I'm against being against things. The reason is simple: it's less effort to be against something; which makes it easier, but ultimately counter-productive. What does this mean? Take relationships, for example. Suppose a woman states that she does not want to date a man who is abusive, which is a perfectly logical thing to want…
As a general rule, I'm not a big fan of big government. In my opinion, most government agencies that seek to regulate aspects of our lives are ineffective and wasteful at best and destructive at worst. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) was, until recently, a government agency that I was on board with. I…
There are all too many motivational anecdotes about never giving up, and that's good and all, but I think there need to be more motivational anecdotes about knowing when to give up. This is one of them. On Saturday I made a goal: that I was going to attempt to cook shrimp gumbo. If you've never had…
With every new year comes a period lasting anywhere from a few days to a few months where I write the previous year and have to scribble it out. But it also brings with it the sad end of the college football season, culminated with several weeks of nonstop bowl action. I love bowl season,…
Aside from pro tennis, college football is my favorite sport (and luckily their two seasons rarely come into conflict). Yes, I think college football is more fun to watch than the NFL. Why? I can't really put my finger on it, but I think it has something to do with the fact that college football…
I'm from the South, and people in the South (and elsewhere in America's heartland) really love their pickup trucks. I get it, they are big, powerful, utilitarian, and, in a word: manly. But I've just never felt the desire to own a truck. Truth be told, I've never even driven one. I drove mostly SUVs…
Editor's note: this is the second installment in a series on Game Theory. If you are unfamiliar with The Prisoner's Dilemma, it is recommended that you read the intro to the series before diving into this post. From an economic standpoint, militaries are a huge waste of money. Countries around the world spend significant portions…
If you haven't seen A Beautiful Mind, then you may think the term "Game Theory" sounds like some geeky over-interpretation of video game strategies, but it is in fact a complex mathematical discipline that has a wide-ranging array of real-life applications. While many adults might not think a "game" is a very serious term, in the…
One could argue it's everyone's goal in life to develop a set of skills or characteristics that you can take pride in, but these same positive traits can also be a weight on your shoulders. I recently watched an episode of Joe Rogan's podcast with a comedian named Owen Benjamin, and it is definitely worth…
On a recent trip to Banff National Park in Canada, my friends and I took a voyage to Moraine Lake, and this is what we found: Now, that's a pretty good view. It was arguably a better view than Lake Louise, which we saw shortly before: Lake Louise is the bigger and more famous lake…