veqq
1yr ago
How do you size a (pole of) civilization/culture? Is the US the same US as 200 years ago and not a new something on the same place? At what point do they diverge? Some slice it even further e.g. Woodard's American Nations or Garreau's Nine Nations, which each have separate genesis etc. It's turtles all the way down, and we can do cluster analysis etc. So which is the most useful lens? I'm asking where to draw the line and apply morphological breaks a la Spengler.
I believe just a short jump through time brings us to alien worlds, besides across geography. The modern cannon/idea space has basically nothing in common with that of the 18th century (most of someone's reading in 1750 would not have been what we care of now from then.) I don't think I live in the same civilization as Alexander Pope or Schiller, let alone Boethius or Lucretius. Were Lomonosov and Voltaireneighbors; is Pelevin my neighbor?
Now, there are different frameworks for this, Spengler e.g. excludes succession, while Toynbeee considers parental links, but...
veqq
1yr ago
internalized this idea that intelligent reasonable moral people should not exercise agency
This is a better treatment: https://www.themotte.org/post/1827/culture-war-roundup-for-the-week/315895?context=8#context
Compensating for these adjustments generates a lot of alpha in macro analysis. Imputed rent is 10% of US GDP, hilariously.
veqq
1yr ago
"Persian letters" (or Chinese etc.) was a popular genre, applying this outside view for whatever use. It's interesting to see modern careers riffing off the same.
veqq
1yr ago
drafted ... served willingly
Too many enrolled early on, overwhelming induction capacity. The US actually ended voluntary enlistment at the end of 1942, to allocate manpower more rationally.
veqq
1yr ago
But this policy hurts Europe and China by devastating the US. Europe and China can continue trading with each other before - and will do so even more.
veqq
1yr ago
1/3 of Guatemalans live like Americans in the 90s (in a good way, better than modern America). 2/3 live like rural Appalachia. Prices are very high, 3-5x more than in Central Mexico (central Mexico is about 1/2 old America, 1/2 Texas truck stop) (indeed, higher than LCOL US.) Surprisingly to me, it's rather rainy and cold.
veqq
1yr ago
not classical
Indeed, it is "classical". Those are load bearing quotation marks!
listening list
Gladly!
veqq
1yr ago
though only a 15-minute drive
For context, based on a recent visit, 20mph is a good speed in El Salvador.
veqq
1yr ago
What're your favorite pieces of "classical" music? A few recent discoveries:
veqq
1yr ago
I'm struck by how often there are connections to America mentioned
American missionaries played a huge role in 19th century China's development (also returning railroad workers built cool houses and started many business back in China! Similar to Arab countries, where the Arabic literary revival was started by immigrants in the US while missionary schools educated the new elites and are still many of the most important unis today.) China's best uni was founded by the US, to prepare Chinese who'd received scholarships to the US. Sun Yat Sen tied his Christianity to his revolutionary modernism (he went to missionary unis too.)
veqq
1yr ago
I could go deeper and analyze some other potential axes
I would enjoy this, when you have time!
veqq
1yr ago
This 2012 blog post by Steve Randy Waldman
Any suggestions of similar, still running blogs or communities?
veqq
1yr ago
got denied entry to Canada
I was denied entry to Canada some years ago. The border guard filled out the opposite of the answers I gave, gave me a paper with them, ignored my protestations along with coworkers, then locked me in a room for 4 hours before denying me entry. There were 3 y/n questions on a paper, whether I knew anyone and I don't recall what else.
veqq
1yr ago
wearing just a tutu,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dietrich_von_H%C3%BClsen-Haeseler
During a formal evening function, (General) von Hülsen-Haeseler appeared dressed in the pink tutu and rose wreath of a ballerina, dancing for (Kaiser Wilhelm II) and his assembled guests. ... the general bowed, collapsed and was pronounced dead after hasty medical attention
veqq
1yr ago
Again, you need to read more 10-Ks. Much of the S&P 500, let alone S&P 600 or Russel 2000 are hilarious money holes. Big tech (besides Meta) are actually among the most efficient. It generally gets worse, the smaller the business (for obvious reasons) but it's shocking how much waste there is, everywhere.
veqq
1yr ago
1/3rd of your budget wasted is a failing company
You need to read way more 10-Ks if you believe that
veqq
1yr ago
For seven years in a row, Oakland was the fastest-gaining urban district in California for reading ... we hated it ...
The teachers felt like curriculum robots—and pushed back. “This seems dehumanizing, this is colonizing, this is the man telling us what to do ... we fought tooth and nail as a teacher group to throw that out
https://time.com/6205084/phonics-science-of-reading-teachers/
veqq
1yr ago
th" would be a separate letter altogether since it represents a unique sound. So just teach it as a sight word
You can just teach th, like ph and ch, has a special sound (actually 2, voiced and unvoiced). There's no need for something to be part of an official alphabet to teach its pattern. ough is the main blocker, today.
veqq
1yr ago
I could swear having LGBTQ themes is now mandatory in children's publishing
I should be the change I want to see. Who would buy my half-written (in heroic couplets!) children's book about heroicism, exploration and science? I can put a fire under it.
is delicious and worth protecting. Overfishing's been a huge problem since the Soviets started depleting fisheries in the 60s. Trawlers etc. are painful today. We definitely need research on how to protect our delicious tuna (or e.g. how to farm them cheaply and indefinitely).
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