Top Of The Week: Class, Railway, Host, Lone, Book
Joint Review: Class
Jane Psmith & John Psmith | Mr And Mrs Psmith’s Bookshelf | 22nd September 2025 | U
Book reviewers discuss Paul Fussell's 1983 work on the American class system, which divides US society into nine layers: "Top out-of-sight, upper, and upper middle classes all constituting relatively high, then middle class and three degrees of proletarian in the middle, with destitute and bottom out-of-sight at, well, the bottom." Class is a form of culture, determined by taste as much as by net worth (8,000 words)
The Product Of The Railways Is The Timetable
Benedict Springbett | 26th September 2025 | U
The railways’ main offering to the public is the intricate mapping of space, time and networks distilled into a timetable. Both track infrastructure and the rolling stock of trains have to be planned around the timetable. When infrastructure is separated from operations, this link is broken. The two most successful railway systems in the world — Switzerland and Japan — understand this principle (1,900 words)
21 Facts About Throwing Good Parties
Uri Bram | Atoms Vs Bits | 22nd September 2025 | U
Facilitating enjoyable and productive socialisation is a public service. People will likely feel less lonely and maybe, long-term relationships and children will result from your efforts. To host well, "prioritise your ease of being over any other consideration", make your start time quarter-to the hour, repeatedly emphasise to attendees that they will know other people there, and be sure to account for the "flake rate" (1,000 words)
The Opposite Of The Opposite Of Loneliness
Evan Harkness-Murphy | Republic Of Letters | 29th September 2025 | U
Commencement address for people who were sad in college. “For most of their lives they have felt something like homunculi; they look human and sound human, but they don’t have the instinctual wetware the others do, the gyri and special ventricles that somehow guide real people to friends, to grabbing something to eat after class, and to every social activity of increasing complexity outward from there” (2,200 words)
How I Read
Henrik Karlsson | Escaping Flatland | 1st October 2025 | U
Notes on a personal reading system. Karlsson starts about 300 books a year, but only finishes around 50, skimming the rest before rejecting them as inferior candidates. He rarely carries a smartphone and turns off the internet when it isn't needed. The ability to read complex prose can be trained as if it is an endurance sport. LLMs, although imperfect, can help with unfamiliar vocabulary and concepts (2,600 words)
Puzzle: Nomido is the Browser's daily word game. Play today's before it's gone!
Podcast: I Know What You Know | KERA’s Think. Steven Pinker on the importance of common knowledge in maintaining the social contract (46m 18s)
Video: The Scythe | Vimeo | Fiona Jane Burgess | 4m 59s
Music video for a song about grief and love by British indie rock band The Last Dinner Party. The black and white film shows an older couple on a journey through the English countryside, quietly revelling in the closeness of their connection.
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