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We seek the safety of isolation even as it kills us.
it seems like the kind of thing you’d want to do some science on before you converted the entire economy to it.
Call me a pessimist, but I think if bigotry could be solved by access to more information, it would have been solved by now. Hate isn’t about a lack of understanding; it’s about hate.
Our reality isn’t about what’s real, it’s about what we pay attention to.”
economic anxiety just made people easier to manipulate.
The panopticon is inside you.”
There was only so far gorgeous views, a Peloton, and newly rekindled love could take you.
“Why is it just women in here?” “Oh, I dunno . . . Have you ever noticed how the Altus Space is largely about ‘intellectual debate’ and ‘self-improvement’ and porn? Jesus, dude, you’re supposed to be an expert on this stuff. Have you never noticed who your audience is?”
Dystopian shit? Maybe. But also, who needs a house anymore anyway?
I think that happiness is very important. But I will also say that the most effective people I know are not the happiest, and there is something to be said for effectiveness.
People would remain free to continue the beautifully stupid endeavor of humanity,
The point is, if you want to be happy, let go of your wants. If you want to be effective, harness them.
So, I’m sorry this has been a rough time. Remember that music brings you joy, that making a podcast with Jason brings you joy, that playing games with friends brings you joy.
You will always struggle with not feeling productive until you accept that your own joy can be something you produce. It is not the only thing you will make, nor should it be, but it is something valuable and beautiful.
“You’re really weird.” “Oh well! It’s time to go anyway,”
There are no great men, only moments when power is unleashed, and then dicks like you turn theft and murder from taboos into tools.
“What are you?” Peter said, his voice quavering. “Ugh,” I said, standing up, “I wish I knew.”
“Fuck ethics. Fuck morals. Altus is the future. Governments are over.” He looked so little and unimportant, with his Caribbean tan and his business casual attire.
“Power is nothing but ability without restriction.
Today, power has organized itself in our hands instead of yours. That doesn’t mean something broke, it means you were never right. It is neither just nor unjust, it is just what happened. And you can rationalize it however you want, but it happened. You lost.”
“I chose you as host, but you were not the reason for the successes.” I waited for more, but Carl apparently wanted me to ask. “Who was it, then?” “I love you.” The words seemed so careful. “You are so . . . human. You still think it had to be someone. It wasn’t anyone, it was all of you.”
belonging is just mutual appreciation of shared identity.
Power concentrates naturally, but that concentration is, by itself, a problem.
The most impactful thing you can do with power is almost always to give it away.
I loved to watch you. I loved to learn about you. I loved loving you.
You’re radically collaborative, profoundly empathetic, and deeply communal. Everyone who tells you anything different is selling the fear that is the only thing that can break that nature. They do that because it turns people into devices. My only advice: Never do that to another person, and do not let anyone do it to you.
These algorithms are already programming society. And the question that we now have to ask is, what happens when they realize it? What happens when one person, or a small group of people, motivated primarily by the need to get their stock price to go up, realize that they have the power to program a society?
Somehow she made me feel human, and that is, I’ve learned, one of the very best things to be.