7858

@7858.eth

488 Following

2660 Followers

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Book review status update, short term plans, and reflections: We're almost exactly halfway through 2025. I've been writing a book review per day since January 1st. That's 183 reviews without missing a day, as far as I know. I've reviewed everything that I read in 2024 and almost everything I've read in 2025. The reviews I got the most engagement on were mostly recent-ish (last 75 years) and pop-leaning. Childhood favorites punched above their weight class. I'm planning on taking a break for at least 3 months, maybe even 6. I'm almost out of books to review, and I think this review business works better as an every-day-or-never thing. Plus, I want to spend more time fishing, working on side projects, and playing outside with my kids while they're on summer vacation. This is the second most fun I've had on social media (the most fun was running a popular NFT account through the rise of NFTs, if you're wondering). Thank you all for the likes, the comments, the quotes, and the rest of the engagement. My favorite reactions were the respectful disagreements. You all are great at that. Thank you especially for pushing back gracefully. If you've made it this far, I'm inferring that I've earned some credibility with you, and I'd like to expend it all right now. Please carefully consider the following. You must read good books. Your entire experience is downstream of the information you consume. The way you think about problems, the way you see the world, the way you feel about other men and women, the things you value, and your sense of how to live a good life are all a product of the playlist of thoughts you put on in your head. We consume culture with mothers' milk, as the Romans believed. But we retain some degree of mental plasticity through our whole lives. That means that you, as an adult, are choosing your own propaganda. The thoughts you permit to pass through your mind, the things you look at, the things you watch, and the things you read are not just database entries. They're updating your firmware in real time. If you choose to consume short shelf life information, you're depriving yourself of abilities to process and understand the world's most important patterns. If you choose to consume partisan information, you are willfully warping your perspective. A poor nutritional diet causes lifestyle diseases of the body. A poor information diet causes lifestyle diseases of the mind. It's impossible to know what the ideal piece of information for you to consume at any given moment is. Reading about Bictoin on HackerNews in 2011 was extremely high yield for some people. But chances are, if you were reading the latest tech news in 2011, you were mourning the death of Steve Jobs or getting hyped about Arab Spring unfolding on Twitter or something. The chances of a piece of content 100 hours old proving itself of substantial long term value to you rounds down to 0. On the other hand, the chances of something 100 years old, or better yet 1000 years old, proving itself of substantial long term value to you round up to 1. It's not a perfect system, but give older books the benefit of the doubt nonetheless. The Lindy effect is real, and young content should require extraordinary proof of value before you allocate your time to it. Don't worry about falling behind on the news. You can't escape it. I've got 15 years of practice, and I fail at least a little every day. You won't be left behind. And to state the implicit part of all this explicitly: prioritize books above all else. You should not consume information with the primary goal of adding database entries to your memory. We have the internet for that now. You are training the LLM in your head. You are refining your ability to process novel situations by building up a stable of mental models that have proven themselves valuable across millennia. I encounter no greater catastrophe on a daily basis than a high horsepower mind malnourished by a suboptimal information diet, or worse, turned against itself by an information diet antithetical to its own true interests. You are smart people. You don't just sit around on the couch eating chips and candy. Despite your base urges, you eat right. I implore you to take your mental wellbeing as seriously. You shouldn't just watch short form videos and read political listicles. Read good books, because reading is thinking and every thought that passes through your head leaves behind some trace of itself, great or small, in your deepest nature. You must read good books.

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No way! The cabal is considering my thing!

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I might have to reread The Power Broker and In Search of Lost Time I miss living in those worlds so much

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I feel like it’s important to remind ourselves that we don’t actually dislike the things we use an convenient butts for jokes So, I really love New Jersey

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I’m not normally a big fan of laws, but I would endorse a policy that anyone caught in possession of a mylar balloon should be summarily executed

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Staggering This is a big part of why American taste is improving, no joke

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What are your multi-keystroke flexes? I can do ™ (option+2) for the culture And ° (cmd+option+8) because I've been doing 3D stuff at my day job Whatcha got?

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Is there a type of chatter other than idle? I feel like you can just say chatter and I’ll do the idle math

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Why the hell isn’t Fred from Paradigm active on here?

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🎨🖌️ It’s not amazing as art or anything but it was surprisingly fun to draw this kiwi with @iamtaylor’s 'Billboard' canvas – go add your own! 🖼️✨

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This is not the official review, just gotta talk about it to get it off my mind I just finished Rabbit, Run Updike is such a weird writer. The narrator’s voice is often exquisite. The dialogue is often poor. The story is bizarre and a lot of big actions feel unmotivated. But parts of the story are incredibly moving and there are moments where, when he’s writing Rabbit’s thoughts, he’s just jacked into the deep true core of human nature. The first half was mid, the second half was great. The religion stuff felt so out of place but the basketball felt natural and authentic. Lots to think about in terms of the book as a piece of writing craft but also it’s a story and a character that I can tell will stick with me.

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The first signs of self congratulatory froth forming around insiders makes me cautiously optimistic that we really might have a little bull run here

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Incredible account, woefully under the radar follow if you like @sinusoidalsnail or @blankspace (Follow both of them, too)

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I know it was just a reflex but the *way* he hid was cowardly. If I owned any stock in the company he runs I would be selling. You’re busted, man. Hold your head high and own it. The extreme opposite of executive gravitas

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Avoid doctors at all costs Exercise, eat right, sleep 7+ hours, and stay as far as possible from the medical industry Unless you have an issue that could be diagnosed by a middle schooler and treated in the field by a Korean War medic, you should not voluntarily go into any medical facility

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I've always considered jam and punk to be such diametrically opposed genres that no track could have a substantial claim to both titles simultaneously this song feels like the closest I've encountered (not a spectacular song or anything, just a neat mix of styles) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3H4EAOTy1LE

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At ranged weapon distance, display your weapon hand raised to shoulder level or higher, fully open. Move it from side to side for additional visibility if range merits. At melee distance, extend your open weapon hand outwards and await your counterpart to do the same. Clasp hands for a final confirmation that neither party is armed, which serves as a proxy for an absence of hostile intent. Take it as an opportunity to size up the strength and resolve of your counterpart by giving his hand a firm squeeze and a slight vertical shake. If someone comes at you with a closed fist, assume hostile intent from an armed opponent. Proactively eviscerate him and, if it's not a bountiful season, eat his corpse.

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Good book cycling through today https://farcaster.xyz/miniapps/XLFFlBMMZey2/7858-book-reviews

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