Grant Starrett

Only 3 months old and my son already grasps sound money.

Stats show that your best work is roughly equally likely to happen at any time during your active lifetime. So just keep at it, until you can't.

I wrote this one for all the Catholic "reply guys" on social media who are convinced that Catholics (correctly measured) are as socially conservative as their evangelical counterparts. They are not. That's empirically false. graphsaboutreligion.com/p/are-real-cat…

Vox with a BOMBSHELL admission in the wake of the demise of RCP8.5. “Those numbers shaped a decade and a half of climate journalism, including a lot of my own when I covered climate change at Time magazine. I didn’t always know — and didn’t always communicate — that the scenario behind the most apocalyptic, attention-getting findings was largely an attempt to imagine how bad things could get, not a true forecast. But I wasn’t alone. RCP 8.5 was a frequent background presence in climate journalism.” vox.com/future-perfect…

My wife mentioned a nice private school over dinner this week She said the campus was beautiful I asked what's the tuition She said we should look at it as an investment in him not a cost I made a note She said don't make a note I said I always make notes She said this isn't a deal I said everything is a deal She closed her eyes She said we'd discuss it Saturday I agreed Saturday 7:02am She came downstairs in her Saturday robe Coffee in hand I had my cargo shorts on The dining room had been cleared The projector was on The analyst was at the head of the table Quarter zip on, three iced coffees, a legal pad, and two laptops He had been there since 6:44am I texted him at 11:14pm Friday The text said dining room 6:45am bring the model He sent a thumbs up My wife stopped in the doorway She said what is this I said you said you wanted to discuss it She said this is not a discussion I did not respond She sat down anyway The analyst stood He said good morning ma'am She did not respond He sat back down A printed deck in front of each seat A fourth copy in case Slide 1 Tuition Schedule $38,500 per year Thirteen years $500,500 nominal Before escalators The school has raised tuition 4.2% per year for a decade With escalators $648,000 My wife said okay I said I'm not done Slide 2 Opportunity Cost Even before escalators $38,500 invested annually 10% nominal return S&P long-run average since 1928 By his eighteenth birthday $944,000 My wife said we can afford it I said I know that's not the slide Slide 3 Terminal Value at Age 65 $83 million She was quiet The analyst slid the sensitivity tables across the table 8% return $31 million 10% return $83 million 12% return $222 million She did not look She said this isn't about money I said it's always about money She said no it isn't I said then what is it about She did not answer She said you can't put a dollar value on his teachers his classmates his environment I said I can the analyst already did slide 6 He flipped to slide 6 She did not look She said the school is the best in the city I said best is a feeling She said it produces the best students I said the students were already the best before they got there She said our son deserves it I said our son deserves $83 million My son walked in He is five Dinosaur pajamas He looked at the projector He looked at the open deck on the table He looked at slide 3 He said are we modeling pre-tax or after-tax The analyst opened a new tab My wife looked at the ceiling He said what's the discount rate The analyst set down his pen She closed her eyes He said is this the same return assumption from the 529 conversation The analyst stopped typing He looked at me I did not say anything She stood up Sat back down He said dad can I help I said yes He pulled up a chair The analyst handed him a printout He started reading My wife watched him read She watched him for a long time She said his name He looked up She said do you like school He said the work is too easy and the kids don't ask questions She did not respond She looked at the ceiling She walked out of the room The analyst started packing up He said should I follow up Monday sir I said no follow up needed He'll be fine Sent from my iPhone

Among people who were raised Protestant: 73% are still Protestant. 20% became nones. 3% became Catholics. Among people raised Catholic: 63% are still Catholic. 21% became nones. 12% became Protestant. Among those raised without religion: 71% still have no religion.

Dunkin is also famous for feeding people, which can’t be said for the People’s Republic of China

For twenty years he had been asking the question a serious philosopher has to ask: why did Marxism, every time it touched power, produce the same result? His answer is what makes the work devastating. Kolakowski did not conclude that Marxism had been misapplied. That was the easy escape: "real socialism has never been tried." He concluded the opposite. Marxism was applied exactly as designed. The outcomes were built into the premises from the start.

A majority (52%) of Americans would like to "abolish standardized tests, such as the SAT or ACT" for college admissions. But there’s a massive partisan divide. While only 40% of Republicans want to "abolish" standardized tests, 70% of Democrats do.

Perhaps the greatest celebrity story ever here, about ROGER MOORE. Give yourself a treat if you've not read it.

FA Hayek in Tokyo, Japan (1981).

When I first came to Harvard in 1985 we were advised not to assign more than 300 pages per week.

1/ FINAL THREAD: Yesterday, after nearly ten months of service for the State, the Legislature declined to keep me as Alaska’s Attorney General. Afterwards @GovDunleavy asked me to continue serving Alaska as Counsel to the Governor, working as closely with the Department of Law and Acting AG Cori Mills who was my former Deputy AG for Civil. I’m grateful for the Gov’s trust, for Cori’s leadership, and the partnership I’ll continue to have with the Department. And I'm not slowing down.

A 25-year-old book salesman during the American Revolution carried 120,000 pounds worth of cannons over 300 miles through the frozen wilderness and didn’t lose a single gun

.@SecretaryBurgum tells @mboyle1: We'll graduate 36,000 lawyers in America this year. We'll graduate about 300 mining and metallurgical candidates. If you know anybody that wants to have a sure-fire, long-term career where everybody that's in that field is retiring because they're all Baby Boomers, go into that.

I had not realized that Simon Heffer's superb biography of Enoch Powell had been cancelled during the BLM mania. It is good that a new edition is now available. Timely, too. Jeremy Black's review in @TheCriticMag is excellent: thecritic.co.uk/a-profound-tor…

The world's #1 spoken language flipped in the 1990s. 🇨🇳 Mandarin: 14.1% (1950) → 10.3% (2025) 🇬🇧 English: 8.2% → 13.8% That's L1+L2 combined. Mandarin still leads as a mother tongue (940M vs 380M) — but the gap closes every year.

To all the homeschooling moms: You show up day after day for your kids. Some days you’re super mom. Some days you’re a mess. But most days, you’re just there with your kids. And in the end, that is what matters most: trying to connect with your kids when they are struggling. Because that’s what they’re going to remember. It’s what HSLDA attorney Will Estrada remembers. He was a very busy, hyperactive kid—and how his mom faithfully showed up for him. You don’t need to try harder. You don’t need to “mom harder.” You’re already doing it, just by being there for them. Happy Mother’s Day, HSLDA

J.D. Vance is the first vice president since William R. King (who was FRANKLIN PIERCES VP) to not have his life overlap with Herbert Hoover's. Kamala Harris was born on the day Hoover died.

One of my favorite stats that serves as a reality check for people: The median American took zero flights last year.

Look closer at the graph: moms in 4-child families spend relatively more time with their 2nd and 3rd children than moms in smaller families. That suggests selection/composition effects matter. The kinds of parents who choose larger families may also structure their lives around spending more time with children. Parents can choose family arrangements that allow for investing more in multiple children.