A New Guild System
What if the more successful political commentators on Substack, or music teachers on YouTube, or masters of the podcast interview, began to teach their craft to others?
Stories to Tell
Posted on April 15, 2021
Image: Inmates take an exam at the California Rehabilitation Center in Norco, 2017; Watchara Phomicinda, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG.
Apart of a Community—Or a Part of It
Posted on April 12, 2021
Image: Woodcut from the 1969 Caedmon Records recording of the poetry of Walt Whitman read by Ed Begley.
Reading and interpreting poetry offers a unique way to cultivate ethical knowledge and therefore bears on collective, and not just individual, life.
Reading Wealth of Nations and Meeting Adam Smith
Posted on April 7, 2021
Image: Illustration of Adam Smith by Roseed Abbas/Shutterstock, Inc.
To measure the Wealth of Nations, you had to inspect the shirts on people’s backs and the shoes on their feet.
The Compatibility Trap
As the titans of big tech see it, the reticence to upgrade is nothing less than resistance to progress. But a willingness to upgrade does not benefit customers in the long run.
Opinion Fetishism
Posted on March 30, 2021
Image: Opinions by the score in the Ancient Greek agora.
Without the distance between self and thought, self and utterance, we are unable to entertain, probe, or debate ideas.