I suppose my blog title is an ancient saying but I can't find any evidence. There is, however, a related quote by "Peter Diamandis, Founder of X Prize Foundation & Cofounder of Singularity University: If you can't win, change the rules. If you can't change the rules, ignore them." The rule in any competition (eg, business, sports) is to win. Wiki:...
Society
Why do we expect reciprocal friendships?
20 Mar, 2023
The notion of (full) reciprocity in friendships will create false expectations because it's an illusion. Some friendships may indeed come quite close to reciprocity. In most friendships, someone is leading (eg, pull & push) the friendship. The other friends are more responsive. Hence, my blog title's question. Many articles claim reciprocity is a cornerstone of...
From permissive to intolerant societies (and back)
7 Mar, 2023
Being born in 1960, I was a teenager in the 1970s. If any society was permissive then it was back then. Nowadays, intolerance seems to be the driving force in (Western) societies. It's an example of Isaac Newton's third Law of Motion: For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction (source). In the 1970s, Labour-Left was a dominant political force that...
The 7 stages of Liberalism (2)
6 Mar, 2023
In 2018, I wrote my blog The 7 stages of Liberalism. Increasingly, I'm wondering if stage 7 was wrong and should have been on the rise of illiberal liberalism. Several articles deal with this phenomenon: Hoover-2014, OUP-2015, Politico-2017, Heritage-2017, Economist-2018 and T&F Online-2022. The key criterion of illiberal liberalism is the immediate desire to...
Why there are so few babies in southern Europe (the Economist)
25 Feb, 2023
The Economist title: Why there are so few babies in southern Europe Economist subtitle: It’s mostly economics Date: 16 February 2023 "The museo degli innocenti in Florence has an unusual name and hosts an unusual display: a collection of small broken objects, mostly medallions. They were split in two when a baby was delivered to Florence’s hospital for...
The silo mentality in scientific articles
23 Feb, 2023
Last week, I noticed a Big Think article: Why are flood myths so common in stories from ancient cultures around the world? I've written about this in several blogs (eg, my 2016 blog). Actually, there is no flood myth; it's part of our geological history. Also see Wiki on the post-glacial sea level rise. The above might be viewed as yet another example of my recent...
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