I keep watching people who used to write 10,000-word explorations of complex topics now produce dozens of disconnected fragments per day, each optimized for immediate engagement. It's like watching someone who composed symphonies decide to only make ringtones.
Westenberg.
The Case for Blogging in the Ruins
In 1751, Denis Diderot began publishing his Encyclopédie, a project that would eventually span 28 volumes and take more than two decades to compl...
some of you have never had a guy at a party explain the trolley problem to you like he invented ethics and then say "makes you think" and it shows
Twitter is basically guys who are literal neo nazis + guys who are "not political" but have extremely specific opinions about which races are good at math
The Digital Nomad Life: the freedom to choose which collapsing empire to be the least poor in
I don’t want to be an alarmist but I fear tomorrow is another day
“Do your own research” is the mating call of someone about to share the worst fucking YouTube video in history
Everyone wants to “live authentically” but nobody wants to admit that authentic human behavior includes status games, tribalism, and caring what strangers think of you. We’re not trapped in society, we are society. The call is coming from inside the house.
We have "growth hackers" but no "stability hackers." "Disruptors" but no "preservers." Our entire vocabulary is oriented toward the new. We have no language for the equally difficult work of keeping existing things from falling apart.
Westenberg.
The Rime of the Ancient Maintainer
Every culture produces heroes that reflect its deepest anxieties. The Greeks, terrified of both mortality and immortality, gave us Achilles. The Vi...
The Greek Stoics wanted you to accept death. The LinkedIn Stoics want you to accept your open-plan office.
If you can’t explain your choice of romantic partner using a 2x2 game theory matrix + three references to 19th-century Prussian educational reform, do you even love them? Or are you just a series of poorly optimized biological heuristics wearing a North Face fleece? This Substack post will