The internet wants to be fragmented
Noah Smith:
Humanity does not want to be a global hive mind.
People call Twitter an indispensable public space because it’s the “town square”, but in the real world there isn’t just one town square, because there isn’t just one town. There are many. And the internet works when you can exit — when you can move to a different town if you don’t like the mayor or the local culture.
Everything is a cult
So take everything you see and hear with a giant grain of salt. When they start touting numbers, put them in perspective. The devil is in the details, never mind outright lying.
Little rules about big things
Morgan Housel:
Nothing too good or too bad stays that way forever, because great times plant the seeds of their own destruction through complacency and leverage, and bad times plant the seeds of their own turnaround through opportunity and panic-driven problem-solving.
His new book on personal finance isn’t too bad, by the way.
When the Money’s Just Too Damn Good
Nat Eliason:
But if I get through that part, sometime around mile three or four, it clicks. I know this is how the mental cycle of running plays out, but I have to endure it every time. Knowing what’s coming helps me get through the suck though. It just took a lot of runs to realize.
How San Francisco Became a Failed City
Living in a failing city does weird things to you.
Anyone offended by the sight of the suffering is just judging someone who’s having a mental-health episode, and any liberal who argues that the state can and should take control of someone in the throes of drugs and psychosis is basically a Republican. If and when the vulnerable person dies, that was his choice, and in San Francisco we congratulate ourselves on being very accepting of that choice.