Long ago I was on a train ride from Seattle to Portland. A voice came over the PA and with a Spanish accent said there was a giant octopus in the lake we were passing, and the bridge we were about to cross had recently collapsed. Later another voice came over the PA and said this is your conductor, that was a porter who you heard recently, we’ll be letting him off at the next station and he won’t be coming back on any of our trains. I won’t say there isn’t a giant octopus in that lake, and I won’t say there is. As far as the bridge, well, anyone can build a bridge, but it takes an engineer to barely build a bridge.

2026-02-04

X-jobs are jobs that are AI-proof, they’ll always exist, for sure. Y-jobs are jobs that probably have a few generations left before they are taken over by AI. Z-jobs are jobs that are now, or will soon, be taken over by AI.

I don’t think there are enough Y-jobs to take in all the former Z-jobs workers. And I don’t think there are enough X-jobs to take in some of the former Y-job workers and all of the former Z-job workers.

So the post-AI change becomes X-jobs, some Y-jobs (for a while), and lots of post-job people. So many post-job people that no amount of taxation of X-job and Y-job people can support them. In some places this will mean mass starvation. In other places this will mean some form of universal basic income / welfare.

As for myself, I don’t think there are any X-jobs. But others do, so for them I include such a group in this post.

2026-02-13

I think that Marx idea that money is fully subject to mathematics is the problem, and the Veblen idea that money is a lot of math but also a lot of psychology is more accurate. When you add in “but that’s crazy!” not as a sign of a problem in an economic model, but a recognition that human craziness is part of economics, economics makes more sense.

2026-02-15

Truth as the central virtue is the treasure of atheists-in-waiting. It is true that God can be surprised (therefore God who knows all is not God) or it is true that God cannot be surprised (therefore God who can accomplish all is not God). Faith as the central virtue allows for both, neither, mystery, and the unknown.

2026-02-20

If you get mad enough
And act all deranged
Maybe time will reverse
And history will change

But you have to act madder
Past the point of mind snapping
Because to this point
Past-changing don’t happen

2026-02-21