Top clicks this week on Abnormal Returns
Thanks for checking in with us this weekend. Here are the most clicked on items on Abnormal Returns for the week ended...
Ten shelves · 50 essays
The Reading Room
I.
Tech
LLMs are terrible at designing AI systems
How I vibe-code
Reading List 11/7/2026
Pluralistic: JS Tan and Clarissa Redwine's "Against Tech Oligarchy" (07 Nov 2026)
II.
Culture
Simon Winchester, a charming rogue who traded geology for journalism and became a prolific and peripatetic polymath, has died. He was 82
Simon Winchester, a charming rogue who traded geology for journalism and became a prolific and peripatetic polymath, has…
In 17th-century England, a flood could be blamed on a “Papistical Conspiracy of Traitors” — but general sinfulness could not be dismissed
Why did American departments of literature prove so hospitable, or susceptible, to French theory?
Robert Wilson created spectacles that defied interpretation. So his critics wrote about their own ideas instead
"All writers will be buried, but try to bury their books, and somebody will always dig them up again"
III.
Life
How to Harness Your Existential Wanderlust
"Wander where you will over all the world, from every valley seeing forever new hills calling you to climb them, from ev…
Albert Camus on Stubbornness and Creativity
The Relationship Between Comedy, Democracy, and AI
Marianne Moore on the Three Elements of Persuasive Writing
On podcasts
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
The Pope probably knows this song
The post The Pope probably knows this song appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.
What I’ve been reading
Multipolarity, neutrality and peace
Brazil finances
Why I’m becoming a China bear
VI.
Finance
Saturday links: unparalleled greed
Saturdays we catch up with the non-finance related items that we didn’t get to earlier in the week. You can check out...
Liquidity and Momentum
Diversification & Drawdowns
Friday links: embracing change
What Do We Really Know About Private Fund Performance?
VII.
History
Yet More Flying Notes From Egypt
The Confessions of a Very Reasonable Man
The US Election in 6 maps
Why Italy ruled Europe but couldn’t rule itself
The Art of Blaming Israel For Everything
The future of Britain in 7 maps
VIII.
Philosophy
Dario Amodei’s Contemptible Critics
These people are *figuratively* Ayn Rand villains
Suggested Readings
Taking Torture Seriously
The Wokest Theodicy Ever
Time in Heaven
IX.
Psychology
When there is no right answer
Most questions we encounter have a clear answer, even if it takes effort to find it. But some don’t, and we seem remarka…
Brave Men, Reproductive Effort, Motivation
The art of political decision making
Sometimes It Hurts to Ask
Separating the art from the artist
X.
Science
Missing the boat on extreme event attribution
Almost every attack on attribution science is an attack on the scientists. Almost none of them engage the science.
What Is a Quantum Field Theory, Really?
XKDR Newsletter - Issue 55
He Won the Fields Medal. He Says AI Beats Him.
Mark Solms: Consciousness Isn't in the Cortex
Culture · Feature
The Match Archive
The Match Archive is creating “the first research-grade, digital archive cataloging American matchbooks as primary sources for graphic design, commercial culture, and social history”. They haven’t launched a website yet (they’re working on it), but they’ve been sharing some of their collection on th...
From the Stacks
Five rediscoveries from the back issues, rotated by the day
Read slowly. There is no hurry.
- I. Psychology
Poor People Lie Upward, Rich People Lie Downward
- II. Science
Scott Aaronson: “I Heard That a Robot Solved the Math Problem You Worked On”
- III. Tech
Seam Cutter
- IV. Culture
The Tiny Computers app lets you play with old computers...
- V. Life
20 Favorite Books from 20 Years of The Marginalian