I have had quite a few new followers on Twitter since I started this blog a few months ago, so I thought it was about time to reconnoiter to bring folks up to date on what this blog is all about. I have some overlapping theme threads going in somewhat alternating postings:

Current events

A couple times per week I have been posting some thoughts based on current events or something interesting I have come across, usually on topics on which I feel I have some above-average knowledge. These topics typically include corporate finance, taxes, and healthcare economics, plus some politics, unavoidable given our current mess.

The “Money and risk” and “Healthcare” categories in the left column filter these out for easier review.

Probability and “playing dice”

The blog title comes from a rework of an Albert Einstein quote, and it reflects my view on life as being an incredibly complex and interacting set of naturally-random events, but they are probabilistically random (also called stochastic processes). This simply means that some events are more likely to happen than others, just like when you roll a pair of six-sided dice. A roll of seven is six times more likely that is a roll of two or twelve. These events are all around us and even inside us, and we know many of these probability distributions.

This randomness follows through into human volition (sometimes called choice or free will), where your perceived choice between selecting a piece of fruit or alternatively a piece of chocolate cake is more probabilistically-random than you think it is. You can start the “Dice” thread here, and follow the rolling dice icon at the bottom of each related post to connect to the next post in the series, or just click on that category to filter them out for browsing.

Theodicy and ethics

That look at life’s natural randomness leads into the topic of theodicy, which is our long-standing human obsession with “the justice of God,” when we are faced with tragic and life-threatening events like a cancer diagnosis (which has some fascinating aspects of randomness). You can click on “theodicy” in the “Categories” list in the left-column of the blog to see these posts.

This discussion leads to the series started most recently, and still ongoing, on how our human volition has evolved into the many competing models of ethics and morality. I call this series “Good People Disagree” and you can start the series here, following the rolling dice icon at the bottom of each post, or filter on that category.

Note that you can subscribe to this blog either through your email via the box at the top of the left column, or by clicking on the Facebook or Twitter icon to be notified of new posts.

Many thanks for following my blog. Your comments are welcome (and moderated).