Books
- Ellsberg, The Doomsday Machine. Pretty good, scary.
- Kwak, Economism. Not ideal, but still: many people need to read an economics 101 textbook, and many other people need to read Economism.
- Simler & Hanson, The Elephant in the Brain. Pretty great, especially given the authors’ own caveat that “we are no doubt wrong in many places, not just in the details, but also in some larger conclusions” and that “to demonstrate that hidden motives are common and important” they “don’t need to be right about everything.” Though I wish it was more clearly flagged that one key reason much of the book is likely wrong is just that the underlying research is false, as must be true for ~all books summarizing large amounts of “soft” science.
- Caplan, The Case Against Education. I read about half. I don’t know much about the research in this area but I personally find the “mostly signaling” model more intuitive than the alternatives. A good example of synthesizing important relevant data from multiple fields (not just from economics).
- Pinker, Enlightenment Now. Generally pretty good. I disagree with the section on existential risks and AI, and I disagree with Pinker’s weird transcendental argument in favor of humanism, and I’m less confident in humanism’s role in human progress than Pinker seems to be, and his account of “the Enlightenment” is inaccurately clean & rosy, and some his data are exaggerated and cherry-picked, but shrug, I generally agree with most of the book, and with the overall thesis about human history. Pinker also skips over the history of likely-sentient animal welfare, but at least he tweeted Jacy Reese’s essay about that.
- Sowell, The Thomas Sowell Reader. I read this on Pinker’s recommendation of Sowell in general. These short essays didn’t exhibit much of anything special. Maybe he’s more impressive in longer formats.
- Pillsbury, The Hundred-Year Marathon. I found it pretty informative, but I’m still far too much a China novice to know whether Pillsbury’s overall take is more reasonable than the other high-level takes I’ve read.
- Rid, Rise of the Machines. Fine, I guess.
Music
Music I most enjoyed discovering this quarter:
- Rubblebucket: Survival Sounds (2014)
- Hammock: Mysterium (2017)
- Weaves: Wide Open (2017)
- Pryapisme: Hyperblast Super Collider (2013), Diabolicus Felinae Pandemonium (2017) [wow!]
- Ex Eye: Ex Eye (2017)
- Kashiwa Daisuke: Re:RED (2017)
- Arrigo Barnabé: Clara Crocodilo (1980)
- Flat 122: The Waves (2005)
- Nils Frahm: All Melody (2018)
- Snarky Puppy: We Like It Here (2014), and especially this keyboard solo [wow!]
- Son Lux: Brighter Wounds (2018)
- Wacław Zimpel & Kuba Ziołek: Zimpel/Ziołek (2017)
- Daniel Hart: A Ghost Story (2017)
- Ulver: Blood Inside (2005), The Assassination of Julius Caesar (2017)
- Vitor Araújo: Levaguiã Terê (2016)
- A.A.L. (Against All Logic): 2012-2017 (2018)
- Superorganism: Superorganism (2018)
- inside//outside: inside//outside (2013)
- Adam Neely: Exigence (2015)
- Olli Hirvonen: New Helsinki (2017)
- Sunwatchers: II (2018)
Movies/TV
Ones I “really liked” (no star), or “loved” (star):
- Benson & Moorhead: Resolution (2012)
- Gertwig: Lady Bird (2017) ★
- Gillespie: I, Tonya (2017) ★
- Pesce: The Eyes of My Mother (2016)
- Zahler: Brawl in Cell Block 99 (2017)
- Safdie brothers: Good Time (2016)
- Lehmann: Blue Jay (2016)
- Soderbergh: Mosaic (2018)
- Wright: Baby Driver (2017)
- McDonagh: Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017) ★
- Vigalondo: Colossal (2016)
- Reeves: War for the Planet of the Apes (2017) ★
- Soderbergh: Logan Lucky (2017) ★
- Anderson: Phantom Thread (2017)
- Various: Top of the Lake, Season 2 (2017)
- Richards: Pushed to the Edge (2016)
- Iannucci: The Death of Stalin (2017) ★
- Franco: The Disaster Artist (2017) ★
- Baker: The Florida Project (2017) ★
Games
Ones I “really liked” (no star), or “loved” (star):
- Skyrim
- Stardew Valley
- Rayman Legends
- Celeste ★