What I've been reading on Substack
Why is Pakistan one of the poorest nations in the Islamic world? I would also add that economic performance tended to be better with the army in charge. Zia-ul-Haq and Musharraf are prime examples. Hence, I'm sceptical of the notion that Pakistan’s political institutions are uniquely bad in comparison with the rest of the Muslim world. My priors point towards cultural factors: Pakistan is still a largely rural, tribal society, like neighbouring Afghanistan. Indeed, there are more Pashtuns in Pakistan than Afghanistan - the two countries are more similar culturally than many think. India on the other hand has been much more adept at embracing globalisation and urbanisation, particularly in the South and near Mumbai. India yielding closer ties to the West, and having a much more globalised cultural mindset, likely helps. Also the floods will have exerted a large toll on Pakistan's economy.
A good primer on the economy of Africa, with predictions. Growth to the second largest, and youngest, continent can only be a positive. African growth is also necessary to eradicate the few remaining pockets of extreme poverty, overwhelmingly concentrated in Africa, left. The issue I believe is regional heterogeneity: the non-Sahel west, east, and southern parts I expect to continue with rapid growth. Those nations are embracing (albeit incrementally) the necessary structural and institutional reforms, for the most part. The issues are in the Sahel, DRC, and the Horn, where civil conflict is still the norm.
On how to get jacked without steroids. I would add though that there's an optimal amount of protein consumption regarding longevity; excess protein intake could increase the risk of cancer (as I'll explain further in my series), and most in America and Britain are already exceeding the recommended amounts. This is one of few those areas where there could be a tradeoff between longevity vs attractiveness.
This sort of article is Richard Hanania at his best.
I've also noticed that all illiberal ideologies seem united by a Manichean worldview; differing only in who are their friends vs enemies.
I sympathise with the overall sentiment. I tend to read a Wikipedia overview of a fiction book before progressing. I'm not going to waste time reading something I won't enjoy just for the sake of reading a classic! When I found out that Tolstoy's War and Peace was a narrative of the Napoleonic Wars infused with his pacifist philosophy, that was enough for me to understand the book and to move on.
An important lesson in how to write good fiction. Minimalism may work for factual discourse, but in a genre where perspective-taking drives consumption, you don't want to be stingy on the background environmental details.
This also demonstrates why nature vs nurture cannot easily be decomposed into a binary distinction. You may have the gene for lactose intolerance, yet if you are raised drinking milk, that gene becomes redundant.
‘Magpies were originally known simply as “pies” until the nickname “Mag”, short for Maggie, short for Margaret was added to the front sometime in the Middle Ages. Before it began to be treated as a single word, it was rendered as “Mag Pie”, a sort of fanciful full name for the creature. I tried to tell this to a friend and he refused to believe me (I think he still doesn’t) but the provenance is quite clear: pie originated from the Latin name for the bird, pica. You may have heard pica used to describe the human disorder of consuming inedible substances, which comes from the magpie’s reputation as an indiscriminate eater.’
Why you should be careful what you wish for. The lifestyle that comes with fame will not suit everyone…
It seems that Stoppard had the legacy of Bernard Shaw but with better political views.
This is the best advice in this genre I’ve ever read. Unfortunately, I don't think it will see results. Why? I increasingly believe that men who struggle to get laid are disproportionately impotent or asexual, and low in promiscuity, so they cannot take the first step. If this wasn't the case, they'd just use escorts, and no longer feel bad about their lack of sex.
In one paper, “rising housing costs explain roughly half of the decline in the total fertility rate between the 2000s and 2010s”. A stark indictment on the externalities of NIMBYism. A useful aggregator of the current economic literature on fertility rates. Culture may explain cross-country or cultural differences, but not the trends over time, where the net returns (asset or liability) to childbearing are the main factor.