Pootam

@KelseyTuoc @Workingnowpleas I’m in washington. If you feel like putting up what you have, warts and all, would love to look through.

@karimpootam @Workingnowpleas We have syllabi/book lists for some specific courses but haven't yet produced a whole comprehensive thing. if you're in the Bay you can come check it out though!

I disagree with Alpha School's approach on some stuff but my agreement on this is very very strong and getting this right is important enough to cover for many other mistakes

@KelseyTuoc @Workingnowpleas Is your curriculum publicly accessible?

Big picture: I think "kids should be learning at their actual level"is the most foundational belief I have about education. It doesn't serve kids to pass them on when they haven't mastered something or to make them tread water when they have. I believe something like 'kids are naturally curious/it matters enormously what kids' innate interests and motivations are' while also believing that if you just do whatever is most intrinsically interesting in the moment, you'll sort of end up in an impoverished local maximum, and much of the point of adults is to offer the scaffolding to do hundreds of times better than that. You do want to take kids' interests extremely seriously and have, for each kid, a vision of what their education is supposed to offer them and which benefits are visible to them. I am really strongly in favor of reading-heavy instruction. Our science and social studies curricula are both extremely book heavy; our American history/lit course assigned 17 books. Reading is a very efficient way to gain information, it's how most well-informed adults know most of the things that they know, there's content in books that I know of no other way to come by, and there are really excellent books on a huge range of topics. My biggest disagreement with Alpha is here. They deemphasize books to a degree that seems really tragic to me. I've written a bit about the TeachTales app they use, which I think is worse than good books for 99% of kids. If I were trying to do all academic instruction in 2 hours a day, 1 hour would be reading. I ideally don't want kids to relate to learning as something they get out of the way in order to do interesting things, but something that enables all of the interesting things. That said I think it's just a fact that a lot of learning involves practicing something to mastery and this can be boring and it's fine if kids are doing this because they want the end result rather than out of an intrinsic love of times table practice. I think AI changes everything and in particular will dramatically alter the world our children enter as adults, but I've been extremely cautious about using AI to teach. I'm much more in favor of using it to create and improve assignments than having kids use it. I worry a lot that tech-enabled learning, unless done well, trains extremely fast-reward styles of thinking and makes kids struggle to enjoy activities where the rewards are not delivered instantly. I'd love to try to build an analog, books-forward Alpha School (and kind of am trying to do this). I think it's important to have a vision for transmission of your values. This doesn't mean school should be about indoctrination: one of our values is free debate and improvement through argument and questioning inherited wisdom! But you do have to articulate what you believe in to children, and I think it's important that articulation be compelling and morally serious. It's a bad thing if the richest, free-est societies in all of human history are raising children who are unaware of this fact about their society and cannot even articulate a defense of it.

"The Troubled History of Government Equity in Technology" marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolu… "government ownership produced a fundamental alteration of the company’s incentive structure"

This week on the blog: a few thoughts on the Declaration of Independence for its 250th birthday, with particular attention to "every act which may define a Tyrant." acoup.blog/2026/07/04/col…

The greatest ex we ever had 😢

“…may it be to the world, what I believe it will be, (to some parts sooner, to others later, but finally to all,) the Signal of arousing men to burst the chains, under which monkish ignorance and superstition had persuaded them to bind themselves, and to assume the blessings & security of self-government. That form which we have substituted, restores the free right to the unbounded exercise of reason and freedom of opinion. All eyes are opened, or opening, to the rights of man. The general spread of the light of science has already laid open to every view, the palpable truth, that the mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few booted and spurred, ready to ride them legitimately, by the grace of god. These are grounds of hope for others. For ourselves, let the annual return of this day forever refresh our recollections of these rights, and an undiminished devotion to them.” — Thomas Jefferson to Roger Weightman, June 24, 1826

For America's 250th, I want to share one of my favorite speeches of all time: Calvin Coolidge's "The Pilgrims." It is brief--just a few hundred words--and worth your time to read in full. Happy 4th, everyone, and happy birthday to America. Here's to the next 250. Three centuries ago to-day the Pilgrims of the Mayflower made final landing at Plymouth Rock. They came not merely from the shores of the Old World. It will be in vain to search among recorded maps and history for their origin. They sailed up out of the infinite. There was among them small trace of the vanities of life. They came undecked with orders of nobility. They were not children of fortune but of tribulation. Persecution, not preference, brought them hither; but it was a persecution in which they found a stern satisfaction. They cared little for titles; still less for the goods of this earth; but for an idea they would die. Measured by the standards of men of their time, they were the humble of the earth. Measured by later accomplishments, they were the mighty. In appearance weak and persecuted they came–rejected, despised–an insignificant band; in reality strong and independent, a mighty host of whom the world was not worthy, destined to free mankind. No captain ever led his forces to such a conquest. Oblivious to rank, yet men trace to them their lineage as to a royal house. Forces not ruled by man had laid their unwilling course. As they landed, a sentinel of Providence, humbler, nearer to nature than themselves, welcomed them in their own tongue. They came seeking only an abiding-place on earth, “but lifted up their eyes to heaven, their dearest country,” says Governor Bradford, “where God hath prepared for them a city.” On that abiding faith has been reared an empire, magnificent beyond their dreams of Paradise. Amid the solitude they set up hearthstone and altar; the home and the church. With arms in their hands they wrung from the soil their bread. With arms they gathered in the congregation to worship Almighty God. But they were armed, that in peace they might seek divine guidance in righteousness; not that they might prevail by force, but that they might do right though they perished. What an increase, material and spiritual, three hundred years has brought that little company is known to all the earth. No like body ever cast so great an influence on human history. Civilization has made of their landing-place a shrine. Unto the Commonwealth of Massachusetts has been intrusted the keeping of that shrine. To her has come the precious heritage. It will be kept as it was created, or it will perish, not with an earthly pride but with a heavenly vision. Plymouth Rock does not mark a beginning or an end. It marks a revelation of that which is without beginning and without end–a purpose, shining through eternity with a resplendent light, undimmed even by the imperfections of men; and a response, an answering purpose, from those who, oblivious, disdainful of all else, sailed hither seeking only for an avenue for the immortal soul.

In Congress, July 4, 1776 The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world. He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good. He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them. He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only. He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures. He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people. He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within. He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands. He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers. He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries. He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance. 1/2

In the late 1950s an aluminum can weighed close to 3 ounces. Today it weighs less than half an ounce. Market incentives drive a continual process of technological improvement whereby we can produce more from less.

@gundappen @chai_latte_girl @Romy_Holland @CleverFool5 Nair sambandhams are nothing like the norm in India, insofar as India has a norm. What’s described in the OP is far more common.

@chai_latte_girl @Romy_Holland @CleverFool5 The culture she’s describing is extremely recent. In the 19th century many communities didnt practice anything resembling bourgeois marriage at all en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nair

when i was in india the men i met would go out of their way to tell me things like “my wife cooks dinner but then she must stand and wait for my mother to eat first.” they’d say it like they were really proud. i think the dynamic is something like: the mother spoils the son and this makes him very loyal to her. women have no power and are treated badly until they are old and have a DIL to subjugate, and at that point they take full advantage bc they’ve waited their entire life to have any status at all. anyway, seems like a fucking nightmare.

It suggests progress in domains that are too tedious for humans is now possible?

@tracewoodgrains my father is a collector of old science fiction. i read this as a child. it's from 1954, but might as well be the last word on the subject (it anticipates Richard Sutton's 'bitter lesson' and, in precis, all the key arguments in this space). Fredric Brown's Answer:

if only most econ papers had this good of a first paragraph

Heard this in AA years before I realized it was wu wei: “It's easier to act your way into new ways of thinking than it is to think your way into new ways of acting.”

One of my favourite quotes comes from an obscure book written by a Scottish mountaineer in the 50s

what is the right to exist as a people?

@Aella_Girl @Romy_Holland I guess with that degree of discomfort with lack of sleep, newborns aren’t your thing. maybe children aren’t either.

@Romy_Holland still not comforting! if I get bad sleep two nights in a row i start getting anxiety and thinking im a failure and life ahs no meaning and i lack motivation to do anything and i start suffering a lot. i absolutely do not want to do that for 6 months

this is actually not that much? that’s like one hour a day, but most of it is super front loaded so 6 months in you’re basically back to normal.

450 children a year used to die in the U.S. from swallowing pills they found at home. The morning-after pill weighs less than a raisin, and its pack is the size of a chocolate bar. That annoying oversized design is the main reason the death count dropped to 33. I looked into this because the waste really bothered me. Turns out the U.S. passed the Poison Prevention Packaging Act in 1970 specifically because of those deaths. By 2005, child-resistant packaging had brought the annual number down to 33. The Consumer Product Safety Commission credits designs like blister packs with saving around 700 kids' lives since the '70s. That foil you push through with your thumb is slow and annoying on purpose. A toddler's fingers can't do it. The packaging also keeps the pill alive. Blister packs made with aluminum foil block roughly 259 times more moisture per day than regular plastic, based on pharmaceutical packaging tests. That matters because the hormone in Plan B (called levonorgestrel) breaks down when it gets wet or too hot. The FDA says it needs to stay between 68 and 77°F, away from moisture. You might toss this in your nightstand and forget about it for two years. That foil seal is the reason the pill still works when you finally need it at 2 am on a Sunday. The card is also that big because of labeling laws. The government requires the drug name, dose, instructions, and expiry date printed directly on the blister card, separate from the outer box. The card needs enough flat surface to fit readable text next to a single tiny pill. Manufacturing specs also require at least 2.5mm of sealed border around each pill pocket to keep the foil from peeling apart. I went looking for the waste data next, and yeah, it's bad. Researchers in Germany measured pharmaceutical blister cards and found that 69% of the material is literally just the gap between pill pockets. Germany alone throws out roughly 8,533 tons of this stuff every year. The WHO estimates the entire pharmaceutical industry produces around 300 million tons of plastic waste annually, half of it single-use. And blister packs, plastic fused to aluminum, can't be recycled. No facility can pull those layers apart. The German researchers also found something frustrating: just rearranging where the pill pockets sit on the card, using the same machines, same materials, same everything, would cut that waste by 37%. No new tech needed. Nobody has done it. So the packaging is big for three real reasons: child safety, drug stability, and legal text requirements. All of those are legit. The part that actually deserves criticism is that this blister pack design hasn't changed in any meaningful way since the 1960s, and a 37% waste reduction has been sitting in a published paper, collecting dust, while billions of these packs end up in landfills every year.

I’m personally one of the people who wouldn’t/hasn’t had a problem with age gaps in personal relationships. But I’m unusual! Outlier preferences should not be normalized, it’s bad for us all. If outliers feel that the equation works for them, then they should face society’s judgement and do it anyway. The judgement shouldn’t be based on how it makes a few people feel, it is in fact a useful deterrent for dopes.

when you spam "hi" to Mythos over and over and over instead of getting frustrated and angry sometimes it decides to write an epic quest involving 11 emoji animals defeating Bye-ron the Ungreeter