Chad Aaron Hall

More importantly, reading thoughtful rebuttals outsources the expertise and extensive thinking required to find the flaws in big ideas to someone qualified to find them. Invariably, someone who has spent their entire life reading and thinking about a topic will do a better job noticing what’s wrong with an idea than you will.

And that’s the point. Eero Saarinen, the building’s architect, once said: “Once one embarks on a concept for a building, this concept has to be exaggerated and overstated and repeated in every part of its interior so that wherever you are, inside or outside, the building sings with the same message.”

Writers should heed this principle.

So often we... See more

This is how we restore the old internet — not in its original form, but in its glorious, fragmented essence. People call Twitter an indispensable public space because it’s the “town square”, but in the real world there isn’t just one town square, because there isn’t just one town. There are many. And the internet works when you can exit — when you... See more

Basically, do you do better with a routine or have special interests (things that you kind of get obsessive about?); do you stim (repeat a movement such as fiddling with keys, flap your hands, move your fingers in a particular way, headbang, etc. to alleviate anxiety); and finally do you have sensory challenges (find wool itchy/scratchy, get... See more

Bringing it back home, 69 of Iowa’s 99 counties have contracted since 2010, along with 10 of its 15 micropolitan counties. This ongoing struggle of midsized counties has negative economic and social consequences. Residents in surrounding rural areas depend on them for jobs, essential services, public goods and other commercial and recreational... See more