive is pretty much how life should be lived—inspiring talks, great networking, and free booze. I love it so much that even though I had moved away from Austin and had to leave behind a loving family for nearly a week, I made it happen. It might even have been worth it. Obama The […]
I love logic. As a form of discussion, accompanied by the Socratic method, it’s unsurpassed. The beauty of logic is that it applies to every discussion and everyone in the discussion. No matter what you’re talking about, logic can be used as a tool to make dramatic points and turn the conversation around. Dictionary.com defines […]
My wife and I decided to move to Louisiana from Texas in 2015 for her to be closer to her family and for me to be closer to good gumbo. It was a difficult move because Texas was the land of opportunity with no income tax, a flourishing economy, and the best brisket in the […]
Everyone is libertarian . . . for themselves. The trick is getting people to be libertarian for everyone else as well. No one likes it when people to tell them what to do. Nobody wants a nagging, paternalistic busy-body constantly poking and prodding in their personal or even public life. It’s offensive to one’s sense […]
2015 was pretty bad for the concept of agreement. Religious differences spurred despicable terrorist attacks; protests across the US resulted in antagonism between racial minorities and police; and caustic political vitriol seemed to be at an all-time high across the globe. As one commentator wrote, “If you ask 100 different people how we should fix this […]
I recently rewatched one of the best financial movies of all time: Margin Call. It’s expertly acted, intensely dramatic, and has some great cinematography. There’s only one problem for a film about the 2008 financial crisis: it completely misses the root cause. Near the end of the film, it’s clear that the filmmakers see greedy […]
With the recent announcements that Playboy will stop publishing nude photographs of women, citing that with porn so ubiquitous, nudity has become passé, it’s time to revisit a discussion regarding nudity from the book Everyone Agrees. Keeping Abreast on Things On February 1, 2004, nearly 90 million Americans were shocked when they saw a female […]
At a gathering of liberty-minded young professionals the other night, someone asked if there was a way to unify all libertarians. The joking answer was, “Don’t bring up abortion.” Libertarians—more than any group of people—can find common ground on just about everything, but when it comes to the contentious issue of abortion, it seems that […]
We are in the midst of a dramatic sea change in technological society. Just a few years ago, for services like getting a ride or a night’s stay, we had to rely on bloated, bureaucratic corporations. Now, with technology and the Internet, anyone with a computer can become an entrepreneur in 60 seconds and offer […]
There’s a chilling moment in “Experimenter” where Peter Sarsgaard, portraying the revolutionary psychologist Stanley Milgram, speaks to the audience. He explains that there was a time when people could give a fully human response to every situation. But more often now people don’t get to see the whole situation. People carry out small narrow specialized […]