First Derivative [14]
Nietzschean friendship—epigenetics—greek tragedy—AI—populism—blockchain—world trade—Snapchat—Democrats—SJW
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‘ In the arts we always admire new and different ways of representing the world and expressing ourselves: we admire the artists whose work differs significantly from the work of those around them. It is on such values that Nietzsche wants to…
The Science of Identity and Difference
On October 6, 1942, my mother was born twice in Delhi. Bulu, her identical twin, came first, placid and beautiful. My mother, Tulu, emerged several minutes later, squirming and squalling. The midwife must have known enough about infants to…
An educational and accessible piece on epigenetics by one of my favorite writers in the genre—TK
U.S. Veterans Use Greek Tragedy to Tell Us About War
The ancient Greeks didn't go to the theater just to be entertained. Aristotle believed that audiences saw themselves reflected in tragic characters and that the very act of watching a character's downfall helped purge them of emotions like pity and…
“The first time I heard Ajax’s speech, it knocked me back in my chair,” said Jeff Hall, a retired Army commander from Oklahoma who struggled with depression and suicidal thoughts after returning from Iraq. “It was me...'
Systems of Intelligence: Is this the VC meta-thesis we've been looking for?
This weekend, I saw a tweet by Semil Shah that pointed me at a recent blog post by Jerry Chen, a partner at Greylock. In the post, Jerry lays out a thesis that “Systems of Intelligence” are the next defensible business…
A follow up to the piece I had in last week's newsletter, Jerry Chen's 'The New Moats'. This piece builds on specifically what attributes of SoI can be barriers to entry, something that I felt Chen's piece didn't really address. Room to build on this.—TK
Blockchains are the new Linux, not the new Internet
Cryptocurrencies are booming beyond belief. Bitcoin is up sevenfold, to $2,500, in the last year. Three weeks ago the redoubtable Vinay Gupta, who led Ethereum's initial release, published an essay entitled “What Does Ether At $100…
Blockchain is going to be important, but maybe not in the way we think it will—TK
As you probably know, the leader of the free world thinks most of it has been getting a free lunch: One of the more consistent refrains from President Trump is that the U.S.-led world order, in place since the end of World War II, just might not be…
If you're interested, I recommend Daniel Yergin's The Prize which is a long history of oil and, a little more exciting, one of my fav movies, Syriana, which is a geopolitical thriller starring George Clooney.—TK
Before I make a product-driven case for Snap Inc. achieving a $100 billion market cap by 2020, I should note that I've been a Snapchat bear for much of the company's existence. That guy at the water cooler scoffing at Evan Spiegel for turning down…
I'm not a buyer of Snapchat at this price (or when it IPO'd but I do think it's future potential is underestimated, despite the very real threat from Facebook—TK
The blasphemy case against Bret Weinstein, and its four lessons for professors
In the wake of the violence at Middlebury and Berkeley, and in the aftermath of the faculty mob that coalesced to condemn gender studies professor Rebecca Tuvel, many commentators have begun analyzing the new campus culture of intersectionality as…
The campaign of 2016 was an education in the deep problems facing the country. Angry voters made a few things abundantly clear: that modern democratic capitalism is not working for them; that basic institutions like the family and communities are…
The Democrats Need a New Message
The story of Greg Gianforte, a fiend who just wiped out a Democrat in a congressional race about ten minutes after being charged with assaulting a reporter, is déjà vu all over again. How low do you have to sink to lose an election in…