#  @TheMindScourge The Mind Scourge The Mind Scourge posts on X about in the, ai, this is, culture the most. They currently have [-----] followers and [---] posts still getting attention that total [---------] engagements in the last [--] hours. ### Engagements: [---------] [#](/creator/twitter::273531445/interactions)  - [--] Week [---------] +33% - [--] Month [----------] +125% - [--] Months [----------] +4,284% - [--] Year [----------] +231% ### Mentions: [--] [#](/creator/twitter::273531445/posts_active)  - [--] Week [--] -39% - [--] Month [---] +39% - [--] Months [---] +123% - [--] Year [---] +2.70% ### Followers: [-----] [#](/creator/twitter::273531445/followers)  - [--] Week [-----] +6.10% - [--] Month [-----] +25% - [--] Months [-----] +97% - [--] Year [-----] +140% ### CreatorRank: [------] [#](/creator/twitter::273531445/influencer_rank)  ### Social Influence **Social category influence** [countries](/list/countries) 23.31% [travel destinations](/list/travel-destinations) #4610 [technology brands](/list/technology-brands) 7.52% [finance](/list/finance) #1491 [stocks](/list/stocks) #2502 [celebrities](/list/celebrities) 3.76% [social networks](/list/social-networks) 3.76% [luxury brands](/list/luxury-brands) 1.5% [cryptocurrencies](/list/cryptocurrencies) 0.75% [automotive brands](/list/automotive-brands) 0.75% **Social topic influence** [in the](/topic/in-the) #436, [ai](/topic/ai) #1081, [this is](/topic/this-is) #1947, [culture](/topic/culture) #280, [if you](/topic/if-you) #2465, [history](/topic/history) #105, [the world](/topic/the-world) #110, [china](/topic/china) #2453, [the most](/topic/the-most) 4.51%, [the first](/topic/the-first) #913 **Top accounts mentioned or mentioned by** [@rick42798550](/creator/undefined) [@cryptopaulrudd](/creator/undefined) [@rjswtrilogywhen](/creator/undefined) [@grok](/creator/undefined) [@tacofridge](/creator/undefined) [@junie_summer](/creator/undefined) [@whyvert](/creator/undefined) [@expatanon](/creator/undefined) [@sunbeltmindset](/creator/undefined) [@2024dion](/creator/undefined) [@anand_venkatram](/creator/undefined) [@warrenplatts](/creator/undefined) [@chris_arnade](/creator/undefined) [@spudchungus](/creator/undefined) [@roigvalls](/creator/undefined) [@bigp4p4smurf](/creator/undefined) [@chrisarnade](/creator/undefined) [@teortaxestex](/creator/undefined) [@kcjdr](/creator/undefined) [@tomscrace](/creator/undefined) **Top assets mentioned** [Alphabet Inc Class A (GOOGL)](/topic/$googl) [Origin Dollar (OUSD)](/topic/origin-dollar) ### Top Social Posts Top posts by engagements in the last [--] hours "The real question is where the demand will come from for more launch providers China will supply sufficient demand to sustain its own companies and the rest of the world has SpaceX and Blue Origin. Dollar for dollar (rupee for rupee) India arguably has the worlds most efficient space program and I wouldnt be surprised if they master reusability in time. But I dont think this is a question (primarily) of technological capacity. Japan Korea and Europe (France/Germany) all have the ability to build a reusable launcher. The real question the one they all face is: and then what None of these (and" [X Link](https://x.com/TheMindScourge/status/1989329584303624442) 2025-11-14T13:48Z [----] followers, [---] engagements "Many of these remote territorial dependencies - Pitcairn is one - lack any semblance of a harbor. Ships simply anchor offshore in open water. Small boats then run in people and supplies. If the sea state isnt favorable no offloading occurs. You just have to wait Want to feel small https://t.co/XjbtudUVlr Want to feel small https://t.co/XjbtudUVlr" [X Link](https://x.com/TheMindScourge/status/2016314644181176449) 2026-01-28T00:57Z [----] followers, [---] engagements "The Lindy solution is to have both the house in Palo Alto and the villa in Marbella. Then you fly private between them The British aristocracy maintained "town homes" (large mansions/palaces) in London for business and politics as well as an even grander seat in the country The Romans did the same. The wealthy one with a $5M villa in Marbella has 10x the life quality of the ultra-rich guy in Palo Alto with a $30M house. Guaranteed. https://t.co/rgyVFOIY2K The wealthy one with a $5M villa in Marbella has 10x the life quality of the ultra-rich guy in Palo Alto with a $30M house. Guaranteed." [X Link](https://x.com/TheMindScourge/status/2016909918800863340) 2026-01-29T16:22Z [----] followers, [----] engagements "The Palace of Justice in Brussels suffers from much the same problem classicism rendered on a gigantic scale. The proportions end up getting blown out and it doesnt look quite right. The humanistic element of classical architecture gets lost in the pursuit of the brobdingnagian But then again we stopped building like this for the most part within a few decades. If this was built today it would be some forgettable asymmetric glass and metal structure. https://twitter.com/i/web/status/2017226133054394559 https://twitter.com/i/web/status/2017226133054394559" [X Link](https://x.com/TheMindScourge/status/2017226133054394559) 2026-01-30T13:19Z [----] followers, [----] engagements "Trumps memorial arch is genuinely massive [---] feet tall DC is going to look much different in a decade whether or not this particular arch gets built. Theres something in the air. A lot of these federal buildings are getting vacated partly because theres interest in dispersing the agencies across the country partly because of remote work. The mid-century structures are mostly ugly in poor repair and will be torn down DC is also interesting because its one of the centers of classical architecture in the US and theres a lot of classically trained architects in the area unusual for most of the" [X Link](https://x.com/TheMindScourge/status/2017652427671982142) 2026-01-31T17:33Z [----] followers, 140.4K engagements "Unsurprisingly the French got here first. Picard Surgels specializes in frozen foods. Theres nothing like it in the US Frozen dinners are underrated. Frozen dinners are underrated" [X Link](https://x.com/TheMindScourge/status/2017658475510137139) 2026-01-31T17:57Z [----] followers, 714.8K engagements "You can tell a lot about a culture from its grocery stores and especially its convenience foods Picard is for people with jobs and families. Theyre short on time. Picard solves by selling flash frozen foods in an extraordinary variety. But the ingredients are very different from what youd get in the US for similar products. Take mozzarella sticks: Picards version: mozzarella 41% wheat flour water green pepper 4.1% green chile potato starch corn flour salt yeast powdered whole egg from free range chickens turmeric sodium caseinate baking powder garlic extract onion extract spice extract white" [X Link](https://x.com/TheMindScourge/status/2017662415413088297) 2026-01-31T18:13Z [----] followers, 845.4K engagements "The Hermione a French-built replica of an 18th century frigate You can just look at pictures of sailing ships all day and no one can stop you" [X Link](https://x.com/TheMindScourge/status/2017698833560449132) 2026-01-31T20:37Z [----] followers, [---] engagements "Obviously anyone getting into Harvard is going to Harvard not Ole Miss. That isnt a question but that isnt the question here either. Most comments on this post are getting this wrong Getting yourself into a position where you are Harvard potential is a decade plus campaign. So the question is whether families are increasingly opting out from putting their kids into the grindset race at all. Thats what were really talking about here and I think there is plenty of evidence that this is in fact occurring As Ive posted about before so I wont repeat right now there is growing cynicism around the" [X Link](https://x.com/TheMindScourge/status/2018107968261177472) 2026-02-01T23:43Z [----] followers, 64.4K engagements "Products like this proliferate in a world where only one or two children is the norm. Having a big family causes you to be more relaxed about things like this less sensitive to every imagined remote risk But with only one your imagination runs riot and without constraint The baby section of Target is a glimpse into how totally insane unscrupulous marketers can convince worried parents to go trying to eliminate fake safety problems and it makes me sad https://t.co/ER12OP6n6m The baby section of Target is a glimpse into how totally insane unscrupulous marketers can convince worried parents to" [X Link](https://x.com/TheMindScourge/status/2018314540409143748) 2026-02-02T13:24Z [----] followers, [----] engagements "Youll encounter a lot of people who say they dont know how to cook And true in many cases in the US you have people grow up whose parents didnt really cook (maybe just prepared stuff) and their grandparents too didnt either. Prepping dinner was mostly just nuking products in the microwave and opening up various packages So if this is you taking the first step into actually making food from scratch can seem daunting. But it doesnt have to be Cooking is easy if you remain that being able to cook is mostly about being able to read If you can read and follow directions you can cook. Thats really" [X Link](https://x.com/TheMindScourge/status/2018518414927765537) 2026-02-03T02:54Z [----] followers, 21.9K engagements "I predict that once this is built almost everyone will love it and within a decade it will be the status quo and no one will think twice about it https://t.co/oegHWZDkfz https://t.co/oegHWZDkfz" [X Link](https://x.com/TheMindScourge/status/2018810321952264432) 2026-02-03T22:14Z [----] followers, 69.8K engagements "The real US grindset culture which doesn't come in for the slightest bit of controversy is in athletics The intensity and obsession displayed here is on an entirely different level. It encompasses many more people is embraced by a much wider swath of the population for fewer rewards overall than exist in exchange for cramming academically. It inarguably ruins more lives I had a first cousin who was a very competitive swimmer. She was up before [--] am every day for years to practice for hours in the pool swimming lap after lap after lap. She ultimately didn't make it. My high school has a very" [X Link](https://x.com/TheMindScourge/status/2019060966151897136) 2026-02-04T14:50Z [----] followers, 14.8K engagements "The idea that you need sovereign control over your major communications channels is now mainstream. The Chinese were early to this and this consensus reflects a form of Chinese soft power although youll never see it explained as such The period of time when a handful of mostly American platforms served as the backbone for most of the worlds information services will be a temporary phase Anyone with the technical ability and capital to do so will want their information ecosystem to run on their own rails This is one of the primary manifestations of sovereignty in the 21st century. If you dont" [X Link](https://x.com/TheMindScourge/status/2019126176791331142) 2026-02-04T19:09Z [----] followers, [----] engagements "In his childhood memoirs John Muir rhapsodizes about maple syrup. He had never experienced it prior to emigrating to the New World He considered it a type of ambrosia Pure maple syrup is one of the best natural sweeteners to exist. Manganese. Riboflavin. Zinc. Calcium. Potassium. So good for your gut. Contains phenolic & anti-inflammatory compounds. Best part is how incredible it tastes. Underrated. https://t.co/OO9UryA9Pu Pure maple syrup is one of the best natural sweeteners to exist. Manganese. Riboflavin. Zinc. Calcium. Potassium. So good for your gut. Contains phenolic &" [X Link](https://x.com/TheMindScourge/status/2019440728175174136) 2026-02-05T15:59Z [----] followers, [----] engagements "One conspiracy theory that I do believe (that isnt really a conspiracy based off historical precedent) is that the NSA and GCHQ were running LLMs years prior to GPT-1 (2018) and the [----] Attention is all you need transformer architecture paper Google was running the massive n-gram language models back in the 2000s and NSA etc had data sets (and needs) even larger They also employ one of the worlds largest workforces of pure and applied mathematicians and practically unlimited resources. They were perfectly positioned to develop the key technologies years prior to our presently understood" [X Link](https://x.com/TheMindScourge/status/2019524373787431159) 2026-02-05T21:31Z [----] followers, 21.4K engagements "This is a fascinating map. There are no perfect world maps - all such maps are compromises - but every different one highlights new perspectives that you hadnt considered before. This one is no different The centrality of Antarctica is a major flaw though of this particular projection 🔴⚡China is using this map in its schools. This isn't just an ordinary school map nor is it an innocent attempt to alter a geographical projection. What we're using in our schools is a map of consciousness before it's a map of the land. It's a tool for rearranging how the https://t.co/sKawmbDZ1X 🔴⚡China is" [X Link](https://x.com/TheMindScourge/status/2019529291130626420) 2026-02-05T21:51Z [----] followers, [----] engagements "The interior layout of this castle is effectively the opposite of how modern houses are set up and thats why it feels so much more interesting Theres no open plan but separate rooms. The rooms are different sizes and shapes. Some of the ceilings are high others low. The stairs twist this way and that. There are doors everywhere. Odd nooks here and there. Always something different to see. The walls are textured and interesting to look at. All the materials are real not manufactured. Theres a tactility to everything you touch. It has a real feeling of place This guy lives in a castle in" [X Link](https://x.com/TheMindScourge/status/2019594859946877305) 2026-02-06T02:11Z [----] followers, 68.2K engagements "The collapse of newspapers (perhaps permanently) deranged the production of words and memes in our society; a warning bell in the night for AI It's commonplace to lament the downfall of reading amongst zoomers and (to a lesser extent) millennials. But fewer people talk about the supply side to this equation which is arguably more important and specifically the all-important channels by which words and ideas are manufactured and distributed to the population as a whole The elegant publishing machine which evolved organically for centuries was in just a few short years smashed into a million" [X Link](https://x.com/TheMindScourge/status/2019763760554979482) 2026-02-06T13:23Z [----] followers, [----] engagements "The Chinatalk interview of Luttwak by @jordanschneider could have been made just for me. Luttwaks Grand Strategy of the Roman Empire was the first book I ever bought myself back when I was around [--]. I still have it (its practically falling apart now) Some of the best bits are the autobiographical details and the texture of wartime and mid-century life that Luttwak provides. You go to through a portal back in time Its cliche to say they dont make them like they used to but in Luttwaks case its true. Hes had all these varied experiences and witnessed some real extremes in life. They" [X Link](https://x.com/TheMindScourge/status/2019793746364104797) 2026-02-06T15:22Z [----] followers, [----] engagements "Usually when people say a particular place or city is beautiful its because the buildings all sort of hang together You see the same thing in movies; fantasy or sci fi cities all have a coherent look. You basically never see a jumbled urban cityscape depicted unless it is a dystopia https://twitter.com/i/web/status/2019836067818414427 https://twitter.com/i/web/status/2019836067818414427" [X Link](https://x.com/TheMindScourge/status/2019836067818414427) 2026-02-06T18:10Z [----] followers, [--] engagements "We did create other cities like NYC. Its just that NYC was the only one we didnt completely destroy for one reason or another postwar It's baffling to me that America created one city like NYC and never again It's baffling to me that America created one city like NYC and never again" [X Link](https://x.com/TheMindScourge/status/2019901256907559243) 2026-02-06T22:29Z [----] followers, 85.4K engagements "This was the greatest opening ceremony ever In retrospect it was also the modern peak for the UK. Everything after has been downhill sad to say There will never be an opening ceremony that will top London [----] The pride I have for Britain seeing this is unmatched - pandemonium is THE BEST segment in an opening ceremony - cannot be topped. https://t.co/mZpawmfxrr There will never be an opening ceremony that will top London [----] The pride I have for Britain seeing this is unmatched - pandemonium is THE BEST segment in an opening ceremony - cannot be topped. https://t.co/mZpawmfxrr" [X Link](https://x.com/TheMindScourge/status/2019914593804353886) 2026-02-06T23:22Z [----] followers, 107.2K engagements "At least for men I think hes right most literary men these days are primarily attracted to 20th century works (and earlier). I personally read a lot and recent fiction rarely tempts me Fortunately the pre-2000 corpus of literature is inexhaustible. You could spend lifetimes and still never read it all Its a bit different for film bros. There its feasible to spend a few years and basically watch every good movie ever made It went pretty quickly from DFW writing the last experimental novel with any broad cultural impact in [----] to within a generation MFAs primary output being culture war" [X Link](https://x.com/TheMindScourge/status/2019955159976042520) 2026-02-07T02:03Z [----] followers, 14.4K engagements "With winter the problem is less the cold or the rain and snow and more the lack of sun January is especially gloomy in London: only [--] hours of sun per day on average. February averages a little better at [---] Compare this to June and July with [--] hours a day Winter feels very different when its sunny. Ive vowed with my wife never to spend another January/February in the UK. While it is true that there is more rainfall in Rome than London - this is measured in mm. If you measure it in time (minutes it is raining) - london is much worse. Constant grey clouds and slow rain. Ive vowed with my wife" [X Link](https://x.com/TheMindScourge/status/2020213090797682938) 2026-02-07T19:08Z [----] followers, 10.5K engagements "Youve got to put AI predictions in context. Since [----] the entire computing domain has been one revolution after another. So when tech people predict AI will again change everything this is the background they have in mind. A rapid rate of turnover is the base case that they expect and their entire life experience - the entire history of their field - reflects this But it reminds me of the more fanciful flights of fancy in the mid-20th century. Ships had gone from wood and sail to steel and fossil fuels. Airplanes had gone from hobbyist kit projects to Mach [--] titanium jets. Man landed on the" [X Link](https://x.com/TheMindScourge/status/2020266088282370461) 2026-02-07T22:39Z [----] followers, [----] engagements "Ive seen people get in their car to drive down the block For all my sympathies with the good urbanism crowd and walkability standards I think you have to start your analysis from the people and Americans (collectively) dont enjoy walking all that much In [----] I was visiting friends in Texas who lived [--] minutes from a coffee shop I took a liking to so one day I decided to walk there. Three different drivers stopped me on the way to ask if my car had broken down and if I needed help. Lord forbid an Anglo takes a little walk. In [----] I was visiting friends in Texas who lived [--] minutes from a" [X Link](https://x.com/TheMindScourge/status/2020269606427062366) 2026-02-07T22:53Z [----] followers, [----] engagements "The environment really does shape behavior. If we built and lived in a different way wed drive/walk in differently too The challenge is actually doing this. Its really hard. It isnt just about building extra bike lanes or whatever add-ons to a car centric system. You have to change the patterns of life" [X Link](https://x.com/TheMindScourge/status/2020275986483319245) 2026-02-07T23:18Z [----] followers, [--] engagements "Americans are really sleeping on it but this is a golden age for Poland You should absolutely visit if you can Utterly grotesque Poland & Hungary are refacing or replacing hideous Soviet-era brutalist buildings with elegant 18th and 19th century facades Meanwhile Britain continues to uglify. Why Beauty begets beauty Attractive spaces nourish the soul. Ugly spaces deaden it. Poland: https://t.co/dfvhJis3Kg Utterly grotesque Poland & Hungary are refacing or replacing hideous Soviet-era brutalist buildings with elegant 18th and 19th century facades Meanwhile Britain continues to uglify. Why" [X Link](https://x.com/TheMindScourge/status/2020519793762218158) 2026-02-08T15:27Z [----] followers, [----] engagements "Gold is underrated in design. It can easily be overdone but a certain amount adds an ornamental element that nothing else can provide This is the Arc Hr in Nancy France" [X Link](https://x.com/TheMindScourge/status/2020532967274078612) 2026-02-08T16:19Z [----] followers, [---] engagements "Because New York City discourse has popped back up on the timeline Ill again argue that it is the inconveniences of New York that are its single biggest selling point. They are a constant reminder that NYC is tough that if you make it here you can make it anywhere Red Bull is the same way; its disgusting and thats why its popular. It gives you energy but also tastes like medicine. Thats the trade off which people want. If it tasted delicious the transaction would feel wrong like you were getting something for free. But because theres a cost (bad taste) you also believe theres a benefit New" [X Link](https://x.com/TheMindScourge/status/2020668351203225730) 2026-02-09T01:17Z [----] followers, [----] engagements "I think you can make a case that SF/Silicon Valley is Americas first city. NYC is a much better city as a city; arguably Americas only real city. But SF is more important today in terms of its significance and that has been true for [--] years now whereas NYC is (relatively) in decline. What for example. is the last big idea out of NYC For SF/Silicon Valley this is easy you can make a whole list of them. But for NYC its harder. The city is more a consumption experience now. Same with Los Angeles. The core industry Hollywood is in serious trouble and appears liable to being colonized by SF at" [X Link](https://x.com/TheMindScourge/status/2020681995630592155) 2026-02-09T02:11Z [----] followers, 43.2K engagements "Will Smith eating spaghetti was the peak AI video. Its all been downhill since Both the video game and AI industries have made the same mistake that the pursuit of photorealism is everything (it isnt) Think about that wojak cartoon. One of the most influential scribbles of the 21st century. This is the kind of thing AI should be attempting to create but isnt It may yet serve as a meme font but there's not a single AI video as compelling as the median silent-era movie & there's no indication one is forthcoming It may yet serve as a meme font but there's not a single AI video as compelling as" [X Link](https://x.com/TheMindScourge/status/2020691923338399925) 2026-02-09T02:51Z [----] followers, [----] engagements "The problem is the screen. Screens are fundamentally anti-tactile and Ferrari especially is supposed to be this raw visceral experience Ive has put in a lot of effort to compensate for this. Youve got dials switches a grab bar to rotate the central monitor and so forth. Things click rotate swing Everythings as physical as possible. But screens are design-wise a dead end. So long as the interior has to be built around the screen (and they are immensely useful especially for maps). Theres just not much you can do with them Movie palaces from the golden age of movies had the same problem. You" [X Link](https://x.com/TheMindScourge/status/2020916191221453194) 2026-02-09T17:42Z [----] followers, 11.1K engagements "Milan already compromised on Starbucks Got to hold the line on pineapple pizza What happens when you order pineapple on pizza in Milan 🍍🍕 Chris Hughes found out 😅 #MilanoCortina2026 https://t.co/Nzcwjf2ANF What happens when you order pineapple on pizza in Milan 🍍🍕 Chris Hughes found out 😅 #MilanoCortina2026 https://t.co/Nzcwjf2ANF" [X Link](https://x.com/TheMindScourge/status/2020930512609485292) 2026-02-09T18:39Z [----] followers, [---] engagements "On the other hand Miami is one of the few places in the US (SF/Silicon Valley is the other) that has created genuinely new vibes the past [--] years You can feel the new civilization of America very intensely in Miami something that isnt true most other places (Charlotte for example) Today I learned Charlotte NC has a higher GDP per capita than Miami. In fact so does Raleigh and Durham-Chapel Hill. Despite all the copy about the ultra wealthy and hype of finance or tech hubs in Miami Florida doesnt actually produce all that much of anything. Its a pretty Today I learned Charlotte NC has a" [X Link](https://x.com/TheMindScourge/status/2020948101717180540) 2026-02-09T19:49Z [----] followers, 19.5K engagements "Miami has other lessons for the future too: Florida is an old state demographically. But it doesnt feel old (in the way say Vermont does). The quintessential Floridian Florida Man is many things but old certainly isnt one of them Miami has a lot of energy and verve. Its youthful and feels alive. This is one reason why I dont think the US future is as a retirement home. The country will get older and older; there are very few future paths where this doesnt happen. But this demographic reality wont define the US culturally. Itll be the pockets of youth that do On the other hand Miami is one of" [X Link](https://x.com/TheMindScourge/status/2020955407015870821) 2026-02-09T20:18Z [----] followers, [----] engagements "Im not opposed to minimalism necessarily. Imagine you had only ever seen highly ornate baroque type design. Minimalism would seem like an embassy from the future But its also a kind of trap a logical dead-end. Take Brancusi one of my favorite sculptors. His Bird in Space and Mademoiselle Pogany are these extraordinary pieces. They exist almost outside of time; you might imagine they are creations of some prehistoric civilization or one far in the future. But what is the next act Once you have stripped an object to its essence how to follow up this undoubted work of genius There is almost" [X Link](https://x.com/TheMindScourge/status/2020999979398201785) 2026-02-09T23:15Z [----] followers, [----] engagements "What major city will be the first to ban the car altogether Once youve experienced a city full of electric vehicles its so obvious that breathing in car exhaust is insane. We do not have to live like this. Once youve experienced a city full of electric vehicles its so obvious that breathing in car exhaust is insane. We do not have to live like this" [X Link](https://x.com/TheMindScourge/status/2021006193892917353) 2026-02-09T23:39Z [----] followers, [---] engagements "The paperback is a 20th century invention and a phenomenon of mass culture. So now with mass culture in decline we should not be surprised that this particular literary manifestation of it is disappearing as well The original codexes were bound in leather or sometimes parchment for flexibility. Only in the 4th century and later do rigid covers emerge. Maybe well see more leather bound books in replacement of paperbacks. Flexibility in a book is useful" [X Link](https://x.com/TheMindScourge/status/2021236901223473193) 2026-02-10T14:56Z [----] followers, 21.5K engagements "@whyvert @robinhanson Its also not true. Religion doesnt work the same way in China as in the west with religions of the book. Granted to western eyes China historically seems very secular. But just because a dominant sacred text is absent doesnt mean religion is absent. Its just different" [X Link](https://x.com/TheMindScourge/status/2021238064396349513) 2026-02-10T15:01Z [----] followers, [--] engagements "Claude is for people with taste. Its fine. Doesnt need to be a mainstream thing. My personal opinion is that OpenAI has already won: its the Kleenex or Escalator or Google of AI audiences didnt like anthropics ad placing it in the bottom 3% of all super bowl ads from the last five years https://t.co/Dzz5QurLMm audiences didnt like anthropics ad placing it in the bottom 3% of all super bowl ads from the last five years https://t.co/Dzz5QurLMm" [X Link](https://x.com/TheMindScourge/status/2021239040352153646) 2026-02-10T15:05Z [----] followers, [---] engagements "@Chris_arnade Thats true. I didnt think of that but thats exactly what it is" [X Link](https://x.com/TheMindScourge/status/2021259285221503078) 2026-02-10T16:25Z [----] followers, 16.5K engagements "This is CGI rendering architecture. Its looks like CGI pixels come to life A lot of architects these days dont draw. Many of the programs that train architects dont even teach drawing as a skill. Everything is designed in software. So what comes out as a result of this process Buildings that look like software Its an assembly line problem in a sense I have beef with this random skyscraper in Kansas City. Swagless pile of crap. What a shit way to bring to an end the era of downtown office tower construction here. https://t.co/ihnpmJqF21 I have beef with this random skyscraper in Kansas City." [X Link](https://x.com/TheMindScourge/status/2021260988360831208) 2026-02-10T16:32Z [----] followers, [----] engagements "France with [---] million people would be a greater power than the US. Its a more consistently focused and strategic state (Sweden is the same way) whereas the US is easily distracted If France had grown like England after [----] it would have [---] million people today not [--] million. Instead French women went from [---] children to [---] in just [--] years a century before any other country. It wasn't industrialization. It was secularization. If France had grown like England after [----] it would have [---] million people today not [--] million. Instead French women went from [---] children to [---] in just 40" [X Link](https://x.com/TheMindScourge/status/2021292085513683216) 2026-02-10T18:36Z [----] followers, [----] engagements "No there isnt a concentrated pool of capital and talent in Miami like there is in Boston etc. But Miami has more relevance to where this country is going than probably any other single city in the US right now. New Orleans I would categorize like Nashville or Vegas. A lot going on but no real national significance. https://twitter.com/i/web/status/2021308927107895434 https://twitter.com/i/web/status/2021308927107895434" [X Link](https://x.com/TheMindScourge/status/2021308927107895434) 2026-02-10T19:42Z [----] followers, [--] engagements "@teortaxesTex Its quite pathetic really One of the reasons why the modern era - roughly [----] - [----] - will long remain of great interest. It has a density of literate culture that rewards study Whereas today the elite is essentially philistine and banal in terms of its written outputs" [X Link](https://x.com/TheMindScourge/status/2021327656109604958) 2026-02-10T20:57Z [----] followers, [---] engagements "1954 is before the 1960s and [----] is after. Thats the difference. The Sixties is our cultural revolution. To travel back to the world before it is an Alice in Wonderland through the looking glass type journey; but equally if you traveled back to anytime after it youre basically in the world as it is today and youll feel (more or less) at home. Things will be familiar to you; the cultural milieu is (again more or less) ours. There are obvious material differences but the underlying software everyone is running in their heads is basically the same as the norm for Western public opinion today" [X Link](https://x.com/TheMindScourge/status/2021358102918914521) 2026-02-10T22:58Z [----] followers, [----] engagements "Morocco is one of the countries which still maintains traditional architecture as a living tradition India would be another We build like that every day in Morocco. The buildings seen here date back to [----] and [----]. https://t.co/wrsJvgLkyz We build like that every day in Morocco. The buildings seen here date back to [----] and [----]. https://t.co/wrsJvgLkyz" [X Link](https://x.com/TheMindScourge/status/2021363425067344091) 2026-02-10T23:19Z [----] followers, [----] engagements "Maybe humans could be transferred as genetic code and wed be shepherded by some ultra advanced AI. But 2M years is 100x as long as human civilization has existed (assuming generously a 10k year window for such a status) Even for a machine and an arbitrarily advanced one sustaining itself over that length of time would be quite a feat. An F35 requires [--] hours maintenance per [--] hour flight time for example. Obviously this comparison is inapt as we can assume phenomenally greater capabilities on the part of a civilization capable of building such a vessel. But still the logistics and various" [X Link](https://x.com/TheMindScourge/status/2021396157784601076) 2026-02-11T01:29Z [----] followers, [---] engagements "Interesting paper. The claim is that LLMs have increased the quality of the top [----] book releases per category but not the top [---]. Im not convinced that the 578th best book in any category (overall even let alone per month) is worth very much - or the 20th best even. But I think the most important finding is that the quality of the top [---] isnt really changing. Which suggests that overall nothing much has changed; Im skeptical any book out of the [--] or [--] best is contributing anything Leave aside whether its possible to assess the level of quality of books across all fields like this LLMs" [X Link](https://x.com/TheMindScourge/status/2021408187031732521) 2026-02-11T02:17Z [----] followers, [---] engagements "America still has massive cultural appeal. @Chris_arnade sees this all the time when he travels. But it isnt necessarily something youll read about on the front page of Le Monde or the NYT. There the sky is always falling i met an australian girl who lives in london at my work conference today and she was gushing about how much she loves watching american girls on tiktok because she loves all the american stuff they do (iced coffee trader joes homegoods) and wishes she could live in the US and i met an australian girl who lives in london at my work conference today and she was gushing about" [X Link](https://x.com/TheMindScourge/status/2021409639351677129) 2026-02-11T02:23Z [----] followers, [----] engagements "With the US also because theres so much familiarity you get a lot of complaints just naturally. You complain about family and friends much more than you do about random people who have only passing knowledge of Also the US is so huge and its influence so massive it naturally comes in for a lot of negative attention. That just comes with territory for better or worse https://twitter.com/i/web/status/2021415074338894325 https://twitter.com/i/web/status/2021415074338894325" [X Link](https://x.com/TheMindScourge/status/2021415074338894325) 2026-02-11T02:44Z [----] followers, [--] engagements "Its the same in so much of New York City. Worldwide everyone thinks of Manhattan. But for most of NYC this is more the norm Americans are a suburban people. Even in our cities. "San Francisco is so beautiful." 90% of San Francisco: https://t.co/yt2cEqA0o4 "San Francisco is so beautiful." 90% of San Francisco: https://t.co/yt2cEqA0o4" [X Link](https://x.com/TheMindScourge/status/2021596663647756644) 2026-02-11T14:46Z [----] followers, [----] engagements "@Porkchop_EXP Something big is happening AI content will seem very dated in another [--] or [--] years I suspect" [X Link](https://x.com/TheMindScourge/status/2021596884112933155) 2026-02-11T14:47Z [----] followers, [---] engagements "Important also to emphasize that while all this can appear as deliberately antiquarian it was fully modern: the estate was home to the worlds first hydroelectric power station and was one of the first to install mod cons such as a dishwasher or a washing machine for clothes. Its just that the designer also appreciated detail and ornament in architecture and interior design. Modernity and tradition in architecture (by our current understanding of the term) are not in the slightest bit exclusive. It is only because we often imagine them to be so that become such Craigside House is incredible." [X Link](https://x.com/TheMindScourge/status/2021602167472152948) 2026-02-11T15:08Z [----] followers, [----] engagements "Conservatives often argue that men invest more time than ever in child-raising and yet the birth rate is lower than ever from which they conclude that men should be more patriarchal This gets the causation entirely backwards. Increased paternal investment isnt the cause of lower birth rates by turning women off their partners it is responsible for raising fertility above the level it would naturally be at under current conditions. In other words much more intensive millennial male parenting is an intervention if you will on the part of fathers to increase the female birth rate The revolution" [X Link](https://x.com/TheMindScourge/status/2021618292549456221) 2026-02-11T16:12Z [----] followers, 13.7K engagements "A population cap is a signal that as a country you are breaking away from the consensus surrounding globalization and the unlimited movement of goods people and services. Its a conservative policy but instead of a hard right alignment like Brexit it has a soft left affiliation instead. I suspect policies like this will be increasingly common. The politics of anti-immigration is frequently very negative. But talk of caps sounds friendlier and technocratic. The effect is the same though I suspect this practice will spread and be applied to tourism for example. The Saudi government has long" [X Link](https://x.com/TheMindScourge/status/2021658297917722941) 2026-02-11T18:51Z [----] followers, 31.1K engagements "@expatanon That weird Will Smith eating spaghetti video from years ago remains the only watchable AI clip" [X Link](https://x.com/TheMindScourge/status/2021755903364796723) 2026-02-12T01:19Z [----] followers, [---] engagements "@expatanon perhaps peoples brains have just been burnt out by video games and they just want to look at CGI" [X Link](https://x.com/TheMindScourge/status/2021762941188530440) 2026-02-12T01:47Z [----] followers, [--] engagements "This argument has been made many times before. Its incorrect Most people want to consume not produce. X is the perfect example. How many people on here post consistently versus just read posts Theres nothing wrong with consumption. Everyone is a consumer in most areas of their life. Only in a few might you have an interest in producing something So you can democratize the tools of production all you want but little will come of it. Most people have nothing interesting to write. I have nothing interesting to produce when it comes to painting. I enjoyed painting immensely but Im a consumer" [X Link](https://x.com/TheMindScourge/status/2021769984481841506) 2026-02-12T02:15Z [----] followers, 19.7K engagements "This is very true and within that your natural country city etc The Romans had this concept of patria ones native land the land of ones fathers where one was born. But you can also find the land of your soul I feel like everyone just has a natural continent and thats where youll be happiest Some people are Europe people others Latin America a few even Africans. Like I have a buddy who loves pick up trucks suburbs and college football so for him America is truly heaven I feel like everyone just has a natural continent and thats where youll be happiest Some people are Europe people others Latin" [X Link](https://x.com/TheMindScourge/status/2021967730312888472) 2026-02-12T15:20Z [----] followers, [---] engagements "@the_hoch Its logically possible but the same was said about word processing having all the worlds knowledge at your fingertips through Google and so forth yet no golden age emerged" [X Link](https://x.com/TheMindScourge/status/2021967993035714652) 2026-02-12T15:21Z [----] followers, [---] engagements "The peak of model shipbuilding is the admiralty model a plank on frame design which is exact match for the actual ship just scaled down. So if a piece of wood is on the real ship youll find its miniature on the mod as well Its a much more time-consuming and expensive method This extraordinary handcrafted Georgian style secretary is a perfect example of a fine art dollhouse miniature. https://t.co/Eo1k8nKBj4 This extraordinary handcrafted Georgian style secretary is a perfect example of a fine art dollhouse miniature. https://t.co/Eo1k8nKBj4" [X Link](https://x.com/TheMindScourge/status/2021987085956046996) 2026-02-12T16:37Z [----] followers, [---] engagements "Mosquito anti-abundance agenda Just as China has been doing mosquito elimination successfully so too has Singapore. In areas where researchers released sterilized mosquitoes the population collapsed whereas areas without the intervention were unaffected. We can kill the mosquitoes. We just have to try. https://t.co/uGxKRfkq9T Just as China has been doing mosquito elimination successfully so too has Singapore. In areas where researchers released sterilized mosquitoes the population collapsed whereas areas without the intervention were unaffected. We can kill the mosquitoes. We just have to" [X Link](https://x.com/TheMindScourge/status/2021990369349808508) 2026-02-12T16:50Z [----] followers, [---] engagements "High embodied energy machines are too dangerous not to be regulated and space is too actively harmful for everyone not to be closely monitored. Right now access is extensively gated. But in a future where perhaps tens to hundreds of thousands will be traveling in space the controls will need to be much more rigorous. Even one crazed person could threaten the basic survival of a base or colony https://twitter.com/i/web/status/2022031435687686632 https://twitter.com/i/web/status/2022031435687686632" [X Link](https://x.com/TheMindScourge/status/2022031435687686632) 2026-02-12T19:33Z [----] followers, [--] engagements "@b_judah Note the greenery as ornament element very common in contemporary architecture now" [X Link](https://x.com/TheMindScourge/status/2022051518451790019) 2026-02-12T20:53Z [----] followers, [---] engagements "German Americans have them beat. No German American thinks about German identity at all Italian Americans may srsly be the only major immigrant community in America that actively celebrates abandoning their culture and language. And they wonder why mainland Italians think most Italian Americans are a joke lmao Italian Americans may srsly be the only major immigrant community in America that actively celebrates abandoning their culture and language. And they wonder why mainland Italians think most Italian Americans are a joke lmao" [X Link](https://x.com/TheMindScourge/status/2022154740445139076) 2026-02-13T03:43Z [----] followers, [----] engagements "You see this everywhere today. Nothing specific to India: Too bright overly white light; flatscreen TV as focal point for the room; LEDs everywhere; mostly artificial materials; no windows Good interior design is basically the opposite of all these. You need a window less harsh lighting natural materials and hide the technology to the maximum extent possible Why is this ugly hotel lobby aesthetic the most popular interior decor style in Indian cities these days. https://t.co/ZHkylohHXa Why is this ugly hotel lobby aesthetic the most popular interior decor style in Indian cities these days." [X Link](https://x.com/TheMindScourge/status/2022314283397198310) 2026-02-13T14:17Z [----] followers, [----] engagements "Looksmaxxing is the product of the female gaze and male insecurity. In a relatively feminized culture it is a male strategy adopted to take back power in the dating market. But since it is fundamentally vain it must be couched in aggressively masculine language. This doesnt represent the return of the patriarchy but rather its absence; a farce of the genuine article On the one hand Ms. Kirk was an attractive woman who demonstrated a keen interest in him. On the other hand her use of the looksmaxxing vernacular struck him as unnatural. https://t.co/3j52mx3oxR On the one hand Ms. Kirk was an" [X Link](https://x.com/TheMindScourge/status/2022374603499475045) 2026-02-13T18:17Z [----] followers, 49.5K engagements "Modern philanthropy has a general problem in that so much money is spent to such opaque ill-defined ends Think about the $100 million that Zuckerberg spent in the Newark school system. Or Scotts $26 billion. In contrast Carnegie built libraries across the country. You could the result concretely. In postmodern society philanthropy ends up focused on cultural and social goals that dont have defined criteria that are explicit for anyone with eyes This has broader implications as well. Afghan aid during the US suffered from a surfeit of projects focused on various cultural objectives and" [X Link](https://x.com/TheMindScourge/status/2023196607395643892) 2026-02-16T00:43Z [----] followers, 82.8K engagements "London was the largest city of the 19th century surpassed by NYC in the 1920s which was the largest until being overtaken by Tokyo Neither are even in the top [--] today Size matters and both the US and UK should focus more attention on increasing the size of their largest cities But there appears to be zero interest in this Its crazy how big London was in [----] 2.4m - some 50% bigger than Beijing the 2nd largest in the world A true outlier in a predominantly agrarian world Its crazy how big London was in [----] 2.4m - some 50% bigger than Beijing the 2nd largest in the world A true outlier in a" [X Link](https://x.com/TheMindScourge/status/2015218813634060681) 2026-01-25T00:23Z [----] followers, 52.6K engagements "This one is bad The Scottish parliament is still worse I think; one of the worst in fact Refinement culture came early to architecture. Arguably its been stuck for [--] years uncertain of where to go next @KCJdR @tomscrace The Netherlands truly is the epitome of dont bloody do this When it comes to refurbishing a hundreds of years old parliament building https://t.co/AKHNGM8CyD @KCJdR @tomscrace The Netherlands truly is the epitome of dont bloody do this When it comes to refurbishing a hundreds of years old parliament building https://t.co/AKHNGM8CyD" [X Link](https://x.com/TheMindScourge/status/2019950958571032859) 2026-02-07T01:46Z [----] followers, 42.5K engagements "Architecture in Mexico is in many respects on a much higher level than in the US. Mexico is also a much poorer country so you wouldnt necessarily predict this Im not even talking about the traditional colonial era areas either but Mexicos 20th century modernist heritage and contemporary construction as well. In general the highs of Mexican architecture are more impressive and denser than in the US The lows of Mexico are also much worse. Maybe the latter inspires the former via some sort of creative tension While everyone else is still building concrete boxes Mexico City built the first" [X Link](https://x.com/TheMindScourge/status/2019977862799856008) 2026-02-07T03:33Z [----] followers, 199.4K engagements "India recently built a new parliament building. The interior finishes were done by a high end Italian firm Pidilite This is one of the few recent legislative chambers that looks good in my opinion. @KCJdR @tomscrace The Netherlands truly is the epitome of dont bloody do this When it comes to refurbishing a hundreds of years old parliament building https://t.co/AKHNGM8CyD @KCJdR @tomscrace The Netherlands truly is the epitome of dont bloody do this When it comes to refurbishing a hundreds of years old parliament building https://t.co/AKHNGM8CyD" [X Link](https://x.com/TheMindScourge/status/2020142686871687332) 2026-02-07T14:28Z [----] followers, 187.6K engagements "Context to consider though is that in many cases urban renewal was pushing on an open door. It isnt true that cities (mostly) bulldozed thriving dense urban villages. These places were already emptying out as people moved to the suburbs for that 1950s suburban dream. Businesses were relocating too both in response to this and also in anticipation of it Most of these neighborhoods were aging as well. They need substantial investment and renovation. If these buildings had survived to [----] theyd all be immensely valuable and the money would have been available. But at the time it wasnt. These" [X Link](https://x.com/TheMindScourge/status/2020517982758187192) 2026-02-08T15:20Z [----] followers, [----] engagements "Design can either make the environment look better or worse The new benches look much worse and fail to match their surroundings (for example insufficient contrast with the flooring) Hard times create bespoke Chesterfields. Bespoke Chesterfields create good times. Good times create soulless Ikea benches. Soulless Ikea benches create hard times. https://t.co/0UfU5ceE9b Hard times create bespoke Chesterfields. Bespoke Chesterfields create good times. Good times create soulless Ikea benches. Soulless Ikea benches create hard times. https://t.co/0UfU5ceE9b" [X Link](https://x.com/TheMindScourge/status/2020570508467560853) 2026-02-08T18:48Z [----] followers, 107.8K engagements "From an NYT article on the rise of induction cooktops You can see what I mean about minimalism. There are a lot of high end materials here the cantilevered island is a huge flex but the overall effect is uncanny so much has been removed that any human presence is a kind of intrusion. You really can feel that this room is just a white box with a few elements added in. Like one of those strip mall constructions where all the interior fixtures and finishings can be detached and removed the moment operations arent profitable. Good for business but not for a home environment" [X Link](https://x.com/TheMindScourge/status/2021232974629347831) 2026-02-10T14:41Z [----] followers, [----] engagements "The greatest building ever constructed the Pantheon is impressive enough today But imagine the impact of seeing this back when it was first built. There's a scene in Gladiator that always stuck with me and it wasn't a battle scene. When arriving at the Colosseum in Rome Juba the hunter asks Maximus "Have you ever seen anything like that before I didn't know men could build such things." The statement applies today https://t.co/Z4vggA92n9 There's a scene in Gladiator that always stuck with me and it wasn't a battle scene. When arriving at the Colosseum in Rome Juba the hunter asks Maximus" [X Link](https://x.com/TheMindScourge/status/2021276821816250554) 2026-02-10T17:35Z [----] followers, [----] engagements "There is this peculiar idea in architecture very influential that new buildings on sites of historic importance must be immediately recognized as *not* historical; in other words as contemporary structures. This is a mid-century notion and there is little evidence anyone previously considered distinguishing different eras of buildings of any importance But by principles such as this the environment is made uglier Les portiques de scurit Disney Village vs. ceux installs la Tour Eiffel. Vous prfrez lesquels https://t.co/QNVNGA0wBJ Les portiques de scurit Disney Village vs. ceux installs la Tour" [X Link](https://x.com/TheMindScourge/status/2021351640498901355) 2026-02-10T22:32Z [----] followers, 22.9K engagements "The newer a transportation method is the less Lindy the more it is subject to government control and regulation Youre much freer on your feet than you are driving a car; boats and ships are freer than airplanes; aircraft are much less regulated than space travel Theres this idea that space will somehow be this great liberation for humanity. I disagree. The higher the technology the more complicated the more it constraints and constricts you makes you legible and expands governmental authority. Space will be the least free mankind has yet been Exploration of space is a grand adventure but it" [X Link](https://x.com/TheMindScourge/status/2021933559687082156) 2026-02-12T13:05Z [----] followers, [---] engagements "They didnt think about it much because they assumed this is how it would always be. They thought this because this was how it had always been in Chicagos history. They thought it was the only way it could be. The city was one of the fastest growing cities in world history up to that time They had no idea that it had all come to an end sometimes i think about what it mustve been like to live in chicago from 1969-1973 and see [--] of the top [--] tallest buildings in the world at the time completed in a [--] year span right next to each other https://t.co/2z3Zi0UHQd sometimes i think about what it" [X Link](https://x.com/TheMindScourge/status/2022084930264584657) 2026-02-12T23:06Z [----] followers, 65.2K engagements "Poland was one of the least fortunate states of the 20th century. Fought over during World War I then invaded by the Soviet Russians. A brief period of independence then conquered in [----] divided between two totalitarian great powers. 20% of the population perishes. Conquered again this time by the Soviets. A half century of Communist rule. Then a modern golden age. Poland is honestly one of the best countries in Europe right now maybe the best. Warsaw is a world class city. But it was a brutal road to get there This is an enjoyable recent biography of Marshal Pilsudskis extraordinary life" [X Link](https://x.com/TheMindScourge/status/2022446535934382294) 2026-02-13T23:03Z [----] followers, [----] engagements "Ive been reading AI discourse for a decade plus. There are no new arguments. I havent read a single new interesting thing on AI (in terms of impact on society politics etc) in years. Its all just rehashed theses from years past Everyone talks about what will change No one talks about what wont change. Thats where you should be spending your time. The things that are invariant about the human condition. Assuming we arent all uploaded to the cloud which is the End of Lindy you should conditional on forthcoming strong AI be reading more history especially cultural and behavioral of the ancient" [X Link](https://x.com/TheMindScourge/status/2022448653193855303) 2026-02-13T23:11Z [----] followers, [----] engagements "@Empty_America @MTabarrok Its partly a question of dimensionality. Wood has grain texture depth and warmth to it. Compare that to an all steel warship today all grey paint. Very low dimensionality by comparison" [X Link](https://x.com/TheMindScourge/status/2022477792781193509) 2026-02-14T01:07Z [----] followers, [--] engagements "Ive thought about this before. Similarly while some people dream of space travel I wish it were possible to visit the different Earths of our evolutionary history. Some truly alien worlds if you go back far enough Imagine sailing Panthalassa or the ancient Tethys fetching up on some deep ocean island https://twitter.com/i/web/status/2022504382130967033 https://twitter.com/i/web/status/2022504382130967033" [X Link](https://x.com/TheMindScourge/status/2022504382130967033) 2026-02-14T02:53Z [----] followers, [--] engagements "There are former New Yorks all over the US - places that if you visited them a century ago youd believe you were in Manhattan today This was the norm prewar; there were dozens of New Yorks (if on a smaller scale) you could visit Most didnt make it through the mid-century urban crisis. But you can still go see the ruins of this lost world and if you know what youre looking at (most dont) there is great pathos to what survives St. Louis is one of the more fascinating places I've ever been. In parts it feels like walking through the ruins of a once great Rome a century after the fall. In others" [X Link](https://x.com/TheMindScourge/status/2021004791124463649) 2026-02-09T23:34Z [----] followers, 292.3K engagements "My opinion on Mexican food is that it deserves a lot more respect: Mexican is easily a top [--] cuisine arguably a top [--]. Its the center of origin for corn/maize beans cacao vanilla the tomato avocado dozens of chilis etc. I dont think any other cuisine comes close to the sheer variety of ingredients it has domesticated. Nixtamalization is one of the great food transformation processes. Mole is amongst the worlds most complex sauces. Its fine if you dont like it but the range of moles exceeds that of the exceptional French mother sauce tradition and the flavors are both deep and sophisticated" [X Link](https://x.com/TheMindScourge/status/2021039847394140303) 2026-02-10T01:53Z [----] followers, 283.5K engagements "In an age of strong AI you need to be thinking like an aristocrat. Aristocrats dont think about jobs. They dont go to university to acquire skills but to network and gain polish. They respect risk-taking but disparage grindset. They tend to be histrionic inconsistent and difficult to manage. They respect risk-taking and deal-making. This is a Lindy personality type that was selected against during the 20th century but will thrive under conditions of strong AI https://twitter.com/i/web/status/2021741171169472643 https://twitter.com/i/web/status/2021741171169472643" [X Link](https://x.com/TheMindScourge/status/2021741171169472643) 2026-02-12T00:20Z [----] followers, 41.4K engagements "This overlay shows how the new highway cut through existing infrastructure. [-----] people were displaced Its obviously awful but you need to put yourself in the context of the times. Car ownership was exploding and traffic was already terrible. Voters were thinking like drivers and demanding something be done. This was the solution. This is what you build when you think like a car Roads like this destroy the experience of the city but at the time city planners thought about cities as units of production and work. They werent so much considering the city as a city a place to live and recreate" [X Link](https://x.com/TheMindScourge/status/2023103534581834140) 2026-02-15T18:34Z [----] followers, [----] engagements "Trump is one of the last survivors of 20th century mass culture. Hes like an aging Hollywood superstar. He got big in the before times and has carried that over into our new kaleidoscopic information ecosystem Politics in the US is going to look different once Trump is out of office. Hes been the biggest thing in politics since the Obama birth certificate trutherism thing and everything since has basically been just commentary on this or that thing that Trump has said. He has phenomenal box office draw in a sense like no one before. But who comes after him Im not sure theres anyone. Of course" [X Link](https://x.com/TheMindScourge/status/2023105993450618898) 2026-02-15T18:43Z [----] followers, 39.6K engagements "The future of journalism is as a gumshoe not a writer. Almost newspaper articles can be - or soon will be - written by AI. What AI wont be able to do is talk to people. Develop sources. Get someone to reveal a confidence or take possession of classified that arent supposed to be released. Where the human element will continue to have value will be in judgement of what topics merit attention and also making legible offline information - whether in peoples heads or in databases not networked to the public internet - to the broader information ecosystem" [X Link](https://x.com/TheMindScourge/status/2023192863777910811) 2026-02-16T00:29Z [----] followers, [---] engagements "The following [--] industries will be extensively disrupted by AI over the following half-decade: journalism/media the computer industry itself and education It is a remarkable historical fact that journalism - the application interface layer in our industrial system of verbal production where ideas and concepts and events get translated and disseminated to the general public - has been so exposed to technological transformation over the past [--] decades. From advertising dollars transitioning to online in the 2000s to a cultural shift away from literacy to orality and visual media the last two" [X Link](https://x.com/TheMindScourge/status/2023431739440247215) 2026-02-16T16:18Z [----] followers, [----] engagements "It's Marvels Superheros all the way down; today we're all just actors There's a peculiar post-modern quality to many events these days. A sense that we perform history rather than act out (and in and on) history. The appearance that we curate our actions for our social media feeds rather than conducting ourselves for the sake of the act itself. Perhaps the truth is that we've internalized the camera the truest emblem of our present moment. We act to see ourselves acting rather than act in order to do. You see this in farces such as Prigozhin's pseudo-putsch and whatever Yoon attempted in" [X Link](https://x.com/TheMindScourge/status/1864059708820086981) 2024-12-03T21:30Z [----] followers, 54.3K engagements "The Pacific War is very interesting especially the Papua New Guinea battlefield (the peoples of the highlands were only discovered in the early 30s; a decade later the armies and air forces of two great powers fight across its length and breadth with each belligerent pouring hundreds of thousands of men into it) but not the most fascinating That accolade must go to the extraordinary collisions of Old World and New on the conquests of the Mexica and the Inca by the Spanish; nothing so sci fi has occurred since (perhaps) the great unrecorded conflict between Homo sapiens and Neanderthal in" [X Link](https://x.com/TheMindScourge/status/2021038723521998946) 2026-02-10T01:49Z [----] followers, 275.5K engagements "Its weird in person though. Theres alien little bugs flying through the air behind the athlete Makes sense because almost everyone views the Olympics on a screen but it makes the in-person event look worse Many things in the modern world are like this: optimizations for the remote experience at the cost of degrading the real physical event The Olympic drone pilots are the best thing that happened the games unsung heroes period. The coverage this year is officially on another level. We can finally feel so much closer to the action it's pure magic unreal. Is it just me or is this the best" [X Link](https://x.com/TheMindScourge/status/2021249374458617958) 2026-02-10T15:46Z [----] followers, 272.6K engagements "One profound change in American dog culture (and everywhere in the developed world probably) is that dog owners - sorry dog parents - no longer train their pets. At worst they scold them like toddlers to no effect. The dog is the real master. Then they panic and sign their beloved pet up to expensive classes get monitors like they would for a baby leave the TV get white noise machines etc etc. They organize their lives around serving this animal and accommodating its every whim. Very different from the past. I remember people walking around outside with rolled up newspapers or magazines and" [X Link](https://x.com/TheMindScourge/status/2022022864463864140) 2026-02-12T18:59Z [----] followers, 164.9K engagements "The two are undoubtedly connected. Becoming a top performer is so hard and so unlikely requiring so much discipline and focus and work that only self-interest and status-seeking can supply and sustain that level of motivation One reason why historically issues of public choice and import were thought best performed by disinterested elites who didnt have to concern themselves with gaining status or wealth Until youve read a few biographies or worked with one its hard to realize how hungry top performers are to win- yet most of their ambition is wasted on status or power seeking. If youre an" [X Link](https://x.com/TheMindScourge/status/2022317561958789140) 2026-02-13T14:30Z [----] followers, 43.1K engagements "Its unfortunate that Los Angeles is a 20th century city so it developed alongside the car Mediterranean climates are rare and LA is one place where they occur We could have built the American city of the Sun being sad in LA is so surreal bc I go on a walk and its [--] and looks like this outside https://t.co/BEKosQ6T2P being sad in LA is so surreal bc I go on a walk and its [--] and looks like this outside https://t.co/BEKosQ6T2P" [X Link](https://x.com/TheMindScourge/status/2022747263559438726) 2026-02-14T18:58Z [----] followers, 521.8K engagements "This is a common phenomenon in most of the developing world. Youll have some prestige projects with world class infrastructure in the capital city or business center and then in the countryside no electricity or running water Its really this contrast that you should primarily notice Just landed in Phnom Penh Cambodia for a first time visit in the country and I'm absolutely wowed by the airport. It's not just China: bit by bit the whole of Asia is getting world-class infrastructure. https://t.co/jL0Pgzikcr Just landed in Phnom Penh Cambodia for a first time visit in the country and I'm" [X Link](https://x.com/TheMindScourge/status/2022756420358144254) 2026-02-14T19:34Z [----] followers, 389K engagements "Very few tech people think about these issues in concrete ways. They tend to be very logical and first principles and that causes them to reach these strong conclusions that ignore real world practicalities For example specific to the professions accountability and the acceptance of liability alone will keep a man in the loop. Machines cannot be responsible or accountable. In positions of professional responsibility where you are accountable for your decisions a human being will long be necessary even if all technical decisions are made first by AI. You will need that sign off that official" [X Link](https://x.com/TheMindScourge/status/2022763733878006113) 2026-02-14T20:03Z [----] followers, 12.6K engagements "Only two European states the UK and France have the strategic culture that enables the exercise of power for reasons of state. The UK for its own reasons has chosen to position itself as an enabler of US interests (a flying buttress of the US-centric order if you will) France however has not. It has recognized the reality of the preponderance of US power within the West but has consistently maintained an arms-length relationship with DC. It is willing to cross the US on core issues (for example Iraq in 2003) which is not true of the UK. It also maintains independent strategic capacities" [X Link](https://x.com/TheMindScourge/status/2023052268778529159) 2026-02-15T15:10Z [----] followers, 53.7K engagements "All this has happened before. Think what will happen when we democratized all the worlds information through Google When we give everyone the same tools for word processing and publication that used to be owned by the major publishers No golden age emerged. We got better novels when they had to be written on typewriters. Public discourse was better informed when you had to find an encyclopedia to look up facts and send in your blogposts to your local newspaper hoping theyd get written up as letters to the editor There are a hundred million people on X. Hundreds of millions more on TikTok. All" [X Link](https://x.com/TheMindScourge/status/2023055659118281193) 2026-02-15T15:23Z [----] followers, 120.4K engagements "@Tacofridge One thing you notice in developing countries is that almost everyone has a hustle so you invariably encounter things exactly like this Another common one is for people to try to attach themselves to tasks you need to complete like buying tickets or whatever" [X Link](https://x.com/TheMindScourge/status/2023062973112299740) 2026-02-15T15:52Z [----] followers, [---] engagements "The favela is like the street dog of human architecture Its what naturally emerges in the absence of any sort of external controls" [X Link](https://x.com/TheMindScourge/status/2023094445306982682) 2026-02-15T17:57Z [----] followers, [---] engagements "The beginning stood out to me. Growing up in northern Illinois with very cold winters it was tropical islands of the South Pacific and far off rain forests and the steamy depths of of the Congo that fired my imagination Maybe much of life can be explained by seeking the opposite of your formative experiences For example small Midwestern towns are these very orderly low variance places and it is relative disorder and chaos that attracts me now An ode to Duluth -- A great American city https://t.co/XN5ZMjXQzw https://t.co/VLioMARQT0 An ode to Duluth -- A great American city" [X Link](https://x.com/TheMindScourge/status/2023112049333539180) 2026-02-15T19:07Z [----] followers, [---] engagements "The Victorians loved the redwood. They planted them in the hundreds of thousands across the UK and transformed the landscape for millennia into the future (giant sequoias can live [----] years or more) There are more redwoods now maybe 5x more in the UK than in California and are now a fully natural part of the landscape even though (technically) an invasive species (a concept which doesnt really mean much; a native species is just one that has become endemic in a given area) Giant Sequoia bark is designed to protect from fire & insect infestation It can be up to 2-3 feet thick & is spongy to" [X Link](https://x.com/TheMindScourge/status/2023129780254576662) 2026-02-15T20:18Z [----] followers, 205.1K engagements "The flooring here is especially gorgeous. The Francis I gallery here is an early example of a wood herringbone floor part of a long tradition of exceptional French parquetry Castillo de Fontainebleau Francia. Esa puerta es increblemente bella https://t.co/zaDM0x7zHY Castillo de Fontainebleau Francia. Esa puerta es increblemente bella https://t.co/zaDM0x7zHY" [X Link](https://x.com/TheMindScourge/status/2023148286983467129) 2026-02-15T21:31Z [----] followers, [---] engagements "Long term it is unhealthy for left wing politics if agentic action becomes associated with the right This is a good tweet though highlighting how our left-right spectrum has inverted with the left now more conservative (self-control in the mid-20th century would have coded as right wing) and the right relatively more activist and disruptive One of the weirdest developments ideologically is that following your insane id wherever it leads rather than imposing some pro-social self control is now somehow associated with conservatism One of the weirdest developments ideologically is that following" [X Link](https://x.com/TheMindScourge/status/2023149972536086749) 2026-02-15T21:38Z [----] followers, [----] engagements "Claude glasses are fascinating. Basically an 18th century version of an instagram filter It darkened and muted colors and reduced contrasts somewhat. It created a somewhat painterly or artistic effect that many people found very pleasing aesthetically They had WHAT in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries https://t.co/QcP35bLEYw They had WHAT in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries https://t.co/QcP35bLEYw" [X Link](https://x.com/TheMindScourge/status/2023160917542785339) 2026-02-15T22:22Z [----] followers, [---] engagements "Its interesting how many other societies even advanced ones didnt figure this out at all; China for example was very resistant to it until surprisingly late The Ancient Greeks had figured out that the Earth revolves around the Sun which is a star floating in empty space like all the others we can see back in 300-200 BC. They figured it out by looking at the sky for a long time and thinking really hard about it. The Ancient Greeks had figured out that the Earth revolves around the Sun which is a star floating in empty space like all the others we can see back in 300-200 BC. They figured it out" [X Link](https://x.com/TheMindScourge/status/2023166870891770323) 2026-02-15T22:45Z [----] followers, [---] engagements "Imagine living in NYC in [----]. Youre in the wealthiest city in the wealthiest country in all of history. The entire world is collapsing into war and insanity Only the US stands apart. The gap between which the US worked and the rest of the world just didnt was probably greater at this specific period than any other It must have been quite a feeling The Imperial City July [----] https://t.co/zRzZH0OqNL The Imperial City July [----] https://t.co/zRzZH0OqNL" [X Link](https://x.com/TheMindScourge/status/2023187468992774307) 2026-02-16T00:07Z [----] followers, 686.5K engagements "This is an extraordinary interview Obviously hes an actor but his diction the hand gestures the way he holds his body even the pace of his speech has a striking presence and formality to it. Rare today Also note his age: hes [--] here but doesnt look it really; Id put him at around a decade older 29yr old PETER OTOOLE in Spain discussing his preparation for a role that would turn him into an international star overnight as well as see him bag the first of [--] nominations for the Best Actor Oscar. LAWRENCE OF ARABIA (1962) https://t.co/LZ0AuW9zy7 29yr old PETER OTOOLE in Spain discussing his" [X Link](https://x.com/TheMindScourge/status/2023230044978512179) 2026-02-16T02:56Z [----] followers, 147.8K engagements "@SunBeltMindset Whats an example of one that youve liked" [X Link](https://x.com/TheMindScourge/status/2023230260016234559) 2026-02-16T02:57Z [----] followers, [---] engagements "When it comes to new technologies youve got to be thinking dumber Consider the phone. Everyones walking around with a supercomputer in their pocket and its used mostly to play Clash of Clans and watch TikToks What is the dumb application of AI Thats what I want to know. Thats where the money and the majority of user minutes will be Everyone else is out there wondering if they can get AI to write Shakespeare or invent new physics I want to learn what the best dumb uses for AI are https://twitter.com/i/web/status/2023361747269103994 https://twitter.com/i/web/status/2023361747269103994" [X Link](https://x.com/TheMindScourge/status/2023361747269103994) 2026-02-16T11:40Z [----] followers, 110.8K engagements "Very obvious where this is going (study Sulla). Social media bans for under 16s are only the beginning. Restrictions will be justified as much along anti-corruption lines (so much to work with here) as anything else possibly also environmental concerns as well Unions emerged as a market response to business and industrial power. There will be the equivalent in the 21st This idea that technology might float free of politics was a 90s dream that has been falsified by events. In truth it was the product of a series of historical contingencies that did not long survive including the happenstance" [X Link](https://x.com/TheMindScourge/status/2023412232931971099) 2026-02-16T15:00Z [----] followers, [----] engagements "This new Florentine apartment block provides a really clean contrast between traditional and modern styles of architecture : Dimensionality and depth versus smooth low resolution surfaces Warm versus cold Natural materials versus man-made Rational versus reductive or minimal Gulag https://t.co/lTIkkTprSj Gulag https://t.co/lTIkkTprSj" [X Link](https://x.com/TheMindScourge/status/2023432954156823013) 2026-02-16T16:23Z [----] followers, [----] engagements "The nation state will follow them just as the great European trading companies with East Asia like the VOC were creatures of the states that created and sponsored them. If you want to avoid the law youre better off staying on Earth and building a hut in Siberia or taking a boat around the South Pacific In space you are entirely dependent on very complicated technological systems that exist only with state level support Interestingly private companies might just bypass governments and nation states altogether by setting up their companies and offices in space Especially as taxes keep getting" [X Link](https://x.com/TheMindScourge/status/2021773227123433816) 2026-02-12T02:27Z [----] followers, [----] engagements "Elite Anglo professional spaces are largely sexless and this is what Epstein took full advantage of These scientists and businessmen that Epstein cultivated werent interested in him for his intelligence or his insights but his status: specifically his access to and authority over exploitable subservient women. Male status historically is tied to the ability to get or to control women and this is precisely what (psychologically) Epsteins network of male acquaintances felt they lacked. Many of them were or are intensely nerdy and were never successful with women in their personal lives. Its an" [X Link](https://x.com/TheMindScourge/status/2018750854526914653) 2026-02-03T18:18Z [----] followers, 237.7K engagements "Twitter attracts a lot of black pill types. Their content reflects this. The world is always getting worse. Maybe this is just inherent to the literary domain. Certainly it isnt unique to the modern era. But then go to YouTube. There are all these random accounts: heres one of a guy biking around obscure parts of Africa. Theres another one I watch of a bush pilot in Papua New Guinea. Etc. YouTube is where you find the you can just do things people. Its a meme on X but YouTube is where you find the actual doers https://twitter.com/i/web/status/2019448828915556641" [X Link](https://x.com/TheMindScourge/status/2019448828915556641) 2026-02-05T16:31Z [----] followers, 76.7K engagements "You can just live in permanent summer. December and January and February in Buenos Aires and Sydney and Cape Town June and July and August in the northern hemisphere. Just keep it moving Follow the Sun the great thing about Buenos Aires this time of the year is that its summer best weather ever https://t.co/ArLT9mP6S2 the great thing about Buenos Aires this time of the year is that its summer best weather ever https://t.co/ArLT9mP6S2" [X Link](https://x.com/TheMindScourge/status/2019844493571227800) 2026-02-06T18:43Z [----] followers, 11.1K engagements "Status is a funny thing Hes drives a taxi as his day job but hes got a big channel online and in a Michelin starred restaurant in New York City hes the one the chef comes out to meet There are probably people with 9-figure net worths in the dining room but hes the one with attention He makes great content too by the way Love this guy Hes a cab driver in NYC taking care of his mom He started reviewing Michelin star and famous restaurants as a normie last year dining alone last year to show you can treat yourself to these spots. He also goes to family run spots. Whats so cool is how many" [X Link](https://x.com/TheMindScourge/status/2020335701695291739) 2026-02-08T03:15Z [----] followers, 722.4K engagements "Millennial minimalism also known as refinement culture or the grey filter has come for the Olympics: this years design is the simplest in history (as well as massive at [---] grams of silver + 6g of gold for first place) This shift came relatively recently arguably with Beijing in [----] https://twitter.com/i/web/status/2020718082558234980 https://twitter.com/i/web/status/2020718082558234980" [X Link](https://x.com/TheMindScourge/status/2020718082558234980) 2026-02-09T04:35Z [----] followers, 474.5K engagements "Tom Hanks is great for this role because he looks like someone who plausibly could have been in WWII Compare this to the horrific Midway where the pilot played by Skrein looks like hes been juicing. People looked different back then but the modern style is heavily influenced by GWOT brain and special forces chic Filming for the #Greyhound sequel starring Tom Hanks and Stephen Graham is now underway It follows Krause and the Greyhoundcrew from the beaches of Normandy to the ocean in the Pacific as they help turn the tide of the war. https://t.co/pz2nilEFOl Filming for the #Greyhound sequel" [X Link](https://x.com/TheMindScourge/status/2021367036216021050) 2026-02-10T23:33Z [----] followers, 73.1K engagements "What job are waiters really performing Why do you frequently hear it repeated that a persons character is revealed by how they treat the waitstaff Waiters are not there primarily to take your order pour your wine or whatever. Instead they are there to enact a ritual of class hierarchy with you in the higher status position. This requires a human presence because you cant be superior to a machine. This is why all automated and self-service restaurants code as low class because by definition if you have nobody below you in status you are low class yourself. The waiter is a necessary element for" [X Link](https://x.com/TheMindScourge/status/2022311711097663626) 2026-02-13T14:07Z [----] followers, 118.8K engagements "$67k on alcohol for two months Under conditions of strong AI you need to be aristocrat-maxing Sociability networking - all things the upper class does in abundance relative to the middle class Whereas sleep score optimizing never letting a drop of alcohol pass your lips zero sugar no caffeine after [--] pm etc etc is anxious neurotic middle class type behavior: disciplined consistent conscientious grind set turning yourself into a machine Interesting look at how an ultra-wealthy family spends money- $72k on landscaping $67k in wine/liquor for [--] months $154M in cash earning nothing $484M loan" [X Link](https://x.com/TheMindScourge/status/2022352301713662383) 2026-02-13T16:48Z [----] followers, 21.8K engagements "This reminds me of the Agatha Christie memoir where she marvels that as a middle class person in the 1920s a live-in servant and caretaker for her baby were considered essential but a car was a luxury reversed for the wealthy I experienced this myself indirectly. I grew up in a house built in the 1920s by an heiress of some regional business fortune (supposedly vacuum cleaners). It had a floor entirely for servants to live in. You could tell because the ceilings were lower the rooms smaller and irregularly shaped and so forth. By the time my parents purchased it and we moved in (this was the" [X Link](https://x.com/TheMindScourge/status/2022681249697927461) 2026-02-14T14:36Z [----] followers, 30.7K engagements "@2024dion Wouldnt he need to change the law" [X Link](https://x.com/TheMindScourge/status/2022752482544206034) 2026-02-14T19:19Z [----] followers, [---] engagements "We may be seeing a really interesting civilizational divide emerging over how receptive different cultures are to AI image generation To me this clip doesnt look like cinema. It looks like pure slop. Its just a bunch of CGI pixels. But I dont think thats how this is received elsewhere Different cultures have different resonances with particular technological paradigms. As a result some cultures are better fit (in an evolutionary sense) for certain types of technology Some within China might respond really positively to AI You see the same as regards screens. Chinese consumers love screens." [X Link](https://x.com/TheMindScourge/status/2023062242804068635) 2026-02-15T15:50Z [----] followers, 50.9K engagements "@Empty_America Same as in Haiti. Modern day version of the Brooke family of Sarawak Fortes fortuna adiuvat; or who dares wins" [X Link](https://x.com/TheMindScourge/status/2023093122478248293) 2026-02-15T17:52Z [----] followers, [--] engagements "This is of a course a joke. This is the Queens Dairy and was built as a gift for Marie Antoinette in the late 1780s What is notable about this room is that it is fully modern. You can tell that a contemporary mind designed this and directed its construction. Theres a subversion quality here an irony that is immediately recognizable Also oddly prophetic the way the cool rationalism of the 18th century terminates in a ruction of stone and utter chaos The Prada Store in Forte dei Marmi Italy https://t.co/AAVogsolBw The Prada Store in Forte dei Marmi Italy https://t.co/AAVogsolBw" [X Link](https://x.com/TheMindScourge/status/2023189046449598907) 2026-02-16T00:13Z [----] followers, 29.9K engagements "Its much worse than this. If it was cost alone that could be solved. But the awful The Embrace sculpture in Boston was $10 million. The money is there. Its the culture you have to change. The taste element is whats missing. People want to commission this stuff. Thats the problem Because nobody wants to pay for it anymore. Michelangelo was paid today's equivalent of roughly $650000 $750000 USD for the Sistine Chapel ceiling which took over [--] years to complete. Leonardo da Vinci was paid today's equivalent of $110000$120000 USD per year and given Because nobody wants to pay for it anymore." [X Link](https://x.com/TheMindScourge/status/2023416435276411392) 2026-02-16T15:17Z [----] followers, 81.5K engagements "Once you remove the cars no one agitates to bring them back Getting to that stage is really hard though. Drivers are big constituency. In modern society a majority of voters think from a car-first perspective. So for a politician going up against this can seem like political suicide But it can be done Under Mayor Anne Hidalgo Paris has created nearly [---] rues aux coles in an effort to; improve air quality reduce crashes and give kids more safe spaces in their neighborhoods to walk bike play and just be kids. https://t.co/fHVggdKKsG Under Mayor Anne Hidalgo Paris has created nearly [---] rues" [X Link](https://x.com/TheMindScourge/status/2023434306970857494) 2026-02-16T16:28Z [----] followers, [----] engagements Limited data mode. Full metrics available with subscription: lunarcrush.com/pricing
@TheMindScourge The Mind Scourge
The Mind Scourge posts on X about in the, ai, this is, culture the most. They currently have [-----] followers and [---] posts still getting attention that total [---------] engagements in the last [--] hours.
Engagements: [---------] #
- [--] Week [---------] +33%
- [--] Month [----------] +125%
- [--] Months [----------] +4,284%
- [--] Year [----------] +231%
Mentions: [--] #
- [--] Week [--] -39%
- [--] Month [---] +39%
- [--] Months [---] +123%
- [--] Year [---] +2.70%
Followers: [-----] #
- [--] Week [-----] +6.10%
- [--] Month [-----] +25%
- [--] Months [-----] +97%
- [--] Year [-----] +140%
CreatorRank: [------] #
Social Influence
Social category influence countries 23.31% travel destinations #4610 technology brands 7.52% finance #1491 stocks #2502 celebrities 3.76% social networks 3.76% luxury brands 1.5% cryptocurrencies 0.75% automotive brands 0.75%
Social topic influence in the #436, ai #1081, this is #1947, culture #280, if you #2465, history #105, the world #110, china #2453, the most 4.51%, the first #913
Top accounts mentioned or mentioned by @rick42798550 @cryptopaulrudd @rjswtrilogywhen @grok @tacofridge @junie_summer @whyvert @expatanon @sunbeltmindset @2024dion @anand_venkatram @warrenplatts @chris_arnade @spudchungus @roigvalls @bigp4p4smurf @chrisarnade @teortaxestex @kcjdr @tomscrace
Top assets mentioned Alphabet Inc Class A (GOOGL) Origin Dollar (OUSD)
Top Social Posts
Top posts by engagements in the last [--] hours
"The real question is where the demand will come from for more launch providers China will supply sufficient demand to sustain its own companies and the rest of the world has SpaceX and Blue Origin. Dollar for dollar (rupee for rupee) India arguably has the worlds most efficient space program and I wouldnt be surprised if they master reusability in time. But I dont think this is a question (primarily) of technological capacity. Japan Korea and Europe (France/Germany) all have the ability to build a reusable launcher. The real question the one they all face is: and then what None of these (and"
X Link 2025-11-14T13:48Z [----] followers, [---] engagements
"Many of these remote territorial dependencies - Pitcairn is one - lack any semblance of a harbor. Ships simply anchor offshore in open water. Small boats then run in people and supplies. If the sea state isnt favorable no offloading occurs. You just have to wait Want to feel small https://t.co/XjbtudUVlr Want to feel small https://t.co/XjbtudUVlr"
X Link 2026-01-28T00:57Z [----] followers, [---] engagements
"The Lindy solution is to have both the house in Palo Alto and the villa in Marbella. Then you fly private between them The British aristocracy maintained "town homes" (large mansions/palaces) in London for business and politics as well as an even grander seat in the country The Romans did the same. The wealthy one with a $5M villa in Marbella has 10x the life quality of the ultra-rich guy in Palo Alto with a $30M house. Guaranteed. https://t.co/rgyVFOIY2K The wealthy one with a $5M villa in Marbella has 10x the life quality of the ultra-rich guy in Palo Alto with a $30M house. Guaranteed."
X Link 2026-01-29T16:22Z [----] followers, [----] engagements
"The Palace of Justice in Brussels suffers from much the same problem classicism rendered on a gigantic scale. The proportions end up getting blown out and it doesnt look quite right. The humanistic element of classical architecture gets lost in the pursuit of the brobdingnagian But then again we stopped building like this for the most part within a few decades. If this was built today it would be some forgettable asymmetric glass and metal structure. https://twitter.com/i/web/status/2017226133054394559 https://twitter.com/i/web/status/2017226133054394559"
X Link 2026-01-30T13:19Z [----] followers, [----] engagements
"Trumps memorial arch is genuinely massive [---] feet tall DC is going to look much different in a decade whether or not this particular arch gets built. Theres something in the air. A lot of these federal buildings are getting vacated partly because theres interest in dispersing the agencies across the country partly because of remote work. The mid-century structures are mostly ugly in poor repair and will be torn down DC is also interesting because its one of the centers of classical architecture in the US and theres a lot of classically trained architects in the area unusual for most of the"
X Link 2026-01-31T17:33Z [----] followers, 140.4K engagements
"Unsurprisingly the French got here first. Picard Surgels specializes in frozen foods. Theres nothing like it in the US Frozen dinners are underrated. Frozen dinners are underrated"
X Link 2026-01-31T17:57Z [----] followers, 714.8K engagements
"You can tell a lot about a culture from its grocery stores and especially its convenience foods Picard is for people with jobs and families. Theyre short on time. Picard solves by selling flash frozen foods in an extraordinary variety. But the ingredients are very different from what youd get in the US for similar products. Take mozzarella sticks: Picards version: mozzarella 41% wheat flour water green pepper 4.1% green chile potato starch corn flour salt yeast powdered whole egg from free range chickens turmeric sodium caseinate baking powder garlic extract onion extract spice extract white"
X Link 2026-01-31T18:13Z [----] followers, 845.4K engagements
"The Hermione a French-built replica of an 18th century frigate You can just look at pictures of sailing ships all day and no one can stop you"
X Link 2026-01-31T20:37Z [----] followers, [---] engagements
"Obviously anyone getting into Harvard is going to Harvard not Ole Miss. That isnt a question but that isnt the question here either. Most comments on this post are getting this wrong Getting yourself into a position where you are Harvard potential is a decade plus campaign. So the question is whether families are increasingly opting out from putting their kids into the grindset race at all. Thats what were really talking about here and I think there is plenty of evidence that this is in fact occurring As Ive posted about before so I wont repeat right now there is growing cynicism around the"
X Link 2026-02-01T23:43Z [----] followers, 64.4K engagements
"Products like this proliferate in a world where only one or two children is the norm. Having a big family causes you to be more relaxed about things like this less sensitive to every imagined remote risk But with only one your imagination runs riot and without constraint The baby section of Target is a glimpse into how totally insane unscrupulous marketers can convince worried parents to go trying to eliminate fake safety problems and it makes me sad https://t.co/ER12OP6n6m The baby section of Target is a glimpse into how totally insane unscrupulous marketers can convince worried parents to"
X Link 2026-02-02T13:24Z [----] followers, [----] engagements
"Youll encounter a lot of people who say they dont know how to cook And true in many cases in the US you have people grow up whose parents didnt really cook (maybe just prepared stuff) and their grandparents too didnt either. Prepping dinner was mostly just nuking products in the microwave and opening up various packages So if this is you taking the first step into actually making food from scratch can seem daunting. But it doesnt have to be Cooking is easy if you remain that being able to cook is mostly about being able to read If you can read and follow directions you can cook. Thats really"
X Link 2026-02-03T02:54Z [----] followers, 21.9K engagements
"I predict that once this is built almost everyone will love it and within a decade it will be the status quo and no one will think twice about it https://t.co/oegHWZDkfz https://t.co/oegHWZDkfz"
X Link 2026-02-03T22:14Z [----] followers, 69.8K engagements
"The real US grindset culture which doesn't come in for the slightest bit of controversy is in athletics The intensity and obsession displayed here is on an entirely different level. It encompasses many more people is embraced by a much wider swath of the population for fewer rewards overall than exist in exchange for cramming academically. It inarguably ruins more lives I had a first cousin who was a very competitive swimmer. She was up before [--] am every day for years to practice for hours in the pool swimming lap after lap after lap. She ultimately didn't make it. My high school has a very"
X Link 2026-02-04T14:50Z [----] followers, 14.8K engagements
"The idea that you need sovereign control over your major communications channels is now mainstream. The Chinese were early to this and this consensus reflects a form of Chinese soft power although youll never see it explained as such The period of time when a handful of mostly American platforms served as the backbone for most of the worlds information services will be a temporary phase Anyone with the technical ability and capital to do so will want their information ecosystem to run on their own rails This is one of the primary manifestations of sovereignty in the 21st century. If you dont"
X Link 2026-02-04T19:09Z [----] followers, [----] engagements
"In his childhood memoirs John Muir rhapsodizes about maple syrup. He had never experienced it prior to emigrating to the New World He considered it a type of ambrosia Pure maple syrup is one of the best natural sweeteners to exist. Manganese. Riboflavin. Zinc. Calcium. Potassium. So good for your gut. Contains phenolic & anti-inflammatory compounds. Best part is how incredible it tastes. Underrated. https://t.co/OO9UryA9Pu Pure maple syrup is one of the best natural sweeteners to exist. Manganese. Riboflavin. Zinc. Calcium. Potassium. So good for your gut. Contains phenolic &"
X Link 2026-02-05T15:59Z [----] followers, [----] engagements
"One conspiracy theory that I do believe (that isnt really a conspiracy based off historical precedent) is that the NSA and GCHQ were running LLMs years prior to GPT-1 (2018) and the [----] Attention is all you need transformer architecture paper Google was running the massive n-gram language models back in the 2000s and NSA etc had data sets (and needs) even larger They also employ one of the worlds largest workforces of pure and applied mathematicians and practically unlimited resources. They were perfectly positioned to develop the key technologies years prior to our presently understood"
X Link 2026-02-05T21:31Z [----] followers, 21.4K engagements
"This is a fascinating map. There are no perfect world maps - all such maps are compromises - but every different one highlights new perspectives that you hadnt considered before. This one is no different The centrality of Antarctica is a major flaw though of this particular projection 🔴⚡China is using this map in its schools. This isn't just an ordinary school map nor is it an innocent attempt to alter a geographical projection. What we're using in our schools is a map of consciousness before it's a map of the land. It's a tool for rearranging how the https://t.co/sKawmbDZ1X 🔴⚡China is"
X Link 2026-02-05T21:51Z [----] followers, [----] engagements
"The interior layout of this castle is effectively the opposite of how modern houses are set up and thats why it feels so much more interesting Theres no open plan but separate rooms. The rooms are different sizes and shapes. Some of the ceilings are high others low. The stairs twist this way and that. There are doors everywhere. Odd nooks here and there. Always something different to see. The walls are textured and interesting to look at. All the materials are real not manufactured. Theres a tactility to everything you touch. It has a real feeling of place This guy lives in a castle in"
X Link 2026-02-06T02:11Z [----] followers, 68.2K engagements
"The collapse of newspapers (perhaps permanently) deranged the production of words and memes in our society; a warning bell in the night for AI It's commonplace to lament the downfall of reading amongst zoomers and (to a lesser extent) millennials. But fewer people talk about the supply side to this equation which is arguably more important and specifically the all-important channels by which words and ideas are manufactured and distributed to the population as a whole The elegant publishing machine which evolved organically for centuries was in just a few short years smashed into a million"
X Link 2026-02-06T13:23Z [----] followers, [----] engagements
"The Chinatalk interview of Luttwak by @jordanschneider could have been made just for me. Luttwaks Grand Strategy of the Roman Empire was the first book I ever bought myself back when I was around [--]. I still have it (its practically falling apart now) Some of the best bits are the autobiographical details and the texture of wartime and mid-century life that Luttwak provides. You go to through a portal back in time Its cliche to say they dont make them like they used to but in Luttwaks case its true. Hes had all these varied experiences and witnessed some real extremes in life. They"
X Link 2026-02-06T15:22Z [----] followers, [----] engagements
"Usually when people say a particular place or city is beautiful its because the buildings all sort of hang together You see the same thing in movies; fantasy or sci fi cities all have a coherent look. You basically never see a jumbled urban cityscape depicted unless it is a dystopia https://twitter.com/i/web/status/2019836067818414427 https://twitter.com/i/web/status/2019836067818414427"
X Link 2026-02-06T18:10Z [----] followers, [--] engagements
"We did create other cities like NYC. Its just that NYC was the only one we didnt completely destroy for one reason or another postwar It's baffling to me that America created one city like NYC and never again It's baffling to me that America created one city like NYC and never again"
X Link 2026-02-06T22:29Z [----] followers, 85.4K engagements
"This was the greatest opening ceremony ever In retrospect it was also the modern peak for the UK. Everything after has been downhill sad to say There will never be an opening ceremony that will top London [----] The pride I have for Britain seeing this is unmatched - pandemonium is THE BEST segment in an opening ceremony - cannot be topped. https://t.co/mZpawmfxrr There will never be an opening ceremony that will top London [----] The pride I have for Britain seeing this is unmatched - pandemonium is THE BEST segment in an opening ceremony - cannot be topped. https://t.co/mZpawmfxrr"
X Link 2026-02-06T23:22Z [----] followers, 107.2K engagements
"At least for men I think hes right most literary men these days are primarily attracted to 20th century works (and earlier). I personally read a lot and recent fiction rarely tempts me Fortunately the pre-2000 corpus of literature is inexhaustible. You could spend lifetimes and still never read it all Its a bit different for film bros. There its feasible to spend a few years and basically watch every good movie ever made It went pretty quickly from DFW writing the last experimental novel with any broad cultural impact in [----] to within a generation MFAs primary output being culture war"
X Link 2026-02-07T02:03Z [----] followers, 14.4K engagements
"With winter the problem is less the cold or the rain and snow and more the lack of sun January is especially gloomy in London: only [--] hours of sun per day on average. February averages a little better at [---] Compare this to June and July with [--] hours a day Winter feels very different when its sunny. Ive vowed with my wife never to spend another January/February in the UK. While it is true that there is more rainfall in Rome than London - this is measured in mm. If you measure it in time (minutes it is raining) - london is much worse. Constant grey clouds and slow rain. Ive vowed with my wife"
X Link 2026-02-07T19:08Z [----] followers, 10.5K engagements
"Youve got to put AI predictions in context. Since [----] the entire computing domain has been one revolution after another. So when tech people predict AI will again change everything this is the background they have in mind. A rapid rate of turnover is the base case that they expect and their entire life experience - the entire history of their field - reflects this But it reminds me of the more fanciful flights of fancy in the mid-20th century. Ships had gone from wood and sail to steel and fossil fuels. Airplanes had gone from hobbyist kit projects to Mach [--] titanium jets. Man landed on the"
X Link 2026-02-07T22:39Z [----] followers, [----] engagements
"Ive seen people get in their car to drive down the block For all my sympathies with the good urbanism crowd and walkability standards I think you have to start your analysis from the people and Americans (collectively) dont enjoy walking all that much In [----] I was visiting friends in Texas who lived [--] minutes from a coffee shop I took a liking to so one day I decided to walk there. Three different drivers stopped me on the way to ask if my car had broken down and if I needed help. Lord forbid an Anglo takes a little walk. In [----] I was visiting friends in Texas who lived [--] minutes from a"
X Link 2026-02-07T22:53Z [----] followers, [----] engagements
"The environment really does shape behavior. If we built and lived in a different way wed drive/walk in differently too The challenge is actually doing this. Its really hard. It isnt just about building extra bike lanes or whatever add-ons to a car centric system. You have to change the patterns of life"
X Link 2026-02-07T23:18Z [----] followers, [--] engagements
"Americans are really sleeping on it but this is a golden age for Poland You should absolutely visit if you can Utterly grotesque Poland & Hungary are refacing or replacing hideous Soviet-era brutalist buildings with elegant 18th and 19th century facades Meanwhile Britain continues to uglify. Why Beauty begets beauty Attractive spaces nourish the soul. Ugly spaces deaden it. Poland: https://t.co/dfvhJis3Kg Utterly grotesque Poland & Hungary are refacing or replacing hideous Soviet-era brutalist buildings with elegant 18th and 19th century facades Meanwhile Britain continues to uglify. Why"
X Link 2026-02-08T15:27Z [----] followers, [----] engagements
"Gold is underrated in design. It can easily be overdone but a certain amount adds an ornamental element that nothing else can provide This is the Arc Hr in Nancy France"
X Link 2026-02-08T16:19Z [----] followers, [---] engagements
"Because New York City discourse has popped back up on the timeline Ill again argue that it is the inconveniences of New York that are its single biggest selling point. They are a constant reminder that NYC is tough that if you make it here you can make it anywhere Red Bull is the same way; its disgusting and thats why its popular. It gives you energy but also tastes like medicine. Thats the trade off which people want. If it tasted delicious the transaction would feel wrong like you were getting something for free. But because theres a cost (bad taste) you also believe theres a benefit New"
X Link 2026-02-09T01:17Z [----] followers, [----] engagements
"I think you can make a case that SF/Silicon Valley is Americas first city. NYC is a much better city as a city; arguably Americas only real city. But SF is more important today in terms of its significance and that has been true for [--] years now whereas NYC is (relatively) in decline. What for example. is the last big idea out of NYC For SF/Silicon Valley this is easy you can make a whole list of them. But for NYC its harder. The city is more a consumption experience now. Same with Los Angeles. The core industry Hollywood is in serious trouble and appears liable to being colonized by SF at"
X Link 2026-02-09T02:11Z [----] followers, 43.2K engagements
"Will Smith eating spaghetti was the peak AI video. Its all been downhill since Both the video game and AI industries have made the same mistake that the pursuit of photorealism is everything (it isnt) Think about that wojak cartoon. One of the most influential scribbles of the 21st century. This is the kind of thing AI should be attempting to create but isnt It may yet serve as a meme font but there's not a single AI video as compelling as the median silent-era movie & there's no indication one is forthcoming It may yet serve as a meme font but there's not a single AI video as compelling as"
X Link 2026-02-09T02:51Z [----] followers, [----] engagements
"The problem is the screen. Screens are fundamentally anti-tactile and Ferrari especially is supposed to be this raw visceral experience Ive has put in a lot of effort to compensate for this. Youve got dials switches a grab bar to rotate the central monitor and so forth. Things click rotate swing Everythings as physical as possible. But screens are design-wise a dead end. So long as the interior has to be built around the screen (and they are immensely useful especially for maps). Theres just not much you can do with them Movie palaces from the golden age of movies had the same problem. You"
X Link 2026-02-09T17:42Z [----] followers, 11.1K engagements
"Milan already compromised on Starbucks Got to hold the line on pineapple pizza What happens when you order pineapple on pizza in Milan 🍍🍕 Chris Hughes found out 😅 #MilanoCortina2026 https://t.co/Nzcwjf2ANF What happens when you order pineapple on pizza in Milan 🍍🍕 Chris Hughes found out 😅 #MilanoCortina2026 https://t.co/Nzcwjf2ANF"
X Link 2026-02-09T18:39Z [----] followers, [---] engagements
"On the other hand Miami is one of the few places in the US (SF/Silicon Valley is the other) that has created genuinely new vibes the past [--] years You can feel the new civilization of America very intensely in Miami something that isnt true most other places (Charlotte for example) Today I learned Charlotte NC has a higher GDP per capita than Miami. In fact so does Raleigh and Durham-Chapel Hill. Despite all the copy about the ultra wealthy and hype of finance or tech hubs in Miami Florida doesnt actually produce all that much of anything. Its a pretty Today I learned Charlotte NC has a"
X Link 2026-02-09T19:49Z [----] followers, 19.5K engagements
"Miami has other lessons for the future too: Florida is an old state demographically. But it doesnt feel old (in the way say Vermont does). The quintessential Floridian Florida Man is many things but old certainly isnt one of them Miami has a lot of energy and verve. Its youthful and feels alive. This is one reason why I dont think the US future is as a retirement home. The country will get older and older; there are very few future paths where this doesnt happen. But this demographic reality wont define the US culturally. Itll be the pockets of youth that do On the other hand Miami is one of"
X Link 2026-02-09T20:18Z [----] followers, [----] engagements
"Im not opposed to minimalism necessarily. Imagine you had only ever seen highly ornate baroque type design. Minimalism would seem like an embassy from the future But its also a kind of trap a logical dead-end. Take Brancusi one of my favorite sculptors. His Bird in Space and Mademoiselle Pogany are these extraordinary pieces. They exist almost outside of time; you might imagine they are creations of some prehistoric civilization or one far in the future. But what is the next act Once you have stripped an object to its essence how to follow up this undoubted work of genius There is almost"
X Link 2026-02-09T23:15Z [----] followers, [----] engagements
"What major city will be the first to ban the car altogether Once youve experienced a city full of electric vehicles its so obvious that breathing in car exhaust is insane. We do not have to live like this. Once youve experienced a city full of electric vehicles its so obvious that breathing in car exhaust is insane. We do not have to live like this"
X Link 2026-02-09T23:39Z [----] followers, [---] engagements
"The paperback is a 20th century invention and a phenomenon of mass culture. So now with mass culture in decline we should not be surprised that this particular literary manifestation of it is disappearing as well The original codexes were bound in leather or sometimes parchment for flexibility. Only in the 4th century and later do rigid covers emerge. Maybe well see more leather bound books in replacement of paperbacks. Flexibility in a book is useful"
X Link 2026-02-10T14:56Z [----] followers, 21.5K engagements
"@whyvert @robinhanson Its also not true. Religion doesnt work the same way in China as in the west with religions of the book. Granted to western eyes China historically seems very secular. But just because a dominant sacred text is absent doesnt mean religion is absent. Its just different"
X Link 2026-02-10T15:01Z [----] followers, [--] engagements
"Claude is for people with taste. Its fine. Doesnt need to be a mainstream thing. My personal opinion is that OpenAI has already won: its the Kleenex or Escalator or Google of AI audiences didnt like anthropics ad placing it in the bottom 3% of all super bowl ads from the last five years https://t.co/Dzz5QurLMm audiences didnt like anthropics ad placing it in the bottom 3% of all super bowl ads from the last five years https://t.co/Dzz5QurLMm"
X Link 2026-02-10T15:05Z [----] followers, [---] engagements
"@Chris_arnade Thats true. I didnt think of that but thats exactly what it is"
X Link 2026-02-10T16:25Z [----] followers, 16.5K engagements
"This is CGI rendering architecture. Its looks like CGI pixels come to life A lot of architects these days dont draw. Many of the programs that train architects dont even teach drawing as a skill. Everything is designed in software. So what comes out as a result of this process Buildings that look like software Its an assembly line problem in a sense I have beef with this random skyscraper in Kansas City. Swagless pile of crap. What a shit way to bring to an end the era of downtown office tower construction here. https://t.co/ihnpmJqF21 I have beef with this random skyscraper in Kansas City."
X Link 2026-02-10T16:32Z [----] followers, [----] engagements
"France with [---] million people would be a greater power than the US. Its a more consistently focused and strategic state (Sweden is the same way) whereas the US is easily distracted If France had grown like England after [----] it would have [---] million people today not [--] million. Instead French women went from [---] children to [---] in just [--] years a century before any other country. It wasn't industrialization. It was secularization. If France had grown like England after [----] it would have [---] million people today not [--] million. Instead French women went from [---] children to [---] in just 40"
X Link 2026-02-10T18:36Z [----] followers, [----] engagements
"No there isnt a concentrated pool of capital and talent in Miami like there is in Boston etc. But Miami has more relevance to where this country is going than probably any other single city in the US right now. New Orleans I would categorize like Nashville or Vegas. A lot going on but no real national significance. https://twitter.com/i/web/status/2021308927107895434 https://twitter.com/i/web/status/2021308927107895434"
X Link 2026-02-10T19:42Z [----] followers, [--] engagements
"@teortaxesTex Its quite pathetic really One of the reasons why the modern era - roughly [----] - [----] - will long remain of great interest. It has a density of literate culture that rewards study Whereas today the elite is essentially philistine and banal in terms of its written outputs"
X Link 2026-02-10T20:57Z [----] followers, [---] engagements
"1954 is before the 1960s and [----] is after. Thats the difference. The Sixties is our cultural revolution. To travel back to the world before it is an Alice in Wonderland through the looking glass type journey; but equally if you traveled back to anytime after it youre basically in the world as it is today and youll feel (more or less) at home. Things will be familiar to you; the cultural milieu is (again more or less) ours. There are obvious material differences but the underlying software everyone is running in their heads is basically the same as the norm for Western public opinion today"
X Link 2026-02-10T22:58Z [----] followers, [----] engagements
"Morocco is one of the countries which still maintains traditional architecture as a living tradition India would be another We build like that every day in Morocco. The buildings seen here date back to [----] and [----]. https://t.co/wrsJvgLkyz We build like that every day in Morocco. The buildings seen here date back to [----] and [----]. https://t.co/wrsJvgLkyz"
X Link 2026-02-10T23:19Z [----] followers, [----] engagements
"Maybe humans could be transferred as genetic code and wed be shepherded by some ultra advanced AI. But 2M years is 100x as long as human civilization has existed (assuming generously a 10k year window for such a status) Even for a machine and an arbitrarily advanced one sustaining itself over that length of time would be quite a feat. An F35 requires [--] hours maintenance per [--] hour flight time for example. Obviously this comparison is inapt as we can assume phenomenally greater capabilities on the part of a civilization capable of building such a vessel. But still the logistics and various"
X Link 2026-02-11T01:29Z [----] followers, [---] engagements
"Interesting paper. The claim is that LLMs have increased the quality of the top [----] book releases per category but not the top [---]. Im not convinced that the 578th best book in any category (overall even let alone per month) is worth very much - or the 20th best even. But I think the most important finding is that the quality of the top [---] isnt really changing. Which suggests that overall nothing much has changed; Im skeptical any book out of the [--] or [--] best is contributing anything Leave aside whether its possible to assess the level of quality of books across all fields like this LLMs"
X Link 2026-02-11T02:17Z [----] followers, [---] engagements
"America still has massive cultural appeal. @Chris_arnade sees this all the time when he travels. But it isnt necessarily something youll read about on the front page of Le Monde or the NYT. There the sky is always falling i met an australian girl who lives in london at my work conference today and she was gushing about how much she loves watching american girls on tiktok because she loves all the american stuff they do (iced coffee trader joes homegoods) and wishes she could live in the US and i met an australian girl who lives in london at my work conference today and she was gushing about"
X Link 2026-02-11T02:23Z [----] followers, [----] engagements
"With the US also because theres so much familiarity you get a lot of complaints just naturally. You complain about family and friends much more than you do about random people who have only passing knowledge of Also the US is so huge and its influence so massive it naturally comes in for a lot of negative attention. That just comes with territory for better or worse https://twitter.com/i/web/status/2021415074338894325 https://twitter.com/i/web/status/2021415074338894325"
X Link 2026-02-11T02:44Z [----] followers, [--] engagements
"Its the same in so much of New York City. Worldwide everyone thinks of Manhattan. But for most of NYC this is more the norm Americans are a suburban people. Even in our cities. "San Francisco is so beautiful." 90% of San Francisco: https://t.co/yt2cEqA0o4 "San Francisco is so beautiful." 90% of San Francisco: https://t.co/yt2cEqA0o4"
X Link 2026-02-11T14:46Z [----] followers, [----] engagements
"@Porkchop_EXP Something big is happening AI content will seem very dated in another [--] or [--] years I suspect"
X Link 2026-02-11T14:47Z [----] followers, [---] engagements
"Important also to emphasize that while all this can appear as deliberately antiquarian it was fully modern: the estate was home to the worlds first hydroelectric power station and was one of the first to install mod cons such as a dishwasher or a washing machine for clothes. Its just that the designer also appreciated detail and ornament in architecture and interior design. Modernity and tradition in architecture (by our current understanding of the term) are not in the slightest bit exclusive. It is only because we often imagine them to be so that become such Craigside House is incredible."
X Link 2026-02-11T15:08Z [----] followers, [----] engagements
"Conservatives often argue that men invest more time than ever in child-raising and yet the birth rate is lower than ever from which they conclude that men should be more patriarchal This gets the causation entirely backwards. Increased paternal investment isnt the cause of lower birth rates by turning women off their partners it is responsible for raising fertility above the level it would naturally be at under current conditions. In other words much more intensive millennial male parenting is an intervention if you will on the part of fathers to increase the female birth rate The revolution"
X Link 2026-02-11T16:12Z [----] followers, 13.7K engagements
"A population cap is a signal that as a country you are breaking away from the consensus surrounding globalization and the unlimited movement of goods people and services. Its a conservative policy but instead of a hard right alignment like Brexit it has a soft left affiliation instead. I suspect policies like this will be increasingly common. The politics of anti-immigration is frequently very negative. But talk of caps sounds friendlier and technocratic. The effect is the same though I suspect this practice will spread and be applied to tourism for example. The Saudi government has long"
X Link 2026-02-11T18:51Z [----] followers, 31.1K engagements
"@expatanon That weird Will Smith eating spaghetti video from years ago remains the only watchable AI clip"
X Link 2026-02-12T01:19Z [----] followers, [---] engagements
"@expatanon perhaps peoples brains have just been burnt out by video games and they just want to look at CGI"
X Link 2026-02-12T01:47Z [----] followers, [--] engagements
"This argument has been made many times before. Its incorrect Most people want to consume not produce. X is the perfect example. How many people on here post consistently versus just read posts Theres nothing wrong with consumption. Everyone is a consumer in most areas of their life. Only in a few might you have an interest in producing something So you can democratize the tools of production all you want but little will come of it. Most people have nothing interesting to write. I have nothing interesting to produce when it comes to painting. I enjoyed painting immensely but Im a consumer"
X Link 2026-02-12T02:15Z [----] followers, 19.7K engagements
"This is very true and within that your natural country city etc The Romans had this concept of patria ones native land the land of ones fathers where one was born. But you can also find the land of your soul I feel like everyone just has a natural continent and thats where youll be happiest Some people are Europe people others Latin America a few even Africans. Like I have a buddy who loves pick up trucks suburbs and college football so for him America is truly heaven I feel like everyone just has a natural continent and thats where youll be happiest Some people are Europe people others Latin"
X Link 2026-02-12T15:20Z [----] followers, [---] engagements
"@the_hoch Its logically possible but the same was said about word processing having all the worlds knowledge at your fingertips through Google and so forth yet no golden age emerged"
X Link 2026-02-12T15:21Z [----] followers, [---] engagements
"The peak of model shipbuilding is the admiralty model a plank on frame design which is exact match for the actual ship just scaled down. So if a piece of wood is on the real ship youll find its miniature on the mod as well Its a much more time-consuming and expensive method This extraordinary handcrafted Georgian style secretary is a perfect example of a fine art dollhouse miniature. https://t.co/Eo1k8nKBj4 This extraordinary handcrafted Georgian style secretary is a perfect example of a fine art dollhouse miniature. https://t.co/Eo1k8nKBj4"
X Link 2026-02-12T16:37Z [----] followers, [---] engagements
"Mosquito anti-abundance agenda Just as China has been doing mosquito elimination successfully so too has Singapore. In areas where researchers released sterilized mosquitoes the population collapsed whereas areas without the intervention were unaffected. We can kill the mosquitoes. We just have to try. https://t.co/uGxKRfkq9T Just as China has been doing mosquito elimination successfully so too has Singapore. In areas where researchers released sterilized mosquitoes the population collapsed whereas areas without the intervention were unaffected. We can kill the mosquitoes. We just have to"
X Link 2026-02-12T16:50Z [----] followers, [---] engagements
"High embodied energy machines are too dangerous not to be regulated and space is too actively harmful for everyone not to be closely monitored. Right now access is extensively gated. But in a future where perhaps tens to hundreds of thousands will be traveling in space the controls will need to be much more rigorous. Even one crazed person could threaten the basic survival of a base or colony https://twitter.com/i/web/status/2022031435687686632 https://twitter.com/i/web/status/2022031435687686632"
X Link 2026-02-12T19:33Z [----] followers, [--] engagements
"@b_judah Note the greenery as ornament element very common in contemporary architecture now"
X Link 2026-02-12T20:53Z [----] followers, [---] engagements
"German Americans have them beat. No German American thinks about German identity at all Italian Americans may srsly be the only major immigrant community in America that actively celebrates abandoning their culture and language. And they wonder why mainland Italians think most Italian Americans are a joke lmao Italian Americans may srsly be the only major immigrant community in America that actively celebrates abandoning their culture and language. And they wonder why mainland Italians think most Italian Americans are a joke lmao"
X Link 2026-02-13T03:43Z [----] followers, [----] engagements
"You see this everywhere today. Nothing specific to India: Too bright overly white light; flatscreen TV as focal point for the room; LEDs everywhere; mostly artificial materials; no windows Good interior design is basically the opposite of all these. You need a window less harsh lighting natural materials and hide the technology to the maximum extent possible Why is this ugly hotel lobby aesthetic the most popular interior decor style in Indian cities these days. https://t.co/ZHkylohHXa Why is this ugly hotel lobby aesthetic the most popular interior decor style in Indian cities these days."
X Link 2026-02-13T14:17Z [----] followers, [----] engagements
"Looksmaxxing is the product of the female gaze and male insecurity. In a relatively feminized culture it is a male strategy adopted to take back power in the dating market. But since it is fundamentally vain it must be couched in aggressively masculine language. This doesnt represent the return of the patriarchy but rather its absence; a farce of the genuine article On the one hand Ms. Kirk was an attractive woman who demonstrated a keen interest in him. On the other hand her use of the looksmaxxing vernacular struck him as unnatural. https://t.co/3j52mx3oxR On the one hand Ms. Kirk was an"
X Link 2026-02-13T18:17Z [----] followers, 49.5K engagements
"Modern philanthropy has a general problem in that so much money is spent to such opaque ill-defined ends Think about the $100 million that Zuckerberg spent in the Newark school system. Or Scotts $26 billion. In contrast Carnegie built libraries across the country. You could the result concretely. In postmodern society philanthropy ends up focused on cultural and social goals that dont have defined criteria that are explicit for anyone with eyes This has broader implications as well. Afghan aid during the US suffered from a surfeit of projects focused on various cultural objectives and"
X Link 2026-02-16T00:43Z [----] followers, 82.8K engagements
"London was the largest city of the 19th century surpassed by NYC in the 1920s which was the largest until being overtaken by Tokyo Neither are even in the top [--] today Size matters and both the US and UK should focus more attention on increasing the size of their largest cities But there appears to be zero interest in this Its crazy how big London was in [----] 2.4m - some 50% bigger than Beijing the 2nd largest in the world A true outlier in a predominantly agrarian world Its crazy how big London was in [----] 2.4m - some 50% bigger than Beijing the 2nd largest in the world A true outlier in a"
X Link 2026-01-25T00:23Z [----] followers, 52.6K engagements
"This one is bad The Scottish parliament is still worse I think; one of the worst in fact Refinement culture came early to architecture. Arguably its been stuck for [--] years uncertain of where to go next @KCJdR @tomscrace The Netherlands truly is the epitome of dont bloody do this When it comes to refurbishing a hundreds of years old parliament building https://t.co/AKHNGM8CyD @KCJdR @tomscrace The Netherlands truly is the epitome of dont bloody do this When it comes to refurbishing a hundreds of years old parliament building https://t.co/AKHNGM8CyD"
X Link 2026-02-07T01:46Z [----] followers, 42.5K engagements
"Architecture in Mexico is in many respects on a much higher level than in the US. Mexico is also a much poorer country so you wouldnt necessarily predict this Im not even talking about the traditional colonial era areas either but Mexicos 20th century modernist heritage and contemporary construction as well. In general the highs of Mexican architecture are more impressive and denser than in the US The lows of Mexico are also much worse. Maybe the latter inspires the former via some sort of creative tension While everyone else is still building concrete boxes Mexico City built the first"
X Link 2026-02-07T03:33Z [----] followers, 199.4K engagements
"India recently built a new parliament building. The interior finishes were done by a high end Italian firm Pidilite This is one of the few recent legislative chambers that looks good in my opinion. @KCJdR @tomscrace The Netherlands truly is the epitome of dont bloody do this When it comes to refurbishing a hundreds of years old parliament building https://t.co/AKHNGM8CyD @KCJdR @tomscrace The Netherlands truly is the epitome of dont bloody do this When it comes to refurbishing a hundreds of years old parliament building https://t.co/AKHNGM8CyD"
X Link 2026-02-07T14:28Z [----] followers, 187.6K engagements
"Context to consider though is that in many cases urban renewal was pushing on an open door. It isnt true that cities (mostly) bulldozed thriving dense urban villages. These places were already emptying out as people moved to the suburbs for that 1950s suburban dream. Businesses were relocating too both in response to this and also in anticipation of it Most of these neighborhoods were aging as well. They need substantial investment and renovation. If these buildings had survived to [----] theyd all be immensely valuable and the money would have been available. But at the time it wasnt. These"
X Link 2026-02-08T15:20Z [----] followers, [----] engagements
"Design can either make the environment look better or worse The new benches look much worse and fail to match their surroundings (for example insufficient contrast with the flooring) Hard times create bespoke Chesterfields. Bespoke Chesterfields create good times. Good times create soulless Ikea benches. Soulless Ikea benches create hard times. https://t.co/0UfU5ceE9b Hard times create bespoke Chesterfields. Bespoke Chesterfields create good times. Good times create soulless Ikea benches. Soulless Ikea benches create hard times. https://t.co/0UfU5ceE9b"
X Link 2026-02-08T18:48Z [----] followers, 107.8K engagements
"From an NYT article on the rise of induction cooktops You can see what I mean about minimalism. There are a lot of high end materials here the cantilevered island is a huge flex but the overall effect is uncanny so much has been removed that any human presence is a kind of intrusion. You really can feel that this room is just a white box with a few elements added in. Like one of those strip mall constructions where all the interior fixtures and finishings can be detached and removed the moment operations arent profitable. Good for business but not for a home environment"
X Link 2026-02-10T14:41Z [----] followers, [----] engagements
"The greatest building ever constructed the Pantheon is impressive enough today But imagine the impact of seeing this back when it was first built. There's a scene in Gladiator that always stuck with me and it wasn't a battle scene. When arriving at the Colosseum in Rome Juba the hunter asks Maximus "Have you ever seen anything like that before I didn't know men could build such things." The statement applies today https://t.co/Z4vggA92n9 There's a scene in Gladiator that always stuck with me and it wasn't a battle scene. When arriving at the Colosseum in Rome Juba the hunter asks Maximus"
X Link 2026-02-10T17:35Z [----] followers, [----] engagements
"There is this peculiar idea in architecture very influential that new buildings on sites of historic importance must be immediately recognized as not historical; in other words as contemporary structures. This is a mid-century notion and there is little evidence anyone previously considered distinguishing different eras of buildings of any importance But by principles such as this the environment is made uglier Les portiques de scurit Disney Village vs. ceux installs la Tour Eiffel. Vous prfrez lesquels https://t.co/QNVNGA0wBJ Les portiques de scurit Disney Village vs. ceux installs la Tour"
X Link 2026-02-10T22:32Z [----] followers, 22.9K engagements
"The newer a transportation method is the less Lindy the more it is subject to government control and regulation Youre much freer on your feet than you are driving a car; boats and ships are freer than airplanes; aircraft are much less regulated than space travel Theres this idea that space will somehow be this great liberation for humanity. I disagree. The higher the technology the more complicated the more it constraints and constricts you makes you legible and expands governmental authority. Space will be the least free mankind has yet been Exploration of space is a grand adventure but it"
X Link 2026-02-12T13:05Z [----] followers, [---] engagements
"They didnt think about it much because they assumed this is how it would always be. They thought this because this was how it had always been in Chicagos history. They thought it was the only way it could be. The city was one of the fastest growing cities in world history up to that time They had no idea that it had all come to an end sometimes i think about what it mustve been like to live in chicago from 1969-1973 and see [--] of the top [--] tallest buildings in the world at the time completed in a [--] year span right next to each other https://t.co/2z3Zi0UHQd sometimes i think about what it"
X Link 2026-02-12T23:06Z [----] followers, 65.2K engagements
"Poland was one of the least fortunate states of the 20th century. Fought over during World War I then invaded by the Soviet Russians. A brief period of independence then conquered in [----] divided between two totalitarian great powers. 20% of the population perishes. Conquered again this time by the Soviets. A half century of Communist rule. Then a modern golden age. Poland is honestly one of the best countries in Europe right now maybe the best. Warsaw is a world class city. But it was a brutal road to get there This is an enjoyable recent biography of Marshal Pilsudskis extraordinary life"
X Link 2026-02-13T23:03Z [----] followers, [----] engagements
"Ive been reading AI discourse for a decade plus. There are no new arguments. I havent read a single new interesting thing on AI (in terms of impact on society politics etc) in years. Its all just rehashed theses from years past Everyone talks about what will change No one talks about what wont change. Thats where you should be spending your time. The things that are invariant about the human condition. Assuming we arent all uploaded to the cloud which is the End of Lindy you should conditional on forthcoming strong AI be reading more history especially cultural and behavioral of the ancient"
X Link 2026-02-13T23:11Z [----] followers, [----] engagements
"@Empty_America @MTabarrok Its partly a question of dimensionality. Wood has grain texture depth and warmth to it. Compare that to an all steel warship today all grey paint. Very low dimensionality by comparison"
X Link 2026-02-14T01:07Z [----] followers, [--] engagements
"Ive thought about this before. Similarly while some people dream of space travel I wish it were possible to visit the different Earths of our evolutionary history. Some truly alien worlds if you go back far enough Imagine sailing Panthalassa or the ancient Tethys fetching up on some deep ocean island https://twitter.com/i/web/status/2022504382130967033 https://twitter.com/i/web/status/2022504382130967033"
X Link 2026-02-14T02:53Z [----] followers, [--] engagements
"There are former New Yorks all over the US - places that if you visited them a century ago youd believe you were in Manhattan today This was the norm prewar; there were dozens of New Yorks (if on a smaller scale) you could visit Most didnt make it through the mid-century urban crisis. But you can still go see the ruins of this lost world and if you know what youre looking at (most dont) there is great pathos to what survives St. Louis is one of the more fascinating places I've ever been. In parts it feels like walking through the ruins of a once great Rome a century after the fall. In others"
X Link 2026-02-09T23:34Z [----] followers, 292.3K engagements
"My opinion on Mexican food is that it deserves a lot more respect: Mexican is easily a top [--] cuisine arguably a top [--]. Its the center of origin for corn/maize beans cacao vanilla the tomato avocado dozens of chilis etc. I dont think any other cuisine comes close to the sheer variety of ingredients it has domesticated. Nixtamalization is one of the great food transformation processes. Mole is amongst the worlds most complex sauces. Its fine if you dont like it but the range of moles exceeds that of the exceptional French mother sauce tradition and the flavors are both deep and sophisticated"
X Link 2026-02-10T01:53Z [----] followers, 283.5K engagements
"In an age of strong AI you need to be thinking like an aristocrat. Aristocrats dont think about jobs. They dont go to university to acquire skills but to network and gain polish. They respect risk-taking but disparage grindset. They tend to be histrionic inconsistent and difficult to manage. They respect risk-taking and deal-making. This is a Lindy personality type that was selected against during the 20th century but will thrive under conditions of strong AI https://twitter.com/i/web/status/2021741171169472643 https://twitter.com/i/web/status/2021741171169472643"
X Link 2026-02-12T00:20Z [----] followers, 41.4K engagements
"This overlay shows how the new highway cut through existing infrastructure. [-----] people were displaced Its obviously awful but you need to put yourself in the context of the times. Car ownership was exploding and traffic was already terrible. Voters were thinking like drivers and demanding something be done. This was the solution. This is what you build when you think like a car Roads like this destroy the experience of the city but at the time city planners thought about cities as units of production and work. They werent so much considering the city as a city a place to live and recreate"
X Link 2026-02-15T18:34Z [----] followers, [----] engagements
"Trump is one of the last survivors of 20th century mass culture. Hes like an aging Hollywood superstar. He got big in the before times and has carried that over into our new kaleidoscopic information ecosystem Politics in the US is going to look different once Trump is out of office. Hes been the biggest thing in politics since the Obama birth certificate trutherism thing and everything since has basically been just commentary on this or that thing that Trump has said. He has phenomenal box office draw in a sense like no one before. But who comes after him Im not sure theres anyone. Of course"
X Link 2026-02-15T18:43Z [----] followers, 39.6K engagements
"The future of journalism is as a gumshoe not a writer. Almost newspaper articles can be - or soon will be - written by AI. What AI wont be able to do is talk to people. Develop sources. Get someone to reveal a confidence or take possession of classified that arent supposed to be released. Where the human element will continue to have value will be in judgement of what topics merit attention and also making legible offline information - whether in peoples heads or in databases not networked to the public internet - to the broader information ecosystem"
X Link 2026-02-16T00:29Z [----] followers, [---] engagements
"The following [--] industries will be extensively disrupted by AI over the following half-decade: journalism/media the computer industry itself and education It is a remarkable historical fact that journalism - the application interface layer in our industrial system of verbal production where ideas and concepts and events get translated and disseminated to the general public - has been so exposed to technological transformation over the past [--] decades. From advertising dollars transitioning to online in the 2000s to a cultural shift away from literacy to orality and visual media the last two"
X Link 2026-02-16T16:18Z [----] followers, [----] engagements
"It's Marvels Superheros all the way down; today we're all just actors There's a peculiar post-modern quality to many events these days. A sense that we perform history rather than act out (and in and on) history. The appearance that we curate our actions for our social media feeds rather than conducting ourselves for the sake of the act itself. Perhaps the truth is that we've internalized the camera the truest emblem of our present moment. We act to see ourselves acting rather than act in order to do. You see this in farces such as Prigozhin's pseudo-putsch and whatever Yoon attempted in"
X Link 2024-12-03T21:30Z [----] followers, 54.3K engagements
"The Pacific War is very interesting especially the Papua New Guinea battlefield (the peoples of the highlands were only discovered in the early 30s; a decade later the armies and air forces of two great powers fight across its length and breadth with each belligerent pouring hundreds of thousands of men into it) but not the most fascinating That accolade must go to the extraordinary collisions of Old World and New on the conquests of the Mexica and the Inca by the Spanish; nothing so sci fi has occurred since (perhaps) the great unrecorded conflict between Homo sapiens and Neanderthal in"
X Link 2026-02-10T01:49Z [----] followers, 275.5K engagements
"Its weird in person though. Theres alien little bugs flying through the air behind the athlete Makes sense because almost everyone views the Olympics on a screen but it makes the in-person event look worse Many things in the modern world are like this: optimizations for the remote experience at the cost of degrading the real physical event The Olympic drone pilots are the best thing that happened the games unsung heroes period. The coverage this year is officially on another level. We can finally feel so much closer to the action it's pure magic unreal. Is it just me or is this the best"
X Link 2026-02-10T15:46Z [----] followers, 272.6K engagements
"One profound change in American dog culture (and everywhere in the developed world probably) is that dog owners - sorry dog parents - no longer train their pets. At worst they scold them like toddlers to no effect. The dog is the real master. Then they panic and sign their beloved pet up to expensive classes get monitors like they would for a baby leave the TV get white noise machines etc etc. They organize their lives around serving this animal and accommodating its every whim. Very different from the past. I remember people walking around outside with rolled up newspapers or magazines and"
X Link 2026-02-12T18:59Z [----] followers, 164.9K engagements
"The two are undoubtedly connected. Becoming a top performer is so hard and so unlikely requiring so much discipline and focus and work that only self-interest and status-seeking can supply and sustain that level of motivation One reason why historically issues of public choice and import were thought best performed by disinterested elites who didnt have to concern themselves with gaining status or wealth Until youve read a few biographies or worked with one its hard to realize how hungry top performers are to win- yet most of their ambition is wasted on status or power seeking. If youre an"
X Link 2026-02-13T14:30Z [----] followers, 43.1K engagements
"Its unfortunate that Los Angeles is a 20th century city so it developed alongside the car Mediterranean climates are rare and LA is one place where they occur We could have built the American city of the Sun being sad in LA is so surreal bc I go on a walk and its [--] and looks like this outside https://t.co/BEKosQ6T2P being sad in LA is so surreal bc I go on a walk and its [--] and looks like this outside https://t.co/BEKosQ6T2P"
X Link 2026-02-14T18:58Z [----] followers, 521.8K engagements
"This is a common phenomenon in most of the developing world. Youll have some prestige projects with world class infrastructure in the capital city or business center and then in the countryside no electricity or running water Its really this contrast that you should primarily notice Just landed in Phnom Penh Cambodia for a first time visit in the country and I'm absolutely wowed by the airport. It's not just China: bit by bit the whole of Asia is getting world-class infrastructure. https://t.co/jL0Pgzikcr Just landed in Phnom Penh Cambodia for a first time visit in the country and I'm"
X Link 2026-02-14T19:34Z [----] followers, 389K engagements
"Very few tech people think about these issues in concrete ways. They tend to be very logical and first principles and that causes them to reach these strong conclusions that ignore real world practicalities For example specific to the professions accountability and the acceptance of liability alone will keep a man in the loop. Machines cannot be responsible or accountable. In positions of professional responsibility where you are accountable for your decisions a human being will long be necessary even if all technical decisions are made first by AI. You will need that sign off that official"
X Link 2026-02-14T20:03Z [----] followers, 12.6K engagements
"Only two European states the UK and France have the strategic culture that enables the exercise of power for reasons of state. The UK for its own reasons has chosen to position itself as an enabler of US interests (a flying buttress of the US-centric order if you will) France however has not. It has recognized the reality of the preponderance of US power within the West but has consistently maintained an arms-length relationship with DC. It is willing to cross the US on core issues (for example Iraq in 2003) which is not true of the UK. It also maintains independent strategic capacities"
X Link 2026-02-15T15:10Z [----] followers, 53.7K engagements
"All this has happened before. Think what will happen when we democratized all the worlds information through Google When we give everyone the same tools for word processing and publication that used to be owned by the major publishers No golden age emerged. We got better novels when they had to be written on typewriters. Public discourse was better informed when you had to find an encyclopedia to look up facts and send in your blogposts to your local newspaper hoping theyd get written up as letters to the editor There are a hundred million people on X. Hundreds of millions more on TikTok. All"
X Link 2026-02-15T15:23Z [----] followers, 120.4K engagements
"@Tacofridge One thing you notice in developing countries is that almost everyone has a hustle so you invariably encounter things exactly like this Another common one is for people to try to attach themselves to tasks you need to complete like buying tickets or whatever"
X Link 2026-02-15T15:52Z [----] followers, [---] engagements
"The favela is like the street dog of human architecture Its what naturally emerges in the absence of any sort of external controls"
X Link 2026-02-15T17:57Z [----] followers, [---] engagements
"The beginning stood out to me. Growing up in northern Illinois with very cold winters it was tropical islands of the South Pacific and far off rain forests and the steamy depths of of the Congo that fired my imagination Maybe much of life can be explained by seeking the opposite of your formative experiences For example small Midwestern towns are these very orderly low variance places and it is relative disorder and chaos that attracts me now An ode to Duluth -- A great American city https://t.co/XN5ZMjXQzw https://t.co/VLioMARQT0 An ode to Duluth -- A great American city"
X Link 2026-02-15T19:07Z [----] followers, [---] engagements
"The Victorians loved the redwood. They planted them in the hundreds of thousands across the UK and transformed the landscape for millennia into the future (giant sequoias can live [----] years or more) There are more redwoods now maybe 5x more in the UK than in California and are now a fully natural part of the landscape even though (technically) an invasive species (a concept which doesnt really mean much; a native species is just one that has become endemic in a given area) Giant Sequoia bark is designed to protect from fire & insect infestation It can be up to 2-3 feet thick & is spongy to"
X Link 2026-02-15T20:18Z [----] followers, 205.1K engagements
"The flooring here is especially gorgeous. The Francis I gallery here is an early example of a wood herringbone floor part of a long tradition of exceptional French parquetry Castillo de Fontainebleau Francia. Esa puerta es increblemente bella https://t.co/zaDM0x7zHY Castillo de Fontainebleau Francia. Esa puerta es increblemente bella https://t.co/zaDM0x7zHY"
X Link 2026-02-15T21:31Z [----] followers, [---] engagements
"Long term it is unhealthy for left wing politics if agentic action becomes associated with the right This is a good tweet though highlighting how our left-right spectrum has inverted with the left now more conservative (self-control in the mid-20th century would have coded as right wing) and the right relatively more activist and disruptive One of the weirdest developments ideologically is that following your insane id wherever it leads rather than imposing some pro-social self control is now somehow associated with conservatism One of the weirdest developments ideologically is that following"
X Link 2026-02-15T21:38Z [----] followers, [----] engagements
"Claude glasses are fascinating. Basically an 18th century version of an instagram filter It darkened and muted colors and reduced contrasts somewhat. It created a somewhat painterly or artistic effect that many people found very pleasing aesthetically They had WHAT in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries https://t.co/QcP35bLEYw They had WHAT in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries https://t.co/QcP35bLEYw"
X Link 2026-02-15T22:22Z [----] followers, [---] engagements
"Its interesting how many other societies even advanced ones didnt figure this out at all; China for example was very resistant to it until surprisingly late The Ancient Greeks had figured out that the Earth revolves around the Sun which is a star floating in empty space like all the others we can see back in 300-200 BC. They figured it out by looking at the sky for a long time and thinking really hard about it. The Ancient Greeks had figured out that the Earth revolves around the Sun which is a star floating in empty space like all the others we can see back in 300-200 BC. They figured it out"
X Link 2026-02-15T22:45Z [----] followers, [---] engagements
"Imagine living in NYC in [----]. Youre in the wealthiest city in the wealthiest country in all of history. The entire world is collapsing into war and insanity Only the US stands apart. The gap between which the US worked and the rest of the world just didnt was probably greater at this specific period than any other It must have been quite a feeling The Imperial City July [----] https://t.co/zRzZH0OqNL The Imperial City July [----] https://t.co/zRzZH0OqNL"
X Link 2026-02-16T00:07Z [----] followers, 686.5K engagements
"This is an extraordinary interview Obviously hes an actor but his diction the hand gestures the way he holds his body even the pace of his speech has a striking presence and formality to it. Rare today Also note his age: hes [--] here but doesnt look it really; Id put him at around a decade older 29yr old PETER OTOOLE in Spain discussing his preparation for a role that would turn him into an international star overnight as well as see him bag the first of [--] nominations for the Best Actor Oscar. LAWRENCE OF ARABIA (1962) https://t.co/LZ0AuW9zy7 29yr old PETER OTOOLE in Spain discussing his"
X Link 2026-02-16T02:56Z [----] followers, 147.8K engagements
"@SunBeltMindset Whats an example of one that youve liked"
X Link 2026-02-16T02:57Z [----] followers, [---] engagements
"When it comes to new technologies youve got to be thinking dumber Consider the phone. Everyones walking around with a supercomputer in their pocket and its used mostly to play Clash of Clans and watch TikToks What is the dumb application of AI Thats what I want to know. Thats where the money and the majority of user minutes will be Everyone else is out there wondering if they can get AI to write Shakespeare or invent new physics I want to learn what the best dumb uses for AI are https://twitter.com/i/web/status/2023361747269103994 https://twitter.com/i/web/status/2023361747269103994"
X Link 2026-02-16T11:40Z [----] followers, 110.8K engagements
"Very obvious where this is going (study Sulla). Social media bans for under 16s are only the beginning. Restrictions will be justified as much along anti-corruption lines (so much to work with here) as anything else possibly also environmental concerns as well Unions emerged as a market response to business and industrial power. There will be the equivalent in the 21st This idea that technology might float free of politics was a 90s dream that has been falsified by events. In truth it was the product of a series of historical contingencies that did not long survive including the happenstance"
X Link 2026-02-16T15:00Z [----] followers, [----] engagements
"This new Florentine apartment block provides a really clean contrast between traditional and modern styles of architecture : Dimensionality and depth versus smooth low resolution surfaces Warm versus cold Natural materials versus man-made Rational versus reductive or minimal Gulag https://t.co/lTIkkTprSj Gulag https://t.co/lTIkkTprSj"
X Link 2026-02-16T16:23Z [----] followers, [----] engagements
"The nation state will follow them just as the great European trading companies with East Asia like the VOC were creatures of the states that created and sponsored them. If you want to avoid the law youre better off staying on Earth and building a hut in Siberia or taking a boat around the South Pacific In space you are entirely dependent on very complicated technological systems that exist only with state level support Interestingly private companies might just bypass governments and nation states altogether by setting up their companies and offices in space Especially as taxes keep getting"
X Link 2026-02-12T02:27Z [----] followers, [----] engagements
"Elite Anglo professional spaces are largely sexless and this is what Epstein took full advantage of These scientists and businessmen that Epstein cultivated werent interested in him for his intelligence or his insights but his status: specifically his access to and authority over exploitable subservient women. Male status historically is tied to the ability to get or to control women and this is precisely what (psychologically) Epsteins network of male acquaintances felt they lacked. Many of them were or are intensely nerdy and were never successful with women in their personal lives. Its an"
X Link 2026-02-03T18:18Z [----] followers, 237.7K engagements
"Twitter attracts a lot of black pill types. Their content reflects this. The world is always getting worse. Maybe this is just inherent to the literary domain. Certainly it isnt unique to the modern era. But then go to YouTube. There are all these random accounts: heres one of a guy biking around obscure parts of Africa. Theres another one I watch of a bush pilot in Papua New Guinea. Etc. YouTube is where you find the you can just do things people. Its a meme on X but YouTube is where you find the actual doers https://twitter.com/i/web/status/2019448828915556641"
X Link 2026-02-05T16:31Z [----] followers, 76.7K engagements
"You can just live in permanent summer. December and January and February in Buenos Aires and Sydney and Cape Town June and July and August in the northern hemisphere. Just keep it moving Follow the Sun the great thing about Buenos Aires this time of the year is that its summer best weather ever https://t.co/ArLT9mP6S2 the great thing about Buenos Aires this time of the year is that its summer best weather ever https://t.co/ArLT9mP6S2"
X Link 2026-02-06T18:43Z [----] followers, 11.1K engagements
"Status is a funny thing Hes drives a taxi as his day job but hes got a big channel online and in a Michelin starred restaurant in New York City hes the one the chef comes out to meet There are probably people with 9-figure net worths in the dining room but hes the one with attention He makes great content too by the way Love this guy Hes a cab driver in NYC taking care of his mom He started reviewing Michelin star and famous restaurants as a normie last year dining alone last year to show you can treat yourself to these spots. He also goes to family run spots. Whats so cool is how many"
X Link 2026-02-08T03:15Z [----] followers, 722.4K engagements
"Millennial minimalism also known as refinement culture or the grey filter has come for the Olympics: this years design is the simplest in history (as well as massive at [---] grams of silver + 6g of gold for first place) This shift came relatively recently arguably with Beijing in [----] https://twitter.com/i/web/status/2020718082558234980 https://twitter.com/i/web/status/2020718082558234980"
X Link 2026-02-09T04:35Z [----] followers, 474.5K engagements
"Tom Hanks is great for this role because he looks like someone who plausibly could have been in WWII Compare this to the horrific Midway where the pilot played by Skrein looks like hes been juicing. People looked different back then but the modern style is heavily influenced by GWOT brain and special forces chic Filming for the #Greyhound sequel starring Tom Hanks and Stephen Graham is now underway It follows Krause and the Greyhoundcrew from the beaches of Normandy to the ocean in the Pacific as they help turn the tide of the war. https://t.co/pz2nilEFOl Filming for the #Greyhound sequel"
X Link 2026-02-10T23:33Z [----] followers, 73.1K engagements
"What job are waiters really performing Why do you frequently hear it repeated that a persons character is revealed by how they treat the waitstaff Waiters are not there primarily to take your order pour your wine or whatever. Instead they are there to enact a ritual of class hierarchy with you in the higher status position. This requires a human presence because you cant be superior to a machine. This is why all automated and self-service restaurants code as low class because by definition if you have nobody below you in status you are low class yourself. The waiter is a necessary element for"
X Link 2026-02-13T14:07Z [----] followers, 118.8K engagements
"$67k on alcohol for two months Under conditions of strong AI you need to be aristocrat-maxing Sociability networking - all things the upper class does in abundance relative to the middle class Whereas sleep score optimizing never letting a drop of alcohol pass your lips zero sugar no caffeine after [--] pm etc etc is anxious neurotic middle class type behavior: disciplined consistent conscientious grind set turning yourself into a machine Interesting look at how an ultra-wealthy family spends money- $72k on landscaping $67k in wine/liquor for [--] months $154M in cash earning nothing $484M loan"
X Link 2026-02-13T16:48Z [----] followers, 21.8K engagements
"This reminds me of the Agatha Christie memoir where she marvels that as a middle class person in the 1920s a live-in servant and caretaker for her baby were considered essential but a car was a luxury reversed for the wealthy I experienced this myself indirectly. I grew up in a house built in the 1920s by an heiress of some regional business fortune (supposedly vacuum cleaners). It had a floor entirely for servants to live in. You could tell because the ceilings were lower the rooms smaller and irregularly shaped and so forth. By the time my parents purchased it and we moved in (this was the"
X Link 2026-02-14T14:36Z [----] followers, 30.7K engagements
"@2024dion Wouldnt he need to change the law"
X Link 2026-02-14T19:19Z [----] followers, [---] engagements
"We may be seeing a really interesting civilizational divide emerging over how receptive different cultures are to AI image generation To me this clip doesnt look like cinema. It looks like pure slop. Its just a bunch of CGI pixels. But I dont think thats how this is received elsewhere Different cultures have different resonances with particular technological paradigms. As a result some cultures are better fit (in an evolutionary sense) for certain types of technology Some within China might respond really positively to AI You see the same as regards screens. Chinese consumers love screens."
X Link 2026-02-15T15:50Z [----] followers, 50.9K engagements
"@Empty_America Same as in Haiti. Modern day version of the Brooke family of Sarawak Fortes fortuna adiuvat; or who dares wins"
X Link 2026-02-15T17:52Z [----] followers, [--] engagements
"This is of a course a joke. This is the Queens Dairy and was built as a gift for Marie Antoinette in the late 1780s What is notable about this room is that it is fully modern. You can tell that a contemporary mind designed this and directed its construction. Theres a subversion quality here an irony that is immediately recognizable Also oddly prophetic the way the cool rationalism of the 18th century terminates in a ruction of stone and utter chaos The Prada Store in Forte dei Marmi Italy https://t.co/AAVogsolBw The Prada Store in Forte dei Marmi Italy https://t.co/AAVogsolBw"
X Link 2026-02-16T00:13Z [----] followers, 29.9K engagements
"Its much worse than this. If it was cost alone that could be solved. But the awful The Embrace sculpture in Boston was $10 million. The money is there. Its the culture you have to change. The taste element is whats missing. People want to commission this stuff. Thats the problem Because nobody wants to pay for it anymore. Michelangelo was paid today's equivalent of roughly $650000 $750000 USD for the Sistine Chapel ceiling which took over [--] years to complete. Leonardo da Vinci was paid today's equivalent of $110000$120000 USD per year and given Because nobody wants to pay for it anymore."
X Link 2026-02-16T15:17Z [----] followers, 81.5K engagements
"Once you remove the cars no one agitates to bring them back Getting to that stage is really hard though. Drivers are big constituency. In modern society a majority of voters think from a car-first perspective. So for a politician going up against this can seem like political suicide But it can be done Under Mayor Anne Hidalgo Paris has created nearly [---] rues aux coles in an effort to; improve air quality reduce crashes and give kids more safe spaces in their neighborhoods to walk bike play and just be kids. https://t.co/fHVggdKKsG Under Mayor Anne Hidalgo Paris has created nearly [---] rues"
X Link 2026-02-16T16:28Z [----] followers, [----] engagements
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