I’ve been rather distressed over the past two decades watching our society driving, at increasing speed, towards a brick wall. It started with the climate crisis, but now we can throw the rise of nuclear conflict, the erosion of democracy and AI into the mix. With the possible exception of nuclear proliferation, I think we can fairly credibly trace all these issues to the rise of unfettered capitalism. The main problem with free-enterprise is that it incentivizes individual self-interest over the collective good, particularly at the broader market level, and it’s secondary…
I think the phrase “hard of hearing” is rather fascinating. It doesn’t make any intuitive sense. While we can think of it in the sense of something having hardened and become less flexible, or in the sense of something having become hard to do, we don’t use this phrase in any other way. We don’t call someone who is slow hard of learning. If someone is a jerk who spends too much time on 4chan we don’t say they’re hard of caring. 40 year-old men don’t tell their doctors they’re hard of…
plucked the slurpee off Evan’s tray with long boney fingers. He peered deep into its sugary murk. “Explain this foul potion. What are its effects?” “It’s called a slurpee,” Evan said. “It’s a refreshing drink. Especially when it’s hot out.” A round of knowing ahhhhhs circled the room. “A health elixir,” someone spoke from the back, nodding with authority. “Well, sort of.” Falstaff sniffed it. “Drink it! Drink it! Drink it!” the wizards began to chant. Falstaff raised his hand. “Silence!” he commanded. “For the sake of knowledge, and in the name…
I’ve been somewhat obsessed with mental fallacies ever since I read The Undoing Project, Michael Lewis’s book on Amos Tversky and Danny Kahneman. (These led me to two other great books on the topic, including Kahneman’s Thinking Fast & Slow, and Leonard Mlodinow’s Drunkard’s Walk, which are two books I’d put on the list for anyone wanting to have a better understanding of the world and their own decisions.)Anyway, I saw a facebook reel the other day pointing out the hilarious stat that, when polled, the vast majority of people–something like 80%–believe…
Even as ‘startup-culture’ and the unending quest for “unicorns” has spread across the globe, The New New Thing somehow still presents a fresh and brutally honest look at the cultures, personalities and economics of the tech upheavals brought upon us by people who can never have enough.