A Changed Mind
A growing mind is a changing mind. Perhaps an effective way to measure how much you have learned in the past year is to count the number of times you have changed your mind. People who never change...
View ArticleTranquility
Tranquility itself cannot be scheduled, but empty, quiet spaces can be reserved in ink. Such spaces ought to be defended, prioritized and guarded as vehemently as any commitment and obligation. Lest...
View ArticlePrison
The most effective delusion is the one which holds you captive to the illusion of your own freedom. For if your freedom depends on a certain belief, ideology, device or lifestyle — if you can’t truly...
View ArticleNot on the Same Page
You know you suffer from a debilitating case of confirmation bias if you are convinced that all the real experts agree with you. Your condition is critical if you assume that everyone who disagrees...
View ArticleThat Person
That person. The one you keep running into and your conversation always goes like this: “We really should grab a coffee sometime and catch up.” That person. You know you share something in common with...
View ArticleNurtured Curiosity
You know that sense of discovery you feel when you hear someone describe a hypothesis or explain an idea in a way that you had never thought of before? It is as if doors open to whole new worlds. For...
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Then and Again
Then and Again is the fourth volume of the Caesura Letters, the quarterly journal of compelling and provocative ideas. It is available in paperback and ebook formats. Author Notes This volume is a...
View ArticleKnowledge Glut
On the Podcast: About two weeks ago I presented a seminar about Information Glut at the Public Sociology @ Western group (Western University). It is an informal, colloquial riff on a number of ideas...
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Caesura Letters Volume X is now available!
Today, the tenth volume of the Caesura Letters will be released. Tenth! Where has the time gone? Hitting this milestone once again reminds me of how grateful I am to the subscribers and supporters that...
View Article‘Belonging to Oneself’ and The Curse of Idiocracy
Idiot. The Greek root of the word is idiotes, ‘belonging to oneself’ or ‘one’s own.’ Idiote continues to bear traces of its root in a word like ‘idiosyncrasy’ (particular traits of one individual or...
View ArticleJudging the Judgers
Never am I more blind to myself than when I condemn others for being judgmental.
View ArticleLike Back in the Days
Do you ever long for the world to become right again? You know, like back in the days when new technologies didn’t threaten our ability to anticipate the future, young people didn’t mangle the...
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The Idea Discussion Group Idea
Photo by @joelcadams Last night was pretty remarkable. About thirty thoughtful, brilliant, inquisitive, and respectful individuals gathered together to discuss the idea of starting a group to discuss...
View ArticleWhat Makes Conclusive Evidence Conclusive?
Conclusive evidence is only conclusive to the extent that one concludes the absence and nonexistence of all further evidence.
View ArticleBiopsychosocial: Just How Systemic Are You?
When you get sick, you go to the hospital. Once there, medical professionals examine your body, and they try to determine the best course of treatment to eliminate the condition. Your visit to the...
View ArticleThe Intelligentsia is Not Right/Wrong by Default
Rejecting a proposition solely on the grounds that it is the rhetoric of the regime sanctioned intelligentsia is not a compelling counterargument. The refusal to entertain learning from outside of the...
View ArticleThe Art and Mystery of Resilience
The study is called the English and Romanian Adoptee (ERA) project. It is a longitudinal study that has been following a cohort of 165 children who were adopted from abysmal institutional conditions in...
View ArticleIn Praise of Discovery
Discovery is one of the best things about life. Sometimes discovery is intentional, the result of a long voyage, or a tiresome search, or a tedious series of experiments and calculations. When a...
View ArticleThe Tolerance and Inclusivity Conundrum
Is it tolerant/inclusive to tolerate/include those who are intolerant/exclusive towards others?
View ArticleVictims, Villians, Heroes
“The victim-rescuer-persecutor syndrome occurs frequently in human relationships of all kinds and is common in many helping relationships,” writes Lee Ann Hoff (Hoff, 2001, p. 121). This is a common...
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