These are things that I’ve read or watched that stuck with me in the 2010s.
2010
Ugh Fields [lesswrong.com]
Solitude and Leadership [theamericanscholar.org]
2011
The Information [newyorker.com] – this is my favorite essay of all time, so far.
Sequelitis – Mega Man Classic vs. Mega Man X [youtube.com]
Steve Yegge’s Google Platforms Rant [github.com]
We Stopped Dreaming [youtube.com]
2012
What is it like to be the commanding officer of an aircraft carrier? [quora.com]
How I lost faith in the pro-life movement [patheos.com]
Osama bin Laden’s motivations [reddit.com] – revisited here
Visual Thinking [michaelbabwahsingh.com]
2013
Everything is a Remix – 48 minutes [youtube.com]
The secret to desire in a long-term relationship [TED.com]
Phillippe Starck [hbr.org]
How The Economic Machine Works [youtube.com]
Aamer Khan’s standup bit about reverse racism [2:49] – succinct and punchy
Maybe you can beat cancer and AIDS and aging and go live among the stars, but you’ll never escape entropy [reddit.com]
All debates are bravery debates [slatestarcodex.com]
2014
The Toxoplasma of Rage [slatestarcodex.com]
Ads Don’t Work That Way [meltingasphalt.com]
/u/ClownFundamentals explains accounting [reddit.com]
Meditations on Moloch [slatestarcodex.com]
Chris Rock 2014 interview – “You keep notes. You look for the recurring. What’s not going away? Boy, this police-brutality thing — it seems to be lingering. What’s going to happen here? You don’t even have the joke, you just say, “Okay, what’s the new angle that makes me not sound like a preacher?” Forget being a comedian, just act like a reporter. What’s the question that hasn’t been asked? How come white kids don’t get shot?”
Congratulations! You just won millions of dollars in the lottery! That’s great. Now you’re fucked. [reddit.com]
How 50 Shades of Grey started out as Twilight fanfiction [reddit.com]
2015
A 21st-Century Migrant’s Essentials: Food, Shelter, Smartphone – This is a story about the details of being a refugee that really sticks with me
Why are there crushed stones alongside rail tracks? [quora.com] Possibly my favorite Quora answer
The Cook and the Chef: Musk’s Secret Sauce [waitbutwhy.com]
People resort to violence because their moral codes demand it [aeon.co]
Eat Pray Roll [medium.com]
How crowd crushes kill people [reddit.com]
What do insanely wealthy people buy, that ordinary people know nothing about? [reddit.com]
Chinese Maternity Tourists and the Business of Being Born American [bloomberg.com]
The Trip Treatment [newyorker.com]
2016
My Father Was an Abusive Sociopath, and I Was the Only One He Had Left [elle.com]
The DIY Scientist, the Olympian, and the Mutated Gene [propublica.org] – one of my all-time favorite stories. The “DIY Scientist” lady is my hero.
‘We’re the Only Plane in the Sky’ [politico.com] – GWB after 9/11
history of japan (9m) [youtube.com]
The Women in My Family Had to Be Good With Money [narratively.com]
Book Review: Albion’s Seed [slatestarcodex.com]
The Refragmentation [paulgraham.com]
The Secret Lives of Tumblr Teens [newrepublic.com]
Why I Blame TV for Trump [politico.com] – A former cable host says the industry utterly caved to the candidate. “I know from personal experience that it is common practice for TV anchors to have substantial bonuses written into their contracts if they hit ratings marks. With this 2016 presidential soap opera, they are almost surely hitting those marks. So, we get all Trump, all the time.”
Find a Better Way [medium.com] – a really moving, rousing commencement speech by Jeff Huber, a Googler who lost his wife to cancer.
Dan Majesky talks about his and his wife’s experiences with miscarriage and trying to conceive. [facebook.com] Heartfelt. Honest. Makes me want to share more of myself with others, if and when it can be of service.
A protocol for dying [hintjens.com]
2017
history of the entire world, i guess [youtube.com]
TNC also has a great video about the N-word [4:59]
Different Worlds [slatestarcodex.com]
Life in authoritarian states is mostly boring and tolerable [vox.com]
Cosiness in video games [projecthorseshoe.com]
2018
How to Pick a Career (That Actually Fits You) [waitbutwhy.com]
The Wisdom and/or Madness of Crowds [ncase.me]
Community Interaction and Conflict on the Web [stanford.edu]
How the Hollywood Redemption Machine Works, According to BoJack Horseman – “Philbert serves as a vehicle for BoJack’s ambitious meta-critique of how Hollywood consistently glorifies, humanizes, enables, and forgives bad men—fictional or otherwise.”
We Saw Nuns Kill Children: The Ghosts of St. Joseph’s Catholic Orphanage [buzzfeednews.com]
What about The Breakfast Club? [newyorker.com]
A style guide for writing about the rich [medium.com]
2019
Going Critical [meltingasphalt.com]
The Spreading of Threading [aaronzlewis.com] – I’m obviously biased to like this since it paints me in a flattering light, but also it’s a thing I have strong feelings about
Book Review: Zero To One [slatestarcodex.com]