Favorite Essays of 2022

My favorite things I read from the past year, golf and non-golf related

Jan 23, 2023

Non-golf

A Song of Shapes and Words by Roon (roon’s blog)

Somehow I have become the poster child for the shape jihad, expanded the visuospatial canon a little bit, and fleshed out an unlikely, idiotic, and possibly dangerous ideology around the initial jokes about imaginary cube spinning. Later on I coined the opposite — the “wordcel” slur — and this meme started cooking with gas. But why is everyone fascinated with this distinction? Why are people proclaiming themselves wordcels and rotators? Why did these memes have such evolutionary power in the noosphere?

This is the the kind of thing that can only exist on the internet and that’s why I loved it. What started as niche tech Twitter jokes became a full-fledged essay discussing the origins, definitions and applications of a new dichotomy for sorting people. When this meme was hot I was interested in what exactly these terms meant. Frustratingly, I couldn’t find anything with useful background info. No one had yet created the synopsis I needed. Thus, this article provided immense clarity to me in understanding the origins and context of wordcels vs. shape rotators. Roon, the author, also ostensibly invented and popularized both terms so to get this summary directly from him felt genuine. He also writes beautifully, which was unforeseen from a self-described schizo-poster. Lastly, I found the dichotomy itself is useful for distinguishing people in the real world. My characteristics align more to those of a shape rotator.

The gossip trap by Erik Hoel (The Intrinsic Perspective)

The difference between the horror of crabs in a bucket and a human tribe or group living in a gossip trap is actually that the humans are generally quite happy down there in the bucket. It’s our natural environment. Most people like the trap. Oh, it’s terrible for the accused, the exiled, the uncool. But the gossip trap is comfortable. Homey. People like Jonathan Haidt will look at modern life and scratch their heads in The Atlantic to try to pinpoint when and why the social media algorithm began to spread misinformation and sow discord. They miss the truth, which is that all social media does is allow us to overcome Dunbar’s number, which dismantled a barrier erected at the beginning of civilization. Of course we gravitate to cancel culture—it’s our innate evolved form of government.

This essay is actually a book review massaged and expanded into the presentation of an interesting and believable theory of human societal development. Towards the end the author connects this theory to our new social media age and discusses why he believes that so many feel as though society is in a tailspin. I was fascinated by connection between these seemingly disparate eras of humanity.

I did not find this essay on my own. For that I must thank the prolific Scott Alexander (Astral Codex Ten, Slate Star Codex). If you follow or read his stuff, you are probably already aware of this essay since it won his 2022 Book Review Contest. Anything that wins a competition he hosts is going to be worthwhile so it is no surprise that I thoroughly enjoyed reading this and I am appreciative of being pointed towards to it. This will not be the last time Scott Alexander is mentioned here.

We were voyagers by Visakan Veerasamy (visakanv's switchboard)

I’m increasingly certain that there are others like me in the world, alive right now, quietly suppressing themselves for social reasons. I hear from more of them every month. They suppress themselves because they don’t personally know of any House of Wisdom that they could attend to fully be themselves in. Because the scale and scope of their interests don’t quite correspond with that of those of the people around them, and they don’t know if it’s worth opening up about their inner truths – because they believe, accurately according to their past experience, that the likeliest outcome is that people will misunderstand them. A confused “huh?” is often the best you can hope for. Far better than being mocked, insulted, laughed at, dismissed.
Over the years, I’ve increasingly developed a sense of lightness, clarity, courage and conviction in realizing that these are my people. That when I’m writing for the younger version of myself, and the future versions of myself, I’m writing for them. For us. All of us. I’m a me, but I’m also a we. And there is a deep kinship in that, a deep sense of belonging. And I have decided that I am willing to endure any amount of mockery and misunderstanding from the people who don’t get it, to be a bridge to the people who do. Because more than anything else, that is what I wish I had in my life. A space to understand and be understood.

Often I struggle to open up about my interests. I keep things hidden to myself. However reading this and knowing there are other people like me gave me more internal confidence to share my thoughts. I appreciate when written words can inspire change in real world actions and these passages did that for me.

Culture Mechanics II - Acceleration by Jamie Ryan (Depatterning)

It’s hard not to let these examples influence the way we perceive ourselves and others. And as we try to compete in this context - or merely keep up as the case tends to be - we push our expectations higher and higher, driving and distorting them as far as our creativity and credulity allow.
These dynamics help create a strange circumstance in which almost everyone can feel behind.

This essays discusses types. You have probably heard someone say, "Oh, he's an X type of guy" and from just that one characteristic you can often understand and pass judgements on that person. If you are confused by this, several examples of types are featured in the essay. Types and the act of typing others have become increasingly prominent in modern culture, particularly online culture. The author strongly argues why this trend is unhealthy for humans. Having noticed this phenomenon in my own life, this essay spelled out so much of what I had sensed but never been able to articulate. A lot of what is featured here is built off another essay which lays groundwork for the dangerous social implications of either being typed and applying a type to others. This prior essay was probably my favorite thing I read in 2022, however it was published in 2021. I highly recommend starting there then proceeding to Jamie Ryan’s writing.

Elon Musk Is Better Than You by Michael Huemer (Fake Nous)

First, the amount of money he’s made is a rough indicator of the amount of economic value he has produced, i.e., the extent to which his activities have helped to satisfy other people’s desires, because you get money in a free market by giving other people things they want. (This is unlike how you get money if you’re a government official; if you’re a government official, you get money by threatening to hurt people if they don’t hand it over.)
Now, even if you think this is only a very rough indicator of the value Musk has produced, it still must be that he has produced more value than all but a tiny fraction of humans on the Earth. He didn’t do all this from self-interest (as most rich people do). He created SpaceX in part because he wanted to reduce the time till humanity has a multi-planetary civilization, in order to reduce existential risk. You can wonder about whether this is the most effective way to reduce X-risk. But it’s certainly more than almost everyone else on the planet is doing. What have you done lately to reduce existential risks?

This essay outlines my thoughts on Elon Musk almost exactly. So while it is a bit of a confirmation bias selection, I do I feel strongly that this is the correct, or at least more correct way, to view Elon compared to say a "Billionaires Bad! Elon Bad!" simplistic mindset. I wish more people viewed Elon through the perspective outlined in the piece. Elon’s life goals are incredibly lofty (loftier than whatever yours are!) and, all things considered, he has done a spectacular job progressing towards them. In my opinion, if the world strived to be more like Elon, the world would be a better place. That’s not to say it would be perfect, but there would be exciting visions of the future to pursue.

‘Top Gun: Maverick’ Review: Will This Stuff Still Fly by AO Scott (NYT)

The action sequences are tense and exuberant, reminders that flight has been one of the great thrills of cinema almost from the beginning. The story is a mixed bag. In spite of the emotional crosscurrents and physical hazards that buffet poor Maverick — his career, his love life and his duty to the memory of his dead friend, to say nothing of G-forces and flak — the dramatic stakes seem curiously low.

I love AO Scott's writing and my thoughts on a movie typically align with his. I usually into a movie blind and read reviews afterwards. The Top Gun sequel/reboot was one of the few movies I saw in theatres in 2022 so it was one of the only reviews I read. Through his reviews, AO Scott has developed the ability to condense the quality and themes of the movie so well without spoiling the plot. Sometimes I’m not sure if a better series of words exist to describe the movie. It's as if he has created the optimal critique; a true "I couldn't have said it better myself" situation. I have encountered this sensation numerous times when reading his reviews and it happened again here. This movie was entertaining but strangely devoid of substance. I enjoyed the big screen experience but I walked away feeling nothing. I plan to read AO Scott’s book, Better Living Through Criticism, this year.

FTX: The $32B implosion by Trung Phan (SatPost)

SBF’s inner circle: Based on very early evidence, it sounds like only an inner circle — less than 10 of the 200+ FTX employees — probably knew of SBF’s scheme. They were running like a $100B+ in crypto trading volume with 3 people living in a Bahamas house (with a major assist from stimulants provided by an on-site psychiatrist). Here is a must-read from CoinDesk: Bankman-Fried’s Cabal of Roommates in the Bahamas Ran His Crypto Empire – and Dated. Other Employees Have Lots of Questions.

The FTX collapse was a rollercoaster tale that is summarized well in this informative and entertaining piece. Since the FTX saga itself felt very "online", I enjoyed the non-traditional format of this post. A large portion is dedicated to a Links and Memes section. I felt this format more closely resembled the way the events unfolded compared to a traditional article.

I wrote a story for a friend by Julian Gough (The Egg And The Rock)

Coming down off the mushrooms, though, the core of the whole complicated, multi-year problem was so clear to me, I could say it in a line: I wrote a story for a friend, but in the end, he didn't treat me like a friend, and I'm hurt.
Well, that simplified everything. I could see now that I was caught in a kind of psychological, or maybe moral, trap: I couldn’t go after the money, because that would turn all this back into an argument about money; which wasn’t what this was ultimately about.
But the universe made something else clear to me, too: if Microsoft didn’t own the End Poem, and yet I had allowed them to distribute it for years, then I had, essentially, given my story as a gift to a couple of hundred million people all around the world (whether they wanted it or not); but I had refused to allow any of them to give me anything in return. And that was a kind of arrogance, too. A blockage in the flow of love.

A late addition to the list, I really relished this winding essay. It begins with the history of Minecraft’s End Poem from the man who wrote the End Poem. Then, the accompanying copywrite and interpersonal issues of this creation are discussed. By the end, the author shares his profound conclusions about life that he came to understand only after going through this complicated, strange period. This is another example of something that can only exist because of the internet. I could not stop reading this and found the concluding method of thinking beautiful.

Scorched Earth by Kate Wagner (main account) of derailluer

Tadej Pogačar couldn’t follow. He visibly suffered. Geraint Thomas passed him with ease. Suddenly our boyish Slovenian was alone. Really alone. Despite how powerful Pogačar has become, how unstoppable he seemed just yesterday, to see this young champion collapse still engenders sympathy, at least in this journalist. How lonely he appeared out there on the bald slopes of Granon, pedaling squares, his face ashen, his jersey unzipped. In the end, when Vingegaard crossed the line, for the first time utterly, undoubtably victorious, Pogačar would lose two minutes and twenty-two seconds in the general classification.

Over the past two years, I have gotten somewhat into professional cycling. During this year's Tour De France, Stage 11 was the defining stage. It was an epic day. Kate captures the entirety of the day while also inserting how she actually felt while watching. I connected with her feelings. Watching the two-time reigning winner of the tour Tadej Pogacar finally crack, getting dusted by his new, young main rival Jonas Vingegaard was shocking and glorious to watch all at once. Cycling, like golf, is a brutal sport. But moments like these are why I love sports. I'm not really sure where else you can get them. For visual context on the specifics of this article, watch this video, though you may become more confused without any knowledge of the jargon. I plan to write about the TDF before it begins next year.

Unfortunately, Kate is the only female present on this list so that something for me to keep in mind as I read more next year.

Designing a New Old Home: Materials and Hardware by Simon Sarris (The Map is Mostly Water)

Old houses harbor much of their charms in the materials themselves, which seem to get better over time, because the wear that the materials take on makes them more beautiful. Raw brass and copper grow a patina. Marble gets scratched or etched. Oiled wood floors get re-oiled, darken with age and get dented. The finishes on these objects are alive. They do not decline so much as they move with time. Even raw plaster, as it is painted and broken and repaired over time, becomes more and more pretty.

This is one part of a very practical series which has no weak points. Throughout the series I learned quite a bit about what it takes to build a home from scratch. Reading this installment, with its stimulating images and substance, got my mind turning more than others. Ideas were presented about design elements and options that I had never considered, especially as a current renter who has no real say over the design decisions. This essay expanded the realm of possibilities for interior design within my brain and I generally agree with Simon’s design aesthetic.

Choose Good Quests by Trae Stephens and Markie Wagner (Pirate Wires)

Even among the talented who choose a path of building, most take safe, incremental bets — another SaaS company, another turnkey consumer startup, another digital Beanie Baby. Such pursuits not only fail to push the world forward, but pose a cost in opportunity. There are important challenges facing humanity that no one is working on, including critical, and even existential challenges. In other words, if you are an exceptionally capable person, failure to pursue a good quest is not neutral. It constitutes a loss for humanity.

Based on these authors’ definition, I believe everyone should strive to choose a good life quest. Plus, I really like the phrasing: choose good quests. It’s so simple. Yet not the easiest thing to actually do. I find it rewarding to work for a company that I believe is pursuing a good quest. Whenever I decide to switch jobs, the ideas laid out here will serve as a guide for me. I never want to look myself in the mirror and know I am pursuing a bad quest. That may be easier said than done. I just saw saw a tweet that frames this same concept more harshly:

skooks @skooookum

addy xr. 500mg caffeine. meditation, monk mode. athletic greens. code katas. keto. no bitches. for what? to write better glue code for your b2b saas invoicing app? john von neumann’s favorite hobby was drunk driving

Either way you slice it, the point stands: do some good for the world with your career and you will be more fulfilled.

Vanishing People: the Population Crisis by Ryan McEntush (Pirate Wires)

Now, it’s one thing when this age ratio flips in a single country, like Japan, but consider for a moment what it means if the rest of the developed world follows in unison. Gradually, then suddenly, the global economy faces a crisis. Consumption begins to drop all together and the net flows into capital markets reverse. Less consumption means less aggregate demand, triggering a global recession and crippling the still-developing world reliant on these markets. On top of this, a reduction in labor force, in perpetuity, flywheels the consumption collapse and makes global growth incredibly difficult. Meanwhile, the shrinking fraction of young people must shoulder the heavy burden of a growing elderly population. Less tax revenue forces less expenditure, just as the aging population demands it. From a fiscal perspective, this is increasingly untenable for even the wealthiest nations.

Population collapse is an underdiscussed topic and this article contextualized the gravity of the issue. Currently, there is no solution. Population collapse will increasingly become an issue for my generation to deal with and more people need to become aware of its implications. When reading this essay, I was immediately reminded of a Scott Alexander piece that makes an adjacent point arguing against wealthy people limiting the children they have because of climate change concerns. These pieces pair well together and provide underrepresented viewpoints.

Note: I highly recommend Pirate Wires. I featured two posts from Pirate Wires just now, both by guest authors. The primary author is Mike Solana. Sadly, the my favorite articles he wrote from the past year are now paywalled. Maybe I should become a paying subscriber...

The case for more energy by Matthew Yglesias (Slow Boring)

But not only could energy abundance let us get by with less water for our farms, but it could also get us much more water. The oceans are full of water, after all, and we have facilities that can desalinate them. The problem is that desalination is incredibly energy intensive. But with abundant energy, there’s no problem here. You could have lush lawns in the suburbs of Las Vegas.

This essay exposed me to a whole new thought process. There is no reason to make our climate change goal simply net zero by 2050. We can strive for more. We can strive to create a net zero future coupled with bountiful excesses of energy. I immediately connected with this vision because of some guilt I have in my own life. I thoroughly enjoy golfing, but it probably not the best use of water, particularly when you are playing lush green courses in a desert or a drought. However, if there is so much energy available that desalinization can be done cheaply and we can pump water wherever we like then I will not have to feel as guilty. Based on this essay and some others, I would now put myself in the energy maximalist category. I will likely turn this into a full post at some point.

A sappy Giving Tuesday post by Matthew Yglesias (Slow Boring)

I used to walk past panhandlers every day, not give them any money, and tell myself “giving cash to random panhandlers is not a very good way to help people.” And it’s true, it’s not a very good way to help people. But if I did an honest inventory, it’s not like I was doing some other thing to help people instead of giving cash to the panhandlers — I just wasn’t giving anyone any money.
It’s good to cultivate a habit of giving, of feeling grateful for what you have in life, and for feeling good about being a person who contributes affirmatively to doing good. Part of that should be thinking over time about what you are giving to and why. But trying to do something rather than nothing is a big step, and in some ways the most important one.

This passage stuck with me because I have these exact thoughts when in this daily urban scenario. What particularly gnaws at me is when I walk past the same homeless people every day without ever giving any money or other assistance. How can one justify such behavior? Personally, I have dealt with this by committing to the Giving What We Can 10% pledge. I was introduced to the idea through a Scott Alexander essay (told you) which lays out the effective altruism argument for committing to this quota of charitable donations. However, even if effective altruism doesn’t align with your values you can still give to charities you believe in. I was pleased to read that Matt has done something similar as well and he lays out some great practical steps for donating. Charitable giving is another way to do some good for the world.

Golf

Morgan Hoffmann left the PGA Tour in search of a cure. He found so much more by Dan Rapaport (Golf Digest, at the time)

Hoffmann was preparing his body for a 10-day urine cleanse—no food, no water, just a cup of his urine in the morning and evening. There is, we should note, no evidence as to the efficacy of this practice—at least not evidence that would withstand scientific scrutiny. Hoffmann doesn’t care. He takes issue with modernity’s definition of the word “science.” He and Chelsea, who has plunged head first into this journey with her husband, rely not on clinical trials or double-blind studies but choice literature, first-hand documentation and anecdotal evidence—because for Hoffmann, accepting his Western medicine-certified diagnosis means accepting defeat.

This was my favorite golf article of the year. It’s a fun zany read which is not something you can say towards most writing about golf. Urine therapy might not even be the wackiest thing that Morgan Hoffman does. I found Morgan’s openness to share his recovery journey a refreshing change of pace to golf’s usually bland, corporate player interviews. This was also a fascinating dive into the health guru subculture. While I don’t believe in everything Morgan does, it seems to be working for him.

A Q School DQ for the Ages by Ryan French (The Firepit Collective)

Haefner hit his approach, and when the group arrived at the green, Moroz’s ball was on the fringe, just 15 feet from the hole. Haefner, having grown increasingly skeptical, asked Moroz what he was putting for. “Birdie,” he replied. The penalty area where Moroz’s tee shot had entered was thick and for the most part unplayable; in fact, Moroz called it “jungle.” He explained that Smith had found his ball just outside the penalty area, nearly 30 yards ahead (and around a corner of the wooded area) of where the ball entered. Clayton Kucera, an experienced caddie who was carrying for Ni, had seen enough. As Haefner and Ni were putting out, Kucera approached the rules official and explained what had happened. As the group left the green, the rules official returned to where Moroz’s drive had entered the penalty area.

Humans love scandals and this scandal involved a golf qualifying tournament so it was doubling captivating to me. If you have played enough tournament golf, you have certainly encountered cheating and scummy behavior. However, the perpetrator in this story to takes his dishonestly to audacious heights. It’s provocative stuff. There is also a follow-up story when more details came out.

The New OWGR, Incentive Structures, and The Moonshot by Joseph LaMagna (Finding the Edge)

When you tell a player that his best chance of winning the Tour Championship is by playing a heavy fall schedule, and he elects instead to vacation and/or spend some time relaxing with family, he is signaling that winning the Tour Championship is not his top priority. To be clear, I do not blame him. I’m not going to try and convince him that the Tour Championship should be his top priority. But this is why there is no storyline throughout the season for fans to follow. This is why fans don’t consider the Tour Championship appointment viewing.

To some degree, the PGA TOUR is broken. If everything was running optimally something like LIV would never gain any traction. Here, Joseph provides a clear synopsis of what needs to change with regards to the PGA TOUR's schedule to make it more compelling. The PGA TOUR’s playoffs are atrocious compared to other professional leagues in America. As a big fan of the PGA TOUR I want it to be more compelling and I concur with his analysis. It’s time to realign the incentives of the entire PGA TOUR season.

Changes at Augusta National by Andy Johnson (The Fried Egg)

I’m especially excited to see the effects of short-grass expansion on the ninth hole. This is a demanding tee shot, as the fairway slopes hard from left to right, calling for a right-to-left shot shape. But starting in the early 2000s, the rough along the right side prevented weak drives from bounding farther down the hill to the right. The second cut also reduced spin on many approaches, which, as Greg Norman can tell you, is an advantage when you’re hitting into a green with an immense false front. What makes the second shot into No. 9 so stressful to play and compelling to watch is that players must marry distance control with spin control in order to avoid zipping off the front of the green and into an awful place. The short rough mitigated that challenge. But this year, players may not get this benefit as often after missing to the right off the tee. I expect to see some spectacular recoveries that lead to birdies as well as misjudgments of spin that result in bogeys or worse.

Every year, hardcore golf fans are interested in the ramifications of the changes that are made to the course at Augusta National. I found these esoteric musings on the expansion of short grass throughout the property quite satisfying leading up to last year’s Masters. With more changes on the way, I expected another article of this nature from Andy come early April.

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