On 8/3/26
Daily Letter
People & Society × Inspiration & Quotes
This actually the inverse of the toughness of the field
Von Neumann said it best
If people do not believe that mathematics is simple, it is only because they do not realize how complicated life is.
There’s this tendency to underestimate how much govt would prefer to just know than a quick enforcement that just sends stuff underground
They’re hoping that more criminals and terrorists use crypto and use blockchains because there's a trail.
The alternative is the hawala system... Two cousins in two countries, money never actually moves, one just tells the other the family has it. No digital trail whatsoever, because nothing has happened digitally. No paper trail, no nothing.
People wave off stuff like tarot, horoscope, superstitions etc but they’re net-beneficial as they're structured version of introspection
Wish more people would realize this and stop pussyfooting around & turn to building something grand
“Lean Startups” were always about making startups inner metrics legible to investors at the cost of their customers.
Perception is very underrated and a very complicated game. But rests on the foundation of the inner self
It's almost mind-blowing how important status is. Most people will never see past your perceived status and their reactions will be 100% dependent on your perceived status
People will gang up viciously on a non-conforming person of "Low-status" to coerce them into conformity despite their having harmed no one, but struggle to bring that same energy to those in some kind of power doing far worse things that harm many.
People who can't face their problems want to make their problems your problems.
Jung put it well:
Anything repressed will be projected onto others.
You have to give fuck about something
As you become an adult, you realize that things around you weren't just always there; people made them happen. But only recently have I started to internalize how much tenacity everything requires. That hotel, that park, that railway. The world is a museum of passion projects.
People with similar autistic traits seem to connect on their own social wavelength.
Their brains synchronized during conversation in distinct patterns depending on whether they were paired with someone who shared similar autistic traits.
https://www.biologicalpsychiatryjournal.com/article/S0006-3223(25)01305-8/abstract
AI & New Tech × Money, Work & Power
We must spend time "consciousness raising". The bottleneck is our own Pride and small thinking. We need to think beyond our primitive desires and beyond even our own brief lives. We are not yet ready for the power and potential that Artificial Intelligence offers. This will require reacquainting ourselves with moral conceptions in a whole of society approach to improving awareness.
Public · Design & Objects
Cognitive vulnerability
A terrible trade, never give in
Lines as 3rd spaces is insane
3d printer needed expeditiously
Faster and faster
The confidence losing it all imprints, may just be worth it
There must be one
Need to see if they took into account mingle child for second
Compared to second-born children, first-borns are at a greater risk of being diagnosed with a large number of conditions, from ADHD to autism.
Contrarily, second-borns are more likely to have documented substance abuse issues
Open full size
https://www.nature.com/articles/s44360-026-00177-z.pdf
Inspiration & Quotes
Diversification is protection against ignorance. It makes little sense if you know what you are doing.
Jesus, what a lens, explains a lot
The median voter in America is a Maoist. They do not believe in tradeoffs. They believe that, if only everyone were good and honest and working toward the right goals, good things will happen.
https://open.substack.com/pub/nicholasdecker/p/the-median-voter-is-a-maoist?r=36pad&utm_medium=ios
Can point to cases of this in our age endlessly
Mao does not often include details in his writing. His instructions are aphorisms – not “do this”, but “see that this is done”. And of course, there is a great gap between what the appropriate things to do were, and what outcomes they would actually lead to. If things lead to disaster, they can be disavowed as being a misunderstanding, and not showing the fundamental wrongness of the program.
Public
Looks like he achieved his true goal that night irregardless
Be there in a shake
Brb
Inspiration & Quotes × Memes & Culture
Beautifully put
I am in constant awe of our ability to create. it might be the most astonishing thing we were ever handed, and every single one of us is walking around with something inside us - just begging to be let out. you can arrange letters in an order that makes a stranger ache. you can pull music out of dead silence. you can build a product or tool that did not exist anywhere else until the moment you dragged it into being. I cannot get over how staggering that is. do not let it sit in you unused.
Science, Nature & The Future
Amazing
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-026-10835-7.pdf
Misc
Sometimes you gotta play devils avocado
It’s really that simple
Destruction is just clearing the way for construction
Half rebel
Half healer
If this happens I’m buying and giving away 20 dozen nuggets
The photographer went OFF
https://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/138-Amenia-Rd_Sharon_CT_06069_M34074-29533
Never coming down but can’t risk wasting those precious years, just in case