Can There Be Truth?
“Oh say, what is truth? ’Tis the fairest gem.” Those are words penned by John Jaques in the last 1800s. “Go search in the depths where it glittering lies, or ascend in pursuit to the loftiest skies: ’Tis an aim…
Essays
Why Wisdom Is Scarce
How many times a day do you go to the internet to search for a particular piece of information? How often do you think — as you search — that you “should probably know this?” How often do you forget…
Why Letting Go Is So Hard
When I was 9, I loved animals and was sure I would be a zoologist. At 13, I knew I would be a geneticist. By 18, a mechanical engineer (which is what I got my degree in). I’ve never been…
When the Easiest Way Is the Hard Way
“Don’t throw rocks over the edge.” We were camping high up on a ridge with several switchbacks to the parking lot below. I was with my grandfather. My brother and I had been throwing rocks at the mountainside. Those were…
Is It True or Just Clear?
How would you react if your partner or best friend told you that they only had a few weeks to live? Imagine that they tell you the story of going to the doctor for a routine check-up, and that the…
Tradition Over Truth
I have a golf ball in my truck. Perhaps to most observers, seeing a golf ball in my vehicle would lead them to conclude that I play golf. The truth: I am really, really bad at golf. You’ve seen those…
When Words Are Not Enough
Here’s a challenge: Without using the word “salty”, describe what salt tastes like. Now, describe the sound of a bell in as much detail as you can to someone born profoundly deaf. Then, describe the color red to a person…
Do Things Carefully
Whatever is worth doing at all, is worth doing well. Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield, penned those words to his son in 1774. We all know, of course, that with a few rare exceptions you never start that way…
What Cost Are You Willing to Pay Tomorrow?
For nearly twenty years, I’ve written software. Most of the development I’ve done has been in old-school Visual Basic. There’s still an active developer community, but VB hasn’t been developed as a language in many years. Essentially, it’s dead. Knowing…
What’s the worst thing that can happen?
I have a bad habit of ruminating on problems. I’ve written about it before. This is the scenario: I imagine having a difficult conversation with my boss.¹ I’m a non-confrontational person so having hard conversations is, well, hard for me…
Why Courage and Stupidity Are Basically the Same Thing
What separates a courageous act from a foolish one? Scenario A A 20-something young woman stands at the top of a 50-foot cliff that descends gradually then steeply into a choppy lake below. Half of her friends are yelling at…
Feeling Small in the Vastness
Until we were in our teenage years, my older brother and I shared a bedroom. One night, when I was seven, we lay awake, talking about the enormity of space. I tried to contemplate a galaxy with billions of stars…
Why Don’t You Behave Like a Hobo?
If you’ve seen a freight train, you can conjure an image of yourself sitting in an open rail car as scenery swiftly passes by. I’ve stood next to a track (at a safe distance) when a freight train sped by…
Why Kindness Is Your Most Powerful Tool
I flew across the continental U.S. recently. Bad weather over the Carolinas caused nationwide delays. My flight was delayed nearly 2.5 hours. That resulted in a missed connection. I wasn’t alone. When we finally landed late in the evening in…
What the Future Won’t Tell You
I recently had a chance encounter in an airport with a friend I hadn’t seen in almost a decade. I passed him in the concourse then wandered back until I found him seated at his departure gate. Over the years…
