Mental models, which we use a lot on this site and a term which is borrowed from thinker Charles Munger, are a concept taken from a school of thought called critical thinking. They are ideas that allow us to take claims, ideas, and concepts, examining them to determine if they are accurate or understand what…
DetailsThis is one of the best, most relevant real-world mail bag questions I’ve ever received. Dear Mr.Kennon, I have a question: How do you retain humility and empathy as a businessperson without constantly analyzing worth/profit/opportunity? Background behind the question: I am an 18 year old girl from the UK and I have just applied to…
DetailsA few nights ago, I found myself sitting in bed reading news stories on my iPad when I somehow ended up clicking through archives of recent Dear Abby letters. The parade of self-destructive, entitled, irrational, and defeatist thinking is staggering. Sometimes, I wonder if people truly want to be miserable. I feel like they are…
DetailsFor a late lunch this afternoon, we decided to make Marcella Hazan’s famous Tomato Sauce with Onion and Butter. This comes out of the Italian cookbook recommendation I made last week and can be found on page 152. It’s not what you think of when you conjure up visions of a traditional marina sauce for spaghetti so be careful not to compare the two; they are different, though I am so fond of this incarnation that I find it hard to desire anything else. If you prefer heavier sauces, this might not be your cup of tea. You will never know until you try it.
DetailsThe front page of Reddit yesterday had a Gordon Ramsay recipe for Scotch Pancakes with Caramelized Banana. For my fellow Americans, that translates into a dessert made of buttermilk pancakes drizzled in caramelized bananas that had been flambéed in a dark Jamaican rum topped with vanilla bean ice cream. [mainbodyad]Any time you combine fire with a drink made famous by…
DetailsIt was another night of testing peasant dishes from French cuisine. This round included a Leek and Potato Soup with carrots, turnips, and a small amount of cream. The entire pot couldn’t have more than 900 calories in the aggregate but it was delicious and cost less than $7.
DetailsThe parade of so-called “peasant dishes” from classic cuisine continues! A peasant dish (a term somewhat offensive to my American sensibilities), is a meal made up of low-cost, widely available ingredients that are improved with specific cooking techniques and spices. Peasant dishes evolved out of centuries of experimentation by working-class families in France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and England; the by-product of cooks, housewives, and head chefs improvising, experimenting, adjusting, and modifying the foods they had on hand to create something extraordinary with limited resources.
DetailsRead everything you can, put it into practice, and don’t stop until you can break apart the topic into its constituent parts.
DetailsTwenty one years ago, in a time long before it was common knowledge, a now-devoutly religious musician discovered that the Catholic Church had become what essentially amounted to the largest and best funded pedophile ring on the planet, shielded by the good-natured willingness of communities to give the benefit of the doubt to those they saw as authority figures and a hierarchy filled with men who were more concerned about protecting reputation than saving children. Rapists were shifted from town to town, city to city, with no mention of their undisclosed molestation to parents who allowed their innocent sons and daughters to be around these monsters.
DetailsThe short version: Even if you only rarely cook at home, you need to buy this cookbook. It’s out of print but there are a few cheap copies left on the secondary market through Amazon so you might be able to get one if you hurry. The longer explanation: One of the sub-tasks in my Well…
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