Category Archives: Food For Thought

Books Are Souvenirs

People used to read books for two reasons: to gain some knowledge or to be entertained.  For a few hundred years, bound books were about the only good way to store a large amount of information.  People still had voices, … Continue reading

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The Point of the Internet

The web is chock-full of information but what we are really after as people is not information but other interesting people. –Chatty’s About Page Is that really what people are after?  An awful lot of the internet has been built … Continue reading

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Outside the Quotes

For years, kids in America were taught that punctuation marks go inside the quotation mark, regardless of whether you’re actually quoting the punctuation. “Why?” I have no clue.  Rosemary Feal, the queen over at the Modern Language Association (MLA) claims … Continue reading

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We Are All Followers

Obesity is spreading like a disease.  If a person becomes obese, the likelihood that his friend would also become obese increased by 57 percent.  If a person’s sibling became obese, the chance of another sibling becoming obese increased by 40%.  … Continue reading

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What America Said

“What made America great was her ability to transform her own dream into hope for all mankind . . . America did not tell the millions of men and women who came from every country in the world and who … Continue reading

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Why Their Offer Sucks and You’re Always Right

Following yesterday’s post, I thought I’d share a bit more about irrational behavior.  The following attributes won’t help as much at the tables in Vegas, but they can save, or make, you more money in a lot of other situations.  … Continue reading

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How To Lose Your Shirt In Vegas

I like to gamble.  Actually, that’s a lie.  I love to gamble.  Poker and craps, mostly, but if I’m bored enough, I will literally gamble on anything.  I’m fortunate in that I’ve developed a bit of skill at the games … Continue reading

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Keep Your Mouth Shut

Number one piece of advice if you’re ever questioned by the police about a crime: keep your mouth shut until your lawyer gets there. Interrogation techniques are so psychologically effective, people confess all the time.  Even when they didn’t do … Continue reading

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Transparency

Polished Sausage “Transparency” has been one of the hottest buzzwords in business for a few years now. Pundits and actual businessmen alike tout the advantages of full disclosure, and maybe more importantly, the ramifications of not being forthright. But, as … Continue reading

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The Cult of Status Quo

Bill Simmons, who’s nicknamed The Sports Guy and writes a comical column for ESPN, shares a very insightful response to a reader’s email about why soccer will never become popular in the U.S.: “Sometimes when people become die-hard fans of … Continue reading

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Great Decision

You know how you can tell when you’ve made a good decision? If you feel like you waited too long to make it, then it’s a good decision.  [If you say] we should have done this a long time ago. … Continue reading

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Investing For Dummies

I recently wrote the following as a response to one of Sebastian Marshall’s posts about investing, in which he breaks down what he’s learning about the financial game, the reasons people shouldn’t try to pick their own stocks, and how … Continue reading

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Get Rich?

A lot of people I know want to get rich.  The problem is, most of them probably couldn’t answer this very simple question: How do you define “rich”? Is it a sequence of numbers following a dollar sign? Is it … Continue reading

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Deadlines Force Creativity

Inspiration and work ethic, they ride right next to each other. When I was an upholsterer, sometimes you’re not inspired to reupholster and old chair. Sometimes it’s just work and you just do it because you’re supposed to. And maybe … Continue reading

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Change Is Good

I know a lot of people who not only fear change, but hate it.  I had never really understood why.  To me, change is always good.  I’ve never gone through a change and said “I wish that never happened.”  Even … Continue reading

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