When I meet people, they are often interested in facts about my life. Below are sixteen of them that I think are surprising or interesting.
Before I begin, here’s a reminder that my book Kakistocracy: Why Populism Ends in Disaster is coming out on July 7. Preorders contribute to presales, which help determine how much attention the book gets. If you like my work on political differences between conservatives and liberals, the rise of populism and conspiracy theories, the nature of Elite Human Capital, and related topics, you will enjoy the book.
In other news, I’ve entered into a sponsorship agreement with Mechanize, a company that I think is doing important work by seeking to automate as many jobs as possible. As I believe strongly that the idea that AI is bad because it will destroy jobs is stupid and pernicious, and they share my outlook, I am glad to support them. You can read about Mechanize in The New York Times here. The company is hiring software engineers at a base salary of $300K-$400K/year, plus substantial bonuses. They also have openings for other positions, including Research Engineer ($500K base pay), Recruiter ($200K), Growth Manager ($250K), Interns ($150/hr), and legal counsel ($400K). You can even “build your own role.”
Here is their website, and you can apply here. If you apply, make sure to use the links provided here so I can receive credit, and name me as a reference in the process.
I don’t have much contact with my family, and haven’t maintained contact with any friends from elementary school, high school, or college. I think it’s because I don’t like the person I was growing up. So every time I see someone from my past, it reminds me of that fact. It’s also an issue of not having much in common with them. I didn’t start meeting people of similar levels of smarts and intellectual curiosity until I was well into adulthood. But I do think I benefited from having some contacts with normies and proles growing up.
I am of average height, but oddly shaped because my legs are short and my torso is long. They balance out in terms of total stature, but this mismatch creates certain inconveniences, as with clothes. Any pants I get off the rack are going to be too long. I only learned this about myself when an old man mentioned it to me when I was around 20. But there were hints before. I remember in fifth or sixth grade we measured wingspans and I had one of the longest in the class, but I wasn’t particularly tall, which seemed odd. I went through many years without thinking about this, but returned to it when I decided that I was ascending and needed to dress more professionally in public settings.
I’ve always watched silly cartoons. I liked The Simpsons and King of the Hill growing up, and today enjoy Family Guy, American Dad!, and Futurama. These shows are probably my least intellectually challenging forms of entertainment, and I will go to them when I am feeling satisfied and want to relax. I also like the futuristic neoliberal politics of Futurama, which are presented in a somewhat dystopian way, but in a package that I find appealing. Maybe I’ll write about that at some point.
I had only one full year of high school. I remember finishing ranked something like 393 in the class out of 412, for either the first semester or the end of the year. And it wasn’t even a good high school. Most of my friends’ parents hadn’t gone to college. In retrospect, my failures in this area were kind of odd, since people generally want to play the status games that they’re good at. I could’ve easily been the best student in my high school, but instead I focused on hanging out with losers and doing drugs. I had contempt for scientists and admiration for rappers and professional athletes. I walked around with an implicit conviction that to be smart or bookish was gay and gaining status through some kind of physical achievement was cool. I don’t think that part of me has ever been completely excised.
