No One Wants What The Giver Offers

https://thecurriculum.substack.com/p/02-no-one-wants-what-the-giver-offers

Lois Lowry's classic is the kind of children's book that isn't written anymore

 

All Aboard the Bureaucracy Train

https://asteriskmag.com/issues/05/all-aboard-the-bureaucracy-train

The United States has the most expensive transportation infrastructure in the world. That’s because we refuse to learn from experts, other countries, and our own history.

A Battle with My Blood

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-weekend-essay/a-battle-with-my-blood

When I was diagnosed with leukemia, my first thought was that this couldn’t be happening to me, to my family.

What an unprocessed photo looks like

https://maurycyz.com/misc/raw_photo/

Here’s a photo of a Christmas tree, as my camera’s sensor sees it

In Conversation with Henry Slack

https://www.letspropelatl.org/in_conversation_with_henry_slack

A recent story in the Economist about the rise of e-bike parents ferrying kids to school observed, “Revolutions begin with a push of the pedal.”

That goes double for Henry Slack, bicycle enthusiast and co-founder of the Atlanta Bicycle Campaign (aka ABC), the organization founded in 1991 that eventually evolved into Propel ATL. A lifelong Atlanta bicyclist and transportation advocate known for commuting by bike from Decatur to downtown, Henry remains a guiding light for Propel ATL’s mission and values.

A Year In, the MAGA Labor Market Story Has Fallen Apart

https://newsletter.mikekonczal.com/p/a-year-in-the-maga-labor-market-story

I wish I could tell you that the reason people in their twenties can’t find jobs and the reason many of us are likely to be poorer over the next few years was more sophisticated than “we’re going to turn all the girlbosses into tradwives once they see all the manly men at the USA iPhone-screwing factory.” But I don’t think it is.

The bleak irony is that even after sacrificing real prosperity to chase this 4chan-level political economy, they still won’t achieve their goal. The jobs aren’t coming back, the wages aren’t rising, and family formation won’t be rescued by trying to rewind the labor market to a world that never existed in the first place.

Learning The Elite Class: my experience at fancy parties

https://aella.substack.com/p/learning-the-elite-class

“I’m thinking of running for office,” says the man in front of me. He has a greying beard and clean glasses. “I have some connections way back from boarding school who are thinking about funding me.”

I know boarding school is a thing, but I’d never heard of anybody I met, or any of their friends, having anything to do with boarding school for the first few decades of my life. Aren’t those gender segregated, or is that just a trope? Is it all year, including the summer? Is that a thing where parents send bad kids? Unclear. I think it probably costs money to go, which is why I never heard anyone mention boarding school when I was growing up.

Boarding school must be fancy, though, if kids who go to boarding school end up rich enough they can fund each other. I try to imagine growing up in a world where my old friends grew up to do something other than running their own gutter-cleaning business or working in middle management at Walmart or becoming a housewife. It must be super cool to have known anyone successful who you met before the short period of time ago that you became successful.

Read Something Wonderful

https://readsomethingwonderful.com/

100 Tips for a Better Life

https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/7hFeMWC6Y5eaSixbD/100-tips-for-a-better-life

 29. You do not live in a video game. There are no pop-up warnings if you’re about to do something foolish, or if you’ve been going in the wrong direction for too long. You have to create your own warnings. 

30. If you listen to successful people talk about their methods, remember that all the people who used the same methods and failed did not make videos about it. 

31. The best advice is personal and comes from somebody who knows you well. Take broad-spectrum advice like this as needed, but the best way to get help is to ask honest friends who love you.

The Copenhagen Interpretation of Ethics

https://laneless.substack.com/p/the-copenhagen-interpretation-of-ethics

The Copenhagen Interpretation of quantum mechanics says that you can have a particle spinning clockwise and counterclockwise at the same time - until you look at it, at which point it definitely becomes one or the other. The theory claims that observing reality fundamentally changes it.

The Copenhagen Interpretation of Ethics says that when you observe or interact with a problem in any way, you can be blamed for it. At the very least, you are to blame for not doing more. Even if you don't make the problem worse, even if you make it slightly better, the ethical burden of the problem falls on you as soon as you observe it. In particular, if you interact with a problem and benefit from it, you are a complete monster. I don't subscribe to this school of thought, but it seems pretty popular.

Why One Man Is Fighting for Our Right to Control Our Garage Door Openers

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/04/technology/personaltech/why-one-man-is-fighting-for-our-right-to-control-our-garage-door-openers.html

Too often, we are losing control of our personal technology, and the list of examples keeps growing. BMW made headlines in 2022 when it began charging subscriptions to use heated seats in some cars — a decision it reversed after a backlash. In 2021, Oura, the maker of a $350 sleep-tracking device, angered customers when it began charging a $6 monthly fee for users to get deeper analysis of their sleep. (Oura is still charging the fee.)

For years, some printer companies have required consumers to buy proprietary ink cartridges, but more recently they began employing more aggressive tactics, like remotely bricking a printer when a payment is missed for an ink subscription.

The activists and tinkerers rebelling against superfluous hardware subscriptions and fighting for device ownership are part of the broader “right to repair” movement, a consumer advocacy campaign that has focused on passing laws nationwide that require tech and appliance manufacturers to provide the tools, instructions and parts necessary for anyone to fix products, from smartphones to refrigerators.