Julia Baird writes an interesting piece in Newsweek “Positively Downbeat- Sometimes Happiness isn’t everything.”


She argues that our focus on positive thinking has made us gloomy; to overlook problems, unfairness, incompetence and stupidity.

And stupidity is certainly not limited to the uneducated.  A lack of depth has encouraged more certainty that is merited in an uncertain world. The arrogance that comes from combining the morally weak with a lot of education often in subjects that have little semblance to reality have caused much of the distress in our lives.

Mathematical models that seek to emulate human response are doomed to fail.  Their excrement has made Wall Street a financial toilet.  Business leaders should have degrees in philosophy and history rather than management and math.  Some welding and shop classes would also be worthwhile.

Books such as “In Search of Excellence”, “Built to Last” and “Good to Great” have all sought to meticulously study successful companies to provide a blueprint for the rest of us morons to follow. But in all three books most of the companies they followed UNDERPERFORMED the market in the years after the books were published.  Success, like most human endeavors and characteristics, is more difficult to reduce to a formula than we thought.

Just as a bad economy makes business more efficient by clarifying the essentials, so our tragedies and setbacks help us clarify what is important in our personal lives. Blind optimism does not build sound character.  Those who are ready to encounter the uncertain, the unexpected and the unwanted are the survivors.  As Julia quoted Eleanor Roosevlet “happiness is not a goal, it is a byproduct.”

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