SovietMen

The Dilbert Afterlife

Thanks to everyone who sent in condolences on my recent death from prostate cancer at age 68, but that was Scott Adams. I (Scott Alexander) am still alive1.

Still, the condolences are appreciated. Scott Adams was a surprisingly big part of my life. I may be the only person to have read every Dilbert book before graduating elementary school. For some reason, 10-year-old-Scott found Adams’ stories of time-wasting meetings and pointy-haired bosses hilarious. No doubt some of the attraction came from a more-than-passing resemblance between Dilbert’s nameless corporation and the California public school system. We’re all inmates in prisons with different names.

But it would be insufficiently ambitious to stop there. Adams’ comics were about the nerd experience. About being cleverer than everyone else, not just in the sense of being high IQ, but in the sense of being the only sane man in a crazy world where everyone else spends their days listening to overpaid consultants drone on about mission statements instead of doing anything useful. There’s an arc in Dilbert where the boss disappears for a few weeks and the engineers get to manage their own time. Productivity shoots up. Morale soars. They invent warp drives and time machines. Then the boss returns, and they’re back to being chronically behind schedule and over budget. This is the nerd outlook in a nutshell: if I ran the circus, there’d be some changes around here.

Yet the other half of the nerd experience is: for some reason this never works. 

I am 25 and I did everything right

26 Useful Concepts for 2026

6. Shower Test:

We’re socially conditioned to chase what we think everyone else wants. But your true heart’s desire can often be found in the thoughts you gravitate to while undistracted, such as in the shower. As Walt Whitman said, “If you want to know where your heart is, look to where your mind goes when it wanders.”

7. Eustress:

People have more comforts and conveniences than ever, yet reports of unhappiness are at an all-time high. One reason is that discomfort isn’t an obstacle to happiness, it’s the path to it, for it’s only by enduring struggles that we develop the resilience necessary for lasting contentment.

The second is true for me.

Loserdemic

The Canadian Political Class Is Ideologically Incapable of Rebuilding The Military

A recent Angus Reid poll found that there is broad support for conscription … but only amongst those parts of the population who wouldn’t be forced to serve. The young men who would actually be made slaves of the state are generally against the idea. Young women (along with, to be fair, women of every age but the elderly) are overwhelmingly opposed to the idea, no doubt in part because they sense that conscription in a feminist society would scoop up as many women as men, and whatever they say about equality, women are not, in general, eager to crawl around in the mud while .50 cal rounds zip over their heads…

On the same day that the ambition to get 400,000 Canadians into uniform was leaked, the First Woman To Be the Chief of Defence Staff, Gen Jennie Carignan, attended a ceremony of apology for the CAF’s history of systemic racism and racial discrimination. Gen Carignan broke down in tears at the lectern, overcome by the numinous ecstasy of the Spirit of Saint Floyd washing her soul clean of sin…

Back to the weeping general. She has an interesting backstory. Following her elevation to the apex of the military chain of command, RUMINT2 surfaced to the effect that she had demonstrated cowardice in the face of the enemy. The story goes that in 2019 she was deployed to Iraq, where she was placed in charge of a NATO training school. In January 2020 her position came under rocket fire and she panicked, had her luggage (including a collection of carpets she’d purchased) packed aboard a helicopter, and attempted to evacuate the base before the troops, thereby earning her the designation “Iraqi Evaci”. Her attempted desertion was supposedly stopped at the last minute by a senior American general, who chewed her out and ordered her back to her post. Shortly after that she was relieved of her command and returned to sender, only to be promoted a few months later to take the newly created position of head of “Chief Professional Conduct and Culture” … informally known to the troops as the DEI division…

Reinvigorating Canadians’ willingness to serve their country and rebuilding Canada’s military into a force that can win wars would both require the Canadian political class to repudiate the ideological territory of globalism, feminism, multiculturalism, mass immigration, and gender-bothering that they have made themselves synonymous with. However, they can’t reverse course without discrediting themselves, and so, they won’t.

It’s a long article with much more along those lines – highly entertaining and disturbing. I encourage you to read it in full. Seems relevant to our last post. And there’s one more Canada post to come! Something from Degrassi High must have stuck. I wonder if they get Home and Away over there. Hope not.

i’m obsessed with women and tired of pretending i’m not

In high school, all I wanted was a girlfriend.

People prefer bigotry to infantilization

Whether it’s a bug or a feature of our psychology, a lot of men would rather prefer an honorable enemy — a person who might hate you, but nevertheless takes you seriously — than someone who might ostensibly be on your side, but actually treats you like a child.

Not to overstate my case, but I really do think this is one of the central facets of a lot of divides — both in the political sphere, and the gender sphere. Take the No Kings rally, for example. Once more, it’s ironic; the protests were filled with geriatrics, and yet the whole atmosphere looks… childish..

Additionally, it’s one of the central features of male flight in certain domains. As the Overton window of acceptable discourse narrows, men feel increasingly stifled by the childishness of the atmosphere. As a result, they can either tell everyone else to grow up, or they can leave. Most men save themselves the headache, and choose the latter.

Why China Cannot Liberalize

Welcome to this week’s roundup of interesting things from around the traps.

What to Ask Yourself Before you Start Caring

In my teens and early 20s I cared about a lot of stuff. I’d scroll the news, find something worthy of outrage, and turn to someone nearby to say “You see this?? Mitt Romney’s really done it now!”. The bus driver would then nod politely and gesture for me to take a seat. Frankly, it was a time of much tutting and reacting with not a lot to show for it…

…cutthroat realism might sound like you’re throwing your hands up and letting the world walk all over you – but in reality it does the opposite. Most people that care about everything do nothing. They get riled up and outraged about the new hot topic, before forgetting about it and ranting about the next. There’s no strategy to their action because they’re always having their attention pulled in every which way. They can’t focus on anything long enough for them to gain any sort of traction. It’s all just Facebook statuses and tense family dinners.

The Decline of Deviance: Where has all the weirdness gone?

This week’s roundup of interesting things from around the traps

People Listen to Public Health Authorities

In one sense, this is heartening: we are finally turning a corner on peanut allergy! In another, it’s alarming. People can be convinced to follow correct advice, but they’ll also gladly follow advice that’s unfounded and incorrect if it seems to have authority behind it. We know this is definitely true for nutrition, where people will follow advice even when it likely does nothing but waste money.

Related: Everything you know is wrong

My gripe is that governments and experts seem to go off half-cocked in around 80% of cases. The only advice that’s held up well over the last 50 years is to do some exercise and eat your veggies.

If you’re going to engage in any public health interventions that will change how millions of people live, you’d better be sure.

Can We Arrest Fox News Hosts for Disinformation? Here’s What the Law Actually Allows

Today in history, January 15: Australia’s London Bridge fell down

China to regulate CEO romance micro dramas, warns against content promoting materialism, flaunting of wealth: report

The creators should avoid wrapping absurd stories under the guise of realism and using absurd artistic techniques as an excuse to fabricate overly bizarre plots that lack genuine value, Guangdianshijie said, as such practices could distort the public’s perception of Chinese entrepreneurs and harm the profile of the entrepreneurial community.

The guidelines said creators should tell the stories of Chinese entrepreneurs from both history and contemporary times, rather than being limited to themes of romantic entanglements and family disputes, noting that in particular, creators should avoid promoting marriage concepts that clinging to the powerful, wealthy individuals and families.

The guidelines pointed out that management of CEO romance micro dramas should be strengthened. Specific measures include reducing the quantity, improving the quality, and avoiding the use of terms like “domineering CEO” as appealing titles to attract viewers.

Are ‘domineered CEOs’ like their minataurs?

By the way, are your beloved women also watching those AI-generated short dramas now?

Rule of the Five Percent