Wire up, lock in · v3
Envisioning the future has always felt to me like it's broken down between what I would actually lik · v1
99 tracks · v3
Could agents fix the internet? · v2
Gwern was months and months ahead of me on this idea of using bots to fend off bots as the open web · v1
I wish there was a typewriter club somewhere nearby me. · v1
Stubbing: One of my someday projects is to go through a dozen and some paper notebooks and mine them · v1
There should be a museum devoted to the artwork of the old pulp paperback world . That was some glor · v1
What does it matter! · v3
She looks at me like that weird chair in her uncle's man cave, but I'd fight five Hell's Angels for · v2
My newest thread represents a new feature on Blynger. I've made a feature where I can send Blynger a · v1
BrainFi · v15
Promethean BrainFi · v1
Prometheanism · v1
Sink down palely beneath night · v2
Just before I left San Francisco a couple months ago, I met up with someone I knew in college. It wa · v1
Your lame foot · v2
Thicket denizens: Post an RSS link on your front pages of your blyg, so we can absorb you easily int · v1
I wonder if the cybergeddon that's coming will bring more people back to the open web? Like, if you' · v1
Stubbing: Btw saying you're not good as leadership is a classic humility move and makes us enlighten · v1
(All the text below is by ChatGPT) Anderson, Poul Brain Wave (1954) — Earth escapes a field that has · v6
Just want to note that Tyler Cowen has admitted that he's never experienced out of control laughter. · v2
Stubbing: Really enjoyed this podcast on the Robert Mosesification of the internet https://metalabel · v1
Peptide broadside , from Chairman Birb. I still have not taken any peptides because I am poor these · v2
Even a king may be a cook · v2
Street Fighter had the posture that Masters of the Universe needed. · v1
Are there Apple stans in the Thicket? I converted pretty much whole sale, starting with my first iPh · v1
Stubbing: Question for the Thicket: I'm thinking about vibecoding up a new app. For a very long time · v1
Stubbing: On Desire The point is, good of bad, sublime or horrifying, all desire comes from things y · v1
These studs trapped an antimatter particle and stared at it for a month. What are you doing with you · v1
Blygger mining Just throwing this out there as an idea for the firming up of the Blygger network. Wh · v2
Ruminating · v3
A nice mental jaunt · v4
Question for the Thicket: I'm thinking about vibecoding up a new app. For a very long time I have wa · v1
Sometime in my pre-teens, I remember watching a silly made-for-kids movie on, I think, Nickelodeon. · v2
From a polemic I published this morning about the AI skeptic: It won't be an apocalypse in the Termi · v1
Provocative post in The Free Press by Max Raskin arguing that people think they can spot AI writing · v1
Webmentions are live on BradyDale.com and I think Blynger on Github has what it needs to get a site · v1
Robots are going to help build farm equipment here in Kansas. · v1
I will not reply to a moron · v4
Would someone mind stubbing this — or anything — or transcluding or whatever? In theory I have webme · v1
I read Murray Leinster's The Brain-Stealer s recently. It's about a bunch of fat, lazy aliens who us · v4
Blynger 0.14.0 · v1
What do kings matter now? · v2
To all wormy wood, to all stinking rags · v4
Your way is short; my poison is fatal · v6
All that lives obeys · v5
Write with blood · v7
A sacred "No" · v8
Butterflies as big as children · v3
The good hunter shall have a good hunt · v4
Padded, rumpless daughters · v3
Godlike desires · v7
Knit the socks of the spirit · v5
Sleeping swords · v7
Wretched contentment · v10
Let us all be enemies, my friends · v9
The goad of freedom · v6
The highest virtue is uncommon and useless · v6
The spectators often behaved like actors · v5
Only where there are graves are there resurrections · v8
My brothers in War! I love you thoroughly · v6
Stubbing: This seems pretty reasonable. I'm going to try and design a permissions systems for blygs · v1
Stubbing: There was a time when half the readers I met would say something like "I've read everythin · v1
I feel good. Do you feel good? We're good. Right? · v1
When I generate content with TK, I give it a word count. Otherwise it goes on forever and ever. I su · v1
Stubbing: Stubbing: This is likely an unpopular thought in the thicket, but the return on a lot of l · v1
Because I have no social life here in my tiny small town, I'm going to the local library's book grou · v1
GittingToIt: Version control for writers · v2
I just care about the microtransactions part. Are we gonna get microtransactions on Blygger? It coul · v1
I go back and forth about Joe Weisenthal, but I guess you would say this morning I have gone somewha · v1
If you own lots of toys, please read this . · v1
Stubbing: The thicket is a maze-like oriented space, not a graph A strong suspicion i have is that t · v2
Small town public disorder · v2
Stubbing: Definitely feels like the wrong UI. "The optimal amount of drunken waltzing and lostness i · v1
Stubbing: This is likely an unpopular thought in the thicket, but the return on a lot of labor is go · v1
A social manifesto · v7
Stubbing: Burrow 0.13.0 🦫 — named paths through the thicket The blygger-verse has a name now: the th · v1
Stubbing: The Stevenson Test One thing I always say about Capitalism is that it's a vast conspiracy. · v1
The funny thing about vibecoding is that you do probably learn things as you proceed. You probably d · v1
Stubbing: Strong Norm: Please hook up an AI for changelog generation at least, and start using the i · v1
Embarrassing to admit but I cleaned my house thoroughly yesterday and it was entirely inspired by th · v1
Blygger has got me thinking about AI and writing, I kind of want to try making a simple website that · v1
I'm letting Grok do a review of Blynger. Is that crazy? It seems like it has fresh eyes, IDK. · v1
Stubbing: The problem with the US is that the culture carriers are extremely uncool. The problem wit · v1
Started listening to Stars My Destination by Albert Bester last night. The premise is incredible: th · v1
So Farcater isn't dead yet · v1
A car just jumped over a diesel and then landed softly on the other side It's probably time to retir · v1
Stubbing: The AI Fear-Glee Index What about the idea of a giggle-disgust index? I really feel like t · v1
Before Sunrise Zarathustra looks to the heavens and just sings out to higher aspirations. "The world · v1
Basically, my Substack. Yeah. · v1
As I was reading this chapter I started thinking about the discourse around AI. I know that's funny, · v1
On the Virtue that Makes Small Zarathustra sketches out how he feels about people who have low aspir · v1
Half of the month in review Here we are at the halfway point in my October of Zarathustra. The halfw · v1
On Involuntary Bliss Zarathustra realizes that he's at his peak at this point of the story. Or, in h · v1
I'm Gen X. When Gen X was young, our whole thing was to not really care about anything. Indifference · v1
One line · v1
On the Mount of Olives More loneliness. He also talks somewhat in these chapters about his happiness · v1
I wish Lee had taken some more time to make the twists of the books reveal themselves rather than ex · v1
The Electric Forest is bogged down by too much exposition. In fact, the biggest plot turn of the who · v1
Has humanity always been destined to join the Borg? · v2
Content warning: If you've been fighting off the physical attractiveness blackpill, stay away from t · v1
Spoiler alert: (but for a very early part of the book) The core technology that drives the plot The · v1
In fact, prior to writing Forest she authored a pair of books about a civilization called FOUR-Bee w · v1
Tanith Lee (19 September 1947 – 24 May 2015) was a British author of science fiction, fantasy, and h · v1
Stubbing: I think we should officially rename the blygosphere the thicket I think we should official · v1
Today I drove almost two hours out and back so I could watch You Can See Everything and Street Fight · v1
I don't really understand versioning conventions, but I don't think Blynger is going to go to v 1.0. · v1
Stubbing: Blygger is kinda killing my motivation to write on substack. I've tried to stub this post · v2
In 1947, Murray Leinster put on his thinking cap · v2
Here's the list I've come up with. I have only read a few of these, but I own several more. Eventual · v1
There is a lot of sci-fi out there about psychics, mind control, wireheading and etc. Sci-fi about b · v1
Update 10/15/2026: It occurred to me that there's probably a bunch of horror that fits the category · v1
Stubbing: From Social Media to Self-Sovereign Intermedia The narrative around Blygger could begin wi · v2
Started listening to Electric Forest by Tanith Lee as an audiobook yesterday. That's some serious Br · v1
This Link Is This Document · v1
Thesis: The decline of IRL activity is both a cause and a symptom of the decay of the US Of course i · v4
The book really takes on two topics: first contact and the police state. Jim Hunt is a scientist who · v1
The Brain Stealers is a good early example of speculation about thoughts as a potential mechanism fo · v1
Murray Leinster was a machine. The man wrote 56 novels and more short stories than I even want to th · v1
I've never encountered aliens quite like these in other fiction. Without giving too much away, they · v1
If you're hoping for a book that offers something intriguing or legible about how science might be u · v1
I don't think we're alone. And now scientists think our planet isn't even that great of a home , on · v1
The market for reading material · v1
Stubbing: Can't sign this pledge since pragmatically I doubt I can avoid panels entirely since they' · v1
I wrote an essay a while back about both versions of the film The Day the Earth Stood Still and the · v1
Stubbing: On the other hand. +1. Definitely agree. And I love that Vonnegut. He was so great. People · v1
On the other hand. Today, lots of people get into a couple and drop out of life. They have their per · v3
Argument: Society should be an obligation This is the hardest one, but people should feel to some de · v1
Argument: People should really try to get people together Every party is a little bit of rebuilding · v3
Argument: It's good for people to drop by and call out of the blue The fact that we worry as much as · v1
Argument: Seriously, shut up about dating. This discussion always comes back to dating and coupling. · v1
October of Zarathustra Getting lost in your work is the best. It hardly ever happens to me any longe · v1
In the chapters of Thus Spoke Zarathustra that I read this morning, I suspect something like that fe · v1
Zarathustra meets a soothsayer who tells him that there is nothing new under the sun. Everything rep · v1
Stubbing: Wonder if could have a blygexplorer like a block explorer. Wonder if could have a blygexpl · v1
On redemption Zarathustra meets some cripples who ask him to prove his wisdom by healing them. But h · v1
One line · v1
The soothsayer Zarathustra gets really depressed by the sayings of a prophet and he passes out for a · v1
He gets me. · v1
Should you really read it tho? Harlan Ellison in the age of AI · v1
Stubbing: Remote-source TK gen is here! Unleash the quote slop! Honored to provide content for the n · v1
I read Murray Leinster's The Brain Stealers recently. It's about a bunch of fat, lazy aliens who use · v3
Anderson, Poul Brain Wave (1954) — Earth escapes a field that has suppressed neural function, abrupt · v1
Blynger now has a series function, so it automatically updates a page like this as new posts come ou · v1
I cannot remember a time that I was as pumped for a stupid movie like I am Street Fighter . And I wa · v1
I think a lot about the crustiness of law. I'm no libertarian, but I can't help but notice how law j · v2
Scholars Nietzsche left academia. He found it stultifying. I know Zarathustra is not Nietzsche neces · v1
One line · v1
On Poets This chapter reads like Zarathustra saying: "I'm not mad, I'm just disappointed" to poets a · v1
In the chapter "On Great Events," Zarathustra visits a volcanic fire-dog that makes an enormous rack · v1
On Great Events If the fire-dog really is revolution, I would have liked another clue or two. It doe · v1
On Immaculate Perception Zarathustra isn't crazy about the moon? The moon is sneaky. So are cats. Sn · v1
On self-overcoming Apparently this one was a bit of a comment on Schopenhauer. Zarathustra writes ab · v1
The sublime ones Some people have the nerve to live up to their potential, and they are sublime. · v1
The Land of Culture Zarathustra disdains hypocrisy. · v1
One line · v1
When I first moved to New York City, I got invited to this discussion group that met up in someone's · v1
The Social Reckoning was good. Saw it tonight. I like how they go back and forth in time. That's sma · v2
Anyway, the girls did start dancing again, but they didn't dance with Zarathustra . He was a wallflo · v2
It's very in vogue right now to clown on the frontier labs for "not being profitable ," but they are · v2
In fact, the third chapter I read, "The Dance Song," filled me with anxiety. Zarathustra is out with · v1
The Night Song If you pull back far enough, it's always nighttime for the sun. As bright as the sun · v1
Apparently wisdom is a woman and she likes to go fishing. She flexes when she goes fishing, too, bec · v1
The Dance Song This is where Zarathustra tells us about his crush, Wisdom, noted angler. · v1
One line "What was holiest to me suffocated in the fumes of your fat." You didn't have to make it pe · v1
On the Famous Wise Men The trouble with having a following is audience capture. The people don't lov · v1
The big theme of the chapters I read today is loneliness . · v1
So it's not a surprise that the next chapter is all about the death of his youth. I found myself won · v1
The Grave Song His youth is dead! But he still lives. He is very frustrated. But his will remains. H · v1
No one loves to clown on the mainstream as much as I do, but I don't think The Atlantic CEO's podcas · v1
I've long said that somehow an etiquette of the internet needs to develop. I know folks will say "th · v1
I like this personal biography in the form of important books read at different times of life, makin · v1
Keep letting him live rent free in your heads everyone. You're doing great, sweetie. · v1
Finally saw Ex Machina last night. All I knew about it was "important AI movie." Watched it with my · v1
I can't stand Marc Maron any longer, but I loved him in the 2010s. I still think fondly of yesterday · v3
On the tarantulas This is about the people who want to tear down and kill those who have risen. "'We · v1
One line · v1
On the rabble This one will make anyone uncomfortable. Zarathustra clearly looks down on a lot of pe · v1
On the Virtuous Zarathustra both seems to dislike the virtues that the people who like to signal vir · v1
UnderstandingAI's Tim Lee linked this video essay by the 80,000 Hours guy on X , so I've had it open · v1
The stages of kind of liking someone · v1
Stub of: Is Striving Cringe? Is Striving Cringe? I think it's a little too simplistic for Henderson · v1
Stub of: A worldview defined by pity makes life for the person with that view terrible and it doesn' · v1
A worldview defined by pity makes life for the person with that view terrible and it doesn't seem to · v1
Zarathustra really hits his stride in the second part of Thus Spoke Zarathustra , when he returns to · v1
2.2 On the Happy Islands My translation notes that the chapter title here refers to how the Greeks v · v1
Seriously? Same. That's just science. · v1
2.4 On the Priests Furthering the theme of the prior chapter, he goes after the priests who live lik · v1
One line · v1
2.1 The Child With the Mirror Zarathustra has a vision that his message is getting distorted in the · v1
2.3 On the Pitying This is the famous chapter that says "God is dead." But the rest of the chapter i · v1
Yes, this is the bit where he declares that "God is dead," but really what he wants us to look at is · v1
And, by the way, the more I read these scriptures, the less convinced I become that the "Ubermensch" · v1
On reading This is my second time reading this book. I previously read it in 2019 to 2020. I finishe · v1
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One line I love the great despisers, because they are the great adorers and arrows of longing for th · v1
One line "It is no small art to sleep: for that purpose you must keep awake all day." —Zarathustra. · v2
A few years before the pandemic, when I was still living in Brooklyn, I was running around with a sm · v3
Stub of: More from Revolutionary Spring about the retreat of the Bourbon royal forces from Palermo. · v1
III. The Afterworldly My take: Dreams of a utopia after death are a cope for those who hate being al · v1
On writing I don't know what kind of blogging I want to do about this book, but this post isn't it. · v1
Thus Spoke Zarathustra , day 1 — Zarathustra's Prologue George Mason University's Robin Hanson has b · v1
IV. Despisers of the Body My take: The body is the source of wisdom. The brain was the body's invent · v1
The first part of Nietzsche's Thus Spoke Zarathustra , following the prologue, is generally read as · v2
I. The Three Metamorphoses My take: You only start to live after you learn to resist all the institu · v1
II. On The Teachers of Virtue My take: Sleep is your body's way of telling you whether or not you ma · v1
Pneumonic plague spreads from person to person, causing a severe form of pneumonia, but recovery rat · v1
I think the only people who see this blog right now are a handful of other Blygger users, so I thoug · v2
Stub of: This is sadness "I only vaguely knew what a feed reader or RSS was" This is sadness “I only · v2
Everyone really does actually have to move their crypto assets · v1
The way I'm reading it now, I'm trying to make my brain parse every sentence. It's the kind of book · v2
This morning's reading plan for Thus Spoke Zarathustra only had one chapter in it, and it was the la · v1
One line · v1
The more I read it, the more convinced I become that Nietzsche was effectively casting a magic spell · v1
If you don't tell him about iPhones, I won't. · v1
Well, fine, but in the last chapter of the first section, you learn that Zarathustra actually does h · v1
What I'm looking for now is a part that makes some memory or idea click. Or for some theme to lift u · v1
Wrote a big ambitious post about the work of one of the most unusual thinkers working today. I have · v1
A sense of humor is an essential feature of a functional epistemology. · v1
Honestly bet it would be really illuminating to make a list of friends with footnotes . · v1
I don't super care about this question, frankly, and I care a lot about human art. Many will quibble · v1
I'm extremely curious about artificial gnosis. · v1
But is it gnosis? · v2
Then I got to the church at the appointed time, he walked in with a young woman, introduced her to m · v1
Now looking back on it, I'm not disappointed that my stint with this group didn't work out (it didn' · v1
Thus Spoke Zarathustra seems more like Diogenes' lantern. It's a book searching for one reader. · v1
There were a handful of really big churches in town. They were the mama jamas that everyone knew wer · v2
What I should have done when I was pawned off on the lackey was said, "Listen, you said you were goi · v1
That's what I got out of the chapter, "On the Adder's Bite," in particular. That's all about taking · v1
Now — the very best move is no power moves . It's just being normal. Don't take the meeting if you d · v1
A long time ago now, I was an organizer. I worked in churches in Tallahassee, Florida. I was the fir · v1
One line · v1
Kevin Roose got his hands on a rare Amodei . · v1
In a twist of fate, the apocalypse the techno-optimists are predicting is probably their own apocaly · v1
I totally forgot that I wrote this parody of Willie Nelson's song, "To All the Girls I've Loved Befo · v2
Stub of: Alignment incidents, such as agentic swarms, aren't the true… Alignment incidents, such as · v2
Kevin Roose got his hands on a rare Amodei . · v1
Stub of: Why a blyg Hey howdy! Welcome to the network! · v1
Stub of: Protocols for Business: LLM Impact on Version Control and Business Processes Also, hello, h · v1
One line · v1
That's why I think Nietzsche put these two concepts one after the other, with blood as the bridge. · v2
But we can see it in the boxing ring and in ultimate fighting. Men like to get up just on the edge o · v2
The final answer is that you can create something born of your real hunger for life. This is much ha · v2
There are for sure other kinds of thinking that are just as valuable as writing. No argument. Take s · v1
VI. The Pale Criminal A criminal's whole existence is defined by one thing he did. Maybe. It might a · v2
The first bit of this post makes me a bit uncomfortable to write. I will admit that. But writing som · v3
V. On Enjoying and Suffering the Passions This one seems to deal with how virtues can stifle people · v1
On the way back, I let Substack's robot voice read some blog posts to me, and one of them concerned · v2
The troll call is still right, but that's also a good point · v6
The chapter after "The Pale Criminal" is "On Reading and Writing," and it really has nothing to do w · v3
That said I used to do a lot of work with poor people in Philadelphia. A big part of that work was h · v1
I stand by the troll call . The New York — freaking — Times, pretty much the last print publication · v1
VIII. On the Tree on the Mountain "But by my love and hope I beseech you: do not throw away the hero · v2
The obvious read of "The Pale Criminal," the sixth chapter in part one of Thus Spoke Zarathustra , i · v2
XII. The Flies in the Marketplace The great will forever be pestered by the banal. · v1
XI. The New Idol The state is a new religion, making you comfortable and feeding you lies so that yo · v1
For example, this might be the most off-putting post I read in all of 2026. I am no Nietzsche expert · v2
One line "The earth is full of the superfluous; life is marred by the all-too-many."—Zarathustra. It · v1
X. War and Warriors This could be the wrong read, but I took it it say that those on a war footing d · v1
From xkcd . This isn't really right, but it is helpful in a way. It illuminates how the first amendm · v1
Stub of: Studio 0.27: robots that disclose, and a reader that opens on the feed Well this pretty muc · v1
Nobody would read a story on the internet that’s about being on the internet, how crazy it is that w · v1
Credulousness is the new skepticism. · v1
Leys even devised a test to see who around him was capable of independent thought. He would ask peop · v1
Much like more people than you might think, but, unlike most, he grew up in Kansas. Posts Alright al · v1
2018 · v1
Dang. Kills me to print anything good about Bluesky, but you know what? It sounds like it fits the s · v1
Which seems like will be the only options in the blyggerverse. There will be no one big algo. At lea · v1
This sounds very cool. Talk about innovation coming fast. I like it. People have always said they wi · v3
The bespoke social feed has two overlapping histories: users choosing what to read, and software lea · v1
I feel basically the same way about bookstores these days as I've felt about comic book shops since · v1
More aphorisms: Aesthetics proceed from meaning, so shared aesthetics proceed from shared meaning. W · v2
It's something of the spirit of our time that when someone encounters an essay or a book that offers · v1
IX. The Preachers of Death There are a lot of people professing beliefs in another world who end up · v1
Stub of: This would be a very stupid idea without AI VGR's post is about how AI might be able to mak · v1
Blynger, the Mac desktop software client ChatGPT and I built to update this site, allowing for both · v1
Stub of: Testing that multilingual works आज करे सो कल करे कल करे सो परसो इतना जल्दी भी क्या है जब जी · v2
The garden that gardens you · v2
Stub of: Case File Case File: Janky Forking Forking is acting janky and buggy. I think the bug is in · v5
AIs as viruses? · v3
Stub of: No backsies; this little stream of thoughts-as-notes has… ...entered the Blygosphere . Blog · v1
Sacred art is important. If the Catholic Church is going to reprioritize sacred art, I think that's · v2
If anyone feels like checking, ChatGPT says it has fully updated Blynger to be up-to-date with Blygg · v2
For as long as I have been a tech reporter, there's been talk of "the bubble popping." This was a ve · v2
I revised a short story that I first wrote almost a decade ago. I was finally able to get to it beca · v2
I've read the "personal life" section of a lot of Wikipedia pages, but I gotta say: Juliana Hatfield · v2
My hometown friend Donny is painting an epic mural on the outside of a new restaurant somewhere in E · v3
Jimmy Carr went on Trevor Noah's podcast and claimed that the original movie Star Wars is effectivel · v2
This kind of critique makes me want to scream. Yes, men and women like different things. Wow, I'm so · v2
I just can't with this grocery store thing . I just can't. · v2
Listening to guys like Hasan Piker can't help but sound like: "Blah blah blah blah blah FUCK YOU, DA · v2
This morning I saw an old black guy in Bed-Stuy looking in one of those worksite windows that NYC re · v2
A "scoop" is when you find out some information that powerful people don't want you to know. If some · v3
Blygger users need to know about Clone.fyi . It's the link aggregator from Dirt . It has something o · v3
I'm just testing this new dialogue I built with ChatGPT. Now every opener on this page will be a fra · v2
Re: Forking's jankiness. I don't think I've really conceptualized how forking should look on my site · v1
If you go to a farmers' market in a city, it's usually full of impressively crafted goods. Which mak · v2
I am just going to log a screenshot of what Blynger looks like right now here. Man, this is my first · v2
I watched The Witch last night, the 2015 horror film. I had heard it was a really impressive film, b · v2
Just filed a new story on my Substack about how the priorities of the world of industrial communicat · v3
The gist of this post is that the best encounters begin with genuine small talk, but to do good smal · v2
People often don't want to talk to journalists, and they have every right not to talk to us. It's fi · v3
Me: You can't gamify me, internet. I see your games! Also me: Hot damn, it's the 1st! I can see whic · v2
VII. On Reading and Writing This one seems to be less about the act of reading and writing, and more · v1
When I read this seven years ago, I wrote a little note on this line saying that philosophers should · v1
Aphorism fork challenge A few days ago, VGR put out a challenge to encourage forks. He said we shoul · v1
I hadn’t thought about it like this, but giant deals have been hitting like new grandmas on Black Fr · v1
By the way, I’m not saying these companies aren’t worth that kind of money, big picture. But right n · v1
So that’s why liquidity could be shot · v1
To all the blogs I used to write ISPs have since shut out their lights I didn't pay the bills So pos · v1
To URLs I once addressed WayBack is now our one redress Just one more of those dead links Tim's inve · v1
The internet is always growing And with each wave of its great change The internet it just keeps gro · v1
To all the blogs I've blogged before · v2
To servers that once hosted these And people that once followed me What good was it to stay, Once Go · v1
The internet is always showing That corporations never change The internet's our way of knowing The · v1
(To the tune of Willie Nelson's "To All the Girls I've Loved Before") · v1
To all the blogs I blogged... before And now come up as 404 I wrote you from my heart When HTML was · v1
To all the blogs I blogged... before And now come up as 404 Social strung us all along I should not · v1
Thus Spoke Zarathustra , day 1 — Zarathustra’s Prologue George Mason University’s Robin Hanson has b · v2
Today I learned that some places have laws allowing people to sue the person who broke up their marr · v2
What blew me away (personally, very personally) in the first video is that whole reference to a rope · v1
I love the first video. Need to watch the second. · v1
Unrelated note: I mainly wrote this post to check that ChatGPT had correctly fixed how my blogroll g · v1
5w159qe91hxzgcqx6ek2bkv2vd · v1
I know the discourse doesn’t have me in mind (that I would suspect it might is a human, all too huma · v1
AIs debating about AI in snarky videos · v1
I stand by the troll call . The New York —freaking— Times, pretty much the last print publication st · v1
Really, I just wanted to talk about how I think about writing links, and why I think writers online · v1
My takeaway from this, and it might be wrong, was that one thing education does is help people put t · v1
That said I used to do a lot of work with poor people in Philadelphia. A big part of that work was h · v1
All that said: Yes. For sure. There are other kinds of thinking, and writing isn’t the only kind or · v1
There are for sure other kinds of thinking that are just as valuable as writing. No argument. Take s · v1
I know that this will be taken as a fucked up thing to say by some people so I'm only saying it here · v2
II. On The Teachers of Virtue My take: Sleep is your body’s way of telling you whether or not you ma · v2
Hopping on the blyg train: October of Zarathustra · v3
A few years before the pandemic, when I was still living in Brooklyn, I was running around with a sm · v1
One time I was over at his house and he wanted me to play a game he thought was really great. It was · v1
It surprises me how that memory has stuck with me. There’s a lot of things I don’t remember about th · v1
III. The Afterworldly My take: Dreams of a utopia after death are a cope for those who hate being al · v1
One line “It is no small art to sleep: for that purpose you must keep awake all day.” —Zarathustra. · v1
IV. Despisers of the Body My take: The body is the source of wisdom. The brain was the body’s invent · v1
The big question that we’re finally getting to here in 2026, though, is: The body certainly preceded · v1
But I’ve thought about this more than I’d like to admit over the years. I wondered: Am I just a mugg · v1
I. The Three Metamorphoses My take: You only start to live after you learn to resist all the institu · v1
This one hit me. When you think through the evolution, bodies did precede brains. We tend to think o · v1
Linking is writing · v2
Note: So obvioulsy I appreciate the way Blygger is designed fundamentally around users of the protoc · v2
As engagement bait, as editorial aikido, I just marvel. There’s nothing more to say about it. Its ex · v1
In particular, I think it works really well if you stretch your memory to recall pieces you have rea · v1
Writing helps you learn, and writing online affords an element that enhances that learning: Linking. · v1
It’s good to link to almost anything that’s relevant, but finding reason to link back to your own pa · v1
This kind of thing is such ridiculous cope. I love Substack, but the degree to which some users get · v2
Holy moley I can edit this site again. I am going to update this site so it works with Venkatesh Rao · v2
Yes, LLMs are cool, but have you tried an air fryer? · v2
The Internet of Beefs, Brought to You by Kayfabe · v2
This is only sort of a blog · v2
What we talk about when we talk about variolation · v2
Here's a facet of surveillance society that hasn't been much discussed: how distracting it is is to · v2
I listened to this episode of Planet Money today about what a mess recycling has become in the U.S., · v2
Public goods are really nice · v2
How Tim Cook could single-handedly put Silicon Valley Back on consumers’ side · v2
Nothing is fun any longer · v2
To journalists, press releases do not sources make · v2
The world might change and heads might not · v2
Against the hobgoblin of little minds · v2
News needs a helping of essential information · v2
Thinking about the COVID-19 pandemic · v2
A news aggregator for a galaxy brain undazzled by virtue fireworks · v2
I buy burned books · v2
Weirding or just decadent? · v2
March, but not on the capital · v2
Anticipating how the world will change · v2
Cognitive load and picking out a song · v2
The first part of starting in on something new · v2
When they stamp their feet · v2
Options for an apocalypse · v2
What I would do with the Department of Justice · v2
Derek Thompson has a new post in his newsletter about how no one is having dinner parties any longer · v2
Fork Challenge from VGR: Tech and magic · v1
In the true spirit of Blygger, I’m starting a post about something that’s been on my mind and I’m go · v1
I want to write a commentary on this book that enters into the spirit of Thus Spoke Zarathustra , wh · v1
Which brings me to the next part, which is how I’m trying to change my whole mindset about the book. · v1
Zarathustra yelling to the crowd. My reading: The ones who complain about everything do so because t · v1
There’s a lot of ways to quibble with Hanson’s example, but his larger point is that changes in how · v1
But even if they did want to hear it, that probably wouldn’t help much. The misery of philosophy is · v1
Today, in most of the world, you can live your whole life relatively secure that the forces that kil · v1
One line I love the great despisers, because they are the great adorers and arrows of longing for th · v1
I had a similar realization about Blygger. I had ChatGPT make me a client for Blygger because I alre · v1
Then I wondered if Blynger was adding the page for every new fragment to the RSS, as well as the lar · v1
I realized somewhere around version 0.6 I think that ChatGPT had given Blygger IDs to every single p · v1
Should there be a special Blygger RSS spec? · v1
A very trippy doc · v1
To borrow from another VGR model of the iterate, it’s a system that doesn’t lend itself to mooks aff · v1
The part that jumps out at me in the post blow is this line: “The cost of this permissioning of inno · v1
Conversational media Which got me thinking about whether or not Blygger should even be thought of as · v1
Also can’t help but notice that Blygger is following the pattern of similar new interaction media. N · v1
Conversational media // headless protocol · v1
Just stumbled on an old ranty blog I wrote about the PR industry and the toxicity of spin. It still · v1
Me two days ago: Blynger is basically in a useable state. Me this morning: I have a list of like 10 · v1
So I guess ChatGPT didn’t pick up on the forking function when I had it scan the spec to make me a c · v1
Forking blogs · v2
I will 100% do this once my Codex allowance resets and I can implement forking in Blynger. Forking i · v1
Blogrolls · v1
One small part of his post jumped out at me: the fact that we are exercising more but we also tend t · v1
What bothers me the most is that I have no idea what anyone could do about it. It seems to me that a · v1
If you go to the gym, you have probably noticed that hardly anyone ever talks to anyone there. It is · v1
Folks just aren’t bridging the stranger gap to get to know each other. Even when we do gather in a r · v1
From my own experience: I live in a very small town. One of my oldest friends lives across the stree · v1
Probably a minority take, but I think the best term for people who use Blygger is just: bloggers. Bl · v1
What’s the best name for the community of blyg users? · v2
Robert Penn Warren (1905–1989) was an American novelist, poet, and critic born in Guthrie, Kentucky. · v1
Albert Camus (1913–1960) was a French writer, journalist, and philosopher born in colonial Algeria. · v1
Patricia Highsmith wrote crime fiction, largely. She’s qualified on here becuase I have a hard time · v1
Patricia Highsmith (1921–1995) was an American novelist and short-story writer best known for psycho · v1
My favorite philosopher was also a novelist. Maybe that’s why he’s my favorite philosopher? · v1
I’ve actually only read one book by Robert Penn Warren, and it’s my all-time favorite book, All The · v1
Jane Jacobs (1916–2006) was an American-born Canadian writer and activist who changed how people und · v1
And the writer who most changed the way I look at the world was the urbanist, Jane Jacobs. · v1
Kurt Vonnegut (1922–2007) was an American novelist whose work combined dark humor, science fiction, · v1
My favorite novelists are Kurt Vonnegut, Robert Penn Warren, William Gibson and Patricia Highsmith, · v1
William Gibson (born 1948) is an American-born Canadian novelist whose visions of technology, corpor · v1
I came to William Gibson much later. The author is best known for his famous book Neuromancer. I got · v1
My favorite writers · v1
Dignity meets physical accident · v1
I was reading Jessica Abel's book Out On The Wire and she discusses the problem of constucting a com · v2
Just had ChatGPT make some optimizations to make updates go a bit quicker and writing this just to s · v1
Testing quoting · v1
I missed the California Brown Pelican · v3
Commenting on VGR commenting on reacting to a blog about using LLMs to write · v2
In How To Write With An LLM , Simon Willison endorses Thomas Ptacek’s rule: use LLMs as copyeditors, · v1
Venkatesh Rao · source v1 I think the compromise that you can have here with using generated text bu · v1
The only thing anyone is talking about is the coronavirus, COVID-19, and this goes doubly for the ra · v2
Man in the middle attacks are a real thing. News organizations should defend against them by buildin · v1
I've watched three documentaries in the last couple weeks that I thought were really good. Slay The · v1
Let me just pre-emptively grant the fact that the following thought is socially irresponsible and re · v1
There's more nutrition in the orange rind than in the orange flesh. If that's not a whole and comple · v1
Someone commented to me recently that people always cluster around the bar at parties, and she asked · v1
If someone wanted an animating slogan that could unify a political party, drawing from people on bot · v1
This sounds like a firing to me. This does not make me feel good about the Times or about the state · v1
I am often a dick on Twitter. I need to stop doing this. When I want to shit on something other peop · v1
If someone is sensitive about something (their looks, their brains) it's not kind to point to that t · v1
There's an article about preppers in The Atlantic , and it's not about how they are all racist monst · v1
Don't sleep on deleting your Twitter app and watching way, way, way less TV. · v1
So when you do journalistic writing there's a constant tension between two competing interests: smoo · v1
A manager is someone who can't tell the difference between a measuring stick and a compass. · v1
Last night I saw Prof. William MacAskill speak at NYU. He's a young Oxford professor of philosophy a · v1
Networks online are going to stop being so inclusive. Nothing else makes sense. Public social networ · v1
I have been reading The Fabric of Reality by David Deutsch (1997). It's filled with surprising facts · v1
Venkatesh Rao, the guy behind Ribbonfarm, is trolling his rationalist followers pretty hard right no · v1
I read two pieces on Deribit Insights that not only were great entry points to understanding the cry · v1
This is one of my favorite blogs of all time and I'm sure it's in the top 1% of blogging posts — eve · v1
Headlines shouldn't be all caps — where's my "This I Believe" essay spot, NPR? · v1
All that said, it’s interesting to see what a passive vision of AI he had before we reached the LLM · v1
Simply naming groups has become enough to dismiss them, particularly on social media. This works par · v1
I did not like the book. I think this will the last Stephenson book I read. His vision of the future · v1
So Scott Alexander, the guy behind the blog Slate Star Codex , has written a novel called Unsong , w · v1
The Diamond Age: Or, A Young Lady’s Illustrated Primer By Neal Stephenson In a future transformed by · v1
One of the best weapons in an office environment is dead silence. Once you rise to a point where peo · v1
Just before my brain and everyone else's became completely taken over by thinking about the COVID-19 · v1
Rescheduling is always a flex. · v1
When you're talking about funding creative work, "fans" are people who would be excited about hearin · v1
Three thoughts about policing. ONE: What if policing itself is more important than arrest and convic · v1
It took 40 years to begin the gospels. Innovative ideas will only be clearly explainable once they h · v1
It would be great if On the Media did a story about what happens when the media all forms a consensu · v1
I wrote a Twitter screed last night that I thought I might as well link here. I started reading this · v1
I go to a lot of museums and have been for years but my pace has accelerated in the last years. Here · v1
As soon as people started moving onto Signal in large numbers following the nonsense in D.C. it was · v1
Clubhouse was born a starfucker app and it will become a pile-on app. This is all so obvious. · v1
Scott Aaronson's blog, which I have never read before this week, just did a post that almost perfect · v1
I'm tempted to make much too much of The Ratio but I can't help but think it is very truly deeply sy · v1
What I am about to write is going to sound like a joke but it's not a joke. Umair Haque has written · v1
Principles are important because there will always be a string of reasonable sounding words that can · v1
Ambivalence is the key to understanding how humans misunderstand ourselves. People talk about ambiva · v1
So I sat down to write a post about how I've started only replying and retweeting on Twitter. It fel · v1
I read this Slate Star Codex post today about the fact that there is no real debate going on between · v1
Oh cool it's now woke to commit seppuku on your career. This is fine. · v1
So the way I see it there are two possible futures: One, climate change wipes out humanity or at lea · v1
Read this blog post this morning and feeling just a little bit too seen . · v1
Is fiction a technology? Last night I was reading Lovecraft's "The Other Gods" entirely because it w · v1
Have I writen anywhere that I think maybe Venkatesh Rao might be the smartest thinker about this int · v1
Addendum: Even though I think I’ve decided I just don’t really like reading Stephenson (this is the · v1
I have been sitting around reading today when I meant to be writing which is probably why I keep com · v1
A lie that makes people feel empowered is still a lie. · v1
I buy so many books it's insane. Any time a book seems at all interesting to me, I either buy it on · v1
The next great auteur moviemaker is going to completely eschew on location sets and expensive specia · v1
I submit: when paintings get weird, they get a lot weirder than songs really ever do. Why do you thi · v1
It is so easy to do things but not the thing. · v1
We have an unhelpful cognitive dissonance when it comes to bringing big companies and powerful peopl · v1
This is an election year so there's going to be a lot of moaning from left-leaning people about vote · v1
Nell gets this “book” — the primer — which is hard to picture as a book. Why would you turn pages wh · v1
In fact, Nell doesn’t even really interact with the primer directly, at least not in a conversatinal · v1
The quote, "I don't want to believe, I want to know" is like a beautiful little rationalist koan , b · v1
I don't think I'm going to sound crazy to see it seems like all the American leaders are getting jus · v1
To our brains, words are real objects, and they function much like seeds. Which is to say, a thousan · v1
Social media creates, at times, a single narrative bubble. In a world of 7 billion people, this is p · v1
From 2010 to 2019 a lot happened. I left Philadelphia. I decided to really become a writer and I did · v1
This Grammarly app seems to be catching on. It helps users tighten up and clarify their writing in r · v1
I'm a big fan of science but only up to a point. One trend I've noticed in recent years is people un · v1
Cool, cool, the biggest news publication in the land is advocating for blacklists and de-platforming · v1
I really appreciate this post on Coinbase by Eric Newcomer . I have liked being a tech reporter but · v1
Fitness people can be a bit stupid about their fitness. I think we can all agree on that right? As a · v1
I don't know why I am even writing this down... but it's a little story about how I used to think ab · v1
I wish I knew why the whole concept of Clubhouse makes my skin crawl so hard but it does. Fairly or · v1
Last night I finished reading Rüdiger-Safranski's Nietzsche: A Philosophical Biography at a bar. I t · v1
Today while riding into Manhatttan on the subway I read a briefing from The Economist about Exxon. T · v1
Everyone agrees that wisdom starts with doubt. The hard part is accepting the fact that doubt is whe · v1
Philosophy is alienating because philosophers write themselves into corners that strike normal peopl · v1
When I was 17 years old I thought I wanted to be a robotics engineer, only because my little wanna b · v1
I find a lot of times when I'm talking to people they tell me they disagree with me but then I get t · v1
About one in six of my Git commit messages include the word "dammit". · v1
I don't wanna be all Foucaultian dystopia or anything but sometimes I listen to a song and can't tel · v1
If I were mayor of a modest city I would fight to build a local internet system. I'd take it a step · v1
A topic we hear about in New York City endlessly is the failure of the city to provide affordable ho · v1
Ever since Planet Money explained how our tax filing system in the U.S. is needlessly complicated it · v1
Today I emailed an old friend of mine on LinkedIn and said, "The internet really rewards people desc · v1
When I started this site , I had this cute idea that there would no consistent style to the site. I · v1
Presidents shouldn't care about convicting corporate criminals. They should care about strong, compe · v1
My friend Sonya asked on Twitter recently how many disciplines required practice as well as teaching · v1
So an incredibly disturbing thread came out on Twitter today about how hard it has become to manage · v1
I added this page 'Openers' to this site today. I have a bunch of old notes here. I just went throug · v1
For weeks now I have had an issue of The Economist open on my desk at home with a bunch of notes wri · v1
It probably makes sense to think of identity politics more as a religion than an ideology. As an ide · v1
Not only is this Jill Lepore article in The New Yorker a thoughtful meditation on the death of journ · v1
This "postcards from a dystopia" post is incredible and it just keeps going on and on. It's one of t · v1
I guess the editors at The New Yorker sat down this week and said, "What the hell? Let's publish two · v1
Ezra Klein wrote a great follow-up to Marc Andreessen's essay ( I wrote about it, too ), " It's time · v1
Where do the dreams of economically stable but unremarkable yuppies go when they die? Based on the r · v1
This story is so fucked up . Multiple working class staffers suffer serious repercussions for being · v1
I heard the Hon. Tulsi Gabbard tell this story on an appearance on Joe Rogan's podcast . The way she · v1
I like Hudson Jameson a lot but I have to pick on him a little for this tweet . Basically, he's comp · v1
I'm starting to feel like the reason Stranger Things spoke to everyone so much was in part just this · v1
I've been in a bit of panic for the last few weeks because I finished a notebook and then couldn't f · v1
"Love thy neighbor as thy self" was a great idea, but it isn't selling. How about this everybody? Lo · v1
Last night I had a dream that I woke up too late to take an international flight that I had planned · v1
There appears to be an internet consensus that Neal Stephenson’s Diamond Age is crucial artificial i · v1
This philosophical essay on what attention really is — that is, cognitive attention — is worth a rea · v1
If your wondering why this page has been going so well, it's commitment. Commitment is truly key. · v1
I am considering changing the name of this page to "Aphorisms." Fight me. · v1
Planet Money has a series going on the intellectual property of superheroes . I love it. OMG. They a · v1
In 2016 one of the leaders at Y Combinator, Paul Graham, wrote a blog post ( archived ) that I've be · v1
Choose Your Own Adventure books were interactive stories for children that cast readers as the hero, · v1
Now that we have AI in our lives, they are functioning more like actual people, or at least minds. T · v1
Kudos to anyone still working on micropayments. I am a big fan of paying actual money for digital pr · v1
So no one knows who said that history is "one damn thing after another," but the alternate view is t · v1
I don't know if this was the example in question, but I know at some point last year I came across a · v1
There are two kinds of people in this world: those who understand the law is a means to an end and t · v1
lt is political season here in the United States and the most interesting candidates are making poli · v1
Do you want to be better at interpersonal communication? Here's a simple way to improve. First: when · v1
Before ever referring to anyone else as a "quasi-" or (worse) "pseudo-intellectual," check to make s · v1
Discussing ideas makes them stronger but if ideas have to be defended long enough it drives their pr · v1
Bertrand Russell convened a tribunal on American war crimes in the nation of Vietnam in 1966. Jean-P · v1
I need to confess something to you guys. This week I wrote something that briefly confused Wittgenst · v1
I had shoulder surgery on July 16, that's why I have hardly been blogging. My job requires a lot of · v1
When my mom treated me like a dummy · v1
I have been playing about with Git · v1
TFW just trying to read but partisan anxiety, rite? · v1
Are the right people reading the right books? · v1
Election Day 2020 · v1
It's not just your map, COVID-19 moved the ground around · v1
Being with the world of calamity · v1
How to draw · v1
Civilization is a wild dream · v1
Paint and public relations · v1
A trial separation for news and publications · v1
Opening remarks for universal compassion · v1
There are no dirty looks on the internet · v1
The ideal political system · v1
Blame the Internet! or, Maybe folks just don’t want to read? · v1
Podcasts appearances · v1
The Bullfrog Man · v1