Even if Steven Pinker thinks otherwise. — Steven Pinker’s new book, “Rationality” argues that we should all be more rational and that doing so would make our lives better. He’s not entirely wrong. But… I like to tell myself that I’m a rational person. I admit I lean heavily on logic and identify in many ways with…

Stoicism as an Antidote — When a person thinks of the word “Stoic,” there is often the assumption of no emotion or, at the least, indifference to feelings. Think of Spock from Star Trek fame. While there is a bit of truth that Stoics tend toward rationality instead of emotional outbursts, mainly due to training…

Be Like Water — I am a sucker for biographies of Winston Churchill. I can’t explain it, but his life is an amazing story to me. I don’t know whether it’s his resolve in the face of danger or his startling wit that I’m drawn to, but Churchill ranks at the top of my…

A farewell to free speech. — I’ve previously written about free speech and believe there should always be more speech, not less. When other countries are having their freedoms ripped away by their governments, we, the citizens of the US, have become content to call for silencing our own. I am talking about cancel culture. A…

Applying Occam’s Razor to Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu — Have you ever seen something and thought, “There’s got to be an easier way to do this”? A recent post from a friend and fellow Jiu-Jitsu coach, Scott Ferguson, and a rereading of Old School Jiu-Jitsu Manifesto made me want to discuss applying one of philosophy’s tools to martial arts…

How modern technologies shape conspiratorial thinking. — I recently had the chance to present my research on QAnon, a meta-conspiracy theory, and the media ecology perspective taken by Neil Postman. He was an educator, media critic, and language enthusiast, among many other things. He also drew heavily on historical analysis. I share many of his concerns about…

And what they mean for 21st-century higher education — The late Colin Powell was a military commander and successful leader. As an educator, it might be easy to dismiss his expertise in those areas as irrelevant to our field. But he offers an insight into what it takes to succeed in life, one that our students can benefit from. …

Modern Problems With Ancient Solutions — I took my kids deer hunting with me this weekend. The weather was wonderful. Not too hot; not too cold. The mosquitoes weren’t out. But neither were the deer. We weren’t in the stand for 30 minutes before my son whispered, “this is boring.” This is the same kid who…

Stoicism in practice — I recently saw a meme quoting Mac Anderson that read, “You are always one choice away from changing your life.” I don’t know much about the author or the originality of his idea, but the essence of the quote can be found millennia ago. Marcus Aurelius wrote something very similar…