Notes from a nameless conference “The industrial elites have lost their way. In every major profession and institution, they once commanded vast, widely-admired projects that filled their lives with meaning and endowed the entire class with an unconquerable confidence. But the twentieth century couldn’t be preserved forever, like a bug in amber. The elites now […]
Monthly Archives: July 2019
Book Review: The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test
2019.07.27 – 08:05
Book Review: The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test “Everyone had a movie. The cops had a cop movie, businessmen had a businessman movie, trauma victims had trauma victim movies. Everyone was just reading their script, doing what was expected of them. But with enough enlightenment (realistically: drugs), you could break out of other people’s movies – […]
The Economist Who Would Fix the American Dream
2019.07.17 – 17:30
The Economist Who Would Fix the American Dream “Hearing stories of the American dream as a boy in New Delhi, Chetty adopted the faith. When he became a scientist, he discerned the truth. What remains is contradiction: We must believe in the dream and we must accept that it is false—then, perhaps, we will be […]
In Defense of Nationalism: Notes on Yoram Hazony and His Critics
2019.07.16 – 11:58
In Defense of Nationalism: Notes on Yoram Hazony and His Critics “Hazony wants to shift our attention from questions about the conditions of legitimacy for a political order, which have dominated Western debates since Locke, to the conditions for sustaining a political order, the conditions that ensure that individuals see themselves as part of a […]
Coffee, Magic and the ineffable joy of Hunter Pence
2019.07.11 – 14:12
Coffee, Magic and the ineffable joy of Hunter Pence ($) ““I can’t really control what others think of me, I can only offer love,” Pence says. “I can only control what I offer to others, and what I offer to the game. So I have a mindset that like I always offer love, regardless of […]
What the Burnaby Mountain Gondola Teaches us about Loss
2019.07.11 – 10:26
What the Burnaby Mountain Gondola Teaches us about Loss “The working theory amongst city builders whenever a group of NIMBYs pipe up about any given development in an urban environment is that people simply don’t like change. That’s nonsense. People love change. If you get a sought-after job, a new girlfriend/boyfriend, a first car or […]
Whose advice should you take?
2019.07.11 – 10:18
Whose advice should you take? “Rather than seeking out the general wisdom of our elders and superiors about the way things are, we should have a view of things that is probabilistic, about the way things are right now. We should evaluate it fairly constantly, and keep updating it. Finance advice is simple and fairly […]
Moral intuition vs. tradition
2019.07.02 – 07:59
Moral intuition vs. tradition “Moral intuition is largely grounded in sub-Dunbar society. Our intuition tells us what is fair and just in a small tribe doing simple tasks. Tradition is how we were able to achieve cooperation at scale and complexity. We gradually evolved cultural norms and institutions that allow millions of people to cooperate […]