“Serious journalists often imagine society is adrift because people don't know certain things. Yet often, they know but just don't care. So the task of serious journalism isn't just to lay out truths. It is to make vital truths compelling to a big audience.” PeopleKnowsBigsCareCertainAudienceImagineSeriousTasksLaysDon't CareJournalismJournalistCompellingAdrift Author:Alain de Botton
“The curious task of economics is to demonstrate to men how little they really know about what they imagine they can design.” KnowsMenLittlesLibertyImagineEconomicDesignEconomicsTasksLibertarianCuriousEconomistCentral PlanningMixed Economy Author:Friedrich August von Hayek
“The idea that we are "stewards of the earth" is another symptom of human arrogance. Imagine yourself with the task of overseeing your body's physical processes. Do you understand the way it works well enough to keep all its systems in operation? Can you make your kidneys function? Can you control the removal of waste? Are you conscious of the blood flow through your arteries, or the fact that you are losing a hundred thousand skin cells a minute?” WayHumansWellsIdeasEnoughFactsBodyEarthProcessImagineBloodMinutesThousandWasteLosingConsciousHundredFlowTasksSkinsFunctionEnvironmentalYour BodyCellsOperationsArroganceSymptomsStewardshipRemovalKidneysStewardsArteriesBlood FlowOverseeing Author:Lynn Margulis
“The government can always rescue the markets or interfere with contract law whenever it deems convenient with little or no apparent cost. (Investors believe this now and, worse still, the government believes it as well. We are probably doomed to a lasting legacy of government tampering with financial markets and the economy, which is likely to create the mother of all moral hazards. The government is blissfully unaware of the wisdom of Friedrich Hayek: "The curious task of economics is to demonstrate to men how little they really know about what they imagine they can design.")” KnowsMenBelieveWellsLittlesStillsGovernmentLawMotherMoralEconomyImagineDesignCostEconomicsTasksFinancialCuriousLegacyLastingContractsInvestorsRescueInterfereDoomedConvenientHazardsFinancial MarketsHayekFriedrich HayekLasting LegacyMoral Hazard Author:Seth Klarman
“Interpretation is a task that we repeatedly have to take up and start again from the beginning, Sisyphus-like. But, as Camus said, we must always imagine Sisyphus happy, and this is not so difficult when it's a matter of texts that reveal important truths about being human.” HumansSaidImportantMatterDifficultImagineTasksInterpretationBeing HumanSisyphus Author:George Pattison