Also, how do these things fit together?

It may seem cliché, but being a person is about more than “finding your passion” and zeroing in on the path to success. We live in a world governed by laws. There are physical laws, moral laws, laws of logic and reason. The evidence is all around us. The more broadly we study, the more we understand how the world works, not through the accumulation of facts in sheer quantum, but through pattern recognition. The notion of discrete academic discipline is a human construct. The fabric of reality underlies all fields, and the more we study the fabric, the better we recognize its manifestation in our daily lives.

Heraclitus said “no man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man.” Everything in life brings a new challenge, often not because life is in itself challenging, but because we are on a journey from babies to mature men and women. That is the point of every IG. If I can, I’ll try to reduce the fraction as much as possible so it’s obvious how these things all fit together. If I fail, at least we are storing ideas on the wall (like a gallery) to look at and admire later in light of new situations. For the river may have changed, but with every new idea on the wall, so have you.

Today’s Person of Faith: The Nihilist

Czeslaw Milosz won the 1980 Nobel Prize in Literature and lived in Poland during and after World War II. He watched Nihilism play a role in society and formed a unique perspective. In my opinion, his best work is his poetry. In his collection titled Road-side Dog, he writes a uniquely styled poem called The Discrete Charms of Nihilism. Here is an excerpt:

Religion, opium for the people. To those suffering pain, humiliation, illness, and serfdom, it is promised a reward in an afterlife. And now we are witnessing a transformation. A true opium for the people is a belief in nothingness after death - the huge solace of thinking that for our betrayals, greed, cowardice, murders we are not going to be judged.

I assert that no one has as much faith as someone who believes in the non-existence (or the absence) of absolute truth. For more, read my article Today’s Person of Faith: The Nihilist.

E-Commerce Marketplaces

A marketplace is a business model where an intermediary hosts buyers and sellers. Online retail has silently been taken over by this model, and Amazon’s Marketplace is now the largest online retail business in the U.S. The question is whether there is room for anyone other than Amazon.

I have written a short think-piece on the subject.

Customized Food

At Charis Consumer Partners (my private investment firm focused on consumer packaged goods), we spend a lot of time thinking about the ever-changing CPG landscape. As our friend, Ryan Caldbeck, points out in one of his epic Tweetstorms, consumer tastes are “personalizing.”

What are the implications? Read my short article called The Customization of Food.

As the World Turns

As you know, I’ve been really enjoying Thinking Physics: Understandable Practical Reality by Lewis Carroll Epstein. I am currently going through a section about rotational mechanics, and a few case studies on pendulums illustrate how and why rotational energy works the way it does. For example, Galileo’s independent thinking on the subject led to the creation of the modern timekeeping system. The video below tells in harrowing detail how his curiosity was sparked by the swaying of a chandelier during a storm. It occurred to him to observe the speed at which the pendulum completes a full swing (now called the period of vibration or the period of oscillation). He wanted to know if the period of vibration was dependent upon the weight of the chandelier, the original displacement of the chandelier (e.g.: the length of its first swing in terms of distance from the center of the path), or the length of the pendulum itself (in terms of distance from the pivot point). If he could understand the variables that drove the period of vibration, he would be able to standardize a system of constant rhythm for the purpose of keeping intervals of time within a 24 hour day.

TL;DR: He found that neither the weight of the object on the pendulum nor the displacement of the pendulum matter. The period of vibration is solely driven by the length of the pendulum. Why? If you increase the displacement of the pendulum, it may have further to go, but it will accelerate at approximately 32 ft/s/s. It’s average speed in second #2 is 4x greater than its average speed in second number one (i.e.: it’s moving at 16 ft/s in second 1, but 48 ft/s in second 2), causing the period of vibration to be equal over time. If you increase the weight of the pendulum, the rate of acceleration will still be 32 ft/s/s, as we know from Sir Isaac Newton.

In the First Circle

I am reading through In the First Circle by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, a Russian novelist, historian, and short story writer. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1970 just before his expulsion from the Soviet Union in 1970. He was famous for writing A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich and The Gulag Archipelago, among many others.

In his early life, he was a socialist and loyal to the Bolsheviks. He began to question whether the force applied by the Soviet party to bring communism to life was the appropriate measure. He was eventually imprisoned in a gulag and later sent to a working prison where, as a prisoner of the state, he was forced to apply his brilliance to Soviet military projects.

His unique life experiences and ample free time led him to be one of the most interesting philosophical novelists of the 20th century. His insight into the Soviet machine also provides for enthralling prose. In the First Circle is essentially a spy novel written in the style of Tolstoy or Dostoevsky, intermingling historical insights and personages with fictional events.

Should employers be allowed to fire people for using a legal substance?

You ever gone to a boring day job? You ever gone to a boring day job on…Never mind. Rebecca Greenfield, on Bloomberg Business week just published a piece called It’s Getting Harder to Fire People for Using Pot. In states where marijuana is legal, two views exist: (1) since current technology does not enable employers to know whether employees are using on the job or days before, employers should be able to ban marijuana use; and (2) since the drug is legal, the employer has no right to prohibit employees from using.

As an owner of a business with dangerous machinery, I can see point #1.

Sourced via: Abnormal Returns

Dune

I love Frank Herbert’s Dune. He is masterful in his personification of human nature through hyperbolic political tension and scheming. It’s also a fictional world unmatched except by the likes of Tolkien. Frank Herbert was a political speechwriter in the 1950s, which inspired his view that we communicate with far more than spoken language. I’ll share some of my favorite quotes from a Twitter account I follow that aggregates them.

Inertia

Major League Baseball has a Marketing Problem

MLB is hoping to attract more fans by finding ways to shorten games. Instead, they should focus on the exciting and passionate young players brimming with personality. Yankees beat-writer Jake Story summarizes it well:

Highlights from the most epic game of the year:

What is Wealth?

Books

I made a promise to my wife that I would stop leaving my books strewn about the house, so I am trying to stick to my current docket. I have to admit, however, I’m thinking about finding a book about the law. More to the point, a friend of mine suggested I become more conversant in commercial law (contracts, property and estates & trust). If anyone knows of any Bar study guides that you found really helpful, I would be interested.

Current Docket:

1. In the First Circle by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

2. Isaiah: God Saves Sinners by Ray Ortlund

3. Ficciones by Jorge Luis Borges

4. Zero to One by Peter Thiel

5. Saving Life of Christ by Major Ian Thomas

6. Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World by David Epstein

7. Thinking Physics: Understandable Practical Reality by Lewis Carroll Epstein

Prior Versions

For a good place to start with Idea Gallery, check out Idea Gallery #1.

For the latest newsletter, check out Idea Gallery #2.

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