Common Good

How Common Is Multiple Invention?

Brian Potter | Construction Physics | 5th June 2025

More common than you might think. In this analysis of 190 inventions from 1800 to 1970 — including the telephone, the transistor and the electric tram — over half show evidence of multiple independent attempts at invention. This is a rebuke to the idea that invention requires singular genius. Instead, a confluence of forces including intellectual progress and material availability are likely responsible (2,700 words)

Nomido is the Browser's daily word game. Play today's before it's gone!

Who Thought This Was A Good Idea?

Evelyn McDonnell | LitHub | 5th June 2025

The posthumous publication of Joan Didion's private therapy notes feels ethically dubious. "The commercial exploitation of family trauma left me feeling deeply uncomfortable and even ashamed, like I was caught holding a ticket stub for the rubbernecking line at a train crash." Perhaps the most uncomfortable revelation is that Didion did not always tell the truth in her unflinching personal essays (1,100 words)