FROM THE DUMPSTER FIRE

One information addict's rescue work for the internet age

The internet has become a raging dumpster fire, consuming all the good things in its wake. But there are still amazing, thoughtful, meaningful things untouched by the flames—things we should all read, watch, and listen to. Welcome to my small corner of the internet, where I go dumpster diving to share the good stuff. Welcome to the rescue mission
Fresh from the dumpster fire

It would be inconvenient if something bad happened, so it can't happen

Scott Alexander's review of 'If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies' reveals how our brains malfunction when faced with scary but uncertain threats that would require life changes. We suddenly become strict scientists demanding proof, applying standards we ignore elsewhere—what he calls 'insane moon epistemology.' This cognitive bias explains why we sleepwalk into obvious disasters while nitpicking warnings about inconvenient possibilities.

Astral Codex Ten · 4 min read
Worth your time

How Not to Be a Victim of Success

Maria Popova explores how success can ossify our personal narrative, using Rockwell Kent's encounter with a statue from his past as a metaphor for resisting the trap of becoming our own myth.

The Marginalian · 6 min read

Art of the Week

A man in dark clothing stands on a rocky precipice with his back to us, gazing out over a sea of fog and distant mountain peaks
Art of the Week

Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog

Caspar David Friedrich, 1818

A lone figure stands atop a rocky precipice, back turned to us, gazing into an endless sea of fog. Friedrich's masterpiece captures the Romantic sublime—the overwhelming sense of nature's power and our smallness within it.

View full details about Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog

Rabbit Holes

📹 Video • 6 min

Whither AGI?

Stanford's Fei-Fei Li argues that AGI is impossible with text-only LLMs, making the case that spatial intelligence—understanding and reasoning about the 3D world—is fundamental to true AI. Her evolutionary perspective on why vision predates and underlies intelligence offers a compelling counter-narrative to the current text-obsessed AI landscape.

🧵 Thread • 4 min

China Is Single-handedly Forestalling Climate Change

Noah Smith argues that China's fossil fuel demand has plateaued while their massive solar exports are single-handedly forestalling global climate change, backed by compelling data from Ember Energy.

📖 Book • 480 min

Cryptonomicon

Neal Stephenson's sprawling 1999 novel weaves together World War II codebreaking, modern cryptography, and tech startup culture into an epic that predicted our digital future with startling accuracy.

â—Ź â—Ź â—Ź STILL WITH ME? â—Ź â—Ź â—Ź

Poem of the Week

The Road Not Taken

Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood—Frost's meditation on choice, paths, and the stories we tell ourselves about our decisions.
Read full analysis
✉ Letter of the Week
From: Emily Dickinson
To: Mary Bowles
Around 1862 • Amherst, Massachusetts
The heart wants what it wants - or else it does not care.
Emily Dickinson wrote this line in a letter to Mary Bowles, wife of her friend Samuel Bowles. The phrase has become one of the most quoted lines about desire and longing, capturing the irrational, ungovernable nature of the human heart.
More at Paper Lanterns →

On My Shelf

Cover of War and Peace

War and Peace

Leo Tolstoy

The greatest novel ever written. Epic in scope, intimate in detail, timeless in its insights about human nature.

Cover of Bullshit Jobs

Bullshit Jobs

David Graeber

Why do so many people feel their work is meaningless? Graeber's answer is both disturbing and liberating.

View full shelf →

Deep Cuts

Essay • 6 min

How Not to Be a Victim of Success

Maria Popova explores how success can ossify our personal narrative, using Rockwell Kent's encounter with a statue from his past as a metaphor for resisting the trap of becoming our own myth.

Essay • 6 min

The Global Decline of Religion

Religion doesn't vanish overnight. It fades in sequence: Participation drops first, then Importance, finally Belonging. A study of 111 countries reveals this pattern holds across cultures.

Essay • 8 min

AI's Impossible Math

Harris Kupperman runs the numbers on AI capital expenditure and finds a terrifying gap: the industry needs $480 billion in revenue just to cover 2025 investments, but there simply aren't enough paying customers to make it work.

Essay • 7 min

The Death of Writing

As AI makes writing effortless, we face an uncomfortable question: if we stop wrestling with words ourselves, do we lose the ability to think deeply? Michael Dean argues that writing isn't just communication—it's how we earn back our cognitive agency.

WORTH YOUR TIME THIS WEEK

Dec 18

We Need More Bubbles

Colin Lewis argues that AI overspending isn't a bug but a feature—bubbles are civilization's way of coordinating massive resources around transformative technologies, turning irrational exuberance into innovation breakthroughs.

One Percent Rule Substack
Dec 17

What We Think We Want vs. What We Actually Need

Three brilliant writers circle the same truth from different angles: Henrik Karlsson on sacrifice, Sherry Ning on values as a filter for spending, and Ian Leslie on buying happiness. Together, they reveal why what we think we want rarely matches what we actually need.

Original
Dec 16

No AI Job Apocalypse Yet?

David Deming, Harvard's new Dean, pushes back against AI job apocalypse fears, arguing that CEOs use AI as a convenient scapegoat and that technological disruption historically creates opportunities for the educated elite.

Fork Lightning Substack
Dec 15

A Bullshit Jobs Apocalypse?

Alex connects David Graeber's bullshit jobs theory with AI disruption, arguing that while meaningless corporate work persists, it's increasingly becoming just a paycheck to fund real entrepreneurial work—and AI is removing the entry-level rungs that once led to corporate careers.

The Still Wandering Substack
Dec 15

Scrolling Toward Oblivion

James O'Sullivan argues that social media has transformed from a discovery tool into a distraction machine, where billions of users scroll through AI-generated slop not for information but for 'ambient dissociation.'

Noema Magazine
Dec 10

The Pipedream of Classical Democracy

Branko Milanović's sobering reflection from a Columbia panel on democracy asks the uncomfortable question: what if people are using democracy to elect undemocratic leaders, and what if that's not a bug but a feature?

Branko Milanović's Substack
Nov 20

Death of Western Marxism

Joseph Heath explains how the brightest Marxist philosophers of the 1980s quietly became liberals—not because capitalism won, but because they stripped away Marx's theoretical baggage and found John Rawls had already built better tools for critiquing inequality.

Joseph Heath's Substack
Nov 15

Say It, Don't Show It

Neal Stephenson challenges the sacred writing rule 'show don't tell,' arguing that skilled exposition can move plot faster and engage broader audiences than pure dramatization.

Neal Stephenson's Substack
In the middle of winter I at last discovered that there was in me an invincible summer. Albert Camus