Church Pandemic Preparedness, or the Apocalypse Bros

As the tide goes out, institutions that were swimming naked get revealed. Think about the Centers for Disease Control (so under control!), or any number of businesses that have apparently been operating with no capital cushion, within spitting distance of bankruptcy. Meanwhile, some other institutions ought to be gaining status, for being particularly well prepared […]

Book Review – “Willful: How We Choose What We Do”

If you want to know what Chicago PhD economist hedge-fund-guru-cum-academic Richard Robb has concluded after pondering deeply the intersection of personal agency and rational choice economics, this book is for you. This book may not be for you. But I really liked it! So let’s talk about it. This tightly written, brief book sits at […]

Justifying moral principles by analogy with Russian roulette

I recently read Nassim Taleb’s book Skin in the Game. Taleb is an entertaining practical philosopher: he has a handful of principles that he has considered deeply, he measures the world against them, and he coaches the reader in how to do likewise, all in an idiosyncratic and readable style. (As a Lebanese-American Orthodox Christian, […]