After Robin Williams’s suicide, SlateStarCodex wrote a thoughtful meditation, and I’d like to highlight one of the points he wound up making. Scott works in mental health, and he wound up discussing the idea of “being a burden” and pointing out that this isn’t an intrinsic fact about a person, but the result of who they are and how their society relates to them. Society got where it is by systematically destroying everything that could have supported him [a patient] and... Read more
Sam Rocha (pictured above, and the author of A Primer for Philosophy and Education and creator of Late to Love, an album inspired by Augustine) has been interviewing the bloggers in Patheos’s Catholic channel about the method and madness of their writing, and, this week, it was my turn. If you head over chez lui, you can check out our conversation, which includes references to So You Want to be a Wizard and the Logical Journey of the Zoombinis. Here’s a teaser: INTERVIEWER Writing, to... Read more
In 2014, I’m reading and blogging through Pope Francis/Cardinal Bergoglio’s Open Mind, Faithful Heart: Reflections on Following Jesus. Every Monday, I’ll be writing about the next meditation in the book, so you’re welcome to peruse them all and/or read along. In this week’s chapter, Pope Francis uses the parable of the Good Samaritan to shed light on exactly what criteria Christ will use to sift the weeds from the wheat: In the end, we will all be judged on whether we have “become... Read more
Last night, I got to see a special screening of the Folger Theatre’s 2008 production of Macbeth (all magic courtesy of Teller — of Penn and Teller). Usually, when I see Macbeth, my focus is on the titular pair, or, barring that, the witches, but, in this production, my attention and sympathies were more with the courtiers than in any other staging I’ve seen. For whatever reason, I was less wrapped up in the fall of Macbeth and his wife, so I... Read more
In the midst of delivering a well-deserved rebuttal to extreme courtship culture, Thomas Umstattd mentions a model of dating/courting that I’d like to be able to try out. He asked his grandmother to describe her dating experience, and she explained that her parents had only set one major restriction on her interactions with suitors: The One Dating Rule: Don’t go out with the same guy twice in a row. So if she went out for soda with Bob on Tuesday, she... Read more
— 1 — There’s no way, once I saw this part of Terry Pratchett’s interview with the New York Times Book Review, that it wasn’t going to take the first slot of this week’s links: Sell us on your favorite overlooked or underappreciated writer. G. K. Chesterton. These days recognized — that is if he is recognized at all — as the man who wrote the Father Brown stories. My grandmother actually knew him quite well and pointed out that she... Read more
One of the most reliably bad decisions I’ve made on a regular basis is the choice to stay awake (well, “awake”) and on the internet past the point where I can get work done, or even have much fun. I went through a spell where I even fell asleep on the couch more nights than not, unable to muster the will or judgement to get up and go downstairs to bed. I could remember (even sometimes in the moment) that... Read more
During the past weekend, I got into a conversation with some folks about the knock-on effects of getting involved with effective altruism (and outlets like GiveWell). Effective Altruism, at core, is the attempt to make sure your charity dollars are spent effectively. For a long time, people tried to just use “overhead” as a proxy for effectiveness, since a group that mostly spends your money on its own salaries and office spaces isn’t doing a very good job. GiveWell takes... Read more
At the CFAR alumni reunion, a lot of the time was reserved for unconferences/lightning talks, where people could present short to medium talks on topics that interested them (or baffled them). One pair of attendees talked about their project of unschooling their daughter, which resulted in a lot of thoughtful discussion and questions. Unschooling is an alternative to run of the mill schools that is very child-directed. While other homeschoolers may work through the same curriculum and textbooks as their regular... Read more
In 2014, I’m reading and blogging through Pope Francis/Cardinal Bergoglio’s Open Mind, Faithful Heart: Reflections on Following Jesus. Every Monday, I’ll be writing about the next meditation in the book, so you’re welcome to peruse them all and/or read along. Apropos of yesterday’s post on friendship, this week’s chapter from Pope Francis focuses on the “Because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I am about to spit you out of my mouth” passage from Revelation 3:16. When dealing with strangers, we... Read more
Unequally Yoked
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