Chaotic Permanence, Sex Differences, Elon Musk

Links and recommendations

You can now watch my recent conversation with Freddy Gray of The Spectator, where we spoke at the ARC conference in London.

Links for Spotify and Apple Podcast.

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NYC Event:

To celebrate the paperback launch of Troubled, I’ll be in conversation with Dr. Drew at a live event in New York City. March 17 at 6pm.

Details and registration here.

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My latest in City Journal:

Reflections on my recent decision to move to New York City

Chaotic Permanence

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Links and recommendations:

• Why do people believe true things? by

  Dan Williams

• OnlyFans Sticky Business Model by

  Trungphan2

• A Free Article About Paywalls by

  Cartoons Hate Her

• We Learned About Sex Differences. Then We Lost Our Minds. by

  Alex Kaschuta

• The Investment Model of Relationships by

  W. Keith Campbell

• Selection Explains Some—But Not All—of the Benefits of Marriage For Young Adults by Rosemary L. Hopcroft

• Follow me on Instagram here. The platform is less volatile and more chill than Twitter/X, so I post some spicier excerpts from my readings on my IG stories

• You can follow me on TikTok here

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Three interesting findings:

1. In the history of psychology, no variable of any kind predicts creativity and creative achievement as strongly or as consistently as openness. Identifying artists who are low in openness is a difficult job. They don’t seem to exist. (source: The Mind of the Artist: Personality and the Drive to Create by William Todd Schultz).

2. 65 percent of student loan debt is held by Americans with incomes higher than the national average. Just 12 percent of student debt is held by the poorest Americans. Any student debt forgiveness that happens largely goes to the top half of society. (source; my thoughts on student loan forgiveness here).

3. Young women have become significantly more liberal over the last decade, while young men have stayed relatively the same. This leads many to fear that as young men are resisting the tides of change, they may be vulnerable to far-right groups. (source). There doesn’t seem to be an equivalent fear about young women. Probably because young women who adopt extreme political views are less physically dangerous, and have historically not been responsible for as much political violence as men. Still, I am intrigued at how uncurious people are about why women have moved so sharply to the left and focus more on young men who have largely remained politically stationary. My thoughts on the political gender divide here.