There’s a mythical dividing line between thinkers and doers. It’s true that there are thinkers who can’t do practical things very well, and doers who don’t think very well. But real doers must think, and think well.

Thinkers are exemplified by pundits and academicians who expound grandiloquently on such matters as the “evils” of capitalism and the “virtues” of socialism (though they usually don’t cal it that). Their pronouncements mask a kind of “penis envy” that’s aimed at the real doers of this world. Such thinkers survive mainly because they are able to trade their verbal facility for incomes that enable them to buy posh homes, fancy cars, fine dining, opera tickets, and so on. Their cushy lives are made possible the surpluses of the capitalist system that they deplore. They are crony anti-capitalists.

The gene pool in which intellectuals spawn was enriched by the survival of the physically and mentally fittest, who didn’t have the option of talking their way out of the dangers posed by the elements and predators (human and otherwise). Life isn’t as fraught for today’s doers — people who produce actual products and services. But doers nevertheless have to think rather carefully and well in order to succeed in the world of commerce.

I have been a subsidized thinker and an unsubsidized doer. Take it from me that doing is not only hard work, but doing well in the world of commerce is every bit as mentally demanding as riskless thinking and pontificating.