Weekend Listening and Reading

New from Paul and Ringo!!

Dave Barry: A Commencement Address (funny)

A government debt crisis?
Except for a short time during the Clinton administration, people have screamed about government debt (and social security going away) my entire life. If you avoided investing because smart people were screaming scary things, you really missed out. 

The Price of Partisan Advocacy by Science Institutions

Why Climate Orthodoxy Is Stronger than DEI, Trans Rights, or Immigration
Not a happy read, but informative. You don't have to agree with The Liberal Patriot, but being pure and only supporting people who you agree with 100% leads to very bad outcomes.
If we want things to get better, we have to win. Hank Green on how to actually get power. tl;dr - being smart is basically irrelevant. Being liked is all. 

The first time they've both been here.

WTF?? I ... Miss Japan?? 🤯

Delivered to us with a bag of presents. 

Here is a link to 78 Japan pictures in a Google Photos album.
Believe me, it was amazingly hard for me and Anne to take 1000+ already-vetted pictures (by both of us) and choose only 78. The notes / info / lower left section of each should tell you a little about each photo.

Our story updated:

• Up to 2025, I never wanted to go to Japan.
• Before the trip, I worried about going to Japan.
• Multiple times on the trip, I regretted being in Japan.
• The longer I’ve been back in the U.S., the more I miss Japan. 
• At night, I literally dream about Japan.
• Now I want to go back to Japan.
• I am actively trying to figure out how to get back to Japan.**

This is utterly shocking to me. 

When I wrote the very first draft of my Japan trip report (pdf) a day after returning, I ended with, “I am glad we went. I won’t go back.” Anne convinced me to cut the last sentence (and change a fair amount of the write-up, tbh). 

A week after I finished that post, my sister asked Anne, “Would you go back?” Anne said, “Well, not right now.” 

When I heard that, I thought, “What are you talking about?” 

But the more I thought about it….

🤯

Two things are at work:

1. In my published write-up of our March-April 2026 trip, I mentioned that upon getting home, Tucson “felt sullen, aggressive, and angry.” This sense has persisted, adding in “trashy” (in multiple senses of the word). The huge pickups riding right on my bumper, the prideful ignorance, the loud rednecks, the louder music, the loudest engines.
   Japan was often an assault on my senses; the U.S. feels like an assault on my soul.
   (Also, it was far easier to avoid and not think about the news in Japan.)
   
   
2. Upon further reflection, I realized the lessons I took from this trip are all entirely actionable.
   If, eighteen months ago, I had known everything I know now, I would have planned a different trip. I would have mentally approached it differently. I could have the trip Anne experienced: “Incredible, magical, wonderful.”
   Not that I should have experienced my first trip differently. Just that, with the knowledge I could only learn by experiencing, I would have had a different experience. I could fully have that magical experience (which I did have a lot on this 2026 trip) if we went back.

**I’ve been trying to figure out how to go back to New Zealand even longer. But that will have to wait until Anne visits Ireland – her homeland and the country of her dual citizenship – as well as my spiritual home, Scotland. (For Scotch, not for the weather!  ;-)

“I thought the stuff you'd written was most definitely hyperbole.”

I generally really like Hank Green (e.g., the ending of this video - "Despair is not wisdom"), but recently came across a video where he went off on a “climate denialist.” You are a climate denialist if you question anything "the scientists" say. Or if you talk of cost / benefit analysis, or think that there might be any course of action other than screaming about fossil fuels. 

Roger Pielke devil, Michael Mann angel.  

Then Anne and I got this from a couple of new friends:

We also recently joined an EA book club to get more involved in the EA community (mainly to diversify away from the radical abolitionist vegan friends we have here). The EAs for the most part are really cool, except a few of them do take insect suffering more seriously than animal suffering, but still other than that, they are a sensible lot. ... 

[A]n incident from last month. We read "Change of Heart" by Nick Cooney as part of this group, and we were hoping to have an amazing discussion on animal welfare with the group. BUT a couple of radical (non-EA) environmentalists showed up and completely hijacked the discussion with their agenda. Before we met them, I really thought the stuff you'd written about in Carbon Cult Cruelty was most definitely hyperbole. 

At the time I read your piece, my gut reaction was "I mean, I agree with all this, but who's actually stupid enough to advocate for more human suffering to reduce carbon?" But that day we met stupid. The cultists went on multiple tirades to live like people in poor countries (in poverty), live like "natives," advocate for sterilization, etc. They even defended Malthus [like this guy], like he was some genius who was unfairly attacked. 

Ironically they'd started the discussion by saying you can't change the minds of cultists (they were talking about climate skeptics) and then proceeded to show how nothing will change their minds!

Yup.

I wish I had exaggerating. But if you ever follow the links in CCC, such as “Is the West saying Africa should remain undeveloped?” and The Cruelty of Climate Fanatics, you'll see that it is not hyperbole to note that they are cruel cultists. And Hank Green is another example of audience capture.

Here's a list of some recent good news. May the 4th be with you.

what is teamlab? (not important!)

I was talking with one of my favorite people in the world yesterday, and our Japan trip came up. Dr. O asked for more explanation of teamlab. It is hard to describe! Here are some links to short videos (with sound) we took at teamlab Kyoto; the vids might open in a new window, and you might have to click / tap the small video to have it be full-screen:

The entrance hallway; the first floor rooms are off of this.

The lamp room - our favorite. (2, 3)

The vortex - these balls would hit you. The vortex moved throughout the room, engulfing me at one point. Had no idea how long it would last. It was thrilling and exhausting.

Hanging lights 1 - this actually was an entire ~10-5 minute "show," which we only discovered on the second visit.

Hanging lights 2 - when you are surrounded by them, not in the big room watching them.

A "movie" room - not the one where you were waned that the room would make you dizzy. There were two stories here, one of which was hugely cool. Be sure to have the sound on.

Weebles! 

The garden room at Tokyo's teamlab Planets - note that the hanging plants are going up and down to allow you to move through.

A hallway at Planets

There will be more pictures when we are finished putting the gallery together. I have new, shocking (to me) thoughts about Japan I'll share then, too. 

"Mind is made of magic ghosts"

I'm working out some further thoughts on Japan. In the meantime, some miscellany: 

Abi Alvera: Effective Altruism focused on bednets while a malaria vaccine was stuck for 35 years. The case for Abundance.

From our New Zealand pal (and MFA) Nonzero James: Why I'm Keeping My Crappy Drawings

Nick Maggulli (Of Dollars and Data): What I’ve Learned Writing 500 Blog Posts

And of course:

What would you do if no one could know?

2026 marks 40 years since Fred first convinced me to stop eating animals. Last week, a long-time friend asked me a question that prompted me to reflect on things I have (often reluctantly) learned during those decades.

One: The majority of advocacy is performative, aimed, consciously or not, at impressing other advocates. 

This has always been true - e.g., trying to get media coverage to show other advocates and donors. 

But of course this has been especially true since there have been likes and clicks. (A horrific yet insightful article about audience capture, which is where we, consciously or not, change our actions to get affirmation.)  

To quote Tim Ferris (writing about self-help): 

"If you couldn’t tell a soul about 'the work' you’re doing, would you still do it?"

IMO, you have probably not heard about the majority of work that is actually reducing extreme suffering. You hear about shrimp and expected value and puppies and Veganism Veganism Veganism. But you almost never hear about victories that have literally improved the lives of untold millions (billions?) of actually sentient beings - beings who otherwise would have been tortured. 

I am honored to know some of the people who have been doing that work, and inspired by the knowledge that there are others out there doing similar work that I don't know. Thank you all.

Our Parenting Philosophy

"The key to happiness is low expectations." (p. 358) 

As is generally the case, Zach W's SMBC says it better (be sure to scroll down to the bonus panel; please also check out this strip about philosophy. Hell, just please subscribe to Zach!):

A Plant-Based Introvert in Japan

This is too much to put in the blog, and probably won't be of much interest to many of you. But I had a lot to say about our time in Japan, so check out the pdf if you like. At some point, we'll create and share a gallery of photos later (have to choose from our many hundreds).

Link to pdf. 

An Awesome Video (full of awe)

Explanation coming Wednesday

Hank Green: Explaining the Most Important Artemis II Photos

You really should watch this, IMO. And if you celebrate 4/20, you might want to save it until you're there.

Note: In this video, Hank speaks in a slow, awe-filled way, not his normal, hyper, YouTube way. 👍

One laugh (insightful) + one thing to help chickens (time sensitive)

From our friends at Legal Impact for Chickens: Tell USDA that slaughter lines are fast enough! (By April 20)

The ultimate effective altruist, from SMBC:

More on the problems of science

Not a representation of my partnership, just LOL.
Also a hint as to why I've not been blogging.

Along the lines of my Why People (Rightly) Don’t Trust Scientists on Substack: Science Communication and the Hype Machine.

And this, Ozempic for Chickens, reminds me of 2000, when a friend was pursuing the idea of putting painkillers in chicken feed. I never expect anything to happen that might increase "production" costs, but cage-free is growing, and slow-growing chickens isn't entirely rejected (and would reduce a lot of acute suffering).

More hint

The ‘Vegan’ Brand Is an Anchor, Not a Sail

The most important piece published so far this year, IMO:

The ‘Vegan’ Brand Is an Anchor, Not a Sail

by Leah Garces

Podcast re: Introversion

We live here. Incredible.
That was the only person we saw on our two-hour hike.

EconTalk's Russ Roberts talks with Susan Cain about her 2012 book Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can't Stop Talking. 

In terms of "can't stop talking," the world is clearly much worse now. Susan even mentions that trend; when she was writing her book 15 years ago, it seemed the internet might make things better for introverts. But now, where everything is built to grab clicks and many the "smartest" people spend their time building their "brand" by playing to our worst instincts, there are fewer and fewer places to be quiet, thoughtful, contemplative, or present.

PS (personal): At the end, they speculate on how much personality can change. Only one of you Dear Readers knew me before I met Anne, but many of you knew me before the life-altering events of 2021. Combine those with the positive work done since then, and my personality is very different than 1991.

Matt Ridley Exposes Fools, Not Just on April 1

"Raise the roof!"

 Oh how I wish I could write like this: Ehrlich's anti-human legacy

I can't even choose what to excerpt. Even if you read my Ehrlich rant (written before he died), Ridley's piece is worth reading, especially for how liberals celebrated and promoted him, the most sadistically-wrong American of my life. That is the perfect example of why we can't have nice things.

PS: If you've had enough of Doomer-bashing, how about praise for Glyphosate’s Environmental Benefits?

My Brain Made Me Do It

Good stuff:

1. Short-ish (30 min) podcast on a criminal case that helped push the peanut forward on determinism. Not news to anyone who has read this blog.

2. My Substack (Why People (Rightly) Don't Trust Scientists) was prompted by The Scientists Who Declared War on Half of America.