Lance Armstrong and his team's abilities to meld strength and strategy -- to thoughtfully plan ahead and to sacrifice today for a big gain tomorrow --- seem to be such fading virtues in American life.

Maybe we have the leaders we deserve. Maybe we just want to admire Lance Armstrong, but not be Lance Armstrong. Too much work. Maybe that's the wristband we should be wearing: Live wrong. Party on. Pay later.

Upon reading this op-ed by Tom Friedman, I was immediately reminded of a 1998 article from Wired Magazine, in which Stewart Brand interviewed Freeman Dyson. The article was entitled Freeman Dyson's Brain. It is worth reading (or rereading) in its own right, so I'll file it separately.