WHISH

JOURNEY OF THE MIND by Ogi Ogas and Sai Gaddam is another book “above my paygrade”. Though published in 2022 it is prescient and related to the big questions of the moment.

Here is a clip from the book’s cover: “Journey of The Mind” is a mind-bending work of popular science, the first general book to share the cutting-edge mathematical basis for consciousnesss, language, and the self. It shows how a “unified theory of the mind” can explain the mind’s greatest mysteries—and offer clues about the ultimage fate of all minds in the universe.

Tough reading follows.

Homo Sapiens as just another link in evolution?

“Chain, chain, chain—chain of fools”

CHANGE

” ITS A BORROWED TUNE”

“You cannot change what you refuse to confront.”

“Sometimes good things fall apart so better things can fall together.”


“No matter how many mistakes you make or how slow you progress, you are still way ahead of everyone who isn’t trying.”


“If you really want to do something, you’ll find a way. If you don’t, you’ll find an excuse.”


“Never do something permanently foolish just because you are temporarily upset.”

“You can learn great things from your mistakes when you aren’t busy denying them.”

Book Review

 The GreatestSentence Ever Written

Walter Isaacson

The Greatest Sentence Ever Written

Walter Isaacson

Premise

“The author argues that these early edits reveal the Founders balancing the roles of reason and faith in defining American rights. The final sentence declares that all men are created equal and possess unalienable rights to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. Isaacson presents this sentence as one of the defining statements of the American founding.”

AMERICAN STRUGGLE

NEW BOOK RECOMMENDED !

AMERICAN STRUGGLE- Democracy, Dissent, and the Pursuit of a More Perfect Union

( by Jon Meacham ) 2026.

This is great American history, quite thorough.  I must say the last commentary (“THE PATH TO AMERICAN AUTHORITARIANISM:  WHAT COMES AFTER DEMOCRATIC BREAKDOWN” ) BY Steven Levitsky and Lucan A. Way ) is quite frightening 1.  In its summary of the present and 2.  In its vision of the looming future.

LOW LIFE

At one point, a fighter took the mic and made a nasty joke about Michelle Obama while standing in front of the house she once lived in with her husband, daughters and mother.

Even for a president with a lifelong penchant for P.T. Barnum-esque gambits, this one was in a league of its own. (NEW YORK TIMES )

*************************

Raylan Givens: Sometimes, we have to make deals with lowlifes because we have our sights set on life forms even somehow lower on the ladder of lowlife than they.
(JUSTIFIED )

LUDDITE LITERATURE

LUDDITE LITERATURE

I resisted the email, technology world that cropped up at the end of my coaching, teaching career.

We moved to the beach just before winter.  I had never cut on my college issued computer.  High school typing class was in 1956.  Health issues, injuries, age, weather chipped away at my physicality. 

I began to “hobby write “.   Self-Publishing was possible and I waded in.  

Any old person will tell you of the “nightmare of the new age”.    Even now.

My seven “books” and 700 blog articles attest to one virtue–VOLUME.  And while the process has been a retirement hobby, I haven’t changed my name to Shakes Parham.

Vanity has caused  me to wonder “ is it any good ?”

In toto it is a jumbled mess.  At 85 years and “ circling the drain “, finding out its worth is beyond me.

Here is a thought.  With the galloping advances, will there be a way to edit out the good parts?

There are bigger questions:

Are there large numbers of people like me, who given self publishing, produced some unique period and worthwhile contributions?

  • Will an advanced editing tool be developed to glean items of value from this plethora of effort from us Luddites ?

DIOGENES

AI Overview

The story of Diogenes and his cup is an anecdote about the Greek philosopher’s radical simplicity and self-sufficiency. While carrying a simple wooden bowl, he saw a boy drinking water directly from his cupped hands. Realizing the boy needed no extra tool, Diogenes threw his cup away, stating that a child had “beaten” him in living with less. This event became a symbol of the Cynic philosophy, which rejected material possessions in favor of a life lived in accordance with nature.