How often has the majority been wrong? Let’s look at what the majority of people accepted ~50, ~100, and ~150 years ago that now sound staggeringly shameful. It wasn’t much beyond 50 years ago that a majority still believed it was OK to discriminate against people based on their race, religion, or country of origin…
Photo by Chaz McGregor Dear 11-year-old self: For as long as I can remember, I’ve suffered an emotional weakness: I’ve always had an overwhelming sense of guilt at my inability to remove pain and suffering from the world around me. I feel bad for animals… I can’t stand being in the meat section of the grocery…
After giving a talk recently, I was inspired to capture 7 principles that are, for all intents and purposes, facts about our society today. What’s more, they’re facts we tend to forget in our day-to-day lives as we judge others and evaluate our world. ____________________ 1. The elderly aren’t a group; they are we. ____________________…
Since the inception of social media, it’s been my philosophy to maintain political and ideological neutrality; I don’t plan on changing that today. However, this election has taught me a number of personal lessons about our socioeconomic conditions that belie any particular ideology: 1. There are a lot of disenfranchised people in this country, most…
Dear Utah executives, legislators, and educators: We’ve talked about this for far too long. It’s time to act. In Utah, like in many other states, we have a talent stalemate: while high-tech jobs provide enormous opportunity for socioeconomic growth for our young people, companies are complaining that they can’t fill them despite the increasingly higher…
“First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out, because I was not a Socialist. Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out, because I was not a Trade Unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out, because I was not a…
I dedicate this talk to –and in honor of– my parents, Toudy & Suma, who taught me to be a citizen of the world, to be critical-thinking and non-conformist, and, most importantly, to be empathetic to and stand up for the plight of others. I owe the person I’ve become to them.
Please STOP! 1. Stop categorizing and labelling entire groups of people. They likely have just as much in common with you as they do with one another. Get to know individuals and discover the secret reality: we are all much more alike than we know. 2. Stop punishing a group or a member thereof for the deeds of other…
As we approach the milestone 2,000 level on the S&P 500, it dawned on me that we have nearly tripled the value of the index since its last bottom in early 2009. It had been some time since I had visualized the broad-based equity index. Doing so in the chart above reflects the spectacular stock market…
Against the Herd 