Fanatical experiments cannot be sustained without creativity. To paraphrase a wise man from the last century, the way the Nazis or the Communists sell their holy causes is no different from the way capitalists advertise their Gucci bags or cigarettes. The techniques we found in the imperialistic tendencies of the Nazis and the Communists are… Continue reading Freedom by Coercion
Borges on Bitcoin Forks
How I imagine Jorge Luis Borges would write about Bitcoin: In Bitcoin we find the idiosyncrasies of each of its forks to a greater or lesser degree. Every fork modifies our conception of the original Bitcoin, as it will modify the future. If the forks had never existed, we would not perceive the qualities in… Continue reading Borges on Bitcoin Forks
Skin in the Game
Nassim Nicholas Taleb uses two criteria to filter ideas and books. First, the Lindy Effect: the more the book has been around, the longer its future life expectancy. Second, the more skin in the game, the more convincing the idea is. In practice, I am attracted to books that look ancient, and look at how far… Continue reading Skin in the Game
Architecture in a Post-Truth World
Büro Ole Scheeren took the needle of the tower and bent it back into itself to create a loop. There is no beginning or end. Walk around the base of the tower, and you see it go from strong and imposing to unstable and fragile. It’s the perfect symbol for a post-truth world.
On Art Forms and Literature
I like lasting beauty. Of all art forms, my liking is limited to literature. I loathe music, live performance, or flower arrangements. These things fade and vanish instantly. Even architecture and paintings decay. Of all literature, I love those written with blood. I suppose they don't want to be read, until by readers a century… Continue reading On Art Forms and Literature
A Guide to Reading Pu Songling
In vernacular Chinese, the Dream of the Red Chamber (紅樓夢) by Cao Xueqin (曹雪芹) is regarded as the supreme novel. In classical Chinese, Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio (聊齋誌異) by Pu Songling (蒲松齡) has the equivalent status. Mao Zedong claimed to have read the Red Chamber five times. I say you need to read Strange Tales two times. Read it in English the first… Continue reading A Guide to Reading Pu Songling
From Tolstoy, Kafka, to Taleb
Before Adam and Eve ate the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge, we are always in a state of ignorance. The moment we decided to escape, we sank into the faint light of fake knowledge. The good news is that, from Leo Tolstoy, Franz Kafka, to Nassim Nicholas Taleb, we are slowly finding our way… Continue reading From Tolstoy, Kafka, to Taleb
My Notes from the Underground
Come, gentle night I run away from the Crystal Palace, and aspire to be a sick man, a spiteful man, an unattractive man. Greedily storing up impressions, one day I, too, will emerge from the underground, and master the path to chaos.
A Historical Theory of Tea and Opium
The mysterious way in which seemingly disparate historical events are connected with each other fills me with awe. The human intellect simply cannot grasp the infinite permutations and the sheer complexity of the laws of history. In 1773, the Boston Tea Party threw 342 chests of Chinese tea into the Boston Harbor, leading to the… Continue reading A Historical Theory of Tea and Opium
On the Spread of Untruth
In Richard Dawkins' conception, human being is the medium through which information and ideas, or memes, spread. However, we constitute a poor medium which favors the spread of untruth rather than truth. As pointed out by Curtis Yarvin, human beings find nonsense as a more effective organizing tool than truth. To believe in truth is… Continue reading On the Spread of Untruth
Andy Yee 