1. Climate Change from A to Z
Don't be put off by the title that puts to you sleep before you've even arrived at the zzzzzz. It's a great piece, from one of the best climate writers of our time, with beautiful illustrations to match the words. 26 stories – well, 25 if we drop the despair — that tell of our past, present and future with climate change, from Arrhenius to Zero. Just the right mix of realism and optimism.
2. Is Russia losing?
«The war was lost long ago. The challenge remains one of getting Putin and his circle to accept this view.» Another highly informative analysis by Lawrence Freedman.
3. Than Average
A fun, insightful, sometimes surprising game to play. You answer one question at a time and all you have to do is gauge whether you're above or below average. For example: Do you experience envy more than average? Afterwards you see what side everyone else has picked. Obviously, in a perfectly representative sample of people who assess themselves correctly, it should always be 50:50. So the real challenge in this game comes after each reveal: Why is this skewed?
4. Well-Behaved Bubbles Often Make History
The caveat upfront: This is from the media arm of an investment firm that has poured billions into tech and crypto startups, so they have billions of reasons to believe in the upside in the bubbles that just popped. That said, it's an interesting perspective. Key sentences: «The right kind of bubble, at the right time, can exert a powerful positive effect on the world. [...] The two things that kill a company during a bubble are excessive optimism, and the unwillingness to be sufficiently optimistic.»
5. Our recommendations for giving in 2022
The end of the year is approaching, you're probably thinking about donating some of your money if you can afford to. GiveWell is an organisation that researches highly effective causes and organisations to donate to. Every year, they publish a list of their top recommendations. If you don't want to spend a lot of time researching yourself, it's a safe bet to go with their recommendations (I've done so many times). However, their list — and the methodology behind it — are also a great starting point for familiarising yourself with ways to assess the effectiveness of donations and for asking the right questions before picking a charity to donate to.
What else?
A treasure trove each year: NPR's Books we love, 2022 edition.
Kierkegaard, but as a comic.
Gotta love Sho Shubuya's work. Another NYT front page turned into a powerful piece of art.
Share of people who say that religion is very important to them, USA vs. Europe. I've seen this before, but it's still striking.
A fascinating experiment, using a Twitter poll.
«Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic» — some pretty indistinguishable stuff here. Futurepedia — a directory of 200-ish AI tools.
Thanks for reading, and for supporting my work with a membership. I wish you a nice weekend and hope to see you again next Friday!
— David 👋