Seven life hacks for 2017

I am very behind with my blog and if I owe you a New Year's Message it is this.


2016 was a year of revolutions, like 1848 and 1989. Dryden, on the eve of the 18th century in 1699, said it well:

'Tis well an old age is out 

And time to begin a new.

The 18th century didn't go well, but that is the human condition. At least the British Empire expanded, despite American treason. 

Happy New Year everyone.


Garry Kasparov on New Year's Day on Facebook quoted an entry from Tsar Nicholas II's diary exactly 100 years earlier.

"The cursed year of 1916 is finally over. 1917 will surely be better!" 

Here are seven so-called 'life hacks'.

"We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be." Kurt Vonnegut

"No man can please others who does not please himself." Frederic Harrison

"The basic difference between an ordinary man and a warrior is that a warrior takes everything as a challenge while an ordinary man takes everything as either a blessing or a curse." Carlos Castaneda

"Life is difficult. This is one of the greatest truths because once we truly get it- we transcend it. Once we accept this, then life is no longer difficult. Because once we accept it, the fact that it is difficult no longer matters." Scott Peck

"Things can be done. The people in life who get them done are the ones who know that, and the ones who don't are the rest." Tony Hawks

"The self-bound individual always forgets that his self would be safeguarded better and automatically the more he prepares himself for the welfare of mankind, and that in this respect no limits are set for him." Alfred Adler

 "Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everybody in the room." General George 'Mad Dog' Mattis