Don’t waste your time. Do this instead. — The dismal prospects for PhDs finding work in their chosen fields. One of my most read pieces on Medium was this. I advised people thinking about getting a PhD in philosophy to not do it. But if you absolutely must … if your life wouldn’t be complete otherwise … I worked out some specifics on how to go about it so…

If you experience any of these, get to a doctor! Fast! — I learned of this only after it was too late. Early March 1999, a Sunday morning. I was at my parents’ place for the weekend, home from working on my health ed degree. We were on our way to a restaurant we often frequented for breakfast. My mother related to…

It wasn’t about my eyes. — Last month I had eye surgery. We (wife and I) live in Chile. The ophthalmologist who performed the surgery had the reputation of being the best eye surgeon in the country. How I knew eye surgery was inevitable: that telltale thin white cloud that had gradually blanketed the vision in…

Would it change your priorities? — Recently the question was sprung on me, “Suppose you learned you had just six months to live.” As I’ve found such queries useful in the past when I wanted to focus my priorities and actually finish something I’d started, I paid attention. The question is serious, not frivolous. None of…

The first major utilitarians were Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill (there are hints of the philosophy in David Hume’s ethical writings). Bentham was more of a reformer who wanted to improve workers’ lot in the emerging industrial economy of Great Britain. He realized that couching calls for reform in…

Do you really know them? — You’ve all heard the John Donne phrase, “No man is an island.” A friend of mine disputes this. He asserts the contrary: “Everyone is an island.” What does he mean? Our inquiry here has two starting points: (1) We (in the West, anyway***) are existentially isolated persons — even if…

The reason comes from the healthiest instincts of the free enterpriser…. — Just for kicks, let’s try a thought experiment. It’ll rely on simple arithmetic and answer one question: to earn a billion dollars in a year, how much would you have to earn, on average, in an hour. I’ll assume a standard workweek, full-time (40 hours) work. …

How would you respond? Could you control your response? — Lately we’ve had a number of fires in the region where my wife and I make our home: Bío-Bío, in south-central Chile, near the city of Concepción. Scuttlebutt has it that the fires are being set, although no culprits have been caught. …

Advice from the quiet past, relevant to our stormy present. — Stoicism reduces to a few suggestions: easy to write, difficult to practice. (1) Determine to be calm. (2) Observe what is happening around you. (3) Focus on what you can control. (4) Do the right thing. “The first rule,” advises Marcus Aurelius, “is to keep an untroubled spirit. …