I respond at length to criticism against an article about erisology in The Atlantic, developing the concept further in the process. Read more (23 min, 7700 words).
A Defense of Erisology
Tag: writing
A Meta-Meditation
I wrote a spontaneous piece on the tensions between cultural/intellectual accessibility and ambition that under later scrutiny wasn't quite up to snuff. Instead of publishing something sub par or discard it I used it as a jumping off point for discussing the nature of creative work, writing and thinking in general. Read more (13 min, 4200 words).
2018 in Review
I summarize 2018 as a successful year and discuss what works and what doesn't with my blogging: it's getting better but higher ambitions and awareness of a bigger audience means I still write much less efficiently than I could be. Read more (6 min, 1800 words).
Taste Books That Don’t Take Off
I review the book Hit Makers and go on about how it loses its point in a sea of storytelling . Read more (10 min, 3300 words).
30 Fundamentals
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).
Reactions to “Infinite Jest”
Reading David Foster Wallace’s ”Infinite Jest” over a period of six months provoked a lot of thought about what makes a good book and why I didn’t particularly care for this one. Read more (16 min, 3900 words)
Hiatus
On the perils of writing a blog and why I didn’t publish anything for four months.Read more (500 words)
Idea Infatuation
How having an idea is similar to falling in love and why it sometimes doesn't work over the long term.Read more (300 words)
Illusory Communion
How you can feel like you know people and be part of a group without actually being so. It describes me and the so-called "rationalist community".Read more (1500 words)
Everything Studies 