I recommend Tyler Cowen’s recent interview with Katherine Rundell. Here’s a highlight: It would be really important to me [when identifying a writing talent] that… Read More »Katherine Rundell on the aesthetics of language: form and substance
Aux armes, citoyens,To arms, citizens, Formez vos bataillons,Form your battalions, Marchons, marchons !March, march! Qu’un sang impurAbreuve nos sillons !Let an impure bloodWater our furrows!… Read More »Blood, Bones and Building; or, Love’s Labours
A few years ago my family ate pizza and fresh pasta at a branch of Popolamama in Jakarta. It was very enjoyable – better than… Read More »Cultural Hybridity, Fast and Slow
The weird thing about code is that you realise that language is code: the ability to direct other people lets you get more stuff done… Read More »Writing Before: High-Level Language, Code and Subroutinity
I want to show you, as a little experiment, this piece of art and ask you what this is a picture of. Can you tell… Read More »Utagawa Hiroshige and Jakob Nielsen: Art vs Design
Thank you for contacting Zoom Billing! This is Name. I can see that you’ve been transferred here from a different department. We value your time… Read More »A good customer service line from Zoom
Good discussion of the dynamics of transient poverty vs persistent poverty, issues with The System and how hard it is to change, whether education helps,… Read More »Podcast recommendation: Mark Rank and Russ Roberts on poverty in the US (Econtalk)
I never listened to The Beatles until age thirty-five… it just seemed like, The Beatles are so popular they are the image of a popular,… Read More »Colin Marshall: Cultural Nexus / An album a week
This podcast is well worth listening too – Sandel and Harris frame the problems with meritocracy well even of they don’t quite get to a… Read More »Michael Sandel and Sam Harris on meritocracy
I’m a big believer in grace and second (and third) chances; I wouldn’t, couldn’t live without them. In the absence of enough information to make… Read More »Grace and mistakes