Missives
One a month, to the Armchair Collective.
Keep track of what's happened since you were last here with the newsletters and the changelog.
July 26, 2024
Changelog
Last week’s distraction from writing about my PhD, looking at shared madness, led me to finally update my long-running article on successful prophets. We think of cults as the product of dangerously charismatic leaders but on examination this narrative falls apart. Really, the most successful prophets are not a person, but the followers, who use the leader as an emblem.
July 19, 2024
Changelog
As a break from tapping out the findings of my PhD, I also returned to an old article, on folie à deux, or ‘shared madness’ and updated it this week. It’s probably not so rare as one might think.
July 12, 2024
Changelog
Now my PhD is done, I’ll probably spend a bit of time consolidating what I learned. For the next couple weeks, a series trying to explain my PhD, because people keep asking. I want to point out that my initial response to this is always “I promise that you won’t care”, but no one ever believes me. So, as a punishment, I’m going to make you read it. For three articles. You did this to yourselves.
June 9, 2024
Changelog
First newsletter in over a year. Represents me finishing all the back-end website stuff that will make me use this properly again. I won’t bore you with the details.
We’ll shoot now for an article and a newsletter every week, I reckon. Let’s see.
May 26, 2024
Changelog
My procrastination while I wrote up my PhD thesis was to rebuild the website from scratch. You will likely notice almost no difference, but it was fun to do. The biggest change is the analects page, where now you can filter by credenda and theme. Also we have a search function for the first time in ages. Ctrl+/ will bring it up on most pages, but look out for the little magnifying glass.
Still publishing articles at least monthly:
So far this year has been a real improvement on last. We’re almost on track to see the newsletter start again within the next week or so. Thanks for bearing with me.
January 11, 2024
Changelog
Published article on active listening.
Updated article on rejection sensitivity since google is spruiking that for some reason.
December 21, 2023
Changelog
Just a little note to say that I’m still here. You might have noticed that I’m still publishing at least one article each month, I’m just not sending out the newsletter or updating the changelog, nor am I as quick to reply to emails as usual. It’s been a rough year. Here’s to a smoother year to come. Happy holidays all.
In the spirit, I also updated Science of Discontent. Take heart.