Socialism, Violent Men, Infectious Siblings, Babbling Babies
Links and recommendations
You can now watch my discussion about socialism with Leyla Taghiyeva, a Stossel TV Fellow:
From the archives:
Why (Some) Women are Attracted to Violent Men. An evolutionary explanation:
The Only Reading App I Use:
I’ve been using Readwise since April of 2021.
If you follow me on Instagram or Twitter/X, you’ll know I regularly share screenshots like this from books or articles I’ve read:
These screenshots come from my Readwise app.
Readwise aggregates your reading highlights from various sources like Kindle, Apple Books, Substack, Twitter, and so on. It stores your highlights in one place, making it easier to stay on top of your reading.
Each morning, it emails me 8 random excerpts from different books I’ve read. Since 2021, that daily message has been a quiet ritual for me: fragments from books I half‑forgot are resurfaced, like my own past self giving me a tap on the shoulder.
Moreover, when I’m thinking about a particular topic, a quick search pulls up not just my notes but every highlighted Kindle passage I’ve ever saved on the topic.
Exclusive Offer for My Readers
Use this link → https://readwise.io/robkhenderson/ to try Readwise free for 60 days (double the length of the standard free trial).
I suspect, like me, you’ll wonder how you ever read without it.
Links and recommendations:
A Contrarian Argument for Office Romances by Roy Baumeister
Why do sociologists think that they are critical theorists? by Joseph Heath
How Does Our Taste in Movies Change With Age? by Daniel Parris
How Two California Cities Are Reducing Street Homelessness by Tom Wolf
Are DSA Mayors the Future of the Democratic Party? by Charles Fain Lehman
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
Three interesting findings:
1. Researchers have long wondered why older siblings tend to be, on average, more successful than younger siblings. Scott Alexander explored this question a few years ago and didn’t reach any strong conclusions. A new study finds that a major factor seems to be that older siblings bring home germs which can affect younger siblings’ brain development. Exposure to respiratory viruses before a baby’s first birthday consistently predicted reduced earnings. Half or more of the gap in life outcomes between older and younger siblings can be attributed to pathogens inadvertently brought home by older siblings. (source). One of those findings that sits in the sweet spot between counter-intuitive and obvious; it is both surprising and immediately makes sense when you hear it. Maybe the lesson here is to make sure older sibs wash up as soon as they get home.
2. Women may have evolved to be more concerned about their looks. A survey of more than 90,000 people from 93 nations found that, in every single one, women devote more time than men to enhancing their appearance. (source: A Billion Years of Sex Differences by Steve Stewart-Williams).
3. This isn’t a finding from a study or a survey, just a personal observation: My sister’s 6-month-old infant is going through a phase now where whenever my sister is in conversation with someone, the baby immediately begins babbling or making loud noises. As soon as my sister stops talking, the baby goes quiet. The babbling only comes when she hears her mom engaged in conversation with another person. The evolutionary psychologist in me thinks this is to ensure the mom doesn’t get too distracted; it is as if the infant is saying “While you’re talking to someone else, don’t forget I’m here and your main job is to keep me alive; don’t let your attention wander too far from me!” Related essay here.
The paperback version of Troubled: A Memoir of Foster Care, Family, and Social Class is now available.
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Audible (I narrated the audiobook myself)
I think we need to strongly consider the class implications of political belief (like socialism), and the psychology/emotional needs those beliefs meet. Rob, you’ve already done this with your “luxury beliefs” framing. Political ideologies (especially among the upper class) rarely seem like sincere expressions of policy desires these days.
https://jmpolemic.substack.com/p/our-ruling-class
When I read the interesting fact about respiratory disease transmission to younger children I immediately thought about FREDO in The Godfather 2. Remember that scene when he is an ill child and they try to heal him with a butterfly 🦋.
Did Mario Puzzo somehow intuit this?!