analects noun, pl

/ˈan.ə.lɛkts/

a collection of ideas, extracts, or teachings.

On Thinking and Reasoning

stuff On knowing things, and how we get there

show:

analects under the categories btrmt. believes in, as set out in the manifesto

analects organised according to the fundamental questions of philosophy

sequences of articles gathered around a more focused idea

  • ai is kind of scary 19 Sep 2026 [audio + edited transcript] The AI panic mostly represents old problems: machines acting on a proxy of the world, to serve a proxy of our purpose. We’ve got a century o...
  • ai isn't that scary 22 Aug 2026 [audio + edited transcript] AI is human-like, not human. Its output looks like ours but its purpose doesn’t, and purpose is what builds a mind. It isn’t heading towards...
  • purple doesn't exist 8 Aug 2026 [audio + edited transcript] Purple isn’t on the light spectrum. Your brain invents it to stand for a green that should be there and isn’t—and it does the same with your...
  • the value of ritual 25 Jul 2026 [audio + edited transcript] You don’t get a choice about whether you ritualise. Only about whether you chose the ritual.
  • the neuroscience con 11 Jul 2026 [audio + edited transcript] Brain-words are cosmetic filler. Strip the neuroscience out and the advice means exactly what it did before—so learn to strip it out.
  • successful prophets 27 Jun 2026 [audio + edited transcript] The most successful prophet isn’t a person. It’s a shared abstraction the group charges up and pins to a convenient emblem. Charisma is conf...
  • you can catch madness 13 Jun 2026 [audio + edited transcript] Folie à deux isn’t a rare clinical curiosity. It’s one misleading face of social isolation—intimacy plus loneliness, the same machinery runn...
  • sages and wisdom 16 May 2026 [audio + edited transcript] The doctor and the guru run on the same authority structure. We just pick which one to trust by its costume. Choose by what sits under the c...
  • the scientific ritual 2 May 2026 [audio + edited transcript] Science isn’t the opposite of belief. It’s a ritual—and like any ritual it misfires, which is how a method built to find truth becomes a mac...
  • it's not social media, life is just worse 18 Apr 2026 [audio + edited transcript] Social media isn’t the disease. It’s the symptom you can see. The sad kids on TikTok are there because they’re sad, not sad because they’re...
  • overengineering calming down 4 Apr 2026 [audio + edited transcript] Pop neuroscience is just “calm down” in a lab coat. The theories are scaffolding around trivial advice, attractive because they make your pr...
  • bias is good 21 Mar 2026 [audio + edited transcript] Bias isn’t a flaw in your thinking. It’s a precision instrument. The brain trades variance for consistency because the world is noisy, so do...
  • the amygdala is not the fear centre 7 Mar 2026 [audio + edited transcript] Your amygdala doesn’t decide your fear. You do. It’s not a fear centre, it’s an intensity detector, and calming it down is solving the wrong...
  • atavism isn't the answer 7 Feb 2026 [audio + edited transcript] Seed oils, raw milk, cold plunges, tradwives—one template runs them all: name a modern ill, invent an ancestral past, sell the return as cur...
  • stupid questions: consciousness 10 Jan 2026 [audio + edited transcript] The hard problem of consciousness isn’t a problem. It’s a beautiful argument with no stakes. Behaviour is what matters, not the ghost behind...
  • stupid questions: free will 27 Dec 2025 [audio + edited transcript] Whether free will is real changes precisely nothing. The world’s too complex for the answer to bite, and behaviour bends the same way no mat...
  • stupid questions: nature/nurture 13 Dec 2025 [audio + edited transcript] Nature is just nurture given time, and nurture is obviously the one in charge. The whole debate is Gladwell bait: superficially sexy, practi...
  • stress is good 1 Nov 2025 [audio + edited transcript] Stress isn’t broken by modern life. It’s a performance tool, and the line between fuel and harm isn’t the stressor. It’s whether you control...

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