Robin KoernerApr 229 minA 25-Year SabbaticalThe 1990s: “I Need Guns. Lots of Guns” But Go Easy on the Books It was at the very end of my second year at Cambridge that I visited its...
Robin KoernerMar 13 minWe've Done This TooDuring these horrifically sad days, like so many others around the world, I have been listening to the unfolding of the events in...
Robin KoernerFeb 176 minBeyond Censorship: Twitter Demanded that I LieThis is the most censorious time of my life. Considering how old I am, that’s saying something – but not anything that will surprise...
Robin KoernerFeb 1021 minI Know What Makes You YouWhat is a person? Or to put the question more personally, what are you? I don’t mean “what are you physically?” No one is referring to...
Robin KoernerFeb 910 minThe Politics of Place: Why Proximity Makes ProgressivesAcross cultures and times, areas of higher population density have been associated with more culturally progressive attitudes. Consider...
Robin KoernerJan 2816 minHow to Get Compensated Every Time a Corporation Lets You DownJust Not Good Enough We have all had the experience, time after time, of being let down by some large corporation whose services or...
Robin KoernerDec 19, 202110 minDon’t Die with the Music Still Inside You (in Memory of my Late Dad)Two months ago, I flew to my native England to deal with the passing of my father. For years, his now-widow had been by his side to help...
Robin KoernerSep 10, 20212 minOnly my disease status - NOT my vaccine status - can affect you.An unvaccinated person who doesn't have COVID puts others at risk exactly as much as a vaccinated one - NO RISK AT ALL. My having a...
Robin KoernerApr 28, 20213 minThink of Others When You’re Offered that VaccineIf you have a safe and convenient means of protecting yourself from danger that does not hurt others in the short-run or long-run, take...
Robin KoernerMar 26, 20214 minFocusing on What Divides Us Divides UsLove Doesn't Wait On Understanding Love doesn’t have to understand its object fully. Indeed, it never can. As for love, so for empathy...
Robin KoernerFeb 24, 20214 minYour Success Is All Luck - But You Can Make Luck“Mild success can be explainable by skills and labor. Wild success is attributable to variance.” – Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Fooled By...
Robin KoernerFeb 16, 20217 minThe Power of Refusal (and a Heuristic for Life)“It’s a funny thing about life; if you refuse to accept anything but the best, you very often get it.” - Somerset Maugham This quotation...
Robin KoernerJan 27, 20216 minHaving & Happiness; Desire & Difference: Reasons of the Heart (3 of 3)We tend to think of our love for a person like anything else – as something we either have or don’t have. But I think the emotional...
Robin KoernerJan 22, 20215 minThe Common Objects of Our Love – Biden’s Inauguration SpeechI am not a Democrat. I am not a Republican. I am, however, an American – a status I spent 12 years of my life and tens of thousands of...
Robin KoernerJan 6, 20215 minAttachment and Addiction - Reasons of the Heart (2 of 3)Love is addictive – neurochemically speaking. So it makes sense that the loss of a love relationship can feel utterly unbearable – like...
Robin KoernerDec 31, 20203 minLove and Loss - Reasons of the Heart (1 of 3)One of the quotes that I have returned to more than most is from the C17 French mathematician, Blaise Pascal, about something that in...
Robin KoernerDec 1, 20202 minCOVID-19: Bad Math = Bad MoralityFrom a peer-reviewed paper by John P. A. Ioannidis, a Stanford University professor who is highly regarded in evidence-based medicine,...
Robin KoernerNov 10, 20205 minHalf of Politics Is the Refusal to Be Imposed UponOne of the most interesting aspects of political psychology concerns the gap between the reasons for which people believe they hold their...
Robin KoernerOct 15, 20201 minHumilitarian - my latest (and last?) politically motivated projectQuietly in the background of my life over the last year and a half or so, I've been working with volunteers to whom I am profoundly...