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In Kung Fu Panda, how does Po end up developing the capability to be an awesome Kung Fu fighter? How does he shift from being a total fat slob to becoming capable of defeating Tai Lung?

This essay was originally published in 2014 on https://www.quora.com This is an important question for our time and must therefore be considered carefully.  First one must challenge the assumptions of the questioner. Po is not a slob. He is a panda with an appetite and lack of athleticism to match, and principally fat because of this.  […]

April 1, 2014 by

Excellence

WHAT SHOULD WE BE WORRIED ABOUT? Excellence Over the past two decades I have been involved with the war on excellence. I know that those few of us actively involved in the struggle are deeply worried about the epidemic of excellence precisely because excellence compels its hosts to facilitate its spread by altering their perception […]

December 31, 2013 by

Was Feynman right when he said “If you give more money to theoretical physics, it doesn’t do any good if it just increases the number of guys following the comet head”?

This essay was originally published in 2013 on https://www.quora.com [Note added in response to comment: I am responding here to Feynman’s suggestion in the second half of the quote that the *only* way to make progress is to encourage career risk. My objection is to the continuing wasteful and dangerous conflation of personal intellectual risk and […]

April 1, 2013 by