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Some interesting suggestions here. I feel like we're all (as in, this corner of twitter) in a bit of a local minimum/rut of reading the same things. Needs a somewhat random re-seed, but not entirely idiosyncratic personal picks.
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What’s a good general interest non-fiction book you’ve read in the last few months?
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Like if you had to swap out some sophomore portal basics from the last 10 years, what would they be?
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“Sophomore portal” books: You’re likely to read them 17-21, with median at ~19 — Ayn Rand — GEB — HHG — Alchemist — Pirsig They seem optimized to have a profound effect in that range, be inaccessible if you’re younger (unless you’re precocious) and underwhelming if you’re older
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Like in certain conversations, Taleb is the Schelling point. Where could that conversation get reset? Not a different view of what Taleb thinks is important (that would be Cosma Shalizi) but a different view of what's important. Like, Taleb's got us in a derpy rut of sorts.
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Another example is what I think of as the Bildungsroman discourse space. It no longer interests me except as a spectator sport, but is obviously of evergreen interest to the 20-35 set. But ca we get out of the damn Charlie Munger/Cal Newport/Adam Grant type rut there?
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Other, more mainstream-normie Schelling points that need shifting: Malcolm Gladwell, Steven Pinker, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Harari... More subculturey Schelling points that need shifting: Christopher Alexander, Ivan Illich, Don Norman, Tainter, James Carse, James Scott...
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Not quite sure what I'm getting at, but something like, the conversational equilibrium needs to shift... post-Weirding/Covid zeitgeist deserves a fresh start. Nothing against these lighthouse writers that guided conversations for a couple of decades before, but time to reboot
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You need both. But it often takes more courage to go against the bias of funding agencies, and do hard work that undermines popular explanations or policies without providing convenient alternatives