The Power of and the Problem With Photographs

Joseph Nicephore Niepce took the first photo in 1826.  In 2022, we’ll take approximately 4.7 billion per day and 1.72 trillion per year. The devices we call smartphones today could plausibly, and maybe more accurately, be called...

The Lifeguard Dilemma

According to published US Lifesaving Association statistics, lifeguards at US beaches made 47555 rescues in 2021. Over that same time 65 people drowned at unguarded beaches. How many of the 47555 would have drowned if not rescued?   Of course, we...

The Case for Pragmatism

Pragmatism gets a bad rap. Sometimes deservedly so. Pragmatists are labeled flip-floppers, scoffed at as non-believers, or painted as having no integrity. Are those labels earned? Ideology makes everything monochromatic by assuming objective right and wrong, best and...

Experiences are Devious Yet Real

Reality, not truth, is based on experience. But experience is easily fooled, as is perspective. The smell test (known as Occam’s razor in academia and “if it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck” in kindergarten) is simultaneously the best tool and a complete...

Reality Versus Truth

Reality and truth are not synonyms. Truth is objective and permanent. Truth does not depend on you or anyone else’s perception. We can use truth and fact interchangeably. Reality is subjective and ephemeral. Reality relies on your or someone else’s...

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