I ran across a quote a long time ago, and it's stuck with me:

“Never, ever, think about something else when you should be thinking about the power of incentives.”
— Charlie Munger


This talk is both in transcript form and there's a YouTube audio of it as well.

I like this quote from Munger:

"I think I’ve been in the top 5% of my age cohort all my life in understanding the power of incentives, and all my life I’ve underestimated it. And never a year passes, but I get some surprise that pushes my limit a little farther."

So now, like a mad monkey who has just discovered the hammer, I will now go around using this tool of incentives and perverse incentives on everything. Maybe I'll get lucky and hit a few actual nails.

At root, I think the riots at the capitol are the result of a synergy of perverse incentives in politics, mass media, and social media, and they all contribute to a perfect storm of dysfunction. Maybe this is obvious to everyone, and I'm just catching up. But whatever. Here goes.

happy new year, all. i’ve barely had time to absorb new music or artists in 2020, because mostly i’ve been listening with ash, and all he wants is the Grease soundtrack over and over (and over. and over). but here’s a little list of my top ten. ready?

1. Fiona Apple - Fetch The Bolt Cutters
In Three Words: homespun percussive truth-bangers
For Fans Of: feminism, confessional lyrics
Note: not background listening

2. Phoebe Bridgers - Punisher
In Three Words: scream of consciousness
For Fans Of: kimya dawson, courtney barnett
Note: kills you softly

3. Laura Jane Grace - Stay Alive
In Three Words: laura spills survival
For Fans of: against me, punk, confessional songwriting
Note: listen to our podcast dammit

4. Reb Fountain - Reb Fountain
In Three Words: soft dark-soul dive
For Fans of: kathleen edwards, mazzy star
Note: she’s a new kiwi friend. and i just found out red is my COUSIN.

Ok. Here goes.

I track all my books at https://t.co/WLPKFEPoYK. I am going to go through the list and talk about the books I read in 2020 that struck me. Hopefully this won’t be 55 tweets long.

The first book I read in 2020 was this book about punk rock I think recommended by @dansinker

I love books about music and especially music that I enjoy. I learned a lot reading this book and it introduced me to a number of bands. Was fun.

I will read anything by Ken Liu. This collections is wonderful. The story “The Paper Menagerie” broke my heart. I loved it so so much.

A friend recommended Infinite Detail and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I often think about the techno utopian world that we have build and what will happen in the future. This book details a very bizarre and weird future building on a lot of those ideals.

I loved reading this book. I didn’t really know anything about Jessica Simpson before - but really enjoyed her autobiography. Who knew!

What I Read In 2020 (A Thread) [ Let me know if you read any of these because I want someone to talk to about these books or if you want my full thoughts on anything ]

So overall I read about 28 books and 11408 pages. I had an initial goal of 24 but lockdown kicked in and I also had some big boy books too. Here's as much as I can get into a single thread:

Red Dragon by Thomas Harris: The first Hannibal Lecter book. I've always been a fan of the Hannibal franchise so I enjoyed this book. I thoroughly enjoyed Francis Dollarhyde as a tragic villain. Very cool crime thriller.

Animal Farm by George Orwell: As much as I shitpost about 1984 and George Orwell, I do enjoy what works of his I have read. Very short endearing book about a bunch of animals that get into some wacky shenanigans.

Dune by Frank Herbert: This is the first Sci-Fi book I read of the year and what sparked that book club I set up early this year. I went on a bit of a Sci-Fi binge. Dune is a very well written book, the world building is really well done and I liked the big worms a lot.

Son of Perdition (a prophetic poem in a thread)

He thought himself Perfecta, But his perfidy makes me sick. His lack of grace is brazen, he perfumes all his tricks. But we perceive the stink which permeates his tongue, his hypocrisy is perjury, his own perdition he has sung...

His performance is a wonder but positive he’s not. No paragon of virtue, in his lies we’d all be caught. It’s power he lusts after, he sold his soul to do so well. He’s the biggest liar, at the gates of Hell. He purchased himself mirrors to perpetuate the con...

He purloined all the light and claimed it as his dawn. But my purview is the better, I have a higher throne. Though he’s the prince of darkness, no kingdom shall he own. His purlieu is perdition. Usurper-moon defeat! He tried to block the light of love and steal the power seat...

He thought himself invincible, the light he gave so fair, but his light was only the light the Sun/Son did share. Happy too to share it, The light that is God’s face but he’d rather occult Him, And bring God’s word disgrace...

He’d prescribe eternal darkness to all he perceives as peril, his Babylon is fallen, his pursuers now are feral. All shall see his true form and the true light shall prevail, from the light he shall be stricken and from disgrace there’s no avail...

The #PremierLeagueOfBondThemes table as we enter Matchday 5. OHMSS has been treated shamefully so far, but surely it will chalk up its first win against Another Way to Die (you should have at least tried to find some rhymes for Quantum of Solace you cowards!) Vote below...

#PremierLeagueOfBondThemes Matchday 5

#PremierLeagueOfBondThemes Matchday 5

#PremierLeagueOfBondThemes Matchday 5

#PremierLeagueOfBondThemes Matchday 5

Something that would help our field, it seems to me, is to separate the Music Director position from the Principal Conductor position at orchestras. If nothing else, you'd get a wider range of musical tastes/interests at the top, which would serve the institutions well.

I've also seen too many situations where big/biggish-name conductors shoot down an idea that has the backing of their orchestras' creative staff, because it's just not of personal interest to them. Conductor ego is a substantial source of regressive energy in classical music.

We have a *major* resource problem in the field of new music. There's not enough $ to go around, and definitely not enough to make the field truly open and accessible. In that light, we need to be strategic about targeting the spaces where new resources could come to the table.

I've long been critical of orchestras, but I've never said we should tear them down. Far from it. Orchestras are central arts organizations with access to community resources of all kinds, including but not limited to $. That's why they have to become true leaders in the field.

Do you know how hard it is for a new music organization to develop the kind of resource base that an orchestra has? A few have come close, but it's practically impossible, especially now, with so much arts funding having dried up and no new apparent boom on the horizon from tech$

Now that the year is actually at the end and I have seen almost all the movies (haha not even close), I will list my favorites in no particular order in a thread no one will care about but me. But first, @letterboxd says there are 22,519 films released in the 2020s. Yikes. 1/?

#1 @MinariMovie by @A24 which is genuinely a movie I have thought about regularly since I saw it in January. Wider release in 2021 and do not sleep on this one. Gorgeous Korean American Arkansas farmer story of building a new future and generational gap. 😍🥰

#2 @nomadlandfilm by Chloe Zhao which is a sweeping hybrid film of the new American west and the death of the American dream. @Criterion needs to go ahead and collect. 3/?

#3 @americanutopia by Spike Lee brought us the reminder of music, theater, audiences, joy at a time when we needed it most. Oh David Byrne. Thank you.

#4 David Attenborough's A Life on Our Planet reminds us that Earth is a gorgeous place we are screwing up pretty royally. Cinematography alone worth a watch.

1. Three years ago, I set out to write a book to understand what happened to the world, America, and myself as the undertow of history pulled us into the currents of nationalism and authoritarianism – and what we should do about it. I hope you’ll read it:

2. I travelled the world to learn the stories of individuals – dissidents, opposition figures, and young people making sense of it all. I found that the same things were happening everywhere in ways that let me understand better what’s happening in America.

3. I talked to Russians like Alexei Navalny, who told me his story and what motivates him to risk his life for a Russia that isn’t corrupt, that speaks to the grievances that Russians feel in their bones without enriching a cabal that has hijacked Russian identity.

4. I met with Hungarians who described how Viktor Orban transformed himself from an anti-Communist liberal to a far right autocrat, who pursued a playbook that is eerily similar to what the Republican Party has done in the US over the last decade. And what they’re doing about it.

5. I met with Hong Kong protesters and young people whose movement should be heard as a courageous and innovative warning about the future of technology-fueled totalitarianism encroaching on their city, identity, and the wider world. And learned how people are wrestling with that

Looking for reading material to help you stay comfy & warm on this frigid January day? Well, it’s easy as another #ScholarSunday morning thread of public scholarly work from the last week! #twitterstorians

Great @benbarber96 interview of @AngieMaxwell1 for @facingsouth on countering the “Long Southern

& an equally vital @FAIRmediawatch interview w/@KeriLeighMerrit on the Lost

& one more excellent interview, @nhannahjones w/@VelshiMSNBC on Mike Pompeo’s departing attacks on multicultural

wrote a couple wonderful pieces this week. This one for @madebyhistory on Warnock’s victory & Black