Author Archives: Steve

Epistemic status: informed speculation I. I played the trombone for 11 years. If you ask trombone players who the best trombone player in the world is, everyone says Joe Alessi. He’s the only professional trombone player most non-professional trombone players can name (aside from perhaps Trombone Shorty and Christopher Bill). [1] Why the consensus? IsContinue reading “Why Merit Isn’t Enough”

A friend once showed me a Tweet that said, “It would be nice if there was a ding that told you when your frontal lobes finished developing.” My layman’s understanding of the frontal lobe is that its development increases your maturity. [1][2] I’ve heard various estimates of when your frontal lobes finish developing, ranging fromContinue reading “Frontal Lobes”

I dislike how polarized we’ve become. We so often align ourselves with a group and adopt the beliefs of that group. You shouldn’t be able to guess a person’s stance on abortion based on their stance on wealth redistribution, but usually you can. I wouldn’t mind so much if it didn’t involve the right andContinue reading “Change Your Mind”

Usually, when we say we’ll never do something again, we mean it. Unfortunately, we rarely follow through. Why? When you make a statement like, “Baby, I feel terrible for cheating on you with the mailman, I’ll never do it again,” you’re saying it because you’re overcome with emotion. But… that feeling fades more quickly thanContinue reading “Never Again”

At the company I work for, I have to attend…

There’s a last time we do anything, and what we should do about this is…

So sticky that people will never forget them.

It’s easy to think that going out in public isn’t a big deal, but this is a mindset we need to ditch.

When you find yourself saying “This time it’s different”, instead say…