Paul McCartney has 5,700,000 Likes on Facebook. John Lennon has 15,000,000 Likes, despite being dead for more than 30 years. As Nietzsche used to say, “One must discontinue being feasted upon when one tasteth best; that is known by those who want to be long loved.” Read more →
Author Archive: Paul Epps
Limit Your Meeting Attendance
If there’s any question as to whether your presence is required, compare your own goals to the meeting’s reason and decide whether the benefit of attending is greater than the benefit of doing something else. To make this decision, ask yourself two questions: “What’s in it for me?” and “What bad thing would happen if I pass on it?” If the answer is close to “nothing” and “nothing,” find a reason not to attend. — Geoffrey James Read more →
Know Why the Meeting Was Called
People call business meetings for seven reasons, so plan accordingly: To get you to decide something. (Probably useful to you.) To hone their own ideas. (Maybe useful to you.) To convey information. (Probably not useful; ask for a document instead) To test out a presentation. (Probably not useful unless it’s your boss.) To accomplish group writing. (Never useful to anybody.) To prove their own importance. (Never useful to anybody.) To fulfill a process step. (Never useful to anybody.) — Geoffrey James Read more →
I Am Disenfranchising Myself
I was looking over my vote-by-mail ballot for the California election . . . there’s not one person on there I would trust to represent my interests above their own. It’s like voting on which gang of thieves will be allowed to break into my home and rob me. In previous elections, I’ve usually voted for all the Republican candidates because I dislike 99 percent of Democratic programs, whereas I only dislike 95 percent of Republican programs. Not much of a choice. This year, I ripped up the ballot and threw it in the trash. Read more →
More People I’m Sick Unto Death Of
People who attribute the cause of their own actions to vague impersonal forces their condition, diagnosis, personal or psychological history the actions of others gender roles, social roles or age roles uncontrollable impulses Read more →
Self-Importance
If you lose one sense, your other senses are enhanced. That's why people with no sense of humour have an increased sense of self- importance — Volker Weber (@vowe) April 14, 2014 Read more →
(Willis) Tower of Terror
Cracks appear on Willis Tower’s 103rd-story ledge — TODAY Been there, done that, took a picture: It was boring. You know what would make it more exciting? If they put up a sign that said ENTER AT YOUR OWN RISK and three to five times a year the glass cracked and people plunged to their death. Is that too much? OK, switch it to one plunge every three to five years. Read more →
Oceanside, CA
Forget mistakes, forget failures, forget everything, except what you’re going to do now and do it. Today is your lucky day. — Will Durant
Estados Unidos de Converso
People I Thought Were Dead
Chuck Barris – TV host, “The Gong Show” Fidel Castro – Cuban dictator Richard Chamberlain – actor, “Dr. Kildare” Jules Feiffer – cartoonist, “The New Yorker” Rhonda Fleming – actress Pete Fountain – clarinetist Zsa Zsa Gabor – actress Dick Gregory – comedian Lee Iacocca – automobile manufacturer Dean Jones – actor Graham Kerr – The Galloping Gourmet Imelda Marcos – Philippine first lady “Little Richard” Penniman – rock ‘n’ roll pioneer Neil Simon – playwright, “The Odd Couple” Larry Storch – actor, “F-Troop” Rip Taylor – comedian Mel Tillis – country singer/songwriter Grant Tinker – TV executive, NBC Y. A. Tittle – Hall of Fame football player Claus von Bulow – acquitted attempted murder defendant Gene Wilder – actor, “Young Frankenstein” Chuck Yeager – test pilot Updates Chuck Barris – died 3/27/2017, age 87 Fidel Castro – died 11/25/2016, age 90 Richard Chamberlain – died 3/29/2025, age 90 Jules… Read more →
Sitting quietly, doing nothing, spring comes, and the grass grows by itself. — Zen Proverb
More People I’m Sick Unto Death Of
Anyone who “speaks out,” “opens up,” “breaks their silence” or “sounds off.” Read more →
Aren’t They More or Less the Same Thing?
Via The Nation: Read more →
The $100 Tank of Gas
Good Causes
The Good Causes of the Left may generally be compared to NASCAR; they offer the diversion of watching things go excitingly around in a circle, getting nowhere. — David Mamet, The Secret Knowledge Read more →
Aside
There are no solutions, there are only tradeoffs.
A Spectacularly Bad Job of Rigging the System
If you nevertheless believe that the capitalists have been busily rigging the system in their own interest, you’ve got to admit they’ve done a spectacularly bad job of it. How else to explain the quintuple taxation of capital income, where you can invest a dollar that was taxed the day you earned it, then pay corporate income taxes, dividend taxes, capital gains taxes and inheritance taxes on the income it throws off? Surely any concern that the rich are calling the policy shots should melt away in the face of actual policy. — Steven Landsburg Read more →
Now We Can All Feel Good About Ourselves
Sheryl [Sandburg] wrote the homage or essay or ass-kissing-memo or whatever we are calling the Time 100 writings, about Beyonce. Sheryl talks about how Beyonce has changed the music industry. She’s a leader in song and dance and performance. But there’s exactly nothing surprising until Sheryl adds, “Beyonce does all this while being a full-time mother.” In that little sentence, Sandberg does something very big. Sandberg declares that you can have a full-time job and be a full-time mother. This is convenient. Because now Sandberg is a full-time mom who spends some days away from the kids signing autographs. And running Facebook. And Beyonce is a full-time mom who spends some days away from her daughter on billion-dollar concert tours. So basically anyone who gave birth is a full-time mom regardless of how much of their time is spent on kids. Now we can all feel good about ourselves regardless… Read more →
I’ve Solved the Problem of Economic Inequality
Instead of “economic inequality,” let’s call it “economic diversity.” Then it’s a good thing, right? Read more →