Short and quite un-sweet analysis of the future of the Grand Old Party

Excellent thesis on analysis paralysis "It’s as true for Netflix as it is for life. You’ll never find fulfillment if you only ever skim the surface of the infinite, potential futures which lie before you. Sometimes you need to break through your paralyzing thoughts and just dive in. Maybe the perfect choice is simply whichever one you make."

Many excellent and poignant reflections, I especially like “The purpose of a habit is to remove that action from self-negotiation. You no longer expend energy deciding whether to do it. You just do it.”

Reminds me of the "corporate athlete" concept, that rest is an important part of the energy cycle.

Enjoyed this stroll in Osama Shehzad's shoes

Make modern capitalism work for everyone -- pay consumers for their data.

A chilling blend of direct interview, personal reflection, and science-not-so-fiction that’s required to conceive the origin and direction of China’s surveillance state.

Not just the technology itself but it’s especially unsettling implementation: “False positives—deeming someone a threat for innocuous behavior—would be encouraged, in order to boost the system’s built-in chilling effects, so that she’d turn her sharp eyes on her own behavior, to avoid the slightest appearance of dissent.“

Important counterpoint to the “don’t like it? don’t use it.” argument against big tech regulation. De facto monopolies can be even more nefarious than de jure examples.

Important challenge of conventional wisdom and assumptions. “Only by [rescuing our Republic] will we prepare ourselves to meet the challenges of the 21st century with the courage and ingenuity that was long ago woven into the fabric of this marvelous, patchwork nation.“

Funny/sad. It’s easy to imagine a world where programming is a second language and we can all wield computers as flexible tools and not pre-built channels. So much emphasis and reward-structure for “process efficiency.”

Great article about the history and future of digital advertising. Rather than getting pimped out to microtargeting advertisers, go back to building ads that fit the content and reward the publisher.

Mukakami is a hot stone massage on my frontal lobe, and this vignette about wonder and learning is no exception.

"Weird Al is a spiritual technician doing important work down in the engine room of the American soul."