Writing & Ideas
Thinking out loud
Three essays on Tocqueville's Democracy in America, written for a seminar with philosopher Jonathan Bi.
- Essay 1
Capitalism & Entrepreneurship
Why equality makes people restless: we compare ourselves to those nearly identical to us, so the gap always shows. Connects Tocqueville's "industrial aristocracy" to today's gig economy and tech billionaires.
Read the essay → - Essay 2
Education & Creativity
Why a society that prizes independent thinking can end up conforming to the majority, and Tocqueville's warning about keeping the formula but losing the understanding behind it. Includes a reflection on my own school.
Read the essay → - Essay 3
AI & Tech
Tocqueville's "soft despotism," a gentle power that takes away "the trouble of thinking," applied to AI and recommendation algorithms. Is AI like GPS, freeing our attention, or is it directing what we do with it?
Read the essay →
“I do not fear that in their chiefs they will find tyrants, but rather schoolmasters.”
Questions I’m working on
- Can trust be taught, or only earned? If a child sees one promise kept, will they wait longer next time?
- What happens to our preferences when machines make our choices for us?
- How do you design a place so that neighbors run into each other?
- Where does originality come from? Ada Lovelace wrote that the engine "has no pretensions whatsoever to originate anything." Would she still think so?
Things I believe
- Waiting is only smart when you trust the future.
- A society that only consumes forgets it is capable of creating.
- Removing the friction is easy, but sometimes it removes a piece of yourself.
Words that are fun to say
- Kerfuffle
- Bamboozle
- Lollygag
- Flibbertigibbet
- Discombobulate
- Hullabaloo
- Gobbledygook
- Skedaddle
- Persnickety
- Cattywampus
- Brouhaha
- Snickerdoodle
- Shenanigans
- Collywobbles
- Gallivant
- Bumfuzzle
- Doohickey
- Rigmarole
- Whippersnapper
- Wishy-washy
- Higgledy-piggledy
- Mellifluous
- Serendipity
- Petrichor(the smell of rain on dry earth)
- Susurrus(a soft whispering sound)
- Kumquat
- Pamplemousse(French for grapefruit)
- Bodacious
- Malarkey
- Codswallop