nerdiness

🎓 On Teleportation & Understanding via Writing

How writing speculative fiction helps me create a mental model of complex concepts.

6 hrs ago •

🌲 On Leadership & Legacy: Shockley, Yi, & Brasidas

Lessons from people who failed at a critical thing they were trying to accomplish.

Feb 27 •

🎓 Communities who never met IRL are older than you think

Online friendships are not so very different from the Mesopotamian brotherhood of kings, or the Kula ring of the Trobriand Islanders in the Southwest…

Feb 20 •

🎓 On Agricultural Causes of Societal Catastrophes

A look at maize mosaic disease, wheat rust, the chestnut blight, brown spot disease, and the boll weevil.

Feb 13 •

🎓 On the Diplomacy of Steppe Princesses

How "Wordle meets Wikipedia" expanded my horizons in regard to the importance of noble daughters in Asia, particularly among the Xiongnu.

Jan 30 •

🎓 On the origins of the merchant class

In which I brave the censure of econ nerds to explore the history of commerce

Oct 24, 2024 •

🎓 On cohort-based sociopolitical systems in East Africa

Expanding conscription ages? Bad for peace. Building in power peaceful transition rituals? Good for peace.

Oct 10, 2024 •

🎓 On feasts, cilantro, and cultural norms around food

I'll never retire to Costa Rica, even tho cilantro isn't as weird as crab.

Sep 19, 2024 •

🎓 On commitment and burning your ships behind you

Investigating the historical accuracy of popular idioms.

Jul 18, 2024 •

🎓 Excellence vs. egalitarianism in human societies

How gossip and murder were critical to the domestication of Homo sapiens sapiens, but can interfere with civilization.

Jun 29, 2024 •

🎓 Curious Disasters: Failed Marriages in Folklore

On what it takes to make things work with a partner

Feb 10, 2024 •

🎓 On the Difficulty of Fantasy Cartography

What making fantasy maps can teach us about complexity

Jan 20, 2024 •

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