On 9/21/26
Daily Letter
Memes & Culture × Money, Work & Power
You cannot use the phrase "do as I say not as I do". This doesn't work at all. Kids will emulate
If you do not want your kid drinking, don't drink in front of them. Same with sports, music etc. They just copy you a mini mirror.
Another · Inspiration & Quotes
as the health and capacity of public institutions withers, political leaders will speak more and more like bystanders rather than drivers of events, and that this shift will largely reflect reality.
“Different matters are arranged in my head," said Napoleon, "as in drawers; I open one drawer and close another as I wish. I have never been kept awake by an involuntary pre-occupation of the mind. If I desire repose, I shut up all the drawers, and sleep. I have always slept when I wanted rest, and almost at will.
The book begins with Soros jokingly taunting him to quit while he's ahead. Then he blew up a year after writing this book, came back and wrote another book about the changes he was going to make to avoid blowing up again, then blew up again 4 years after that book
A great heuristic
If someone attacks a book or idea using more than one argument, you know it is not real: nobody says "he is a criminal, he killed many people, and he also has bad table manners and bad breath and is a very poor driver."
Misc
will the right insight fix you?
imagine a child who's upset and crying. sometimes, you can say the right thing to them that reassures them and gets them back to regulation - "don't worry, we'll go get another ice cream cone"
but if you've been searching for the right thing to say for a while, and it's not working, they probably need comfort & attunement - for someone to be with them in their sadness
same goes for yourself. if you've spent months or years trying to find the right "fix" for how you feel inside, and nothing's moving, it's probably time to practice actually being with what's there - moving towards yourself with curiosity and compassion
Your grandmother knew the names of demons before psychology invented new words for them. She blessed bread because bread is covenant, covered mirrors because reflection is dangerous, threw salt because salt remembers the sea that birthed all life. superstition is what she called sight
A reminder that nobody has done the reading, and if you do that alone you’ll soon find yourself absurdly ahead of the curve