this is horrifying.

in bukele's now eternal contribution to the canon, "oopsie…"

right. though @hurricanexyz.bsky.social is linguistically right, i think we do want a bit more than mere convention before deploying what has become a rather grand word since 1787. enshrining conventions or institutions multiple, interlocking, complex do seem like good criteria.

should we use the constitution metaphor for all social phenomena that have shapes? is it useful to describe, say, our propensity to wear pants, that we drive on the right side of the road, as part of our unwritten constitution? or does that stretch it to uselessness. if so, what should bound it?

yes. i agree. (and very much support it!)

the idea that industries have constitutions is fascinating and seems novel. (should some of them have written constitutions? should we conceive of the body of regulations that governs them as that? would it be better then if they had more clearly encapsulated constitutions?)

what if you make your darlings an appendix?

me too! great minds! xcancel.com/interfluidit...

one strange characteristic of our moment is we’ve developed new forms of a “republic of letters” whose participants view themselves as an intellectual elite, while the actual content of that elite discourse is memes or, at best, several hundred character interjections.

a bit of irony is it’s the “progressives” or “squad” or whatever who want meritocracy rather than seniority to govern Congress, in opposition to the “centrists” or “moderates”. in ed reform, a different seniority vs meritocracy conflict has the sides reversed.

from my e-mail (April 14). they are closing April 30. (i’ve no idea whether/what role the tariffs or macro/political concerns played.)

maybe Stephen Miller is telling him that the public unanimously approves, it was a 9-0 decision.

me too! good company!

sometimes depression is an attempt to hold oneself for ransom before god.

i just like Scott, though i think he is wrong about a lot.

andreeson used to chat widely, then he blocked anyone who might say anything he might find uncomfortable to hear. in retrospect that has proven consequential.

“When there is a need to address a specific weakness (say chip production), subsidies for reshoring are far superior to tariffs. Subsidies for chip making help our industries that use chips, while tariffs on chips hurt those industries.” ~Scott Sumner scottsumner.substack.com/p/nonzero-tr...

Chimerica is doing a remake of the pandemic. China will bring back PPP-style business “loans”. The US will reprise shortages of basic goods.

“The group chats that changed America” by @semaforben.bsky.social www.semafor.com/article/04/2...