2025-07-31
get up! for lumière!
Derek Thompson has a great article on how Neo-Brandeisians critique of YIMBYism misuse studies about home developer market concentration.
Statecraft episode with Dean Karlan on USAID1, a defense for how it was run, how it could have been improved, and how it could be brought back. There’s a section about earmarks which is pretty interesting, since I personally find the concept intuitively appealing, but my impression is that most people working in policy really hate them. It’s possible that Dean is implicitly criticizing them here, but the impression I’m getting here is that earmarks actually worked pretty well for USAID?
Scott Alexander on moral consistency, appeals to emotion, and the war in Gaza. Coincidentally, Noah Millman also has a post on the exact same topics.
Naomi Kanakia with the story she promised on oaths, self-denial, responsibility, and all the means by which power is bound. In some ways, this is the opposite of the male power fantasy trope, which is about the feeling of being able to do as you wish, without any regard for consequences.
Gumphus notes that most people should not live as utilitarians, even as utilitarianism is ultimately true. Ironically, anyone who accepts this but nevertheless claims to be something else like a virtue ethicist is describing themselves as a consequence of their actions, rather than their beliefs.
Victor Kumar on the different levels of success for political advocacy among LGB versus T.
Cube Flipper with an introduction to holography, related to some interesting speculations on how memories are stored in the brain.
Uncapped Podcast interviews Dwarkesh on his current views on AI, mostly repeating his earlier thoughts on continual learning and identity duplication, but some interesting new stuff on things like his thoughts on media.
Lars Doucet has a piece describing German colonial Qingdao as a land value tax success story.
Sam Enright still has the best linkthread out there.
Robert Long linkthread.
Richard Hanania linkthread.
