THUNK

Software companies are keen to Move Fast & Break Things™, & computers are eager to comply, but users want reliable, bulletproof, “skookum” devices. Video: http://youtu.be/ch_pckgIQxM Show Notes: https://thunkshow.com/2026/01/30/264.-Computers,-Software,-and-Skookum-Tech.html

A look at why frictionless messaging has backfired and slowed productivity. A clear distinction between communication overload and information overload. Practical rules from high-risk fields like radio discipline for clearer, lower-cost coordination. Simple habits to reduce notifications, condense messages, and prioritize face-to-face or voice for important matters.

“Andor” is a story about how secrecy kept the Rebellion alive, but it’s hard to imagine anyone in the present day keeping anything to themselves. Video: http://youtu.be/5FgeQw1XNo4 Show Notes: https://thunkshow.com/2025/10/07/262.-How-to-Keep-a-Secret.html

Is winning everything? Outside the context of a game, what does “winning” even mean? Video: http://youtu.be/9oq1zjbrjYc Show Notes: https://thunkshow.com/2025/07/19/261.-Fight-the-Good-Fight.html

A lot of ink has been spilled about the crisis of misinformation, but Henry Farrell thinks we have a much bigger problem: manufactured public opinion. Video: http://youtu.be/Mjyq9gAqH5g Show Notes: https://thunkshow.com/2025/05/25/260.-Social-Media-and-Social-Irrationality.html

Alastair MacIntyre thinks we’ve lost something essential at the core of our discussions of right & wrong, & Aristotle has been telling us for 2000 years. Video: http://youtu.be/CDetc4y7_Gs Show Notes: https://thunkshow.com/2025/04/15/259.-After-Virtue.html

What do Aristotle, Carl von Clausewitz, and John Dewey have in common? They’re all better reading than the news right now, and they all stress the importance of prudent action. Video: http://youtu.be/J8l_kDwiy70 Show Notes: https://thunkshow.com/2025/03/07/258.-Phronesis-Theory-and-Practice.html

Our mental landscape is irrevocably bound up in variations of 26 characters, but we’re historical exceptions. Video: http://youtu.be/N7Q4yU719FA Show Notes: https://thunkshow.com/2025/01/21/257.-Orality-and-Literacy.html

We’re accustomed to using technology to remember things on our behalf…but are we losing something important in the process? Video: http://youtu.be/3WgdHdBxSqk Show Notes: https://thunkshow.com/2024/11/25/256.-Memory-and-the-Extended-Mind-Thesis.html

Amartya Sen’s “Rationality and Freedom” clarifies how the two concepts are intimately linked, how we can’t understand one without the other, & why voting is wholly insufficient to create a rational society. Video: http://youtu.be/YMkzCMkyjtE Show Notes: https://thunkshow.com/2024/10/15/255.-Rationality-and-Freedom.html