2022–2026

2026 220

October 2026

1. 30 OctMulti-media Friday -- three videos and a podcast
2. 29 OctThe downside of getting hundreds of millions from Elon Musk is that it comes from Elon Musk -- part 3
3. 28 OctProbably the only Herbie Popnecker/aerospace history post you'll read all week
4. 27 OctThe downside of getting hundreds of millions from Elon Musk is that it comes from Elon Musk -- part 2
5. 26 OctA bad time to be a prognosticator
6. 23 OctThe downside of getting hundreds of millions from Elon Musk is that it comes from Elon Musk
7. 22 OctTo be honest, I'm mainly running this one because of the cartoon
8. 22 OctXKCD's Randall Munroe on Data Quality
9. 21 OctSupreme Court Expansion
10. 21 OctRemember what we were saying about a "flying car-shaped object"?
11. 20 OctI think it's fair to say that concern over the AI bubble is no longer a fringe position
12. 19 OctBeing able to run for at most fifteen seconds at a time may limit the range a bit.
13. 16 OctI read the Financial Times because of its insightful commentary, in-depth reporting, and because their writers have names like Robin Wigglesworth
14. 15 OctCanaries
15. 14 OctTom Scott invents the anti-clickbait title
16. 13 OctA Different Level of Consensus
17. 12 OctMonday Tweets
18. 9 OctWeighing in on the latest school debate
19. 8 OctThis type of flowchart could be useful for analyzing a wide variety of news stories
20. 7 OctRevenge of the Nerds
21. 6 OctPerhaps unfairly, I decided not to include really knowing Harry Potter plots as relevant expertise
22. 5 OctSexy Apocalypse
23. 2 OctA Useful Taxonomy of AI Doomers, Accelerationists, and Skeptics
24. 1 OctThe Bond Sell-off and the AI Bubble

September 2026

1. 30 SepLLMs may be capable of recursive improvement, but the self part still has a ways to go
2. 29 SepCan we finally put a stake in the heart of the climate benefits of the AI bubble argument?
3. 28 SepThe Wall Street Journal sounds a bit concerned.
4. 25 SepMaybe AI getting too smart too quickly is not our most immediate concern.
5. 24 SepMaking the case for Ed Zitron as the last of the great bloggers.
6. 23 SepA rationalist, a cynic and an anthropologist walk into a bar...
7. 22 SepThat was ugly
8. 21 SepThe most important thing to remember about the incident where OpenAI agents went rogue is that it never happened.
9. 18 SepFriday Tweets
10. 17 SepComputer scientist Cal Newport adds some clarity to the AI debate
11. 16 SepMaybe we could just try going back to the old fashioned notion of enforcing laws.
12. 15 SepThe timing of Sam Altman's principled stand is a bit suspicious
13. 14 SepSanewashing Revisited
14. 11 SepNothing untoward going on here
15. 10 SepIt turned out that Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella actually could overstate the breakthrough of the metaverse
16. 9 SepIt's like something from a science fiction story. (No, it's literally* something from a science fiction novel)
17. 8 SepComing soon to a theater near you...
18. 7 SepIt's Labor Day, so we're taking time off and running a repost
19. 4 Sep"An analyst at JP Morgan described the approach as being like paying your mortgage with your credit card, which is unkind, but it's also basically what it is."
20. 3 SepElites in America
21. 2 SepWill Fusion Fizzle?
22. 1 SepFusion hype has a familiar ring to it

August 2026

1. 31 AugIt is notable that the illustration for the FT article is a literal Pie in the Sky (but given that we're talking about Brits here, it's probably filled with eels or blackbirds or something weird like that)
2. 28 AugApparently they don't get MeTV in Florida
3. 27 AugWhich is weirder, the fact that the president just suggested he might use a military intervention to stabilize the bond market, or the fact that almost no one seemed to notice?
4. 26 AugAll roads lead to Cushing*
5. 25 AugSaying something nice about Claude
6. 24 AugOctober 28, 2016, was arguably the pivotal moment in the career of Elon Musk
7. 21 AugFriday video/podcast recommendations -- Carl Brown edition
8. 20 AugIt is a sign of the times that Amazon gets to call this fair use while huge corporations try to sue the Internet Archive out of business.
9. 19 Aug"I want to come back as the bond market. You can intimidate everybody." --- James Carville (with the mandatory AI angle, of course)
10. 18 AugCory Doctorow on why centaurs like AI
11. 17 AugCommemorating thirteen years since Elon Musk revolutionized transportation with the hyperloop.
12. 14 AugSure it's a rerun, but it's got a Frazetta cover.
13. 13 AugLLMs are not nothing.
14. 12 AugGreat video but keep your finger over the mute button. Aschenbrenner's laugh will haunt your dreams.
15. 11 AugNot another Cushing post, but Cushing-relevant
16. 10 AugThe Ides (ish) of March -- checking in on the Ellison Media Empire
17. 7 AugNot Enron, but not good either.
18. 6 AugIs it a bad sign when people start making Enron comparisons? It seems like a bad sign.
19. 5 AugWhy would some of the most profitable companies in the world feel the need to load up on debt? Why would some of the most creditworthy companies in the world borrow money at a higher interest rate?
20. 4 Aug“Today is August 4, 2026”
21. 3 AugOne of the great things about living in the 2020s is all of the fascinating ethical problems to discuss

July 2026

1. 31 JulCarl Brown explains why being an AI developer is the best job in the whole wide world.
2. 30 JulOpenAI, SoftBank, and Nvidia
3. 29 JulYesterday's Alarmism is Tomorrow's Consensus
4. 28 JulAs always, the important thing is we won't have to cancel HBO Max for at least another month.
5. 27 JulIt's not a fear of “AI communism”; it's a fear of competitive market capitalism.
6. 24 JulIt's Friday. There's a heatwave. I'm feeling lazy. I'm just going to post some tweets.
7. 23 JulThree video recommendations for the weekend (assuming you're taking Friday off).
8. 22 JulOpenAI needs to capture 1,852% of the total addressable market
9. 21 JulEven less of a done deal—back on the Paramount/Warner beat.
10. 20 Jul"The media is important for many, many reasons, but one of the biggest ones is that scrutiny is what keeps capital in check, for the benefit of humanity and at times the companies themselves."
11. 17 JulIf things get really bad, Ellison can always sell that island back to Hawaii
12. 16 JulWe haven't heard much about oil reserves lately. I'm sure everyting's fine.
13. 15 JulAs previously mentioned, sometimes it's less about the facts and more about who's saying them.
14. 14 JulA fun little video from science writer and YouTuber Kyle Hill
15. 13 JulA not-so-done deal
16. 10 JulA lack of qualifications is not a qualification and other thoughts on Platner
17. 9 JulA concession to Mark about outsider candidates
18. 8 JulI probably should have worked in a Matrix reference
19. 7 JulThe idea of approaching tech narratives as folklore actually works better than it did eight years ago.
20. 6 JulAI doomsters and Dial F for Frankenstein
21. 3 JulPatrick Boyle on the anniversary of Brexit
22. 2 JulPeter Thiel's moments of honesty are largely limited to him saying bitchy things about Elon Musk
23. 1 Jul“It really seems like anyone with some renders and a white paper written by someone being gassed up by an overly agreeable AI can get VC funding these days,”

June 2026

1. 30 JunPrecarious Times
2. 29 JunIf only we had effective, efficient technology to deal with these crises
3. 26 JunAnother one of those stories that we really need Patrick Boyle for.
4. 25 JunNBC Blue was known for playing the uncensored version of Fibber McGee and Molly*
5. 24 JunI've been waiting years for a good feral pig story so I would have an excuse to use these two quotes.
6. 23 JunNewport is also the guy who suggested that Anthropic deserved the Nobel Prize in marketing for the Anthropic launch
7. 22 JunThe original Cushing oil boom was started in 1912 by a man actually named Tom Slick. Not relevant to the post but I had to mention it.
8. 19 JunParting shots -- following up on some recent threads
9. 18 Jun1999 AD
10. 17 JunQuestion for the MBAs in the audience, is losiing $21 billion a year bad?
11. 16 JunIf you're going to do a post on index funds...
12. 15 JunPaul Krugman has the perfect metaphor for the career of Elon Musk
13. 12 JunA repost to commemorate Elon Musk becoming the world's first trillionaire
14. 11 JunIt turns out that dumb money isn't an unlimited resource...
15. 10 JunFerguson and the deconstruction of late night
16. 9 JunAdmittedly not as entertaining as the George Santos prediction market scandal, but arguably more disturbing.
17. 8 JunIt's been ten years.
18. 5 Jun"Every fool aspired to be a knave"
19. 4 JunIf you had a writers' room brainstorming prediction market stories, someone would pitch this in the first ten minutes. UPDATED
20. 3 JunMore feel-good analysis from Patrick Boyle.
21. 2 JunCBS, Byron Allen, and the business of bad television
22. 1 JunI voted this weekend because...

May 2026

1. 29 MayExponential growth in demand is one of the sustaining assumptions of the AI bubble. This looks like something else
2. 28 MayApparently insider trading is now illegal
3. 27 MayHello Goodbye
4. 26 MayRemember that company that everyone with a NASDAQ index fund is about to be forced to buy?
5. 25 MayMemorial Day Repost
6. 22 MaySince ed reform mania died down, we haven't had much call to mention Goodhart's Law
7. 21 MayNancarrow and McLaren
8. 20 MayMore irrational than the shoe company example but admittedly not as embarrassing
9. 19 May"Tomorrow's just a future yesterday." TV edition
10. 18 MayAI growth and tokenmaxxing
11. 15 MayOnly slightly more absurd than some real-life cases
12. 14 MayA great Charles Bronson story.
13. 13 MayA tale told in tweets (Make sure to use the Muppet announcer voice when you read the word "space")
14. 12 MayIt's amazing the mileage I get out of some posts
15. 11 MayWe laughed at her at the time, but in the age of AI bubble circular financing, Peg Bundy feels like a true visionary.
16. 8 MayChatGPT still has trouble trouble with rise-over-run
17. 8 MayRemembering the world before the hyperloop -- a continuing series
18. 7 MayThe Organization Mad -- Parody as historical snapshot.
19. 6 MayMeta, Microsoft, and other tech giants are losing billions on AI. Can Apple catch up?
20. 5 MaySixteen years ago at the blog: I'm not wasting time reading old paperbacks; I'm conducting serious research into Cold War political attitudes
21. 4 MayWhat we're talking about when we talk about the AI bubble
22. 1 MayGenerational fairness

April 2026

1. 30 AprI apologize for calling AI a bubble. It is actually a bouncy house, and right now everybody's listening to the blowers.
2. 29 AprAnthropic's Mythos: One moderate step forward for white-hat hacking; one giant leap forward for journalists' credulity
3. 28 AprMore context from Devereaux
4. 27 AprNot one of Boyle's funny ones, but we do get the unlikely pairing of Zippy Duvall and (not the) Pablo Escobar.
5. 24 AprI'm sure someone at the studio at some point described this project as Colossus meets Rosemary's Baby
6. 23 AprTen years ago at the blog when we still considered Watergate the pinnacle of political corruption
7. 22 AprMore thoughts on predictive markets
8. 21 AprPatrick Boyle explains why it's illegal to bet on the price of onions but it's OK to bet on the Dodgers' double header
9. 20 AprWe need to talk about this clip.
10. 17 AprET reads the NYT
11. 16 AprStill looks a little bubbly to me.
12. 15 AprSixteen years ago at the blog: That brief hopeful time when we thought we'd seen the last of the Star Wars and Indiana Jones sequels
13. 14 AprSmart people commenting on important things
14. 13 AprWe can all agree: spaceflight is cool.
15. 10 AprYou thought I was joking about the Iran War going so badly that Trump would start bringing up Epstein as a distraction.
16. 9 AprIf podcasts are your thing and you have any interest in the business of AI...
17. 8 AprFuturism should be careful. Gawker also criticized the NYT and learned that the gray lady doesn't take kindly to that sort of thing.
18. 7 AprWhatever they paid Goldsmith, it wasn't enough; whatever they paid Bricusse, it was too much
19. 6 AprNever a good sign for journalistic objectivity when the reporter says "Wow"
20. 3 AprProbably even worse than you realized
21. 2 AprThe Double Taco -- updated
22. 1 AprI know I said this before, but this is the last one, I promise.

March 2026

1. 31 Mar"Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in!"
2. 30 MarIntroducing the Trump Pressure Index
3. 27 MarI've started a new drinking game where I take a shot whenever a tech bro uses the term "Kardashev scale."
4. 26 MarYes, I know I said we'd drop the subject, but that was before I knew the Onion was going to pick it up.
5. 25 MarToday in 11-year-old hyperloop news
6. 24 MarAnother angle on housing costs
7. 23 Mar"[I]sn't necessarily a systemic catastrophe" is not the most comforting of phrases.
8. 20 MarYes, I am about to unironically post a Joe Rogan interview with Ben Affleck.
9. 19 MarI read the Financial Times because of its sharp insights, witty prose, and the fact that they have writers with names like Robin Wigglesworth
10. 18 MarBlah blah Ginger blah blah blah
11. 17 MarMAHAspital
12. 16 MarPatrick Boyle lays out the ugly details of Elon Musk’s ultimate scam (perhaps in both senses of the word).
13. 13 MarWhen it comes to agentic AI, a Newhart Airline is the best is the best case scenario.
14. 12 MarOld Sheldon
15. 11 MarStrategic Airpower
16. 10 MarBtfd
17. 9 MarBuying the Dip
18. 6 MarBit of a spoiler with the Silicon Valley clip, but it's a great gag
19. 5 MarAnd to think of all the fun we made of Rumsfeld for known unknowns -- mostly trivial items for the penultimatepost of the week
20. 4 MarIf nothing else, the image of Wall Street investors as extras from Oliver! was worth the price of admission -- updated
21. 3 MarWe just point out the patterns; we don't try to explain them.
22. 2 MarThe prediction market thread got very relevant very quickly.

February 2026

1. 27 FebThe very fact that this article calls to mind a Roald Dahl short story is probably a red flag
2. 26 FebGood analogy, though under the circumstances, I'm a bit surprised he didn't go with Zelig.
3. 25 FebMore takes on Citrini (I'm not the only one using scare quotes around "report")
4. 24 FebTraders who have ignored threats to Fed independence, erratic trade policy, and the deportation of much of the American labor force just panicked over a citation-free piece of fan fiction.
5. 23 FebA Tale of Two Logics (This is what you get when an old math and English teacher weighs in)
6. 20 FebWhat Jamie Dimon meant when he talked about "the next DOJ"
7. 19 FebAerodromes and LLMs
8. 18 FebImagine telling people twenty years ago that two of the most important stories in political media would revolve around late night network talk shows.
9. 17 FebWe haven't complained about television for a while
10. 16 FebThe harder-problem fallacy (which is about to become relevant again)
11. 13 FebIf you want to get a feel for the post–Musk Silicon Valley, you really should watch these videos.
12. 12 FebPleasantly surprised to see the NYT actually connect the dots here
13. 11 FebThe Voss Chronicles
14. 10 FebThe AI and the Super Bowl Commercial Bubble Curse
15. 9 FebWhen threads collide: Epstein, Musk, and the New York Times.
16. 6 FebIn the war on data, even the CIA isn't safe
17. 5 FebWhen you're trying to weather a scandal, it helps to have the NYT on your side.
18. 4 FebA quick midweek film review by Bob Chipman
19. 3 Feb"because a 'stock' no longer refers to a unit of ownership in a company so much as it is a chip at a casino where the house constantly changes the rules."
20. 2 FebElon doesn't think things through

January 2026

1. 30 JanTesla to transition out of the making of real things in order to focus on vaporware
2. 29 JanAs if Mike Johnson didn't have enough to worry about...
3. 28 JanThe Musk Credibility Market
4. 27 JanThe War on Data -- part [I've lost count]
5. 26 Jan"ICE > MN" -- even for this administration, you seldom encounter the quiet part this loud
6. 23 JanWhere's your Ed at? Right here.
7. 22 JanEarly seventies socially relevant DC has, as a rule, not aged well
8. 21 JanAcknowledging what these people are while being realistic about what they can and can't do
9. 20 JanI didn't expect to be recommending a nearly hour long video essay on Hopalong Cassidy...
10. 19 JanHave a safe and contemplative Martin Luther King Jr. Day
11. 16 JanAn AI conversation older than me (we just won't say by how much)
12. 15 JanI’m going to try to be a little nicer to David Roberts in the future…
13. 14 JanJust one more, I promise.
14. 13 JanWow, that was even quicker than I expected.
15. 12 JanA sane market would be going crazy right now.
16. 9 JanStill not sure why editors in NYC were more traumatized by the LA fires than those of us in LA were...
17. 8 JanIn Elon's defense, maybe people who stayed on X are just disproportionately creepy
18. 7 Jan“In this vale / Of toil / and sin / Your head goes bald / But not your chin. ...Burma-Shave.”
19. 6 JanWelcome to Pottersville
20. 5 JanThings the NYT thinks are less news-worthy than Kimberly Guilfoyle's party schedule
21. 2 JanEveryone complains about the traffic. In LA, the guerrilla artists do something about it.
22. 1 JanNew Year's Day greetings from Winsor McCay

2025 263

December 2025

1. 31 DecNew Year's Eve greetings from Winsor McCay
2. 30 DecHow Christmas goose and Christmas turkey switched places. The economics and agriculture behind changing holiday traditions.
3. 29 DecIt's basically the story of the mechanical Turk but with a really dystopian final act
4. 26 DecDystopia Watch -- Surveillance State Edition
5. 25 DecLittle Nemo Meets Lieutenant Kijé
6. 24 DecChristmas Eve greetings from XKCD
7. 23 DecChristmas Eve Eve with the California Raisins — more on commerce and Christmas.
8. 22 DecFun little online poll from the people at Tech Won’t Save Us.
9. 19 DecThe most famous reindeer -- more on Christmas and commerce
10. 18 DecFT: "OpenAI is a money pit with a website on top."
11. 17 DecThree tweets and a picture presented without comment
12. 16 DecAsking the right question about the humanoid bubble
13. 15 DecI'm really starting to hate Last Christmas.
14. 12 DecIt's Hollywood, you knew there'd be a cliffhanger.
15. 11 DecStill waiting for the episode where Don Draper pitches the Gilbert U-238 Atomic Energy Laboratory
16. 10 DecFunny how often a quote from Germany in the late Thirties seems appropriate these days.
17. 9 DecBirthright citizenship
18. 8 DecNotes on Netflix + WB -- in retrospect, my biggest mistake was not realizing what a dumpster fire Disney+ would be under Bob Chapek
19. 5 DecYou're going to hear a lot of bad Christmas music this month.
20. 4 DecThe fallacy of equivocation
21. 3 DecWhen it came to Elon Musk, the hyperloop was my reindeer moment.
22. 2 DecEverybody's talking about affordability, but only Marketplace thought to bring in a linguist.
23. 1 DecOur annual Toys-for-Tots post

November 2025

1. 28 NovExplaining the finances of OpenAI remains a job for Patrick Boyle
2. 27 Nov"As God as my witness..." is my second favorite Thanksgiving episode line [Repost]
3. 26 NovHappy Thanksgiving Eve
4. 25 NovApologies in advance but I just have to share this one
5. 24 NovElon really, really doesn't think things through
6. 21 NovThe funniest part of the latest XKCD cartoon isn't on XKCD
7. 20 NovCacti, Goats, Charcoal -- we do it all
8. 19 NovAfter you've cleaned your room, you can go outside and play with Foamy.
9. 18 NovEdison on the power grid of the future
10. 17 NovActually a P/E ratio of 200 would be an enormous improvement
11. 14 NovFinally, a piece of data visualization that truly captures the moment.
12. 13 NovWe really should set aside more time for cool math
13. 12 NovReason 53 Why Wikipedia Is Better Than Mainstream Media: They Actually Fix Their Mistakes
14. 11 NovMore from the vaunted fact-checkers of the New Yorker
15. 10 NovOne of the most challenging parts of living in profoundly abnormal times is avoiding a false sense of normalcy.
16. 7 NovHaving robots follow criminals around to prevent all crime sounds like a perfectly workable plan that's not at all dystopian
17. 6 Nov"But believe it or not, you won't find it so hot If you ain't got the do re mi. "
18. 5 Nov"Indefensible on any artistic level but..."
19. 4 NovIf Mamdani wins, please keep your think pieces to yourself
20. 3 NovI don't think the administration is going to try to suppress the vote in L.A. (because I don’t think they can).

October 2025

1. 31 OctTwelve years ago at the blog -- a Halloween themed repost
2. 31 OctHalloween Deep Cuts
3. 30 Oct"Back in my day, the internet was really something."
4. 29 OctIt's important to note these Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether moments
5. 28 OctNotes on Mr. Arkadin
6. 27 OctBoyle's slightly less pessimistic take on the Gen AI bubble.
7. 24 Oct"Did you hear the one about the huge bubble threatening to take down the economy?"
8. 23 OctA bubble story that's not about AI.
9. 22 OctCheering for fire trucks and crossing with the light- - notes on a Portlandia/Spirit Halloween protest.
10. 21 OctTweet-posting History
11. 20 OctCorollary: when comics started printing "Collector's Edition" on the cover, they ceased being financially worth collecting.
12. 17 OctThere's an ongoing war against the very concepts of public domain and fair use and it's something we should be talking about.
13. 16 OctAnd you thought consultants were overpaid before...
14. 15 OctFourteen years ago at the blog: the "a pervasive fetish" line actually holds up better today than it did then
15. 14 OctEleven years ago at the blog: This one had legs
16. 13 OctNYT on the SAT -- then and now
17. 10 Oct"If there's fear in the market, it's wearing noise canceling headphones."
18. 9 OctIt’s like a buy-one-get-one-free deal, except with billions of dollars’ worth of chips and 10% of AMD.
19. 8 OctThe Libertarian Movement and Women -- It's not just a Robin Hanson thing
20. 7 OctWhen "create more wealth before the bubble bursts" is the bull case
21. 6 OctGuess what I got in the mail this weekend?
22. 3 OctTo address the oversupply of soybeans, RFK Jr. announced that the Health Department has developed new crackers combining the legume with lentils for a tasty and nutritious snack.
23. 2 OctWest Coast Stat Views Correction: it turns out August wasn't the worst possible time to start playing Kriegspiel with the US economy
24. 1 OctMaking sense of the senseless

September 2025

1. 30 SepThe Iger Sanction*
2. 29 SepThat was quick
3. 26 SepWeekend Videos -- Would-Be Tyrants and Real-Life Giants
4. 25 SepBack on the cautionary beat
5. 24 SepKimmel part 2 -- the business
6. 23 SepKimmel Part 1 -- the politics
7. 22 SepI was going to start a two-part post on the Kimmel suspension, but given the news, I though I'd hold off
8. 19 SepFill in the _____
9. 18 SepBluesky, Dark Clouds
10. 17 SepMy Bluesky
11. 16 SepThe tech right and fascism—Peter Thiel, Elon Musk, and Marc Andreessen have been checking this Overton window for years.
12. 15 SepInsider trading is bad and other quaint notions
13. 12 Sep"Wonderful news, comrade! Based on the results of your tissue match, you have been awarded an all-expenses-paid vacation to..."
14. 11 SepOn Tuesday, the world’s richest man was a far-right, Ivermectin-loving loon who used his money to buy major media platforms. By close of trading Wednesday, the new world’s richest man was a far-right, Ivermectin-loving loon who uses his money to buy major media platforms for his son.
15. 10 SepIt's not true that all techno-optimist ideas come from old sci-fi shows. Some of them come from old back issues of the National Review.
16. 9 SepIt took some tough bargaining, but the Tesla board managed to keep Musk's pay plan under $1 trillion
17. 8 SepNot so much the fact itself as the fact people are talking about the fact
18. 5 SepDispatches from a still-not-burning Los Angeles.
19. 4 SepNothing to worry about here -- Nvidia edition
20. 3 SepMore (non)weird weather
21. 2 SepThis is probably a non-story, old news about the president's health blown up by internet buzz and wishful thinking, but it's also a reminder of how strange and unstable the dynamic of this White House is and of the gaping double standard in recent press coverage.
22. 1 SepIt's Labor Day, so we're taking time off and running a repost

August 2025

1. 29 AugAre LLMs a Langley steam plane? A Newhart airline? What's the best metaphor for the current state of AI?
2. 28 AugShadowy surveillance company started by a reactionary Bond villain suddenly started trading at a P/E over 500 shortly after Trump was elected -- probably nothing to see here
3. 27 AugWhether it's due to battered spouse syndrome or dumb money, the entire stock market is now one big this is fine meme.
4. 26 AugHow to report on an obvious lie
5. 25 AugMore on AI and Wall Street
6. 22 AugThe people who are surprised by the rise of the Silicon Valley alt-right are the people who weren't paying attention to Silicon Valley
7. 21 AugIf the AI Boom turns out to be a bubble, how loud will the pop be?
8. 20 AugThis is why women love the Three Stooges
9. 19 AugIn completely unrelated news, Tesla closed yesterday with a P/E ratio of 194
10. 18 AugMy mind makes strange connections
11. 15 AugElon Musk takes one out of the Sheriff Bart playbook
12. 14 AugDr. Elara Voss -- LLMs' own Jungian archetypal memory?
13. 13 AugTo be a good historian you have to be a good statistician...
14. 12 AugTrip to the library
15. 11 Aug"About a 30-minute drive south along the highways that split up the city, residents in majority-white areas live on average 24 years longer."
16. 8 AugThe bad news is that the push against "debanking" is massively hypocritical and is driven by crypto-bros and fin-tech scammers. The good news is that Patrick Boyle has a video on it.
17. 7 AugTrump isn't behind all of the looming economic catastrophes. (Sometimes it's his tech bro pals.)
18. 6 AugMACA: Make America China Again (OK, the "Again" doesn't really work but you try coming up with cute titles for fifteen years)
19. 5 AugJosh Marshall on the value of credible data and on the cost of losing it
20. 4 AugThe worst possible time to start playing Kriegspiel with the US economy
21. 1 AugA Letter from Tom Lehrer

July 2025

1. 31 JulEight years ago at the blog -- perhaps our most evergreen post
2. 30 Jul"Indeed, if you can’t wrestle with the heavy amount of absurd at the heart of our political moment you will simply be lost or be having an irrelevant conversation with other gatekeepers."
3. 29 JulMusk : engineering :: Trump : deal-making
4. 28 JulR.I.P. Tom Lehrer 1928-2025 (Part 2)
5. 28 JulR.I.P. Tom Lehrer 1928-2025 (Part 1)
6. 25 JulDan Froomkin discusses why Epstein is the only Trump scandal the mainstream press isn't afraid to cover
7. 24 JulA few quick thoughts on the latest Epstein news.
8. 23 JulJohn Michael Osbourne 1948-2025
9. 22 JulThe Talking Tina Fallacy
10. 21 JulChecking in with LA weather. It’s nice.
11. 18 JulAll so the son of a loony Silicon Valley billionaire can have his own studio.
12. 17 Jul"Once you get used to all the swords, the Throne of Damocles is actually quite comfortable."
13. 16 JulI so wish Clyde Schechter had been wrong on this one
14. 15 JulAlways interesting to see how the NYT handles a story the GOP would rather not talk about.
15. 14 JulFeral disinformation, blood feuds, and a lifetime supply of schadenfreude — it's been quite the weekend.
16. 11 JulPatrick Boyle on the Gilded Age -- a higher caliber of evil plutocrats
17. 10 JulThe questionable logic of Wall Street’s Trump TACO trade
18. 9 JulAbout that salute Elon gave...
19. 8 JulAt the New Yorker, fact checking seems to be viewed as a personal choice
20. 7 JulIn case you skipped the news over your three-day weekend
21. 4 JulMusic for the 4h
22. 3 JulIt remains to be seen how much impact the changes in CEQA will have on housing sector, but it should certainly help the superfund sector.
23. 2 JulChecking in on Elon and the Big Beautiful Bill
24. 1 JulWhenever anyone say theirs is the "actual Scientific Method," you should get nervous

June 2025

1. 30 JunLalo Schifrin 1932 -- 2025
2. 27 JunEd Zitron on remote work, Arthur C. Clarke on remote work, us on remote work
3. 26 JunFifteen years ago at the blog: We've been making tortured analogies here for over a decade.
4. 25 JunA Temu Waymo
5. 24 JunGods or Ashes
6. 23 JunWe haven't talked about SpaceX lately
7. 20 JunIf you were wondering why liberals have been reluctantly saying nice things about Tucker Carlson
8. 19 JunProtests and Parades: The Dog That Did Not Bark
9. 18 JunProtests and Parades: What do you expect from hotbeds of liberalism like Mississippi, Arkansas, and Oklahoma?
10. 17 JunProtests and Parades: just a reminder that the NYT gave more coverage than this to a literal dog-bites-man story
11. 16 JunProtests and Parades: Overview of a Thread
12. 13 JunGiving Patrick Boyle the last word on Musk v. Trump
13. 12 JunYes, you can also count this as a recommendation
14. 11 Jun"A company for laying out plans to ship 100 million AI “companions” that will become a part of everyday life, but nobody to know what they are"
15. 10 JunClosing thoughts on Trump vs. Musk
16. 9 JunSunday night in LA County, 6/8/2025
17. 6 JunI have to admit, I did not expect us to get to impeachment and deportation by Thursday.
18. 5 JunMusk vs. Trump is class Godzilla vs. Rodan
19. 4 JunPrometheus Unbound and the Great Pumpkin Theory of Technological Innovation
20. 3 JunThe Unlikely Return of the "Progressives Should Be Nicer to Musk" Narrative
21. 2 JunWhy the humanoid robot story matters

May 2025

1. 30 MayI'm as tired of the snark as you are. Let's do a fun robotics story.
2. 29 MayNo one understands and explains the Age of the Business Idiot better than Ed Zitron
3. 28 MayWell, you have to admit, he can make things disappear.
4. 27 MayTrump, the Court and the Calculation: They will do anything for love, but they won't do that.
5. 26 MayMemorial Day Repost
6. 23 MayAny excuse to post this video
7. 22 MayWhen they really want to tell a story...
8. 21 MayHumanoid robots are the blockchain of 2025
9. 20 MayComing to a vineyard near you...
10. 19 MayIt's almost as if, bear with me here, it's more cost efficient to reduce the amount of carbon you're putting into the atmosphere than it is to try to capture it after the fact.
11. 16 MayCriticism vs. Reviews vs. Meta-Reviews vs. Non-reviews
12. 15 MayMore on humanoid robots -- who ya gonna believe?
13. 14 MayPossible Papal Posts
14. 13 May“How come I can’t breathe at home and y’all get to breathe at home?”
15. 12 MayA leftist filmmaker is interviewed in a leftist magazine about his recent pro-nuclear documentary
16. 9 MayHow can we say that Flow is a bad idea if Andreessen Horowitz invested a third of a billion dollars in it?
17. 8 MayJosh Marshal's understating how dysfunctional the titans of Silicon Valley have become
18. 7 MayAnother one for the lexicon: deerstalker
19. 6 MayA few years ago Morgan Stanley released an analysis promising that the metaverse would soon be worth more than $5 trillion dollars. Their latest one on humanoid robots may not rise to that level of prescience.
20. 5 MaySurprisingly, despite Elon Musk's involvement, this may turn out to be a scam.
21. 2 MayThe Cylon (TOS) Design Fallacy
22. 1 MayI hate to reschedule "The Cylon (TOS) Design Fallacy" yet again, but we had a big news day on the Tesla front

April 2025

1. 30 AprSometimes it's useful and I think healthy to imagine trying to explain the news of 2025 to the you of 2015.
2. 29 AprWill the robotaxi business really be worth $443 billion to Tesla?
3. 28 Apr#SummerOfScarcity
4. 25 AprMarkets can remain high on LSD longer than you can remain solvent.
5. 24 Apr"Been down so long it looks like up to me" -- a tale told mostly in tweets*
6. 23 AprWe'll be okay as long as the Silicon Valley grown-up are in charge -- Greenland edition
7. 22 AprOf course, the chances of people relying on their 401(k)s breaking even are much slimmer
8. 21 AprThough not directly related to the IRS story, I have to mention that the "spend more time with his families" joke has gotten much more relevant recently
9. 18 AprAnd it makes parallel parking a breeze.
10. 17 AprFor a narcissist with a messiah complex, this is actually pretty much on brand.
11. 16 Apr"Strauss and the war on data" was one of our most successful early posts but I would dearly love never to have another excuse to revisit it.
12. 15 AprWhy, Robot?
13. 14 AprIf you're presenting two interpretations of Musk and you literally label one of them the "real Elon," you may have revealed a slight bias
14. 11 AprPatrick Boyle is the ideal choice for explaining the business of Elon Musk
15. 10 Apr"Because it felt so good when they paused."
16. 9 Apr"The Problems With Humanoid Robots"
17. 8 AprSure, the whole humanoid robot thing is a scam, but at least Musk puts some effort into it.
18. 7 AprThe "we'll be okay as long as Elon is in charge" take has aged badly.
19. 4 AprIs Elon stepping back to spend more time with his families?
20. 3 AprWhy should robots look like us and, more to the point, why should we look like us?
21. 2 AprThis seems like a good time to revisit the idea of omnicompetence
22. 1 AprReposting this one because it's April 1st and because it has one of my favorite titles

March 2025

1. 31 MarIn the interest of efficiency, I’m reusing the following headline: “Controlling the boards of both companies may have helped with the negotiations”
2. 28 MarCGI and spreadsheets have revolutionized the construction of Potemkin villages
3. 27 MarRunning with the (Tesla) Bulls
4. 26 Mar"The Myth of the Secret Genius"
5. 25 MarYou can hardly blame the New York Times for trusting Netflix. It's not like the company has a record of pulling this crap for more than a decade.
6. 24 Mar"First class tickets for ships that have sailed" -- a ten-years-ago-at-the-blog repost
7. 21 MarStill a better branding choice than "Soylent"
8. 20 MarPerhaps we should let Turing off the hook as well
9. 19 MarNoah may be overthinking "We'll do the Flintstones but in the future, with robots instead of dinosaurs."
10. 18 MarEvery picture tells a story
11. 17 Mar"The SAT Gave Me Hope"
12. 14 MarAt least he didn't call it 'crowd sourcing'
13. 13 MarI tried to come up with a snarky title, but I was hard-pressed to top "timeless appeal" -- another entry in our Adventures in IP thread
14. 12 MarHow can we possibly hope to rebuild after losing more than one half of a percent of our housing?
15. 11 MarNote to Elon: When people are accusing you of being a Nazi, blaming it on a George Soros conspiracy may not be the smartest move.
16. 10 MarTen years ago at the blog, March was pretty much Mars One month
17. 7 MarXKCD on DST
18. 6 MarHave we mentioned how unfair it is to single out Arthur Conan Doyle?
19. 5 MarClive James's example may be god-awful, but what about the point he was trying to make?
20. 4 MarA Blacker Black Box
21. 3 MarThe Grandiosity/Contribution Ratio -- another newly relevant repost

February 2025

1. 28 FebMore thoughts on criticism -- critics and reviewers
2. 27 FebTwo completely unrelated news stories
3. 26 Feb"There seems to be a plague of jellyfish and really a plague of anything is usually not considered good."
4. 25 FebThiel is Dr. Mabuse. Musk is Cobra Commander.
5. 24 FebHow I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the LLM part 2 -- a proof-reader, not an editor
6. 21 Feb"What was Clive James thinking?" Maybe the question is when was he thinking it?
7. 20 FebIn the cold war, all the cool kids had toys with nuclear warheads
8. 19 FebA tale of two tweets
9. 18 FebFifteen years ago at the blog (does anyone else feel old?)
10. 17 FebHow I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the LLM part 1-- coding
11. 14 FebListen to the last three minutes of Thursday's Marketplace
12. 13 FebIn defense of LLMs, they are considerably more polite than the typical 9th grader
13. 12 FebIn the aftermath of a disaster that took a great human and environmental toll, your first response should always be to loosen regulations and lower safety standards
14. 11 FebThe rich and famous of Southern California have always loved living in isolated spots with gorgeous mountain views, and it has always been a bad idea
15. 10 FebF&A costs and why they matter
16. 7 Feb"Sadly ecstatic disaster porn, with superficial coverage of causes and no interest whatsoever in solutions"
17. 6 FebThe best graphic I've seen on the wildfire crisis comes from National Public Radio, which just seems wrong
18. 5 FebSome relevant background on Musk and Twitter
19. 4 FebCriminalizing solutions -- an extreme but informative case
20. 3 FebFor no particular reason, I felt like reading up on the Smoot–Hawley Tariff today

January 2025

1. 31 Jan"You say you want a revolution" repost -- I missed one
2. 30 JanI promised we'd get back to the goats.
3. 29 JanA bit of a brisk start to the new administration
4. 28 JanWe'll come back to the Goat Fund Me proposal later
5. 27 JanRain
6. 24 JanGetting your takes on California from publications with "New York" in their name may not be the smartest play
7. 23 JanNYT's cigarettes and cocaine reporting on the LA fires
8. 22 JanBirthright citizenship
9. 21 JanTinder Bundles
10. 20 JanWe're just going to have to ride this one out.
11. 17 JanFire and Ice
12. 16 JanAt least they didn't say it was more important than 9/11 or the Civil Rights Movement
13. 15 JanMundane Monday
14. 14 JanAT&T Archives - The Viewtron System and Sceptre Videotex Terminal (1983)
15. 13 JanYou'll see a lot of finger pointing in the coverage of the fires but almost no real coverage of the mistakes that got us here.
16. 10 Jan"if people in the paths of these fires is one of, perhaps the major obstacle to the solution, then we need to have a serious debate about where we encourage (or even allow) new housing and development."
17. 9 JanHousing YIMBYs/fire NIMBYs and the Not-Enough-Fire Paradox
18. 8 JanAn unquiet night
19. 7 Jan"and barely concealed hostility toward orthogonality"
20. 6 JanSix years ago at the blog -- reposted just because it's cool
21. 3 Jan"Libertarian Sea Pods: A Hilarious Aquatic Disaster"
22. 2 JanApocalypse Deferred
23. 1 JanSeason's greetings from Windsor McCay.

2024 267

December 2024

1. 31 DecMore airships from the "English Jules Verne"
2. 30 DecCool pictures from the "English Jules Verne"
3. 27 DecYou should check out Tom Scott
4. 26 DecStrandbeesten
5. 25 DecChristmas with Little Nemo
6. 24 DecMaybe we should state all holidays as Eve powers
7. 23 DecI miss CollegeHumor
8. 20 DecAs we've said before, if you've gone through the holidays without hearing "Sugar Rum Cherry"...
9. 19 DecSixties television was filled with heart-warming Christmas episodes often featuring orphans
10. 18 DecEight years ago at the blog -- Evangelicals have always been passionate about the war on Christmas. They just used to be on the other side.
11. 17 DecLord Peter Wimsey on the enshittification* of Tonka trucks -- a Toys for Tots follow-up
12. 16 DecTwelve years ago -- serious news outlets were still taking seriously a plan to colonize Mars with a reality show...
13. 13 DecAnd you thought the space hotel was embarrassing*
14. 12 DecEither a 2% or a 75% chance of rain
15. 11 DecAnother indication that the original Drake Equation was worthless
16. 10 Dec"The city would naturally form a line as it tried to get away from itself."
17. 9 DecOur annual Toys-for-Tots post
18. 6 DecDouble-talk from the other side
19. 5 DecFive years ago at the blog we were talking about an aborted twenty year old project that keeps getting more relevant
20. 4 DecWhat did John von Neumann mean by the "singularity"? -- a lemma post
21. 3 DecHaving a Galactic Christmas
22. 2 DecTrump did better with women against Harris than he did against Biden -- you'd think that would be the lede

November 2024

1. 29 NovFor the math nerds in the audience (or, in our case, the audience)
2. 28 Nov"As God as my witness..." is my second favorite Thanksgiving episode line [Repost]
3. 27 Nov"The trouble with revolutions is that they get in the hands of the wrong people."
4. 26 NovI would have expected it to be higher.
5. 25 NovGoogle and the Case of the Missing Search Term
6. 22 Nov"You're right. We need to strengthen the dose... One part in ten million." -- Mitchell and Webb on Health Care
7. 21 NovNine years ago at the blog -- reposting this partially because RadioLab hasn't gotten any better but mainly because I really like the title.
8. 20 NovLast things first – – a few thoughts on the Mars conversation and on 21st century futurism in general.
9. 19 NovA tale of two cities (no, really, the same story covers both of them)
10. 18 NovWaiting for Goffman -- to understand how the New York Times' election coverage got so bad, you have to look beyond their election coverage.
11. 17 NovSunday must read by Josh Marshall
12. 15 NovRandall has forgotten about induced demand
13. 14 NovTwelve years ago at the blog -- people still bothered to think about Freakonomics
14. 13 NovBack on Mars – – houseplant edition
15. 12 NovSix years ago at the blog -- we've been meaning to get back to Mars (rhetorically speaking)
16. 11 Nov10 years ago at the blog – – it is now officially too late to be early.
17. 8 Nov“I feel like I’m the wellness Lorax,”
18. 7 NovFour years ago at the blog I meant to write a "ten years ago at the blog"
19. 6 NovThe World's Greatest 404 Page
20. 5 NovNovember 5th, 2024
21. 4 NovJosh Marshall on the difference between close and uncertain
22. 1 NovTwelve years ago on the blog -- the war on data still seems pretty relevant

October 2024

1. 31 OctMartians and Metadata -- a Halloween themed repost
2. 30 OctIntroducing the Shafer Algorithm for Covering Journalists' Ethical Lapses
3. 29 OctMichael C. Bender is basically a Theodore H. White A.I.
4. 28 Oct10 years ago at the blog – – this one's gotten more relevant along at least a couple of dimensions
5. 25 OctMore Mort
6. 24 OctA traditional Republican's case against Dobbs
7. 23 OctAbortion -- Secondary and Tertiary Effects
8. 22 OctTen years ago at the blog -- turns out this wasn't nearly the stupidest thing Marc Andreessen was saying.
9. 21 OctThe MAGA and the Gender Gap Thread -- Mister Robinson's Neighborhood
10. 18 OctRFK jr. went from one end of the political spectrum to the other. That was a bit of a family tradition.
11. 17 OctDoes a mechanical Turk bartender count?
12. 16 OctKnown for his improvisational departures, Donald Trump has long been the Keith Jarrett of American fascism.
13. 15 OctTroll on Troll Violence -- the unprecedented political logic of 2024
14. 14 OctProtecting the narrative -- the NYT and Abortion
15. 11 OctThe best debate analysis I've seen so far
16. 10 OctSane-wash, Repeat, Repeat -- The Procrustean Era of the New York Times
17. 9 OctIf the really wanted to debunk Trump's lies about killing babies, they probably should have made a bigger deal of it when Carly Fiorina said them
18. 8 OctBy the very definition of the word, disinformation is not something that just happens. Someone has to deliberately lie to create it.
19. 7 OctKeeping the pair or going for the inside straight
20. 4 OctThe New York Times' revealed preference
21. 3 OctWhat if the standard narrative on abortion isn't just wrong but directionally wrong?
22. 2 OctIt took 3 days, lots of mockery, and being scooped by Colbert, but the New York Times finally got there
23. 1 OctDebates that haven't happened yet aren't news (and vice-presidential debates are seldom news even after they happen)

September 2024

1. 30 SepThe (Man who Would Be) King's Speech -- Sane Washing through Silence
2. 27 SepAbortion in 2024 doesn't mean what it did in 2021
3. 26 SepLike we've been saying, he's not the same Trump
4. 25 SepTen years ago at the blog -- "One thing that sets a serious newspaper apart from most other institutions in our society is that we own up to our mistakes with corrections, editor's notes and other accountability devices, including the public editor's column."
5. 24 SepMaggie Haberman thinks we're out to get her.
6. 23 SepAll of the good titles I can think of for this post are too tasteless for this blog
7. 20 Sep"If Democrats were serious about diversity and inclusion, they would want there to be more Black Nazis" UPDATED
8. 19 SepTwo Trumps -- a side by side comparison
9. 18 SepThis week in tech messiah news
10. 17 SepTen years ago at the blog -- level 5 autonomy had been just around the corner for about three years
11. 16 SepLoom(er)ing crisis
12. 13 SepExtraordinary Republican Delusions and the Madness of MAGA (We need to talk about the pet-eating thing)
13. 12 SepReactions from the Day after -- UPDATED
14. 11 SepSeptember 9th, 2024... the day the New York Times found out Donald Trump was running for president
15. 10 SepHow did a debate that hasn't happened yet become the biggest story of the month?
16. 9 Sep"What did you do at school today, Jimmy?"
17. 6 SepThis may not be 1964 but it's certainly not 2008
18. 5 SepThursday Tweets -- In normal times, this would be a big deal.
19. 4 SepIf today's New York Times were reviewing Our American Cousin, they wouldn't mention the assassination
20. 3 SepThe Impact of X-Rays -- what fast looked like
21. 3 SepPeople have always complained about the establishment press, but increasingly the calls are coming from inside the house.
22. 2 SepIt's Labor Day, so we're taking time off and running a repost

August 2024

1. 30 AugTwelve years ago at the blog – – we were talking about mega fires and saying basically the same things we are today
2. 29 AugJust took a look at "The Urbanist Case for a New Community in Solano County"... and they got nothing
3. 28 AugNobody mansplains like the NYT
4. 27 AugTrump, Kennedy, and autism: all the news that's fit to print (and doesn't make us uncomfortable)
5. 26 AugTrump, Kennedy and the NYT -- making the “All Else Equal” Fallacy when things are really, really not equal
6. 23 Aug“The Kamala Harris Problem”
7. 22 Aug"Being with you today was truly amazing." sounds like courtin' talk to me
8. 21 AugBig Shows, Little Shows
9. 20 AugWhen prophecy fails repeatedly
10. 19 AugThe NYT will selectively edit and misrepresent quotes to support a narrative
11. 16 Aug"The abortion issue is very much tempered down."
12. 15 AugI'm sure there's a "You Can't Go Home Again" joke in there somewhere
13. 14 AugThe New York Time's Point Shaving Scheme
14. 13 AugThe New York Times goes to its happy (Trumpless) place
15. 12 AugI got really annoyed at Ross Douthat this weekend and things got a little heated (and went a bit viral)
16. 9 Aug1964, 1968, 1980, and now apparently 2004 – – the ever-growing list of historical analogies for this election
17. 8 AugWith Procrustean editing, the headline always fits the narrative
18. 7 AugCongratulations everyone who chose door number one. You have two months to get your bets in for our next round.
19. 6 AugFrom Biden to Harris – – a view from the ground (mostly)
20. 5 AugWho reads the headlines, anyway? -- a tale told mostly in tweets
21. 2 AugI'm trying to wrap up the New York Times bashing thread but they keep giving me so much material
22. 1 AugThe Return of Thursday Tweets -- “Cross of Doge” wins it this week

July 2024

1. 31 JulThe New York Times Editorial Board loves narratives, but they especially love narratives where they're the hero
2. 30 JulKnow your Narratives
3. 29 JulHaberman and Swan being suckered by the Trump campaign's failed bluff is the schadenfreude cherry on top
4. 26 JulSixty years ago...
5. 25 JulNate Silver and Stuart Stevens from 2023
6. 24 Jul1964, 1968, 1972, and a bit of 1980
7. 23 Jul"It’s a kind of disdain for actual voters"
8. 22 JulStraussians* of the Center Left
9. 19 JulXKCD needs to update this one
10. 18 JulTwelve years ago -- we told you to keep an eye on these guys
11. 17 JulAnother newly relevant repost -- Hipster Eugenics
12. 16 JulTwo years ago at the blog -- didn't expect to be reposting this one quite so soon
13. 15 JulPredictive Models and Black Swans
14. 12 JulThis isn't the video where she calls Steven Pinker a dick, but you can't have everything
15. 11 JulYIMBY and the education reform movement -- part one: questions of class and technocracy
16. 10 JulThis isn't a post about politics; it's a post about the poitical press.
17. 9 Jul'This is the year 1980, by now half the population of the United States is living in cities and towns that didn't even exist 20 years ago.'
18. 8 JulWhat do you call a dense, well-planned, innovative exurb? ... An exurb.
19. 5 JulCoffeezilla vs Rabbit
20. 4 JulMusic for the 4h
21. 3 JulCome for the Brian Eno quote, stay for the cultural insights
22. 2 JulIt's almost like reducing sprawl wasn't really the goal
23. 1 JulTwelve years ago -- Time to revisit the locavore non-debate

June 2024

1. 28 Jun"The Ensh*ttification of Everything"
2. 27 JunThe abortion narrative – – convergence, herd mentality, and the inability to say "oops"
3. 26 JunMy Marshall-McLuhan-in-Annie-Hall Moment
4. 25 JunTuesday tweets – – when you have to dig up one-year-old professional wrestling clips to find signs of social progress
5. 24 JunCampaign Cash -- the spending side
6. 21 JunMeta-panic and the Importance of Timing
7. 20 JunUnpasteurized Feral Disinformation
8. 19 JunSix years ago in the blog -- two vintage tech posts
9. 18 Jun538 + 1968 does not add up to meta-panic
10. 17 JunSummer in Texas means it's time for a ground source heat pump repost
11. 14 JunTwo pieces of satirical press criticism from Mitchell and Webb.
12. 14 Jun"Not Your Father's Apple Fail" (another video you didn't know you needed)
13. 13 JunHas anything nonviable, stupid and/or evil come out of Silicon Valley without funding from Andreessen Horowitz?
14. 12 JunEating Eric Roberts – – rational versus irrational desperation
15. 11 JunTwelve years ago at the blog – – in 2024 the concept of persuadables is more relevant than ever, Red Lobster... not so much
16. 10 JunEthno-states and Ethnic Nationalism
17. 7 JunThe latest YouGov survey is useful and even important, but it doesn't support the conclusions people are drawing from it.
18. 6 JunTrump's verdict – – always remember the secondary and tertiary effects
19. 5 JunWhen it comes to converging on a narrative, Politico can still give the NYT a run for its money
20. 4 JunTen years ago at the blog -- a rare Richard Feynman/Tom Lehrer post
21. 3 JunDo Frank Bruni and Politico prove that we are living in a simulation?

May 2024

1. 31 MayIn the aftermath of the verdict, things are going to get ugly. You'll see things you can't unsee (and that's just in the data journalism section)
2. 30 MayThursday Tweets -- If your verdict isn't delivered in thirty minutes or less...
3. 29 May"she, like so many Americans before her, could imagine no greater spiritual fulfillment for herself or the nation than an extinction event."
4. 28 MayThree quick observations on Donald Trump's not so good Saturday night
5. 27 MayMemorial Day Repost
6. 24 MayWe can no longer say "the most disastrous vehicle launch since the DeLorean." We might not be able to say "since the Edsel."
7. 23 MayDeferred Tuesday Tweets -- “Would it be too much to pray for a day when the Bible gets a ‘Book of Trump,’ much like it has a ‘Book of Esther’"
8. 23 MayTen years ago at the blog -- when ed reform met Peanuts
9. 22 MayThe cost of being wrong – – political polling edition
10. 21 MayA quick note on Ezra Klein's latest exercise in meta-panic
11. 20 MayMeta-panic -- intensified panic over the lack of panic in another.
12. 17 MayThings continue to heat up
13. 16 MayTen years ago, the NYT et al. was railing against the unfairness of the SAT and ACT. Now, they're basically saying what we were saying then.
14. 15 MayI've spent almost a decade pointing out Nate Cohn's statistical and logical errors. It's a nice change of pace to talking about his plain old bad reporting.
15. 14 MayEither ineffective or unaltruistic
16. 13 MayWould manipulating stocks by spreading conspiracy theories about stock manipulation be considered meta-fraud?
17. 10 MayDeferred Thursday Tweets -- Not sure if presidential brain worms are the weirdest news of the week. Welcome to 2024.
18. 9 MayAnd while we're on the subject of tech revisionism...
19. 8 MayDispatches from Georgia
20. 7 MaySix years ago in the blog, but probably more relevant with the rise of the techno-optimists
21. 6 MayWaze Hallucinations
22. 3 MayShould we take Goldwater seriously but not literally?
23. 2 MayThursday Tweets -- "Where's Cricket?"
24. 1 MayAnti-tax mania

April 2024

1. 30 AprTrump on Trial - - as always, keep an eye on the secondary and tertiary effects
2. 29 AprSix ago at the blog -- Old Tech April (and why we care)
3. 26 AprThis has been building for a long time, but...
4. 25 AprDobbs is forcing reality on the abortion narrative
5. 24 AprI remain a YIMBY skeptic -- granny flat edition
6. 23 AprTuesday tweets -- politics, math, fun with creepy chickens
7. 22 AprIf a google search of "finger guillotine" and your product's name calls up multiple videos, you may have a PR problem
8. 19 AprAlex, what is Fear/Overcompensation/Laziness/Self-interest/Insularity/Cognitive Dissonance?*
9. 18 AprSix years ago at the blog -- Old Tech April
10. 17 AprLong deferred Tuesday Tweets (trust me, you need to check out the gorilla clip)
11. 16 AprElon Musk got a call from his portfolio manager and the manager said "I have some good news and some bad news, which do you want first?"
12. 15 AprTwelve years ago at the blog -- "Comics are weird" (with apologies to Bob Chipman)
13. 12 AprViewing Recommendation
14. 12 AprI don't want to extend the analogy to the outcome...
15. 11 AprSix years ago at the blog -- old tech April (stentor edition, 1907)
16. 10 AprArizona -- this was not what I was planning on writing when I got up this morning
17. 9 AprA few points and a lot of tweets about abortion
18. 8 AprIf I had a slightly cynical attitude toward Elon Musk, I might be a bit suspicious of a couple of things here
19. 5 AprSix years ago at the blog -- old tech April (before you get too judgemental remember Theranos edition)
20. 4 AprA Few More Thoughts on Florida
21. 3 AprSix years ago at the blog -- old tech April (the one who wasn't Georges Méliès edition)
22. 2 AprAbortion and IVF -- more data points
23. 1 AprSix years ago at the blog -- old tech April (Muzak edition)

March 2024

1. 29 MarDeferred Thursday Tweets -- Lava herders, Lawrence Welk, and why Sydney Sweeney should write for the Upshot
2. 28 MarTen years ago at the blog -- reposted partially because the SAT is back in the news but mainly because this is one of my all time favorite titles
3. 27 MarSure Reuters, MSNBC, CNN, Stephen Colbert, and many others are beating the NYT to the biggest political payoff of the 21st century, but I'm sure the gray lady will convince people it broke the story
4. 26 MarVictimless crimes
5. 25 MarTwelve years ago at the blog -- a rare double post day on the growth fetish.
6. 22 MarIs it money that matters? -- More Data Points
7. 21 MarSix(ish) years ago at the blog -- with Elon it's always déjà vu all over again
8. 20 MarA few Wednesday morning data points
9. 19 MarA couple of more red flags for "the Tesla of education companies"
10. 18 MarNo, the AARO report shouldn't make you more of a believer in alien visitors
11. 15 MarThis clip has pi, Trump, Elon and "a nearly decade-long conspiracy to breed 'giant sheep hybrids,'" how can I not post it?
12. 14 MarFinally, a constitutional crisis we can have some fun with
13. 14 MarTwelve years ago at the blog -- independence vs. contrarianism
14. 13 MarRamifications of a bust-out
15. 12 Mar"Elon Musk won the New Republic's Man of the Year?" "Close" -- the return of Tuesday tweets
16. 11 MarReposted as a protest against losing an hour of weekend.
17. 8 Mar"Better than Ezra"
18. 7 MarHow the New York Times defines bias (sorry I took so long to get around to this one)
19. 6 MarUndecideds, "Undecideds," and Shy Voters
20. 5 MarErle Stanley Gardner's complaints about how the police define evidence...
21. 4 MarTwelve years ago at the blog -- Making fun of Megan McArdle columns is like blogger tee-ball
22. 1 MarAt 9:30 you will discover that McKinsey trainees are even more dickish than you thought

February 2024

1. 29 FebHappy Leap Year
2. 28 FebJoseph is frustrated: the Biden edition
3. 27 FebThe Dutch Boy's Lead Party"
4. 26 FebIVF in Alabama
5. 23 FebClosing out Russia week here at the blog
6. 22 FebAll the news that's fit to print (on page A16)
7. 21 FebJosh Marshall eviscerated Ezra Klein, but he did miss one or two major organs
8. 20 FebLibertarianism
9. 19 FebTo Russia, with Love
10. 16 FebPerformers have been complaining about political correctness for a long time
11. 15 FebBothsides is an easy way to score points but ignore the main points
12. 14 FebWhen threads collide...
13. 13 FebHigh-speed rail circa 1907
14. 12 FebIf your mental model of the 2024 far right doesn't address their infatuation with Putin, you need to go back to the drawing board.(told in tweets)
15. 9 FebAre you ready for some football (-related insane conspiracy theories)?
16. 8 FebBreaking the rules with "one simple trick"
17. 6 FebIf you want to save the planet, start by learning how to use your damned microwave
18. 5 FebTwelve years ago at the blog -- Amity and the Bunnies
19. 2 Feb"Any time I misspell a word it's just because I have too much integrity to copy answers from the dictionary."
20. 1 FebYou notice how we haven't had an embarrassing UFO story for a while?

January 2024

1. 31 JanWilly Wonka and the money-printing machine
2. 30 JanTwelve years ago at the blog -- The Devil's Candy with added Kael
3. 29 Jan..."was later murdered by a vengeful dentist."
4. 26 JanAs we've said before, if you want to understand the Republican party of 2024, you first have to understand feral disinformation in 2024.
5. 25 JanSure, our "Oh, Mickey" reference in a Nikki Haley post was cheesy, but at least hearing it didn't make you want to drink yourself into a stupor.
6. 24 JanFive years ago at the blog -- critiquing political journalism is basically a long term gig with the Sisyphean landscaping company.
7. 23 JanEight years ago at the blog -- back before Time Warner ruined "Adam Ruins Everything" (more IP blogging)
8. 22 JanReposted without comment
9. 19 Jan"Hi Ho! Hi Ho! It's off to court we go!" -- More Disney litigation blogging
10. 18 JanMonumental greed, delusional narcissism, or just the drugs talking?
11. 17 JanI know we've been pounding this hard for a long time, but the story of the 2024 GOP is first and foremost a story about feral disinformation
12. 16 Jan[Almost] Ten years at the blog -- more thoughts on Richard Florida's creative class thesis
13. 15 JanWelcome to the Iowa caucus, the Golden Globes of American politics
14. 12 JanPlagiarism and nuance
15. 11 JanFive years ago at the blog -- we were skeptical of the streaming business model
16. 10 JanAt the risk of stating the obvious, having the majority of your party believe that you actually won the last election and should be in office now gives you a tremendous advantage in the primary.
17. 9 Jan100% Pure Extra Virgin Schadenfreude
18. 8 JanTwelve years ago at the blog -- After stealing these characters, Marvel trademarked and copyrighted them, which was just adding injury to insult
19. 5 JanPolitics and Jobs
20. 4 JanMeet Dan O'Neill, the one person who still isn't allowed to draw Mickey Mouse
21. 3 JanThe semi-emancipation of proto-Mickey
22. 2 JanThe very idea of claiming a candidate a year before an election has X% chance of winning is gross statistical malpractice.
23. 1 JanOur Annual New Year's Greeting from Windsor McCay and Little Nemo

2023 269

December 2023

1. 29 DecTwelve years ago at the blog -- We can debate whether LLMs are really learning languages but as long as we factor in cuteness, we will always have the edge.
2. 28 DecStraussian collapse, feral disinformation, and the increasingly ineffectual GOP Establishment
3. 27 DecTen years ago at the blog -- the one time I told a major thought leader to go screw himself, Andrew Gelman decided to write a post on it.
4. 26 DecBoxing Day blogging - - Jay Powell's wonderful Christmas present and a test for American journalists
5. 25 DecMerry Christmas from Little Nemo
6. 22 DecMaybe we should state all holidays as Eve powers
7. 21 DecTwelve years ago at the blog -- depressingly little has changed
8. 20 DecBidenomics and the NYT: Revenge of the Petruchio liberals
9. 19 DecThe NYT's Election Trilemma
10. 18 DecAs we've said before, if you've gone through the holidays without hearing "Sugar Rum Cherry"...
11. 15 DecBefore you read all the think pieces that are about to come out discussing Netflix's latest data dump, you should probably get some context first
12. 14 DecBut he's not a jolly little elf
13. 13 DecThe calculation
14. 12 DecNorman Lear and Roger Ailes
15. 11 DecTwelve years ago at the blog -- some of us were getting worried about the press's ability to handle misinformation and disinformation...
16. 8 DecFive years ago at the blog -- cool pictures of old submarines
17. 7 DecMore on Elon's DealBook interview - - he really does talk that way
18. 6 DecMarshall and Chait have also noticed that Haley's hype doesn't match her prospects
19. 5 DecElon's cunning plan
20. 4 DecOf all the silly scenarios floating around, "why not Newsom?" may be the silliest
21. 1 DecOur annual Toys-for-Tots post

November 2023

1. 30 NovTo understand the NYT's good soldiers, you have to understand the paper's culture
2. 29 NovHypotheticals
3. 28 NovBret Stephens is doing his job (and I don't mean that in a good way)
4. 27 NovWe don't normally give candidates credit for floundering erratically on hot button issues, but the NYT grades Haley on a curve
5. 24 NovRandom Elon post-Thanksgiving thoughts
6. 23 Nov"As God as my witness..." is my second favorite Thanksgiving episode line [Repost]
7. 22 NovDo business schools make money?
8. 21 Nov"Doom-saying without some operational plan to do something better is a luxury and a cheap one"
9. 20 NovTen years ago at the blog -- thoughts on the myth of JFK.
10. 17 NovSimple solutions to complex problems
11. 16 NovPost-dated foresight
12. 15 NovJosh Marshall appears to be joining the annoyed at Nate Cohn club
13. 14 NovFive years age at the blog -- Looking back through the archive and I came across this. Surprised I only used the Scheherazade line once.
14. 13 NovOh, Nikki, you're so fine, you're so fine, you blow my mind...
15. 10 NovThree years ago at the blog -- The Myth of the Wright Brothers
16. 9 NovThe myth of Apollo
17. 8 NovYour chance to see Martin Shkreli unironically say "Pay it forward."
18. 7 NovMore on the challenges of settlers
19. 6 NovTen years ago at the blog -- A lot has happened with over-the-air television since 2013
20. 3 NovThree Proposed Changes to Daylight Savings Time
21. 2 NovFollowing up on yesterday's post
22. 1 NovFrom the people who told you crypto was the next big thing...

October 2023

1. 31 OctFive years ago at the blog -- with Techno-Optimism bullshit waxing, this is a good time to revisit two of the movement's favorite examples
2. 30 OctCanadian Universities: the Quebec edition
3. 27 OctTen years ago at the blog -- thinking about the self-evident
4. 26 OctThursday Tweets -- a lot of philanthropists insists on having things named after themselves
5. 25 Oct“The GOP is a failed state. Donald Trump is its warlord.”
6. 24 OctWhat Republican Establishment?
7. 23 OctSuggesting that another candidate could take the nomination away from Donald Trump is not just unrealistic; it is journalistic malpractice.
8. 20 OctSettlers
9. 19 OctThursday Tweets -- "a moment so cretinous and conflicted and confused that it keeps mistaking con men for seers.”
10. 18 OctTen years ago at the blog, we were talking about government shutdowns and GOP dysfunction
11. 17 OctWhat's a little rabies between best friends?
12. 16 OctSam Bankman-Fried, Lord of Ithuvania*
13. 13 Oct"Trump leaking highly classified military data is getting less coverage than a literal dog-bites-man story." -- actually more true than when I wrote it.
14. 12 OctThursday tweets (we're thinking of advertising on the platform, but we'll need to scrape together the $10)
15. 11 Oct"Now the language of this 15-minute conspiracy theory has made its way to some of the highest levels of the British government."
16. 10 OctFeral disinformation and "flying syringes"*
17. 9 OctAlmost no one in the mainstream press has come to terms with what it means to have one of our two main political parties based on feral disinformation.
18. 6 OctThursday Tweets -- Dems in Disarray
19. 5 OctTwelve years ago at the blog -- Even East Coast journalists are starting to catch on to Weigel and over-the-air television
20. 4 OctHousing in Canada: why Mark is clever
21. 3 OctFive years ago at the blog -- When you're always a skeptic. there's always a risk that something you mock will live up to the hype. (Hasn't happen to us personally, but you hear about cases.)
22. 2 OctEvery day the New York Times' editors check out the latest from NYT Pitchbot and say "hold my beer."

September 2023

1. 29 SepDeferred Thursday Tweets -- as always, Dems in disarray
2. 29 SepTen years ago at the blog -- the beginning of our "rich people can't shop" mega-thread part 2
3. 28 SepThe Daily reminds us that the entertainment industry is one of the topics that New York Times never covers well
4. 27 SepAlberta versus the CPP
5. 26 SepNot sure whether to go after Brooks for lying again about food prices or inappropriate agreggation
6. 25 SepTwelve years ago at the blog... pretty much the same conversation we're still having today
7. 22 SepTen years ago at the blog -- the beginning of our "rich people can't shop" mega-thread part 1
8. 21 SepThursday Tweets -- "Lauren Boebert has perhaps shown a desire to reach across the aisle here."
9. 20 SepThe plan to briefly release the jinn from the bottle then ask him to go right back in without causing any trouble may have a subtle flaw.*
10. 19 SepStraussianism before Strauss
11. 18 SepAvi Loeb has done cutting edge work in the fields of theoretical cosmology and motivated reasoning
12. 15 SepYou probably know most of this, but I bet you didn't know...
13. 14 SepTweets -- "Actual demonstration of his fitness is used to raise questions about his fitness."
14. 13 SepThe central lies of the Musk Persona 2.0
15. 12 SepTrump and the 14th Amendement
16. 11 Sep"Remember that time the press went crazy for a candidate who turned out to be going nowhere in the polls?" "You'll have to be more specific."
17. 8 SepWith his youthful energy and out-of-the-box thinking, Vivek Ramaswamy has shot up in the polls by -1.3%
18. 7 SepThursday Tweets on time for once
19. 6 SepLLMs and IP
20. 5 SepThis would be an example of my concerns with naive YIMBYism.
21. 4 SepVivek
22. 4 SepIt's Labor Day, so we're taking time off and running a repost
23. 1 SepIs AI the new crypto?

August 2023

1. 31 AugThursday Tweets -- "Anna hurt Anna-self"
2. 30 AugRemember how we said journalists learned nothing from past not-____ candidates? Inevitable NYT Ramaswamy follow-up
3. 29 Aug2012 was the golden age of not-__________ candidates
4. 28 AugWhat is a transaction cost?
5. 25 AugTweets -- "Shut up and go mow your mom"
6. 24 AugThursday Tweets part 1 (lots to cover this week) -- war criminal on war criminal violence
7. 23 AugTropical Storm Hillary pretty much went like we said it would (though I'll admit the earthquake caught me off guard)
8. 22 AugOnly the New York Times would use the line "only 54 percent of likely primary voters" unironically.
9. 21 AugEight years ago to the day...
10. 20 AugSoCal and Hillary: Not the apocalypse but a handful of places are going to get hammered
11. 18 AugClimate change?
12. 18 AugThursday Tweets -- There is no K in 'Kenya' [deferred because a certain company sucks]
13. 17 AugReposted because Disney is actually spending serious money on an Emmy campaign for a show that 47 people saw
14. 16 AugBoth sides is like a religion
15. 15 Aug$259.71
16. 14 AugThe New York Times' new Trump narrative certainly is a conversation starter
17. 11 AugDeferred Thursday Tweets -- come for the politics, stay for the cow
18. 10 AugIt is virtually impossible to have a productive debate with someone who believes one of the points of contention is absolutely and axiomatically true.
19. 9 AugWhen it comes to politics, there's almost no real data journalism, just narratives and drunkards' lamp-posts*
20. 8 Aug"Congress is too credulous on UFOs "
21. 7 AugWe've got more UFO content coming so I thought I'd set the mood
22. 4 Aug(Almost) one year ago at the blog -- what the NYT was saying about DeSantis twelve months ago
23. 3 AugThursday Tweets -- a week so packed, I couldn't even work in the one about David Hasselhoff being Pee-Wee Herman's college roommate
24. 2 AugSaving the world by buying luxury cars was always a painful example of first world thinking.
25. 1 AugRemember how everyone got so worked up about aliens using Apple OS in Independence Day? Turns out they're also on the metric system.

July 2023

1. 31 JulThe biggest automotive scandal since VW's Dieselgate and guess who's behind it...
2. 30 JulJoe Biden redux
3. 28 JulHow did the 2023 New York Times become the 1973 National Enquirer?
4. 27 JulThursday Tweets -- X marks the spot where $44 billion used to be.
5. 26 Jul" [T]he Zelig of unproven supernatural and UFO speculation"
6. 25 JulOne way to beat the heat...
7. 24 JulTony Bennett RIP -- a historical footnote
8. 21 JulColumbo vs. Uri Geller
9. 20 JulThursday Tweets -- Dark Brandon approved this message
10. 19 JulTen years ago at the blog -- the topic remains relevant and I really like this title
11. 18 JulPsychologists run more rigorous experiments than physicists*
12. 17 JulThere was a time when serious people took Uri Geller seriously
13. 14 JulDeferred Thursday Tweets -- in appreciation of the New York Times Pitchbot
14. 13 JulTen years ago at the blog: for a while it looked like this tweet was going to age badly
15. 12 JulThe bad news is that the NYT is still credulously accepting Uri Geller's dubious version of events; the good news is that the rest of the latest article is so terrible that this part no longer seems so bad.
16. 11 JulAn incredibly well-kept and badly kept secret
17. 10 JulOnce you told us you have aliens' bodies and spaceships the size of football fields, it's hard to get excited about some tiny metal balls
18. 7 JulSpoilers for NetFlix's the Diplomat (Big Spoilers -- you are warned)
19. 6 JulThursday Tweets -- there is no joy in Muskville
20. 5 JulYes, the New York Times owns the UFO fiasco
21. 4 JulA 4th of July musical interlude
22. 3 JulNotes on Titan

June 2023

1. 30 JunTweets -- "“I would totally kick your ass, but my mom won’t let me." or "I wanted to be prepared for when I have my first psychotic break"
2. 29 JunA few thought's on Mark's post
3. 28 JunFive years ago at the blog: unfortunately, this isn't as relevant now that the hype storm over AI has passed
4. 27 JunZombie Alert -- the Electoral College and the 2000 Election
5. 26 JunBardak
6. 23 JunThere were lots of red flags with the NYT UFO story
7. 22 JunThursday Tweets: "Wifi radiation opens up your blood-brain barrier so all these toxins that are in your body can now go into your brain."
8. 21 JunExtraordinary claims (used to) require extraordinary evidence OR the gray lady and the little green men
9. 20 JunPersonal financial advice: Cheese sandwich edition
10. 19 JunA fast follow-up to Mark
11. 18 Jun"It's amazing how strongly people feel about that. I talk about cutting taxes, people go like that, I talk about transgender everybody goes crazy. Five years ago you didn't know what the hell it was"
12. 16 JunJohn Galt
13. 15 JunThursday Tweets -- I thought we could go two weeks without Musk, but I hadn't counted on dictator nostalgia.
14. 14 JunDo I owe Ron DeSantis an apology?
15. 13 JunWho would have thought that deciding to base a pick-up on those cars from Blade Runner would lead to engineering issues...
16. 12 Jun"Melted, that would be enough to hypothetically drape almost 5 inches of water across the entire state of California."
17. 9 JunTen years ago at the blog
18. 8 JunThursday Tweets -- now less musky
19. 7 JunThe sad part is he's still better at his job than Chapek was
20. 6 JunThe term of the day is "Reverse Centaur"
21. 5 JunOver the next year and (almost) and half, you're going to hear a lot of historical "rules" from 538, the Upshot, etc. Here's a counter example to keep in mind when they start to sound persuasive.
22. 2 JunTen years ago at the blog -- I may owe Burger King an Apology
23. 1 JunThursday Tweets

May 2023

1. 31 MayWhen looking at the debate over Samuelson's USSR forecasts, at least we can all agree that somebody comes off looking bad.
2. 30 MayThe Fallen of World War II
3. 29 May"Humor in Uniform"
4. 26 MayDeferred Thursday Tweets -- "both metaphorically *and* literally a dumpster fire."
5. 25 MayWhat could possibly go wrong? ...[click] go wrong? ...[click] go wrong? ...[click] (another Thursday Tweet highjacked by last minute events)
6. 24 MayRon DeSantis didn't have any more personality back in August than he does now...
7. 23 MayI was shocked -- pleasantly but genuinely shocked to see this housing story in Slate
8. 22 MayI'm going to split this post in two so we can all walk away feeling good for a change
9. 19 MayDeferred Thursday Tweets -- prominent journalists bravely steps forward to say their boss is right
10. 18 MayChecking in on Elon
11. 17 MayWhat the experts used to say about streaming -- part 2
12. 16 MayElectric vehicles
13. 15 MayToday in free speech heroes
14. 12 MayWeekend viewing -- VICE News Presents: Cult of Elon
15. 11 MayThusday Tweets -- today's word is "Omphaloskepsis"
16. 10 MayWhat the experts used to say about streaming -- part 1
17. 9 MayEverything you used to hear about streaming was wrong. Now it's only most things.
18. 8 MayWhen they get to the part about nobody seeing this coming
19. 5 MayDeferred Thursday Tweets -- sometimes it's easier to sell the solution people know they don't understand
20. 4 MayThe Snows of May
21. 3 May"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!" -- Neom was just the beginning for MBS
22. 2 MayAlways take a minute to think about the source of your data
23. 1 MayMarketplace -- brought to you by American Public Media and the good people at the Koch Foundation [Updated]

April 2023

1. 28 AprThe prize for best analogy of the week goes to Matt Levine
2. 27 AprThursday Tweets -- Elmo and Sneetches
3. 26 AprRevisiting the Red Tsunami -- in which I (sorta) defend the pundits from Andrew Gelman
4. 25 AprHad to get there before the snowmelt started and you have to worry about flash floods
5. 24 AprPonderings about ancient Rome
6. 21 AprWeekend Movies -- the all time great winter Western noir (plus a bonus flick)
7. 20 AprThursday Tweets -- that hollow thump you're hearing is the sound of a narrative imploding
8. 19 AprCritiquing my own side
9. 18 AprProgressive journalists and bloggers are unified behind the need to champion reproductive rights, protect democrat institutions, and loosen fire safety laws
10. 17 AprTwelve years ago at the blog -- game nerds taking it to eleven
11. 14 AprWatching ChatGPT explain a reasoning problem is like watching someone who learned the language phonetically take an improv class
12. 13 AprThursday Tweets -- you can skip all the snarky stuff after the first tweet, but you have to watch this segment on the Tennessee legislature
13. 12 AprTwelve years ago at the blog -- {2,2,4,4,9,9}, {1,1,6,6,8,8}, {3,3,5,5,7,7}
14. 11 AprCanada's growth
15. 10 Apr"I'm Dreaming of a White Easter"
16. 7 AprThursday Tweets 2 -- If you're tired of the news, just skip to the end and watch the luckiest man alive
17. 6 AprThursday Tweets part 1 -- Cheesy Wisconsin Goodness
18. 6 AprTechnical difficulties
19. 5 AprMy apologies to Popehat (Ken White)
20. 4 Apr2022 was a bad year for conventional wisdom [Trump/DeSantis edition]
21. 3 AprA long shot you might want to keep an eye on

March 2023

1. 31 Mar"The Future is a Dead Mall - Decentraland and the Metaverse"
2. 30 MarThursday Tweets -- valid until “21 years after the death of the last survivor of the descendants of King Charles III.”
3. 29 Mar"Not ____________" candidates are always the product of projection, wishful thinking, and convergent systems
4. 29 MarIf this weren't a family-friendly blog, we could have a lot more fun with this one
5. 28 MarElectric cars
6. 28 MarTesting to destruction
7. 27 Mar“Gradually, then suddenly.” (I thought I'd have more time.)
8. 24 MarThe NYT is surprisingly comfortable with fascism, but they draw the line at putting ketchup on your steak
9. 23 MarJanan Ganesh points out one upside of a cult of personality
10. 22 MarThe Growth Fetish -- twelve years ago at the blog (SVB edition)
11. 21 MarGodzilla vs. Rodan
12. 20 MarRevisiting the cutting edge world of Tesla
13. 17 MarCharging for a feature, then charging more to remove that feature... Where have I heard that before?
14. 16 MarThursday Tweets -- "Residents hope the next sister city comes with a Google search"
15. 15 Mar"Everything you need to know about the wild world of heat pumps" is nowhere near everything you need to know about heat pumps
16. 14 MarHousing starts and neighborhood character
17. 13 MarYour Silicon Valley Bank Primer
18. 10 MarDeferred Thursday Tweets -- Dems in Disarray and other favorites
19. 9 MarWe need to talk about tests (in the "I got an A" sense, not the RCT sense)
20. 8 MarSeems like a good time to revisit IBM's war on cancer
21. 7 MarAn interesting piece of housing history
22. 6 MarA human knight/knave puzzle
23. 3 MarLaw and order
24. 2 MarThursday Tweets -- You can take the boy out of South Africa...
25. 1 MarIt always feels reassuring when Josh Marshall agrees with you

February 2023

1. 28 FebFrom the large language model joke book
2. 27 FebA modest defense of YIMBY
3. 24 FebWhen watching YouTube can make smarter
4. 23 FebSenator Rick Scott and Simple Solutions
5. 22 FebMore SoCal Weather
6. 21 FebTuesday Tweets -- Hype and Glory
7. 20 FebSmall update on Sinema
8. 17 FebOne more rant on the libertarian idea of children
9. 16 FebIf a TV show runs in the city and nobody sees it...
10. 15 FebWhatever happened to the Washington Post's "The Truthteller"? -- repost
11. 14 FebSupplemental material for Prof. Narita's class
12. 13 FebDems in Disarray
13. 10 FebChecking in with Elon
14. 9 Feb“And it created this confidence that you could always rely on just knowing ... the El Niño/La Niña phase, and that would be able to give you a very accurate prediction for precipitation, especially for California. And that is just not scientifically true.”
15. 8 FebTwelve years ago at the blog --How to lie with statistics -- rare cinema history edition
16. 7 FebIn the original armor, the slide rule came in one of those nerdy belt holsters
17. 6 FebMath time
18. 3 FebThe College Board caving in to DeSantis and his thugs was shamefully craven, but on the bright side, it did give me an excuse to revisit one of my favorite post titles
19. 2 FebClash of the Oracles
20. 1 FebSpeaking of oracles

January 2023

1. 31 JanSupply side reforms
2. 30 JanDeferred Thursday Tweets -- TBH, I have trouble arguing against "unvaccinated sperm is the next Bitcoin"
3. 27 JanResilience
4. 26 JanAs Columbo might say, just one more thing about our previous post
5. 25 Jan"Elon Musk’s Appetite for Destruction" is nothing compared to his appetite for suckers
6. 24 JanUnderstanding ChatGPT
7. 23 JanReposted for no particular reason.
8. 20 JanWe needed that
9. 19 Jan"Has it really been ten years" ago at the blog -- When 3D printing was just about to change everything
10. 18 JanA Primer on the Western Water Crisis
11. 17 JanIs this conversation from 2019 something we need to revisit?
12. 16 JanHave a safe and contemplative Martin Luther King Jr. Day
13. 13 JanI am oddly comforted by the thought that British foodies might be more annoying than American foodies
14. 12 JanThursday Tweets -- King Elon's Mines
15. 11 JanTransit times
16. 10 JanTuesday Tweets -- MAGA International
17. 9 Jan“Water is the most precious resource we have ... and yet we do everything we can, when it comes to rain, to get rid of it as soon as possible”
18. 6 JanSimple solutions to complex problems
19. 5 JanGlobal warming may bring catastrophic flooding to California, just not in the places the New York Times warned about
20. 4 JanLarge movements are rarely monolithic
21. 3 JanHow to lie with statistics -- fun with denominators
22. 2 JanA British take on trains

2022 272

December 2022

1. 30 DecHappy New Year's -- Little Nemo grows up
2. 29 DecA worked example of housing costs
3. 28 DecIt's been an eventful week in Musk world (and it's only Wednesday morning)
4. 27 DecA Bondian Guide to the Economics of Movies
5. 26 DecMisalignment of policy
6. 25 DecMerry Christmas from Little Nemo
7. 24 DecChristmas Eve
8. 23 DecThe most famous reindeer of all...
9. 22 DecIf you've gone through the holidays without hearing Sugar Rum Cherry...
10. 21 DecActually, the kids' atomic energy lab wasn't as horrifying as you'd think, but the cabbage patch doll with a taste for human flesh...
11. 20 DecChristmas with CollegeHumor
12. 19 DecHousing supply
13. 16 DecWell, that heated up rather quickly
14. 15 DecThursday Tweets
15. 14 DecEssential catalogs -- Part 1 (this one kind of got away from me)
16. 13 DecOne of these things is not like the other
17. 12 DecThe New York Times provincialism problem
18. 9 DecI also had lunch in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, but I couldn't come up with a song for that one...
19. 8 DecMagical Heuristics and the Musk Proximity Principle
20. 7 DecRagnarök -- Twilight of the Canadian University System
21. 6 Dec(Previous) Tuesday Tweets
22. 5 DecCan we all see the concern here?
23. 2 DecGladwell gives us a reason to revisit the Grandiosity/Contribution Ratio
24. 1 DecInnumeracy and Brexit

November 2022

1. 30 NovFew things are nicer than being cool when it's hot and warm when its cold.
2. 29 NovTuesday Tweets -- Musk Edition
3. 28 NovCanada's medical system under siege.
4. 25 NovTwitter and Brexit
5. 24 Nov"As God as my witness..." is my second favorite Thanksgiving episode line [Repost]
6. 23 NovNon-Thursday Tweets (because with the current state of Twitter, running this on Thanksgiving would just be wrong)
7. 22 NovOur standards for business disaster have gotten way too high.
8. 21 NovBack on the Ithuvania beat -- "Hipster Eugenics"
9. 20 NovRepost: We're about to revist that first paragraph in a big way
10. 18 Nov"If this is the last thing everyone sees on Twitter then I can absolutely live with that…"
11. 17 NovFive years ago at the blog -- I'd forgotten how non-annoying Pinker used to be
12. 16 NovThe NYT's election face plant reflects a long standing problem
13. 15 NovTuesday Schadenfreude Tweets -- an embarrassment of embarrassments
14. 14 NovFollow-up to Friday's post on FTX
15. 11 NovThe day the bills came due
16. 10 NovMoviePass was the platonic ideal of a 21st century start-up
17. 9 Nov“Why didn’t the Roman Empire have an industrial revolution?” [and why Britain did]
18. 8 NovWhen the bomb under the chair is a bomb cyclone [Okay, technically not a bomb cyclone but we all cheat a little in search of the catchy title]
19. 7 NovSarah Huckabee Sanders and the church-going, duck-hunting, football-coaching, hog-calling radical left
20. 4 NovWhat the Democrats could learn from Peter Bogdanovich
21. 3 NovThursday Meta-Tweets -- "one of the funniest things that’s ever happened."
22. 2 NovTelehealth as a solution to ER wait times?
23. 1 NovContinuity

October 2022

1. 31 OctHistorical visionaries often come off better if you don't look too closely at history
2. 28 OctThe Day-late and Perhaps Penultimate Thursday Tweets
3. 27 OctThe Nonresponse Problem: What else are we missing?
4. 26 OctRings of Power: a few thoughts
5. 25 OctCriminalizing solutions -- Western Wildfires edition
6. 24 OctBombs under everybody's chairs -- starting a thread
7. 21 OctWell, that didn't take long
8. 20 OctThursday Tweets
9. 19 OctThe implications of spite
10. 18 OctFive years ago at the blog -- we had questions about the viability of the streaming industry's flood-the-market strategy
11. 17 OctProving the proven part
12. 14 OctBi-directional disinformation
13. 13 OctThursday Tweets -- probably the only time I'll use the phrase "rapists' rights Rubicon"
14. 12 OctTen years ago at the blog -- the terrestrial superstation thread has aged well
15. 11 OctWe re-invent the train
16. 10 OctMatt Levine on the culture of lawyers
17. 7 OctIn 1962, having "Jet" in a name still felt futuristic
18. 6 OctTwelve years ago at the blog: back when jetpacks were just around the corner
19. 5 OctThursday Tweets -- a day early in case something happens to Twitter
20. 4 OctMore musings on higher ground
21. 3 OctIt's been a while since we made fun of homeopaths

September 2022

1. 30 SepWhat happens when the government believes its own propaganda?
2. 29 SepHigh ground and the lack thereof
3. 28 SepAcademic hiring
4. 27 SepTuesday Tweets -- Headless Horses and other Absurdities
5. 26 SepTrickling down?
6. 23 SepIf you need another Columbo fix...
7. 22 SepFive years ago at the blog -- No special relevance here. I just like talking about this stuff.
8. 21 SepAmerican agency
9. 20 SepTuesday (Themed) Tweets -- Getting increasingly difficult to avoid the obvious comparisons
10. 19 SepAbdication?
11. 16 SepThere is no such thing as a poll of likely voters
12. 15 SepThis is definitely an interesting take
13. 14 SepTen years ago at the blog -- We were into self-selection before self-selection was cool
14. 13 SepTuesday Twitter -- Dispatches
15. 12 Sep"Russia’s Military, Once Creaky, Is Modern and Lethal"
16. 9 SepWe're going to skip the crown entirely...
17. 8 SepThursday Tweets
18. 7 SepGround source heat pumps are "the most energy-efficient, environmentally clean, and cost-effective space conditioning systems available," but maybe we can get journalists to talk about them anyway. [Repost]
19. 6 SepA concern about the Canadian Health Care system
20. 5 SepIt's Labor Day, so we're taking time off and running an excerpt from a recent Monkey Cage post
21. 2 SepWhy read about Pauline Kael when you can read Pauline Kael?
22. 1 SepVery smart post on causal inference
23. 1 SepNot doing things is a nonrival good (and while we're on the subject, can you have a nonrival good with a monopsony?)

August 2022

1. 31 AugStudent loan forgiveness
2. 30 AugTuesday Tweets and another reminder that Republicans were counting on an election about Biden and inflation, not about Trump and abortion
3. 29 AugWhen it comes to conventional wisdom, always check the numbers
4. 26 AugThe essential Columbo
5. 25 AugReturn of the Petruchio liberal
6. 24 AugI shouldn't have to say this but a 49-25 poll is not good news for the 25 (and it gets worse)
7. 23 AugOur condiments don't explode is a pretty good sales slogan
8. 22 AugWe live in an age of mad kings
9. 19 AugThis is how you review something not worth reviewing
10. 18 AugCarpetbagging?
11. 17 AugAre the Republicans more vulnerable to the internal veto problem than the Democrats?
12. 16 AugDefinitely not a cult (except for the child sacrifice part) UPDATED
13. 15 AugFive years ago at the blog: there are things I'd change if I were writing this today, but the title wouldn't be one of them
14. 12 AugJ.D. Vance: David Brooks doing Hee-Haw cosplay
15. 11 AugA few late night thoughts on recent events and the state of the Grand Old Party
16. 10 Aug"That’s not the way any of this works…"
17. 9 AugTuesday Tweets special edition
18. 8 AugMore on the politics of protecting Social Security -- the Washington Post weighs in
19. 5 AugTen years ago at the blog -- We've been banging this particular drum for a long time
20. 4 AugThursday Tweets
21. 3 AugRemember when we said the data was thin? Well, it's getting a little thicker
22. 2 AugWe have a winner in the 2022 high weirdness category
23. 1 AugTale of two fires

July 2022

1. 29 JulSix years ago at the blog: We should have paid more attention to the right-wing's reaction to those Planned Parenthood "sting" videos
2. 28 JulThursday Tweets
3. 27 JulHistory of terrible ideas
4. 26 JulWhat if Trump's Social Security and Medicare stand was never that big a deal to begin with
5. 25 JulThe data are thin but still worth keeping an eye on
6. 22 JulAm I an idiot?
7. 21 JulThursday Tweets
8. 20 Jul"If FIFTY BANKERS ever arrive at your office all at once, (1) you have done something terrible but (2) it is absolutely their problem, not yours."
9. 19 Jul"HODL Mode"
10. 18 JulWhen it comes to the political fall-out of Dobbs, functional Republicans have a better grasp than many Democrats do
11. 15 JulPlease stop talking about Biden retiring
12. 14 JulThursday Tweets -- "Maybe it was me that made the mess."
13. 13 JulWhy do serious journalists keep talking about good fires?
14. 12 JulTen years ago at the blog... we were talking about SCOTUS leaks.
15. 11 JulAn amusing footnote to Joseph's Elon Musk post
16. 8 JulAre we running out of people?
17. 7 JulSometimes the future is what it used to be.
18. 6 JulWhen optimal is suboptimal
19. 5 JulTuesday Tweets
20. 4 JulTen years ago at the blog...
21. 1 JulThings could always be worse...

June 2022

1. 30 JunThe fact that people think a commute might justify building high-speed rail suggests you're probably talking about an exurb
2. 29 Jun$835 million may not sound like a lot of money, but look at it in context
3. 28 JunTwelve years ago at the blog: In retropect, I should have mentioned "Head"
4. 27 JunYou now can choose from two companies taking deposits for imaginary campers for a truck that doesn't exist yet
5. 24 Jun"Do you know the way to San Jose?" and how long the trip will take?
6. 23 JunThursday Tweets -- And the "I tried to overthrow democracy and all I got was this lousy MAGA hat" T-shirt
7. 22 JunIf we need to burn off an area the size of Maine, the Mill Valleys are expendable
8. 21 JunTwelve years ago at the blog: multiply all dollar amounts by 1.5
9. 20 JunMoney rules for the rich
10. 18 Jun"Celsius is Collapsing... Here's Why"
11. 17 Jun"The joy of the bezzle" -- Crypto, meme stocks, housing bubbles and inflation
12. 16 JunJust over five years ago at the blog: “I’m almost afraid not to take the chance,” – This is when it becomes a bubble.
13. 15 JunBitcoin and transaction costs
14. 14 JunJournal Club: when the headline and findings diverge
15. 13 JunSimple political analysis
16. 10 Jun"Legitimate Political Discourse"
17. 9 JunArguments not in evidence
18. 8 JunCalifornia has a serious shortage of housing but apparently it's nothing like the New York Times shortage of straw men
19. 7 JunNIMBY and California
20. 6 JunDespite what Delaney says, age is not a significant factor in predicting cardiovascular disease and cancer.* [Blogger took this down for some reason, so we're putting it back up]
21. 3 JunWhy do people make such a big deal over fake engineers when the real thing is so cool?
22. 2 JunThe Realization
23. 1 JunRepost: This five-year old sketch holds up really well
24. 1 JunRepost: Netflix Revisionism Warning

May 2022

1. 31 MayTuesday Tweets -- catching up with web3
2. 30 MayMemorial Day Repost
3. 27 MayTo understand why Elon Musk is having such a bad month, you have to understand the role of FSD
4. 26 MayWill they get Bill Cosby to do the ads?
5. 25 MayWe need to start with imaginary flying exoskeletons
6. 24 MayWhat if the standard narrative about evangelicals and the GOP gets things backwards? [Late night phone dictation -- beware bad voice recognition]
7. 23 MayOur view of Musk five years ago -- pretty comfortable with how this one aged
8. 23 MayTen years ago at the blog -- our first Musk post
9. 20 MayDoes Chekhov's gun apply to the legal system?
10. 19 MayOne last note on crypto -- “He’s asking for an insurrection against the anti-bitcoiners!”
11. 18 May"Gawker found out the hard way and you will too."
12. 17 MayThe Alaska Paradox
13. 16 MayLeave politics to the politicians?
14. 13 MayIs the GOP trying to kill Wikipedia or is that just an unexpected bonus?
15. 12 MayWhat, me worry?
16. 11 MayDouble standards
17. 10 MayWe can't return to Ithuvania if we never left -- seven years ago at the blog
18. 9 MayX -- "A company for carrying on an undertaking of great advantage, but nobody to know what it is."
19. 6 MayMatt Damon's soul didn't come cheap and other Friday miscellanea
20. 5 MayThursday Thoughts: A tale of two tweets
21. 4 MayLate Night Thoughts on Roe v Wade, Black Swans, Elections, and Uncertainty
22. 3 MayTuesday Tweets -- Web3 edition
23. 2 MayI just checked and we've been making fun of Zucker since 2010.

April 2022

1. 29 AprUpdated: A year ago at the blog we were talking about about the disconnect between Musk pontificators and the reporters on the beat. Let's see how that's going
2. 28 AprThe writers didn't waste any time with the next big plot twist
3. 27 AprI knew when I saw the title of Noah Smith's latest that it was going to be bad. I just didn't realize it would be this bad
4. 26 AprTransitions in a democracy
5. 25 AprStrauss crosses parties
6. 22 AprPassport delays
7. 21 AprTucker Carlson and Susan Sontag
8. 20 AprThe first amendment
9. 19 AprThe Beast in the Jungle and the Next Big Thing
10. 18 AprTales of the Crypto -- either slightly early or really late Tuesday tweets
11. 15 AprTen years ago at the blog -- since Gelman brought it up...
12. 14 AprThe shadow docket
13. 13 AprSelf-organizing fraud (or plain old fraud)?
14. 12 AprHousing cost inflation
15. 11 AprMegan McArdle, Disney, and the defending the indefensible adjacent.
16. 8 AprWhen the methods make you worried
17. 7 AprSomething offbeat: subverting expectations
18. 6 AprThe big question now is when will Elon name himself founder of Twitter?
19. 5 AprIt's not quite like Ponzi buying the Boston Post, but...
20. 4 Apr"Incorporation by reference"
21. 1 AprEight years ago at the blog -- reposted because of the April Fools connection and because I really liked the title on this one

March 2022

1. 31 Mar"You say this daily walk will reduce my risk of death from cardiovascular disease by 30%, but also increase my risk of death by bear attack by 300%? That's a 280% increased! I'm not a sucker; I'm staying inside."
2. 30 MarHow extreme is Peter Thiel?
3. 29 MarThe New York Times – for it before they were against it
4. 28 MarEight years ago at the blog -- R.I.P. old (and better) SAT
5. 25 MarFree speech for the first speaker
6. 24 MarTwelve years ago at the blog -- part II
7. 23 MarTwelve years ago at the blog -- part I
8. 22 Mar"The explainers I found were bad — boring, biased, inaccessible" and if they can do it, why can't I?
9. 21 MarSomeone saw Double Indemnity and thought "what a great concept for a life insurance ad"
10. 18 MarWeekend Web3 notes
11. 17 MarTwo alternatives to daylight saving time, one of which is just silly
12. 16 Mar"The ultimate distillation of the golden age of fraud"
13. 15 MarTuesday Tweets
14. 14 MarTwelve years ago at the blog -- did not expect to run across Trump
15. 11 MarI'm not recommending this SNL clip because it's funny. In a sense, I'm recommending it because it's not.
16. 10 MarNot merely a villain but also a fool
17. 9 Mar"Love Me, I'm a Liberal"
18. 8 MarFive years ago at the blog -- the Watergate debt
19. 7 Mar"You say you want a revolution"
20. 4 MarHorrible Children
21. 3 MarTwo and a half threads worth your time (including a great Big Con reference)
22. 2 MarTen years ago at the blog
23. 1 MarGentrification and Chinatown

February 2022

1. 28 FebSartre on Trolls
2. 28 FebNo, Mr. Baquet, that wasn't what happened. We were there. We took notes.
3. 25 FebIn memory of Raymond Smullyan
4. 24 FebWhen Threads collide -- the MAGAization of crypto
5. 23 Feb'We really did hit peak stupid' -- Linette Lopez on the return to reality-based markets
6. 22 FebWho could have seen this coming?
7. 21 FebA seven year old response to Dean Baquet's farewell revisionism tour
8. 18 FebA self-driving car rant surprisingly not about Tesla
9. 17 FebThursday Tweets
10. 16 FebCanadian truckers continue onwards
11. 16 Feb"The biggest problem in California right now is that we don't have enough fires" -- everything we said before but more so
12. 15 FebIf there's a company that should be associated with eating lightbulbs, this would probably be it.
13. 14 FebFOMOAOBLD -- Fear of missing out and of being Larry David
14. 11 FebSorry about another tweet-post, but toiletgate just couldn't wait
15. 10 FebWe'll give Cartman the last word
16. 9 FebWednesday Tweets (and a few quick thoughts on Twitter)
17. 8 FebTen Years ago at the blog
18. 8 FebCanadian Truckers, Tyler Cowen's views
19. 7 FebCanadian Truckers
20. 4 FebWeb one, two, three . . .
21. 3 FebWinter again in the Lone Star State
22. 2 FebThe FSD plot might be thickening...
23. 1 FebTuesday Crypto Tweets -- Looking forward to the Matt Damon/Ben McKenzie cage match
24. 1 FebFor the math nerds in the audience (or in our case, "the audience")

January 2022

1. 31 JanPopulation size
2. 28 Jan"The claimed functionality and the actual functionality are both bad." -- Everything you always wanted to know about NFTs but were afraid to ask
3. 27 JanPeloton lifestyle porn
4. 26 JanDeath of a unicorn
5. 25 JanProofs of a Conspiracy -- Four kinds of evidence
6. 24 JanNuclear power and climate change
7. 21 JanBelated Thursday Tweets
8. 20 Jan"the more beautiful it turns, grows so much the weaker"
9. 19 JanEven with Alejandro Jodorowsky's never filmed Dune, truth can be stranger than fiction, especially when crypto and NFTs are involved
10. 18 JanTax cuts are getting old as a policy idea
11. 17 JanMore from Stephen Diehl -- Decentralized Woo Hoo
12. 14 JanNecessary and Sufficientish Factors
13. 13 JanThursday Tweets
14. 12 JanBack on the crypto beat: Turns out that private money is a bad idea
15. 11 JanHealth care and central planning
16. 10 JanSome thoughts on the career of Betty White
17. 7 JanDamn, this has been sitting in the queue for a while.
18. 6 JanPolicy that ignores the real poor
19. 5 JanJust to keep this top of mind...
20. 4 JanSimpsons > Good Will Hunting (mathematically speaking)
21. 3 JanWhy I see SCOTUS packing as inevitable
22. 1 JanHappy New Year's -- Little Nemo grows up