Excellent. I’ve never seen an auto-obituary before. Have you written one yet?
Your mom could have benefited from this 2022 episode of Econtalk with Roland Fryer in which he shares his method for getting his kids to take out their dishes. Fine them a dollar if they don’t. I fine my kids a dollar if they don’t put away their lunch box and clean its contents when they get home from school. https://www.econtalk.org/roland-fryer-on-educational-reform/
If I recall correctly, we did that in a Nathaniel Branden intensive in New York in early 1983. Also, my mother dictated her obit to my brother about a month before she died.
Right. One of the casualties of my 2007 fire. But I do vaguely remember one thing: it talked about how I departed from the pack and started writing for popular publications. Once I got back home, I started pursuing that seriously.
You’ve done well with that. Right after I read Basic Economics in 2009, I found Sowell’s bio on the Hoover Institution website. There I found Russ, you and Econlib. From there I read Milton Friedman’s books, and started paying close attention to articles at Hoover where many of your articles are probably archived right?
Love it. Love it. Love it. What a strong woman your mother was. I was struck by her attitude to domestic life and the traditional family dynamic. I have been “Mr. Mom” for my three children for their entire lives. I took home economics in school and love the reversal of roles. My daughter thinks that men cook and do laundry as well as mend clothing. I often wonder if men and women push back against traditional ways because they don’t want to conform to societal norms. I know that I grew up valuing my mother’s role (even though she worked full time), and decided I would be present in my children’s daily lives. Thank you so much for sharing your mother’s story.
Bryan, I appreciated both your "short" biography of your non-conformist mom and your sharing of her auto-obituary. I see in your sharing of your mother's life your overflowing love for her. It brought back memories of when my mother died in 2002. I have a file drawer full of her unpublished short stories that I intend to share on a website some day. Your tributes are inspiring me to follow through with this plan. I also want to update my auto-obituary. I used to have the students in my positive psychology class write their own obituary, as this assignment really helps to clarify what you think is important in life and how you hope to be remembered when you are gone. I did all of the exercises that I assigned to my students, so I wrote my own obituary more than once. I recommend the exercise to everyone.
More a curiosity, for the audience as well, any idea why her teacher grammar corrected "her" to "the". I just don't think age is being used as a noun there, I e. It's not a epoch reference hence the original "her" seems correct to me.
If this is feminism, then surely it must be the variety that you agree with? Or perhaps feminism's world view was more appropriate in those days, given how much more restrictive gender norms were then?
Excellent. I’ve never seen an auto-obituary before. Have you written one yet?
Your mom could have benefited from this 2022 episode of Econtalk with Roland Fryer in which he shares his method for getting his kids to take out their dishes. Fine them a dollar if they don’t. I fine my kids a dollar if they don’t put away their lunch box and clean its contents when they get home from school. https://www.econtalk.org/roland-fryer-on-educational-reform/
If I recall correctly, we did that in a Nathaniel Branden intensive in New York in early 1983. Also, my mother dictated her obit to my brother about a month before she died.
Would be fun to read yours. You probably don’t have it anymore though, right?
Right. One of the casualties of my 2007 fire. But I do vaguely remember one thing: it talked about how I departed from the pack and started writing for popular publications. Once I got back home, I started pursuing that seriously.
You’ve done well with that. Right after I read Basic Economics in 2009, I found Sowell’s bio on the Hoover Institution website. There I found Russ, you and Econlib. From there I read Milton Friedman’s books, and started paying close attention to articles at Hoover where many of your articles are probably archived right?
Wonderful and winning! You, Bryan, here see to it that, indeed, she has the last word!
Love it. Love it. Love it. What a strong woman your mother was. I was struck by her attitude to domestic life and the traditional family dynamic. I have been “Mr. Mom” for my three children for their entire lives. I took home economics in school and love the reversal of roles. My daughter thinks that men cook and do laundry as well as mend clothing. I often wonder if men and women push back against traditional ways because they don’t want to conform to societal norms. I know that I grew up valuing my mother’s role (even though she worked full time), and decided I would be present in my children’s daily lives. Thank you so much for sharing your mother’s story.
Feels like most of the suggested corrections to that piece are dubious.
That's amazing! I'd like to see more of her writings :)
Bryan, I appreciated both your "short" biography of your non-conformist mom and your sharing of her auto-obituary. I see in your sharing of your mother's life your overflowing love for her. It brought back memories of when my mother died in 2002. I have a file drawer full of her unpublished short stories that I intend to share on a website some day. Your tributes are inspiring me to follow through with this plan. I also want to update my auto-obituary. I used to have the students in my positive psychology class write their own obituary, as this assignment really helps to clarify what you think is important in life and how you hope to be remembered when you are gone. I did all of the exercises that I assigned to my students, so I wrote my own obituary more than once. I recommend the exercise to everyone.
She even managed to flout the assignment's word limit! :)
Would love to read more
More a curiosity, for the audience as well, any idea why her teacher grammar corrected "her" to "the". I just don't think age is being used as a noun there, I e. It's not a epoch reference hence the original "her" seems correct to me.
I love the last line of that.
Her version is better than the writing teacher's.
If this is feminism, then surely it must be the variety that you agree with? Or perhaps feminism's world view was more appropriate in those days, given how much more restrictive gender norms were then?
Your mum was brilliant 🤩
I’ve often thought that, if achieving life goals matters to you, you could start by writing your own obituary.