nerdiness

🎓 When Perseverance Gets People Pointlessly Killed

On Naval Press Gangs, HMS Wager, and Knowing When to Quit

Oct 23 •

🎓 When Royal Marriages Keep Power Inside the Family

How the Egyptians and Ottomans bucked diplomatic marriage trends by marrying their sisters and slaves.

Jul 9 •

🎓 Complaints about immodesty go way back

A discussion of sumptuary laws and clothing critiques, mostly focused on Greco-Roman and Crusader cultures.

May 9 •

🎓 Grafting & Growth: On Trees as Infrastructure

The cultural and ecological ingenuity of trees: from living bridges and clothing to natural air conditioners.

Apr 10 •

🎓 On Teleportation & Understanding via Writing

How writing speculative fiction helps me create a mental model of complex concepts.

Apr 4 •

🌲 On Leadership & Legacy: Shockley, Yi, & Brasidas

Lessons from people who failed at a critical thing they were trying to accomplish.

Feb 27 •

🎓 Communities who never met IRL are older than you think

Online friendships are not so very different from the Mesopotamian brotherhood of kings, or the Kula ring of the Trobriand Islanders in the Southwest…

Feb 20 •

🎓 On Agricultural Causes of Societal Catastrophes

A look at maize mosaic disease, wheat rust, the chestnut blight, brown spot disease, and the boll weevil.

Feb 13 •

🎓 On the Diplomacy of Steppe Princesses

How "Wordle meets Wikipedia" expanded my horizons in regard to the importance of noble daughters in Asia, particularly among the Xiongnu.

Jan 30 •

🎓 On the origins of the merchant class

In which I brave the censure of econ nerds to explore the history of commerce

Oct 24, 2024 •

🎓 On cohort-based sociopolitical systems in East Africa

Expanding conscription ages? Bad for peace. Building in power peaceful transition rituals? Good for peace.

Oct 10, 2024 •

🎓 On feasts, cilantro, and cultural norms around food

I'll never retire to Costa Rica, even tho cilantro isn't as weird as crab.

Sep 19, 2024 •

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