The Woke-up Call: A Review of Cynical Theories

26 October, 202127 October, 2021 ~ John Nerst ~ 5 Comments

A long review, with further musings, of "Cynical Theories". Read more (30 min, 7600 words).

Cat Couplings Revisited

18 July, 202114 July, 2021 ~ John Nerst ~ 9 Comments

I folliow up on "Cat Couplings" from 2019 with a bunch of new examples and further thinking on how and why cat couplings work. Read more (13 min, 3300 words).

Rereading Defenders of the Truth: The Sociobiology Debate

23 June, 202120 June, 2021 ~ John Nerst ~ 2 Comments

I reread a book that influenced me a lot when I was younger and review it. Defenders of the Truth: The Sociobiology Debate by Ullica Segerstråle chronicles the intense discussion in the wake of E.O Wilson's book "Sociobiology" from 1975. Read more (20 min, 5100 words).

Variations on the Tilted Political Compass

16 December, 202016 December, 2020 ~ John Nerst ~ 16 Comments

I make up ten variations of my version of the political compass from last year. Some small and fun, some large and serious, and it all comes together by the end. Read more (36 min, 8900 words).

Fantasia for Two Voices

17 November, 202018 November, 2020 ~ John Nerst ~ 12 Comments

A dialog on how everything is. Read more (6 min, 1600 words).

Ahistorical Siblings

27 October, 202027 October, 2020 ~ John Nerst ~ 10 Comments

What are the equivalents of the word "ahistorical" for other disciplines? Read more (6 min, 1400 words).

Picking Apart Eugenics

17 February, 202018 February, 2020 ~ John Nerst ~ 13 Comments

A quick-and-dirty piece on what the hell people mean by "eugenics", promted by the fallout from a tweet by Richard Dawkins.
Read more(7 min, 1700 words).

It’s Not So Only

28 January, 202028 January, 2020 ~ John Nerst ~ 10 Comments

Are mental illnesses actual illnesses or are they unusual preferences? Or maybe this is a non-issue because it's only about words? Well, that's not so only. Read more (8 min, 1900 words).

Cat Couplings

30 October, 201930 October, 2019 ~ John Nerst ~ 15 Comments

"I prefer honest argumentation to dishonest rhetoric." Do I mean that rhetoric is essentially dishonest, or am I talking about the kind of rhetoric that's dishonest? That's a cat coupling. Read more (7 min, 1800 words).

In Favor of Sometimes Sounding Like a Robot

24 July, 20193 June, 2020 ~ John Nerst ~ 12 Comments

If we want to sound friendly and appealing when presenting thoughts about human behavior we should avoid analytical, distancing language. But what if the value of an analytical and distancing perspective is part of what you want to communicate? Read more (11 min, 3500 words).