Exceeding Service

Genius consists in this, that the knowing faculty has received a considerably greater development than the service of the will demands.
—  Arthur Schopenhauer
In other words, the genius is able to subjugate his will, or desires, in order to view the world objectively.  To the ordinary man, the world is temporary and specific; to the genius, it is eternal, universal, and profound.
[This comment appears in my journal as unattributed.  It may have been my own, and I believe it is, but I am not sure.  —  KMAB]
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On This Day In:
2014	Still Learning
	Hospitality
2013	Execution Not Intensity
2012	Charles Carroll Of Carrollton (The Only Catholic Founder)
2011	Life Works
	Pay Like Hell
	Prosperity Finds Its Way Up

Make Me Look

Summons
Keep me from going to sleep too soon
Or if I go to sleep too soon
Come wake me up.  Come any hour
Of night.  Come whistling up the road.
Stomp on the porch.  Bang on the door.
Make me get out of bed and come
And let you in and light a light.
Tell me the northern lights are on
And make me look.  Or tell me clouds
Are doing something to the moon
They never did before, and show me.
See that I see.  Talk to me till
I’m half as wide awake as you
And start to dress wondering why
I ever went to bed at all.
Tell me the walking is superb.
Not only tell me but persuade me.
You know I’m not too hard persuaded.
Written by:  Robert Francis
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On This Day In:
2014	Fresh Drink
2013	Good Business
2012	Unsure Spirit
2011	A Lost Valuable

Importance

Promotion should not be more important than accomplishment, or avoiding instability more important than taking the right risk.
—  Peter Drucker
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On This Day In:
2014	Unearned Humility
2013	Science Is Trial And Error
2012	Franklin’s Creed
2011	First Steps
2010	Home Ill…

False Gods

Capitalism has been proved a false god because it leads inevitably to class war among rigidly defined classes.  Socialism has been proved false because it has been demonstrated that it cannot abolish these classes.
—  Peter Drucker
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On This Day In:
2014	But Sometimes Careers Choose People
2013	Pretty Sure Of Uncertainty
2012	Face Reality
2011	Intelligent Luck

Social Security

No greater tragedy exists in modern civilization than the aged, worn-out worker who after a life of ceaseless effort and useful productivity must look forward for his declining years to a poorhouse.  A modern social consciousness demands a more humane and efficient arrangement.
—  Franklin D. Roosevelt
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On This Day In:
2014	Bewitching
2013	Visiting Joy
2012	Dedication To Today
2011	Project Second Chance – Adult Literacy
	Turning Coal Into Diamonds

It Isn’t The End

Last night, Hil and I watched (actually re-watched) “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel” (2011).  The movie is about a group of seven retired (elderly) Brits who decide to move to India to retire and live out the rest of their days.  Well, actually, it’s only six.  One of the pensioners (Dame Maggie Smith’s character) is actually only going to India for a hip replacement.
The hotel owner / manager Sonny Kapoor is played by Dev Patel.  His dream is to take a falling down hotel which his father owned and turn it into a modern hotel to “out-source” old age to foreigners.  The business concept is in-fact quite viable as my wife has a good friend who knows two colleagues who have done just this very thing (retired to India) and I have a good friend who spends six months of every year living in the Philippines.  The fact is, if you can stand the climate and the culture, it is quite feasible to leave the United States to live out your retirement years in relative comfort in a “poorer” part of the world where your currency (retirement pension) buys more.
The cast of this movie is exceptional.  The movie is a lightly comedic drama.  That is, it is meant to convey a number of ideas about “finding one’s self” in old age, by being willing to take chances and start over in a new place.  As such, it is a “fairy tale” as much as a pure drama.  The comedy comes in from the “normal” course of cultural clashes the retirees experience and there is a particularly funny set piece involving the girlfriend of the hotel manager, his mother and one of the guests.
If you enjoyed “The King’s Speech” or “Quartet“, you’ll almost certainly enjoy this film.  I certainly did.  Final recommendation: Highly Recommended!
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On This Day In:
2014	Friends
2013	Learning Bitter
2012	Remembrance, Minstrels & Going Off To War
	May I Have More Happiness, Please?
2011	There Is No God, But God
2010	Another Running Book…

Prospero’s Precepts

Dubbed “Prospero’s Precepts”, these eleven rules culled from some of history’s greatest minds can serve as a general-purpose guideline for critical thinking in all matters of doubt:
1.   All beliefs in whatever realm are theories at some level.  (Stephen Schneider)
2.   Do not condemn the judgment of another because it differs from your own.  You may both be wrong.  (Dandemis)
3.   Read not to contradict and confute; nor to believe and take for granted; nor to find talk and discourse; but to weigh and consider.  (Francis Bacon)
4.   Never fall in love with your hypothesis.  (Peter Medawar)
5.   It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data.  Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories instead of theories to suit facts.  (Arthur Conan Doyle)
6.   A theory should not attempt to explain all the facts, because some of the facts are wrong.  (Francis Crick)
7.   The thing that doesn’t fit is the thing that is most interesting.  (Richard Feynman)
8.   To kill an error is as good a service as, and sometimes even better than, the establishing of a new truth or fact.  (Charles Darwin)
9.   It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble.  It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.  (Mark Twain)
10.  Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong.  (Thomas Jefferson)
11.  All truth passes through three stages.  First, it is ridiculed, second, it is violently opposed, and third, it is accepted as self-evident.  (Arthur Schopenhauer)
—   Peter Surrock
From his book: “AKA Shakespeare: A Scientific Approach to the Authorship Question“
[Found at a site I like to visit every now and then:   http://www.brainpickings.org/
The specific post was found at:  http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2013/04/01/aka-shakespeare/
Well worth a visit…   —  KMAB]
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On This Day In:
2014	Friends
2013	Learning Bitter
2012	Remembrance, Minstrels & Going Off To War
	May I Have More Happiness, Please?
2011	There Is No God, But God
2010	Another Running Book…