Why subscribe?
There are a lot of great ideas floating around out there, many generated by academic researchers and other learned folks. But, most of these ideas are relatively impenetrable to the rest of us. I support open access and open science, but being able to read high value scholarship is only step one. Step two is making it readable.
A lifetime of doing battle with anonymous peer reviewers makes a suit of armor reasonable attire I suppose. Still, most published scholarship has a Morgan Freeman voice-of-God flavor to the presentation. Being right seems like the most important thing.
That is not very helpful in moving the world forward.
To find better answers, we have to actually exchange ideas. When I coach young ball players I often say that the purpose of throwing a ball is so someone else can catch it. So to, the purpose of sharing an idea is so someone else can think broadly about society unconstrained by the aspirational status of the speaker.
You might find a little bit of news in this newsletter—but only as context. You will find a spirit of gentle provocation but no memes. And there’s a bit of the scientific method but centered on humility. Henri Poincare, the 19th century French philosopher, noted that the scientific method does not allow for proof, about anything. When one alternative hypothesis is rejected, there remain an infinite number of other alternative hypotheses to test against. The process is timeless, without an end.
So then, the objective is not proof, but discovery.
Joan Didion said, “I write entirely to find out what I'm thinking, what I'm looking at, what I see and what it means.” Essays are just a medium to have a conversation with yourself. The most satisfying art is full of surprises. And wonder. And grace.
I hope you find some here and I hope will find this newsletter interesting.
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As another old saying goes, once you write something, it is no longer yours, it is fully owned by the readers. So have at it.
