The economic divide in Italy
Italy as a country has a steep gradient in economic prosperity.
Ten shelves · 50 essays
The Reading Room
I.
Tech
How to install an app on your Commodore 64
It’s time to install an app! But here in 1986, we still call them “programs,” not apps. So, you’ll want to set aside som…
Descent into the Computational Sublime
A database is a store for global variables
Networks Don’t Throttle. Platforms Do.
II.
Culture
Salon, one of the last OG general interest web...
Salon, one of the last OG general interest web publications, is shutting down. “When Salon launched in November 1995, th…
Simon Winchester, a charming rogue who traded geology for journalism and became a prolific and peripatetic polymath, has died. He was 82
In 17th-century England, a flood could be blamed on a “Papistical Conspiracy of Traitors” — but general sinfulness could not be dismissed from playing a role
Why did American literature departments prove so hospitable, or susceptible, to French theory?
Robert Wilson created spectacles that defied interpretation. So his critics wrote about their own ideas instead
III.
Life
Compute and debt
Got into a rabbit hole looking into Anthropic’s IPO numbers, and found this really interesting story about its compute c…
Umberto Eco’s Antilibrary: Why Unread Books Are More Valuable to Our Lives than Read Ones
Data hoarding and LLMs and privacy
The Souls of Animals
No One You Love Is Ever Dead: Hemingway on Loss and the Meaning of Life
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 Economics of Doing Nothing
Actions can be lumpy
Love at first photo?
Thursday assorted links
A 1/14 Swing in the Electorate Has Consequences: SCHADENFREUDE OF THE DAY
Pollution as Growth Killer
VI.
Finance
Thursday links: having an answer
Longform links: changing of the guard
When Machine Learning Meets Q-Theory: What “AI-Q-Factors” Teaches Us About Measuring Profitability and Investment
Is it Realistic to Live Off Your Dividends?
Welcoming Jason Spinell to Collaborative Fund
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
The Wokest Theodicy Ever
...
Time in Heaven
Do we need to take reincarnation seriously? – Part II
The Vindication of Normal Politics
Extreme Vegan Claims Aren’t Hyperbole
IX.
Psychology
Brave Men, Reproductive Effort, Motivation
Links and recommendations
The art of political decision making
Sometimes It Hurts to Ask
Separating the art from the artist
Aligned, but with whom?
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
Life · Feature
The Generosity of Selfishness: C.S. Lewis on How to Be Interesting
Our lives are defined not by what we have but what we give — on what and whom we spend our energy and time, how we share our material possessions and our mental powers, what we do with our gifts. “Anything you do not give freely and abundantly becomes lost to you,” Annie Dillard wrote in contemplati...
From the Stacks
Browse the full archive → Five rediscoveries from the back issues, rotated by the day
Read slowly. There is no hurry.