Have you ever considered giving everything up and leaving your normal life behind? That’s what Brianna Madia did after she decided to roam the American desert in an old orange van. She and her husband Neil got rid of almost all their belongings and began to live out of the vehicle and travel around the […]
How to Overcome Embarrassment
Have you ever found yourself awake at night, reliving a conversation in which you said or did something weird? A big chunk of adult life is feeling unconsciously stuck in the past, consumed by difficult experiences that we haven’t processed properly. Unfortunately, a bout of insomnia isn’t the time to work it out. The thing […]
How to Plot and Scheme
Common sense is like oxygen; the higher people rise, the less likely they are to find it. Put another way, powerful people have, historically, had a hard time keeping their aspirations in check. You’ve heard the saying, “With great power comes great responsibility.” But with great power also comes the distinct possibility of making bad […]
The Robber Baron Who Changed the World
In the 19th century, railroads were everything. And by extension, the businessmen who owned the railroads held a huge amount of power in the United States economy and its political landscape. Jay Gould, a savvy capitalist, was among the most colorful of these characters. Though he was born poor and haunted by illness throughout adulthood, […]
Will AI Outsmart Us?
Artificial intelligence has changed a lot since it was invented in 1955. One of the biggest shifts happened in the 1990s, when neural networks were implemented. They allowed AIs to encode information or “learn” just like the human brain, absorbing data, gathering observations, and making inferences. Neural networks are the reason why AI image generators […]
How to Know What You Stand For
Omar Little, the character from “The Wire,” had a famous expression: “A man’s got to have a code.” From the ancient Stoic philosophers to the Internal Revenue Service, codes of conduct have been important to individuals and organizations who want strong values to guide their choices. The Federal Bureau of Investigation has a code, too. Former […]
When did China Begin?
Different cultures look at the world in different ways. Since world leaders think about issues of war, peace, and international order in different ways, understanding China’s long and fascinating history is critical to understanding global politics. The old Chinese dynasties inform the more modern history of Sino-American relations. An interesting thing to understand about China is […]
Leadership is Like Gardening
For the past few weeks, it seems like everyone has been discussing Elon Musk’s demanding leadership style and whether or not it will work at Twitter. But that style is not unique to him. For decades, management culture has celebrated a harsh and demanding leadership style that isn’t necessarily working. As it turns out, being […]
The New World Order
As we face the threats of climate change, weapons of mass destruction, and invasive technologies, there’s a burning need for a new world order. Foreign policy expert Henry Kissinger says that comprehending the forces that have shaped world politics is essential to understanding the current moment. So let’s dive in. According to Kissinger, no country […]
The Original Space Race
In recent years, billionaires have been driving innovation in outer space. Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson have already been, and Elon Musk has his sights set on Mars. It’s strange to think that, in the 1960s, the Space Race was driven by the American and Soviet governments, who were locked in a dangerous, but exciting, […]
