Author: Andrew
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Wanting: The Power of Mimetic Desire in Everyday Life
Liked the book. Definitely gives useful frameworks by naming desire and then trying to move away from bad models of it or transform it into good desire. I want what I want because I want it. Intrinsic vs. extrinsic. Don’t feel the need to do a full write out of my thoughts. I think the…
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From Dollar Dominance to Slop Machine
Pt. 2 on attention and a bunch of topics that are funneling through it these days. I say topics, but really they are the things that impact the every day: trust, social safety, integrity, etc. Very good.
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Would live
Want to sit and write a book here. Over 3-6 months with Sadie.
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Benjamin Franklin: An American Life
Enjoyed this biography on Ben and ended up reading about 4/5ths. Got bored at the end when Isaacson is detailing his life in Paris. Seems important, especially considering he was America’s representative in securing important aid from the French to take on the Revolutionary War, but it was incredibly detailed in a way I no…
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Shepherd: setting sail on his bike!
Shepherd’s first known solo bike ride! What day! O joy!
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Are Cultural Products Getting Longer?
The answer seems to be Yes. This is a great counterfactual to attention span narratives. It doesn’t speak to quality, but to attention span. Brain Rot seems to be a real thing (on the surface) but we don’t enjoy it. It seems like we’re immunizing by consuming longer content. I notice this with the kids.…
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The AGI Economy is Coming Faster Than You Think
From Rohit Krishnan in Freethink (new to me). If Pascal’s Wager can be applied the “when AGI”, and I think it certainly can be, it feels wiser to me to assume the kind of thinking below is more likely than not. What to do about that? I have no idea. I don’t see myself rapidly…
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Writers and thinkers I most respect
On a run this morning, while listening to Dwarkesh interview Tyler Cowen, I came up with what I think is my modern canon of writers and thinkers whose work I most consume. Here it is: Hopefully I’ll add more, but the list being short gives me lots to take in from a few Good People…
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Is now the best time to write a novel?
From this post, “The Cultural Decline of Literary Fiction.” I think the most important conclusion is that all of this is actually good news for aspiring writers: it’s not that the philistine dopamine-addled masses will never be capable of giving you the praise you deserve, it’s just that (1) basically no one is writing literary…