The Malthusian Mind Virus
The Malthusian Mind Virus Mathew Crawford " Whatever we expect with confidence becomes our own self-fulfilling prophecy ." -Brian Tracy Early during the summer of 1985, shortly before my eighth birthday, I picked a book off the family bookshelf. I don't recall the author or title (maybe a reader here knows?), but it was a book about practical meditation . The author included anecdotes about professional athletes, including Jack Nicklaus, and how so many of the greats practiced positive visualization en route to achieving success. A few miles from our home was a Putt-Putt mini-golf and arcade center. On Saturdays, for five dollars, I got a hotdog, a soda, and could play as many rounds of 18 holes as I liked. I'd be there for hours, sometimes playing the same hole over and over to find the right angle or point on a rail to swing at, or working to control stroke impact. On other days, I would sit in my room, or on the ground outside, and imagine the process of puttin