Language Erodes

19 July, 202226 July, 2022 ~ John Nerst ~ 9 Comments

Saying that "language evolves" is no enough to dismiss complaints about the misuse of words, since "language erodes" is just as valid, but without the suggestion of progress. Read more (9 min, 2300 words).

30 Fundamentals

16 July, 201817 January, 2022 ~ John Nerst ~ 23 Comments

I've spoken before about how it's difficult to interpret texts written by people with very different background assumptions, interests and preoccupations from you. Here I experiment with enumerating my basic beliefs in the hope that it'll make the meaning of my writing more transparent. Read more (13 min, 3200 words).

A Lament on Simler Et Al

5 December, 201717 January, 2022 ~ John Nerst ~ 8 Comments

In response to an article by Kevin Simler I complain about how often people mistake "selfishness" in an evolutionary sense for selfishness in the normal sense. Read more (12 min, 2900 words).