Topic
history
- Mores, then laws, then geography
But the strongest prop of American order, Tocqueville found, was their body of moral habits. āI here mean the term āmoresā (moeurs) to have its original Latin meaning; I mean it to apply not only to āmoeursā in the stā¦
- Scruton Inheritance
We do not merely study the past: we inherit it, and inheritance brings with it not only the rights of ownership, but the duties of trusteeship. Things fought for & died for should not be idly squandered. For they areā¦
- Gratitude on the 4th of July
My latest post on the importance of remembering what makes the American flavor of independence unique: Something unique about the American Founders' flavor of revolution was that it was the first (only?) of the revoluā¦
- Past, Present, and Future
Here's a useful way of thinking about the domains of our three branches of government, from Yuval Levin's American Covenant: It is only a slight exaggeration to say that the Congress is expected to frame for the futurā¦
- We Live Like Royalty and Don't Know It
Charles Mann on the unseen, unappreciated wonders of modern infrastructure: The great European cathedrals were built over generations by thousands of people and sustained entire communities. Similarly, the electric grā¦
- Western Electric Plant
Western Electric Plant. Cicero, IL. Western Electric was the captive equipment arm of the Bell System and produced the majority of the telephones and related equipment used in the U.S. for almost 100 years.
- Bell Telephone System
Map of the Bell Telephone System , 1909.
- Bird Absolutely Locked In
Bird absolutely locked in. Charlie Parker and Tommy Potter, 1947.
- The Count And The Duke
The Count and the Duke. Count Basie and Duke Ellington.
- Diagram Of A Warship
Diagram of a warship. From the CyclopƦdia , 1728.
- Temple Des Eaux
Temple des Eaux. Zaghouan, Tunisia. Built by the Romans to supply the city of Carthage with water from its sacred spring. Visited in 2014.
- James Murray
The circle of the English language has a well-defined centre, but no discernible circumference. āJames Murray)
- Subterranean Monolithic Church Of Saint Jean
In 2016 we visited Aubeterre in south France. This was inside of the subterranean monolithic Church of Saint-Jean , hollowed out of the mountainside in the 7th century.
- Heliopolis
Heliopolis , from Description de l'Ćgypte , 1809.
- Bezoars And Goa Stones
I just learned aboutbezoars andGoa stones (a man-made form of bezoar). Itās a chunk of aggregated minerals, seeds, piths, and other indigestible material that forms in the intestinal system of animals. People would shā¦
- WrocÅaw Cathedral
The interior of WrocÅaw Cathedral , Poland. Built in 1272.
- Chillon Castle
Chillon Castle , island fortress on Lake Geneva, Switzerland. The building originally dates to the 11th century, but thereās evidence the Romans had forts on the small island a millennium earlier. Itās functioned as fā¦
- Bonaparte Before The Sphinx
Bonaparte Before the Sphinx. Jean-LƩon GƩrƓme, 1886.
- The Central Pangean Mountains
TheCentral Pangean Mountains. If you go back to the Permian, youād find the Appalachians, Massif Central, Atlas Mountains, and Scottish Highlands were all part of a single range cutting through the Pangean supercontinā¦
- Europe And Its Fragmented City State Landscape Of
Europe and its fragmented city-state landscape of 1444. See the full, zoomable hi-res version.
- Lucernes KappelbrĆ¼cke Chapel Bridge Was Built In 1360
LucerneāsKappelbrĆ¼cke (Chapel Bridge) was built in 1360. I got to walk across when I visited in 2014. Switzerland is like a 2-sided time warp: part medieval village, part urban futurescape.
- Monthly Reading, August 2023
This post appeared in issue #36 of my newsletter, Res Extensa, where I write about the intersection of product design, bottoms-up systems, innovation, and what we can learn from the history of technology. I'd love itā¦
- The Vesuvius Challenge
Dr. Brent Seales, Nat Friedman, and Daniel Gross have launched a challenge: develop a computer vision algorithm to read and decode the Herculaneum scrolls. Some background: In Herculaneum, twenty meters of hot mud andā¦
- Anachronistic History
I asked ChatGPT: Write about some creative anachronistic historical events. The results don't disappoint. Every single one is gold, big-budget film caliber material we got here. Scroll down and enjoy... Marco Polo's Tā¦
- Areopagus
If you don't follow Cultural Tutor on Twitter, I'd highly recommend. One of the few threadposters who consistently sends me down unrequested-but-fascinating rabbit holes. Architecture, classical history, music, art āā¦
- Ancient Greek Terms
From Classical Wisdom, a list of terms from Ancient Greek we should restore to use. A couple of goodies: Phronesis (Greek: ĻĻĻĪ½Ī·ĻįæĻ) Phronesis is a type of wisdom or intelligence. It is more specifically a type of wisā¦
- The Rest Is History Podcast
Recently I've been thoroughly enjoying Tom Holland's Dominion, his epic history of Christianity and its influence on western culture. It's one of the most interesting (and well-written) works of history I've read in sā¦
- Lessons from the Invention of the Thermometer
This piece from Anton Howes gets at one of the key insights about how innovation works: it doesn't happen through sudden bursts of insight from thin air ā it requires the combination of the right simmering ingredientsā¦
- Popper on Great Man Theory
This just showed up in my Readwise highlights today, from Karl Popper's The Open Society and its Enemies: It springs rather from my conviction that, if our civilization is to survive, we must break with the habit of dā¦
- Regionalizing Renewable Energy
With the ongoing energy crisis happening in Europe, Anton Howes has some interesting ideas on how the Euro nations could convert the short-term pains of fossil fuel shortfall into a long-term surplus based on a mix ofā¦
- Maxis 1996 Annual Report
Sam Arbesman shared this post in his newsletter ā highlights from Maxis's annual letter (the makers of SimCity, the Sims, SimEarth, SimTower, etc.). As much as it seems like the simulation tech Maxis developed over thā¦
- David McCullough Dies at 89
Historian David McCullough died last week at age 89. If you've never read his work, it's some of the best, most readable and engaging history you can find. I've read a few of his books over the years, like The Great Bā¦
- The Kalevala and the Underworld
I just finished Robert Macfarlane's Underland, a book about all things "underworld" ā catacombs, cave exploration, underground rivers, tree root networks, and geologic time. He ties these stories together with historiā¦
- Visa: The Original Protocols Business
This was the first episode I've listened to of Patrick O'Shaughnessy's new podcast "Business Breakdowns". He and Alex Rampell dive deep on the history of Visa and its unique business model. Alex saw Visa's business fiā¦
- Hardcore Software
Steven Sinofsky is writing a book on his time at Microsoft and the rise of the PC. He joined Microsoft during its ascendancy in 1989, starting as a software engineer and moving up to leading product on Office for mostā¦
- Weekend Reading: Digital Librarians, Tech Trees, and Alternate Histories in Maps
š Chief Notion Officer Julian Lehr is onto something here. All modern organizations are plagued with a problem of managing internal documentations. We have ample tools and keep squishing the problem from one place toā¦
- A Reverse Dunkirk
In Erik Larson's book The Splendid and the Vile, he tells the story of Britain during the Blitz of 1940-41. In May of 1940, a strategic lapse by the Germans allowed the British to evacuate 330,000 Allied soldiers fromā¦
- Weekend Reading: Non-Experts, Non-Linear Innovation, and We Were Builders
šØāš» The Rise of the Non-Expert Expert Vicki Boykis on the impossibility of true breadth and depth of technical expertise: What used to distinguish senior people from junior people was the depth of knowledge they hadā¦
- Weekend Reading: American Growth, JTBD, and Dissolving the Fermi Paradox
š Summary of The Rise and Fall of American Growth Concise summary of Robert Gordon's book on Roots of Progress. šØš»āš« Guide to Jobs to be Done Interviews A solid comprehensive, step-by-step overview of how to conduā¦
- Intellectual Value
Investor Esther Dyson published this piece in her Release 1.0 newsletter in 1994. It's a look forward at what the market for content and digital goods with the rise of the internet. These were the days of CompuServe aā¦
- Progress is Not Automatic
One of the key insights coming out of the progress studies movement seems like a simple idea on the surface, but it's an important core thesis: that progress is not an inevitability. We don't see new inventions, innovā¦
- Building a State
Historian Anton Howes on the push/pull dynamics between monarchs and parliaments, and the gradual building of state capacity in 16th century Britain. Itās easy to imagine that governments were always as bureaucratic aā¦
- The Rise and Fall of the R&D Lab
Corporate research was a big deal in the mid-20th century. In this piece, Ben Southwood inspects why we no longer have modern equivalents to research centers like Xerox PARC or Bell Labs. An interesting point here onā¦
- Weekend Reading: The First Corporation, Palantir, and Designing APIs
š¼ Birth of the Business Corporation Anton Howes looks back to the 1500s and connects Sebastian Cabotās planned search for a Northeast Passage to China to the birth of the first joint-stock corporation. š® Palantir: Oā¦
- Why Maps Are Civilization's Greatest Tool
A review of some of the most important mapmaking achievements in history, from the ancient to the modern.
- An Oral History of Deus Ex
One of my favorite games hit its 20th birthday. Two decades ago Deus Ex was an amazing achievement in open narrative, emergent game design. In this piece, Rock Paper Shotgun gathered up a bunch of the original team frā¦
- Weekend Reading: Looking Glass Politics, Enrichment, and OSM Datasets
š Looking-Glass Politics On private emotions being thrown into the public sphere: People escape the Dunbar world for obvious reasons: life there appears prosaic and uninspiring. They find a digital interface and, likā¦
- War, Revolution, Socialism
I linked a couple weeks ago to Stephen Kotkin's discussion with Lex Fridman. That was so interesting to me I went out looking for other interviews and lectures of his on YouTube and found this great one from Dartmouthā¦
- SSC Reviews the Origin of Consciousness
Scott Alexander wrote this review of Julian Jaynes's The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind, which presents a fascinating idea about when the "theory of mind" emerges in human history. Whenā¦
- Weekend Reading: Optionality, Pangaea, and Regulatory Disappointment
āļø The Trouble with Optionality A 2017 commencement address from Mihir Desai, critiquing the phenomenon of infinite optionality and lack of commitment pushed by modern universities: Iāve lost count of the number of stā¦