Close the Military Academies

It costs taxpayers between $300,000 to $500,000 per cadet we graduate from the military academies in the United States. Is this a worthwhile investment? Are officers in the military who graduate from Annapolis or West Point really vastly superior to officers who graduated from USC or Washington or Stanford? From the research I’ve done, officers coming from other sources do equally well to military academy graduates.… read more “Close the Military Academies”

Children’s Cancer vs The Manhattan Project

$100 million a month was spent on the Manhattan project during WW2. In 1946, after the war, a measly $1 million a year was spent on children’s cancer research.

How would the world change if we set up enormous efforts to cure diseases like cancer, build true sustainable life off the planet earth?

Minor Accident Today

I was sitting in my Acadia this morning at the left turn signal from Motor onto Venice when I felt a push from behind and looked in my rear view mirror and saw a big yellow truck. I pulled through the intersection and pulled over and the guy followed me. The guy spoke pretty poor English and said he was a delivery driver.… read more “Minor Accident Today”

End of the World Planning

Contingency / Emergency Planning

Why should we think about contingencies and emergencies? Why not just focus on positive, happy things and planning for a great life?

I agree that it is important to come up with a happy plan for our life and have an optimistic trajectory for our main course. Observation and experience though have shown that rarely do optimistic plans always go according to course.… read more “End of the World Planning”

Landlord Troubles

The ownership of our building changed and the new owner has been an absolute nightmare to deal with.  They are trying to force us out of our unit because they don’t think we pay enough in rent – they bought the building to try to raise rents. However, we have a lease for 8 years, so they are trying to make so much trouble for us that we will voluntarily leave.… read more “Landlord Troubles”

Immigration

The question of immigration can be simplified to a trade off between freedom and security. It would be wonderful for everyone in the world to have the liberty of choosing where they live and under what type of government. On the other hand, you have situations like the recent terrorist attacks in Paris and around the world by foreigners.… read more “Immigration”

Save The Client Calls

One of the worst parts of running an agency is when you hear that a client wants to cancel. At that point, you need to call the client to find out why. Sometimes they don’t understand the results they’ve gotten, sometimes they have legitimate concerns, sometimes they have financial issues. But it always is one of the most stressful and least fun parts of running an agency.… read more “Save The Client Calls”