Friday Fodder #14
What's Trending? What's Transcendent?
No question, a lot’s happened this week. For me this is the picture that stays in my head.
The Amish came out and voted Trump. They rarely vote but they came out against agency overreach. Not as meme-worthy as Peanut the squirrel, but definitely a middle finger vote.
There were some overdramatic reactions to a Trump win and really, whether you voted Harris or Trump, how can you not feel a little schadenfreude with some of them? The best takes tried to actually figure it out. And the one I liked the most was Matt Yglesias again, who came out with an excellent set of 9 points that Democrats should agree on. Seriously, go read that list. They’re all great. Perfectly normal and reasonable. Common sense. 80+% of the electorate would agree.
Do they sound kinda familiar? Yeah..
So where do we go from here? Some portion of the country is genuinely fearful of a Trump second term with a Republican congress and a Republican house. If they’re smart they’ll take the mandate they’ve received from the populace and they’ll be normal and work on sensible issues. In fact, they should take Yglesias’s “Common Sense Democrat” list and just start there. If they do that and refrain from going off on a power-tripping bender, they’ll hold the White House until 2036.
Vance 2028 and BTC to the moon!
On to some reading..
Timely
Identity Politics Is Not Working - Yep, definitely true. Hey in unrelated news, Trump just announced Susan Wiles as his Chief of Staff, the very first female CoS in the White House ever. Not sure that will make the news though.
MAGA Morning In America - A more conservative view of the same event, from a friend of JD Vance. Is it really so original to believe in the greatness of America?
Smart But Not Too Smart - Rob Henderson, who brought to light the idea of luxury beliefs, talks about the importance of IQ, how it can help provide vision and leadership, and how much is the optimal amount. The answer is not simply “more”.
OpenAIs ChatGPT Search Takes On Google - Sama bought chat.com from Darmesh and OpenAI released search. The amount of utility from these tools keeps increasing. 10 blue links have been the common calling card of the internet for 20 years. They may be dead soon.
Timeless
Machines Of Loving Grace - A profoundly personal story of loss and technology and contingency. The last line resonates strongly.. I know that place and when I’m there, the focus is on life.
A World Split Apart - Alexsandr Solzhenitsyn gave a timeless commencement speech to Harvard in 1978. The values reflect his concern for the West based on his experience in the Soviet Union, but they seem almost more relevant nearly 50 years on. From concern for moral courage to litigiousness to the freedom of the Press and the danger of humanism and moral poverty.. the world would be better if a speech like this could be applauded at Harvard today.
6 Questions About Solar - The first graph looks unbelievable, an unrealistic extrapolation. The rest of it does a pretty good job backing it up and explaining why solar might be the primary power generation in the next 5-10.
Is There A Crisis of Seriousness? - The 21st century could be dubbed the Performative Age where it’s impossible to spot genuine because everyone is acting out a part. The whole world is fake. Most of our daily job now is to wade through a sea of kayfabe and spot the serious.
Books
The Bitcoin Standard by Saifedean Ammous - $BTC is at all time highs and we’re just at the beginning of the bull run. To understand the innovation underlying Bitcoin it’s necessary to understand the functions of money, why gold served for so long, and how fiat changed the game. A great introduction and one of the most important inventions of the 21st century. If you think it’s too late to buy some.. it’s not. We’re early.
Tweets
Cheers!