Turley Blog

As many of you might know the large scar under might right eye was from a car accident suffered in 1989 when a car I was riding in accidently slid off a cliff near Leavenworth, nearly plunging into the Icicle River. Just a few minutes before the car hit the ice and went flipping over the cliff “the driver” reminded me to buckle up, saving my life. Most of us growing up never wore seat belts but around 1984 the seat belt law was enacted thanks in large part to John States. Yes, I’m grateful to the driver, without the reminder there is little doubt I would not be here today. Yet, in the Prologue to his book the Black Swan, Nassim Taleb offers an even deeper thought about what he calls the heart of “in-gratitude” (those we in-directly owe a debt). Don’t I owe a deeper debt of gratitude to John D. States who dedicated his life to auto safety? How much in-gratitude lives within me? I want to live with a deeper sense of gratitude.

Here are 5 Significant Perspectives from Resolve Lending, Inc. which are from Nassim Taleb’s most recent book, “The Bed of Procrustes.” * italics are my added comments.

1. An idea starts to be interesting when you get scared of taking it to its logical conclusion. We should continue to foster scary ideas.

2. If you know in the morning what your day looks like with any precision, you are a little bit dead – the more precision, the more dead you are. *the older I become the more imprecision I want to live with, yet it is a struggle, because precision is stagnantly comfortable.

3. You have a calibrated life when most of what you fear has the titillating prospect of adventure. – *I like that….. ‘a calibrated life’.

4. A man without a heroic bent starts dying at the age of thirty. –ouch!

5. Over the long term, you are more likely to fool yourself than others – don’t be a fool.

It would be great to connect,

Jeff