Steven Barnes's Blog, page 17
August 9, 2018
When Do You Disengage?
I was speaking yesterday about political and economic versions of the “No True Scotsman” fallacy. Namely, that someone who brushes off any criticisms of their pet theory by saying “that’s not pure X” while trying to blame real-world examples of Y for the problems of the world can be considered True Believers, who are not primarily driven by logic, but by emotion…faith. Now I’ve never met anyone who didn’t do this (I take human equality on faith, for instance, and think that everyone really...
August 8, 2018
A young lady struggling to pass the PT test to become...
A young lady struggling to pass the PT test to become a Marine was my coaching client a couple of years back. She PM’d me a month or so ago, thanking me. She was in! I am so happy for her, and so grateful to have had something to offer someone who just wanted to serve her country. My very great honor, and it would be false modesty to refuse to accept her thanks.
No. I have the ability to help people. In person. From a distance. On the phone or Skype or email. And although I ou...
August 7, 2018
Sharing Your Wealth
When I was a kid, I wanted just three things: to be a writer, a martial artist, and to have a family to love and protect.
The problem is that I knew no writers, and everyone around me said it wasn’t possible.
The problem was that I was small and weak, a nerd with no athletic ability, filled with fear and doubt.
The problem was that my mother and father had divorced by the time I was six or seven, and she never remarried. Therefore, I had no role model of what a man was supposed to be. And...
August 6, 2018
Ever considered being a coach?
Six years ago, I was in Atlanta, separated from about 50% of my income stream. It was terrifying, seriously. All I wanted to do was support my family in an honorable fashion. But the situation had caused massive fear, with the attendant confusion and depression.
The following is an embarrassing truth: I saw no way out, and at one point was curled on the floor crying, the entire map of my life, created in childhood, shattered. Destroyed. I was lost.
So…the first thing I had to do was cha...
The Macro and the Micro
There are, I think, a variety of situations facing humanity as a result of our SUCCESS as a species.
Global Warming. The result of increased population and our search to control more and more of the biosphere’s energetic resources Overpopulation. The result of improved medical and food production and dominance over predators. Obesity. The result of severing the connection between calories expended and calories earned, industrialization and so forth. Gender Parity. The result of effective...
August 5, 2018
An important request for my fellow Americans
All right, I consider that any good American citizen should be alarmed by this. But also know that politics makes otherwise reasonable people unreasonable.
I am deliberately phrasing this message as neutrally as possible. Why? Because there is NOTHING that would make the Russians happier than Americans fighting politically in the front yard while they sneak...
Dealing With Sleepers and Snakes
If you want to see how delusion works, look at this clip, and read the comments that follow. The clip, in which Buzz Aldrin talks to a schoolgirl, was posted on a thread by a “Moon Landing Denier” who suggests it “proves” that we didn’t go to the moon.
He, and the commenters on the Youtube thread, mostly ignore the little girl’s actual question: basically “why haven’t we gone to the moon in such a long time” which means “why didn’t we go back” and interpret Aldrin’s answer “we just did...
August 3, 2018
What Might Have Been
I was badly bullied when I was a kid. I remember one guy, “Bryce” I went to Mt. Vernon Jr. High with who simply insulted me and pushed me and mocked me daily, until it was almost more than I could bear.
Then one day I was at the bookstore and saw a copy of a book called BRUCE TEGNER’S INSTANT SELF DEFENSE, and begged my mother to buy it. Oh, it was a revelation. When I was even younger I’d seen the line drawings for “KETSUGO! UNSTOPPABLE SELF DEFENSE!” or even “BLACK DRAGON FIGHTING S...
August 2, 2018
A Major new 5MM “Life Hack”?
I’m a mad scientist when it comes to personal development, and that’s kept me engaged with the process for decades. On one level I ALWAYS feel that “the Perfect Program” is just out of reach…it’s a game I love to play. Tananarive or Toni or Nicki could tell ya. Notebooks full of plans.
Been percolating a notion for about a month. It has to do with the cross-referencing of several things.
5MM. The fact that if you take 60-second “breathing breaks” every three hours, you transform you...
August 1, 2018
Twenty years of joy
Twenty years ago today, the amazing Tananarive said “I Due” to me in her parents’ home in Cutler Ridge section of Miami Florida. I couldn’t believe my luck then, and I don’t believe it now.
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My first marriage was going belly-up due to mis-steps along the way. You can take such small actions, but over time, they magnify until you are lost, and Toni and I couldn’t find our way back to each other. I was pretty miserable, but even more, I felt spun, unable to catch my balance. Some time...
