the_book_of_tea

the_book_of_tea
- Highlight on Page 17 | Added on Sunday, September 25, 2011, 04:53 AM

Lichilai, a Sung poet, has sadly remarked that there were three most deplorable things in the world: the spoiling of fine youths through false education, the degradation of fine art through vulgar admiration, and the utter waste of fine tea through incompetent manipulation.

Action-based jurisprudence

Action-based jurisprudence
- Highlight Loc. 984-89  | Added on Monday, September 19, 2011, 01:59 AM

One of the challenges of both legal theory and legal practice is to move patterns of outcomes in any given legal system toward as close an alignment as possible with the requirements of justice. Legal practice should always be on trial in the court of legal theory, while legal theory should be recognized as insufficient to do justice in any real case. Legal theory and legal practice must therefore persist in a challenging but necessary marriage between distinctive partners if they are to produce the offspring of justice. Used properly, praxeological legal concepts not only boost the clarity of legal theorizing from “the armchair,” they also enhance the ability of practitioners to parse specific cases from “the bench.”

The Black Swan (Nassim Nicholas Taleb)

The Black Swan (Nassim Nicholas Taleb)
- Highlight Loc. 840-41  | Added on Sunday, September 18, 2011, 04:56 AM

While we have a highly unstable memory, a diary provides indelible facts recorded more or less immediately; it thus allows the fixation of an unrevised perception and enables us to later study events in their own context.

The Black Swan (Nassim Nicholas Taleb)

The Black Swan (Nassim Nicholas Taleb)
- Highlight Loc. 739-42  | Added on Saturday, September 17, 2011, 08:43 PM

History is opaque. You see what comes out, not the script that produces events, the generator of history. There is a fundamental incompleteness in your grasp of such events, since you do not see what’s inside the box, how the mechanisms work. What I call the generator of historical events is different from the events themselves, much as the minds of the gods cannot be read just by witnessing their deeds. You are very likely to be fooled about their intentions.

The Black Swan (Nassim Nicholas Taleb)

The Black Swan (Nassim Nicholas Taleb)
- Highlight Loc. 735-38  | Added on Saturday, September 17, 2011, 08:41 PM

So you could see the stars with great clarity. I had been told in high school that the planets are in something called equilibrium, so we did not have to worry about the stars hitting us unexpectedly. To me, that eerily resembled the stories we were also told about the “unique historical stability” of Lebanon. The very idea of assumed equilibrium bothered me. I looked at the constellations in the sky and did not know what to believe.

The Black Swan (Nassim Nicholas Taleb)

The Black Swan (Nassim Nicholas Taleb)
- Highlight Loc. 448-57  | Added on Saturday, September 17, 2011, 07:11 PM

Black Swans being unpredictable, we need to adjust to their existence (rather than naïvely try to predict them). There are so many things we can do if we focus on antiknowledge, or what we do not know. Among many other benefits, you can set yourself up to collect serendipitous Black Swans (of the positive kind) by maximizing your exposure to them. Indeed, in some domains—such as scientific discovery and venture capital investments—there is a disproportionate payoff from the unknown, since you typically have little to lose and plenty to gain from a rare event. We will see that, contrary to social-science wisdom, almost no discovery, no technologies of note, came from design and planning—they were just Black Swans. The strategy for the discoverers and entrepreneurs is to rely less on top-down planning and focus on maximum tinkering and recognizing opportunities when they present themselves. So I disagree with the followers of Marx and those of Adam Smith: the reason free markets work is because they allow people to be lucky, thanks to aggressive trial and error, not by giving rewards or “incentives” for skill. The strategy is, then, to tinker as much as possible and try to collect as many Black Swan opportunities as you can.

Action-based jurisprudence

Action-based jurisprudence
- Highlight Loc. 688-97  | Added on Wednesday, September 14, 2011, 04:03 PM

Does such legal restriction on Edward’s scope of action make his property right in his motorcycle “limited”? Mis- or over-applied metaphors can lead to clouded thinking and the popular concept of “limitations on rights” is an example. Part of the confusion stems from the notion of “rights” as it is used in constitutional-law reasoning that accepts the notion that rights are delimited spheres of action that the state allows to its subjects. The state may restrict or withdraw such “rights” at its “supreme” (as in, for example, “supreme court”) discretion.31 In contrast, a renewed focus on distinguishing rights from actions supports clearer reasoning about important legal issues. In this approach, the sphere of legitimate action relates to what is done, while rights address which resources and locations each person has the legitimate authority to make decisions about. Such rights can, indeed, be “absolute.” It is only actions that the requirements of justice limit.

Páginas Recolhidas, Machado de Assis

Páginas Recolhidas, Machado de Assis
- Highlight Loc. 899-902  | Added on Wednesday, September 14, 2011, 01:28 AM

A última carta falava de suicídio. Brotero, ao reler esse tópico, sentiu uma coisa indefinível; chamemos-lhe o "calafrio do ridículo evitado". Realmente se ele se houvesse eliminado, não teria o presente desgosto político e pessoal; mas o que não diriam dele nos pasmatórios da Rua do Ouvidor, nas conversações à mesa? Viria tudo à rua, viria mais alguma coisa; chamar-lhe-iam frouxo, insensato, libidinoso, e depois falariam de outro assunto, uma ópera, por exemplo.

Jack Kerouac - Os vagabundos iluminados

Jack Kerouac - Os vagabundos iluminados
- Highlight Loc. 2794-2801  | Added on Monday, September 12, 2011, 12:37 AM

Subitamente me senti livre e comecei a caminhar pelo lado errado da estrada e, esticando o polegar daquele lado, pedi carona como um Santo Chinês de Lugar Nenhum sem objetivo algum, indo para a minha montanha para me regozijar. Pobre deste mundo angelical! De repente, percebi que não me importava mais, caminharia o trajeto todo. Mas só porque estava dançando pelo lado errado da estrada e não me importava com nada, começaram a me oferecer carona imediatamente, um garimpeiro com uma lagartazinha na frente que o filho ficava puxando, e conversamos longamente a respeito dos bosques, das montanhas Siskiyou (que atravessávamos, em direção a Grants Pass, no Oregon), e de como preparar um bom peixe cozido, ele explicou, acendendo uma fogueira sobre a areia amarela e limpa ao lado de um riacho e enterrando o peixe na areia quente depois de ter desmanchado a fogueira e deixá-lo ali durante algumas horas e depois simplesmente retirá-lo e limpar a areia. Ele mostrou grande interesse pela minha mochila e pelos meus planos.

Action-based jurisprudence

Action-based jurisprudence
- Highlight Loc. 514-17  | Added on Sunday, September 11, 2011, 06:16 AM

The NAP’s status as the only justifiable property norm simply is, regardless of any particular action taken or not taken with regard to it. Moreover, regardless of whether any given person understands the NAP or its APoA foundations, these nevertheless remain established. By analogy, the mere existence of a person who remains untrained in higher mathematics does not thereby invalidate any particular higher mathematical proof. A particular person’s inability to comprehend such proofs has no bearing whatsoever on their validity.

Páginas Recolhidas, Machado de Assis

Páginas Recolhidas, Machado de Assis
- Highlight Loc. 422-26  | Added on Thursday, September 08, 2011, 02:29 AM

Norberto vivia com os pais; não me cabendo igual fortuna, por havê-los perdido, vivia de uma mesada que me dava um tio da Bahia e das dívidas que o bom velho pagava semestralmente. Pagava-as, e escrevia-me logo uma porção de coisas amargas, concluindo sempre que, pelo menos, fosse estudando até ser doutor. Doutor, para quê? dizia comigo. Pois se nem o sol, nem a lua, nem as moças, nem os bons charutos Vilegas eram doutores, que necessidade tinha eu de o ser? E tocava a rir, a folgar, a deixar correr semanas e credores.

Is the Market a Test of Truth and Beauty? (Leland B. Yeager)

Is the Market a Test of Truth and Beauty? (Leland B. Yeager)
- Highlight Loc. 446-48  | Added on Wednesday, September 07, 2011, 07:27 PM

To favor production-oriented (or export-oriented) imports over consumption-oriented imports is to prefer a roundabout achievement of ultimate consumer satisfactions to their more direct achievement merely because of the greater roundaboutness.

Páginas Recolhidas, Machado de Assis

Páginas Recolhidas, Machado de Assis
- Highlight Loc. 64-68  | Added on Tuesday, August 30, 2011, 04:40 AM

João Carneiro estava com a pupila desvairada, a pálpebra trêmula, o peito ofegante. Os olhares que deitava a Sinhá Rita eram de súplica, mesclados de um tênue raio de censura. Por que lhe não pedia outra coisa? Por que lhe não ordenava que fosse a pé, debaixo de chuva, à Tijuca, ou Jacarepaguá? Mas logo persuadir ao compadre que mudasse a carreira do filho... Conhecia o velho; era capaz de lhe quebrar uma jarra na cara. Ah! se o rapaz caísse ali, de repente, apoplético, morto! Era uma solução — cruel, é certo, mas definitiva.

A Theory of Interest

A Theory of Interest
- Highlight on Page 93 | Added on Sunday, August 28, 2011, 04:35 AM

Originary interest itself does not have any manifestations in the realm of the objects of human action; it is not an object of action, but a feature of action itself. This is also why it is categorically different from money interest and must not be confused with it. It would be a grave error to believe that money interest is something like “originary interest become visible.” Originary interest is as different from money interest as value differs from money

A Theory of Interest (Hulsmann)

A Theory of Interest (Hulsmann)
- Highlight on Page 87 | Added on Saturday, August 27, 2011, 02:50 PM

We are thus in a position to give a realist definition of originary interest, which is the phenomenon that lies at the heart of all manifestations of interest on the market and in any other form of social organization. Originary interest is the fundamental spread between the value of an end and the value of the means that serve to attain this end.

The Theory of Idle Resources (W. H. Hutt)

The Theory of Idle Resources (W. H. Hutt)
- Highlight Loc. 2142-47  | Added on Monday, August 22, 2011, 01:54 AM

We are, however, justified in claiming that we have dealt with the “causes” of idleness. For whatever the demand schedule for the services of particular resources may be, if those resources are idle, then one or more of the causes appropriate to the different types of idleness that we have distinguished must be present. The movement of individual demand schedules is certainly relevant because the extent of the various kinds of idleness in the particular resources concerned will frequently tend in practice to vary inversely with such movements. But in respect of each type of idleness, considered in isolation, the removal of the one specific cause will lead to the complete cessation of the unemployment of the type in question, irrespective of the state of the demand schedule.

Lucid Dreaming, Stephen LaBerge

Lucid Dreaming, Stephen LaBerge
- Highlight Loc. 2247-65  | Added on Wednesday, August 17, 2011, 03:14 AM

Mnemonic Induction of Lucid Dreams (MILD)
MILD is based on nothing more complex or esoteric than our ability to remember that there are actions we wish to perform in the future. Aside from writing ourselves memos (a device of little use here, for obvious reasons!) we do this by forming a mental connection between what we want to do and the future circumstances in which we intend to do it. Making this connection is greatly facilitated by the mnemonic device—the memory aid—of visualizing yourself doing what it is you intend to remember. It is also helpful to verbalize the intention: "When such-and-such happens, I want to remember to do so-and-so." For example: "When I pass the bank, I want to remember to draw out some cash." The verbalization that I use to organize my intended effort is: "Next time I'm dreaming, I want to remember to recognize I'm dreaming." The "when" and "what" of the intended action must be clearly specified. I generate this intention either immediately after awakening from an earlier REM period, or following a period of full wakefulness, as detailed below. An important point is that in order to produce the desired effect, it is necessary to do more than just mindlessly recite the phrase. You must really intend to have a lucid dream. Here is the recommended procedure spelled out step by step: 1. During the early morning, when you awaken spontaneously from a dream, go over the dream several times until you have memorized it. 2. Then, while lying in bed and returning to sleep, say to yourself, "Next time I'm dreaming, I want to remember to recognize I'm dreaming." 3. Visualize yourself as being back in the dream just rehearsed; only this time, see yourself realizing that you are, in fact, dreaming. 4. Repeat steps two and three until you feel your intention is clearly fixed or you fall asleep. If all goes well, in a short time you will find yourself lucid in another dream (which need not closely resemble the one you have rehearsed).

"The Yield from Money Held" Reconsidered

"The Yield from Money Held" Reconsidered
- Highlight Loc. 155-57  | Added on Friday, August 05, 2011, 04:25 PM

The addition to his cash balance represents an investment in presently felt certainty vis-à-vis a future perceived as less certain. In order to add to his cash balance, a person must restrict his purchases or increase his sales of nonmoney goods (producer or consumer goods). In either case, the outcome is an immediate fall in certain nonmoney goods' prices.

Charming Anedocte

Milton Friedman Unraveled
- Highlight Loc. 369-71  | Added on Friday, July 29, 2011, 05:48 PM

There is a charming anecdote about the distinguished industrialist Charles F. Kettering. Visiting the hospital bed of a friend who was complaining about the growth of government, Kettering told him "Cheer up Jim. Thank God we don’t get as much government as we pay for!"

Milton Friedman Unraveled

Milton Friedman Unraveled
- Highlight Loc. 259-65  | Added on Friday, July 29, 2011, 05:41 PM

Furthermore, gold, or some other commodity, is vital for providing an international money – a basic money in which all nations can trade and settle their accounts. The philosophical absurdity of the Friedmanite plan of each government providing its own fiat money, cut loose from all others, can be seen clearly if we consider what would happen if every region, every province, every state, nay every borough, county, town, village, block, house, or individual would issue its own money, and we then had, as Friedman envisions, freely fluctuating exchange rates between all these millions of currencies. The ensuing chaos would stem from the destruction of the very concept of money – the entity that serves as a general medium for all exchanges on the market.

Lucid Dreaming, Stephen LaBerge

Lucid Dreaming, Stephen LaBerge
- Highlight Loc. 2247-65  | Added on Wednesday, August 17, 2011, 03:14 AM

Mnemonic Induction of Lucid Dreams (MILD)
MILD is based on nothing more complex or esoteric than our ability to remember that there are actions we wish to perform in the future. Aside from writing ourselves memos (a device of little use here, for obvious reasons!) we do this by forming a mental connection between what we want to do and the future circumstances in which we intend to do it. Making this connection is greatly facilitated by the mnemonic device—the memory aid—of visualizing yourself doing what it is you intend to remember. It is also helpful to verbalize the intention: "When such-and-such happens, I want to remember to do so-and-so." For example: "When I pass the bank, I want to remember to draw out some cash." The verbalization that I use to organize my intended effort is: "Next time I'm dreaming, I want to remember to recognize I'm dreaming." The "when" and "what" of the intended action must be clearly specified. I generate this intention either immediately after awakening from an earlier REM period, or following a period of full wakefulness, as detailed below. An important point is that in order to produce the desired effect, it is necessary to do more than just mindlessly recite the phrase. You must really intend to have a lucid dream. Here is the recommended procedure spelled out step by step: 1. During the early morning, when you awaken spontaneously from a dream, go over the dream several times until you have memorized it. 2. Then, while lying in bed and returning to sleep, say to yourself, "Next time I'm dreaming, I want to remember to recognize I'm dreaming." 3. Visualize yourself as being back in the dream just rehearsed; only this time, see yourself realizing that you are, in fact, dreaming. 4. Repeat steps two and three until you feel your intention is clearly fixed or you fall asleep. If all goes well, in a short time you will find yourself lucid in another dream (which need not closely resemble the one you have rehearsed).

The Theory of Idle Resources (W. H. Hutt)

The Theory of Idle Resources (W. H. Hutt)
- Highlight Loc. 1143-46  | Added on Monday, August 01, 2011, 04:01 AM

In spite of Mr. Keynes’s adjective “involuntary,” the idleness that we are considering is the fulfillment, not the frustration of a preference.7 If, as economists, we are asked for its cause, our answer is simple: Well, they prefer idleness to work at that rate and they take it.

Milton Friedman Unraveled

Milton Friedman Unraveled
- Highlight Loc. 160-62  | Added on Friday, July 29, 2011, 05:28 PM

Friedmanite dole would pay a higher income per person to welfare families, thereby subsidizing a continuing increase in the child population among the poor – precisely those who can least afford such a population growth.

Inflation Research as Propaganda

Inflation Research as Propaganda
- Highlight Loc. 16-24  | Added on Sunday, July 31, 2011, 05:22 AM

It should be clear to anyone with some knowledge in how the economy works that all the individuals in it work together like an invisible hand to produce goods and services and that they tend to do so ever more efficiently. This is true even in a regulated market, which is why even monstrous welfare states talk about the importance of and try to "encourage" economic growth. The concept is a bit confusing, though, since the economy doesn't only grow — "it" strives to get increasingly efficient in the use of resources in order to produce goods and services of [even greater] value to consumers. Such increased efficiency is generally achieved by entrepreneurs, be they capital owners or labor workers, and innovators finding new ingenious ways of using the resources available. In such a market the natural tendency is for prices to fall — anything else would be incomprehensible.

Value cannot be forged like a hammer, nor woven like a piece of linen.

Value cannot be forged like a hammer, nor woven like a piece of linen. If it could, our industries would be spared those frightful convulsions called crises, which have no other cause than that quantities of products, though manufactured to technical perfection, cannot achieve the value expected. The most that production can do is to create goods in the hope that, according to the anticipated relations of demand and supply, they will be of value. (Böhm-Bawerk, I, pp. 90-91, italics original)