I Man, sometimes it takes you a long time to sound like yourself. — Miles Davis II Words don't matter; words are the missing piece. The world pretty much has a consensus on the big stuff — "hurting kids bad," "public utilities good" — so instead of
The fall of the fifth wall and the stubbornness of truth
On monoculture, motivation, and lines between logistics and morals
I Maintain confidence in my assessment. Conditions will gradually skew in an optimal direction. Reality will grow increasingly favorable. The general state of things will approach the ideal. Everything will be alright. It's all gonna be fine. Don't even trip, bro. Honestly. Bro like literally. It’
I You did something you weren't feeling especially driven or excited to do, but a past version of you figured it was good and necessary. You changed a behavioral pattern that served you once, but no longer does. You were feeling bad, but had to shop for food;
I PALATE CLEANSER II PALATE CLEANSER III PALATE CLEANSER IV
I. Odana The West Towne Mall sprawls out like Disneyworld at Odana's western terminus. They brought in a helicopter to install its 30 rooftop AC units in the 60s. This is where you stock up on base spirits at Total Wine & More, or where you smother your
You thought you'd merge with me and we'd explore the universe together. Always the daring optimists. In some ways your intuition was correct. Having reconstructed my motivations many times, I find that a desire to know more about the world around me remains. This is where
What a mistake to have ever said "the" id. — Deleuze and Guattari, Anti-Oedipus, 1972 I Why do we desire things we shouldn't? I don't mean things labeled bad by crusty old Puritan taboos; I mean things actively bad for us. From what hellish pit
1. To get an avocado, a US citizen would’ve had to trek to southern Mexico in 1824. By 1924, LA or New York. Today most Americans can get a bag delivered to their home in about twenty minutes. The "last mile" has downsized even more quickly for
1. Say you're an orb floating in space: a being of pure agency, freedom, choice. You can go wherever and manipulate matter. Your judgment gets no nudges from things like hunger or cultural norms. You don't have the baggage – the human past, the emotional machinery – of
1. “Anxiety is the only emotion that doesn’t deceive,” say some in the psychoanalytic tradition. This annoyed me when I first heard it. Anyone with anxiety knows it’s a room of funhouse mirrors. I look into the claim and begrudgingly agree; though anxiety may raise false scenarios, every
On knowing where you get them 1. My favorite thing was acing tests. To my slow and painful surprise life turned out not to be about the 100 in red ink but everything before it. The usefulness and enjoyment of the skill; an understanding of the rules that lets you
The story that definitely kind of happened 1. Here’s what I was told: five monkeys are in a room with a ladder. Suspended over the ladder is a banana. Any monkey who tries to touch it gets shocked. They all quickly learn to not touch it. One by one,
Newsletter
Or why Kleenex is one of history's greatest colonizers
Newsletter
The true story of Bacon’s Rebellion
Newsletter
The greatest trick the devil ever played was convincing the world he’s just a lil guy
Newsletter
The idiot’s guide to a better inner life
Newsletter
A home-brewed way to strengthen episodic memory
Newsletter
Transference and Žižek on accelerationism
Newsletter
Things that do for the cortex what peeling plastic off new electronics does for the brainstem
Newsletter
Allotment, alienation, and a reckoning centuries in the making in the northwoods of Wisconsin
Newsletter
Not your grandpa’s task inertia
Newsletter
Dark flow and the siren song of effortlessness