I wanted to take some space and recommend a few of the things I’ve read/seen/experienced. To avoid adding to this list impulsively, I’ll only add an item here if I still consider it important after a year.
Perspective changing
These are works that had an enormous influence on my thinking and interests.
Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality
When I first found Methods, I couldn’t stop reading it; I blew through the first ~1500 pages in two weeks during my sophomore year in college. By the time I had finished all available chapters, Methods had sparked my interest in rationality, critical thinking, philosophy, and skepticism. While rereading it after its completion in 2015, however, I started noting some red flags, which were later confirmed and instantiated when I discovered su3su2u1’s posts about Methods, which point out deep problems with both its goals and execution. What was once my most enthusiastic recommendation is now my most ambivalent, but I keep Methods on this list because it is the most important work I’ve ever read.
Harry Plinkett’s reviews
Before watching Plinkett’s reviews, I thought criticism was mostly touchy-feely garbage written by cynical hipsters. Plinkett’s reviews showed me that criticism could be concrete, and gives me an example I strive to match in quality when I critique. His reviews are also hilariously done in character as a senile, homicidal man. (TW: implied violence against women.)
Well argued
While these works didn’t necessarily change my perspective, I find them exceptionally well argued.
The Categories Were Made for Man, Not Man for the Categories
Scott Alexander’s post in support of trans individuals and for interpreting gender as a self-identified category is one of my favorite posts on his site, and a model for any social arguments I’d want to make.
Blame
I love Radiolab’s style of making abstract issues concrete through stories. In this episode, I find the last story to be a good reminder that forgiveness and empathy toward the other side can be more constructive than blind hatred.
How We All Miss the Point on School Shootings
Mark Manson cuts through the politicization of school shootings to argue that their root cause is a culture in which honest relationships are taboo. (TW: violence, misogyny.)
Why Go Is Not Good
Criticism is not limited to art. This piece on the Go language interests me both as a programmer and a critic.
How Apple and Amazon Security Flaws Led to My Epic Hacking
Finger-pointing headline aside, this story demonstrated to me how vulnerable we are online, and that we can be hacked for the most arbitrary reasons. After reading it upon its publication in 2012, I turned on two factor authentication everywhere I could. This isn’t a perfect solution, but it can go a long way toward solving the problem.
