Andrew

Beware of people who speak with total authority over subjects they know almost nothing about. (Applies to bosses, contractors, clients, even family members, etc). It's fine to know nothing about a topic -- If you have an attitude of curiosity. It's dangerous to know nothing about a topic but hold your uninformed opinions as facts. And it's extra dangerous if that person occupies some type of position of authority -- because their confidence has consequences. It turns into rules and guidelines that are completely out of whack. Learn to recognize these people.

There is one thing I regard as deeply un-American, and it is the act of perpetuating division and discord. ESPECIALLY now, at a time when we need to be more unified than ever. Thousands of people are paid to make you angry. There’s an “anger-tainment” industry that’s inseparable from politics. Its most prominent voices have earned massive fortunes by fueling division. They have divided the country. Brother against brother. Sister against sister. Thanksgiving dinners ruined over dissenting political ideologies. Worse, there are millions of people who troll and nitpick and pick fights in comments, just for sport. These are the footsoldiers of the anger-tainment industry. They can find the most bland, vanilla, inoffensive post and somehow generate a reason to ambush it. They will take a statement that is completely benign, and figure out a way to get offended, or invent a reason to attack. Both left and right do this. The algorithms fuel this. The echo chambers of content exacerbate this. And it is precisely the problem that is tearing the United States apart. As Pres. Abraham Lincoln said, “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” Sowing the seeds and fanning the flames of that division is deeply un-American.