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David Boghossian
David Boghossian

75 Followers

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Published in Approximations

·Pinned

What the Hell is Water?

David Foster Wallace’s famous 2005 address was about privilege — Almost 20 years ago, David Foster Wallace gave a widely circulated and highly praised commencement address at Kenyon College with the title “This is Water.” At the time, many took it as an eloquent statement about compassion. But hearing it today with fresh ears, it’s clear that Wallace is talking…

Privilege

3 min read

What the Hell is Water? It’s about Privilege
What the Hell is Water? It’s about Privilege
Privilege

3 min read


Published in Approximations

·Jan 20, 2022

Pandemic as a Portal to the Future: Four Deep Lessons from COVID that Go Beyond “We Screwed it Up”

[The pandemic] is a portal, a gateway between one world and the next. We can choose to walk through it, dragging the carcasses of our prejudice and hatred, our avarice, our data banks and dead ideas, our dead rivers and smoky skies behind us. Or we can walk through lightly…

Pandemic Lessons

4 min read

Pandemic as a Portal to the Future: Four Deep Lessons from COVID that Go Beyond “We Screwed it Up”
Pandemic as a Portal to the Future: Four Deep Lessons from COVID that Go Beyond “We Screwed it Up”
Pandemic Lessons

4 min read


Published in Approximations

·Dec 20, 2021

Thinking about Utopia Means Deciding What You Think is Important

Ok. That’s kind of obvious. Really, if you are trying to describe the perfect world, it certainly should include some theory about humanity and the purpose of human existence. This has been an obsession recently, mostly because Chris Colbert and I are working hard on the final section of his…

Utopia

3 min read

Thinking about Utopia Means Deciding What You Think is Important
Thinking about Utopia Means Deciding What You Think is Important
Utopia

3 min read


Published in Approximations

·Nov 4, 2021

Only Mrs. Brown Can Save Us: Musk, Bezos, and the Failures of the Techno-Utopians

I used to believe, like Matt Damon in The Martian, that we could “science the shit” out of our problems. I was a “Techno-Utopian,” I now realize, and I was wrong. It is a seductive world-view, this Techno-Utopianism. It is optimistic and positive. It is about solving problems and creating…

Technology

4 min read

Only Mrs. Brown Can Save Us: Musk, Bezos, and the Failures of the Techno-Utopians
Only Mrs. Brown Can Save Us: Musk, Bezos, and the Failures of the Techno-Utopians
Technology

4 min read


Published in Approximations

·Jun 27, 2021

“Build, Test, Learn” — What Hegel Knew about Lean Start-ups and Making a Dent in the Universe

George Frederic Hegel was not known for his start-up chops. A great thinker? To be sure. Extremely handsome? Possibly. But I have no reason to think of him as an entrepreneur. Yet today’s lean start-up mantra, “build-test-learn,” is a direct descendant of the Hegelian Dialectic.

Progress

4 min read

“Build, Test, Learn” — What Hegel Knew about Lean Start-ups and Making a Dent in the Universe
“Build, Test, Learn” — What Hegel Knew about Lean Start-ups and Making a Dent in the Universe
Progress

4 min read


Published in Approximations

·May 6, 2021

Certainty is the Enemy of Truth: David Deutsch’s Infinite Explanations, the Limits of Knowledge, and the Value of Human Fallibility.

David Deutsch is an Oxford physicist and philosopher, widely regarded as a founder of quantum computing. His books, The Fabric of Reality and The Beginning of Infinity, range far beyond Physics to hypothesize that human knowledge is infinite and will ultimately enable us to explain and accomplish everything that is…

Science

4 min read

Certainty is the Enemy of Truth: David Deutsch’s Infinite Explanations, the Limits of Knowledge…
Certainty is the Enemy of Truth: David Deutsch’s Infinite Explanations, the Limits of Knowledge…
Science

4 min read


Published in Approximations

·Apr 13, 2021

“Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow” — Disney, Darwin, and the Mis-Measure of Progress

When I was eight, my family went to the NY World’s Fair in Flushing Meadow, Queens. It was 1964 and the idealized vision of the future that pervaded the fair seemed perfectly natural to many of us. Naturally, we could expect a “great big beautiful tomorrow” (as the GE “Carousel…

Progress

4 min read

“Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow” — Disney, Darwin, and the Mis-Measure of Progress
“Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow” — Disney, Darwin, and the Mis-Measure of Progress
Progress

4 min read


Published in Approximations

·Apr 2, 2021

Messages from the Future: Exploring the Nature and Meaning of Progress

I’m not sure how many of you caught the podcast I did with Chris Colbert on his “Insert:Human” series. It’s here, if you are interested. That conversation was such a blast that we have decided to continue it on “Clubhouse” the new, so-called “drop in audio” platform. It’s like a…

Future

3 min read

Messages from the Future: Adventures in “Drop in Audio”
Messages from the Future: Adventures in “Drop in Audio”
Future

3 min read


Published in Approximations

·Feb 23, 2021

Bending the Arc of History: MLK, Human Choices and The Dilemma of Progress

“The moral arc of the universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” The quote from Martin Luther King, Jr. is catchy and often cited. It is said to have been one of President Obama’s favorites. But it raises more questions than answers: Is there really an arc, moral or…

Martin Luther King

3 min read

Bending the Arc of History: MLK, Human Choices and The Dilemma of Progress
Bending the Arc of History: MLK, Human Choices and The Dilemma of Progress
Martin Luther King

3 min read


Published in Approximations

·Nov 13, 2020

Trump, American Democracy, and Nassim Taleb’s Parable of the Turkey

A Fable in which We are the Turkey “On current trends,” the turkey thinks during the first week of November, “things are looking pretty good. I get food and water and I am surrounded by my fellow turkeys. They seem happy too.” Sure, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were disastrous, costly, and poorly considered and the Patriot…

Democracy

3 min read

The Truth, American Democracy, and the Parable of the Turkey
The Truth, American Democracy, and the Parable of the Turkey
Democracy

3 min read

David Boghossian

David Boghossian

75 Followers

Human, start-up guy, investor and writer in Cambridge, MA

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