Hey all - The discussion below was formerly an introduction, but as usual it turned out far too long, so I decided to break it up into two newsletters.+ what I learned or rediscovered recently * Eastern philosophy (rating: 4)For most of my life, I dismissed Eastern philosophy as too spiritual, too intangible, too impractical. Western philosophy just seems so much more useful. Equipped with the instrument of reason, you can define, a...

Hey all - In a commencement speech made to the graduating students of Kenyon College in 2005, David Foster Wallace opened with the following parable: There are these two young fish swimming along and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says "Morning boys, how’s the water?" And the two young fish swim on for a bit, and then eventually one of them looks over at the other, and goes: "What th...