Why subscribe?
There are a lot of great ideas floating around out there, many generated by academic researchers and other learned folks, but also a lot of interesting ideas in the popular press. Many don’t fit neatly into partisan boxes and are cast aside. The question here is, what are the best ideas, on their merits?
To find better answers, we have to exchange ideas. When I coach young ballplayers, I often say (yell) that the purpose of throwing a ball is so someone else can catch it—the point isn’t to hurl it aggressively in the general direction of someone else to make them go pick it up. So much of what passes for discourse today seems to be about the fun of throwing wild pitches and the schadenfreude of watching someone else wander out into the weeds to pick it up.
You might find a little bit of news in this newsletter—but only as context. You will find a spirit of gentle provocation but no memes. And there’s a bit of the scientific method. Henri Poincaré, the 19th-century French philosopher, noted that the scientific method does not allow the hypothesizer to prove a hypothesis. When one alternative hypothesis is rejected, there are still an infinite number of other alternative hypotheses to test against. The closest you can get to proof is to reject every reasonable alternative. The process is timeless, without an end.
So then, the objective is not proof, but discovery.
The fun, for me, is the discovery. Joan Didion said, “I write entirely to find out what I'm thinking, what I'm looking at, what I see and what it means.” Essays are just a medium to have a conversation with yourself. The most satisfying art is full of surprises for the artist. And wonder. And grace.
I hope you find some here, and I hope you will find this newsletter interesting.
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As another old saying goes, once you write something, it is no longer yours; the readers own it. So have at it.
