Category: ideas

Walk much and contemplate. Thomas Hobbes’ idea practice

April 18th, 2025

He meticulously cultivated new ideas and distilled them into words. “He walked much and contemplated,” wrote his contemporary John Aubrey. “and he had in the head of his Staffe a pen and inke-horn, carried always a Note-book in his pocket, and as soon as a notion darted, he presently entered it into his Booke, or else he should perhaps have lost it.

As read from George Dyson’s all-to-relevant book on modern times, but was published in 1997 – Darwin among the Machines.

Love a good notebook story. Don’t you?

Dyson, George. Darwin Among the Machines: The Evolution of Global Intelligence. United States: Basic Books, 2012. pg5
Meticulous Curiosity

April 17th, 2025

Underlying his meticulous craftsmanship and insatiable curiosity was a complete lack of patience for sloppy work, easy solutions, or glib answers. He refused to be satisfied with the ordinary. The young man who would later talk of the “Intergalactic Computer Network” and publish professional papers with titles like “The System System” and “The Gridless, Wireless Rat-Shocker” possessed a mind that was constantly probing, and constantly at play.

Joseph Carl Robnett Licklider named it right the first time. We need to get back to calling the internet the Intergalactic Computer Network immediately.

Like right now.

Filibuster it and get it done.

Waldrop, M. Mitchell. The Dream Machine. United States: Stripe Matter Incorporated, 2018. pg25,26
Riddles of life

April 13th, 2025

“You are not singular in your suspicions that you know but little,” he had told Caroline, in response to her quandary over the riddles of life. “The longer I live, the more I read, the more patiently I think, and the more anxiously I inquire, the less I seem to know….Do justly. Love mercy. Walk humbly. This is enough….So questions and so answers your affectionate grandfather.”

John Adams became more philosophical as he aged. Do we all?

McCullough, David. John Adams. Simon & Schuster, 2001.
Griefs upon griefs

April 12th, 2025

“Griefs upon griefs! Disappointments upon disappointments. What then? This is a gay, merry world notwithstanding.”

– John Adams

The final John Adam’s quote in McCullough’s brilliant biography. A quote written in a letter to his friend Francis van der Kemp.

McCullough, David. John Adams. Simon & Schuster, 2001. pg 651
Strengthen thy self

April 8th, 2025

If, as I maintain, a prime reason why we should read is to strengthen the self, then both Whitman and Dickinson are essential poets.

-Harold Bloom
God, Tocqueville, and order

April 7th, 2025

It is true that Christianity teaches us to place others before ourselves in order to gain heaven; but Christianity also teaches us to do good to our fellow men for the love of God. What a magnificent expression; man uses his intelligence to penetrate the mind of God and sees that God’s aim is order. He freely joins in this grand design and, sacrificing his private interests to this admirable order of all creation, he expects no other reward than the joy of contemplating it.

– Alexis de Tocqueville

A magnificent expression indeed. Contemplate creation today.

Tocqueville, Alexis de. Democracy in America. London, Penguin Publishing Group, 2003. pg 614
The Letters Gave in

April 6th, 2025

I began to read just after I was four. The letters on the page suddenly gave in and admitted what they stood for.

– Penelope Fitzgerald

Some descriptions are well…FIRE. As read from Penelope Fitzgerald: A Life.

Lee, Hermione. Penelope Fitzgerald: A Life. United States, Alfred A. Knopf, 2014. pg 28
Tocqueville for today

April 5th, 2025

I realize that a man’s arm can be amputated to save his life; but I am unwilling to be convinced that he is going to display as much dexterity as with the arm intact.

– Alexis de Tocqueville

A Tocqueville quote for our days?

Tocqueville, Alexis de. Democracy in America. London, Penguin Publishing Group, 2003. pg 609
When young Ralph Waldo Emerson visited aging John Adams

April 3rd, 2025

A stream of visitors continued through the seasons and among them was young Ralph Waldo Emerson, who a few years earlier had graduated from Harvard as class poet. He found Adams upstairs in his library seated in a large overstuffed armchair, dressed in a blue coat, a cotton cap covering his bald head. Recounting the interview, Emerson wrote, “He talks very distinctly for so old a man–enters bravely into long sentences which are interrupted by want of breath but carries them invariably to a conclusion without ever correcting a word.”

You know, you can just go visit your heroes.

Ralph Waldo Emerson for John. John for Sir William Herschel.

Posted while watching Iron Man. The first one.

McCullough, David. John Adams. Simon & Schuster, 2001. pg 640
Floor Energy

April 2nd, 2025

I think we are entering an era where “floor energy” will matter more than before. It will motivate, define, and lift some institutions well above the others.

– Tyler Cowen

An idea I’d like to explore more. AI everywhere could make us in fact, more human.

Physical presence could triumph.

Cowen, Tyler. “The Free Press.” Marginal Revolution (blog), April 2, 2025. https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2025/04/the-free-press.html.