Summer link roundup
Or, a collection of cool things that caught my attention while it was too hot to think outside.
Articles
The Illusions of Barbell Theory by Tina He
We live in a culture that rushes towards extremes. Either you’re a billionaire and a movie star or you’re a clueless peon. Your company is either a unicorn or an abject failure. It’s sometimes known as “The Barbell Theory”, and Tina He does a magnificent job of breaking down the fallacies in it.
Most are average by definition. There is no shame in being mid.
The Value of Pluralism by Sigal Samuel
Related to the above, but there is also a rise of extremism in our political rhetoric. We have lived so long in a liberal democracy where we are allowed to have different (even wrong) opinions, we’ve forgotten how important it is to defend that.
I don’t personally believe in utopias, mostly because I don’t think there can be a utopia that is everyone’s utopia. On some level, we have to learn how to live with each other, to disagree with each other. What should matter are the values we do share.
What if This is it? by Prickly Oxheart
FOMO has run our culture for decades, and the addition of social media only supercharged it. We have to optimize our lives to make sure we have the best one possible, because what if we missed out?
A radical idea: What if our lives aren’t rough drafts? What if the best thing we can do is not worry about efficiency, but just fully occupy the moment we’re in?
What if it’s okay that we sometimes miss out?
The Metamorphis of the Mad Scientist by Pat Cassels
I love Atlas Obscura, I love horror, I love mad scientists. Of course, I was going to love a history of them! From their origins in the 20’s with Dr. Caligari and Henry Frankenstein to the modern-day tech CEO (who can really be thought of as a mad scientist), these cackling lunatics showcase our uneasy relationship with the science that pushes us forward.
Bored by Nick Lynch
An excellent companion piece to my long-ago article about the value of boredom, Nick does an incredible job explaining what boredom is, why it’s valuable, and how we’ve optimized it away, referencing the three great pillars of wisdom: the Stoics, the Buddha, and the Simpsons.
The AI Boyfriend Ticking Time Bomb by Ryan Broderick
GPT-5’s launch did NOT go great, and one of the unexpected sources of discontent was the surprisingly large group of people for whom the app is a romantic interest, an emotional crutch. It’s tragic and sad, although not as new as you might think.
It’s also a bit of a problem for the AI companies, who are realizing that there is a sizable (although hard to say how big) chunk of their paying user-base that is defined by their unhealthy relationship with their product.
Why Are There So Many Rationalist Cults? by Ozy Brennan
I’m always fascinated by cults – the ways in which we are able to self-rationalize away a reality we don’t want to deal with. I wasn’t very familiar with the Rationalist movement before this article, so this was a fascinating exploration of a movement I didn’t know and its propensity for self-organizing into cults without leaders.
I’ve experienced a similar phenomenon in online fandoms, where anxiety, unhealthy group dynamics, and social isolation, can create the illusion that you’re the most important in the world and your concerns are magical almost.
Touch gass, as the kids say.l
Videos
Other Stuff
Did you know that Edo-era samurai had a parlor game where they’d tell 100 ghost stories in a night, putting out a lantern after each story, only to stop at the last lantern for fear of breaking down the barrier between our realm and the spirit realm?
Now you do. It’s metal as hell and I want to track down a collection of kaidan as they came to be called ASAP.
Up & Up College Ruled Composition Notebooks
It’s September and back-to-school, so I went to Target to pick up a stack of Composition Notebooks. I’ve taken to drafting as much as possible off-computer to keep my focus (and activate different parts of my brain).
These notebooks (made by Target) are affordable and surprisingly high-quality. They take the ink from my Lamy ballpoint pen like a champ, with no bleedthrough, allowing me to write quickly and without the pull of the internet to call my name.