Digest, 8/27/2023: And a Real Hero

the HUNDREDTH digest post

I wish there was a little more ceremony for the hundredth digest. But I’m incredibly busy and wiped and have to go on the road soon already! Buy the book. Do me a dang favor.

This Week’s Posts

Monday, August 21st - Why Can't You and I Get Rich Quick? (subscriber only)

It’s harder than you think!

Wednesday, August 23rd - Can There Be a Theory of the Email Job?

Towards a non-pejorative definition of a kind of job that many people have.

Friday, August 25th - Winner: The Derek Chauvin Defund Challenge

The grand reveal of the winner of a misbegotten contest.

From the Archives

Song of the Week

Non-Garbage Online Reading

Here’s the first major review of the new book! Might be good, might be bad, I don’t know - it’s paywalled. But it exists, and it’s in the Wall Street Journal.

Book Recommendation

Blowback, Chalmers Johnson, 2000

One piece of advice I’m forever giving readers is not to overlook older nonfiction. Obviously, books that are decades old can’t give you insight into the dynamics of recent events, but very often they can help establish a prior historical context that can help you better grasp where we came from. The first edition of Chalmer’s book was published the year before 9/11, which obviously would go on to cast past American sins into relief and gave many of our citizens an education in all that the United States has done wrong. Johnson, a former CIA spook, patiently lays out the bare facts about US misdeeds in Latin America, southeast Asia, the Middle East, and more. And he compellingly sketches how, even aside from moral objections to this conduct, we as a country should consider how we make violent blowback inevitable through our misadventures.

Comment of the Week

You left out “marry rich” - that’s got to be second to being born rich, but way more common than your other examples combined. - Jeff

That’s it!