Satellite images of sand dunes migrating in Egypt. They...
Satellite images of sand dunes migrating in Egypt. They move about 13 meters a year.
Ten shelves · 50 essays
The Reading Room
I.
Tech
Pluralistic: The EU should go big and hard over border IT failure (10 Nov 2026)
Today's links The EU should go big and hard over border IT failure: Sometimes you have to execute an IT contractor to en…
The $500 Bug Bounty Email Every Small Site Gets
AI’s Ringmaster Loses the Circus
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang Had an Affair With a Chinese Spy
II.
Culture
For Those Who Wish to Live Like an Agrarian
There is much we can all do
An anthology that merely reflects the market is a passive index fund. The editor’s job is to pick winners. David Lehman explains
Critics and biographers have tiptoed around a momentous force in John Berger’s writing: sex
Lionel Trilling described the place where literature and politics meet as a "dark and bloody crossroads." Bad politics and bad books are buried there
Anthropologists love to debate: Is their field insufficiently reflexive, too reflexive, too relativistic, or too subservient to dominant norms? Enough!
III.
Life
Pablo Neruda on How to Hold Time
“Time is a river that sweeps me along, but I am a river,” Borges wrote. “Time is a fire that consumes me, but I am the f…
What Makes You Yourself: Earth’s Largest Living Organism and the Paradox of Personhood
De-othering
Carl Sagan on How to Live with the Unknown
How I’m using AI without losing my mind | #333
IV.
Design
Fortune Telling and Speculative Design
Practical tools for design engineers to explore possible futures through speculative design
Planning with Agents: Divided Worlds, Boundary Objects, and Thicker Interfaces
August 2026
In Memoriam, Encountering World War I, and Thinkable Horrors
One Developer, Two Dozen Agents, Zero Alignment
V.
Economics
Is the Fed Going to Hike 50 bps?
Today’s hot CPI is a vestige of the recent spike in oil prices - 50 bps isn’t happening
Tuesday assorted links
On “The Meritocratic Consensus” in Higher Education
The Cyberpunking of America (Fixed)
The Cyberpunking of America
VI.
Finance
This is Why You Need a Plan
Some thoughts on the craziest week of the year. The post This is Why You Need a Plan appeared first on A Wealth of Commo…
Is Fund Size Growth in Private Equity a Red Flag?
Research links: developing investment talent
Inflation still needs to be controlled
The Gamble of Your Life
VII.
History
For More Than Three Decades, Qatar Has Flourished by Playing All Sides
A strategy of means, not ends
Why Russia had serfs
The Unfinished Drama of Two Histories
Yet More Flying Notes From Egypt
The US Election in 6 maps
VIII.
Philosophy
Longtermism For Animals
Making the far future go well for animals should be the top priority of the animal rights movement
The Scariest Recent AI Development
Dario Amodei’s Contemptible Critics
Suggested Readings
Taking Torture Seriously
IX.
Psychology
We need more goat sacrifices
OR: OJ A-OK
Women Have Become More Likely to Marry Men With Less Education Than Themselves
When there is no right answer
Brave Men, Reproductive Effort, Motivation
The art of political decision making
X.
Science
Eric Weinstein & Richard Borcherds: Fields Medalist & Eric Weinstein on the Future of Mathematics
SPONSORS:
Missing the boat on extreme event attribution
What Is a Quantum Field Theory, Really?
XKDR Newsletter - Issue 55
Eric Weinstein & Richard Borcherds: Fields Medalist & Eric Weinstein on the Future of Mathematics
Culture · Feature
How Much Wealth Does It Take to be Safe in the United States?
Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and illustrator Mona Chalabi’s new book is about wealth inequality in America. Ten Lives: How What We Have Shapes Who We Are (Amazon) follows ten people with ten different incomes, from the bottom 10% to the top 10% and everything in-between: For five years, data jo...
From the Stacks
Browse the full archive → Five rediscoveries from the back issues, rotated by the day
Read slowly. There is no hurry.