Snippets, Jul ’26
Many people are individually optimistic but think the world is falling apart
Most of what we’re hearing about the world as a whole is negative. That’s because bad things happen quickly (and that makes them headline-worthy), whereas good things happen slowly. We’re not hearing about reductions in child mortality, improvements in healthcare or schooling from the other side of the world. Of course, one way to overcome this is to look at statistics, but most people do not.
Of course, if you like living in a world where Meta, Amazon, Apple, and Google run every single thing on your phone and ultimately your life, that’s great for you. I hope you enjoy your scrolling and your ads. I don’t love that world. I like the one where talented individuals work hard on making great software like craftsmen, and they just get paid for it. But how should they be paid? Well, in a way that will allow them to make a living…. Something recurring probably. At regular intervals and at amounts large enough to be meaningful if a few thousand people appreciate their work. Don’t we want nice things to exist?
Solo on a river shantyboat (video)
It doesn’t matter how much you make. It will never be enough. Ever… And the advice I wish [my parents] would’ve told me was that if you can find as much joy in a sunset as you can find in owning a Ferrari, you can be a super-rich person just by choosing the sunset.
Higher Ed and K12, getting on the same page (video)
We got one job: teach the babies.… You can’t social justice your way out of unpreparedness or a lack of data-informed planning.… These kids are circling the drain because [we] don’t have the gumption or insight or whatever to follow through with the things that are the highest priority. I’m not saying that you can’t be social-justice-minded; that’s fine. But there is no social justice with illiteracy. You can’t square that circle. They can’t read. I don’t care what else you do. They’re in crisis.
How Britain became as poor as Mississippi: a case study in self-sabotage
Arresting the current trajectory of decline will require the recognition of a hard truth. What broke Britain was not Brussels, bad luck, or bankers. The British broke Britain. To mend it, they must first stop breaking it further.
We Are Living in Pinocchio’s World
Most people remember Pinocchio as a story about lying. The nose grows. You get caught. Lesson learned. But that reading misses almost everything Collodi was actually doing. The book is a close study of a society where deception has gone ambient, woven into every institution, every transaction. Courts punish victims. Authority figures perform competence without exercising it. Experts are decorative. Society holds together through spectacle and habit rather than accountability. Into this environment, a naive creature is released, constitutionally unable to resist a good story about easy reward.
The nose is the least interesting lie in the book. The interesting lies are the ones that work.