The Skills Nobody Taught Us How to Disagree Like an Adult — Part 4 This post is part of the How to Disagree Like an Adult series. If you haven’t read the earlier posts, start there. This one builds on them. So far, I’ve written a lot about what’s broken. Why debate has collapsed. Why identity hijacks thinking. Why insults replace arguments. Now it’s time…
In my previous post, I made the claim that as long as Americans keep buying drugs, someone will keep supplying them. Mexico has not always been the primary supplier of drugs to American consumers. The supply has shifted repeatedly over time, tracking enforcement pressure, geopolitics, and—most importantly—where demand could be profitably met. This is one of the strongest pieces of evidence that the drug war…
And Mexico Keeps Getting Stuck With Ours WARNING: This post may trigger some people. If you are one of those people, my advice is to buy a mirror and use it. The drug war is not complicated. We pretend it is. We wrap it in politics, policy debates, border arguments, and moral posturing. But at its core, it’s a simple supply-and-demand problem. And the…
How to Disagree Like an Adult — Part 3 This post is part of the How to Disagree Like an Adult series. If you missed earlier posts, start here: 👉 Part 1 — When Debate Dies, Insults Take Over 👉 Part 2 — Ideas Aren’t Identities Most people think insults are strength. They’re not. Insults aren’t proof of righteousness. They’re the intellectual equivalent of raised…
I saw this post that said Amazon plans to replace 600,000 workers with robots. The response? “We’ve got to fight back.” Let me say something that might irritate both sides: You can’t fight back against technology. You never could. And you never will. History Doesn’t Care About Your Slogans We tried this before. We tried it with the printing press. We tried it with…
How to Disagree Like an Adult — Part 2 This post is part of the How to Disagree Like an Adult series. If you haven’t read Part 1 yet, start there. If there’s one thing I do (maybe too often), it’s say the quiet part out loud. So, here it is: Most people don’t defend ideas. They defend themselves. And that’s a big reason why…
Last week, I introduced you to Violet. Violet is presence. Violet is authority. Violet doesn’t bark because she doesn’t need to. She walks into a room and the room adjusts. Today, I’d like you to meet Rita. Rita weighs 4.5 pounds. Rita barks whenever she wants to. And Rita believes everything is her responsibility. If Violet represents quiet authority, Rita represents something equally important in…
If nobody read my shit, I’d still write my shit. That’s not bravado. That’s not a flex. That’s just the truth. And I know it because I’ve lived it—long before anyone was listening. The Talk Nobody Came To The first public talk I ever gave after starting FRSecure was at a big conference. This was probably 2009 or 2010. I was new to speaking, nervous…
How to Disagree Like an Adult — Part 1 This post is part of the How to Disagree Like an Adult series, exploring why productive disagreement is disappearing—and how to do better. Something is broken in how we disagree. People don’t debate ideas anymore. They attack people. Disagree with someone today and you’re rarely met with reasoning or evidence. Instead, you’re told what you are:…
I have five dogs. Let me repeat that. Five. Dogs. And yet… there is only one queen. Her name is Violet. She’s not the loudest. She’s not the neediest. She’s not the one causing chaos at 6 a.m. like the world is ending because someone moved a sock. No. Violet is different. Violet is my dog. The Queen Energy Every house has a natural hierarchy….