Kind Words is a game without winners and a social network without identities. The only objective is to show kindness to strangers, and its social functions and gameplay are the opposite of the most insidious features of modern social networks that make them simultaneously anti-social, depressing and impossible to quit. For this reason, I consider it a prototype for a type of system that we might build to foster broader, more profound and more positive-sum interactions between people.

Opening: Highs without Subsequent Lows

The thinker Naval Ravikant identified a pleasing set, “highs that don’t lead to subsequent lows”:

This, I compare to social media…

Winner of the Best Article from a New Contributor 2020 Award at Wonk Bridge’s 2020 Award Ceremony.

Bad faith is corrosive and, as with the nuclear calculus, the only way to deal with it is invoke a deterrent that is just as (or more) dangerous: the accusation of bad faith, which has the potential to negate any conversation. …

This article was originally published on WonkBridge.

My thesis here is that an obsession with easy, “intuitive” and perhaps even efficient user interfaces is creating a layer of soft tyranny. This layer is not unlike what I might create were I a dictator, seeking to soften up the public prior to an immense abuse of liberty in the future, by getting them so used to comical restrictions on their use of things that such bullying becomes normalized.

A note of clarification: I am not a trained user interface designer. I am just a user with opinions. I don’t write the…

My thesis here is that an obsession with easy, “intuitive” and perhaps even efficient user interfaces is creating a layer of soft tyranny. This layer is not unlike what I might create were I a dictator, seeking to soften up the public prior to an immense abuse of liberty in the future, by getting them so used to comical restrictions on their use of things that such bullying becomes normalised.

A note of clarification: I am not a trained user interface designer. I am just a user with opinions. I don’t write the following from the perspective of someone who…

Dear Max, it was wonderful to meet you last week. It bears repeating that I felt as though talking for the first time to a hidden collaborator.

I think that the center of the conversation was uncorrelated thinking: something in the possession of those thinkers that do interesting things that surprise us, or that combine fields and ideas that we didn’t think possible. People and organizations like this are a rocket under society, but they are both misunderstood and rare.

As we agreed, the size of fields and the necessary groundwork in order to achieve proficiency makes it harder to…

I am sorry to hear that you are unwell, and hope that you feel better soon.

When a friend or relative dies, or when we or a person close to us becomes ill with something serious, it tends to change our perspective on how we live. Often we realize that we wasted a great deal of time on things with little lasting value, and neglected what’s important.

Sam Harris expressed this idea very clearly during a speech, extracted here:

“People realize… that their attention was bound up in petty concerns, year after year, when life was normal… like watching…

Most people are stunningly irrational; falsifiability is a test and a tool that helps us to hew away unfounded mental models and leave behind what works (for now).

The criterion that a theory ought to tell us how to show its falsehood is a wonderful filter, holding back pseudo-scientific claims about nature and forcing us to be honest. Those of us who can’t or won’t open ourselves to falsification are in a freeloading relationship: kept fed and comfortable on the couch of those who do.

Perhaps it’s time that we struggled off the couch and got a job, opening up…

Dear Rowan, It was lovely to speak with you yesterday on the subject of writing and publishing, and how these things affect us.

I enjoyed our conversation, and appreciate finding common ground and agreement that we hadn’t realized existed until now. I know that I will return to your ideas on publishing and its effects on the self many times.

First, I Owe You Some Quotes

Emerson, “Self Reliance” (emphasis mine)

A man should learn to detect and watch that gleam of light which crashes across his mind from within, more than the lustre of the firmament of bards and sages. Yet he dismisses without notice…