03 Jan 2025 Reading time: 2 minutes I recently made my marinara meat sauce. In this post I’ll share the recipe for fun.
I will say a few things first:
- This is not meant to be traditional in any way, shape or form! If that is what you like, this is not gonna work for you!
- I love onions. I use more onions than probably any recipe online. You can reduce the amount to your taste if you wish of course.
Ingredients
- 1 - Pound of ground beef (can change out for other ground meat you prefer)
- 2 - Cans of crushed tomato (can use whole peeled tomatoes and manually crush)
- 3 - Large yellow onion
- 2 - Cups of red wine
- 4 - Extra generous tablespoons of minced garlic
- 1 - Teaspoon of oregano (sometimes I use “Italian seasoning”)
- 3 - Tablespoons of salt
- 3 - Tablespoons of pepper
- 5 - Tablespoons of olive oil
- 1 - Tablespoon of crushed red pepper
The process
First thing I always do is chop up my onions:
I like them a bit larger than normal - here they all are all chopped up:
My second step is opening up the 2 cans of crushed tomatoes. This time, I don’t have the absolute best brands — however these will do:
And then pour them into the pan, with 3 tablespoon of olive oil:
At this point, turn on the stove top at the lowest setting, and throw in the 1 cup of red wine:
Next, add in about:
- 2/3rds of the chopped onion
- 1 tablespoon of crushed red pepper
- 2 tablespoons of salt
- 2 tablespoons of pepper
- 2 generous tablespoons of the minced garlic
- 1 teaspoon of oregano
and then stir the sauce.
Keep that burner on and now move onto the ground beef.
Break up the beef and cook until the meat is cooked.
Drain the contents using a strainer and put it into the sauce…
and then stir the meat into the sauce:
I usually leave this cooking, stirring occasionally, for at least another hour after this but it can keep cooking for a while.
This type of meat sauce, in my opinion, goes the best with spaghetti. Normal or thick spaghetti, by the way, not angel hair or thin spaghetti.
Here is the final spaghetti in a bowl with some cheese.
30 Dec 2024 Reading time: 2 minutes September 11th, 2001
9:37 AM
Planes have been flown into the North and South Towers of the World Trade Center, as well as the Pentagon.
10:03 AM
United Airlines Flight 93 plunged into a field, igniting the isolated rural area near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Six minutes earlier, onboard - after voting to do so - the passengers revolted - ultimately preventing the hijackers from crashing the plane into the U.S. Capitol Building.
The crash site for United Airlines 93 and the resting site of the heroes who sacrificed themselves to prevent further disaster (Source)
Relatively, the story of United Airlines 93 is not well known. Especially when compared to the Twin Towers and the Pentagon attacks - among other details of that day.
There’s many stories about these attacks that are not well known enough. Many about about people, heroes, buildings, etc. Some of these stories extend into the present day.
10:28 AM
The North Tower of the World Trade Center collapses, adding to the moments from the live TV broadcasts that many Americans will never forget.
The debris from the North Tower collapse damaged and ignited fires inside of a third tower – Building 7 (7 World Trade Center), on multiple lower floors. The building’s fire suppression system was unable to fight the fire, which burned throughout the day.
For some background - this third tower, Building 7, was completed in March of 1987, was 47 stories tall, and had a unique trapezoidal shape.
Layout of the various buildings, including the Twin Towers and Building 7 in downtown Manhattan (Source)
5:20 PM
Building 7 begins it’s collapse, 7 hours and 21 minutes after the South Tower and 6 hours and 52 after the North Tower. The third tower has collapsed. Thankfully, no lives were lost due to Building 7’s collapse.
Unfortunately, this is a much lesser known event that occurred on that day.
A beautiful tower, part of the illustrious history of the greatest city in the world, lost that day - but never lost from our memories.
Building 7 in August 1992, taken from the WTC observation deck (Source)
South view of Building 7 in 1994 (Source)
29 Dec 2024 Reading time: 4 minutes 
What is the Paradox of Thrift
The Paradox of Thrift refers to the counterintuitive concept that, in many circumstances, when individuals save more money, it leads to a decrease in total savings across an economy.
As individuals choose to save more money, aggregate demand decreases. In a recessionary economy, this deepens the downturn, causing job losses and forcing people to deplete their savings or preventing them from growing their savings. Ultimately, total savings decline — enter the paradox: saving more to save less.
Side Note · Austerity
This is similar as to why reducing government spending (austerity) during recessions - amplifies the recession. It may seem like a counter notion, but an increase of government spending during recessionary periods is key to prevent larger issues and get an economy out of recession.
As for this reduction of government spending (austerity) and it’s correlation to hurting a country in recession; we have a great real world case study - The Great Recession. Not only did reduction in government spending prevent recovery of the recession in many nations that employed this tactic, it also had other negative effects. See this article for that analysis: Austerity in the aftermath of the Great Recession.
Additionally, and notably, extremely negative consequences were evident because of the reduction of government spending during The Great Depression: Fiscal austerity and the rise of the Nazis
Paradox of Thrift · Fallacy of Composition
The Paradox of Thrift is a notable example of the Fallacy of Composition.
The Fallacy of Composition is when one assumes something is true of the whole from the fact that it is true of some part of the whole. This fallacy has relations to other fallacies, but I won’t get into those here - but it is pretty interesting stuff if you are interested definitely look it up.
A very apt example that is an analogous to the Paradox of Thrift and another great example of the Fallacy of Composition, goes as follows:
If one stands up from their seat during a soccer game, they can see better. Therefore if everyone stands up, they can all see better!
Second-Order Thinking
This idea of the Paradox of Thrift and the Fallacy of Composition naturally leads to the concept of second-order thinking, which challenges us to move beyond immediate, surface-level conclusions and consider the broader, often counterintuitive, consequences of actions.
To examine second-order thinking, we will use the examples from earlier to walk through the naive first-order thoughts and then the second-order thoughts. Each of these examples are simplest versions of the examples, but
First-order thinking: Saving is good no matter what because it builds wealth. Second order thinking: Excessive saving during a recession reduces demand, leading to job losses and lower overall savings.
First-order thinking: Cutting government spending reduces deficits. Second order thinking: Reduced spending shrinks the economy, lowering tax revenue and increasing the debt-to-GDP ratio.
Conclusion
Especially with regards to economics, many policies and policy proposals require second-order thinking to determine whether it is a net positive or net negative.
Second-order thinking is important not just for deciding your view on policies but for everyday decisions, especially when confronted with something that sounds true or feels true. Our instinct is often to focus on the immediate, surface-level effects of a choice, which can lead to oversimplified conclusions. Second-order thinking reveals the hidden complexities behind what initially seems obvious and can lead to the exact opposite conclusion.
This deeper thinking requires us to ask questions like, “What happens next?” or “What are the broader implications?” It is not enough to stop at the first level of understanding, because the most important effects are often indirect or delayed. Second-order thinking forces us to go beyond immediate outcomes and consider how a choice might ripple through time and across various contexts. By analyzing the chain of consequences and exploring potential unintended outcomes, we can avoid shortsighted decisions and ensure our reasoning holds up under deeper scrutiny.
