What if we understood more things?
The world doesn’t need another op-ed on how building things is illegal in San Francisco. But it does need more specifics on exactly how that plays out (this is the same instinct that led me to interview my Dad about Bell Labs). What, specifically, does it look like to try to build in SF? Where, Continue reading "Why can t we have nice things? Like, specifically?"
dynomight recently wrote an article calling for bloggers to state publicly whether and how they use AI. Here are ways I currently use AI in ways that might show up on this blog: I wrote this in 4 minutes so I may come back later with edits as new uses occur to me.
Last month I made my print debut in Asterisk Magazine, with a title so good it made me rethink my entire philosophy: We’re all one crisis away from taking unlicensed research peptides. Then this month I published On the origin of continents at Works in Progress, about the simultaneous, semi-independent dual discoveries of plate tectonics.
How much do cows suffer in the production of milk? I can’t answer that; understanding animal experience is hard. But I can at least provide some facts about the conditions dairy cows live in, which might be useful to you in making your own assessment. My biggest conclusion is that cows made better choices than Continue reading "Dairy cows make their misery expensive (but their calves can t)"
Last summer I got nerdsniped by evangelical christianity, and in particular church planting, the domestic missionary system used by nondenominational churches to resolve the conflict between an abhorrence of hierarchy and a drive to spread the Word. The system was so different from what I expected from religion; I wanted to understand the frame that Continue reading "Church Planting: Lessons from…
When it comes to clothes, I live at the “low cost/low time/low quality” end of the pareto frontier. But the bay area had a sudden attack of weather this December, and the cheap sweaters on Amazon get that way by being made of single-ply toilet paper. It became clear I would need to spend actual Continue reading "Things I learned from reddit fashion"
It took me a long time to realize that Bell Labs was cool. You see, my dad worked at Bell Labs, and he has not done a single cool thing in his life except create me and bring a telescope to my third grade class. Nothing he was involved with could ever be cool, especially Continue reading "The Boring Part of Bell Labs"
On some level, calories in calories out has to be true. But these variables are not independent. Bodies respond to exercise by getting hungry and to calorie deficit by getting tired. Even absent that, bodies know how much food they want, and if you don’t give it to them they will tell you at increasing Continue reading "The Biochemical Beauty of Retatrutide: How GLP-1s Actually Work"
It’s amazing how much smarter everyone else gets when I take antidepressants. It makes sense that the drugs work on other people, because there’s nothing in me to fix. I am a perfect and wise arbiter of not only my own behavior but everyone else’s, which is a heavy burden because some of ya’ll are Continue reading "I take antidepressants. You’re welcome"
From 2019 to 2022, the cryptocurrency exchange FTX stole 8-10 billion dollars from customers. In summer 2022, FTX’s charitable arm gave me two grants totaling $33,000. By the time the theft was revealed in November 2022, I’d spent all but 20% of it. The remaining money isn’t mine, and I don’t want it. I would Continue reading "FTX, Golden Geese, and The Widow s Mite"