I have been a chemical engineer for the last 38 years. My work has taken me to some of the lesser-known corners of the world, where I have met, worked, and laughed with many people. With very few exceptions, I have enjoyed their company — and I hope they have enjoyed mine.
One thing I’ve learned is that people are not the same as the reputations of their nations. Governments may earn suspicion, even hostility, but ordinary people often reveal kindness, humor, and decency.
A Turning Point
In 2022, when “-ians” invaded “-ians,” the company I worked for faced hard choices. International sanctions left our projects unsustainable. Work collapsed, and livelihoods with it. I decided it was time to take a second thought about where I was going. Since then, I have worked freelance when the work has been there.
Now, as retirement approaches, I am again taking a second thought: what to do with my time, and how to use it differently.
Why Thinking Matters
The world is complex, but one thing has not changed: freedom survives only when people think and question for themselves.
From the earliest days of democracy in Athens, it was understood that freedom could not stand on its own. It required citizens who would argue in the marketplace. Socrates asked questions. Aristotle treated politics not as the pursuit of power, but as a branch of ethics, with the health of the polis depending on reasoned dialogue.
“Evil can be resisted, but stupidity disarms reason before the fight has even begun.”
— Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Two thousand years after the Greeks, Bonhoeffer made a similar observation as Germany slid into Nazism. He warned that the great danger was not malice but stupidity — the willingness of intelligent people to surrender independent judgment and follow the crowd.
Why This Blog
These warnings remain urgent. Modern societies too easily silence voices that are controversial, clumsy, or unwelcome. But when voices are cut off — through censorship, law, or social pressure — society does not grow stronger. It grows brittle, unpracticed in the art of grappling with ideas.
This blog exists to resist that brittleness. To practice the art of thinking. To notice patterns, draw from history, and arrange thoughts coherently — not as an exercise for specialists, but as something any of us can do.
An Invitation
This blog is an invitation to pause and think again.
f taking a second thought feels right to you, then welcome.
PS: What I will post are my ideas, and as such I am responsible for them. I also use ChatGPT to edit and fact-check.
Take a Second Thought 
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