the world is not kind to those who are tacky
Late night thought: “Don’t be tacky (unless you know why you’re doing it)” is a surprisingly powerful heuristic for me
Where does money come from, really?
A question that made me anxious when I was a teenager is “where does money come from really?” Most people tend to be s
make friends
— 1 — You can spend years arguing with idiots, or you can spend years making friends. The idiots aren’t going to be
Relationships are challenging + a lot of work
Preamble: Hello everyone! This post has been getting shared a little bit, so I thought it might be worth taking some time to p
flirting is about signalling interest with plausible deniability
What I tell my nephews: flirting is basically this – give moderately strong signals of interest with plausible deniabili
We need to get better at dealing with assholes if we are to progress as a species
— 1 — As I get older I feel this subtle-but-strong pressure to become more “professional” – more “civil”, mo
minorities have to be extra-sensitive
(these were thoughts in response to Sarah Jeong being called out for being racist towards white men) I think one of the rules
women’s perspectives are criminally underrepresented
(2025mar8: I wonder if I still feel this way? The climate feels different than in 2017, but I think fundamentally… IR
menworld: a way of considering the patriarchy
(Clarification: for the whole of this thread, when I say Men, I’m referring to the subset of straight men who live &
“I only like Chinese girls”
There is some nuance in the space between having a preference and articulating it. Lots of dudes are utterly incapable of walk
Punching nazis is probably good, but never be gleeful about violence
There was a period of time where people on Twitter seemed very gleeful about punching Nazis, and the idea of punching Nazis.&n
Talking about cultural things means getting things wrong.
I think cultural things are the most interesting things but they’re also the hardest to talk about with other people A b
People are tired, and this leads to suboptimal outcomes on many fronts
A thing I didn’t appreciate as a kid, but understand better now, is why so much of the world is suboptimal – it’s no
Narcissist PR works because we can’t shut up about it
WIP I tweeted a more cautious version of this blogpost in July, and it’s been on my mind so I wanted to take some time t
Most people over-tolerate assholes, which lets them get away with it
[Original thread] As I get older I feel this subtle-but-strong pressure to become more “professional” – more “civi
Skinwalkers: mass shootings are nihilistic acts of disaffiliation
(Writing this post because I’m cleaning out my bookmarks in one-tab and realizing that I’ve mentioned Skinwalkers
surviving in jailworld requires some complicity; dismantling it will take lifetimes
Notes from a conversation about Oprah and Neoliberalism: yeah so there are multiple things going on at the same time, and peop
sinister connotations allow people to be assholes with plausible deniability
I like words. It’s a big part of why I’m a writer. I like everything about them. Here are some interesting things
Making Sense Of Modern Civilization
1 To be born into modern human civilization is both a great privilege (for the safety and opportunities it provides) and a rat
We are all miseducated + need to rethink education from scratch
We are all miseducated. My education journey 0129 – future of education 0461 – we are all miseducated – accepted it and
Schools are powerful, outdated tools of social programming
Why does this post exist? I haven’t been in school in over a decade, but it had a debilitating effect on me and I want t
Communication, negotiation and the friendship of Charles and Erik
Can anything be more important than learning how to deal with yourself, and with other people? What a ceaseless struggle! Mana