John Seabrook and the Modern Song Machine
Ever noticed a certain “sameness” to the pop songs you hear nowadays? A similarity in their structure, feel, and the voices you hear on the tunes? You’re correctly clued in. Mostly …
Explore Farnam Street Articles
12 Things Lee Kuan Yew Taught Me About the World
Singapore is one of the most remarkable stories in the world. When expelled from Malaysia in 1965, it seemed to have everything going against it: a tiny population, hostile neighbors, a per capita GDP …
Gary Taubes and the Exquisite Balancing Act of Getting it Right
Last year, the wonderful Gary Taubes, whose ideas about nutrition we have written about before, gave a commencement address to the students of the Schmid College of Science and Technology at Chapman …
Why Fiddling With Prices Doesn’t Work
“The fact is, if you don’t find it reasonable that prices should reflect relative scarcity, then fundamentally you don’t accept the market economy, because this is about as close to …
Civilization and its Fundamental Passions
“To describe a culture is to describe the structure of its institutions.” — Joseph Tussman *** In his book The Burden of Office, the educator and philosopher Joseph Tussman, who brought us …
Eager to Be Wrong
“You know what Kipling said? Treat those two impostors just the same — success and failure. Of course, there’s going to be some failure in making the correct decisions. Nobody bats a thousand. I …
Incentives Gone Wrong: Cobras, Severed Hands, and Shea Butter
Incentives drive our behavior. Failing to consider incentives can lead to unintended consequences. In this post, we show you how incentives can go wrong and how we can use them to our advantage. *** …
Francis Bacon and the Four Idols of the Mind
Among the Enlightenment founders, his spirit is the one that most endures. It informs us across four centuries that wemust understand nature both around us and within ourselves, in order to set …
The HP Way: Dave Packard on How to Operate a Company
In 1960, David Packard gave an informal speech at the company he co-founded that wasn’t intended for publication. The speech, which can be found in The HP Way: How Bill Hewlett and I Built Our …
The Difference Between Love and Tolerance
“The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.” — Alice Walker *** New Jersey Senator Cory Booker‘s new book United: Thoughts on Finding Common Ground and …
Lewis Thomas on our Social Nature and “Getting the Air Right”
“What it needs is for the air to be made right. If you want a bee to make honey, you do not issue protocols on solar navigation or carbohydrate chemistry, you put him together with other bees …
How (Supposedly) Rational People Make Decisions
There are four principles that Gregory Mankiw outlines in his multi-disciplinary economics textbook Principles of Economics. I got the idea for reading an Economics textbook from Charlie Munger, the …
Is Human Progress Real or An Illusion?
Against the historical backdrop of nations, morals and religions that rise and fall, “the idea of progress finds itself in dubious shape”, according to Will and Ariel Durant in their …
Agnes Martin on The Secret of Happiness
“The best things in life happen to you when you’re alone.” *** Agnes Martin was a famous abstract painter and minimalist. In this short interview with Chuck Smith and Sono Kuwayama …
B.H. Liddell Hart and the Study of Truth and History
B.H. Liddell Hart (1895-1970) was many things, but above all, he was a military historian. He wrote tracts on Sherman, Scipio, Rommel, and on military strategy itself. His work influenced Neville …
Paul Graham on Free Speech, Suburbia, Getting Rich, and Nerds
“I think a society in which people can do and say what they want will also tend to be one in which the most efficient solutions win.” *** Paul Graham is a programmer, writer, and investor. …