link.dump.8.2.2026
yogurt, donkey, not trying, and rotting fish sauce
I read a lot of random stuff. Link Dumps are the things I think are worth remembering. Every Sunday (if I remember) I will send out my weeks worth of links. You can always check out my Link Dump Tag if you’re looking for even more to read and please forward these if someone might find them interesting.
Aesop’s Fable - The Man, The Boy, and The Donkey. Always a solid reminder, you can’t please everyone. Or to say it a different way - choices are about who you’re going to piss off.
A post from July of 2024, back before Trump was elected. What Hath Jerusalem To Do With Mar-a-Lago? Lots of solid questions. The reconciliation of supporting a person like Trump and being evangelical Christian is still an open question for me a decade on.
Nate Silver’s piece from 2023 about realizing that science, and scientists, requires a certain amount of uncertainty bubbled back up for me today. The story of covid origins and the reporting about it is instructional.
Cate Hall - Maybe You’re Not Actually Trying. Interesting new lens for me.
What is Agency - a conversation between Nate Silver and Cate Hall that I devoured and then I ordered her book too. Long but highly recommend.
This is one of the more in depth “state of the world” things from Noah Smith on where we are with AI through the lens of intelligence and what diminishing returns we might be seeing. It’s an incredibly exciting thing to see spelled out the way he has done it and supports my “I think we’re seeing a new information revolution” stance.
This is goddamn fascinating to read about the millennial midlife crisis and the rise of narcissism in my generation and how it’s tied to the decline of church and trust in institutions. Just fascinating.
I’m not particularly good at statistics but that’s why I adore Our World in Data. Here’s what they have to say about the value of statistics. Max Roser is one of my favorite communicators about the world at large because of his use of statistics to back up his assertions.
Authorities took dude’s phone and he gave them an “unlock” code that wiped the phone. Oopsie! Now they’re charging him with a felony which I’ll be interested to see if it sticks…
You don’t have to be a smart developer if you can think clearly. A great little piece and something I think is highly important - raw intelligence can matter but keeping yourself calm and collected and thinking clearly is a learned behavior that pays off.
A year old piece about how ads are coming to AI. And by now, hey, they are here. Though not with Claude and they’ve got me paying starting this month anyways. There’s lots to unpack here at some point.
VIDEO - SmarterEveryDay — the PROBLEM with Capitalism. Saving to watch soon, but I love this channel even with me barely doing Youtube.
Yogurt company being sued because they said they have “zero sugar” and now everyone is slap-fighting over the definition of sure. JFC.
Yglesias meditates a bit on free markets beating capitalism. Good read, I could see referencing it down the road.
The Dispatch write-up on inflation is a fantastic read. And the number didn’t change after publication either for those wondering.
We Can’t Indulge GenZ Malaise. Thoughtful read, especially that folks think they need to make 600k to be successful. Overall I liked this piece quite a bit.
America’s plummeting popularity around the world seems like a pretty bad consequence to me, guess time will tell. How Trump made America Less Popular.
Taylor Lorenz talks about journalism and using AI and what his life looks like. Good read. I’m glad it’s just a hobby for me so I can easily disclose my own AI Use and not worry about dropping income.
Twenty Years ago the Atlantic Seafood Sauce Company went out of business and abandoned over 300,000 gallons of rotting fish sauce. It kept rotting. The provincial government of Canada is finally going to clean it up to the tune of a little over a million dollars. This is an epic fucking story.
Leaving artificial dyes is hard for companies. An interesting insight into humans, marketing, and how capitalism drives decisions that maybe aren’t best for the consumer.