"One fairly minor quote [from the recent Ross Douthat interview of Peter Thiel] that's worth thinking about: "I would define the middle class as the people who expect their kids to do better than themselves." This is actually a great working definition: a dividing line between middle and lower class is the assumption that the … Continue reading Peter Thiel on the Middle Class
Category: interviews
Xi Jinping Studies
"The Fourteen Imperatives are shorter. They all include the phrase ‘adhere to’ and are essentially a list of what party members must do to implement XJPXSDZGTSSHZYSX. Party members must adhere to: 1. party leadership over all endeavours; 2. people-centred development; 3. comprehensive and in-depth reform; 4. a new vision for development; 5. the people running … Continue reading Xi Jinping Studies
Words: Inclusion, Exclusion & Questioning
"Dictionaries project an image of disinterested expertise. This is because they are produced with stunning care by a professional team whose job it is to monitor a culture’s temperature. Consequently, they project authority. Yet what makes culture, particularly in a country like the United States, move is often an anti-authoritarian drive: rebellion, protests, marches. We … Continue reading Words: Inclusion, Exclusion & Questioning
No Special Magic
"I had an aged Volvo once (this is not irrelevant), and I was on holiday in Ireland in the summer, as I usually am, and the boot — which you call the trunk — jammed. I went in to the local garage man in my Kerry village and said, “I suppose I should take it to a Volvo dealer.” … Continue reading No Special Magic
Becoming a Better Smeller
"How could I become a better smeller? I like how you shifted away from questions of connoisseurship. You didn’t want to cultivate better aesthetic taste than other people. You just wanted to take in more of the world. Fredric Jameson once said, paraphrasing Adorno, that when you’re doing aesthetics as a Marxist, you can’t get away … Continue reading Becoming a Better Smeller
Defining the West
"The biggest surprise for Putin, of course, was the West. All the nonsense about how the West is decadent, the West is over, the West is in decline, how it’s a multipolar world and the rise of China, et cetera: all of that turned out to be bunk......The West is a series of institutions and … Continue reading Defining the West
Uncertainty & Future Planning Are Inversely Proportional
"There’s a paradox that strikes me whenever I visit Ely Cathedral, an amazing building just a few miles away from where we are sitting. It was built by masons as a structure that wasn’t to be finished in their lifetime, but which still inspires us 800 years later. We can’t think long term like they … Continue reading Uncertainty & Future Planning Are Inversely Proportional
Alex Karp: Palantir & Privacy
"Palantir Technologies is considered as one of the most secretive companies in the world. The customer list of the data specialist from Palo Alto, California, by all accounts includes nearly all governments and secret services of the Western world. As well as an increasing number of companies who want to deliver better products thanks to the structured data analysis … Continue reading Alex Karp: Palantir & Privacy
N.S.A. Research Director Interview
"In his first interview as leader of the NSA's Research Directorate, Gil Herrera lays out challenges in quantum computing, cybersecurity, and the technology American intelligence needs to master to secure and spy into the future."-Patrick Howell O'Neill, "Meet the NSA spies shaping the future." Technology Review. February 1, 2022. The leader of the National Security … Continue reading N.S.A. Research Director Interview
John Donahue on Food & Drink for the Soul
"One way, and I think this is a really lovely way, and I think it’s an interesting question to ask oneself too, and the question is, when is the last time that you had a great conversation, a conversation which wasn’t just two intersecting monologues, which is what passes for conversation a lot in this … Continue reading John Donahue on Food & Drink for the Soul
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