What is Simplify?
I didn’t start this blog with a clear goal in mind. At first, I only conceived of a few articles: the ones about equality, feminism, machine learning, edginess, bullshit analytics jobs, and the questionable value of modern tech. I felt the need to publicize my thoughts on those subjects even though they lack a common theme. I’ve since written about other items, yet I don’t know how to explain what my blog is. What is Simplify? Why should someone read it?
One of my history professors claimed that he always wrote the introduction last. That way, he knew what he was introducing. I’ll try to apply that logic to my blog. With a year’s worth of articles in the books, I might be able to introduce what my blog is about.
I’ll start with the title: Simplify. I stole this from a different professor. He displayed a plaque in his office with the word “Simplify.” This referred to the boring mathematical meaning (canceling out terms on both sides of the equation), but he also meant it in a colloquial way. I remember writing a murky paragraph for my master’s paper, and he asked me what I was trying to say. After explaining my argument in plain English, he responded with something to the effect of “great, cross this out and write exactly what you just said.” I then replaced a large, jargon-laden paragraph with one that read more like the kind of stuff you see on this blog. Well, it was still an academic paper, so I probably said “material” or something instead of “stuff.” I was a sophisticatèd man.
Simplicity remained the only overarching goal of this blog. A few months back, I checked out Joseph Campbell's The Masks of God, Volume 2: Oriental Mythology. The book traveled through ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt, and India, trying to explain the complex relationships these cultures had with their spiritual beliefs and practices. Campbell has, to my understanding, argued for a sort of synthesis between the idea of literalism (people believe the events of their religious tradition occurred as stated) and myth (people understood these stories the way we understand Greek mythology). His argument seems to be that myths are true, but not in a literal sense. When we say someone “sits on the fence,” we don’t expect a physical fence. Yet, the phrase still communicates something “true.” Some things are too true and too complex to communicate without metaphor.
You’ll notice hedging in the previous paragraph: “trying to explain,” “to my understanding,” and “seems to be.” I add these phrases because I never finished the book. I found that Campbell would jump between time periods, civilizations, ideas, and arguments, and I struggled to follow his thesis. Maybe I’m just dumb. Tons of people admire his work and seem to get something from it. Still, I don’t want to write like that. No one should need to interpret a Simplify article. I want to take complex subjects and, you know, simplify them.
I don’t know how to say this without sounding like an uncultured robot, but I often find non-fiction writing too literary. I don’t view Simplify as a vehicle for my creative writing chops or esoteric philosophical musings. I don’t want to connect one issue to a seemingly unrelated one, nor do I want to bring too much of my personal life to the table. I don’t want to publish pieces that “create more questions than answers.” When you scroll to the bottom and (preferably) hit the like or comment button, you should think “I understand this thing much better than I did before I read the article.” That’s what I stand for at Simplify.
That said, a few major themes emerged during my first year. I’ll list them below alongside some selected articles.
Bullshit Jobs
At the workplace, I like to introduce the concept of bullshit jobs. This remains the one subject I’ve never encountered disagreement on. I’ve worked with people of various religious, political, and cultural backgrounds, and none of them say “no way, man, every role here is useful!” These people probably assume that I talk about something else outside of work, but, nope, I talk about bullshit jobs in my free time.
These articles include the ones about the Bullshit Jobs book, of course, but I also see it in other places. I think the emptiness people feel at work stems from bullshit jobs. I also think the weirdness of the labor market and the pointlessness of the so much modern tech fall under this umbrella.
The Value of Basic Philosophy
I think the average person views “philosophy” as the study of what various dead guys said about a topic. Plato said this, Kant said that, blah blah blah. Philosophers study these people, of course, but that’s not what most modern philosophical work looks like. Good philosophy involves the rigorous analysis of arguments. I find it illuminating to break the argument down into premise-and-conclusion forms. Sure, it’s boring, but I don’t see any better way of honing in on the truth. Too many pieces jump around between a bunch of topics and ideas before shoehorning in a loosely connected conclusion. I’m also dismayed by the rise of power-based analysis. I see this when people decipher who gains or loses power from a proposition, or when people decide who can state which opinion based on their various standpoints. I prefer that we just try to see if a thing is true or not. That seems more helpful.
Data Literacy
Most writing about data sucks. Writers list concepts and terms without displaying a meaningful understanding of the topic. Initially, I intended this blog to focus more on data. I planned a whole series about machine learning, that I never got around to due to changes in interests.
Board Games
Nothing much to say here. I write about board games.
Language
I don’t really have an angle here either. I feel that the average person doesn’t really “get” language, though I haven’t written an article explaining why I feel that way. Maybe I can write more explainers about linguistics going forward. I think, like board games, this is just something that interests me.
My Favorite Articles
I can’t provide a good reason why I chose four articles, but I feel that only these four belong on the list.
Number 4
What can I say, I love talking about bullshit bobs. Unfortunately, Graeber’s attempt to explain the cause of them left me unsatisfied. I hope I filled the gap here. It’s also a listicle, and who doesn’t love that?
Number 3
This one didn’t gain much traction, so readers might be surprised to find it here. I wrote this after reading so many crappy thought pieces about Effective Altruism, both from proponents and detractors. Most misunderstand the arguments of people like Unger and Singer, and some fail to recognize the distinction between normative and applied moral philosophy.
Number 2
It’s strange that it took six months for this article to appear on the blog In some sense, this is my first-ever blog post. A vastly different version appeared on a friend’s blog back in early 2021, though the caustic writing style distracted from the main points.
As for the article itself, it brushes on various issues that I hope to expand upon. Maybe I summarized it best in the comment section, where I said “we’re squandering our potential on nonsense.” I see too many smart people spending their lives on tasks of questionable value. This idea connects to my favorite topic, bullshit jobs, but it also seems like an underrated problem. I get the nagging sense that hundreds of thousands of people walk into their “tech” jobs knowing that they’re not utilizing their skillset in a way that moves the world forward.
Number 1
“For existential needs, you’ll always sit alone at the bargaining table”
What’s funny is that this violates many of the rules I mentioned above. It begins by connecting the issue to an unrelated topic. It’s, by my standards, deeply personal, and relatively literary. Is there a message here? Are rules meant to be broken? Do I need to be more personal? Should I try to add a bit more “flair?” I don’t know; you tell me.
The Future
Here’s what I have planned going forward, though I expect additional interests to arise
Finish the Non-Identity series
I plan on running through all the book’s arguments, but the articles are kinda exhausting to write.
More Machine Learning
I plan to write an introduction to Natural Language Processing.
I also want to publish some pieces on econometrics, explaining how empirical research works when conditions prevent a randomized controlled trial
More pieces like Work, Identity, and Annoyances
I don’t know how this would work. It’s my favorite piece though, so I think it touches upon something inside me that I haven’t quite put into words
The tradeoff between cultural fringe-ness and mainstream-ness
This is really at the tip of my tongue. I have something here, but I can’t quite get it straight.
Also, yes, I know it’s technically 11 months and not a full year. However, the first two articles were written in my Google Drive last December, so it’s close enough.
Finally, I’d appreciate any feedback on what you’d like to see. I know 95%+ of readers don’t comment, but maybe you can make an exception today.
That sounds like a terrific professor! (The one who had you rewrite your paper to make it sound more like spoken language.) I have enjoyed your posts on language and bullshit jobs the most, and have found your data science explainers to be the most useful--but really I am looking forward to more of whatever you would like to write!
I've been working on #4 for months (not for my stack but for my own edification) so if you can figure it out I'd appreciate it.