What do the Rise of Skywalker and McMansions have in common with Derek Parfit? I wrote about whether the academic philosophy publishing model creates a "too many cooks in the kitchen" problem. open.substack.com/pub/hiphinatio…

This week I learned that the cure for all anxiety is to “just let them”, and I gotta say I’m not blown away.

In person, Robert Krulwich is exactly like he was on the radio. Really entertaining. A force of nature. I can’t believe how lucky I’ve been to meet my media heroes.

Hua Hsu writes about the end of the college essay in the New Yorker, with an appearance by both my wife and I. The End of the Essay newyorker.com/magazine/2025/…

Writing a trade book in philosophy is thinking that you can advertise with a nice looking flyer an eight hour monologue featuring only your thoughts, and betting at least 20,000 people will buy a ticket for $35.

I was on the Chasing Leviathan podcast talking about Fewer Rules, Better People. youtube.com/watch?v=cVTP9-…

Ever wonder how many meanings "room temperature" can have? No? Then this post isn't for you. This is what I was working on a decade ago but never finished to start a podcast. open.substack.com/pub/hiphinatio…

Jen Morton makes the case against affirmative action for conservative views in academia because what we should all want is open-minded engagement, a piece she workshopped at our workshop two weeks ago. nytimes.com/2025/07/10/opi…

If you pick up a bottle of water and then scan it at the self-checkout in the airport fully automated kiosk, it will default to a 10% tip unless you opt out, or opt into a larger tip.

Inspired by Jennifer Morton’s piece in the The New York Times I wrote about Viewpoint Diversity and the one time I interviewed the psychiatrist who the Catholic Church hires to investigate reports of demon possessions. open.substack.com/pub/hiphinatio…

Professional incentives for admin generally pull in opposite directions from preservation of a classic liberal arts program. Any new Dean-Provost only gets to become Provost/President elsewhere after “shaking things up” in a revenue-saving or generating way. It’s schizophrenic

I wrote abiut EA and the hazards of joining causes based on the latest academic trends. open.substack.com/pub/hiphinatio…

I love this episode of Decoder Ring by June Thomas about the culture war issue: do Brits or Americans have better teeth? Raises a lot of philosophical questions: do you include aesthetics into measures of well-being? slate.com/podcasts/decod…

Congratulations to Rener Gracie on being profiled in the The New Yorker! Should Police Officers Be More Like U.F.C. Fighters? newyorker.com/news/the-lede/…

Since I was in my 30s, I became convinced that the best time to peak was in my 50s. I never really had to defend why. I did that today. open.substack.com/pub/hiphinatio…

I learned a lot from this post about the way many are mistaken about the relationship between strategy and morality in war. The World Learned the Wrong Lesson from Hiroshima open.substack.com/pub/grahampars…

Google AI killing it again.

Oh shit, just realized that the Nobel Laureate who came to my talk last week was John Coetzee. Funny how things don't register until way later! Where to start with his books? connect.adelaide.edu.au/nodes/view/260…

When you’re in one of those moods, so you put on “Con te partiro” on Spotify, and a Gen X on the train happens to look over, and sees the Bocelli on the screen, so I quickly switch it to Rage Against the Machine to keep my cred.

Are your invitations to speak or participate in events ramping up? Here is a guide to best practices I wrote, for both people being invited and also people doing to inviting, including everything you wanted to know about money. open.substack.com/pub/hiphinatio…