Sam Hyde is the Jungian shadow of contemporary comedy. I didn’t know about him for a long time, but when I found him it felt almost like deja vu. All popular comedians stand in dialogue with, not him specifically, but … Continue reading
Blog
Latest blog posts:
Optimization problem
This is money, you use it to buy thingsOk I want to use it to buy this TVah…What?Well that’s okay, it’s just that most people use a plastic card for that.How does that work?Well the plastic card represents the digital … Continue reading
Commentary on SSC’s In the Balance
When I first read In the Balance on Slate Star Codex, there was something captivating about it, like there was a big point I was supposed to get, but my mind kept getting too tired to grasp it. Anyway I think I got something now. Continue reading
My fight, 2025
The website is for my personal projects, and this is… something like that. I’ve been training at Zombie Muay Thai in Manhattan for about two years, and in February this year I fought an exhibition Muay Thai match against a … Continue reading
The math caught up to you
The math caught up to you. When you were in school you took a variety of subjects in rotating classes, covering 7 or 8 subjects in a day. You took math, and it was hard. It didn’t make you feel … Continue reading
The non-tribal tribes
This post is about tribalism in contemporary Western culture, and specifically it’s about the invisible assortment of people who have self-selected out of it. What the “Grey Tribe” gave up in tribal coordination, they gained in greater freedom to determine their own values and lives. The result is a fresher, more dynamic arena of human activity. I’ve spent a lot of time in some of these quiet cultures, and I want to tell you about them. Continue reading
The present perfect tense is ruining your life
There’s a world of difference between wanting to do something and wanting to have done something. What’s dangerous is when we conflate the two. It’s a form of deception (usually self-deception), and it sets us up for failure and frustration in our efforts. Continue reading
Action derivatives: You’re not doing what you think you’re doing
I want to look a category of weird mental tricks that we sometimes play on ourselves—you may be familiar with them individually, but when considered together they reveal a pattern that I think deserves more discussion. Continue reading
Crosspost: Be Incorporated
This post is about a certain kind of procrastination; I call it “over-managing.” It’s when you know what you should be working on at a given time, but instead of doing the work, you continue to deliberate over big-picture / planning decisions. As productive individuals, we have to be good Managers, but we also need to be able to call the plan “good enough” and be the Employee. Continue reading
Crosspost: The generalist’s skillset
I put this together to talk about meta-skills: the broad skills that help all generalists manage and balance their particular skills and interests. In my own life, the reason I got interested in productivity and time management and the like was because I was a generalist, and I needed to get good at juggling everything. So this page covers what I’ve learned so far, and I’m sure I’ll add to it in the future. Continue reading
Crosspost: Necessary generalists
I wrote this short series to talk about a weird thing in the modern world: there are a few areas where pretty much everybody needs to be knowledgeable. Each individual now bears some responsibilities, fully, which in past generations were shared or outsourced. Since we each need to have these few areas covered, on top of whatever else we’re doing in our lives, we’re all necessary generalists. Continue reading
Crosspost: A place for generalists
This is a crosspost from True Generalist. This post goes deeper into why I made that site, what being a generalist means to me, and why the present time and place is an ideal environment for generalists. Continue reading
New project announcement: True Generalist
I’m very excited to announce a brand-new project that I’ve been working on for the better part of last year. It’s a website called True Generalist (truegeneralist.com), and it’s all about giving generalists the resources they need to excel at everything they do. Continue reading
My scorched-earth policy on New Year’s resolutions
At this time of year, everyone either writes a “How to set and keep your New Year’s resolution” article, or a “Why you shouldn’t set a New Year’s resolution” article. This is the latter. Continue reading
Balance and meta-balance
I’ve been noticing that a recurring theme in my writing here is balance between opposites. I’ve written about balancing consumption vs. production in your life, and recently about balancing systems vs. goals for achieving what you desire. And I can think of a few more that I haven’t written about yet, that I’d like to touch on. It could become a pain to try to keep so many balances in mind, but I thought if I could arrange most of it hierarchically, that would be much cleaner. Continue reading
