Johnathan Bi

@JohnathanBi

Newsletter on philosophy/religion/technology: greatbooks.io Founding Team Opto, Cosmos Phil & CS @Columbia Canadian Math Olympiad

New York, USA

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Johnathan Bi
@JohnathanBi
Aug 25
Reading a book in the family home it was written is special enough. But to have the same family give you a tour of that home is beyond words. This June, I led a group of @Alphaschool students on a grand tour across the Atlantic. We went to Normandy to read Democracy in America
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Johnathan Bi
@JohnathanBi
Aug 27
The decline of beauty shows up even in writing guys. 1920s -> 2020s
David Perell
@david_perell
Aug 26
The decline of beauty in everyday life shows up in even the smallest things, like tickets, where we’ve let our obsession with efficiency win out over personality and artistic expression. Like the ticket from the Guggenheim Museum in New York, which I've shared in the first
Johnathan Bi
@JohnathanBi
Aug 21
Capitalism is the great equalizer, and that is precisely why it is so dangerous. There is no force in history that has done more for equality: tearing down barriers, weakening caste structures, disrupting feudal power. Tocqueville welcomed this march of equality but also feared
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Johnathan Bi
@JohnathanBi
Aug 4
What's precious about SF culture is the belief that a small band of radical men can alter the course of history. Everywhere else in the West you find bureaucracies, committees, an idolatry of the wisdom of crowds, of democracy, of consensus. Nietzsche, Untimely Meditations:
Johnathan Bi
@JohnathanBi
Aug 1
The sirens are usually depicted as sexy mermaids. But in Homer, they don’t seduce through sex as much as through knowledge. I chartered a boat to their island to recite their song in Ancient Greek. This is the knowledge they had to offer Odysseus and why he craved it so:
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