Norm profiles Megan
Two of my regular reads meet! This week's normblog profile is of Megan McArdle of Asymmetrical Information.Not surprisingly, I find her responses extremely sympatico. Just a few. To start, as I have already mentioned, when I had my cat euthanized, I thought of her recent experience:
What has been your worst blogging experience? > Having commenters tell me to get over it when my dog died. On the other hand, that generated an outpouring of support from friends online and off, so it redeemed itself.
And a nice subtle answer I really liked:
Who are your political heroes? > My only political heroes are dead: that way they can't embarrass me by going wrong. First, George Washington, who was no policy genius, but whose boundless personal integrity established the character of the American presidency without turning into either a king or a figurehead. And second, Abraham Lincoln, who did the right thing for the wrong reasons to the very best of his ability.
And this, which has just the right emphases:
Do you think the world (human civilization) has already passed its best point, or is that yet to come? > Mathematically, it is likely that we are near the peak of human population. On the other hand, I'm encouraged by the incredibly rapid economic change going on now. I think that getting richer has made us more moral - more careful about human life and suffering. So if we keep getting richer, I expect that we will also get better, with more morality, more art and culture, and more of almost every other good thing.
Plus:
Do you think you could ever be married to, or in a long-term relationship with, someone with radically different political views from your own? > As long as their views had a coherent intellectual and moral foundation, absolutely; I'm not that convinced I'm right. But I couldn't live with anyone whose political views are an excuse not to think.
Thanks, Norm. Thanks, Megan.
Labels: dying pets smart people
posted by Alan Adamson @ 6:30 PM
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