Insights on Being Well-Read

What is the true point of a bookish life? Note I write “point,” not “goal.” The bookish life can have no goal: It is all means and no end. The point, I should say, is not to become immensely knowledgeable or clever, and certainly not to become learned. Montaigne, who more than five centuries ago established the modern essay, grasped the point when he wrote, “I may be a man of fairly wide reading, but I retain nothing.” Retention of everything one reads, along with being mentally i...

 Today's Wants Become Tomorrow's Needs

"The pie keeps growing because things that look like wants today are needs tomorrow," argued Marc Andreessen, the Netscape cofounder, who lelped to ignite a whole new industry, e-commerce, that now employs mil)ns of specialists around the wodd, specialists whose jobs weren't even lagined when Bill Clinton became president. I like going to coflfee shops occasionally, but now that Starbucks is here, I need my coffee, and that new need has spawned a whole new industry. I always wanted to be able...

 The Race to 100

The children take turns rolling the dice, which are labeledu00a0zero 1s tou00a0five 1su00a0onu00a0the first die andu00a0zero 10s tou00a0five 10s on the second die. Afteru00a0a studentu00a0rolls theu00a0two dice, he takes theu00a0rodsu00a0and cubes representing the number of 10s and 1s he rolled and puts them on his mat. It is then the next player's turn to roll. When a player has ten or more 1s cubes on his mat, he must replace ten 1s with a 10s rod before he hands over the dice for the nex...

 Greed Mutates Science into Pseudoscience

Nature may be as selfishly studied as trade. Astronomy to the selfish becomes astrology; psychology, mesmerism (with intent to show where aour spoons are gone); and anatomy and physiology become phrenology and palmistry.

 Spaceship Earth Has 150 Admirals

Spaceship Earth now has 150 admirals. The five admirals in the staterooms immediately above the ship's fuel tanks claim that they own the oil. The admirals with staterooms surrounding the ship's kitchen, dining rooms, and food refrigerators claim they own all the food. Those with a stateroom next to a lifeboat claim that they own the lifeboat, and so forth. They then have an onboard game called balance of trade. Very shortly the majority of admirals have a deficit balance. All the while the s...