Shock Notes

I have several essays from my college years sitting around gathering dust. Instead of trashing them, I am editing them and putting them online. The following is one such essay. I wrote this one for a U.S. History class. ***   The results of World War II have a significant effect on the United States […]

I have several essays from my college years sitting around gathering dust. Instead of trashing them, I am editing them and putting them online. The following is one such essay. I wrote this one for a U.S. History class. ***   The mindset of the people has always shaped foreign policy. It is particularly the […]

I have several essays from my college years sitting around gathering dust. Instead of trashing them, I am editing them and putting them online. The following is one such essay. I wrote this one for an Ancient History class. *** The Amarna Revolution The Egyptians could no longer ignore the world outside of Egypt. Three […]

  I’m exhausted. Three kids. Family trips. Endless work in between. Things changed. Change is good. The trips made memories of a lifetime. We enjoyed fun times. But too much change is exhausting. We need those down times when nothing much is going on, and there is not much change from day to day. I’ve […]

The original Miracle Morning book by Hal Elrod changed my life.  Who knew that waking up earlier could have such a profound effect on my day? It is the basic idea of The Miracle Morning.  Wake up one hour earlier than you normally do every morning.  During that hour you will do six things: meditation, […]

How you experience your life is all about your attitude.  You can go through life seeing few choices, feeling trodden upon by the people around you, and having to do things you don’t want to do.  Or you can see the silver lining in every cloud, find opportunities at every corner, and take full control […]

  As of October 2018, the top five websites in the United States are Google, YouTube, Facebook, Amazon, and Reddit (according to Alexa).  Odds are, five years from now this list will look pretty much the same.  That’s because there is a network effect that makes it nearly impossible to draw users away from the […]

Wallace Wattles is the godfather of the modern self-improvement genre.  He wrote The Science of Getting Rich over a hundred years ago, but the concepts are still applicable today.  It takes a little getting used to the vocabulary at first.  He uses New Age-sounding terms like the “Formless Intelligence,” the “Supreme,” and the “Certain Way.” […]

  Everyone wants to be wealthy and beautiful.  It’s no coincidence that the most profitable niches in the self-help industry involve becoming rich and more attractive.  There are hundreds, if not thousands of gurus online giving advice on how to make more money and look better.  Whose advice should you take? The best way is […]

  I had always heard and read mentions of a mysterious number called The Golden Ratio, which supposedly can be applied to a whole range of subjects including art, biology, architecture, and even investing.  It’s a number very much like Pi or the Fibonacci sequence. I won’t dispute the ratio’s importance in art and architecture […]