2026-03-13
say less
Statecraft interview with Nadia Schadlow on her experience drafting of the 2017 National Security Strategy as an exercise in coordination between different branches of the US federal government, which also provides an interesting window into what the current administration might have been thinking while heading into Iran. For example, the model of the world as a series of distinct “regions” to be handled more or less independently.
Rebecca Darley on the relationships of pre-industrial merchant networks as revealed by historical letters and documents.
Hollis Robbins has an interesting piece on the shrinking of the standard university syllabus as an indication that the university degree has become commoditized, eliminating individualized and tacit knowledge in the pursuit of standardization and legibility1.
Aella launches another really cool website, this one a factor analysis different ways that the internet can be polarized.
Sasha Chapin has some interesting musings on some various aspects of meditation as a spiritual practice, which seems to be dancing around the main question I have with this thing, which is “what is the point of this stuff?” One reason seems to be to free themselves from deep suffering that they are undergoing as a result of lack of meaning; another because being “enlightened” allows them to feel superior to others; as both the means and outcome of changing one’s self; to obtain various functional performance benefits; and then possibly underlying all of the above, as a method to attract more sex2. Which makes meditation seems like it’s a process of leaning directly into one’s most broken direction until they fall off a cliff, hoping that the bottom is nirvana.
Tommy Blanchard analysis of the Cortical Labs experiment which purportedly taught brain cells to play Doom. It seems there might be a mutualistic relationship emerging between Twitter and Substack that will encourage the production of increasingly overhyped pronouncements on the former3.
Kelsey Piper good commentary on how shoplifting is bad.
Somewhat related, Brian Potter has another article on the “mystery” of why prefabricated homes are not much cheaper than those manufactured on-site. It increasingly seems to me that his confusion is really some sort of rhetorical device, because pointing out that what matters is not whether something is built in a factory but whether it’s built according to a factory logic of standardization which allows for automation. Hence, the substantially lower cost of the actually standardized product, manufactured homes.
Is this actually the case? If meditation is a reliable path to enjoying more sex, then maybe I should start doing it. Though on that note, Jesse Meadows on the relationship between ADHD and habit formation.
While on the topic of the brain and AI, there seem to be many AI-inspired philosophical meditations today: Benjamin Lyons on “values” as emergent processes; Pete Mandik challenging the premise of Mary’s Room; Jack Thompson on qualia as an illusion; Dmitry with a metaphorical description of functionalism. It seems like a good thing that AI is forcing philosophy towards a somewhat more empirical direction, but personally I hope it doesn’t start a reciprocal trend towards increasing philosophical abstraction in previously practical-minded content.