Things I read and liked in June
meditative bliss, music theory, MDMA, Macchiavellian origins, media coverage, mercy
Tom Davidson talk on AI takeoff speeds.
Arthur Juliani on MDMA neurotoxicity, and the lack thereof.
The world is really weird, says Nico Delon. (Fact check: true).
The intellectual obesity crisis and how to fight it: writing. “Writing requires you to filter out bad information because you have a duty to your readers to not be full of shit. Writing also forces you to periodically shut out information altogether so you can be alone with your thoughts.”
Ethan Hein’s blog is amazing. Years worth of beautiful explanations of music theory and song analyses. Here he is on the strangeness of Ultralight Beam. And here he is on Chance the Rapper’s verse on that song in particular.
Hein on standard pop chord progressions.
Dan Williams on the evolution of human kindness.
“Struggling not to be depressed, I find whatever beauty I can and cling to it, to keep from falling.” -Nikos Kazantzakis, in a collection of letters from the shadows. Henry James also makes a good showing.
Synthetic data helping with robotics: https://robocasa.ai/
Erik Hoel: making a living as a book author is as rare as being a billionaire .
Lewis Bollard on the lack of media coverage of factory farming: “This matters because factory farming thrives in the dark. Many industry practices are publicly indefensible, so the industry prefer to not publicly discuss them at all. And when the media ignores factory farming, politicians and corporate leaders can too.”
Long Gwern comment on the future of OpenAI. Will it keep the magic?
Brain implants that use language models to process incoming signals (archive)
Hours after surviving the firing squad, Dostoevsky wrote to his brother:
Brother! I’m not despondent and I haven’t lost heart. Life is everywhere, life is in us ourselves, not outside. There will be people by my side, and to be a human being among people and to remain one forever, no matter in what circumstances, not to grow despondent and not to lose heart — that’s what life is all about, that’s its task. I have come to recognize that. The idea has entered my flesh and blood.
Nadia Asparouhova on altered states of consciousness.
See also Asparouhova’s Asterisk piece on the meditation-induced bliss states known as the jhanas. (It’s jhana June by the way. Next month is jhana July).
Matthew Adelstein argues that Christians should be universalists, i.e. believe that all people will eventually be saved.
Roger Federer gives a great commencement speech, legit good life advice.
Thanks for the links and kind words!
Thanks for sharing the intellectual obesity article, it’s something I’ve felt about my habits for a while but hadn’t been able to articulate. Any advice on the writing as an intellectual exercise technique for someone without interest in writing for the public?