1 day agoMember-onlyTo Be Good, Abandon HumanityYou got to think bigger than yourself to be your best self — Only by abandoning your humanity can you truly be good. Humanity is ultimately too limiting, too spee’shist. What’s good for us is torture for cows and collapse for the climate. We’re fundamentally no better than crocodiles, cool in small numbers but chaos if left unchecked. To be attached to this…Philosophy3 min readPhilosophy3 min read
2 days agoMember-onlyThe Relief (And Boredom) Of An Empty InboxHow Hey changed email for me — I use Hey for email, and it screens emails by default. You have to approve every new sender, and file them as Imbox (important), Feed (newsletters), and Paper Trail (transactional stuff). After a week of this admittedly manual labor, my inbox was quite organized. And surprisingly empty. Right now I…Email4 min readEmail4 min read
Jan 25Member-onlyHow Science Caused Climate CollapseIt’s ain’t gonna save us — If you pick up a popular science book it’s all about wonder and discovery and a bit of woe about the state of the world, but that’s what science says, not what it does. In the western delusion of words over actions, science is portrayed as a hero in the…Science5 min readScience5 min read
Jan 18Member-onlyLife After DeathLike day after night — The security wears black and I wear white. I haven’t worn color since He died. He is dead in the earth and I am alive. But we all know that’s a lie. I stand by his grave and see green growing, Whereas I feel nothing but dead inside. A man is not…Poetry2 min readPoetry2 min read
Jan 11Member-onlyWhen Did Philosophy Get So Boring?How stories got whitewashed out of philosophy — As I wrote last time, we’ve got names all wrong. As Bryan Van Nordern has a book about, Anglo-European philosophy has devoured the entire term, to the exclusion of the world. And as the academy insists, poetry is in dusty white tomes in libraries and certainly not the strip clubs…Philosophy6 min readPhilosophy6 min read
Jan 10Member-onlyThe Wrecking Of NamesConfucius said the most important thing was ‘rectifying names’. What did he mean? — If he ever got power (which he never did) Confucius said his first priority would be the ‘rectification of names’. Like a boor, I never quite understood this. As The Analects said: 13.3 Zilu asked, “If the Duke of Wei were to employ you to serve in the government of…Philosophy8 min readPhilosophy8 min read
Jan 5Member-onlyThe Horror Of The Airport Perfume AisleGet me out of this damned spot — I’m walking through the airport perfume aisle. Airports are the most racist, classist places on Earth. They’re mini police states, where freedom of movement is violently constrained by where you’re from and how much money you have. The rich and corporate literally sit in first class or business while everyone…Travel4 min readTravel4 min read
Jan 4Member-onlyHow Grief Is An Out Of Body ExperienceGrief is pain felt in other bodies — Death is both our loneliest moment and when we’re the least alone. At that moment, our feelings fly out of our body and into our loved ones. Grief is pain felt in other bodies. Grief is pain at a higher level of existence, at the family, at the community, at…Death4 min readDeath4 min read
Jan 3Member-onlyA Normal Person From 20 Years Ago Looks Like A Monk TodayRemembering life before the digital age — When I took out a smartphone at a baseball game in 2002, I was the only one in the whole stadium. I looked weird as hell to my friends, chatting to someone in the UK over GPRS. Now everyone has a smartphone. Any stadium can instantly turn into a festival…Spirituality4 min readSpirituality4 min read
Jan 2Member-onlyAncient Egyptian Advice For WritersReading a lesson from 1800 BC — In -1800 the scribe Nebmare-nakht devoted an entire papyrus to dunking on every other profession in the Middle Kingdom, all addressed to one lazy pupil. It’s quite hilarious, and contains some useful (albeit dickish) advice for writers today. The Beatings Will Continue Until Morale Improves Nebmar is literally trying to beat this message into his recalcitrant pupil…Egypt5 min readEgypt5 min read
