A little learning is a dangerous thing ;Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring :There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain,And drinking largely sobers us again.
It’s one of the most famous lines in poetry, and with it, Alexander Pope hits the nail on the head. We all know that one person who sees themselves as some world authority based on a single article they’ve read. They’re the keyboard preachers and cocksure dilettantes who have spent an afternoon researching a topic, and they’ll tell you exactly how it is. They’re drunk, indeed, on a little learning, and will shout at everyone to let them know.
The fact is that disagreeing with someone is easy. No matter how much of your life you’ve devoted to a subject or how many letters after your name you have earned, it takes only one fool, who’s read one Facebook post, to disagree with you. It’s this which presents the illusion of depth and complexity — as if debate means that there will be no right answer. There are two sides to everything only because saying, “You’re ... Continue Reading »
Deep inside every star in the Universe, an incredible process occurs: the nuclear fusion of light elements and isotopes into heavier ones. Because heavier elements (at least, up to iron) have slightly lower rest masses than the sum of the light elements masses that fuse into them, the act of nuclear fusion in stars releases energy via Einstein’s most famous equation: E = mc². That energy powers the stars and causes them to shine, and as stars run out of a particular type of fuel in their cores, they evolve into the next stage of their lives until they run out of fuel entirely.
At least, that’s the conventional story you’ve likely heard. But it turns out that the tale I just related, although simplified, contains a number of common misconceptions that are present even among professional astronomers. I got the motivation to look a little deeper and clear some of these up after being prompted by a question from our reader Greg Hallock, who wrote to ask:
“I would like to know:-how much mass typical stars convert to energy (relative to ... Continue Reading »
A standard piece of writing advice is to “write what you know.” The proverb probably explains why so many movies are about writers. It definitely covers the endless parade of TV shows focused on mid-life crises.
But occasionally, the person who takes up the advice knows something most others don’t. They have spent years learning and developing advanced knowledge in one or more scientific fields. While such research can be rewarding, the pull of creative writing can draw these brilliant minds out of the lab. Luckily for readers, the resulting stories can be as enriching as they are fun to read.
Here are five science fiction novels written by scientists. If an author is included on this list, they either held an academic position at a university, published extensively in a scientific field, or have been otherwise recognized by the scientific community.
Nightfall by Isaac Asimov (1941)
The first law of science fiction may well be, “Any discussion of science fiction will eventually lead to somebody bringing up Asimov.” So we decided to start there.
Asimov was an extremely prolific writer. He wrote and ... Continue Reading »
In 1964, the German journalist Günter Gaus opened his interview with Hannah Arendt by asking about the experience of being a woman philosopher in a profession still largely shaped by men. But Arendt threw him off course straightaway. She objected, calmly but firmly, that she wasn’t a philosopher at all — that she didn’t belong to the circle of philosophers.
Gaus, visibly baffled, kept pressing. After all, Arendt was steeped in the German philosophical tradition. She had studied directly under Martin Heidegger and Karl Jaspers, towering minds of the 20th century. She had authored celebrated works like The Origins of Totalitarianism and The Human Condition, books that pulsed with the intellectual energy of Socrates, Kant, Hegel, and Husserl. Why would a thinker so deeply rooted in that lineage disown the title so many believed she had earned, and instead call herself a political theorist? Yet Arendt held her ground and brought the exchange to a close with a single, unmistakable line: “I’ve said goodbye to philosophy once and for all.”
We know for a fact that Arendt’s rebellion against the title hasn’t ... Continue Reading »
I thoroughly enjoyed this recent episode of The Art of Quality, where my friend William Oliver sits down with Chris Mayer — author of 100 Baggers and one of the more thoughtful long-term investors out there.
Chris talks about what it actually feels like to hold a business for years, and why some of the best investment ideas don’t show up in headlines — they reveal themselves slowly, over time. His story about owning Brown & Brown since day one of his fund is a great example of how patience, attention, and deep curiosity can lead to surprising long-term outcomes.
This episode kicks off William’s new series on the “inner game” — the psychology and mindset behind building things that last. Highly recommend.
Key quote: “I always have this thought that there’s no substitute for ownership — for actually owning a business. You can study it all you want when you don’t own it. And think you know it, but it’s something different when you actually own it. Some kind of intangible quality kicks in. You’re committed. You pay closer attention. And over ... Continue Reading »
In our Universe, quantum transitions are the governing rule behind every nuclear, atomic, and molecular phenomenon. Unlike the planets in our Solar System, which could stably orbit the Sun at any distance if they possessed the right speed, the protons, neutrons, and electrons that make up all the conventional matter we know of can only bind together in a specific set of configurations. These possibilities, although numerous, are finite in number, as the quantum rules that govern electromagnetism and the nuclear forces restrict how atomic nuclei and the electrons that orbit them can arrange themselves.
In all the Universe, the most common atom of all is hydrogen, with just one proton and one electron. Wherever new stars form, hydrogen atoms become ionized, becoming neutral again if those free electrons can find their way back to a free proton. Although the electrons will typically cascade down the allowed energy levels into the ground state, that normally produces only a specific set of infrared, visible, and ultraviolet light. But more importantly, a special transition occurs in hydrogen that produces light of about the ... Continue Reading »
When you first meet someone, you are forced into the often tedious back-and-forth known as small talk. “How do you know Mark?” you ask, utterly uncaring for the answer. But the most common opening move in small talk, at least in many Western cultures, is the dreaded, “So, what do you do for a living?”
We tend to define ourselves by our work. In some ways, this is unsurprising; most people spend approximately one-third of their lives at work. But it’s also a touch depressing. After all, what does someone’s day job really tell you about who they are? A much better, and certainly more interesting, question would be, “So, what do you do in your leisure time?”
In this week’s Mini Philosophy interview, I spoke with Alex Soojung-Kim Pang, the bestselling author of Rest: Why You Get More Done When You Work Less. Soojung-Kim Pang is the founder of the 4 Day Week Studio and a vocal advocate for working less but doing more.
Here are four reasons why we should take rest more seriously.
1. It makes you better at your job
“I ... Continue Reading »
For the first half hour or so of Warfare, a new film based on the real-life experiences of American Navy SEALs who were ambushed during the Iraq War, the characters act like most soldiers we see on the big screen: methodical, in control, following protocol. Then Iraqi fighters open fire, and an EID (Improvised Explosion Device) traps the platoon inside a civilian home as the unseen enemy closes in. Control gives way to chaos. Soldiers scream in agony, begging for shots of morphine. The others turn to their commanding officer, played by Will Poulter, asking for orders.
Mere moments ago, Poulter’s character would have known exactly what to do. Now he just stands there, overwhelmed by stimuli too numerous to process.
Warfare’s creators — Ray Mendoza and Alex Garland — can relate to this predicament. Mendoza is a former SEAL, a veteran of the Iraq War turned military consultant for film and TV who took part in the very operation the film revolves around. Garland, for his part, is a veteran filmmaker, director of both small and big budgets hits, from 2014’s ... Continue Reading »
A little learning is a dangerous thing ;Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring :There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain,And drinking largely sobers us again.
It’s one of the most famous lines in poetry, and with it, Alexander Pope hits the nail on the head. We all know that one person who sees themselves as some world authority based on a single article they’ve read. They’re the keyboard preachers and cocksure dilettantes who have spent an afternoon researching a topic, and they’ll tell you exactly how it is. They’re drunk, indeed, on a little learning, and will shout at everyone to let them know.
The fact is that disagreeing with someone is easy. No matter how much of your life you’ve devoted to a subject or how many letters after your name you have earned, it takes only one fool, who’s read one Facebook post, to disagree with you. It’s this which presents the illusion of depth and complexity — as if debate means that there will be no right answer. There are two sides to everything only because saying, “You’re ... 
Deep inside every star in the Universe, an incredible process occurs: the nuclear fusion of light elements and isotopes into heavier ones. Because heavier elements (at least, up to iron) have slightly lower rest masses than the sum of the light elements masses that fuse into them, the act of nuclear fusion in stars releases energy via Einstein’s most famous equation: E = mc². That energy powers the stars and causes them to shine, and as stars run out of a particular type of fuel in their cores, they evolve into the next stage of their lives until they run out of fuel entirely.
At least, that’s the conventional story you’ve likely heard. But it turns out that the tale I just related, although simplified, contains a number of common misconceptions that are present even among professional astronomers. I got the motivation to look a little deeper and clear some of these up after being prompted by a question from our reader Greg Hallock, who wrote to ask:
“I would like to know:-how much mass typical stars convert to energy (relative to ... 
A standard piece of writing advice is to “write what you know.” The proverb probably explains why so many movies are about writers. It definitely covers the endless parade of TV shows focused on mid-life crises.
But occasionally, the person who takes up the advice knows something most others don’t. They have spent years learning and developing advanced knowledge in one or more scientific fields. While such research can be rewarding, the pull of creative writing can draw these brilliant minds out of the lab. Luckily for readers, the resulting stories can be as enriching as they are fun to read.
Here are five science fiction novels written by scientists. If an author is included on this list, they either held an academic position at a university, published extensively in a scientific field, or have been otherwise recognized by the scientific community.
Nightfall by Isaac Asimov (1941)
The first law of science fiction may well be, “Any discussion of science fiction will eventually lead to somebody bringing up Asimov.” So we decided to start there.
Asimov was an extremely prolific writer. He wrote and ... 
In 1964, the German journalist Günter Gaus opened his interview with Hannah Arendt by asking about the experience of being a woman philosopher in a profession still largely shaped by men. But Arendt threw him off course straightaway. She objected, calmly but firmly, that she wasn’t a philosopher at all — that she didn’t belong to the circle of philosophers.
Gaus, visibly baffled, kept pressing. After all, Arendt was steeped in the German philosophical tradition. She had studied directly under Martin Heidegger and Karl Jaspers, towering minds of the 20th century. She had authored celebrated works like The Origins of Totalitarianism and The Human Condition, books that pulsed with the intellectual energy of Socrates, Kant, Hegel, and Husserl. Why would a thinker so deeply rooted in that lineage disown the title so many believed she had earned, and instead call herself a political theorist? Yet Arendt held her ground and brought the exchange to a close with a single, unmistakable line: “I’ve said goodbye to philosophy once and for all.”
We know for a fact that Arendt’s rebellion against the title hasn’t ... 
I thoroughly enjoyed this recent episode of The Art of Quality, where my friend William Oliver sits down with Chris Mayer — author of 100 Baggers and one of the more thoughtful long-term investors out there.
Chris talks about what it actually feels like to hold a business for years, and why some of the best investment ideas don’t show up in headlines — they reveal themselves slowly, over time. His story about owning Brown & Brown since day one of his fund is a great example of how patience, attention, and deep curiosity can lead to surprising long-term outcomes.
This episode kicks off William’s new series on the “inner game” — the psychology and mindset behind building things that last. Highly recommend.
Key quote: “I always have this thought that there’s no substitute for ownership — for actually owning a business. You can study it all you want when you don’t own it. And think you know it, but it’s something different when you actually own it. Some kind of intangible quality kicks in. You’re committed. You pay closer attention. And over ... 
In our Universe, quantum transitions are the governing rule behind every nuclear, atomic, and molecular phenomenon. Unlike the planets in our Solar System, which could stably orbit the Sun at any distance if they possessed the right speed, the protons, neutrons, and electrons that make up all the conventional matter we know of can only bind together in a specific set of configurations. These possibilities, although numerous, are finite in number, as the quantum rules that govern electromagnetism and the nuclear forces restrict how atomic nuclei and the electrons that orbit them can arrange themselves.
In all the Universe, the most common atom of all is hydrogen, with just one proton and one electron. Wherever new stars form, hydrogen atoms become ionized, becoming neutral again if those free electrons can find their way back to a free proton. Although the electrons will typically cascade down the allowed energy levels into the ground state, that normally produces only a specific set of infrared, visible, and ultraviolet light. But more importantly, a special transition occurs in hydrogen that produces light of about the ... 
When you first meet someone, you are forced into the often tedious back-and-forth known as small talk. “How do you know Mark?” you ask, utterly uncaring for the answer. But the most common opening move in small talk, at least in many Western cultures, is the dreaded, “So, what do you do for a living?”
We tend to define ourselves by our work. In some ways, this is unsurprising; most people spend approximately one-third of their lives at work. But it’s also a touch depressing. After all, what does someone’s day job really tell you about who they are? A much better, and certainly more interesting, question would be, “So, what do you do in your leisure time?”
In this week’s Mini Philosophy interview, I spoke with Alex Soojung-Kim Pang, the bestselling author of Rest: Why You Get More Done When You Work Less. Soojung-Kim Pang is the founder of the 4 Day Week Studio and a vocal advocate for working less but doing more.
Here are four reasons why we should take rest more seriously.
1. It makes you better at your job
“I ... 
For the first half hour or so of Warfare, a new film based on the real-life experiences of American Navy SEALs who were ambushed during the Iraq War, the characters act like most soldiers we see on the big screen: methodical, in control, following protocol. Then Iraqi fighters open fire, and an EID (Improvised Explosion Device) traps the platoon inside a civilian home as the unseen enemy closes in. Control gives way to chaos. Soldiers scream in agony, begging for shots of morphine. The others turn to their commanding officer, played by Will Poulter, asking for orders.
Mere moments ago, Poulter’s character would have known exactly what to do. Now he just stands there, overwhelmed by stimuli too numerous to process.
Warfare’s creators — Ray Mendoza and Alex Garland — can relate to this predicament. Mendoza is a former SEAL, a veteran of the Iraq War turned military consultant for film and TV who took part in the very operation the film revolves around. Garland, for his part, is a veteran filmmaker, director of both small and big budgets hits, from 2014’s ...