Subject
20 entries
Philosophy
Bookmarks
The Best General Advice on Earth: William James on Habit
James Somers on William James's core advice about habit formation — that the key to changing your life is acting immediately on any resolution, not waiting for the right moment. A short but pointed piece that cuts through the modern productivity genre.
From Prompt Alchemy to Prompt Engineering: Analytic Augmentation
An essay arguing for 'analytic augmentation' — using structured logical reasoning and philosophical method to improve LLM prompts, moving from intuitive prompt tweaking (alchemy) to principled prompt design (engineering). Connects formal reasoning frameworks to practical prompt construction.
40 Useful Concepts You Should Know
Gurwinder's collection of 40 named cognitive and philosophical concepts — from Chesterton's Fence to the Dunning-Kruger effect — curated for practical use in reasoning and decision-making. A broadly useful reference for anyone building a personal mental model library.
AI and I: The Age of Artificial Creativity
A NessLabs essay on what AI creative tools mean for human creativity and knowledge work — arguing that AI doesn't replace creativity but reshapes what creative work consists of. Published at the start of the generative AI wave in late 2022.
Nietzsche's Three Metamorphoses of the Spirit
An explainer on Nietzsche's Three Metamorphoses of the Spirit from Thus Spoke Zarathustra: camel (burden-bearing), lion (freedom-seeking), child (creative affirmation). One of Nietzsche's most accessible and structurally elegant metaphors for personal transformation.
Reinventing Organizations: Fundamental Assumptions
The Reinventing Organizations wiki introduces Frederic Laloux's developmental model of organizations — the 'Teal' paradigm of self-management, wholeness, and evolutionary purpose as the successor to traditional hierarchical management.
The Bitter Lesson
Rich Sutton's 2019 essay arguing that the dominant lesson from 70 years of AI research is that general methods leveraging computation always win over human-engineered knowledge — a humbling argument against clever domain-specific tricks. One of the most cited and debated essays in ML.
Genius of the Modern World — Karl Marx (BBC Documentary)
BBC documentary on Karl Marx from the 'Genius of the Modern World' series. Three-part series covering Marx's life, his theory of historical materialism, and the contested legacy of his ideas in capitalism, communism, and labor movements.
Community Reads — Kernel Fellowship
Kernel's curated reading list for their web3 education fellowship — books and articles spanning cryptography, economics, philosophy, and internet culture that form the intellectual foundation for thinking about decentralized systems.
Six Ways to Think Long-Term: A Cognitive Toolkit for Good Ancestors
The Long Now Foundation's synthesis of six cognitive tools for long-term thinking — from the Cathedral Thinking of medieval builders to the Seventh Generation principle of Indigenous governance. A toolkit for expanding temporal perspective in decisions.
How to Do Nothing
Jenny Odell's EYEO Festival essay on resisting the attention economy — arguing that doing nothing is an act of political resistance, not laziness. Later expanded into a book that became a touchstone for tech workers questioning the value of constant productivity.
The Three Cultures of Machine Learning
Jason Eisner's JHU tutorial describing three distinct cultures within machine learning — the statistical/probabilistic, the algorithmic/computational, and the geometric/optimization traditions. Useful framing for understanding why ML researchers sometimes talk past each other.
Tim Eller on Getting Your Hands Dirty With Data
Tweet from SFDataScience meetup capturing Tim Eller's point about the importance of working directly with data — the 'hands dirty' ethos that no algorithm knowledge replaces intimate familiarity with a specific dataset.
Emma Goldman: Was My Life Worth Living?
Emma Goldman's 1934 essay 'Was My Life Worth Living?' — a reflection on a life of radical activism, imprisonment, and exile. Goldman's answer is an unqualified yes: a life in service of ideas worth dying for is worth more than comfort.
Automated Science, Deep Data, and the Paradox of Information
Oscillatory Thoughts blog post on the paradox of automated science and deep data — arguing that as data volumes grow and pattern detection automates, we risk producing empirical findings we can't explain or falsify. A philosophical challenge to data-driven science.
In Praise of Idleness
Bertrand Russell's 1932 essay arguing that four hours of work per day is sufficient for a good society, and that the cult of work is a moral holdover from a class structure that needed laborers to stay busy. One of the clearest critiques of the work ethic ever written.
Progress of Happiness — Can Duruk
Can Duruk's essay on the relationship between progress and happiness — arguing that the feeling of moving forward matters more than arrival at any particular destination. A short meditation on motivation and satisfaction.
Why Go Out?
Sheila Heti's short essay for Brick Magazine on why one goes out into the world — the tension between the pull of solitude and creative work versus the need for contact, accident, and friction with other people. A precise articulation of a creative person's ambivalence about social life.
The World Reacting to a New Perspective: Neil deGrasse Tyson
A video compilation of the world reacting to a new perspective — featuring Neil deGrasse Tyson's reflection on how the Apollo program's Earthrise photos changed humanity's self-conception. Bookmarked with the #Penny4NASA campaign hashtag, advocating for NASA budget restoration.
Do What You Love
Michael Abrash's post on joining Valve and the 'do what you love' principle — a meditation on how career satisfaction relates to craft mastery rather than passion alone. Written just as Abrash joined Valve from Intel after years in graphics programming.