Hes Had A Near-death Experience!

“He’s had a near-death experience!”

“We all have. It’s called ‘living.’”

-Terry Pratchett’s Hogfather

You have to be a bit of a liar to tell a story the right way. Too much truth confuses the facts. Too much honesty makes you sound insincere.

-Patrick Rothfuss, The Name of the Wind

The Night is Old. The Night is Always Old.

Terry Pratchett’s Hogfather

Donate, but Donate Wisely

Hi guys! I recently found out that Facebook’s Network for Good service (you know, those fundraising links with a handy progress bar that pop up all over your feed) often charges a 3-5% processing fee to take your money and give it to charity. 

It also takes 60-75 days after your donation for the money to actually get to the charity it’s supposed to, which kind of undermines the ACT NOW rhetoric behind many of those fundraisers. 

So, look, if using Network for Good means you donate money you wouldn’t have otherwise? Wonderful. But if you’re looking for a way to make sure that ALL of your donation goes to doing good, try visiting the charity’s website directly, and researching where your chosen charity spends its money (not-for-profits have to publish spending reports; a quick google search should turn up the info you need). 

Also! If you’d like to donate to a cause which does a FANTASTIC job of making sure ALL donations go to serving people, try out Unite for Sight. They provide free eye-care in deeply underserved areas in Ghana, India, and Honduras, working with local doctors and clinics to provide everything from surgeries to reading glasses. You can use my direct link here or give them a google and donate there! Go do good!

Plato, the ancient equivalent of “The Rock” as a wrestling philosopher: “What, you don’t want to? You a pansy? Huh? Huh?”

Being humble, here, means being aware of how difficult your instincts can make it to get the facts right. It means being realistic about the extent of your knowledge. It means being happy to say ‘I don’t know.’ It also means, when you do have an opinion, being prepared to change it when you discover new facts. It’s quite relaxing being humble, because it means you can stop feeling pressured to have a view about everything, and stop feeling you must be ready to defend your views all the time.

Hans Rosling’s Factfulness