{"id":18377,"date":"2021-08-08T07:19:27","date_gmt":"2021-08-08T14:19:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/?p=18377"},"modified":"2021-08-08T07:19:27","modified_gmt":"2021-08-08T14:19:27","slug":"overnight-news-to-write-is-to-think-to-think-is-to-thrive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/18377\/overnight-news-to-write-is-to-think-to-think-is-to-thrive\/","title":{"rendered":"Overnight News: To write is to think. To think is to\u00a0thrive."},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Ya

\u201cIf you’re easy to fool, you’re a mammal with empty luggage in the overhead storage\u00a0compartment.\u201d<\/p><\/div>\u201cThe man who does not read has no advantage over the man who cannot read.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mark Twain is reputed to have said that, and, if he did, it pays to remember that he was in the book-selling business. That’s why you used to see that quote so often in bookstores.<\/p>\n

We repeat it like a dietary admonition: Good advice we have no intention of following. But I can go you one better, because I live it: To fail to write is to fail at being human.<\/p>\n

Most of the credit we give to the thinking brain actually belongs to the mammal brain; in my spare time, I am demonstrating this with a French Bulldog named Cleopatra Chioux. What the thinking brain actually does, discernibly from the mammal brain and the snake brain, is make abstract connections \u2013 precisely what your dumbass dog can never do.<\/p>\n

Qua telos,<\/em> thinking rationally \u2013 in proportion to the facts \u2013 is our job \u2013 and for the most part we suck at it. Reason requires rigor, and rigor is meaningless if unmeasured. I am apt to say that discursive prose is thinking, but that’s not literally true. What is true is that if you expect me to believe that you have engaged in thought, you’re going to have to show me some proof. This \u2013 writing \u2013 is how that’s done.<\/p>\n

Yes, you were cheated in school, and no, you’re not doing well at hiding that fact. But ignorance is everyone’s curse \u2013 we’re born that way \u2013 and it has never been more-easily exorcised.<\/p>\n

The internet is very much your friend in this regard: It puts all the world’s facts at your fingertips, but it also drops you into little text boxes where you can make your ideas real by putting them into words.<\/p>\n

There is nothing bad in this. Even belligerent assholes become better writers and thinkers, over time, by writing every day. And if you apply yourself honestly \u2013 never making persuasively-invalid claims, never indulging your biases, never attacking people when your Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cIf you’re easy to fool, you’re a mammal with empty luggage in the overhead storage\u00a0compartment.\u201d\u201cThe man who does not read has no advantage over the man who cannot read.\u201d Mark Twain is reputed to have said that, and, if he did, it pays to remember that he was in the book-selling business. That’s why you […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[29,26,6,5],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-18377","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-group-therapy","7":"category-lending","8":"category-marketing","9":"category-real-estate","11":"no-featured-image"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":16821,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/16821\/torn-from-todays-headlines-here-there-be-monsters-everywhere-but-why\/","url_meta":{"origin":18377,"position":0},"title":"Torn from today\u2019s headlines? Here there be monsters \u2013 everywhere! \u2013 but why?","author":"Greg Swann","date":"August 30, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"I swear I have sound reasons for talking about Nine Empathies \u2013 specifically the idea of an empathy for the transaction, which could not be closer to any closer\u2019s heart. But today I read Chapter 8 \u2013 Empathy for the monster \u2013 and it whispered to me in ominous tones.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Egoism in Action"","block_context":{"text":"Egoism in Action","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/egoism-in-action\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/hasan-almasi-OwqLxCvoVxI-unsplash-480x320.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":18394,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/18394\/overnight-news-how-do-you-slay-a-tyrant-with-mockery\/","url_meta":{"origin":18377,"position":1},"title":"Overnight News: How do you slay a tyrant? With\u00a0mockery.","author":"Greg Swann","date":"August 15, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Buck Phiden graced me with five new jokes this morning, in the first hour of my day \u2013 which starts for me sometime in the dead of the night. This is ephemera on ephemera, fleeting snark on a platform where I am already suppressed. Fun for me, which is all\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Group Therapy"","block_context":{"text":"Group Therapy","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/group-therapy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Ya think it's easy?","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/BHBNewTopImage-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":18241,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/18241\/overnight-news-dutch-uncle-to-a-french-bulldog-adoring-and-studying-miss-chioux\/","url_meta":{"origin":18377,"position":2},"title":"Overnight News: Dutch Uncle to a French Bulldog: Adoring and studying Miss Chioux.","author":"Greg Swann","date":"June 18, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Miss Cleopatra Chioux, the French Bulldog I have been socializing since Thanksgiving, is with us all weekend \u2013 a huge treat for me. What's more, there will be a new Willie story for Father's Day, and she's in it. Under her own name, too. I love this dog and she\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Group Therapy"","block_context":{"text":"Group Therapy","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/group-therapy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Ya think it's easy?","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/BHBNewTopImage-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":18511,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/18511\/overnight-news-why-are-you-and-your-dog-just-about-equally-good-at-managing-relationships-its-because-youre-doing-it-the-same-way\/","url_meta":{"origin":18377,"position":3},"title":"Overnight News: Why are you and your dog just about equally good at managing relationships? It\u2019s because you\u2019re doing it the same\u00a0way.","author":"Greg Swann","date":"September 29, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"It is your thinking brain that languidly declines Latin nouns and categorizes and conjugates all those vigorous verbs. Whatever else it does, the thinking brain is an amazing database engine \u2013 the source of the information that makes informed discretion \u2013 free will \u2013 possible. And yet: You as a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Group Therapy"","block_context":{"text":"Group Therapy","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/group-therapy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Ya think it's easy?","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/BHBNewTopImage-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":17553,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/17553\/overnight-news-san-francisco-weighs-golden-geese-against-homeless-deuce-droppers-everyone-loses\/","url_meta":{"origin":18377,"position":4},"title":"Overnight News: San Francisco weighs golden geese against homeless deuce-droppers. Everyone\u00a0loses.","author":"Greg Swann","date":"November 30, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"San Francisco wants to find out where Detroits come from. All you gotta do is ask right... NBC News: 'Good riddance': Tech's flight from San Francisco is a relief to some advocates. The American Mind: California, There It Goes. The American Mind: The Big Tech Occupation. Roger Kimball: Reality and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Group Therapy"","block_context":{"text":"Group Therapy","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/group-therapy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Ya think it's easy?","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/BHBNewTopImage-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3282,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/3282\/casual-friday-caption-this-photo\/","url_meta":{"origin":18377,"position":5},"title":"Casual Friday: Caption this photo","author":"Greg Swann","date":"June 27, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"My entry: \"Because I happen to like Argyle socks, that's why!\"","rel":"","context":"In "Casual Friday"","block_context":{"text":"Casual Friday","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/casual-friday\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18377","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18377"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18377\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18384,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18377\/revisions\/18384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}