Here is something strange about modern work. We have more tools than ever to save time, and yet nobody has any. Your team is drowning in Slack messages, sprint reviews, status updates, and “quick syncs” that are never quick. Everyone is busy. Nobody is thinking. Herbert Simon saw this coming. He was an economist, a […]
How to Manage a Team When Nobody Has Time to Think Read More »
Everyone has a theory about why divorce rates climbed so dramatically in the second half of the twentieth century. The usual suspects get rounded up every time: declining moral values, the sexual revolution, secularism, feminism, social media, dating apps. Pick your villain. The story practically writes itself, and it always ends with a nostalgic sigh
The Secret Reason Behind Rising Divorce Rates: It’s Not Values, It’s Incentives Read More »
Most economists in the mid twentieth century were busy drawing elegant diagrams on chalkboards and explaining how markets reach beautiful equilibria. Stigler walked into the room and asked a different question. Not how things should work. How they actually work. The answer, it turns out, is far less flattering to everyone involved. George Stigler won
Economics Without Romance: A Brutal Guide to How the World Actually Works Read More »
There is a question most people never bother to ask because they assume they already know the answer. Can you be happy without being a good person? The modern world answers with a confident yes. Happiness, we are told, is a feeling. It is a state of mind. It is something you can buy, medicate
Can You Be Happy Without Virtue? Aristotle’s Firm Answer Read More »
There is something almost comically awkward about Friedrich Nietzsche becoming a mascot for German nationalism. The man spent the better part of his productive life attacking German culture, mocking the German state, and calling for a future that would make borders look like chalk lines drawn by children. Yet here we are, over a century
The “Good European”: Friedrich Nietzsche’s Vision of a Post-National Culture Read More »
There is a quiet cemetery growing in the modern economy. It is not filled with companies or currencies. It is filled with credentials. Specifically, master’s degrees. Millions of them, printed on heavy cardstock, tucked into frames, and hung on walls where they slowly become decorative rather than functional. In 1803, a French economist named Jean-Baptiste
The Credential Graveyard: Why a Master’s Degree is “Supply without Demand” in 2026 Read More »
There is a quote attributed to Voltaire that refuses to die. It has been printed on coffee mugs, shared in Instagram stories, and dropped into philosophy essays by undergraduates hoping to sound clever. “God is a comedian playing to an audience too afraid to laugh.” Whether Voltaire actually said it is debatable. But whoever said
Why God Is a Comedian Playing to an Audience Too Afraid to Laugh Read More »
You probably did not walk down the aisle thinking about property rights. Nobody writes wedding vows that say, “I promise to grant you exclusive and reciprocal access to my faculties and possessions, as governed by rational duty.” No one cries tears of joy at a contract signing. But Immanuel Kant, the 18th century German philosopher
Is Your Marriage Just a “Legal Contract”? Kant’s Cold Take on Love Read More »
There is a particular kind of bankruptcy that no bailout can fix. It does not show up on balance sheets or in GDP reports. No central bank can print its way out of it, and no tax policy can reverse it once it takes hold. Montesquieu saw it coming three centuries ago. Charles-Louis de Secondat,
Why Montesquieu Said Public Trust Is the Only Real National Wealth Read More »
There is a comfortable assumption floating around modern culture that bad art is harmless. A terrible painting hangs on a wall and does nothing. A poorly written novel sits on a shelf and gathers dust. A sentimental film plays to an indifferent audience and vanishes from memory. No damage done. Everyone moves on. Bertrand Russell
Why Bad Art Is Dangerous: Russell on Taste and Reason Read More »