kenny

What have I read, watched, listened to, and considered this week? Here's a selection:

Books:

• Tolstoy's War and Peace. I've finally reached the epilogue. I found myself slightly disappointed by the conclusion of Pierre's journey. It all felt too simple, especially knowing how Tolstoy was haunted by the same existential questions as Pierre. I need to reread Tolstoy's Confession. Next week (hopefully) I will do a longer write up of my thoughts.

• Stephen King's 11/22/63. No progress this week. I put all my energy into Tolstoy.

• Philosophy of Science: A Very Short Introduction by Samir Okasha. Oxford's Very Short Introduction series hasn't led me astray before, so I picked this volume to whet my appetite for more philosophy. I find myself comparing science and history as I read this one, probably influenced by Tolstoy's theory of history in War and Peace.

Podcasts:

• Henrik Karlsson on Jackson Dahl's Dialectic podcast. Henrik is currently my favorite writer on the internet, so I was overjoyed to find out that he did an extended interview with Jackson. I never bothered looking for interviews/podcasts with Henrik because he lives on a small Danish island, focusing on his family and work rather than typical publicity. If you have a moment, I highly recommend Escaping Flatland, his Substack.

• Stephen Kotkin on the Dwarkesh Podcast. More of a lecture than an interview. As much as I enjoyed Kotkin's rambling, I found myself frustrated by how often he evaded or simply ignored questions. I've also never heard someone call Dwarkesh "DK" before.

Other:

• ARC-AGI-3. ARC was initially created by researcher Francois Chollet to "measure general intelligence through skill acquisition efficiency." I keep up with the leaderboards to track AI progress, but the excellent puzzles are my favorite part of the site. Worth your time if you're a fan of simple logic puzzles.