All Posts Tagged Tag: Ivan Obolensky’
The Parable of the Bus
November 2016 Ivan Obolensky Imagine you are on a bus. You are a passenger and the bus travels over a mountain range. You have a window seat a few rows back from the driver. The bus is full of other passengers. You look out the window and marvel at the shifting landscape. Fields give way to foothills. Foothills give way …
Read MoreBalance
July 2016 Ivan Obolensky Profit is defined as financial gain, or the difference between the amount earned and the amount spent in buying, operating, or producing something. The term has been vilified or lauded throughout history depending on the time period and the author. It is a contentious subject, yet profit and the profit motive, when put in more abstract …
Read MoreA Power Story
June 2016 Ivan Obolensky How a technology develops and takes root is instructive on many levels. It is not necessarily dependent on the vision of those who conceived it. Technological success seems to follow a different path altogether. It is a process, with cost-effectiveness as the primary driver over the long term. In this, it follows nature, because nature is …
Read MoreNegative Interest Rates and Deflationary Banking
May 2016 Ivan Obolensky Many readers have heard of negative interest rates, but few are familiar with them, understand what they mean, and know their ramifications going forward. How is it possible to have negative interest rates on a mortgage, or even a credit card? The bank would pay me money? How is that even possible? The short answer is …
Read MorePolarization and the Battle for Our Minds
April 2016 Ivan Obolensky Many, including a surprising number of its citizens, consider the USA to be a democracy. Strictly speaking, it is not. It is a republic. A republic is defined as a form of government in which the citizens elect representatives who do the actual governing according to a set of laws as laid out in a constitution.1 …
Read MoreCoincidence and Meaning
March 2016 Ivan Obolensky Human beings are born with an innate instinct to see patterns in the world. It is part of our nature to find them. One pattern is the coincidence. It is defined as a remarkable occurrence of events without apparent causal connection. Coincidences, when they occur, seem peculiarly significant. They give us reason to wonder. How should …
Read MoreRoad Trip
February 2016 Ivan Obolensky On January 29, 1886, Karl Benz patented the Motorwagen. It was an automobile fueled entirely by gasoline. Less known is that Bertha Benz, his wife and business partner, also played a significant part. After all, it was Bertha who created one of life’s finest diversions: the road trip. In 1888, Bertha Benz, unbeknownst to her husband, …
Read MoreSuccess and Failure: Is There a Difference?
December 2015 Ivan Obolensky Why is outstanding success so elusive? People work day and night. They receive more education, attend seminars, follow gurus, and listen to mentors. Those that aspire to that level of achievement try everything and anything, but often to no avail. There seems to be only a handful of people who reach a high level of success …
Read MoreKnowns and Unknowns
November 2015 Ivan Obolensky In a televised interview on February 12, 2002, Donald Rumsfeld said the following regarding the lack of evidence linking Iraq with Weapons of Mass Destruction and terrorist groups: “Reports that say that something hasn’t happened are always interesting to me, because as we know, there are known knowns: there are things we know we know. We …
Read MoreIsolation and Social Media
October 2015 Ivan Obolensky Social media has been ongoing for some time. Some people love it. Others hate it. Many use it, but with reservations. It has tremendous upsides, such as being able to keep in contact with family and friends in a way that was previously impossible. It has equally large downsides. It can become addictive, waste an amazing …
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