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When I started this Substack in 2020 as an outlet for my writing, my goal was to publish about every two weeks. The total for 2023, including this one, is 19, so a little short of that. As I write this, there are 8-10 drafts on deck for 2024 in various stages of completion. For new readers, here’s a compilation of this year’s output:
I opened the year with an update to my Boring Diet regimen. I can confirm that Catalina Crunch is still my go-to tool when the pants get a little tight:
January also featured the most foolish type of column, the annual economic predictions (we’ll check in on those predictions in January’s coming column):
In February I stepped in it again by reviewing the controversial Case for Christian Nationalism. My analysis of this book remains unchanged; Wolfe, in mining the Magisterial Reformation, equips Protestants to challenge secular globalism without committing to contingent, niche theologies:
March featured my reconsideration of Elon Musk as a Great Man of History. Further developments this year have only strengthened my view:
In March I applied the engineering superpower of dimensional analysis to OpenAI to predict, among other things, that progress would slow due to hardware costs exceeding software capabilities. That proved to be right, as Sam Altman saw the same bottleneck and was ousted (for a time) as CEO for his conflict of interest in raising money for a hardware manufacturer.
In a first, several mini-posts were aggregated together for Tom File Briefs, where I discuss avoiding sugar alcohols, resisted breath training, “banning” master’s degrees, a decent movie recommendation, a commentary on LLMs and thinking and derivative works, thoughts on the downsides of homeschooling teenagers, and reviews of The Age of Entitlement and Attia’s Outlive:
On Attia and Zone 2 exercise: Rhonda Patrick has been making a persuasive case recently that Attia’s insistence on Zone 2 exercise (low intensity, long duration) is wrong, that it is inferior to more time-efficient high-intensity exercise. Patrick’s logic here is sound; if other muscles grow in response to peak stimulus, why would the heart be any different? Good thing, because who wants to spend 4-5 hours a week on the treadmill to live a few more years.
In June, after much delay I published my apologetic for theism:
In June, two travel diaries from a trip to Ireland.
I didn’t get the impression on my trip that the native Irish were ready to riot to protest the government’s selling of their birthright, as they did later in the year. We will see if any meaningful changes occur in the Irish government, which would be quite hopeful given the general state of the Anglosphere.
In my second “briefs” format, topics include a review of my first Wendell Berry novel, predictions about the housing market, my newfound quasi-skepticism of vaccines (to be developed into a full post in 2024), plus reviews of Barbie and Oppenheimer:
August also featured a review of Lone Star as my attempt to better understand my adopted state:
Next, a review of Body by Science, which I judged to be the most safe and time-efficient approach to resistance training:
In my experience with his method, I think McGuff oversells it as a once-a-week all-in-one exercise solution. I have, however, had to cut it down from three days per week to two days per week as heavier weights demand more recovery. Other days feature varying intensities of aerobic activities.
I find I need some sort of exercise 6 days per week for personal psychology optimization. We all have ancient genes adapted to high-intensity physical activity under necessity but prone to energy conservation otherwise. Any expectation of healthy functioning without supplementing to ancient activity levels is delusional.
Next was a commentary linking the rise of Andrew Tate to a new, primitive patriarchy filling in the vacuum left by the Christian one abdicated by our great-grandfathers:
Attention then turned to Texas A&M’s search for a new President:
We hope to be pleasantly surprised by the new President Welsh. Vigilance is required either way.
October followed with my second column on theism, this time an empirically plausible case for Christianity enabling my faith:
November opened with a review of The Past Is a Future Country, Dr. Dutton’s wild ride through the demographic fever swamps:
This was followed later in the month by a review of The Missing Billionaires, a more rational indexing strategy:
Finally, December’s piece on the Dickensian case for charity and a rejoinder to Scrooge’s somewhat valid protests:
If you have the Substack app, I do post the occasional Substack Note, like this one from last week:
Thank you for your time reading this space and especially those of you who comment and sharpen my reasoning. Happy New Year!