Your Mid-Week Experiment
In which Frank Spring makes me question why I'm doing this
Thanks to everyone who commented on last weekend’s essay on the necessity of hope to make any progress. My favorite was this from Macy, who quoted Hope in the Dark by Rebecca Solnit:
I say all this because hope is not like a lottery ticket you can sit on the sofa and clutch, feeling lucky. I say it because hope is an ax you break down doors with in an emergency; because hope should shove you out the door, because it will take everything you have to steer the future away from endless war, from the annihilation of the earth’s treasures and the grinding down of the poor and marginal. Hope just means another world might be possible, not promised, not guaranteed.
Hope is an ax. Love that.
Let’s get to it:
Pretty good dang poem—> “Thanks” (W. S. Merwin)
Nature makes the scientific case for making political endorsements (Nature)
Frank Spring’s Disorder Up Substack makes me want to shut down my own. It’s that good.
Spectacularly good advice about presenting data and a smart refresher for storytellers (MIT Sloan)
I don’t think there’s a question anymore about whether AI can help writers. (Jorge Arango)
In particular, ChatGPT can help with form. (Science Needs Story)
Good lord, but Kurt Vonnegut was charming.
“People have capitalized on catastrophes before — political coups, short selling, etc. — but in the history of humanity, there’s never been an asset class whose value is predicated on collapse. ... Crypto is becoming the ultimate libertarian scheme — the world’s first asset class that encourages you to stop investing in America, and quit.” (Scott Galloway)
“Stormy Daniels might have been loud, and lewd, and opportunistic, and the perfect symbol for the freakish time period we’ve all lived through. But she also remained honest about all of that, and true to herself. It was a mutual motorboating, and she was the only one of the bunch to come out clean.” (Monica Hesse)
The story of how The Godfather was made might even be better than the story in The Godfather. I even liked Miles Teller, which is not something you’ll hear me say a lot.
We set up a merch table in the back where you can get T-shirts, coffee mugs, and even tote bags now. Show the world that you’re part of The Experiment.
We’ve also got a tip jar, and I promise to waste every cent you give me on having fun, because writing this newsletter for you is how I have fun.
Buy the book Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick banned from the Bullock Texas History Museum: Forget the Alamo: The Rise and Fall of the American Myth by Bryan Burrough, Chris Tomlinson, and myself is out from Penguin Random House. The New York Times bestseller is 44% off and the same price as a paperback now!