Julian Dunn's Stack

Wall Street Journal article:

"https://archive.is/Pn7GU"

This was a very enlightening but also infuriating read. I’m not angry at Mat for being the messenger but angry at how the way the tech industry and global society is being run in 2026 was foreseen decades ago.

Had I known about Langdon Winner’s work and his essay back when I was starting my tech career, I might not have even become a tech person. Because now I hate nearly everything about what the Internet has become and I feel very complicit in making it this way because I was toiling under technofeudalism for most of my career without really knowing it, and the way the Internet is today was basically foretold by people much smarter than me while I was still a teenager.

Cal Newport's suggestions for maintaining cognitive fitness, particularly in this era of AI. I'll summarize it so you don't need to watch the whole 58 minutes:

"Moderate" intensity suggestions

Read every day

Don't avoid writing (without AI, especially)

Go on "thinking walks" -- do not bring your phone. Practice aiming your mind's eye at just one topic.

"Landline" your phone -- plug it in while at home so you have to intentionally go to consult it, rather than it being in your pocket where it's begging you to check it all the time

Learn a hard skill.

"Serious" intensity suggestions

Immersive thinking activities: a mini excursion to push your brain into a higher gear. You need (a) a an environment that is novel and drives thought; (b) a warm up routine to get your brain fired up; (c) use your warmed up brain to create new things (the exercise). Cal talks about how he often (a) goes to the National Art Gallery in Washington, D.C. and (b) goes to a gallery after reading about the art, then looks at the art in depth, and then (c) goes down to the basement café where there is no wireless signal and tries to write something.

"Brain cardio" -- a point system for fitness. Maybe this could be competitive, even.

Possible future "insane" mode ideas?

Will there be high-end thinking trainers some day?

Rise of non-instrumental courses to push your mind, where the skill itself doesn't really matter that much

Cognitive endurance testing? Can you deploy your brain with intention

“Our lies… are practically what define us. When the truth offends, we lie and lie until we cannot no longer remember it is even there, but it is still there. Every lie we tell incurs a debt to the truth. Sooner or later that debt is paid. That is how an RBMK reactor core explodes. Lies.”