Notes From My Journal
560 articles filed under Notes From My Journal.
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Notes From My Journal
The Truth About Stress
Stress is bad for you. It wears you down. Makes you irritable. Clouds your brain. And over the long run, it shortens your life. I knew that. Until I read a review of The Upside of Stress by Kelly McGonigal…
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Notes From My Journal
The Greatest Film Ever Made”?
About 30 years ago, I severed an Achilles tendon playing basketball. Post-surgery, I had to spend more than three weeks off my feet. I was very active athletically at the time, so the thought of being supine…
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Notes From My Journal
Meeting Ben Carson
We met in the speaker’s lounge. A good-looking man, about my age. Strong handshake. Gentle smile. Good first impression. At that time, I knew two things about him. He was a famous neurosurgeon… and he was…
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Notes From My Journal
The parents were immigrants from Korea…
They barely spoke English. But by the time I knew them, they had a small business. A sandwich shop across the street from Agora’s first headquarters, in a predominantly African American neighborhood in East…
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Notes From My Journal
What I Believe: About Family Culture
What I Believe: About Family Culture Good parents want to see their children exceed them. They want to see them attain heights they never reached. This is natural. It's DNA. And it's the impulse that creates…
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Notes From My Journal
Batman (2022) And Kill Your Darlings Save Movie Night
After watching a string of “serious” movies, K and I thought we’d change it up and see something fun and frivolous. We booked two “extreme luxury” seats for an afternoon showing of Batman. The seats were…
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Notes From My Journal
Meeting Mr. Lewin
The Art Issue Meeting Mr. Lewin On a recent podcast, I was asked to name some people that were influential in “shaping my life.” The usual suspects came to mind: my parents, my teachers, and several business…
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Notes From My Journal
Why?
I was on my way to Tokyo to meet with the CEO of a large Japanese book publisher. The topic: a possible joint venture. “Bring a present,” a friend that had done business in Japan before advised me. “Something…
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Notes From My Journal
What I Believe: About Affirmative Action
I feel about affirmative action the same way that I feel about charity. I am personally inclined to practice it, but I’m suspicious when it becomes corporate or governmental policy. As an institutional…
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Notes From My Journal
A “New” Cold War?
When I was born in 1950, the US and the Soviet Union had already begun its first proxy contest: the Korean War. In grammar school, our teachers regularly herded us into the school basement, a futile attempt to…
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Notes From My Journal
What I Believe: About the Cold War
The “Cold War” is a term that describes several attenuated competitions between the USSR and the US. One competition was strategic and military: an effort on the part of the US to “contain” the spread of…
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Notes From My Journal
Becoming a Writer… in Spite of Myself
As long as I can remember, I’ve wanted be a writer. But I was always aware – perhaps because my father gave up his career as a writer for the steady income of teaching – that it was not going to be easy. I…
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Notes From My Journal
What I Believe: About Group Decision-Making
Making good decisions is very difficult. And making good group decisions is even more difficult. That’s because it requires thinking. It requires moving the mind against the grain of conventionality. It…
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Notes From My Journal
Huh?
I receive a regular stream of mail and email from readers. Too many to answer individually, but not too many to read. About 10% of them are funny. Ha-ha funny. Another 10% are funny. Peculiar funny. Like this…
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Notes From My Journal
How Not to Raise Spoiled Brats
I believe children grow up to be what their parents want them to be. When my children were young, I wanted them to be good at everything they did – school, sports, music lessons, etc. And they did a reasonable…
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Notes From My Journal
My Revolutionary Indulgence Diet
At my age, I shouldn’t worry about how I look. It’s futile and undignified. And yet, I do. When I’m feeling fat, I tell myself that my weight doesn’t matter. So long as I am fit and healthy, I should be happy…
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Notes From My Journal
What I Believe: About Wars
Proxy wars don’t work: Since the US military industrial complex was established after WWII, its lobbyists, in collusion with Congress, have kept America in nearly continuous wars (Korea, Vietnam, Iraq…
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Notes From My Journal
Why I Secretly Loved Cleaning Office Bathrooms
Here’s something you don’t know about me. I once worked as a maid. For several months in my late teens, I took a job working evenings for an employment agency. The job was cleaning offices. It was dull and…
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Notes From My Journal
The Depression Issue
About 10 years ago, I had my first experience with depression. Not sadness. Not extreme sadness. But severe depression, the life-threatening kind. That first experience was a nightmare that lasted for three…
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Notes From My Journal
The 10 Stages of Mental Health and Happiness
As I emerged from that second bout of severe depression, I began a journal, recording my recovery with an OCD attention to detail. I made entries into my journal about every three hours. I recorded not only…
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Notes From My Journal
So, You Haven’t Been to Rancho Santana Yet?
Here’s What You Are Missing… I’ve spent most of my career in what I think of as “the idea business” – writing and publishing books, newsletters, and now blogs and podcasts on such far ranging subjects as…
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Notes From My Journal
What I Believe: About Civilization
As Steven Pinker proved convincingly in Enlightenment Now, the world has been getting more civilized almost non-stop for hundreds of years. And that means, in terms of population percentages, greater wealth…
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Notes From My Journal
Television's Pioneering Moments Through Personal Memory
* We got our first TV when I was about six, in 1956. It was a little box, with a dial that had 13 channels, only some of which worked. And it had a “rabbit-ears” antenna that had to be constantly adjusted in…
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Notes From My Journal
The Soft Side of Estate Planning
The Soft Side of Estate Planning Debate is a cherished sport in my family. A pastime that may have originated hundreds of years ago between the Fords and the Fitzgeralds, who were, I once discovered…
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Notes From My Journal
Why I Haven’t Retired: It’s Hard to Explain…
When I complain about how much work I have to do, K says, “Well then, quit.” I say, “I can’t quit.” She says, “Of course you can. You could have retired 40 years ago.” Then I say, “I don’t want to quit.” Then…
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Notes From My Journal
What I Believe: About Identity Theory
A Problem No One Seems to Have Noticed Modern Identity Theory allows for the idea that gender identity is a “social construct,” and, as a social construct, it can be changed. A man that “identifies” as a woman…
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Notes From My Journal
Bits and Pieces — February 9, 2022
Thoughts on Re-reading Ready, Fire, Aim: The Inevitable Bloating of Corporate Payroll If your business grows long or large enough, you are going to encounter payroll bloat – some number of employees at all…
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Notes From My Journal
Bits and Pieces — February 7, 2022
Suffocating in a Cloud of Digital Detritus! I received a letter from a family member recently. A typewritten letter – actually typewritten, not laser printed – on an 8 x 10 sheet of paper. I tried to remember…
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Notes From My Journal
George's True Passion Lies Beyond His Day Job
You Are What You Think About in Your Spare Time George works for a brand-name, multinational information publishing company. He’s good at what he does. He rose from entry-level to executive-manager level in…
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Notes From My Journal
Bits and Pieces — February 3, 2022
The Problem With Managers Managing Up When you were the founder and CEO, you knew the organization inside and out. Now, half retired, what you know about the business comes through the CEO you hired when you…
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Notes From My Journal
Bits and Pieces — February 1, 2022
What I Believe: Meta-Knowledge = Meta-Tribes We develop beliefs based on our experiences. Our passive (reading and viewing) experiences as well as our active (physical) ones. Increasingly these days, the…
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Notes From My Journal
Bits and Pieces — January 30, 2022
The Neuropsychology of “Close Talkers” A friend writes: “A customer, who later became the dentist who performed root canal on me, was one of those people who came very close to you when he talked. Seinfeld…
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Notes From My Journal
Bits and Pieces — January 24, 2022
You Have to Admit… This Is Weirdly Encouraging A Maryland man with a terminal heart problem had a heart transplant. The donor was a one-year-old pig. Not an ordinary farmyard pig, but a genetically modified…
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Notes From My Journal
Bits and Pieces — January 19, 2022
The Virus Is All Around Us The coronavirus is spreading faster now than at any time since it was first reported on Dec. 31, 1919. But the mutation that’s raging across the world right now appears to be much…
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Notes From My Journal
Bits and Pieces — January 12, 2022
Ideas I’ve Been Chewing Over Recently… Revolution vs. Evolution * Revolution is loud and fast. Evolution is quiet and slow. * Revolution causes change, but mostly superficial change that is easily and often…
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Notes From My Journal
I was not much of a reader as a child
I preferred to spend my time outdoors, playing. In my teens, I kept very busy building things, playing sports, and starting clubs and businesses. But not reading. I don’t believe I had read more than a…
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Notes From My Journal
Bits and Pieces — January 5, 2022
The End of the World As We Know It On December 17, I gave you my two cents on one of 2021’s hottest topics – the Metaverse. I said it’s real. It’s hugely important. And it’s already in motion. Battles will be…
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Notes From My Journal
Nostradamus's Secret To Perfect Prediction Records
“Be at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let every new year find you a better man.” – Benjamin Franklin It’s customary for know-it-alls to issue predictions this time of year. I’ve done my…
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Notes From My Journal
Predictions for 2022
The US economy will continue on its post-lockdown recovery, but the pace of growth will slow to nearly a crawl. Higher prices for many of the products affected by the supply chain slowdown will abate, but…
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Notes From My Journal
There is no excuse for this. You will have to forgive me
Once a year, I spend a week in Myrtle Beach with 6 or 8 of my high school friends (Class of 1968). It’s something we enjoy and look forward to. Myrtle Beach is an annual event, but we keep in touch throughout…
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Notes From My Journal
The Unexpected Appeal Of Getting Older
Old Man Humor
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Notes From My Journal
National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation
For Your Post-Holiday Watching Pleasure... CONTEMPORARY COMEDIES National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (1989) Directed by Jeremiah S. Chechik Starring Chevy Chase, Beverly D’Angelo, Randy Quaid, Diane Ladd…
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Notes From My Journal
Your Christmas Gift: two poems to enjoy and share…
Your Christmas Gift: two poems to enjoy and share… The Oxen By Thomas Hardy Christmas Eve, and twelve of the clock. “Now they are all on their knees,” An elder said as we sat in a flock By the embers in…
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Notes From My Journal
Bits and Pieces — December 20, 2021
Remembering… Waiting for the Bus Back Home It was very exciting. My godmother, Jean Kerr, had gifted me a course in painting for my 14th birthday. The classes were given on Saturday mornings in Hempstead…
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Notes From My Journal
EF and the Car
EF says he needs a new car. The one he has now is getting old, and he’s afraid it will soon be breaking down. EF is one of the four full-time people that maintain Paradise Palms, the botanical garden I’m…
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Notes From My Journal
Bits and Pieces — December 13, 2021
Nice! Here’s the most recent review of our book, Central American Modernism. It’s from Dr. David Greene, retired head of the art department at North Carolina State University: The publication of this book has…
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Notes From My Journal
My African Wedding
On April 9, 1976, K and I were married. It wasn’t the wedding we had planned. Ours was to be a bucolic event in the French countryside. Instead, we were married – along with 13 other couples – in a hot and…
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Notes From My Journal
Bits and Pieces — December 5, 2021
Networking at Art Basel Art Basel is probably the most important art event in the world these days. If you are even marginally involved in the contemporary art game, getting to one of their several shows each…
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Notes From My Journal
A Better High-School Reading List
JM sent me this article from the National Review… and I thought it was great. “In their enthusiasm for children to read the classics,” say the editors, “school curricula often kill love of literature in…
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Notes From My Journal
Bits and Pieces — November 28, 2021
Inflation: What the latest numbers mean to you You have probably heard the Republicans criticizing the Biden administration for goosing up inflation. And you may not know if it’s true. Or, if it is true, how…
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