The Odyssey (2026) is guilty of everything Emily Wilson was wrongly accused of
Nolan has stripped the ambiguity that makes Homer’s characters so interesting, and served up a cosy morality play with all the depth of warmed-over Marvel slop.
Deep Dish
All Life is an Experiment — essays on optionality, money, freedom, and the good life by Richard Meadows.
Latest posts
Bro, Do You Even Lit? Why I Switched to Reading Fiction
Almost all my adult life I've been an infovore obsessed with hoovering up all the knowledge.
I Was Wrong About Running
YEAH SAME QUESTION AS OP. The mere existence of running as a 'hobby' has always seemed to me an affront to the dignity of mankind.
Cormac McCarthy's Metaphysical Horror Show
In this last-ditch diptych, your crusty 89-year-old literary grandaddy completely changes tack, holding forth on the biggest philosophical and scientific questions of our age.
Why I'm Raising my Daughter in a Language I Hardly Know How to Speak
If you think you're a decent speaker of a second language, try spending a full hour narrating a simple suburban environment to a small child.
Highlights From the Comments on AI Doom
My coming-out post on why I'm no longer an AI doomer seems to have struck a nerve.
Why I am No Longer an AI Doomer
At the exact same time we're seeing a real-life explosion in AI capabilities, I've become much less worried about the prospect of doom. Here's why.
The Best of the Best Books I Read in 2023-2024
IT'S BEEN A COUPLE YEARS since I did one of these roundups, during which time book club has really lifted my reading game, and so the pool of contenders has a lot of depth this year.
The ‘Bias’ Bias: No, Your Brain is Not Made of Swiss Cheese
Most apparent biases are, in fact, perfectly good heuristics, and people are far more rational than we have been led to believe.
Things that Surprised Me About the First Year of Parenthood
One year ago my daughter was born. This is the single most monumental thing to ever happen to me.
Weaponised Autism as the Font of Human Creativity
What makes humans special? How is it that we are able to unleash the energy of the atom, while our hominid ancestors gather dust in the natural history museum?
Book Review: The Beginning of Infinity
Pound-for-pound The Beginning of Infinity has to be the densest collection of batshit-crazy ideas I've ever come across.
I Miss You
We don't talk much these days but we go way back. So I'm feeling kinda bummed about how I permanently and irrevocably lost any way of contacting you. Whoops!
10 Principles of Optionality For an Uncertain World
What is optionality? If you want a thorough answer, check out the big juicy book I spent the last couple of years writing.
Is Crypto Bullshit? Calling My Shots
Nothing in this arena can be taken at face value, which makes it unusually fertile ground for battle-testing your own critical thinking skills.
Why Bitcoin is Not That Stupid
No, not even at these apparently ridiculous prices. Not even when financial illiterates are making grandiose claims about where it'll end up.
Happiness is a Greased Pig Chase
Happiness is a greased pig chase: the harder you grab at it, the more it squirms away. Here's what the happiness research gets wrong about the good life.
Announcing Optionality, the Book: How You Can Get Involved
As many of you know, I've been working on a book project for the last few years.
Is Blogging Worth It? A Cheap Option for Attracting Serendipity
Blogging is an endurance sport. As Deep Dish's 4th birthday approaches—a million views, a thousand comments—I have a decent sense of whether it's been worth it.
Getting Hacked and Getting Hard
CLEARANCE SALE! VANS SHOES CHEAP! I was as surprised as anyone to hear that I'd pivoted from blogging to hawking knock-off footwear on Facebook.
It's Such a Perfect Day
'Rise and grind' posts are cringe, but let's not toss the baby out with the essential oil-infused bathwater. What can Science TM tell us about the perfect daily routine?
Roam Research for Getting Things Done (GTD)
This is a GTD guide I wrote for the Roam Research team. There are dozens of possible implementations, each tailored to a different set of tools and preferences. This one is mine.
Kindly Stop Saying The Efficient Market Hypothesis is Dead
There are whispers that the efficient-market hypothesis is dead, or dying, or at least has a very nasty cough. But rumours of its death have been greatly exaggerated.
The Self-Experimentation Guide
A self-experiment that doesn't generate obvious results, like taking tiny, sub-threshold doses of LSD, crosses the line into fiddling on the margin.
How to Profit From Coronavirus
A black swan event unleashes destruction, but also opportunity. What would it take to not only weather this situation, but profit from it?
The Embarrassing Problem of Premature Exploitation
Video games give you a clear pathway for leveling up into a muscle-bound hero, and impressing scantily-clad elven princesses with your Very Big Sword.
Time Travel for Pleasure and Profit
Our meatsack bodies slavishly plod along at the precise rate of one second per second.
Getting to 'Good Enough'
Time for some Reverse Life Coaching: a shared ambition to become less ambitious. Here's the plan for reaching 'good enough' (and staying there).
An Interview with Alain de Botton
The British philosopher speaks out on the curse of fame, the cruel expectations of self-help, and why we're all "hellish propositions".
The Optionality Approach to Getting Lucky
What is optionality? My favourite tool for finding juicy asymmetries between risk and reward, and creating your own luck.
How to Make Your Own Luck
There’s no such thing as cosmic justice. But over the course of a lifetime, at least we can vaguely shuffle in the direction of getting what we deserve.
Same Salad, Different Day
If you wear the same outfit over and over, nothing bad happens. Maybe you don’t get invited to Fashion Week. But what if you eat the same food every day?
Beware of Geeks Bearing Formulas
The history of finance is a history of brains splattered on the pavement. Just how safe is the buy-and-hold index funds orthodoxy?
If the Stock Market Crashed Today
The standard line is that market crashes just don’t matter a damn if you're a long-term investor. Today, I'm no longer so sure that's true.
Office Hours
As it turns out, hammocks are not ergonomically designed workspaces, and sand and electronics don't play nicely together.
A Fistful of Dong: The Cost of Living in Da Nang, Vietnam
The sleepy beach town of Da Nang is an underappreciated gem, but its star seems to be on the rise. Here's what all the fuss is about...
The Barbell Strategy for Buying Quality Stuff
The idea that buying high-quality stuff saves you money in the long run is overrated, but there's a way to get the best of both worlds.
Constraints That Liberate
Something I’ve learned the hard way is that you can absolutely have too much of a good thing. Unconstrained freedom is, well... kind of freaky, actually.
Digital Minimalism Review: Gazing Into the Abyss
Maybe you have a voice in your head that whispers ‘jump!’ every time you lean over a balcony. I have recurring fantasies of deleting my presence from the Internet and going off the grid.
Goals Gone Wild
There’s a huge body of evidence that goal setting works, which is why everyone refuses to shut up about it. But could it be that goals are too powerful?
Is The Law of Attraction Real?
If you convince yourself the Law of Attraction is true, maybe it will improve your life. Placebos can be good medicine, even if you know they’re only sugar pills… right?
The Madness Of Crowds
If you skip the top-tier or ‘must-do’ attraction, you will usually have a way better time at a fraction of the price.
The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up is Utterly Deranged, and I Love It
Marie Kondo—queen of decluttering, bestselling author, empire-builder—hears voices in her head.
Specialization is For Insects
Developing broad interests and skills not only dovetails perfectly with the frugal life, but acts as a force multiplier that propels you towards your financial goals at blistering speed.
Advanced Investing: The Barbell Strategy for Bastards
"Marry an accountant, but have occasional flings with rock stars." Nassim Taleb's barbell strategy won't improve marital harmony, but it's smart investing.
The Worst Investment Ever: How I Lost $10,000 Catching a Falling Knife
I stretched out my bandaged hand, and this time the knife took a finger off. I'm a slow learner when it comes to picking stocks, but you don't have to be.
Self Authoring Review: Sorting Myself Out With Dr Jordan Peterson
Imagine your dad giving you a lecture about life, except your dad is Canadian, has an IQ of ~150, and is voiced by Kermit the Frog. That's Jordan Peterson.
Living The 4 Hour Work Week (How Tim Ferriss Created a Monster)
The 4HWW's unintended legacy is a groundswell of self-loathing in the digital nomad community. What did Tim get right, and which parts have gone rotten?
The Barbell Strategy: How Not to Be a Starving Artist
Living off ramen in your mom's basement while you wait for your genius business idea or novel to hit the big time is a dead end. It's time to get strategic.
Throw Away Your Television
TV wriggles into our heads and changes our brain function, our reward systems, our moods. Let's pluck out the parasite, and take back control of our lives.