Archive for the ‘People’ Category

The big hope for Westerners in the past few centuries was the idea that things would just keep getting better and better for us. Unfortunately, unless I’m missing something, that curve of well being has stopped bending and started sagging—badly.While a great mass of humanity has gotten out from under the thumbs of some kings, [...]

Instead of freaking out, if we redirect our frustration over the actions of fellow human beings toward reflection and understanding, it may help us better empathize with people and not dismiss them as idiots or jerks. So, here’s me redirecting some frustration I have by writing a blog post instead of doing something I wouldn’t [...]

Imagine a middle-aged guy named Jerry Engel. He is a real estate appraiser. Business has been a little slow since the bottom fell out of the market. Jerry likes to spend a lot of time driving around in a pickup truck, even if he isn’t driving from house to house to do appraisals. As a [...]

The other night, I was talking with Richard Tryzno Ellsberry, who founded the excellent, increasingly legendary email discussion group, Artmobile. We were talking about recent politics, in particular, the NPR funding controversy. Richard said he’d like to see some discussion in the media as to whether or not just BEING a journalist attracts and/or promotes [...]