Fodder #52

What's Trending? What's Transcendent?

Aug 01, 2025

We’re here. We did it. It’s a year of Fodder, which means it’s been a year of writing consistently here and that feels pretty good.

I did a little AI dive into all of this text over the last year (because, of course) and here’s some details:

Most discussed topics: AI (every issue after #30), Bitcoin (17 mentions), Education (15 mentions)
Major Recurring Themes: The AI Revolution as Chronicle, The Furious Opposites Philosophy, Energy & Infrastructure, Education (classical ↔ AI-native), Attention/Phones & Culture
Recurring Characters: Elon Musk: (From hero to villain to hero again, tracked weekly), Bitcoin/Crypto, Trump, Biden, Zuck, AI Labs
Consistent juxtaposition:
- Ephemeral tech news vs timeless wisdom
- Digital acceleration vs human embodiment
- Progress vs tradition
- Safety vs innovation
Hidden Patterns:
- Issues published around major holidays (Thanksgiving, Easter) tend to be more philosophical
- You often bury the most insightful links in the middle of news roundups
- There's an interesting pattern where you'll introduce a concept casually (like "legibility") then return to it 5-10 issues later in depth
- Your tweet curation has evolved from explanation to pure vibes

You’re absolutely right! Now it’s not all about me and the world keeps delivering excitement and surprises.. let’s keep going!

Zuck released a letter. And a video. A glimmer of AI self-improvement has been seen. The team is sharing it. Almost a year ago, I predicted Zuck as the man of the decade. Still no telling whether he’ll succeed in this landscape, but he’s been making moves. And the board is now set. The die is cast. Thinking Machines and Anthropic people aren’t moving, even for a billy. We have the teams we’ll have for now: Ilya, Mira, Sam, Mark, Dario, Demis. What a blitz we’re living through.

I know superintelligence is the goal, but I’m really happy to just have robots do my laundry. It’s our dream come true. Increasing GDP for everyone! But a reminder that Zuck is also building a bunker in Hawaii. So, you know, we’ll see.

This week had all the trade “deals” before August 1. South Korea. India, but also 25% tariffs. Brazil gets 40%. Mexico is extended. The entire EU gets a 15% tariff and starts buying US energy. That meeting was in Europe, by the way, at Trump’s Turnberry property. So EU leaders still had to travel to him. And there were others. The FOMC met and changed nothing.

MSFT reported strong earnings. So did Meta. Keep buying Facebook ads, they’re fueling those 9 and 10 figure AI offers. CapEx continues. Ethereum turns ten this week. Coinbase teams up with JP Morgan. Every train guy gets excited by a transcontinental merger. De minimis shipping ends in a month, killing Temu. Figma IPOs. Saylor keeps buying more Bitcoin. And then there’s Strategy earnings. Nobody was paying attention. Analysts said 7 cents a share. Strategy posted $32.60 a share, and $10B net income. Just a little off.

The US snubs the Taiwanese president while China negotiations continue. Keir Starmer announces a plan for Gaza. The EPA eliminates the Obama-era Endangerment findings, dropping regulation back to the 1970s-era Clean Air act. Even more importantly, they deregulated gas cans, which I’m sure is some sort of gerontological pun. Makes no difference in Maryland though, where I’m mandated to move to battery-powered everything.

An 8.8 magnitude earthquake hits off Russia. Waves spiked, but no major damage. Stargate goes to Norway. St. John Henry Newman will be a Doctor of the Church! The White House announces a new ballroom, right after Powell got in trouble for the Federal Reserve getting an upgrade. Triple H comes in as the MAGA paragon of health.

A new IVF startup puts an IQ slider on their embryo selection process. Pick your smartest kid and freeze the rest! And speaking of good genes, Sydney Sweeney has some and breaks everything. Jeans are fascist. Lean into it. The memes are so wild I’ve got to believe some are fake? Regardless, the 2020 ad era is done. Beauty is back, guys, not eugenics.

On to the reading!

Timely

On Spiritual Manipulation - This is a fabulous example of why the modern rejection of religion is leaving such a deep hole in our culture. We don’t even understand the dangers in front of us. What happens when your logic is sound and totally rational, and still locks you up and leaves you paralyzed?
College Admissions - Zvi does a deep dive into the state of admissions in a way only Zvi can. When a kid with a 34 ACT, 4.0 GPA, and a thriving $30mm a year business gets rejected from every Ivy, we need to admit it: college is busted.
The Carousel of Progress is Broken - An apt review of some of the bigger AI progress think pieces of the last year and how fast the rate of progress is actually changing.
Texts as Toys - I love this framing from Rao. AI is playful - ludic - in a way most other technology isn’t. Depending on how you play games, this can lead to brilliant new work or devolve into traps.

Timeless

Do conversations end when people want them to? - Awesome research by Adam Mastroianni on something that seems like, given how acculturated and social we humans are, ought to have an evolved answer.
If GLP-1 Drugs Are Good For Everything, Should We All Be on Them? - I’m not going to lie.. despite my experience with them I still wonder this. Timeless because it really could be something that helps everyone?
In Praise of Land Lines - Something I’ve been thinking a lot about lately is the value of friction. Friction imposes certain constraints in our lives that can be both annoying, and good. Land lines and pen pals are good examples. Slow communication helps kids learn more about the cadence and how it should work.
Growth and Ideas - An academic paper on the nonrivalrous nature of ideas. That sounds fancy and whatnot, but at least try the introduction. It’s worth thinking about what makes ideas so different from other goods, why they’re special, how they can combine, and how they spread.

Bonus

If there’s some videos you should watch or listen to this week, here they are!

Books

Co-intelligence by Ethan Mollick - A delightful little book on the different personas of AI and how this affects our daily use of them, from a professor at Wharton who studies innovation. There are great sections on AI both as tutor and as coach. The writing is in a more popular-book, middle-of-the-curve style, but the ideas throughout are still very strong.