I also heard about your Substack from the Acquired podcast, am glad to have done so, and will try to read more, though I've got a lot of unread books here and like you prioritize the long form. That said, I think there's a straw man component here in that much of what you have set up as "timeless" is in fact itself very time and place bo…
I also heard about your Substack from the Acquired podcast, am glad to have done so, and will try to read more, though I've got a lot of unread books here and like you prioritize the long form. That said, I think there's a straw man component here in that much of what you have set up as "timeless" is in fact itself very time and place bound to the American present. Which doesn't invalidate your reflections on them.
One thing I might challenge is that the overall tilt of your mindset is towards doing the things that make people better and more successful entrepreneurs. There's nothing intrinsically wrong with that, but should that be everyone's goal? We do need lots more empowered schoolteachers, police-folk, etc. (though admittedly a dollop of entrepreneurialism hurts people in few endeavors). Moreover, though there has been some challenge to Deaton and Kahneman's study showing that returns to wealth above $75k AGI per annum tend to flatten out, it rings true. The stability of a salary and mortgage gestalt allows for a quiet type of flourishing, shared purpose and social formation that has benefits, though downsides too.
One place where you are spot on is in the benefits of talking to strangers. The intrinsic payouts to learning to talk to different people are high.
I also heard about your Substack from the Acquired podcast, am glad to have done so, and will try to read more, though I've got a lot of unread books here and like you prioritize the long form. That said, I think there's a straw man component here in that much of what you have set up as "timeless" is in fact itself very time and place bound to the American present. Which doesn't invalidate your reflections on them.
One thing I might challenge is that the overall tilt of your mindset is towards doing the things that make people better and more successful entrepreneurs. There's nothing intrinsically wrong with that, but should that be everyone's goal? We do need lots more empowered schoolteachers, police-folk, etc. (though admittedly a dollop of entrepreneurialism hurts people in few endeavors). Moreover, though there has been some challenge to Deaton and Kahneman's study showing that returns to wealth above $75k AGI per annum tend to flatten out, it rings true. The stability of a salary and mortgage gestalt allows for a quiet type of flourishing, shared purpose and social formation that has benefits, though downsides too.
One place where you are spot on is in the benefits of talking to strangers. The intrinsic payouts to learning to talk to different people are high.
Anyhoo, back to my book, and thanks.