Matt Robison

On Masks and the Gravitas of Broccoli

Wearing masks seems like a silly thing to fight about, and yet here we are, with battle lines drawn, and attempts to shame the non-compliant through modern-day show trials.

As I posted elsewhere, wearing a mask does not make you a paragon of moral virtue. Get down off of your high horse. De-inflate your head.

Refusing to wear a mask doesn’t make you Patrick Henry. You are not actually rebelling against anything of consequence. It is rebellion cosplay.

Education is a Branch

Taleb notes in Skin in the Game that “Education is a luxury good.”

Organized education in a society is a result of wealth and success, not the other way around. The school of hard knocks is a much better educator toward actual success, and the modern University system is more of a parasite than an engine. It is a massive wealth transfer from the middle class to bureaucrats and real estate developers.

Organized education is not the root from which springs progress and civilization, but rather one of the branches. And probably a branch that needs to be trimmed back.

Nothing is more annoying than a branch that thinks it’s the whole tree.

New Proverbs Memorization Workbook

I’ve put together a workbook to help your child memorize 15 different Proverbs. In the form of a daily journal, it adds a bit of writing each day, and at the end of the week, they should have a fresh Proverb engraved on their mind.

The series title is taken from Proverbs 8:6: “Hear, for I will speak noble things, and from my lips will come what is right…”

Perfect for homeschoolers!

You can buy the ebook to print out yourself here. Unlimited copies, limited only by your paper and ink supply.

If you would like a week’s sample of the workbook, you can fill out this form.

Eventually, I will have physical copies you can buy that I can then mail to you in real life, but I am still working out some details.

Anyway, check out the sample. If you like it and want to wait for the printed copies, let me know in the comments below.

If this is helpful for enough people, I’ll put some more of these together.

Focus Tip: Learn to Draw

How do you get into the “flow” state, where time seems to both stand still and rush by. A state of focus that allows you to do deep work and be productive beyond your normal capabilities?

First, you need to know what it feels like, and get more practice in creating that bubble for yourself, and in my experience, learning to draw is one of the best ways to accomplish this.

Don’t be Fooled – Headline Framing

It is easy to be fooled in an age of headline-only reading. But even if you read the full article or watch the full video, the persuasion has already been attempted, and has quite possibly worked.

As soon as a story is framed a certain way, usually via the headline, it has primed you to think that way regardless of what the actual story says. This is one of the biggest ways the media engages in fake news. They can then always point to story itself and shrug their shoulders in Edenic innocence.