THUNK

Software companies are keen to Move Fast & Break Things™, & computers are eager to comply, but users want reliable, bulletproof, “skookum” devices. Video: http://youtu.be/ch_pckgIQxM Show Notes: https://thunkshow.com/2026/01/30/264.-Computers,-Software,-and-Skookum-Tech.html

We’ve poured tons of resources into computers & the internet, but haven’t seen much in the way of returns. Maybe it’s because they foster bad communication habits. Video: http://youtu.be/FvsmvOdeEn4 Show Notes: https://thunkshow.com/2025/11/28/263.-Communication-Overload.html

“Andor” is a story about how secrecy kept the Rebellion alive, but it’s hard to imagine anyone in the present day keeping anything to themselves. Video: http://youtu.be/5FgeQw1XNo4 Show Notes: https://thunkshow.com/2025/10/07/262.-How-to-Keep-a-Secret.html

Is winning everything? Outside the context of a game, what does “winning” even mean? Video: http://youtu.be/9oq1zjbrjYc Show Notes: https://thunkshow.com/2025/07/19/261.-Fight-the-Good-Fight.html

A lot of ink has been spilled about the crisis of misinformation, but Henry Farrell thinks we have a much bigger problem: manufactured public opinion. Video: http://youtu.be/Mjyq9gAqH5g Show Notes: https://thunkshow.com/2025/05/25/260.-Social-Media-and-Social-Irrationality.html

Alastair MacIntyre thinks we’ve lost something essential at the core of our discussions of right & wrong, & Aristotle has been telling us for 2000 years. Video: http://youtu.be/CDetc4y7_Gs Show Notes: https://thunkshow.com/2025/04/15/259.-After-Virtue.html

What do Aristotle, Carl von Clausewitz, and John Dewey have in common? They’re all better reading than the news right now, and they all stress the importance of prudent action. Video: http://youtu.be/J8l_kDwiy70 Show Notes: https://thunkshow.com/2025/03/07/258.-Phronesis-Theory-and-Practice.html

Our mental landscape is irrevocably bound up in variations of 26 characters, but we’re historical exceptions. Video: http://youtu.be/N7Q4yU719FA Show Notes: https://thunkshow.com/2025/01/21/257.-Orality-and-Literacy.html

We’re accustomed to using technology to remember things on our behalf…but are we losing something important in the process? Video: http://youtu.be/3WgdHdBxSqk Show Notes: https://thunkshow.com/2024/11/25/256.-Memory-and-the-Extended-Mind-Thesis.html

Amartya Sen’s “Rationality and Freedom” clarifies how the two concepts are intimately linked, how we can’t understand one without the other, & why voting is wholly insufficient to create a rational society. Video: http://youtu.be/YMkzCMkyjtE Show Notes: https://thunkshow.com/2024/10/15/255.-Rationality-and-Freedom.html

There are 1.5 million non-profit organizations in the US. Effective Altruists try to direct people towards the good ones, but many don’t agree with their picks - maybe the problem is bigger than “picking a good charity.” Video: http://youtu.be/0XjGKig1wlk Show Notes: https://thunkshow.com/2024/09/22/254.-Charity-and-Effective-Altruism.html

“Organization” is a technology, and as with many technologies, it embodies a set of values. Video: http://youtu.be/VTcqt51Io4M Show Notes: https://thunkshow.com/2024/08/08/253.-Organizing-Systems.html

Generations are used to explain everything from the state of the economy to attitudes about sexuality, but do they really explain anything? Video: http://youtu.be/ot5xdqdho4Y Show Notes: https://thunkshow.com/2024/06/20/252.-The-Theory-of-Generations.html

Scaremongers drive many to search frantically for something, anything that will make them feel safe, but safety isn’t a thing you can buy - it’s a feeling you have to build for yourself. Video: http://youtu.be/ob7XTCtZn6U Show Notes: https://thunkshow.com/2024/05/13/251.-Safety-and-Risk-Management.html

Angkor Wat & the thousand stone temples surrounding it are some of the most impressive structures humanity has produced - what happened to the society that built them? Video: http://youtu.be/mYu-BBoW9g8 Show Notes: https://thunkshow.com/2024/04/15/250.-Angkor-Wat-and-Collapse.html

Why is there something, rather than nothing? Video: http://youtu.be/-Z9qi41lrK0 Show Notes: https://thunkshow.com/2024/03/06/249.-Information-Overload.html

Trying to understand something in terms of its parts is natural…but when is it justified? Video: http://youtu.be/YHkS4upFy_4 Show Notes: https://thunkshow.com/2024/02/13/248.-Reductionism.html

Gretchen, stop trying to make Vactrains happen! It’s not going to happen! Video: http://youtu.be/dp2r1C9LDJQ Show Notes: https://thunkshow.com/2024/01/21/247.-Zombie-Sci-Fi-Technologies.html

“Worldbuilding” has become a necessity for authors of genre fiction, but sci-fi author M. John Harrison thinks it’s crippling both writers & their audiences. Video: http://youtu.be/QJHR2NB7Wt4 Show Notes: https://thunkshow.com/2023/12/30/246.-Against-Worldbuilding.html

The 2023 tech sector layoffs have claimed a quarter of a million jobs to date, but this hasn’t seemed to make a dent in the enthusiasm for getting more kids into STEM - what’s going on here? Video: http://youtu.be/BraS-fMgB5A Show Notes: https://thunkshow.com/2023/11/16/245.-The-STEM-Shortage.html

Many assume that, when a game’s over, there’s nothing more to reflect on besides the fun. Positive psychology’s theory of “Flow” prompts a similar stance. But what if games and Flow are both saying more than we might suppose at first glance? Video: http://youtu.be/GEl5cbzkD6M Show Notes: https://thunkshow.com/2023/10/02/244.-The-Meaning-of-Games-and-Flow.html

Maintenance is often ignored, minimized, or portrayed as being inferior to creative/productive work, but it’s really the most fundamental activity of life itself, & it can teach us a lot about the world. Video: http://youtu.be/7pFrhsC2I7Q Show Notes: https://thunkshow.com/2023/09/07/243.-Maintenance.html

Everyone’s heard of the infamous “Tragedy of the Commons,” but the real tragedy is that Elinor Ostrom’s work refuting it isn’t just as widely-known. Video: http://youtu.be/9h0iidPzMXE Show Notes: https://thunkshow.com/2023/08/10/242.-The-'Tragedy'-of-the-Commons.html

Children can be impressively ingenious when given enough time to work thru a problem, but we tend to judge their mental prowess by how quickly they figure things out - is mental speed really the best yardstick for intelligence? Video: http://youtu.be/ONpydsGW3Tg Show Notes: https://thunkshow.com/2023/07/13/241.-Mental-Speed.html

Kahneman’s “Thinking, Fast and Slow” has become a popular reference in public discussions of cognition and the dangers of impulsive decision-making, but many researchers think it might be wrong, or even damaging to the field at large. Video: http://youtu.be/-UVoAYFYtoM Show Notes: https://thunkshow.com/2023/06/01/240.-Dual-Process-Theory-and-The-Mythical-Number-Two.html