Ran Prieur

July 9.

2025-07-09T21:10:11Z

July 9. Going the opposite direction from Monday, I think it takes a lot of effort to make life this frantic and unsatisfying, and a much better world is pretty easy. Here's an article about Iceland's four day work week:

The trial was designed to reduce work hours from the standard 40-hour week to just 35 or 36 hours, without reducing employees' pay.... Employees reported significant improvements in job satisfaction, mental health, and work-life balance. This was coupled with a noticeable reduction in stress and a decline in instances of burnout.... This was not just a benefit for employees; businesses began to see tangible improvements in output, suggesting that a well-rested workforce is more effective and efficient.

Mirror of a NY Times article about a Space-Out Competition in Seoul. "Part pageant and part boredom-endurance challenge, it requires participants to repose in silence for an hour and a half, with gentle interruptions every 15 minutes to have their heart rates measured."

From PsyPost, New brain stimulation method shows promise for treating mood, anxiety, and trauma disorders. I continue to think that AI is overhyped and transcranial brain hacking is going to be huge.

Mood and anxiety disorders are often linked to overactivity in the amygdala. While some treatments like medication and talk therapy may help regulate this region, non-invasive brain stimulation options like transcranial magnetic stimulation have limited ability to reach deeper brain areas. Focused ultrasound, by contrast, can target these deeper areas directly and precisely.

July 7.

2025-07-07T19:50:09Z

July 7. Some links about late stage capitalism eating itself, starting with many of the answers in this Reddit thread, What is currently on the brink of collapse but no one is talking about it? Ominously, it includes both private equity, and businesses not owned by private equity.

Good blog post on Engineered Addictions. "The pattern is always the same: start with connection, end with extraction."

Long article (thanks Jason), That Dropped Call With Customer Service? It Was on Purpose

And a short rant, Are we the baddies?

You want to opt out of this all you say? Good luck running a competitive business! Every metric is now a target. You better maximize engagement or you will lose engagement this is a red queen's race we can't afford to lose! Burn all the social capital, burn all your values, FEED IT ALL TO MOLOCH!

July 4.

2025-07-04T16:20:05Z

July 4. For the holiday, posting negative links about America would be too easy, so here are some positive links about America, starting with a mostly fun Reddit thread, What's the most American thing you've done?

America's Incarceration Rate Is About to Fall Off a Cliff, basically because the career criminal boomers are dying off.

ICEBlock climbs to the top of the App Store charts. The application "allows users to add a pin on a map to show where ICE agents have recently been spotted."

Not exclusively American, or necessarily good, but this thread makes me smile. What profession has way more people on illegal drugs than people realize? "Every single meal at every restaurant you've enjoyed has been lovingly prepared by a team of potheads. If it's a fancy restaurant then it's coke heads."

And a cool video from 2018, Washington, DC to Seattle: A Complete Road Trip

July 2.

2025-07-02T14:00:19Z

July 2. Today, metaphysics. Since the last post, I've been trying to figure out this new idea about the three dimensions of time, because the articles don't explain it well. In three dimensions of space, the third dimension is a whole new direction. But in time, they're saying that the third dimension is just a way to "access" the second dimension. Why can't you use the second to access the second, like you can in space?

Matt mentioned a train station, and the metaphor popped. The first dimension is a single train track, a normal timeline where a bunch of things happen in sequence. The second dimension is all the train tracks. And while it's possible in theory to switch from one train to another out on the tracks, in practice you always switch trains in the station, which is the third dimension. Just as the station is outside the tracks, the third dimension is outside time as we know it.

Donald Hoffman says that time and space are data structures and not the fundamental reality. The best explanation I've read, of how time and space are constructed out of consciousness and relationships, is in the 1982 book Physics as Metaphor by Roger Jones. And this is a cool Jaron Lanier piece from 2006, Does time come together like an island of boats floating on the open seas?

This also fits with many near death experiences that report a realm outside time. From Michael Talbot's 1991 book The Holographic Universe, lightly edited:

The Aboriginal concept of the "dreamtime" is almost identical to the afterlife planes of existence decribed in Western sources. It is the realm where human spirits go after death, and once there a shaman can converse with the dead and instantly access all knowledge. It is also a dimension in which time, space, and the other boundaries of earthly life cease to exist. Because of this, Australian shamans often refer to the afterlife as "survival in infinity."