China And Plato

Career Suicide, Whatever It Takes

Danny Crichton | Securities | 27th June 2026

Review of four books about the Chinese economy, which can be read together. "It’s just work, debilitatingly hard work. The kind of hard work that leads to missing limbs, shattered lives, suicides and excruciating pain as one gropes inexorably forward to end the suffering... The story of hundreds of millions of people exiting poverty and entering the global middle class deserves many more retellings" (4,800 words)

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Plato’s Warning Has Been Vindicated

Michael Marinaccio | Hedgehog Review | 5th August 2026

In the Phaedrus, Plato posited that literacy would erode human memory, because readers would "rely on books instead of their brains". What if the prediction was just premature? The embrace of AI is doing this. "Chatbots perform a metaphysical sleight of hand: they convince us that we do not need to acquire and incorporate knowledge in our minds when data is out there for the taking" (1,900 words)