11 ways to be less deferential Apr 30, 2026

often worry that people are being too deferential about their beliefs. I also hear others worrying about this, and nobody seemingly worrying about the reverse, except perhaps my friends and therapists (and I guess honestly people who know cranks, so that’s a bit troubling).

Which leads me to wonder, supposing it’s true that many people are too deferential, what might people do to change it? And can I offer them useful advice, as a person who might be not deferential enough?

Tonight I talked to Joe Carlsmith about this; here are some ideas mostly from the conversation:

Self driving interview Apr 29, 2026

In honor of yesterday’s nonspecific point in the gradual arrival of self-driving cars, an interview with myself.

San Francisco: self driving Apr 28, 2026

I’m on a plane heading back to San Francisco. I’ve lived in the Bay Area for most of the years since 2009, and a large fraction of that time the place has felt near the brink of self-driving cars. (Well, everywhere has, but San Francisco feels like the first testing ground for the most interesting experiments in technology.) And that has felt like a big deal. So I kind of expected them to arrive with a good amount of ceremony.

AI unemployment and AI extinction are often the same Apr 27, 2026

My sense is that people think of AI existential risk and AI unemployment as distinct issues.

Some people are extremely concerned about extinction and perhaps even indifferent to total unemployment. Some people think of moderate AI unemployment as a realistic and concerning issue, and AI extinction as science fiction.

I think of AI unemployment and AI extinction risk as basically the same issue, and in likely scenarios, happening together.

Manhattan: distance and movement Apr 26, 2026

Last Tuesday I went to a Broadway show, Ragtime. I was in the front row, but surprised by how much the action did not feel real and a few feet away from me. Perhaps the performers were so skilled they didn’t seem like real people, or the sound so loud and sharp that it didn’t feel like people legit singing just over there. We seemed to have a proper chance of getting spit on us, yet I felt as if I was in a separate world. The biggest break in the feeling of vague unreality was when one of the actors on my side of the stage made piercing eye contact with me for a second or so. Which felt very close and warm and human, and I was kind of thrown by that too, though I liked it.

AI: cognitive labor glut + new guys Apr 25, 2026

Why is the advent of AI a big deal, and more worrying than previous advents?

I think there are actually two interesting things going on, that make AI importantly different to previous technologies.

Cambridge: the kettle Apr 24, 2026

I arrived in Cambridge, Massachusetts, today with my boyfriend. We have a modest Airbnb apartment, up enough stairs that if you decided to count the flights you would probably have forgotten about the project by the top. It’s pleasant and unassuming, and we were moving slowly toward beginning writing our mandatory blog posts rather too late in the evening when a new presence got our attention.

Sleep puzzle system Apr 23, 2026

Here’s an obscure life hack.

If (like me) you:

• Don’t like going to bed, due to it conflicting with keeping on doing things

• When in bed, wish you had something more engaging and enjoyable to do instead of just lying there waiting—for instance, playing a very compelling computer game until you get tired

• Do not in fact reliably get tired from playing a very compelling computer game

• Like puzzles

..then a solution that has worked surprisingly well for me before (and I wrote about previously) is having hard math puzzles handy to think about as I go to sleep. Somehow thinking about math at the bounds of my limited ability to imagine does make me sleepy. And is also quite compelling.

How much should the ideal person cry wolf? Apr 22, 2026

It is a fact about wolves and rationality that you should warn people about wolves quite a few times for every effective wolf attack.

Vibe signaling externalities and the people-to-places pipeline Apr 21, 2026

People are sending signals all the time, and those signals are to my knowledge usually about themselves: they are smart, or kind, or attractive, or not naive, or have their shit together, or care about Palestine, or care about you, or are friendly, or artsy, or professional, or relatively in the know about the cultural currents of TikTok or DC.

People are also taking in signals all the time, and these signals are often about other people, and often even closely related to the signals being intentionally sent: Alice is trying to seem friendly, and Bob perceives her as friendly. But also a lot of signals people take in are about places. People read places as safe or dangerous, lighthearted or depressing, silly or serious, asking them to know more, or get more power, or do more. Suggesting they laugh drunkenly under the moonlight, or get up at 5 and pray. Encouraging submission or rebellion.

These signals that make the world feel one way or another make a big difference to people. They make one neighborhood nice to live in and another feel off, one workplace energizing and another deflating. But they are—to my knowledge—almost entirely unintentional side effects of the ways people behave for other reasons. People don’t dress nicely to collaborate in making you feel like you are in a thriving part of town. They dress nicely to make someone think something about them. And someone probably does, but then the signal is left there for everyone else to sweep into their average perception of the vibe in this part of town.