Maybe you’ll finally care. — Students used to show up drunk to my class, especially during football season. They filled Gatorade bottles with vodka. At least they smiled through my lectures, even if they didn’t read a single page of Marilynne Robinson’s Housekeeping, which they considered the most boring book ever written. Students started drinking…

Let’s get real. — I’ve noticed something… A charismatic white guy can go on television and predict the next stock market crash. He can predict wars. He can talk about nuclear holocaust. He can make a fortune off selling fear. There’s a trick to it. You can’t ever mention anything along the lines of…

It could become endemic. — Check this out: If it wasn’t clear enough during the Covid-19 pandemic, it has become obvious during the monkeypox outbreak: The United States, among the richest, most advanced nations in the world, remains wholly unprepared to combat new pathogens. That’s from The New York Times. It predicts that new diseases…

We live in extraordinary times. — There’s this book about Norman Vincent Peale called Surge of Piety. It should be required reading for America. The book chronicles the early days of positive thinking, back when the pastor-turned-life coach was counseling adults during the Great Depression. …

The fatal flaw in productivity advice. — I worked my way through college. I also took care of my mom. She was too sick to work. Usually, she was even too sick to go to the bathroom. It was hard. One of my first bosses threatened to fire me for studying on the job. I was 19…

It was so simple. — He ran away, while she was still talking. Yeah, ran. My friend worked in the IT department at my university. It was... interesting. Her coworkers dumped their work on her and then went to hang out with her boss. She was the smartest person in that whole department, and the…

The short answer is no. — This advice almost ruined my life: Believe in yourself. Never give up. You hear stuff like this all the time. It’s on all kinds of merchandise. It’s the lesson behind every inspirational memoir and self-help book on the shelves. Americans just eat it up. It’s the Cinnabon of life lessons. …

Grit runs out. — Nazis tried to kill my grandpa. They literally chased him around Germany in a tank. Their tank was a lot bigger and faster. My grandpa survived by shooting the tracks off the bigger tank. Each time, the Nazis had to stop and fix it — giving his crew enough time…

Putin is still winning. — Vladimir Putin just announced a “partial mobilization” of Russia’s military. He’s calling up 300,000 men to fight in Ukraine. He also intends to annex parts of the country under Russian control. We’re losing. Look, we all grasp that Putin is an evil dude. Calling him names and making fun of…