Paul Graham

If you could only read one book on medieval history, it might be the best choice. Used copies are much cheaper, and probably better printed too, so I recommend buying it used.

That's a great book.

is an excellent and, strange as it may sound, often very funny book.

A really insightful (and bravely unconventional) essay by Brie Wolfson about the excitement of working hard.

Bartosz Ciechanowski's brilliant visualization of how a mechanical watch works

Yes, interesting book.

If you want a more authoritative source than a Wikipedia article, I recommend this excellent book on the subject

Interesting thread. I think trying to get into a good college would be more bearable if the admissions process were less arbitrary. It would be like trying to be good at sports. What makes the current system demoralizing is that you have to try really hard to do random things.

Wow is this good. Every would-be startup founder should read this. Everyone who cares about the future, because this is what the way forward sounds like, not the whining and cynicism that fills Twitter and the media.

A very important essay by Jonathan Haidt about the damage social media is doing to us: "Thanks to enhanced-virality social media, dissent is punished within many of our institutions, which means that bad ideas get elevated into official policy."

A sober analysis of the Ukraine War by real experts. If you're tired of hot takes, try this cold take: nationalinterest.org/feature/piercing-fog-war-what-really-happening-ukraine-201440

A very interesting analysis of the sinking ship that is the Oscars. Multiple things seem to be broken, but they all have one thing in common: the Academy has lost touch with audiences.

I never read this till now, but it contains some important ideas. Particularly that zealous supporters of a cause are incentivized to rally around dubious examples of it, because rallying around obviously convincing examples demonstrates less commitment.

I take that back. I read the article and it's good.

This really insightful interview also contains a bombshell: Ukraine is probably using Anduril's technology. I wonder if that's one of the reasons the Ukrainian army is doing so well.

A very insightful thread from an insider about how the US has helped Ukraine, and how to help them in the future.

A nice photograph of some books. Bovill's Golden Trade of the Moors, top center, is a great book that should be better known.

If you want to understand how venture capital works and the effect it has had on the US economy, this is the book to read. Lots of people talk about VC. Few of them understand it. But Mallaby does.