David F. Carr

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the Pope quoting The Lord of the Rings!!!!!!! I feel so alive!!!!

Math major and Latin minor here. My class in philosophy, principals of reasoning, taught logic and rules of argumentation. Who would have thought that this class helped me in abstract algebra. Moreover, this class helped me in computer programming and machine language. Then on to a PhD in organizational leadership where I see organizations as systems and have a fondness for chaos, complexity, and game theory. The philosopher kings and queens will rule the earth. Mark my words.

Brené Brown, researcher and author, on the contradiction she keeps hearing in rooms full of tech billionaires: Her work puts her in rooms where the founders and CEOs of major tech platforms talk openly about how they think. What @BreneBrown hears there unsettles her: "So I hear someone say, 'Hey, you know, tech billionaire, what should my kids study? I'm worried for my kids… they should study coding, physics,' and then five minutes later, as if that answer didn't happen, someone will say, 'What do you attribute your success to?' I mean deeply when you think about it, and the same person will say, 'My deep reading of philosophy and the stoics.'" The contradiction is what stops her: the same people crediting philosophy and the liberal arts for their own success are telling other parents their kids should focus on coding and physics. That gap leads her to a bigger, more uncomfortable question: "I start to extrapolate from there and wonder if there is a thinking class that's emerging where they're like, 'We're going to read philosophy and we're going to read the liberal arts and we're going to study history, and the rest of you just keep scrolling. Don't worry about the big words. We'll handle all the big words for you.'" She points to Steve Jobs as an early signal of the same pattern: "It's like when they asked Steve Jobs, 'Boy, your kids must love the iPad.' Steve Jobs said, 'My kids don't have an iPad.' And then his biographer who spent time with his family said he wasn't kidding. There's no technology. At dinner, they're talking about art and history." The takeaway is simple but uncomfortable. The people building these platforms are protecting their own kids from them, and giving them books, ideas, and real conversation instead. So why are the rest of us being sold something different?

This is Officer Caroline Edwards. Donald Trump's insurrectionists cracked her skull and injured her brain. Trump pardoned them, and may pay them "reparations" with our taxes. If you still support Donald Trump, you've lost your right to pretend you back the blue.

The U.S. and Iran are contemplating a preliminary memorandum of understanding to potentially consider opening exploratory discussions about the possibility of future negotiations, pending clarification, interpretation, review, regional consultation, weather conditions, and vibes

As one of the first people to warn about a possible AI backlash—years ago—let me tell you this: it’s going to get much, much worse. It breaks my heart that AI—something I spent my whole life thinking about—is likely to become a dirty word, and that it has been subverted so deeply by arrogance and greed.

Petraeus: The U.S. has used many advanced munitions and missile interceptors. It has to get the arsenal of democracy going again. Right now, the arsenal of democracy is in Ukraine, not the United States. 4X

I will never understand how the United States military has watched the Ukraine war and was so impossibly unprepared for Iran’s drones. It borders on the failure of Task Force Smith to be prepared for the Korean War.

If you’re having a bad year, just remember: Mark Zuckerberg wasted $73 billion on the Metaverse. Tim Cook wasted $10 billion on the Apple Car. Jeff Bezos lost $10 billion chasing Alexa. Masayoshi Son lost $14B investing in WeWork and missed out on $150 billion by selling Nvidia early. Cathie Wood dumped Nvidia right before ChatGPT launched and missed $1.2B Logan Paul bought an NFT for $630,000 in 2021. Today, it's worth only $140. Even the RICH and famous get it completely wrong sometimes.

WordPress is still underrated as a place to host small tools. Not everything needs to become a separate SaaS. Sometimes the right shape is a calculator, portal, dashboard, or campaign tool that lives close to the content and data the client already manages.

This is a great story about how Trump and his family are profiting off the renaming of the Palm Beach International Airport, with the blessing of Fla Gov. Ron DeSantis. I guess everything is up for grabs in America these days, with no input from local taxpayers or voters.

Pete Hegseth: “The single dumbest phrase in military history is ‘Our diversity is our strength.’” Actually, the single dumbest phrase in military history is “Secretary of War Pete Hegseth.” Pete said this to West Point’s Class of 2026, which is 21% women and 40% non-white.

I love how MAGA apologists who ignored or even celebrated Trump’s character flaws now suddenly discover them and pretend to be brave truth tellers. When it would have cost them, they happily promoted the cult. Now they’re like “oh my God it’s a cult! Why can’t you see it?!”

Kasparov: Nothing will happen in Russia unless Ukraine wins the war. Period. Ukraine must win, Russia must lose. Any war that ends “okay” for Russia strengthens the regime; only Ukrainian victory can open the road to change by proving the empire is dead. 1/

As this war stumbles to a close, it is clear that the president is lost: He didn’t know what he was doing when he began it, and now he doesn’t know how to get out of it. theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/05/…

You are seeing in real time why Trump companies went bankrupt so many times. Set aside your politics. This guy is incapable of making a deal or meaningful decision and it follows the same cycle. Big flashy announcement (Epic Fury). Adversity hits (Hormuz closed). Defraud stakeholders (promise two week solution). Freeze up (endless two week cycle loop). Compound the problem (resource depletion). Final chance to save face rejected (what you’re seeing now). Bankruptcy strikes and blame others during chaos. Rinse repeat.

I never stop being amazed by them. Launching their “Birdhouse” — a strategic-class missile worth around $100 million, capable of carrying a nuclear warhead — at a garage complex in the Kyiv region. Let’s calculate how much this night cost them. One “Oreshnik” — roughly $100 million. Around ninety cruise and ballistic missiles: Kh-101s, Kalibrs, Iskander-Ks — at an average price of about $8 million each — that’s another roughly $720 million. Six hundred Shahed drones at $50,000 each — another $30 million. Plus fuel, launch platforms, maintenance, reconnaissance. Total: around $850 million for a single night. Nearly a billion dollars. And what did they get for that billion? They hit garages in Bila Tserkva. Destroyed the “Kvadrat” shopping mall. Set the roof of a dormitory on fire in Darnytskyi district. Blew apart an entrance section of a five-story apartment building in Shevchenkivskyi district. Hit a market. A supermarket. A construction hypermarket in Obolon. Dropped debris onto the Valeriy Lobanovskyi Dynamo Stadium. Two sleeping civilians killed. Fifty-six wounded, including children. Is this their strategic result for a billion dollars? This is their “special operation.” This is their “greatness.” They cannot move forward on the battlefield. Cannot seize a single truly significant settlement. Cannot defeat the army of a country they promised to capture in three days four years ago. And in convulsions, in agony, in powerless rage, they strike residential neighborhoods at night — museums, markets, shops, garages. Impotent on the battlefield, compensating for their failure with the number of munitions fired at sleeping civilians. Blind evil and helplessness at the same time. Monsters. Simply monsters. Rabid, paranoid lunatics with a nuclear button. I have no other words left for them.

The moment of one of today’s Russian strikes on Kyiv. I can see that fewer and fewer people are reading news from Ukraine. I understand that on a Sunday morning, people don’t want to read about war. They want to sleep a little longer, drink good coffee, and sit in the sun. I understand that. The algorithms on X limit content about war, destruction, and suffering. You have to make an effort to even see this information. All of this is understandable on a human level. But unfortunately, if you remove Putin and the war from your information feed, they do not disappear from reality. Putin is a sadist and a maniac. He is a threat to all of humanity. There needs to be active resistance. News from Ukraine needs to be shared. People need to keep their focus. Despite a sleepless night, I’m still here. And I’m grateful to everyone who continues to stand with us. One day, we’ll drink morning coffee together in a beautiful, peaceful Kyiv.

Donald Trump promised the war in Iran would end with unconditional surrender. But he never said which country would do the surrendering.

In other words, the war is over, we're stumbling toward some version of the JCPOA, America is out billions of dollars and lots of weapons that we didn't need to waste, and the United States is now weaker and Iran in a strategically stronger position. And for what?