intellectualizing the internet

and the irony is that most of us weren’t like this as kids. we didn’t optimize playtime; we didn’t schedule curiosity. we just wandered until something felt interesting. maybe that’s what adulthood quietly kills — the ability to do something without folding it into a bigger plan. optimization feeds the illusion of progress, but often it just strips... See more

Sanders argues that one of the best ways to achieve an economically equitable benefit from the increased productivity likely to stem from AI is by lowering the workweek to 32 hours without workers having to sacrifice any of their pay.

Culture is always made, and never given.

The Stagnation Generation (anyone under 30, let’s say) is simultaneously overpoliced and unbound from almost all the taboos that shackled its generational predecessors.

Life expectancy and birth rates are falling; our governing institutions are as leaky and unreliable as the New York City subway; cheap rent, the historic precondition of artistic adventure, has all but disappeared from the country’s major urban centers; productivity growth is stuck in first gear; and for all the blather about “de-risking” and the... See more

Cultural stagnation does not spring solely from Silicon Valley’s manipulation of our habits of thought and action. It reflects much deeper issues at work in politics, the economy, social mores, and demographics