Luke Muehlhauser

Media diet for Q3 2018

by

Books

  • Lukianoff & Haidt, The Coddling of the American Mind. Only adds a bit beyond the article, mostly additional horror stories that have occurred in the meantime, and precious little data. I’m broadly sympathetic to their concerns but hardly convinced.
  • Several books by Thomas Sowell. I do like him better in longform than shortform. In general I like his “basic economics applied to X” and “bunch of facts you didn’t know” books more than his “my rambly theory of culture” books (e.g. Conflict of Visions). His style is fun and easy to read but his analyses aren’t systematic/rigorous and so it’s often hard to know how much to trust the conclusions. He’s an economist, but in his books he writes like a historian (e.g. ~no identification strategy).

Music

Spotify playlist for the albums and tracks on Spotify here.

Music I most enjoyed discovering this quarter:

Had completely forgotten about, now rediscovered and really liked:

Why so many re-discoveries this quarter? I’m listening through the history of rock music again and constructing this playlist along the way. Many great albums aren’t listed above because I hadn’t forgotten about them. 🙂

Movies/TV

Ones I “really liked” (no star), or “loved” (star):

  • Finley: Thoroughbreds (2017)
  • Bird: Incredibles 2 (2018) ★
  • Way & Way: Wild Wild Country (2018)
  • Daley & Goldstein: Game Night (2018)
  • Swanberg: Easy, season 1 (2016)
  • Swanberg: Easy, season 2 (2017)
  • Burnham: Eighth Grade (2018) ★
  • Aster: Hereditary (2018)
  • Kargl: Angst (1983)
  • Benson & Moorhead: The Endless (2017)
  • Various: Adventure Time, Season 10 (2017-2018) ★
  • Fukunaga: Maniac (2018) ★

Games

Ones I “really liked” (no star), or “loved” (star):

  • [none]

Old favorites

Discovered long ago…

  • Book: Modern Principles of Microeconomics by Tyler Cowen & Alex Taborrok
  • Music: Absolution by Muse
  • Movie/TV: Charade by Stanley Donen
  • Game: MESH Hero by Everett Kaser

Comments

  1. Quite a lot of italian authors in that list! Expecially impressed by Aria by Alan Sorrenti, even in italy no one knows that (Alan Sorrenti is still famous for dance-pop music he made after those prpf rock albums). Do you understand/speak italian?

  2. Nobody ever mentions Shawn Phillips. Still spin Patti Smith’s Radio Ethiopia now and again.

  4. Was reading your blog and wondered if you’ve ever thought about Paul Ewald’s new germ theory hypothesis. Seems very neglected. I also sent a FB message which this comment makes redundant. Big thanks for all your work! More info: facebook dot com/groups/144017955332?view=permalink&id=10160936645650333&refid=12

  5. It would be useful if you would list the titles of the books by Sowell that you are recommending: ‘the “basic economics applied to X” and “bunch of facts you didn’t know” books’. I’ve read several of his books, and have been in general very disappointed, but I would give him another try if you could be more specific.

  6. Hey again. I was wondering if there was anything to update on that awesome lesswrong post – The Best Textbooks on Every Subject?

    Thanks.

  7. Oh wow! A fellow Brand X fan!

    I used to devour their albums – alongside early Yes, Focus and other prog-rock and jazz-rock bands
    in my 70s teens.

    Then – after graduating – having discovered Weather Report and Chick Corea – i ended up in the 80s movie onto modern jazz and fusion – and never looked back!

    Will be checking out the rest of the list – much of which ( i’m ashamed to say ) I’ve not heard of.