Western philosophy has been domineered by academics who have departmentalized and institutionalized the art of living well. In academia, philosophy departments imitate natural sciences like physics and biology, yet "professional" philosophers are no closer to being experts on goodness than the ancients were — or, as Jacob Needleman put it, "questions of the heart, that are the very substance of human life are often reduced to puzzles of the intellect."

There are 2,668 billionaires in the world, according to Forbes. Their vast wealth allows them to do almost anything they want - but none of them can stop that grumpy bastard, Father Time.

Would you rather be given $1,000 today or in two years? You, along with the billionaires, will presumably answer today. That's because of the time value of money. And yet when it comes to time, we value the present less than the future and the past.

Everything in nature knows how to be itself. Leopards, for example, "from birth know they are keepers of solitude." But we, humans, are influenced by cultural stories, which cause us to rationalize away the experiences that would be most fulfilling. Boyd reminds us that we are not witness to nature but part of it. Inside each of us, behind all the social conditioning, is the "wild self.”

Humanity hung in a delicate balance, and one American wielded the unfathomable power and authority to tip the scales toward nuclear war or tiptoe to the continued fragile peace. Imagine the noise that President Kennedy must've heard and the pressure he must've felt while trying to make the most critical decision of his life - how to respond to the Soviet missile presence in Cuba.

"Is there anything I can do to make you sound better?" My favorite jazz drummer, Art Blakey (also known as Bu), asked every musician he readied to play with that simple question. Adopting it and asking it across life's domains will undoubtedly lead to better experiences, as it led to better music for Blakey and his bandmates.

Some people possess superpowers. It's as if they can alter time and accomplish more than us normies. Or they can move at warp speed, performing tasks in a fraction of the time it takes the rest of us. 

Theodore Roosevelt was one of these people. He became America's youngest president at 42, having amassed a resume that included police commissioner of New York City and assistant secretary of the Navy. That's enough for one lifetime, but Teddy also published over 40 books, pursued numerous hobbies, and was a well-respected naturalist.

 How?

I‘m not a New Year’s resolutioner. 

Most resolutions quickly go down in flames (only 9% of people say they complete theirs). Thus, I view self-improvement as a mode of existence with no distinct beginning or end— a way of life cultivated and built upon over time. A long time.

Taking the long perspective allows habit formation without arbitrary goals, end dates, and start dates. It also promotes a life in which marginal gains can compound over time. For me, this is the way. 

A shroud of mystery surrounds history's famous geniuses like Einstein, Newton, Tesla, and Faraday. For laypeople, it's easy to deify these great thinkers and presume they possess supernatural gifts that make them omniscient. These brainiacs possess supreme confidence; we think - fully assured in their calculations, hypothesis, and theories. But counter-intuitively, genius hesitates.

In his annotated translation of Marcus Aurelius's Meditations, Robin Waterfield equates Marcus' use of the ancient word hegemonikon to the mind's "command center."

The command center is the hub of the command and control (C2) function. The military definition of C2 is "the exercise of authority and direction by a properly designated commander over assigned and attached forces in the accomplishment of a mission. Commanders perform command and control functions through a command and control system."

Weave problems are challenging because there is no single causality. But being a science-based society, we're determined to point the finger at one variable. To do so, we employ the scientific method, isolating one variable after another and measuring the results. But weave problems are too complex. They can contain thousands of interrelated, overlapping, and co-occurring components that have varying and intermittent impacts on tough-to-measure outcomes. We have to think differently.

A proper southern drawl that pours like molasses is a beautiful thing. Listening to White Oak Pastures owner Will Harris talk about his "aycus of layund" is delightful, but the real treat is in the experiential wisdom he shares - knowledge gained only from raising animals in a way that mimics the cycles of nature and deeply contemplating our food system.

Resiliency is the ability to overcome difficulties, and efficiency is the ability to achieve an end with zero waste. It's easy to imagine how the two could be at odds in any system.

My daughter will be three years old next year when we make the trip to Florence. Her brain will be near peak neuroplasticity, making her a walking, talking information sponge. I can't think of a better time and place to introduce new sounds, sights, smells, and experiences. Even if she can't recall many of the trip's details, its impact will be profound.

I finally watched The Pleasure of Finding Things Out, the simply and appropriately named interview of Richard Feynman from 1981. Feynman's childlike expressions of joy gripped me as he explained the origins of his curiosity, his successes and failures, his views on science, and more. Here are 5 lessons from Richard Feynman:

How can we be happier? It's the age-old question whose answer eludes generation after generation. 

You can read thousands of books about happiness, only to find yourself less satisfied than before. There are professionals, pharmaceuticals, and therapeutic tools that claim to help those who are stuck in a pit of despair. For some people, these methods work, even if for a short period. Others are left feeling more hopeless and less connected than before.

Anytime I think I'm not good at math, I consider the complex calculations that are required of even an average tennis player - that makes me feel a little better about struggling mightily to a C in high school geometry. The complexity of even seemingly simple human tasks was pointed out by W. Timothy Gallwey in his famous tennis book (a self-help book in disguise) when he said: "The truth is that everyone who inhabits a human body possesses a remarkable creation."

The Cobra Effect was coined to describe an incentive that has an unintended and undesirable result that is contrary to the intentions of its designers. Learn where the cobra effect came from, what it means, and what we can do to avoid negative unintended consequences.

Feynman's description of Cold War paranoia gave me goosebumps. Almost 60 years later, the United States is still paranoid. The Cold War may have ended in the early 90s, and perhaps for a bit, the paranoia eased -  but it's returned with a vengeance. Now, partisan lines have replaced the iron curtain. 

How do we become less paranoid and more rational? Can solutions for individual paranoia shine a light on large group resolutions?

One of the best introductions to Hayek is his 1974 noble prize lecture, The Pretense of Knowledge, where he warned against scientism and identified two types of ignorance - concepts that are as relevant today as they were in December 1974. Although Keynes won the economic debate of the day, Hayek's ideas continue to survive thanks to curious economists who appreciate his views and believe their adoption would create a fairer, more stable economic system.

Many philosophical texts and ideas date back thousands of years. These thinkers lived in a very different world than we experience today. Yet, they confronted similar emotions, desires, grievances, fears, victories, and defeats. By looking back, perhaps we can gain some wisdom to get ahead.

Today, when we turn on the "news," there's a high probability that what we'll hear isn't an impartial, objective, truthful impression of the day's events. Instead, we'll likely be presented with emotive-language-filled opining from pundits - like the sophists of antiquity.