Alexander Jablokov's Blog, page 9

A few podcasts I like

One of the most influential cultural figures in my (part of) my world is Mike Duncan. Duncan pioneered a deeply researched, perceptive, snarky style for presenting longform history podcasts in the History of Rome, and then in Revolutions.

The first history podcaster with a high profile was probably Lars Brownsworth with his Twelve Byzantine Rulers, many years ago, but I think it took Duncan to really show how a regular person, working hard, could do it.

Robin Pierson, with his imposing The Hi...

The saving remnant

Before the election I worried that Clinton's victory would enable the Left to continue to ignore the consequences of its intellectual bankruptcy, failure to engage with the real problems facing our civilization, and insular self-satisfaction.

Well, Clinton didn't win, but that didn't make any difference to my prediction. The Left really does seem intent on ignoring these things, focusing, instead, on our new President's (many and real) personal failings, a total nonstarter as either a politic...

My anti-akrasia tools III: credible commitment to long-term goals

Worthwhile long-term goals, whether losing weight, learning a foreign language, or becoming the kind of person who writes blog posts consistently, are the product of small, incremental, consistent decisions. If you're the kind of person who can intuitively translate a distant large goal into a sequence of immediate, small actions, I am jealous of you.

For the rest of us, there is Beeminder.

I used to scoff at Beeminder when I would see it promoted in the right sidebar of Slate Star Codex: set...

T. S. Eliot explains fake news

"Fake news" is all the rage. This isn't about the various news outlets getting gamed about the motivations for the Iraq War, or any of the other way reporters get misled. This really does seem a type of precisely machine product intended for a specific use.

But what is that use? One of my favorite podcasts, Planet Money, recently had a segment about fake news. They tracked down and interviewed a guy who seems to make his living generating fake news, employing a number of freelancers. He inven...

In praise of slow media

After the election, I decided to take some time off from up-to-the-minute news. I paused my New York Times delivery (yes, sonny, I do still read ink on paper, want to make something of it?), cut down on blog reading, and stuck to the Economist, The New York Review of Books, and a few other journals. And books. Remember those?

And, after a few weeks, there are a couple of weekly podcasts I have resumed.

So what's been going on? I know there have been tweets. One of the TVs by the squat racks a...

My anti-akrasia tools II: to-do lists and next actions

Task management: Toodledo

There are various arguments against the whole concept of a "to do" list, and some are pretty persuasive. Still, if I don't have tasks written down and in a place I can find easily, I will forget them. For this, I use Toodledo.

There are a variety of to do list apps, of course. I don't classify things much, I don't have levels of criticality, and I like things simple. I like opening up my phone and seeing what things I decided (at some point) needed doing. By me.

I am...

My anti-akrasia tools I: minimizing distraction

My name is Alex, and I am a procrastinator. I avoid emotionally charged, tiresome, or long-term tasks, and have bad emotional relationships with them. When I am avoiding an important task, I am easily distracted.

"Akrasia" is the term us fancy-ass people use for when we deliberately and knowingly act against our own best judgment. It's from ancient Greek, and so gives our blog-post reading a retrospective air of classical severity.

I'm not alone in being a procrastinator, certainly, but I do...

Hiding out, educating myself about the (possible) apocalypse

As I mentioned in my last post, I am busy trying to learn about political theory, something that has not exercised my mind much previously. But I suddenly see all that is solid melting into air (and, yes, I am quoting the Communist Manifesto, why do you ask?) and realize that my default assumption that the system that made us all rich, secure, and long-lived will continue for the forseeable future, is completely unwarranted.

I've not become a prepper, or anything like that. In fact, I suspect...

Getting into political theory

I've never been taken any classes in political theory. Or political practice, for that matter. How polities are best structured, what institutions help make you rich, what other ones lead to stagnation or eternal conflict, how even originally good institutions decay over time, what makes people accept a government as legitimate, how people can take the stability of their society for granted until it all dissoves around them....

Well, for some reason, I am thinking about those things now. My c...

One unsurprising election result: Washington rejects carbon tax

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about Washington state's proposed carbon tax. Short summary: an attempt at trying a revenue-neutral carbon tax was strenuously opposed by most environmental groups because it didn't pay enough attention to social justice issues.

This was in addition to the Koch Brothers and various energy-intensive industries. The initiative went down to defeat, with only 42 percent voting in support.

Needless to say, I am disappointed. The measure seemed reasonable, well-thought...