Why Are Palantir and OpenAI Scared of Alex Bores?
April 21, 2026•Episode #844
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Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life

Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life

Author: Anne Lamott
ISBN 13: 978-0385480017
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • An essential volume for generations of writers young and old. The twenty-fifth anniversary edition of this modern classic will continue to spark creative minds for years to come. Anne Lamott is "a warm, generous, and hilarious guide through the writer’s world and its treacherous swamps" ( Los Angeles Times ). ā€œSuperb writing advice…. Hilarious, helpful, and provocative.ā€ — The New York Times Book Review For a quarter century, more than a million readers—scribes and scribblers of all ages and abilities—have been inspired by Anne Lamott’s hilarious, big-hearted, homespun advice. Advice that begins with the simple words of wisdom passed down from Anne’s father—also a writer—in the iconic passage that gives the book its title: ā€œThirty years ago my older brother, who was ten years old at the time, was trying to get a report on birds written that he’d had three months to write. It was due the next day. We were out at our family cabin in Bolinas, and he was at the kitchen table close to tears, surrounded by binder paper and pencils and unopened books on birds, immobilized by the hugeness of the task ahead. Then my father sat down beside him, put his arm around my brother’s shoulder, and said, ā€˜Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird.ā€™ā€
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A Theory of Justice

A Theory of Justice

Author: John Rawls
ISBN 13: 978-0674000780
ā€œA milestone in political and moral philosophy, as groundbreaking as the theories of Bentham and Kant and arguably the most important and influential piece of contemporary philosophy of the last century.ā€ ―The Guardian The principles of justice that Rawls set forth in this book are those that free and rational people would accept in an ā€œoriginal positionā€ of equality. In this hypothetical situation, which corresponds to the state of nature in social contract theory, no one knows their place in society; their class or social status; their fortune in the distribution of natural assets and abilities―their intelligence, strength, and the like―or even their conception of the good. Deliberating behind this ā€œveil of ignorance,ā€ people naturally determine their proper rights and duties. Thus, as Rawls writes, ā€œeach person possesses an inviolability founded on justice that even the welfare of society as a whole cannot override.ā€ Incorporating the ideas of Rousseau, Kant, Emerson, and Lincoln, Rawls’s theory is as powerful today as it was when first published in 1971. For more than half a century, A Theory of Justice has been taught and debated, celebrated and translated into more than thirty languages. This revised edition includes changes, discussed in the preface, that Rawls considered to be significant, especially to the discussions of liberty and primary social goods.
World Eaters: How Venture Capital is Cannibalizing the Economy

World Eaters: How Venture Capital is Cannibalizing the Economy

Author: Catherine Bracy
ISBN 13: 978-0593473481
Longlisted for the Porchlight Business Book Award for Current Events & Public Affairs Longlisted for the Non-Obvious Book Award 2025 A Next Big Idea Book Club March 2025 Must-Read An urgent and illuminating perspective that offers a window into how the most pernicious aspects of the venture capital ethos is reaching all areas of our lives, into everything from healthcare to food to entertainment to the labor market and leaving a trail of destruction in its wake. The venture capital playbook is causing unique harms to society. And in World Eaters , Catherine Bracy offers a window into the pernicious aspects of VC and shows us how its bad practices are bleeding into all industries, undermining the labor and housing markets and posing unique dangers to the economy at large. VC’s creates a wide, powerful wake that impacts the average consumer just as much as it does investors and entrepreneurs. In researching this book, Bracy has interviewed founders, fund managers, contract and temp workers in the gig economy, and Limited Partners across the landscape. She learned that the current VC model is not a good fit for the majority of start-ups, and yet, there are too few options for early stage funding outside of VC dollars. And while there are some alternative paths for sustainable, responsible growth, without the help of regulators, there is not much motivation to drive investors from the roulette table that is venture capital. World Eaters is an eye-opening account of the ways that the values of contemporary venture capital hurt founders, consumers, and the market. Bracy’s clear-eyed debut is a must-read for fans of Winners Take All , Super Pumped , and Brotopia, an appealing ā€œinsider / outsiderā€ perspective on Silicon Valley, and those who are fascinated to look under the hood and learn why the modern economy is not working for most of us.
by @zachbellay